Lamentations 2
McGeeCHAPTER 2THEME: Elegy 2
Lamentations 2:5
God took full responsibility for what Nebuchadnezzar did. God allowed him to destroy the city of Jerusalem. God used him as a rod, just as He had used the Assyrians against Israel for their punishment. Have you ever stopped to think in your own personal life why God permits certain people to cross your path? Do you wish that you had never met certain people? Are there people whom you would call your enemies? Someone may have caused you sorrow, but it is all for His purpose. God has permitted all that for a definite purpose. Learn to recognize the hand of God in your life.
Lamentations 2:7
The very temple which God had blessedHe had given the instructions for building it, His very presence had been there at one timenow He says, “The day came that I abhorred that temple.” Churchgoing folk need to investigate their own lives. If you go to church, is that something that God takes delight in? Or is it actually something that hurts His cause? Is your frame of mind right when you go, or are you critical? Can the Spirit of God use you? I think that it can even be sinful to go to church. Do you know where the most dangerous place was the night Jesus was arrested? Was it down with that bunch of rascals who were plotting His death? No, my friend, the most dangerous place that night was in the Upper Room where Jesus was! Do you know why? Satan was there. He put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Him, and he also got into the heart of Simon Peter to deny Him. Just because you are going to church doesn’t mean you are pleasing God.
Lamentations 2:10
All the people went through the outward gyrations of grief, but notice how Jeremiah was affected:
Lamentations 2:11
“Mine eyes do fail with tears"he cried so much he couldn’t even see. “My bowels are troubled"this thing tore him to pieces, it wrecked his health. He was involved; it broke his heart. How many of us are willing to be really involved in God’s work? Are we willing to endanger our health? Are we willing to give ourselves over to God?
Lamentations 2:15
The enemy without is elated at the misery of Jerusalem. I am sometimes severe in my comments about the condition of the church in our day. I am retired from the active pastoratealthough I am not retired from the work of Godand I need to ask myself how involved I am with my brethren who are in the ministry? When I see the problems in the church today, is it nothing to me? Do I just sit on the sidelines as a critic, or does it bring sorrow to my heart? I can say that I have been moved, and I want to be an encouragement to the many wonderful Bible-teaching pastors in our country. It is too easy to be harsh in our criticism when it means nothing to us at all.