August 29

Jeremiah's Lamentations - Lamentations 1:1-22, 2:1-22

Broncho Jack - Cowboy, Steeple Painter, Poet, Preacher

The enemy laid hands
on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
enter her sanctuary --
those you had forbidden
to enter your assembly.
Lamentaions 1:10

Here, a poem is drawn from a horrific event and a horrific event will become a thing of beauty, a poem. For suffering will ultimately return the people to God. But why a poem? Why a literary device to describe something so horrible as the destruction of the place where God's name was, a place where the people wander the streets now looking for food, a place where they will even consider eating their own children? Is it to soften the horror? Is it to immortalize? A monument of words to a landmark event in the history of the people? So few words are committed in scripture to the actual destruction. Is it necessary for Jeremiah to draw more attention to it in poetic lamentation so that we will not forget what happens when the leaders and the priests and the people do not honor God?

Lord knows.