Two-Minute Manna

This would better be translated as a question. “Have You utterly rejected us? Are You still angry with us?” Thus, Jeremiah ends his book with a question - one that will be answered as the history of God’s people and His faithfulness to them unfolds.

Lamentations is a heavy book, but it’s necessary for our growth. It reminds us not only that sin always brings sorrow but that blues can be battled, that depression can be defeated. Second, it causes us to ask ourselves if we weep for the lost. Our theology says that people who don’t know the Lord will be damned. But what would happen if we really knew that our mothers and fathers and friends and brother were truly going to hell? I believe if we really understood that, we, like Jeremiah, would not be whining about ourselves any more but weeping for the lost and living to share the Gospel.

Finally, Lamentations reminds us that God entrusts tough messages to tender men. Jeremiah was perhaps the most tender man in all of the Bible, yet he had the toughest message of all. When G. Campbell Morgan watched D. L. Moody preach, he concluded that Moody had the right to preach on hell for he always talked about it with tears in his voice.

Lord, make us like Jeremiah - not preaching condemningly, but sharing compassionately.