Deserted city
Day 389, Thursday, Sept. 4
Lamentations Chapter 1
“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people.”
The opening line of Lamentations sets the tone for the book. It is, as its title suggests, a lament. It is a lament for Jerusalem.
To the Jews, Jerusalem was more than just a place on a map; more than a collection of people and buildings.
It was in a real sense the personification of the whole Jewish people. When Jerusalem thrived, the people thrived. Now, Jerusalem is in ruins and the people are scattered. There is no nation, merely a fading memory.
This brings to mind Jesus’s lament over Jerusalem when he says in Matthew, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” He isn’t mourning for a city as we perceive cities, but for the whole people of Israel.
Not only does the city represent the whole people, but is itself personified as a woman. “Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.”
It is possible that “all her lovers” is a reference to the false gods Jerusalem has worshiped.
We continue reading in verse 5, “Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe.”

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Thursday meditation

Job 31:1-12
“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? Does he not see my ways and count my every step?
“If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit—let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled, then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her. For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged. It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest.

Prayer focus
Comfort us in our mourning, Lord.