Grateful Groanings

October 31 Lamentations 4:1-5:22

Grateful Groanings

As you read this message today, it is Halloween, a day where people celebrate the “dead bones, skeletons, and everything scary walking down the streets of a town to beg for treats.”

It’s just for fun, we say!

The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. The day was known as “All Hallows’ Eve”.

Anton LaVey, the founder of the church of Satan said, “I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween.”

This is a tricky day for Christians. Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel founder said this, “The truth often lies between two extremes.”

I have seen Christian people make Halloween a legalistic fighting ground, and that was the “hill they chose to die on”. They judged everyone that ever went to a school party or dressed up. On the other hand, there are people that say they are Christians who relish in everything “Scary, gory, and of evil origins”.

Today we are looking at the last two laments that deal with the People of God and the Prayers to God, and I think they speak to us right where we are on this very day!

First, this passage reminds us WHY God’s WRATH was poured out on His people. God’s people were to have been the CONSECRATED ones, but even their leaders and priests in the Temple DEFILED the things of God.

I think that we need to notice that this was not just a ONE-DAY THING like Halloween. They offered sacrifices to IDOLS all the time. At the same time, we need to wake up and actually understand the power behind this day of evil celebration.

Halloween is the day of the highest praise for the people of Satan in the ENTIRE year. There are more child abductions, killing of animals, and strange happenings going on than at any other time.

Jeremiah is looking in front of him and it looked like a scene out of a horror movie. He saw the reality of sin; we see the Hollywood “distorted” version of destruction. It doesn’t seem real to us, but it is very real to him. Serving the ENEMY OF GOD equals DESTRUCTION!

I know Christian people that want to watch every horror film available, but Jeremiah is warning us about how this destruction came to be. They not only were dulled in their senses against evil but they made alliances with the very nation that God had rescued them from in the first place. Egypt was the place that held them in captivity and they went back to shelter from Babylon.

How often do we head toward something that really we ought to RUN AWAY FROM?

Sometimes we think that something is part of “Our “Freedom” when really it is a hidden part of our “Captivity”.

How close can I walk next to the cliff without falling off?

The people of Jerusalem came to the Temple, but more often than not, in the very next breath, they spent their time, worship, and celebrating the things that led them into captivity.

What does that look like for us today?

We live in a society that has more addictions than ever before, and everyone begins with “partaking”. They “partook” and became callous to the things, words, and warnings of God.

Jeremiah was looking at “Halloween on Steroids” as he looked at the desolate streets of Jerusalem. The witch’s pot of gruel wasn’t a joke to him. Mothers had become so desperate from starvation that they ate their own children. That is the lowest of the low!

The people of God in this chapter are compared to Sodom where immortality ran out of control. They did whatever they wanted to do. It was like Jeffrey Epstein’s “Paedophile Island” without a plane ride to get there…

Perhaps, our problem today is that we don’t believe that it is permissible for a righteous God to be ANGRY or to act against rampant immorality. It is PERMISSIBLE for man to live in DEPRAVITY but not for a HOLY GOD to DEMAND accountability.

Basically, what Jeremiah said in his book of Laments is this, “The LORD is righteous. God did it, and God was right in what He did.” He goes on and says one more thing, “God loved them with an everlasting love, and He brought this upon them because He is righteous.”But LORD, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation. (5:19)

Can you hear the worship rising in Jeremiah’s soul even in the midst of desolation?

Wherever we go and whatever we do on this day and every day after it, may we remember Jeremiah’s Grateful Groanings,

“Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!” (5:21)