“None to Comfort”

~ Lamentations 1 ~

A Sacred Sorrow

Studies in the book of

Lamentations

~ The Season of Lent 2017 ~

Finding Your Voice When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

”~ CS Lewis, Oxford Professor

Author of Mere Christianity

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

“None to Comfort”

~ Lamentations 1 ~

The Forsaken Lady, 1:1-11a

The Lamenting Lady, 1:11b-22

1

2

“And it came to pass after Israel had gone into captivity, and Jerusalem was laid waste, that Jeremiah sat

weeping and composed this lament over Jerusalem….”

Introduction to the Septuagint(the Greek Translation of the OT in 2BC)

01 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become,

She who was great among the nations.

She who was a princess among theprovinces has become a slave.

Lamentations 1

02 She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears 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.

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03 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations,

but finds no resting place; her perusers have all overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.

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04 The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate;

her priests groan; her virgins have been afflicted,

and she herself suffers bitterly.

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05 Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her

for the multitude of her transgres- sions;

her children have gone away,captives before the foe.

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06 From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer

that find no pasture; they fled without strength

before the pursuer.

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07 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers

from days of old. When her people fell into the hands of

the foe, and there was none to helpher; her foes gloated over her; theymocked at her downfall.

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08 Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honoured her despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans

and turns her face away.

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09 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible;

she has no comforter. “O Lord, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!”

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10 The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; for she has seen the nations

enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade

to enter your congregation.

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11 All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food

to revive their strength. “Look, O LORD, and see,

for I am despised.”

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12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by,look and see,

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which the Lord inflictedon the day of his fierce anger.

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13 “From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet;

to revive their strength. he turned me back;

he has left me stunned, faint all the day long.

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14 “My transgression were bound into a yoke;

by his hand they were fastened together;

they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail;

the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot stand.

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15 “The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst;

he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men;

the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

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16 “For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears;

for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit;

my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.”

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17 Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her;

the LORD has commanded against Jacob that his neighbours should

be his foes; Jerusalem has become

a filthy thing among them.

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18 “The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word;

but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering;

my young women and my young men have gone into captivity.

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19 “I called to my lovers, but they deceived me;

my priests and elders perished in the city,

while they sought food to revive their strength.

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20 “Look, O LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns;

my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious.

In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.

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21 “They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you

announced; now let them be as I am.

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22 “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them

as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions;

they are glad that you have done it. for my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.”

Lamentations 1

She had forsaken her husband (God)for other lovers.

1

“For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy

One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”

~ Isaiah 54:5

“…my covenant…they broke, thoughI was their husband, declares the Lord.”

~ Jeremiah 31:32

“This evil people…refuse my words [and] stubbornly follow their

own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and

worship them….”

~ Jeremiah 13:10

“…your gods have become as

many as your cities, O Judah,

and as many as the streets of

Jerusalem are the altars you

have set up to shame, altars

to make offerings to Baal.”

~ Jeremiah 11:13

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight…they have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places…to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.”~ Jeremiah 7:30

“Everyone deceives his neighbour,

and no one speaks the truth; they

have taught their tongue to speak

lies; they weary themselves

committing iniquity. Heaping

oppression upon oppression, and

deceit upon deceit, they refuse to

know me, declares the Lord.”

~ Jeremiah 9:5-6

“From the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.”~ Jeremiah 6:13

“You have played the whore with many lovers….”

~ Jeremiah 3:1

“Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know

how to blush.”~ Jeremiah 6:15

“I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently,

saying, ‘Turn now every one of your from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I have given to your fathers.’ But you did

not incline your ear or listen to me.”~ Jeremiah 35:15

“Thus says the Lord; ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths,

where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

~ Jeremiah 6:16

“Return, every one from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds.” But they say, “That is in vain! We will follow our own

plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.”

~ Jeremiah 18:11-12

“Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.”

~ Jeremiah 6:10

“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search

her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth,

that I may pardon her…. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have

refused to repent.”~ Jeremiah 5:1, 3

“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and

go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my

name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ —only to go on doing all these abominations?”

~ Jeremiah 7:9-10

Key Thought

Instead of being part of the solution, Israel had become

part of the problem. In fact, she became

the epitome of the problem.

She had forsaken her husband (God)for other lovers.

Her husband grants her the divorce.

1

2

“I have seen your abominations and neighings, your lewd whorings,

on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem!”

~ Jeremiah 13:14

“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is

engraved on the tablet of their heart.”~ Jeremiah 17:1

“You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it

will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offering in it to other gods…and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in

the fire as burnt offerings to Baal…,

“…therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no

more be called Topheth, or the Vally of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter…. And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed

at. Everyone who passes by will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds.”

~ Jeremiah 19:13ff

Jerusalem sinned grievously;therefore she became filthy….

…the Lord afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.

Lamentations 1:8, 5

She had forsaken her husband (God)for other lovers.

Her husband grants her the divorce.

Her other lovers now forsake her.

1

2

3

“…none to comfort her….”Lamentations 1: 2, 9, 17, 16, 21

03 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations,

but finds no resting place; her perusers have all overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.

Lamentations 1

“O LORD, behold my affliction…”~ verse 9

“Look, O Lord, and see,for I am despised.”

~ verse 11

“Look, O Lord, for I am in distress.”

~ verse 20

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by,

look and see, if there is any sorrow

like my sorrow, which the Lord inflicted

on the day of his fierce anger.”Lamentations 1:12

“Consider then and realizehow evil and bitter it is for you

when you forsake the Lord your Godand have no awe of me,”

declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.~ Jeremiah 2:19 NIV

Looking for life apart from God

results in slavery with none to comfort.

“My transgressions were bound into a yoke;by his hand they were fastened together;

they were cast upon my neck….

CONSEQUENCES

“My transgressions were bound into a yoke;by his hand they were fastened together;

they were cast upon my neck….

“The Lord is in the right,for I have rebelled against his word.”

~ Lamentations 1:14, 18

CONSEQUENCES

Jesus “was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted….

THE HOPE

“But he was wounded for our transgressions;he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement

that brought us peace,and with his stripes we are healed.”

~ Isaiah 53:3-5

THE HOPE

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I

am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is

easy, and my burden is light.”~ Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospel of Matthew 11:28-30

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