There is hope in God’s heart

Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Bern Leckie answers:

What did I like about today’s passage?

These are still hard to take in, but if we are going to look at the profound grief and suffering of a fallen people, I’m glad we have this honest and inspired summary which distills so many facets of the turn from security to exile into alphabetically organised Hebrew poetry.

The big standout difference from chapters 1 and 2 is the hope at the heart of the collection, in the middle of chapter 3, which also has special status as it organises thoughts into triplets. God is at the very heart of this suffering.

What difference does that make? I’m struck by the writer’s faith that because God is central rather than a faraway observer, love and hope remain in the heart too. Life may be awful right now, but waiting for God and salvation make sense. Injustice may be winning right now, but God will bring justice. Enemies may be planning to eliminate God’s people altogether, but God will never allow it.

The fall from grace into the consequences of sin is painful, but the expectations we can hold from a renewal of faith and reliance on God should be life-changing and, if not immediate, at least much longer lasting.

This isn’t to say that a book of Lamentations will have a happy ending. Of course not! It’s real, just as the suffering and terrible feelings about it are real. Hope is in the heart, but I’m moved by the final contrast between proclamation of God’s glory and admission that people can still feel forgotten and rejected. The final note is not that everything is fine now, but that the difference between where the people are and where they want to be could not be any clearer, setting a clear direction for the future.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God loves us, suffers along with us and chose to put Jesus into the frontline of our most important and painful battles. But he also wants us to know that if we have been too focused on ourselves, we need to look in a different direction, trusting in him.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I am glad not to be feeling as bad as the writer right now. Thinking and praying about this, I’m reminded that others in my community might be. Some are mourning, others are exiled, and I chatted with a mother today who feels that taking her family back to where she grew up might be better for everyone.

I will remember from this, as well as Job and other wise, loving people in the Bible, that suffering isn’t best met with easy, quick answers. I don’t have any, so that’s handy. But I do want to share this kind of hope, the kind that comes from God through looking at him and waiting patiently. I want to get better at realising why I have that and get better at sharing it.

Who am I going to share this with?

I’m open to more chats with neighbours, and there will be lots to talk about in our school community when the new term starts.