The Simple Life

Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music. The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim, for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it. Lamentations  5:12-18  (ESV)   In time, the weak things in this life will become evident. Human wisdom, strength, resources, power, and position eventually prove unreliable. Eventually, we see that faith, and faith alone, that is demonstrated by obedience, is the source of strength.   One day, all mankind will see that the source of all knowledge, wisdom, strength, significance, and security is God alone, and they will wish that they had rested in Him instead of whatever else th...

Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. Our pursuers are at our necks; we are weary; we are given no rest. We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough. Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities. Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine. Lamentations 5:1-10 (ESV)   Our ideas have consequences. Our choices are byproducts of our ideas. We need to guard our ideas as much as our actions, for our actions will always follow our ideas.   When we think we can live independently from God, we start making choices apart from His wisdom, guidan...

Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. Our pursuers are at our necks; we are weary; we are given no rest. We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough. Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities. Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine. Lamentations 5:1-10 (ESV)   "The Jews are orphans; they have lost their fathers, and their mothers are widows. The series of illustrations of the degradation of Israel seems to be arranged somewhat in the order of time and in accordance with the movement of the people." (W. F. Adeney)   Since we ar...

Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity. Lamentations  2:20-21  (ESV)   It is good to cry out to the Lord and to confess our sins. It is good to recognize the source of the problems in our lives, and the real source is "us."   I find it interesting that people blame God for killing them. Is it that God has killed them and caused their potential to disappear, or is it that God has withdrawn from them and allowed nature to take its course apart from Him?   Whose fault is it when a rebellious child is granted the independence they desire from their parents, and is therefore immersed in the cruel world apart from their wisdom, gui...

Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street." Lamentations  2:18-19  (ESV)   We have all experienced "emergencies" in this life. For some, those emergencies come in the middle of the night, at a time when all is quiet, when help is at a distance, and when hope seems nothing more than a four-letter word.   It is during that time that we feel most vulnerable. It is our time to cry out to the Lord, the one who is ever present in times of trouble, for He has not abandoned us.   The only time we are distant from God is when we choose to be distant from Him. When we seek Him, we find Him. Hopefully, we seek Him while we s...

All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?" All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: "We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!" Lamentations  2:15-16  (ESV)   "Decoration is vanity. All that men can do in the beautifying of their lives is as rottenness if the heart itself be not in a healthy condition. Add to the bitterness of self-remorse the triumphant exultation of enemies who pass by, and say whether any humiliation can be deeper or more intolerable. Where, then, is hope to be found? In heaven. The God whom we have offended must be the God who can forgive us. Do not let us seek to placate our enemies, or turn their triumphing into felicitation: we have no argument with them; not a word ought we to have to say to such mocker...