Friday after the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 26, 2022 by under
Scripture: Lamentations 1:1-12 (NKJV)
1:1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave!
2 She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; Among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.
4 The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate;
Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
5 Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; For the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture, that flee without strength before the pursuer.
7 In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, with no one to help her, the adversaries saw her and mocked at her downfall.
8 Jerusalem has sinned gravely, therefore she has become vile. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away.
9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. “O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy is exalted!”
10 The adversary has spread his hand over all her pleasant things; For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom You commanded not to enter Your assembly.
11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; They have given their valuables for food to restore life.
“See, O Lord, and consider, for I am scorned.”
12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the Lord has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger.
Devotion
Lamentations gives a picture of the results of persistent faithlessness. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), but destruction and trouble usually come before that final death. When God inflicts punishments and consequences on the unrighteous, it is one more way that He is mercifully teaching sinners to repent before it is too late.
Jerusalem was in no better spiritual condition in the time of our Lord Jesus. He came to them with love, and warnings, and teaching. But many had become vile hypocrites, murderers, and rebels. Our Savior even allowed them to harm and murder Him so that they, and all sinners, could see the Son of Man lifted up, the Lamb of God slain to take away the sin of the world. They could behold His vile state and nakedness and either repent, seeing by faith that He was truly the Son of God, or they could see Him and mock. To mock the Lord is to be in peril of seeing Him later as the righteous judge who says, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
Our God continues to show His grace through the Church as He calls sinners to repent and believe in His Son who was crucified for our life and forgiveness. He continues to work through His faithful people so we also show His mercy to those who are vile in their sin, so they might be saved through Him.
Prayer: O God, Who declarest Thine Almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
