Lamentations

Just a word of lamentation, I know this is the bane of teaching Old Testament and just the bane of being me but it is very difficult to say enough fast enough about the early books to cover all of them with equal superficiality. So we get to lamentations with only about five or ten minutes to spend on it but it's a short book and it's repetitive in its own way. So I'm going to just kind of give you a little stenographic comment or two here. Obviously you can read books about some of these things and find them out and I really I kind of got caught up thinking about song of song so we went longer on that. Historical context and authorship, well it's clearly referring to the fall of Judah this book and therefore the fall of Judah took place in 586. The time of composition would probably have been sometime between 586 the fall of Judah and 530 probably earlier rather than later not everyone universally agrees with that but that would be my opinion. Andrew Hill, the Wheaton College Old Testament professor that I mentioned earlier, remarks that the despairing tone of the petition for national renewal in the closing lines of the final poem in chapter 5 indicates that the writer apparently knew nothing of Jehoyakens discharge from prison and its implications for the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecies for covenant restoration in Israel. That was a long quote and I don't have time to repeat it but I will just say he's saying there's an encouraging thing that happened in the life of King Jehoyakens who was exiled to Babylon. He was released from prison and that may have engendered hope that Jeremiah's prophecy of restoration would begin to take shape and there's no suggestion there's no hint that the author was aware of that optimistic event. And that would again indicate an earlier rather than a later date for this book who was the author not explicitly named tradition would have Jeremiah as the author those who don't think Jeremiah was the author say it must have been someone very much like Jeremiah. So if we're going to go that direction we might as well say okay possibly Jeremiah just don't be dogmatic if the Bible doesn't say yes it doesn't make sense that's true. I mean you see you see why I wouldn't want to dogmatically say that Jeremiah is the author and why that other is just a hint that perhaps if the author is not Jeremiah he hasn't seen that. So I don't know I need to think about that because even if it were not Jeremiah I'm sorry even if it were Jeremiah and he had a sense that there would be a restoration taking place if it were early prior to the release of Jehoyakens then even Jeremiah may not have ended in an upbeat tone. Well yes but again the tone the emotional tone of this book is not so upbeat except in the middle in the central significant middle portion which I had you memorize. Anyway well we'll have to get balled up in that another time since we're moving right along. The use of this book in Jewish worship it is one of the books that is called one of the festival scrolls one of the Megilote. It is read on the 9th of Av when the destruction of the temples. First temple, second temple in Jerusalem are mourned each year and that makes some good sense. In terms of its form it's a very interesting book in terms of its form and if you read your text notes and such you catch this you may not otherwise be aware. Although I think probably most of you are that the first four chapters of the book are alphabetic accostics. That is to say they march from A to Z of course in Hebrew from Aleph to Ta'av. The first four are alphabetic accostics. The fifth chapter is not an alphabetic accostic but it does contain 22 verses which is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So it kind of gives that accostic sense without actually going Alephbate, Gimbal, Dalit, Hay, right on through the Hebrew alphabet. The first two chapters have 22 three line verses. Chapter 3 has 66 one line verses and chapter 4 has 22 two line verses. What in the world am I talking about? Well chapters 1, 2 and 3 are the same length but in chapter 3 rather than a verse of three lines beginning with 1A in the next verse beginning with 1B each of the three lines of the verse begins with A in chapter 3 and each of the three lines of the verse begins with B. So you can tell that there has been a very careful, purposive structuring of this lament. Now what may have been the purpose of that? Why would this individual, let's call him Jeremiah or whoever the author was, in his distress over the fall of Jerusalem, why would he have taken time to go to the work to create these accostics? What do you think? What is the function of accostics anyway? Memorization, nemonic device, we got that one out of the way, is that what you were going to say? Maybe the crafting of this word draws attention to the sheer significance of what it is he's talking about. Yeah, that's an interesting suggestion. Another is in a sense that some have suggested that this is to give full expression to grief and yet not so unrestrained that it reduces to blubbering. It's full, it's from A to Z, but when you get to Z you stop. Of course then you start again in the next chapter, but you get the idea just with the description of the woman of noble character in Proverbs 31. That's an alphabetic accostic, that's no job description for any single human woman to expect her to do all those things. That's A to Z. Look at all the things this noble woman of initiative can involve herself in. Now, I have in your outline, durges and lamentations, these first chapters 1, 2, and 4 in particular are like funeral durges. They begin with the word how in Hebrew, how this expression was apparently used in funeral songs and funeral durges. Think of David's lament over Saul and Jonathan, how the mighty have fallen or in Isaiah 1412 with reference to Babylon, how you have fallen from heaven. Then chapter 3 is an individual lamentation. Some would distinguish this from a lament. I think that's appropriate. A lament song that we learned about won't be on the test, but an lament song goes through that sort of standard structure of address, complaint, expression of trust, petition, and then a vow of praise. So a lament song works through the complaint or the lament to a point of trust in God and petition and a confidence that God will answer and thus a vow of praise to give thanks is given in advance. Now, in this we don't really have that, we have more and a lamentation which is less hopeful in tone. And chapter 5 appears to be a communal lamentation, chapter 3, an individual lamentation. What about the message of this book? Again, on your outline, I have several items, Theodicy. Theodicy is a justification of the ways of God. God does not owe us a Theodicy. We doesn't have to justify his ways to us. But from this book we do learn at least this much that God's judgment on Jerusalem was not wrong. Rather sin and rebellion are recognized, and it is recognized that it is sin and rebellion that have brought about this chastising of God's people and God's city. This, however, does involve some mystery. It did cause something of a crisis in Israel's faith because Israel had wrongly come to believe in the inviolability of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the city of God, the Holy City, nothing can happen, nothing can go wrong. Sort of like the Israelites in ancient days brought the Ark of the Covenant thinking, we bring Ark into the camp, God will have to be with us and defend us, and we'll win the battle. It didn't happen then, it didn't happen now. And yet much had happened in Jerusalem's history that would suggest that it was inviolable, sin and act of siege, and yet the city was protected. And so this did cause something of a crisis of faith, a sense of mystery. God's actions remained somewhat shrouded in mystery. And even to the eye of faith, even to us today, God's actions remained somewhat shrouded in mystery. As they did in the days of Job, though less so, as they did in the days of lamentations, though less so, God has disclosed more of His will and His purpose to us. And hope, another theme that shines through in this book, even God's faithfulness in bringing disciplinary action down on His people is a testimony to His covenant faithfulness. The confidence of a child in a parent's love increases if the parent does what the parent says he or she will do. In other words, if a parent says I'm going to count to three, and if you don't come, I'm going to spank you. Well, if the parent is reaching 1,028 and the child is still not come, then when the parent says I love you so much, I'll always be there for you. Oh yeah, just as your word was so good when you counted to 1,028 and I hadn't come. You see, God's disciplinary action affirms the truth of His word. So when He says He loves us, we know that's true. The loving father, in this case, must meet out the deserved punishment to His wayward children. Thus, for the eye of faith, there remains hope, even amidst this kind of disaster that had befallen the rebellious people of God. And even in this rather somber ending to this book and to this course, there is a recognition of God's sovereignty. He can be trusted, He is true. Summary and applications in the book of lamentations, those three great strands of the Israelite tradition of its faith and its literature are combined. You get the prophets' insights into the judgment and grace of the covenant lord. You get the priests' liturgical expression of contrition and hope and you get the wise men's wrestling with the mysteries of suffering. So again, and I'm quoting Manfred Lassour from his Old Testament survey, you get the prophets' insight into the judgment and grace of the covenant lord. The priests' liturgical expression of contrition and hope and the wise men's wrestling with the mysteries of suffering. We get a warning in this book against complacency, even when the threat remains unfulfilled for many, many years. God is in control. I believe that God is still active in history. He is still a loving father whom the Lord loves. He disciplines as a father, the son. He delights in. And so, even when we feel the spank of a loving Heavenly Father, we can rejoice at least that He is a Heavenly Father who is good to His Word. That was very short shrift for an interesting book of lamentations. And I don't even have time to let you ask questions because we do need to talk a little bit about the exam. And I know that will drive all of this immediately from your mind. Now, let me find, I have actually a copy of that thing up here, unless one of you naughty people stole it. It's not complete, by the way, it's in part. Okay, let's make some ground rules to make sure we understand each other. Can we start with proverbs? And on, I know we have gotten into proverbs a little bit by the midterm, but if we can start there, that will make it simpler for me. And more helpful for you, of course. Okay, we'll start from proverbs and move along. It will be mostly objective, or perhaps entirely objective. I may try to give a reflection question, but I do, again, I have to get a real quick turnaround on grading and I'm sorry for that. But that's the nature of the case. Shall I give you a couple of examples of possible ones? And actually, I have a nice little collection here that will add to the fun for me. Let's see. I don't want to give away my best ones necessarily. How about this? True or false? The position taken in class, so that you can't differ from my opinion. The position taken in class is that the brevity of the individual proverbs found in the central solomonic collection proves that they are older than the more expanded proverbial paragraphs in chapters 1 to 9. True or false? False. That was not a very resounding reply, but that was one sample question that may make the cut. The highest concentration of Yahweh sayings in the book of Proverbs is found in A1, chapter 1, 1 to 7, B10, 1 to 5, C16, 1 to 9, D31 to 6. The highest concentration of Yahweh sayings, 16, 1 to 9. I better pick a couple of easier ones here. This is going to discourage people. Those are two fairly hard ones. How about this one? You want to get at least two right, don't you see? 16, 1 to 9. Remember the central solomonic collection? There's that cluster of Yahweh saying saying that God is at the center of this wisdom? Okay. Okay. Here's, let me come up with a better one here. One commentator mentioned in class, Robert Alden, has compared the book of Proverbs to A, corrected braces, B, medicine, C, food, D, exercise, medicine. Okay. Vitamins also. Maybe I better put medicine slash vitamins. Okay. But he starts with medicine and then shifts to vitamins. But you'd have gotten that right. You know it's not food or exercise or corrected braces. Okay. I can't tell. I can't read too many of these. It's ridiculous. According to Kidner, according to Kidner, that's what you've been reading in secondary literature, according to Kidner, according to Kidner, the book of Job does not present Job's friends as hypocrites. True or false? Maybe I should cast that positively, but I'll leave it this way. According to Kidner, the book of Job does not present Job's friends as hypocrites. That's true. It does not present them as hypocrites. They are well meaning but misguided in their application. Okay. True or false? According to Kidner, Job feels himself under attack from his friends, but not from God. False. He feels under attack from God, ultimately. I've got a lot of these. That's why I can read some of them. The most web regards song of songs, chapters three to six, as a wedding liturgy, a picture of Love on the Rocks, see a celebration of romance, D, a dream sequence. A dream sequence. Okay. Well, that's an example, and, you know, again, I will filter yours, and if that sparks some ideas in your mind, please bring them forward, and I'll be adding to this even tomorrow morning.