Leaning Toward the Lamentations

January 7, 2024

Royce Bell

Over the next four weeks, in preparation for the Lamentations study now set to begin on February 4, I’ll have a short article in the Sunday bulletin. Each of these four articles will focus on three points intended to help you be ready for the study of what is one of the most neglected, yet profoundly important and interesting sections of scripture.

● Reading from the Lamentations
● The Broader Context
● Narrowing the Focus
A Short Reading

Lamentations 1

A View of the Broader Context

1. Comparing the length of chapter 1 with the length of chapter 2, what do you realize? How many verses in each chapter?

2. Now, look at the length of chapter 4. Now, chapter 5. Now, look at the length of chapter 3. What do you see?

3. What do you make of this?

Narrowing the Focus

As we will presently see in the course of our study together, the Lamentations of Jeremiah are an excellent and very important study in the consequences of disobedience.

Other Old Testament examples include the entire book of Judges, as well as several examples used by the writer of Hebrews. What specific examples can you remember to show the consequences of disobedience?

Interestingly, the Lamentations of Jeremiah are about sin consequences toward the covenant people of God, His city, and the place where God recorded His Name. It is not about God’s judgment on those who were not His Covenant people. What does Hebrews 2:2 suggest about this very fact toward we who live in the later days, who share in the the dispensation of the blessings of Christ and the revelation of God’s grace?