SESSION 3: Sorrow Served
The Bible, broadly speaking, has three different types of poems:
________________________
________________________
________________________
Lamentations operates largely within ____________.
Chapters 2 & 4 present three reversals that epitomize the experience during and after the destruction of
Jerusalem.
- Reversal of ____________
❖ 2:6: “He has broken down his booth like a garden, he has destroyed his tabernacle***…"***
❖ 2:9: “Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars."
- Reversal of ____________
❖ 2:7: “The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the
hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; a clamor was raised in the house of the
LORD as on a day of festival.”
- Reversal of ________________________ ________________________
❖ 4:10: “The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they
became their food in the destruction of my people.”
The wrath of God causes disorientation in order to reveal that humans have already made the world
upside down and have chosen to ignore it. God will not ignore it and instead will shove it into our faces.
Lamentations 2 and 4 help us see that God’s ____________ dishes out just desserts for the purpose of
____________ with God’s ways.
Discussion Questions for Reflection:
Why can it be hard to talk about God’s wrath, even though Scripture doesn’t shy away from it?
How does knowing the sins of Jerusalem help you understand the three reversals of
Lamentations?
- What is something in your own life that goes against God’s way that the Spirit is bringing to your
attention?
- What is one way you can better talk about God’s wrath not just as being about judging sin but
also about realigning God’s people and God’s world?
