Sparks of hope
Series: Like you and me | Bible text: Lamentations 3:25
God is good. His goodness is a gift and does not have to be earned. But there are moments when God’s goodness remains hidden from us, times when God seems to turn against us. The prophet Jeremiah describes harrowing negative experiences he has with God. But he maintains that there is still a «remnant» of God’s goodness and shows the way in which he «taps into» this remnant.…
It is a word from the book of Lamentations that should occupy us this morning: «Good is the Lord to him that hopes in him, to the soul that seeks him.» So we read in Lamentations 3:25. «Good is the Lord to him who hopes in him…» This word could also be called something else. And in our hearts it sometimes sounds different, doesn’t it? For example: «Good is the Lord to him who obeys him…» «Good is the Lord to him who keeps his commandments…» «Good is the Lord to him who is well behaved, who does his will and does no wrong…» That’s what we sometimes think of God, isn’t it? He gives goodness to him and only to him who walks in his ways and does what pleases him. And without realising it, we make God’s goodness dependent on our pious achievements. Often we don’t even realise it, but in this way we make God’s goodness a reward that we have to earn, work hard for.
God is good to him who first earns good by his works. He who does no good has no good to show for it. That is not just a tongue twister. It is something like a basic rule that we normally follow and that we very often apply to God and his actions. God is good to the one who is obedient. This idea is perhaps much deeper in our hearts than we realise. But God is different. His Son, Jesus Christ, says of him: «He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous». (Matthew 5:45). And Luke 6:36 says it like this: «… he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.» No, we cannot and do not have to earn God’s goodness. It is a gift, an undeserved gift that God gives us.
One condition
Well, the word from Lamentations 3 mentions something like a condition that we have to fulfil in order to be able to experience the goodness of God: «Good is the Lord to him that hopes in him, to the soul that seeks him.» God does not throw his goodness at us. But he gives it to us when we reach out to him and trust him.
And perhaps we should consider this anew: it is not our pious achievements with which we can impress God and win him over. Rather, it is our trust that touches his heart. Jesus, the Son of God, was not so much impressed by the good works that pious people presented to him. It was rather the trust of the people that moved him to action:
- «Your faith has helped you», he says to the blind man in Jericho who calls for him and asks him to heal him (Mark 10:52).
- «Your faith has helped you», he says to the sinner who ventures into the Pharisee’s house, wets the Lord Jesus» feet there with her tears, dries them with her hair and then anoints them with precious anointing oil (Luke 7:50).
- «Your faith has helped you», he says to the leper who comes back and thanks him for the gift of healing (Luke 17:19).
It is faith that the Lord Jesus seeks from us. It is the trust of the people that touches his heart. And this is not something new in the New Testament. We already find this in some places in the Old Testament:
- «Abram believed the Lord, and this he counted to him for righteousness.» So we read at the very beginning of the Bible (Genesis 15:6).
- In Psalm 32:10 David confesses: «Whoever hopes in the Lord, goodness will embrace him.»
- And Psalm 33:18 says: «Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon all who fear Him, who hope in His goodness.»
«Samples» from Lamentations
Great, when you experience it like that, you might say now. It’s easy to talk like that when you experience God’s goodness concretely and can look back on good, positive experiences with him. It is not so terribly difficult to sing about the goodness of God when you experience it tangibly. But this was not the case with Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations 3. He did not experience the goodness of God at all. On the contrary, he got to know his God from a side that frightens us. The chapter in which our word is found is one of the most bitter lamentations we find in the whole Bible. The prophet describes experiences with God that have nothing to do with kindness. He reproaches him with things that are hair-raising:
- «He has led me and let me go into darkness and not into light». (V.2). Our firm conviction is that God leads out of darkness into light, isn’t it? Jeremiah experiences the complete opposite: «He has let me go into darkness and not into light.»
- «He has turned his hand against me and raises it against me day by day». (V.3). Jeremiah feels nothing of the benevolent hand of God that is open to bless him. Oh no! He experiences God stretching out his hand against him – and not just once, but every day anew!
- «He has made my flesh and skin old and broken my bones». (V.4). There is nothing of strengthening and refreshment that we would expect from a loving God. Jeremiah does not experience God as the loving Father who raises him up and refreshes him. Rather, he experiences him as the one who beats him to the ground.
- «He locked me in all around…» (V.5).
«He has walled me in that I cannot get out, and put me in hard bonds» (V.7). We know and preach God as the one who breaks chains and frees the bound. Jeremiah experiences the opposite: he experiences God putting him in chains and imprisoning him!
- «Though I cry out and shout, he plugs his ears at my prayer». (V.8). Can you imagine a loving father plugging his ears when his children call out to him? Terrible! Jeremiah experiences God like this!
- «He has walled up my path with ashlars and made my path an aberration». (V.9).
- «He makes me miss the way» (v.11a). We expect God to open doors for us and help us find the right path. Jeremiah complains that God obstructs his paths and lets him go astray.
- «He has satiated me with bitterness and watered me with wormwood». (V.15). Nothing there of «green pastures» and of «fresh water«of which David speaks in the 23rd Psalm.
- «He made me bite pebbles, he pressed me down into ashes». (V16).
These are a few «Samples» from the long list of accusations and bitter reproaches that the prophet hurls at his God in Lamentations 3. And it is not any delusions of the prophet that underlie this lament. Jeremiah experienced his God in this way. Really!
Jeremiah pulls out all the stops
In this context, I remind you of Jeremiah 14 and 15. It is almost unbearable what is written there. I think they are the worst chapters in the whole Bible. Jeremiah passionately intercedes for his people. He wrestles with God in prayer and pleads for his attention and help:
«Oh Lord, if our sins accuse us, help us for your name’s sake! For our disobedience is great, wherewith we have sinned against thee. Thou art the consolation of Israel, and his helper in trouble. Why standest thou as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that tarrieth but for the night? Why do you act like a despondent man and like a hero who cannot help? You are among us, Lord, and we are called by your name; do not leave us! (Jeremiah 14:7–9). Do you know how God responds to the prophet’s plea? He says to him: «You shall not ask mercy for this people. For though they fast, I will not hear their supplications; though they bring burnt offerings and grain offerings, they please me not, but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.» (Jeremiah 14:11–12).
But the prophet keeps at it. He does not let himself be put off: «Lord, we recognise our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. But for thy name’s sake reject us not! Let not the throne of thy glory be mocked; yet remember thy covenant with us, and let it not cease…» (Jeremiah 14:20–22). It is fair to say that Jeremiah pulls out all the stops. He grabs God by his glory. He grabs him by his holy name. He reminds him of the covenant he made with the people. But it is all in vain.
God remains «stubborn». He does not let himself be asked. Jeremiah bites on granite. He finds no heart and no hearing with God and yet he would have every reason to hang up his job and say: «OK, God, it wasn’t my idea to do what I’m doing. You talked me into becoming a prophet. If You’re going to leave me hanging in this ministry, then bye! I will no longer do this to myself, to run into a wall with You with my struggles for this people. They are your people, not mine! If you want to destroy them, then please do so! Your name and your honour are at stake. Do what you want! I’m getting out! I don’t want to have anything more to do with you and this whole story about your people. Forget it! I’m quitting my service!»
Wouldn’t we react in the same way or similarly if we had these experiences with God like Jeremiah had? I no longer do this to myself. I don’t want to have anything more to do with this God who only gives me the cold shoulder in all my searching and questioning and praying and struggling! But Jeremiah takes a different path. Even if he bites into his God’s granite, even if he only encounters resistance, rejection and coldness: Jeremiah searches for traces of God’s goodness. With all the negative experiences he makes: he looks for the «gap» in the compact wall of resistance and rejection that God throws at him. He looks for the «gap«through which he might yet reach the heart of God. And he finds them: «It is the goodness of the Lord that we are not finished», he recognises in all the incomprehensible and distressful things he experiences with his God. «It is the goodness of the Lord that we are not finished…»
The fact that we still exist at all is an indication that there is still something like a remnant of God’s goodness. The fact that we still exist is a sign that God is not quite finished with us after all, that there is still a little spark of hope, that perhaps His path with us still continues… There is still a residue of God’s mercy and goodness. I just have to find the way to tap into that residue. And then the prophet finds that way. He finds the door through which he can tap into this «residual goodness».» God achieved. It is called Hope. It is simply a matter of hoping, waiting, waiting and trusting: «Good is the Lord to him that hopes in him, to the soul that seeks him.» Or as Luther translates this passage in Lamentations 3:25: «For the Lord is kind to him that waiteth for him, and to the man that asketh after him.»
I don’t know if Jeremiah knew the passages in the Bible’s prayer book that talk about hoping and waiting for God. But he obviously suspected: Hoping in God is the way we find his goodness. Hoping in God is the way we can move his loving Father heart. Hope is the spark that rekindles the fire of God’s love for us. In the abundance of bitterest experiences he has with his God, he finds the little door through which he can reach the kind Father heart of God: Hope! «Good is the Lord to him that hopes in him, to the soul that seeks him.» Jeremiah recognises:
- If I keep on hoping and waiting,
- if I keep on searching and waiting for God’s help,
- if I keep trusting in his care and love,
- then God cannot possibly hear past my prayers,
- then he will give up his resistance and open his closed hand again.
Hope is the spark…
…that sets the heart of God, which is nevertheless full of love for us humans, in motion. Hope is the power that breaks open the closed heart of God so that his goodness and love can flow again. Dear worshippers, perhaps you also suffer from the fact that God keeps himself hidden, that he does not fulfil the promises of his word, that he does not seem to care about your concerns, that he does not answer your prayers and pleas and simply lets you stew in all that is distressing to you and that you cannot understand. I do not know why he does this. But I do know where the little door is through which we can reach his heart. The testimony of the prophet Jeremiah shows us the way. It encourages us to keep praying and believing, not to give up hope, to wait for God, to wait for him, to seek him and not let go until he lets himself be found.
We want to do it because: «Good is the Lord to him that hopes in him, to the soul that seeks him.»
