I
used to think, as many of you probably do, that the Lamentations of Jeremiah was
one of the most depressing books of the Bible.
If that is how you feel, think again.
Hidden in the middle of the third chapter is the following passage:
21
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
22
It
is of the Lord’s
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
32 But
though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies.
36 To
subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
Jeremiah uses a few tropes in this
passage, including metonymy (bear
the yolk in his youth) and synecdoche (lift
up our heart with our hands) that add eloquence and clarity to the
passage. However, the most powerful
technique that Jeremiah utilizes is much larger in scale.
Compared to the drawn out cries of
mourning that constitute the rest of the book, this passage just a small blip
of light drowning in a sea of sorrow, but its position in the text completely
changes the meaning of the whole book.
You see, Hebrew writers often used a particular kind of arraignment that involved placing the
point that they wanted to emphasize in the middle of a passage. The above verses are almost in almost the exact middle of Lamentations. By giving a
message of peace in the middle of a book of gloom and despair, Jeremiah is
telling us that hope in God should have a more important place in our hearts
than lamentation. If Jeremiah had only given a message of
hope and joy, the grief-torn Jews, who had just been conquered by Babylon, may
not have bought into it. But by incasing
his testimony of Christ's triumph inside of a lamentation so vivid that it
rivaled that of the Jews themselves, Jeremiah could more powerfully express
reality, touch the hearts of his audience, and cover two very important yet
highly contrasting sides of a very emotional issue.
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Gavin, nicely done digging out this golden kernel within the book of Lamentations. The arrangement is obviously quite intentional, for Jeremiah understood his audience and the kairos. If he had come in hot with a sermon about optimism and hope he would have estranged many listeners. However, by encasing his conviction in mourning, his audience could access the sermon in a more appealing way. Awesome work!
ReplyDeleteI feel like that is a very common tactic of public speakers. It's the same principle as sugar-coating a less palatable argument to make it go down easier. You make sure that the people are ready to hear what you have to say, and then say it. Good job finding this in Lamentations!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! It's kind of symbolic that it's in the middle of it all, as if at the toughest point the encouragement and hope was needed to push on to the end of the tunnel. Nice find.
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