Listen up, little ones
Listen for the word remember.
Reading
Lamentations 3:19-24 His Mercies Never End!
Keys for kids
- Jeremiah was discouraged.
- Yet he remembered God’s steadfast love and found hope.
- He also found hope in remembering God’s eternal mercies.
Questions
- What does Jeremiah remember about God’s mercies?
- What does Jeremiah remember about God’s compassions?
- What happens when he doesn’t remember these things?
Notes
(See last page for authors)
We’ll not consider all the details of this long acrostic lament in chapter 3, but we do see clear details emerge. Jeremiah mourns with Jerusalem, because “all our enemies are against us.” v46
This, of course, was the historical reality which Jeremiah witnessed. See 2 Ki 25. Fee and Stuart note that the siege lasted for two years, as tens of thousands huddled in Jerusalem, hoping that Yahweh would intervene. Instead, the Babylonian troops finally breached her walls, raped her women, and slaughtered many of her inhabitants. In light of subsequent conditions in Jerusalem, our author wonders rhetorically whether death might not have been the better option.
There was a severe famine promised to God’s disobedient in Deut 28 in which they would eat their own children. These “promised people” living in their “promised land” were being removed and their land was being destroyed.
The lamenter is certain that these enemies deserved worse judgment than God’s people! His hope, Judah’s hope, is that God would eventually judge them too. V64-66
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 36b, 85a
Prayer
- Rejoice in prayer with your family for God’s mercies and God’s compassions.
- Pray for the hearing of God’s word preached this Sunday.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.