Lamentations 3:40-5:22
Jesus is the anointed Messiah
The writer of Lamentations says, ‘Let us lift up our hearts and our hands’ (3:41). The lifting of hearts and hands seem to go together in prayer. Raising hands in prayer is not eccentric or weird, it is the traditional form of prayer in both the Old Testament and New Testament.
The writer calls the people to pray and says, ‘Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living and reorder our lives under God’ (v.40, MSG). This is an important discipline in a life of faith. Ask God to reveal if there are any areas of your life that you need to change.
If there are, then return to God in confession and repentance (v.42 onwards). Now you know that you will be forgiven and your relationship with God will be restored because of what Jesus has done for you. This passage, like so many others in the Old Testament, points forward to Jesus.
The writer of Lamentations says, ‘You, O Lord, reign for ever; your throne endures from generation to generation’ (5:19).
The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus: ‘“Your throne, O God, will last for ever… therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy”’ (Hebrews 1:8–9). Jesus is God’s anointed one – the Christ, the Messiah.
He is the one to whom all the Scriptures point. The people of God were expecting the Lord’s anointed. The writer of Lamentations speaks of ‘the Lord’s anointed’ (Lamentations 4:20). The Hebrew word for anointed one is ‘Meshiach’ from which we get the word Messiah. He goes on to say, ‘to you also the cup will be passed’ (v.21). Jesus spoke of the cup he would drink (Mark 10:38; John 18:11). Jesus was alluding to the cup of God’s wrath against sin.
God’s anger is not like ours. It contains no element of spite, pettiness or hypocrisy. It is the reaction of a holy and loving God towards sin. Passages like this help us to understand how serious our sin is in God’s sight and how amazing it is that, on the cross, Jesus bore the wrath of God for you and me.
The prophet sees that they are cut off from God by their sin: ‘You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through’ (Lamentations 3:44). This is the barrier that Jesus removed when he drank the cup of God’s wrath and provided purification for sins. This is the answer to the prayer of the writer of Lamentations when he prayed, ‘Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old’ (5:21).
Because of Jesus, the Anointed One and the one who drank the cup, God’s presence is no longer covered with a cloud, and your prayers can get through to him. You can lift up your heart and your hands to God. He will restore you and renew you.
Although there are many words about judgment in the Bible, they can be read through the lens of Jesus who revealed the true character of God and provided purification for your sins.
Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that I can know and understand who you are through Jesus. Thank you that the key to life is in Jesus.
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