Even in sorrow, God is here

Lamentations 3:1–66, Romans 15:22–33, Proverbs 31:1–19

A lament is an expression of sorrow or regret. Jeremiah, who had done nothing wrong, still felt great sorrow at the sin and lack of repentance in Israel, and for the chastening they experienced.

He wrote these poetic and sad words: “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long . . . . He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.” (Lamentations 3:1–3, 7–9)

His response to Israel’s situation shows how much he cared about God’s people and identified with their pain. “He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.’” (Lamentations 3:16–18)

I’ve felt like that at times, certainly not to the same depth, but when I watch others whom I care about struggle because they are caught up in sin, I feel hopeless. If it happens to be me who is the one who is trapped, my hopelessness is acute. However, there is hope. God never gives up on His people. He never gives up on me. Like Jeremiah, I need to remember truth and call it to mind.

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord . . . . For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” (Lamentations 3:21–26, 31–33)

Like Jeremiah, I also need to remember my part in this lament. Good and bad come from God. Therefore, “Why should (anyone) complain . . . about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.” (Lamentations 3:38–41)

While God uses Jeremiah to speak to me, He also uses the readings from Proverbs and from the New Testament. I’m encouraged that my role in life as a wife and homemaker is important to God. In a day when independence is admired and competition reigns between many couples, God’s Word still stands. He says, “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:10–12)

For the past few years, I’ve felt useless to God in some ways. I’ve been studying and He has been at work in my heart, yet I’ve not had a class to teach or any specific church role. Being a homemaker most of the time does give me opportunity to spend more time in prayer, which is important to me.

This also is important to God and to His people. Paul wrote: “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” (Romans 15:30–33)

Praying for others, for the success of their ministry, and for peace in their hearts is just as important as the more visible ministries Christians can do. I’m even thankful for the spiritual battles that come to those who pray, as they most certain did in Jeremiah’s life. I’m thankful that my home and personal life and usually filled with peace, and I’m thankful that I can talk to God, the Creator of the universe and the One who rules over all. He is available even though there are times it seems otherwise and He assures all His people that He will never leave us or forsake us. 

Sparrows and the Will of God

When we were children living on my father’s farm, sparrows were a nuisance bird that made a mess and, according to my dad, kept other, more valuable birds away. In the Bible, Jesus uses sparrows to make a point. He says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?” (Matthew 10:29)

In those days, people wasted nothing, even the lowly sparrow. They were a ‘poor person’s sacrifice’ in the temple and even sold in the marketplaces as inexpensive food for the poor. I can hardly imagine how many sparrows a decent meal required, but this is what my Bible dictionary says.

When Jesus said this, He was talking to His disciples about the dangers they would face as His followers. As “sheep in the midst of wolves,” they would be rejected, spit on, persecuted, delivered up to death by family members, and “hated by all” for His name’s sake.

He reassured them, sort of, by telling them that because He suffered, they would also, but they were not to fear those who hated them because their evil schemes would be exposed. Instead, these disciples needed to consider the sovereign power of God. Their enemies might put their lives in danger, even kill them, but they were not to fear them, but God “who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

I suppose in their minds they were thinking, Are we not important to God? Why would He allow anyone to touch us, never mind cause all this suffering and even take our very lives? Doesn’t God care? And why is Jesus talking about His destructive power? We are more interested in His protection.

Then Jesus mentions sparrows. Two of them were worth a copper coin. My dictionary says this is about 1/16 of a day’s wages. In those days, that was mere pennies. Today, if a person makes minimum wage and works eight hours, that is about $3.25, a little more than pennies, but still not very much.

As Jesus tells them the worth of a couple sparrows, He adds, “And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.”

In another place, it says, “without His knowledge” and knowing God knows is some comfort, but here Jesus goes beyond that. He affirms that God controls the timing and circumstances of even the most insignificant of events, the death of an almost worthless bird. The implication of that is that He most definitely is in charge of what happens to His children.

Weeks ago in a discussion about life’s events, one person expressed that some of the stuff that happens to us is “just part of life” and that “God isn’t in all that.”

However, because of what Jesus says about sparrows, I disagree. My response is that if God is not in all of everything that happens, how do we decide which events are in His control and which are merely ‘life just happening’?

Maybe I’m an all or nothing kind of person, but beyond that, I don’t think I’m capable of handling the stress of trying to understand where God is at work, or not. If He is not sovereign over everything, then how can He be sovereign over anything?

Of course that leads to big questions. If He controls all things, why is the world in the mess that it is in? Why do babies die? Airplanes crash? People get cancer? Or heart attacks?

The only people who can answer those questions are the people who have put their trust in Him and persist to trust Him through life’s stressful times. Yet even as they articulate what they know about the will of God, their answers make no sense at all to those who have decided that God doesn’t waste His time thinking about mere sparrows.