Words When There Are None #2 - Bearing an Unbearably Just Anger

We're going to explore that together as we continue our series in the book of Lamentations.

This book was written by the prophet Jeremiah in the wake of the utter devastation of Jerusalem.

The city was under siege for a year and a half.

Famine affected the people.

The weakest died first.

Cannibalism was occurring for people just to survive.

And when the walls were finally broken through, the Babylonians came in and they slaughtered and they took people off as slaves into exile on the long march back to Babylon.

It's a situation so hard to comprehend that words seem inadequate.

And that's why we've called this series Words When There Are None.

Because in the wake of this catastrophe, Jeremiah picks up a pen and writes.

He writes words for the people, words to express their pain, their distress, and their prayers to God.

The entire book is a series of laments, that's why it's called Lamentations.

A lament is a form of prayer which sufferers have used for millennia to express their pain and protests to God.

And as we listen to the words in this book, even though it's a book written for guilty sufferers, people that were punished for their sin, we still have an opportunity to learn the language of lament, to learn the poetry of pain.

So let's get into this chapter together, and we're going to explore it under four headings.