Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
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The Questions
1) How can I wait quietly for the Lord when I am desperate for help?
2) What does it mean that “the Lord is my portion?”
3) Why should God’s love and mercy give me hope?
Lamentations 3:21-26
Yet I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for his mercies never end.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
24 I say, “The Lord is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the person who seeks him.
26 It is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord.
Original Intent
1) How can I wait quietly for the Lord when I am desperate for help?
The original Hebrew title of the book of Lamentations, ekah, means Alas! But, according to John McArthur, “rabbis began early to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations.” The author, Jeremiah, weeps for the calamity that God’s people have brought upon themselves because of their love affair with sin. Even in this tragic time, though, the Lord brings hope. Charles Swindoll notes, “at the center of this lament over the effects of sin in the world, sit a few verses devoted to hope in the Lord (Lamentations 3:22–25). This statement of faith standing strong in the midst of surrounding darkness shines as a beacon to all those suffering under the consequences of their own sin and disobedience.” Jeremiah determines to wait quietly for the Lord’s salvation. According to Ellicott’s Commentary, waiting quietly means “wait in silence: i.e. abstain from murmurs and complaints.” Jeremiah understands that waiting on God without complaining brings him closer to His rescue. Matthew Henry notes that quietly waiting is “not quarrelling with God nor making ourselves uneasy, but acquiescing in the divine disposals.” Quietly waiting on God is yielding to His will and trusting He is in control, even when we don’t understand His plans. It is only possible if we love and trust God and acknowledge that His plans for us are for our good, even if it’s a “good” we don’t yet understand. God told Israel in Jeremiah 29:11 that His plans for them included a hope and a future. Likewise, He promises us in Romans 8:28 that He is working all things out for our good. God promises He has destined true believers for eternal salvation and not for wrath in 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10. We can wait quietly for God’s help, even when we are in distress, because we trust His plan for us.
2) What does it mean that “the Lord is my portion?”
The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah at a time when the great city of Jerusalem was devastated by the Babylonian invasion of 586 B.C. The book is full of Jeremiah’s descriptions of the pain and desolation around him, but it also contains the hope Jeremiah finds in God. That hope was found in Jeremiah recognizing God as his portion and satisfaction. Author David Guzik points out, “Jeremiah found the key to satisfaction—finding one’s portion in the LORD. Whatever measure he was to receive, whatever inheritance, whatever future, it would all be found in Yahweh.” Having the Lord as our portion means recognizing God as our ultimate source for every need. Bible commentator John Gill says this about the Lord as our portion: ”All he [God] is, and has, is theirs; they are heirs of him, and shall enjoy him forever, and therefore shall not be consumed; he is a portion large and full, inexpressibly rich and great, a soul satisfying one, and will last forever.” Matthew Henry, another theologian, states, “It is our duty to make God the portion of our souls, and then to make use of him as our portion and to take the comfort of it in the midst of our lamentations.” Recognizing the Lord as our portion is important if we are to make it through hardships in life. With the Lord as our portion, we can always find comfort and hope.
3) Why should God’s love and mercy give me hope?
Some scholars find in the Jeremiah of Lamentations a picture of Christ. Author Ray Stedman notes, “As you read through this book, you will find many foreshadowings of our Lord weeping over the city of Jerusalem.” Author John J. Parsons points out that “in many profound ways, Jeremiah pre-figured the prophetic ministry of Yeshua (Jesus).” Jeremiah also prophesies and previews some of Christ’s main teachings, including salvation and our hope in His unfailing love and endless mercy. Jeremiah reminds himself that the Lord is always loving and always merciful, which gives him hope knowing God would be with him and help him in the terrible situation the Jewish people were in after the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah also prophesies about Jesus’ coming, when God will make a new covenant with His people. God will forgive their sins and write His law in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Author Tim Mackie asserts that Jesus’s life and death announced “the dawn of Jeremiah’s “new covenant.” Jesus would die for the sins of his own people, and simultaneously bring about that great act of forgiveness anticipated by Jeremiah.” How amazing to see God’s plan for a Savior revealed to His people to give them hope even in their darkest days. His love and mercy are truly remarkable!
Everyday Application
1) How can I wait quietly for the Lord when I am desperate for help?
Several years ago, I experienced unexplained vertigo. I was anxious, wondering how I would care for my family if I couldn’t even stand without the room spinning. I needed to get better fast, not wait on the Lord. Yet waiting is what Jeremiah recommends in Lamentations 3:26 where he proclaims, “It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” Waiting did not seem good to me. But since I was dizzy just lying in bed, there wasn’t much else to do but call on God and wait for His intervention. I began to understand Andrew Murray’s assertion that God “will never disappoint us. In waiting on Him we shall find rest and joy and strength, and the supply of every need.” Quietly waiting on God helped me determine that a prescribed medication was the cause of my vertigo, and I quickly improved. But waiting on God also taught me I can trust Him with everything. God showed me that is purpose in the waiting. Andrew Murray says, “The waiting is to teach us our absolute dependence on God’s mighty working, and to make us in perfect patience place ourselves at His disposal.” While I waited, my panic abated, and I recognized God was in control and watching over me. It is not easy to wait when we want the answer NOW, but sometimes it is part of God’s plan. In Psalm 33:20, David resolves to “wait for the Lord; He is our help and shield.” In Micah 7:7, Micah vows he “will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” Once I calmed down and waited patiently for the Lord, He came to my rescue and became my Refuge.
2) What does it mean that “the Lord is my portion?”
I grew up spending summers with my sister and seven cousins at my grandma’s house. We had lots of fun, but there were inevitable squabbles, usually over who got to drink out of the favorite green cup or who got the biggest slice of apple pie. We each wanted ours to be the biggest and the best. I think of that mindset when I consider the idea of the Lord as my portion. If I want the best for my life, it is most definitely found in the Lord. Charles Spurgeon called God’s portion the “infinite possession.” He said, “It is better to have our good God than all the goods in the world: it is better to have God for our all than to have all and be without him.” To have the Lord as my portion is to have the hope of eternal salvation and the hope of present refuge in God (Psalm 142:5). To have the Lord as my portion is to have blessings found only in Christ and hope for an eternal future (Psalm 16:5). When I have God, even when I am weak, He makes me strong (Psalm 73:26). When you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior from your sin, He becomes your portion. He takes all of you and gives you all of Him; a trade that works infinitely in your favor! When God is the Lord of your life, He promises to “supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). In Matthew 7:8, God promises “everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” To have the Lord as your portion is to have all that you need . . . the infinite possession indeed!
3) Why should God’s love and mercy give me hope?
In Lamentations 3:21-22, Jeremiah says he has reason to hope because he is reminded of God’s faithful love and his never ending mercies. We can find hope in God’s love and mercy, too. Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!” God, through His grace, extends salvation to us through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, who took our sins on the cross so we could be forgiven and have eternal life if we believe in Him. When we have Christ in our lives, we have great hope. 1 Peter 1:3 tells us God has caused us to be “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We have the hope of life eternal with Jesus, but we also have the hope of friendship with God while we are living this life here on earth. Jesus tells us in John 15:14-15, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.” This communion with God is a wonderful way God provides hope to His children!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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