Lamenting

08.05.14

2 Chronicles 35.25 Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.

What happens when a people turns from God? Nobody laments, that’s what. (Yes, some lament, but mostly God is left aside as irrelevant, archaic, and myth.) When Josiah was king I think there was a brief flicker of hope but it was short-lived; the flicker flamed out; Josiah was killed and the nation slid off the table so to speak – the end had come.

I wonder about this great nation of ours and I wonder if there’ll ever be a return to God, and if there is, I wonder what will be the fruit of it. I don’t hold out a lot of hope. And I wonder who’ll write the laments. I wonder if it’ll even matter or if anyone will care.

Today, as a cease-fire starts in the conflict between Israel and her enemies I wonder if Israel remembers the Laments, and if anyone is bothering to cry them out to God. I wonder what would’ve happened had Josiah not gone out to confront Necho. I wonder…

It seems one laments when faced with, too little too late. I personally think this was the case with the reign and death of Josiah. Faithful and devout king he was, he couldn’t stem the tide in front of him – the aggression of Egypt or the aggression of Babylon. At least he died in battle defending his land and his God, and not in chains in cowardly defeat in some prison.

I lamented this morning (at about 3:00 am). I laid awake remembering much of the stupidity of my past and I lamented to God how sorry I was. I think He listened. I think He smiled. And I think He said something like: “Child, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride but I have it under control! Trust in Me! I’ll bring you through.” And so, a verse came into my mind: But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2.14) Lamenting or no; crying over spilled milk or no, God is God and He loves His kids – even the stupid ones.

The rest of the story in 2 Corinthians starts in verse 15: For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?  The reason for lamenting is to confess to God: I’ve missed it and I want to repent.

The consequences come but God is with us in the consequences and on the other side He is cheering us on; because we are to God the pleasing aroma of Jesus among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma that brings death – death to self, death to stupidity, death to turning from God; to the other we are an aroma that brings life – and hope and all the goodness of God that comes with it.

And so today I pray: Come Lord Jesus. Come and save me from stupid; and may my life be a ray of hope to someone who only sees darkness and death. Be merciful Lord. Be swift. Breathe life – I pray to You the Victor over death and dumb…amen.