As Jeremiah continues his
lament and how it affected him personally, he spoke of physical and
emotional sufferings he endured. In chapter three and verse eighteen
he adds to those intangible attributes that are important and now
gone. He wrote:
And I said, My strength
and my hope is perished from the LORD:
The
verse begins, “And I said, My strength...” Jeremiah
begins by talking about his “strength”
which is his “eminence, perpetuity, victory, enduring, and
everlastingness”. As he thinks about the losses he has incurred
because of Jerusalem and Judah's rejection of God, Jeremiah knew that
even the force to keep him going vanished.
The
verse goes on to say, “...and my hope is perished from the
LORD:” In addition to losing his strength Jeremiah speaks of
losing his “hope” by way of the LORD's “perishing”
or “vanishing, going astray, being destroyed” as in “divine
judgment”. Not only was his strength to continue gone, but his
“hope” that there would be any change in the future was
destroyed as well.
When we
ponder Jeremiah's losses in this verse, we may do well to consider
what would happen if we lost all our strength and hope? What would we
be like if we were totally weak and totally hopeless? Many times
these two traits are linked together because having strength gives us
hope, however having weakness leans toward hopelessness. Jeremiah's
condition would benefit us personally and nationally if we think
about it as we believe ourselves to be strong and hopeful. But what
if our strength was gone? What if our hope was lost? Would we then
turn to the Savior Jesus and learn that our true strength and hope
has always, is and will be in Him? May the Lord Jesus lead us to rely
upon the strength and hope that is enjoyed by fellowship with Him.
Next
time we will see what Jeremiah remembered, so read ahead, and we
shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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