Can There Be Hope in Sorrow Like This?

Rev. Zelwyn Heide, pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hannover, ND and Zion Lutheran Church in New Salem, ND, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Lamentations 1:12-22.

Jeremiah continues to lament the destruction of Jerusalem. The city personified calls out to those who pass by that they would see the great sorrow, a cry that points forward to Jesus’ own sorrow on the cross. The LORD is acknowledged as the One who has caused the destruction of Jerusalem. Significantly, the people confess that the LORD is just, and they have rebelled. Yet even in that acknowledgment, the LORD is praised. The people continue to call upon the LORD in the midst of their sorrow, asking Him to be just not only to them but to those who have persecuted them. As the LORD has been the One who kept His promise of judgment against them, so they now call upon Him to be the One who keeps His promise of salvation from their enemies.

“Mercy for Mourners” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that goes through the book of Lamentations. As Jeremiah and the people of Judah mourn over the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, they acknowledge God’s just wrath against them, confess their iniquity, and plead for His deliverance. In this way, the book of Lamentations teaches us to pray in repentance and faith so that we would see Christ as the One who has taken the wrath of God on Himself in our place to deliver us by His death and resurrection.