Lament helps us find our voice to express the reality of pain, evil, and suffering in our world and in our lives. This message was given on April 2, 2017 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, please visit: www.newcitychurch.ca

1. “It is Finished....”
~ Lamentations 4 ~

2. A Sacred Sorrow
Studies in
the book of
Lamentations
~ The Season of Lent 2017 ~
Finding Your Voice When
Life Doesn’t Make Sense

3. Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)

4. “Look and see if there is
any sorrow like my sorrow…”
~ Lamentations 1:12

5. “It is Finished....”
~ Lamentations 4 ~

6. “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)

7. 01 How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
at the head of every street.
Lamentations 4

8. 02 The precious sons of Zion,
worth their weight in gold,
how they are regarded as earthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!
Lamentations 4

9. “Then you shall break the flask in the
sight of the men who go with you, and
shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of
hosts: So shall I break this people and
this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel,
so that it can never be mended.”
~ Jeremiah 19:10

10. 05 Those who once feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
embrace the ash heaps.
Lamentations 4

11. “They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they
judge not with justice the cause of the
fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not
defend the rights of the needy. Shall not I
punish them for these things? declares the
Lord…. This is the city that must be punished;
there is nothing but oppression within her.”
~ Jeremiah 5:28; 6:6

12. 07 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
the beauty of their form was like
sapphire.
08 Now their face is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shrivelled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.…
Lamentations 4

13. 03 Even jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young,
but the daughter of my people has
become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Lamentations 4

14. 04 The tongue of the nursing infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
but no one gives it to them….
09 Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced by
lack of the fruits of the field.
Lamentations 4

15. 10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food, during the
destruction of the daughter of
my people.
Lamentations 4

16. 10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food, during the
destruction of the daughter of
my people.
Lamentations 4

17. Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride
her attire? Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods? But
my people have changed their glory for that
which does not profit…. my people have
committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters, and hewed out
cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that
can hold no water….
~ Jeremiah 2:11-13

18. Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me
days without number.
~ Jeremiah 2:32

19. “…if my people who are called by my
name humble themselves, and pray and
seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then I will hear from heaven and
will forgive their sin and heal their land”
~ 2 Chronicles 7:14

20. God cannot look on the
suffering of his own people,
even under judgment, with-
out the pangs of covenant
memory: these wretched,
scavenging, starving,
dehumanized living dead—
these are my people.

21. The Poet’s emotions
are God’s too, just as
the prophet’s tears flow
from God’s heart, just
as the Messiah’s tears
would flow for the
suffering of Jerusalem
in a later century….

22. 06 …the chastisement of the daughter of
my people has been greater than
the punishment of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her….
Lamentations 4

23. 11 The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger;
and he kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
Lamentations 4

24. 13 This was for the sins of her prophets,
who shed in the midst of her
the blood of the righteous.
that consumed its foundations.
14 They wandered, blind, through the streets,
they were so defiled with blood that
no one was able to to touch their
garments.
Lamentations 4

25. “…in the prophets of Jerusalem I have
seen a horrible thing: they commit
adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen
the hands of the evildoers, so that no one
turns from his evil; all of them have
become like Sodom to me, and it’s
inhabitants like Gomorrah…. for from the
prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has
gone out into the land.”
~ Jeremiah 23:14

26. ..the time is coming when
people will not endure
sound teaching, but
having itching ears they
will accumulate for
themselves teachers to
suit their own passions,
and will turn away from
listening to the truth…. ~ The Apostle Paul in
2 Timothy 4:3-4

27. 17 Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly
for help;
in our watching we watched for a nation
which could not save.
Lamentations 4

28. O Lord, the hope of
Israel, all who forsake
you will be put to
shame…
~ Jeremiah 17:13

29. 18 They dogged our steps so that we could
not walk in our streets;
our end drew near;
our days were numbered,
for our end had come.
Lamentations 4

30. For it is appointed for
man to die once, and
after that comes the
judgment….
~ Hebrews 9;27

31. 22 The punishment of your iniquity,
O daughter of Zion,
is accomplished….
Lamentations 4

32. This is the most hopeful note
in the entire book of
Lamentations.
~ Adele Berlin, Commentator
qtd. in Christopher Wright’s
The Message of Lamentations
“

33. Lament helps us find our voice
to express the the reality of
pain, evil, and suffering
in our world and in our lives.

34. “I’m right there in the room,
and no one even acknowledges me.”

35. In a world filled
with evil, suffering,
& oppression,
where is God?
He must not exist.

36. My argument against
God was that the uni-
verse seemed so cruel
and unjust. But how
had I got this idea of
‘just’ and ‘unjust’...?
What was I comparing
this universe with
when I called it unjust...

37. Of course, I could have
given up my idea of
justice by saying it was
nothing but a private
idea of my own. But if I
did that, then my
argument against God
collapsed too—

38. —for the argument
depended on saying
that the world was
really unjust, not
simply that it did not
happened to please my
private fancies….
Consequently, atheism
turns out to be too
simple.

39. Then why doesn’t
God do some-
thing about it?

40. I could never
believe in a God
who would
judge people.

41. The “Day of the Lord” is coming.

43. “You who think of sin but lightly,
nor suppose the evil great,
here may view its nature rightly;
here it’s guilt may estimate.”
“Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”
by Thomas Kelly, 1769-1854

44. “It is finished.”

45. The Christian Gospel is
that I am so flawed that
Jesus had to die for me,
yet I am so loved and
valued that Jesus was
glad to die for me.
~ Tim Keller,
The Reason for God

46. “He has appeared once for all at the
end of the ages to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And just as it is
appointed for man to die once, and
after that comes judgment, so Christ,
having been offered to bear the sins of
many, will appear a second time to save
those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
~ Hebrews 9:26-28

47. image credits
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