Cave Paintings

Reading: Lamentations 3:21-24

Introduction: Several biblical passages record the terrible siege that took place at Jerusalem in 586BC, when the Babylonian armies surrounded the city for over two years, causing many to starve to death and lose hope. Eventually, the enemy forces were able to break through the city walls and slaughter the inhabitants, burning down the city and its Temple and taking a number of the Israelites off into exile in Babylon for seventy years. See 2 Chronicles 36 and 2 Kings 24 & 25.

A key witness of these terrible events was the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39 & 52) whose warnings had fallen upon deaf ears. Tradition records that around this period, he entered a cave (known as “Jeremiah’s Grotto”) and wrote the book of Lamentations, which vividly describes the sorrow of the prophet. Yet in the midst of the devastation that he saw (see 4:4-10), he was able to write about God’s great faithfulness in Lamentations 3:22-23. What does Jeremiah mean by God’s faithfulness and how should this affect us today?

God’s Immutable Nature

If we watch a movie based on a book, we might ask “Is it faithful to the text?” When someone writes business minutes we might ask “Is it a faithful record?” Theologians speak of “God’s immutability.” This means that He does not change (1 Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17; Hebrews 13:8).

When Jeremiah saw Jerusalem in chaos, he did not change his opinion about God’s good nature. In desperate times, either for the world, the nation, or our own personal lives, we must not lose sight of the truth that God is good and the devil is bad: John 10:10

God’s Covenant Love
Perhaps the greatest source of personal heartbreak and insecurity is to be betrayed or abandoned by a loved one. God’s desired relationship with us is often described in terms of a marriage covenant (e.g. Hosea 1:2; 3:1-5); one that Israel often broke.

Preachers who infer that God will abandon you if you fail Him are in error. He has promised to be with us always: Matthew 28:20; Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5. His faithfulness can even heal the wounds of human rejection (Psalm 27:10) and is often more precious than specific answers to prayer or of understanding His ways in our lives.

God’s Unbreakable Promise
Jeremiah had delivered a prophetic word in chapter 31:31-34 about a new covenant of grace and hope for Israel (quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12). In the next chapter the city is under siege and about to be destroyed by “sword, famine and plague” (32:24), yet Jeremiah’s faith in God’s good plans for the future encourages him to purchase war torn land (32:15).

The reason why God delivers a prophetic word to encourage us about the future is often because our present circumstances are far from this promise being fulfilled!

Conclusion: Consider the very well known Jeremiah 29:11, seeing it in the light of the passages we have studied in Jeremiah. What does this teach us about God’s working in our lives today?