Moving into the third chapter, we find this trilogy of questions at vs. 37-39: ‘Who has commanded and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?’ There are so many different questions being asked today. They are being asked by different people. They are being asked in different ways and with different expectations. What do the question of Lamentations have to say to our day, a day of many questions? They may prompt the modern questioner to think about the question he’s not asking as well as the questions he is asking - ‘Perhaps, there is a God who has his own questions to put to me.’ Lamentations asks its questions within the context of the great declaration of faith : ‘Great is thy faithfulness ’ (3:23). This combination of intense questioning and confident faith might well increase the questioner’s expectation of an answer - an answer which while it may leave some questions unresolved, opens the doors to faith .
-----
This is the tenth post in a series on Lamentations.
-----
This is the tenth post in a series on Lamentations.
No comments:
Post a Comment