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- [00:00]
A
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey.
- [00:27]
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Surprise Bible nerds, It's Tia Arago here. Yeah, I am so excited because I get to teach you guys on the Book of Lamentations. Today is day 330, and we are going to go through Lamentations 1 and 2. Let's see. First of all, I know you're probably wondering why in the world of all the books of the Bible, Lamentations. Well, I have to be honest with you. I am Lamentations personified. I am a Lamentations girly. Like, when it comes to suffering and being honest with God and questioning and having questions that draw me closer, I am your girl. Okay. I. I mean, Lamentations is just a favorite of mine. So I begged to be able to teach on this, and so here I am. I know you're so happy. I'm way less wordy than Dr. Manny Arango, so this episode probably not be as long, but I don't think you'll be mad about that. Anyway, let's jump in. Actually, wait, before we jump in, if you have not read Lamentations 1 through 2, it'll take you literally 10 minutes. Stop, go, read, and then come back. I'll be waiting here for you. But you have to read before we jump in. Okay? Okay, let's go. We'll start today with the context clues of Lamentations. I think something that's so incredible about the Book of Lamentations is this. It's a book of poetry. I'm a singer. I play guitar. So I connect so deeply with the fact that this is poetry. And it's written so beautifully. It's five poems, and it's kind of like a funeral song because. More background information. This was written at the fall of Jerusalem. It was in 586 B.C. and the Babylonians sieged Jerusalem. Very sad. And they wrote poems and grieved about the fact that their nation had been taken over by their enemies. There had been years, decades. There had been decades of prophecies. The prophet Jeremiah was a part of Jerusalem, and he had spent decades, like 30 to 40 years warning them, pleading with them, please stay faithful to Yahweh. Please obey his laws. Because if you don't, then Babylon is going to destroy Us. He told them that for decades. And they didn't listen. They didn't pay attention to the warnings. And then what happened? Exactly what was prophesied. And this book is a response to the fall of Jerusalem. A few months ago, Dr. Manny covered Jeremiah and 2 Kings. More towards the end of 2 Kings, he actually talks a lot about this whole story of Babylon destroying Jerusalem. So if you want a refresher on that, that and then come back, absolutely. Recommend going to watch those episodes again and then coming back. Cause then you'll feel really, really prepared to just hear this poem of sadness, this funeral song for what happened to them. Okay, we're gonna jump into our nerdy nuggets. So the general pattern that we're gonna note in this book is this. Chapters one and two are lament and sorrow. I mean, right when you jump into chapter one right off the bat, how lonely sits the city. It was full of people and now it's like a widow. And like, this is just sorrow, devastation at the fact that Jerusalem has been overthrown. And then in chapter three, we see repentance and hope. And then in chapter four and five, it goes back to lament and sorrow. And this is actually called a chiasm. I know that Dr. Manning has talked about it quite a bit in other episodes, so you're probably a bit familiar. But the big thing that we wanna remember about chiasms is that everything points to the center, to the middle. So the reason that 1 and 2 are lament and 4 and 5 are lament and chapter 3 is hope and repentance is because the. The actual climax of the book is chapter three is this repentance and this hope that they have, even though they're actively witnessing the fall of their nation. Incredible. Like, I love. I love the outline how that works. And it's. I feel like it's just so reminiscent of the human experience or even my experience. Like even in the middle of pain and in the middle of suffering, just in the center, there's just like a little glimmer of hope. And that's Jesus. Honestly, in my walk, it's been when I am just completely submerged in pain and just like drowning in my sorrow. That glimmer of hope that always just feels like it is in the center of my chest is my hope in Jesus. And I feel like this just beautifully reflects that. All right, let's keep moving. One thing I wanna highlight about chapter one is this consistent acknowledgement of transgressions. These people are not unaware of the fact that the reason that Babylon was able to overthrow Jerusalem is because of their transgressions against Yahweh. It was their unfaithfulness against Yahweh. I mean, they had 30 or 40 years of Jeremiah warning them and over again. So it was fresh on their minds that this is happening because we didn't listen. This is happening because we weren't faithful to our covenant with Yahweh. This is happening because of our rebellion. They're so aware. And I just think it's so mature that the Book of Pain begins with an understanding that we had a part to play in this that is so mature in such a beautiful way for God to just teach us how to lament. I feel like a lot of times when we're grieving and when we're in scenarios that are just heavy for us, all we do is focus on the fact that we're suffering. All we do is focus on the specific scenario that's happening to us. That's really hard. But this is teaching us to own our role in the scenario. What have I done? What could I have done better? It's so mature, it's so helpful. And obviously not everyone, not every circumstance is something that we've done. There are scenarios where something is done to us and there's nothing that we've done or could have done to prevent it. But I'm specifically speaking on scenarios where we know there was a course of action that I took. That is the reason that my life is the way it is right now. There's something that I didn't do. And this is the reason why life doesn't look the way I want it to look right now. And owning that and being aware of it, having a full awareness actually allows us to like, not do the same thing again. And I love that Lamentations begins with that and family.
- [07:22]
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The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of Scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today.
- [08:17]
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All right, back to the episode then, chapter two. I would love for us to notice that a lot of it is talking about ruins. Over and over, you hear this word, ruins. In fact, Jerusalem was so deep in their rebellion against God that he had to withdraw his hand. Like, the reason that the city is in ruins is because God withdrew His hand. And again, there's an awareness that he removed his hand because we were not faithful to the relationship, to the covenant. And also, I love that it focuses on a removal of his hand, because it's not saying the hand of God did this. It's saying that the removal of his right hand, the removal of his favor, the removal of his protection is the reason this is happening to us. And that it's something that Dr. Mani talks about a lot, is the passive versus the active wrath of God. And this would be an example of the passive wrath of God. Very reminiscent of the book of Genesis, the flood, the fact that the removal of his presence, the removal of his sustaining power, immediately results in chaos and sin. And this is another example of that, that God removed Himself, because that's what they wanted. They proved that over and over again, that they didn't want the hand of God on them, they didn't want the covenant. And so he responded that decision and removed his hand. And what happened, what he told Jeremiah to tell them what happened did happen. And they're very aware of that. It's also important to note that the ruins that chapter two talks about is not only for the current generation, but the ruins is generational. I mean, it is so sad. When you look at chapter two, it's saying the elders were mourning, that the children are starving, that mothers had to result in eating their children, and that current leaders were sick with sorrow. I mean, three generations, we have elders, we have children, and we have current leaders that are suffering, suffering because of the inability to be faithful to Yahweh, of one generation's inability to be faithful to Yahweh. So just an understanding that, like our inability or our decision to not be faithful to the covenant that we have with Jesus does not only impact us, it can impact the people before us and the people coming after us. And oh, my goodness, how heavy, how devastating. And that takes me to my timeless truth. The timeless truth is this, that God takes our decisions to walk away from him seriously. He takes it very seriously, even if it results in our own destruction, because he honors our free Will. Even at the cost of us. Because if it's what we want, he gives it to us. And I have a story, actually, about it. Of course. I'm a mom. We have a son. He's four years old. And we moved into a new house about a year ago. And it has a staircase. And he has. At the top of the staircase, there's a landing. And we put his play area there. And he plays there often. But a lot of the time, I find myself telling him, hey, don't play near the stairs. You have all this space. Just don't go near the stairs because it's not safe. You could fall. And he wouldn't really listen to me. And I kept giving him warnings. And of course, one day, he's playing near the stairs, and he comes tumbling down the stairs, hits the floor on the bottom and starts screaming. My first response is running up to my baby. I pick him up. I comfort him. I'm telling him, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I just want him checking, make sure he didn't, like, hit his head or break anything. And then Dr. Manny walks up to him, too. We're both home. He walks up to him and he goes, now do you understand why this just happened to you? Do you know that your mother kept telling you. We kept telling you, don't play at the stairs, and you didn't listen. Your disobedience is why this is happening to you. And of course this is. I mean, Dr. Mani is saying this to him while he's still crying and while I'm holding him. But what a beautiful picture of God, the fullness of God, that God does both with us, that he comforts us in our disobedience. But also he wants to highlight the fact that, do you understand why you are where you are and what your disobedience costs you? And after Theo fell, we didn't install a gate. We let him still play up there and still gave him the instructions, hey, don't play near the stairs. Because really, if we put a gate up there, we completely remove his free will. If we put a gate up there, we completely remove his ability to just be obedient. The gate is actually his ears. The gate at the top of the stairs is actually him trusting me when I say, don't play at the top of the stairs. And the same thing is with God. The same thing goes for us with God. He's not gonna just put a bunch of boundaries around you to make sure you don't do what he's telling you not to do. He's gonna tell you what's safe and what's unsafe. And your ears have to be your gate. Your ears and your eyes and your wisdom, your mind, your soul have to be your prot? Are you going to trust that what God is saying to you is right? Are you going to be obedient so that you don't end up hurt, so that you don't end up in ruins, so that you don't end up overtaken by the enemy? And funny enough, a siege is when an army attacks a city's gates. How perfect. An army attacks gates first because it's actually the most vulnerable spot in a wall that's protecting a city. So what do we do? We have to protect our gates, and we have to stay under the protective hand of God. We must be obedient. And what a beautiful warning and Lesson is Lamentations 1 and 2, giving us on taking accountability for our actions or our disobedience, but also showing us how beautiful the protective hand of God is over our life when we are in line with his will, when we walk in his covenant with us, and when we trust him with with our lives. The book of Lamentations is loaded. I mean, we're only in chapters one and two. We haven't even gotten to the climax, which is chapter three. Like so many life lessons, so many lessons on how to suffer and how to be wise and how to walk with God even in our suffering. Tomorrow is day 331. We're gonna do Lamentations 3 through 5. If you're on a streak, we are so proud of you. Oh, my goodness. 330 days reading the Bible. You are incredible. If you're not on a streak, that's okay. Jump in wherever you can and just make a promise that you're gonna read the Bible for the year. We love you guys so much and I can't wait to see you tomorrow. Bye.
- [15:23]
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Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.