The Book of Lamentations

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
I always thought Revelation was the craziest book in the Bible. Is it possible that Lamentations is even crazier?

Here's the reason I ask. I was scanning the AM radio in my car tonight and came across this old guy saying all this crazy stuff in a real shaky but zealous voice. He was talking about curses, wormwood, menstruating women and all kin ...[text shortened]... w was Lamentations, and I think it was Chapters 3 and 4 that I caught. It really spooked me.

Imagine (if you can, which is not likely, but let's give it a shot) that you are living in a nation that has been chosen by God to represent His grace to the entire race of fallen man, a nation receiving incomparable blessings at every turn.

This nation stands for everything you believe in, beginning first and foremost with a submission and humility before the object of your affection, the capstone of your adoration, the Creator of the universe.

You consider the Creator not only the object of your worship for His own sake, but also the source and cause for everything you hold dear: your thought life, your freedom, your wife, your beautiful children, your livelihood, your friends, your neighbors, your connection with all that is good and holy.

Now imagine that a foreign country (one which willingly and openly defecates on all that you hold dear) has decided to invade your nation; wantonly trespasses on your soil to steal, plunder and kill. They start by killing your able-bodied sons. Next they rape your wife daughters before slowly killing them while you are forced to watch the carnage.

When their sport is done, they destroy your life's work and burn every vestige of financial security you had left, kicking you in the teeth as they leave you in lonely despondency.

While all this is going on, from start to finish the only thought in your mind is that the only person you can think of blaming is you, because you realize that despite your proclaimed love and devotion to the God who made your overflowing life possible, your thoughts and actions had been far from Him longer than they were ever with Him.

You know beyond knowing that all of your life was laid bare because of your own infidelity, your own defecation on the One to Whom you so patriotically proclaimed your allegiance. You know that you destroyed not only your life but the lives of your loved ones, your neighbors and your countrymen with your cowardice-masquerading-as-loyalty. The test came; you were found wanting.

I think if I had been in Jeremiah's shoes, I'd been lamenting, too.

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
I always thought Revelation was the craziest book in the Bible. Is it possible that Lamentations is even crazier?

Here's the reason I ask. I was scanning the AM radio in my car tonight and came across this old guy saying all this crazy stuff in a real shaky but zealous voice. He was talking about curses, wormwood, menstruating women and all kin ...[text shortened]... w was Lamentations, and I think it was Chapters 3 and 4 that I caught. It really spooked me.

Culture shock perhaps? The world has changed significantly in the thousands of years after this text was composed. It can be quite a surprise for church-goers too when they hear the author of the Book of Songs talking about the joys of feeling a woman's breasts.