God is eternally unchanging!

The book of Lamentations is a sad song of what Jeremiah saw as Jerusalem was being destroyed by the Babylonians. His home had been destroyed. His family and friends were either killed or sent away into exile. The words that are recorded of Jeremiah’s lamenting are probably insufficient to express the pain in his heart as he saw his beloved Jerusalem fall to the enemy invaders. Jeremiah’s whole world is turned upside down. Everything he had was gone and everyone he knew had been taken away. And even the things that weren’t taken away or destroyed were changed by the Babylonian army. Everything was changing, and it made Jeremiah sad to see it happening to the city where God said He would dwell among men.

Then here in our verse for the day Jeremiah breaks out in praise to God. Even though his whole world was changing and that it would never be the same again for him or the nation of Israel; he knew that God is eternally unchanging. No matter who is in power in the world; God is on the throne of the universe and there is nothing in heaven or on earth that is going to change that. Jeremiah was a voice of righteousness in the land of Israel and the Hebrews ignored him and persecuted him. And even though he served God faithfully; he suffered right along with all the others that God was punishing. God protected him from being killed during this time, but God did not exclude him from the suffering.

Sometimes we believe that because we are being faithful to God that we will be excluded from all pain and suffering. Nothing could be further from the truth. And if you are in a church or ministry that teaches that, then you need to be warned because the only people that are excluded from pain and suffering in this world are the people that have left this world to be with Jesus. Everyone else will experience some amounts of pain and suffering as God continues to form and shape our characters. Those who are faithfully following and serving God may be excluded from some of the harsher elements of that process, but they will experience some part of it.

God’s plan for our lives requires that we experience some of those things. Because we are in a fallen world; God will be judging the unrepentant and punishing the rebellious. Unfortunately, that means we get to experience some of the consequences of that divine work. But God is still on the throne! Jesus, help us to see through our circumstances so that we can know what You are working on in us.

Read: Lamentations 4:1-5:22; Hebrews 2:1-18; Psalm 103:1-22; Proverbs 26:23