Friday, September 3, 2010

Lamentations 1-2: All is Taken Away

What once was, is no more.  All of the plans that people made, all the treasures collected, all the influence garnered, all the relationships forged are no more.  Jerusalem lies desolate!

All who pass your way
clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads
at the Daughter of Jerusalem:
"Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?" - Lam 2:13 NIV

But when all is taken away, all is taken away, and possessions and anything else no longer matter.  Suddenly, it becomes a matter of the heart.  The heart, where man truly dies, and for the writer of Lamentations, where torment has overtaken him as he finally becomes aware of the rebellion he has harbored all along.  That separation from God is the more painful than all of the desolation surrounding him.

"See, O LORD, how distressed I am!
I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
inside, there is only death. - Lam. 1:20 NIV

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