Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Books

  • Worthless – Lamentations 1:15

    Worthless – Lamentations 1:15

    15 The Lord treated with scorn
    all the mighty men within my walls;
    he marshalled rank on rank against me
    to crush my young warriors.
    The Lord trod down, like grapes in the winepress,
    the virgin daughter of Judah.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:15.

    I’m meditating on these verses, intending to write one meditation per day, though I haven’t been keeping up. It can seem like the elements of just staying alive are “marshalled rank on rank against me.” If it’s not one thing, it’s another!

    Now in the historical context of this book at this verse, this is about the people suffering conquest and exile, and that by cruel conquerors. I want to emphasize that a key reason for this book being in the Bible, in my opinion, is to let people know it’s OK, and even healthy to acknowledge difficulties. Running around pretending things are fine when they aren’t isn’t healthy, and it isn’t productive. You can’t fix what you don’t recognize.

    But in meditating I started to think about the way we talk about troubles in our lives. I’m talking especially about those of us who are in some kind of ministry work. What do we say when obstacles are put in our way?

    Well, I’ve noted quite a variety, depending on who is talking and their attitude at the time.

    • I must be doing something right for the Lord, because the devil’s after me!
    • I must have missed God’s calling or instructions, because I can’t get through these barriers.
    • I need more people to pray for me, because prayer is powerful, so more prayer is more powerful!
    • I must keep my faith face on so nobody knows the trouble I’m seeing. (With apologies to the hymn!)
    • I must be very open and honest about this so other people realize that they’re not alone in having troubles.

    How do you know just how to react?

    How do you know, for example, whether the devil’s after you, or whether you’re encountering hardship because you have lost your way?

    You don’t. But that doesn’t really matter that much, because what you have to do is hold on to the one who does know. You’re probably going to be off the best path very frequently. It’s going to feel like the world is coming at you “rank on rank.”

    What do you do? I can give you all the advice: pray more, listen for the Holy Spirit, use your God-given brain, seek and accept help from others, be willing to correct your program.

    That’s good. I like to attempt those things. But most importantly, as the song says, “Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters.” He’s the one who can handle the problems that are coming at you rank-on-rank. Panic will get you nowhere. He will.

    (Featured image generated by Adobe Firefly Image 5, from a prompt generated by Google Gemini.)

  • Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12

    Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12

    12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:12.

    There are several things I could discuss about this verse, but I’ve been thinking about the sorrow. When we are in trouble, many of us feel that we are suffering in ways nobody else can understand.

    In one sense, your sorrow is your own. You experience sorrow in individual ways. Your feelings are your own feelings. But very often when we think this we are missing the suffering of others, suffering we don’t understand and that might even be suffering worse than we are.

    The problem is that there is no real way to measure pain, suffering, and grief. Is what I have experienced more or less than what you have experienced? Neither of us really know. We can’t measure our suffering against our ability to endure.

    Despite all that, I am often shamed when I’m complaining, even just in my own mind, and then find out someone else is experiencing something I perceive to be worse. But I still don’t know the weight of that suffering to another person even when I know it is great.

    In lamentation, we long to have our suffering acknowledged. It is part of being seen and recognized. In scripture the hoped-for recognition is from God. That is the purpose of lamentation. We recognize and express the reality, and we look for the recognition of our pain.

    I will confess that I really don’t like to talk about difficulties. I prefer to keep on a proper “faith face” that suggests everything is fine whether it is or not. That face is often what we put on to avoid lamentation.

    So, honest face or faith face?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Look LORD! – Lamentations 1:11

    Look LORD! – Lamentations 1:11

    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 how worthless I have become.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:11.

    I’m using the NRSV rendering of this verse, but I would use something like “contemptible” for “worthless” in the final line of the verse.

    We often hear a line like this from a child: “Look at me!” It’s a call for attention, for affirmation, and for reassurance. In the child it doesn’t come from a place of lament, or even all that likely from a place of failure. It’s simply a desire to be acknowledged in whatever way.

    As believers, we ultimately find our value in our creator. We want to be affirmed. We want God to notice. Job’s cry through his complaints is that God needs to respond to him, to notice him and react. In the end, Job gets no answers to his spoken questions. What he gets is the clear evidence that God is there and aware of him.

    For Israel in the exile one of the greatest threats was the loss of identity. So many people lost their identity in that same time frame. Centuries later you couldn’t really identify Moabites, Ammonites, or Philistines, for example. But you can still identify the descendants of the people of Judah.

    Surviving this is intimately tied to lament. Lament acknowledges that things have gone wrong. It is our realization of how bad things have become. I’m sure some readers, should they continue to read this series at all, will be impatient at the dismal tone of these verses. Surely I could summarize everything up to 3:22 in one or two posts and then we could get on to the positive.

    But sometimes our problems aren’t solved in that short of a period of time. One of the things that prevents solving problems and growing from them is the failure to acknowledge them.

    Are you ready to say, “Look, LORD!” and then be honest with yourself about what the Lord sees? When that is done, healing can begin.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Sanctuary – Lamentations 1:10

    Sanctuary – Lamentations 1:10

    10 Enemies have stretched out their hands
    over all her precious things;
    she has even seen the nations
    invade her sanctuary,
    those whom you forbade
    to enter your congregation.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:10.

    Most of us have things that we consider our own, private, and often held closely. Sometimes, for example, this is our family. Sometimes it is our family home.

    A few months ago Jody and I experienced an attempt to break into our house by someone who intended to do us violence. The individual was experiencing mental issues that made him feel we were a threat. The situation worked itself out, but we still have habits that were changed due to that experience. Somehow, we don’t feel quite as secure. Someone didn’t enter, but did seriously threaten our home, our sanctuary.

    Often when we discuss safety, we emphasize the safety of our property and most importantly our home. In communities a century or so ago in the United States you might have just one church, and in times of trouble, that church might be regarded as a sanctuary.

    Judah had a sanctuary, the temple in Jerusalem. They believed that many bad things might happen to them, but the temple was secure. As long as the temple was there, they could never be completely destroyed. Jeremiah (chapter 7) tells them that if they are far from the Lord, they can’t depend on the Lord’s temple to save them.

    As Christians we speak of Christ being in us, and us in Christ. In 1 Peter 2:5 we’re called to be living stones, to be built into a spiritual house. For us, there is to be a sanctuary in us and around us that travels with us. It’s the presence of Jesus with us.

    Are you living as a spiritual house? A sanctuary?

  • Future – Lamentations 1:9

    Future – Lamentations 1:9

    9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; her downfall was appalling, with none to comfort her. “O LORD, look at my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:9.

    The phrase that took my attention from the first time I looked at this verse in preparation for writing this reflection was this: “She took no thought of her future.”

    How many times have any of us looked back at a decision we made when we were younger and thought, “You know, I really didn’t think of my future when I did that!”

    Henry Hazlitt, in his book Economics in One Lesson says (and I summarize) that all economic fallacies result from one or both of two central fallacies: 1) looking only at the immediate consequences of an act or proposal, and 2) looking at the consequences only for a particular group to the neglect of others. (He discusses this issue in chapter 1 extensively.)

    Now some may be wondering why I’m quoting an economist while doing a reflection on scripture. Stated briefly, I do this because I think all of God’s universe operates according to God’s laws (not that we all obey them!), and that this is an excellent example. The failure to look to the future is a good example of this. Whether your situation is spiritual or strictly temporal, the same principles will apply.

    This one line is an important lament. Why didn’t I think of the consequences? If we learned this lesson from the book–to recognize when bad decisions have led to difficulties, it would be well worth it.

  • Despised – Lamentations 1:8

    Despised – Lamentations 1:8

    8 Jerusalem sinned grievously,
    so she has become a mockery;
    all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
    she herself groans,
    and turns her face away.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:8.

    One of the problems of having a high opinion of oneself is that people may eventually find out that you’re human after all, that you have failings and limitations like anyone else. It’s good to figure this out as early as possible and avoid overrating yourself.

    Jerusalem was confident in God’s favor, even though the prophets had told them repeatedly that they were offending their God, and that trouble was coming. There came the time when those who had given Jerusalem and Judea honor came to despise her.

    All of us have this very potential. We come to consider ourselves superior, better than others. Then something happens and we find that honor has turned to contempt. Those who thought well of us now look at us as an example of failure.

    “All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory,” says Paul (Romans 3:23). This gives special meaning to the idea of glory for a Christian. The goal, the standard is God’s glory. “Eye has not seen, neither has the ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared …” (1 Corinthians 2:9). In the face of sayings like this we seek our own honor, our own glory, and may even get the praise of others for some time. But against what God has planned, our attainments are always small. The person who jumps three feet into the air in trying to jump over the moon is not superior to the one who jumps two feet. Both failed.

    When I moved from my undergraduate school to the University to go to graduate school I had an opportunity to learn this lesson. It’s a really minor event that has stuck with me ever since. My brother and I attended church at the visitors’ center at Old Faithful. Everyone there was a visitor to the park, so we all introduced ourselves and said where we had come from and where we were going. I was headed to graduate school after receiving my BA in Biblical Languages. I was headed to the Graduate school, co-located with our denomination’s seminary, to study further. After the service someone brought a text to me to ask about the “original Hebrew.” I don’t recall the specific verse, but it was a piece of poetry from Job. I talked to him about it for about five minutes. After we left, my brother and I were walking around Old Faithful and it suddenly hit me. I said to my brother, “Do you know that I talked to that guy for five minutes, and I never answered his question? In fact, I have no idea what the answer is!”

    I wondered whether he realized how empty my “answer” was, or whether my many words around it satisfied him. But I knew the glory was empty.

    I wish I could say I learned my lesson and expressed my level of knowledge with more humility from then on. But that would be a lie. Nonetheless, I have valued that lesson.

    It only takes time for praise and glory to turn to failure and shame. But there is always a remedy. That is for later. First, in this book, we learn to lament honestly, to recognize where we are, so that we can turn from there to the real glory.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Remembering – Lamentations 1:7

    Remembering – Lamentations 1:7

    7 Jerusalem remembers, in the days of her affliction and wandering, all the precious things that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was no one to help her, the foe looked on mocking over her downfall.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:7.

    Memories are wonderful and dangerous.

    Recently a friend of mine told me something about a loved one dealing with cancer that brought back to mind a specific moment in the experience of our son James. Jody was overseas when he had some symptoms and I took him to the doctor. Tests and scans told us that cancer had recurred–for the fourth time. I had to let Jody know, and the only way to do this where she was located was through email. I had the duty of inflicting that pain on her at a time when I couldn’t do anything to support her. I had to tell James, who had sworn me to call him the instant I knew anything.

    It is not a pleasant memory. It happened in June, and pretty much every June I have a few days when that memory crowds me.

    But there’s something that happens when you have passed through a dark valley, and that’s the realization that life went on and that God was with you even when you were not with God. That realization of the Divine Presence is easy to lose in the valley.

    Psalm 23 is one of the best known passages of scripture. It has a key verse: “Even though I’m passing through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” I like keeping the “valley of the shadow of death.” There is good reason to translate this as “deep darkness” or something similar, but I think the traditional wording from the KJV has the right feel to it.

    When Job has gone through trouble, God shows up and lectures him. Job’s response, “Now my eyes see you” (Job 42:3). After all the theological debate of the book, the landing place is that God really was there, really did hear, really did know.

    To bring this back to the actual historical background of our text, when Israel went into exile, the event that is being lamented here, the question was: “Is God actually with us? Does God care?” In the ancient near east it was generally thought that when one nation conquered another, the god of the winning side was also proven to be greater.

    God comes to the prophet in exile, Ezekiel, and there is a simple but profound statement that opens the book that bears Ezekiel’s name. “… I was among the exiles by the river Kebar, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). The river (or canal) Kebar was in Babylon.

    Even on what seemed to them the other side of the world, well away from their land, which many saw as “God’s land,” God was there. Our verse talks about remembering former glory. But there’s a present glory, the glory of the God who is with us. Always. Especially when life’s hardships, even torments, overwhelm us.

    Let’s try to remember that Glory.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    A concept of Ezekiel’s Vision, (Credit: Adobe Stock ZenArt)
    See my paper on the vision of Ezekiel 1
  • Pursued – Lamentations 1:6

    Pursued – Lamentations 1:6

    6 All splendour has vanished
    from the daughter of Zion.
    Her princes have become like deer
    that can find no pasture.
    They run on, their strength spent,
    pursued by the hunter.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:6.

    Running can be a very good thing!

    For example, you can run for exercise. If you’re fast enough, you can run from a wild animal that might attack you.

    But then there is running when there’s nothing to accomplish by it. Some of us have been running from various things in our lives or in our pasts. We’re getting tired. The pursuer is after us. It’s going to get us, yet we just keep running.

    The Hebrew text here reads very abruptly. “Their strength spent” in the REB above is “with no strength.” The words are short. The ending to the verse is abrupt. Running continues even when there is no more hope.

    And right here is where lament starts to help. When we lament, we acknowledge that bad things have happened to us. We acknowledge that we have done things that are suboptimal. We can admit that running is of no more value. At that point, we can start to accept help. To find a solution.

    Recently someone pointed out to me–again!–that I don’t tend to ask for help when I need it. This is quite true. A friend called me and asked me if I needed help because he doubted I would call him. I did. He helped.

    This is where the good shepherd going out to find the lost comes in. The running is over. The shepherd is here. We’re going to be on our way home.

    The way home would come to Israel, but it was some time in the future. But God’s word doesn’t (and didn’t) return empty.

  • A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    5 Her adversaries have become her masters,
    her enemies take their ease,
    for the LORD has made her suffer
    because of her countless sins.
    Her young children are gone,
    taken captive by an adversary.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:5.

    One of the things my mother taught me was always to look for my contribution to creating a problem. The reason, she told me, was not that I was probably to blame, or was supposed to always load up on guilt, but that those were the only things I could actually fix.

    An underlying theme of Lamentations is that Judah bore responsibility for what had come upon her. That there were actions that had led to consequences. In our verse, it is the LORD who has brought these problems on Judah, yet that is because of their sins. Some people aren’t comfortable with this form of expression. It’s important, however, to remember that in the Bible stories God is seen as the cause of everything. There is little distinction made between things that result naturally and positive acts of God in specific circumstances. All of these result from God, God’s law, and God’s nature.

    Lamentation is a good thing. What is not a good thing is whining. Yes, I do my share of complaining, of blaming everyone else. And I am not responsible by my actions for everything that goes wrong. I’ve had circumstances where I can’t think of what I could have done. But many times there is some action possible.

    There are also those who look on any misfortune and blame the victim. Whatever the problem is, that person should have done something to prevent it. This too is destructive behavior.

    Lamentation recognizes the situation and the fact that it has brought problems, hardships, pain, suffering.

    Our verse today is solid with sorrow. Not a moment of joy. Not even the relief of finding someone else to blame.

    Even so, it’s a step toward a more healthy future.

  • Sacred Feasts – Lamentations 1:4

    Sacred Feasts – Lamentations 1:4

    The approaches to Zion mourn, for no pilgrims attend her sacred feasts; all her gates are desolate. Her priests groan, her maidens are made to suffer. How bitter is her fate!

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:4.

    I’m following my meditations in writing these posts, and the second line of this verse caught my attention. The main reason it did so is that it is one thing I hear commonly as a lament. I, and many people I know, frequently complain about low attendance. People aren’t in church. They aren’t in Sunday School. They don’t show up for church educational events or projects. Here we are making “stuff” available to them, and they don’t show up. The church is dying. Start preparing the funeral.

    The situation in Judah and Jerusalem was worse than anything I complain about. The people were in exile. They were gone. But what was happening before?

    I hate, I reject your feasts.
    I will not accept your assemblies.

    Amos 5:21 (my translation)

    When the assemblies were going strong, they weren’t actually going strong. Nobody was lamenting when people were all showing up. Well, God was lamenting and letting the prophets know that things weren’t going well.

    One of the most embarassing moments I’ve had in educational ministry was when, in response to questions around the church, I invited a friend who was a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. People in our Methodist/Wesleyan congregation were asking me about Calvinists,, and I thought providing them with a Calvinist speaker would meet the need.

    Nobody showed up. Nobody. I was the only one there to meet him.

    He was extremely gracious, and what was more we sat down to discuss ministry, theology, and education, and possibilities for doing more ministry. Here he was, with the person who had invited him to an empty room, and he took up the time to discuss how we, together, could serve the Church from our respective churches.

    We even joked that God must have ordained our meeting. Then we looked at each other and said, “All joking aside, that was true.” Without the numbers I desired, God was still working.

    Here’s a potential problem with lamenting. We can lament the wrong things. When your church or your meeting is empty, provided God has not ordained a one-on-one meeting as a surprise, there was probably something that needed to be lamented before.

    … Christianity was the revelation and the gift of joy, and thus, the gift of genuine feast. Every Saturday night at the resurrection vigil we sing, “for, through the Cross, joy came into the whole world.” This joy is pure joy because it does not depend on anything in this world, and is not the reward of anything in us. It is totally and absolutely a gift, the “charis,” the grace. And being pure gift, this joy has a transforming power, the only really transforming power in this world. It is the “seal” of the Holy Spirit on the life of the Church-on its faith, hope, and love.

    Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World, 45-46 (Schmemann was an Orthodox theologian)

    Maybe we’ve had a feast without the joy, the joy that only God can give. If we thought to lament this, perhaps we would have less physical emptiness to lament.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)