Sun.’s Devo - The Gospel

Read: Lamentations 1:1-2:19; Philemon 1:1-25; Psalm 101:1-8: Proverbs 26:20
Lamentations is just sad and depressing. It begins while Josiah is dying according to 2 Chronicles 35:25. Josiah was such a good king but his death was more than his own death; it signified the death of the nation. Judah went quickly downhill after that and was judged for their sins. Lamentation is an interestingly written elegy penned by Jeremiah who did many prophetic acts to give pictures of what was happening in the nation. In Lamentations there are five elegies (chapters) which are poems or songs of lament or praise for the dead. All of Lamentations are acrostic which means they are in a particular order. The first three elegies consist of three to four lines each beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. (There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.)
According to Jameison, Faust and Brown Commentary, in three instances (La 2:16, 17; 3:46-51; 4:16, 17) two letters are transposed. In the third Elegy, each line of the three forming every stanza begins with the same letter. The stanzas in the fourth and fifth Elegies consist of two lines each. The fifth Elegy, though having twenty-two stanzas (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet), just as the first four, yet is not alphabetical; and its lines are shorter than those of the others, which are longer than are found in other Hebrew poems, and contain twelve syllables, marked by a cæsura about the middle, dividing them into two somewhat unequal parts. The alphabetical arrangement was adopted originally to assist the memory. GROTIUS thinks the reason for the inversion of two of the Hebrew letters in La 2:16, 17; 3:46-51; 4:16, 17, is that the Chaldeans, like the Arabians, used a different order from the Hebrews; in the first Elegy, Jeremiah speaks as a Hebrew, in the following ones, as one subject to the Chaldeans.
This might seem confusing but I am in awe of the wonder of God and his wisdom and knowledge. Today’s Lamentation tells of the destruction of Babylon and Israel. Sin is being judged and there is no stopping God’s judgment; it has to be done.
Paul’s letter to Philemon is one to a true friend and fellow minister in the faith. Paul admonishes his work and faith. He sends his letter by the hand of Onesimus. Onesimus had once been Philemon’s slave but had stolen from him and fled to Rome. There he was converted to Christ through Paul’s ministry and become a spiritual son and attendant to Paul while he was in prison. Paul sends him back to Philemon and offers to pay for what Onesimus stole from him. He is not sending him back as a slave but as a dear brother. Is that not the picture of what happens when we become a Christian? We were slaves to sin and disobedient to Christ, but when we meet Christ as our savior we are restored as a member of God’s family.
Lord, thank you for salvation. You are truly a matrix of wisdom and knowledge. There is nothing too difficult for you!