"His compassions fail not."

Lamentations 3-5

A dirge for the destruction of the holy city Jerusalem, this brief book of the bible is written by Jeremiah, "the weeping prophet". With the invasion of the Babylonians in 588 BC, the entire city and its temples, palaces, and walls were razed to the ground. Like Christ would mourn later ("O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!...Your house is left to you desolate.." Matt 23:37, 38), Jeremiah weeped for the people though he was derided, excommunicated (to Egypt, not long after the city's destruction), and even thrown in a pit. Each of the five chapters represents a poem, the first describing the destruction of Jerusalem, and the second the Lord's anger. Starting from the third:

3-With anguish Jeremiah cries out in graphic detail the desolation he feels from the Lord. "He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood." (15; by the way, wormwood is Russian for 'Chernobyl' like the nuclear plant that went off in ~'86, I always found that rather interesting.) Even so Jeremiah praises Him, "Because His compassions fail not; they are new every morning."(22-23) In the dungeon of Malchiah, the king's son, Jeremiah cried out to our God; "You drew near on the day I called on you, and said, "Do not Fear!"

4-Perhaps the saddest of the chapters, here Jeremiah weeps for the all, as even "Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets."(5) Perhaps most disturbing from a prophetic perspective is the verse "Under His shadow we shall live among the nations." (20) Makes me think of 'One nation, under God, indivisible, with justice for all.' I keep reading and seeing all these reports saying 'we are no longer a Christian nation'. Don't believe these lies! Though there has been a shift of less Christians, notably on the East coast, this is only cause for furthering the great commision, not despairing!

5-In the final chapter, Jeremiah sums up his sorrow with a prayer for restoration. He cries "Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, and our houses to foreigners." (2) Reminds me of the state of Israel today, where many Palestinians are living where Jews lived centuries earlier. I don't want to start any Israel/Palestine flame wars, I will just say that Jesus came to unite Jews and Gentiles, and the way it is now is NOT the Lord's plan, but such is the world's rejection of Him. In stunning finality, Jeremiah laments, "Renew our days of old, unless you have utterly rejected us, and are very angry with us!"(21-22) God will one day restore Jerusalem to peace (21:23), and until then let us revel in compassions that are new every morning!