Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we dropped in on the book of Lamentations. No one knows who wrote this book, but most people

throughout history have connected it to the major prophet Jeremiah.

It's a book of poetry written as a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile. So who better to offer up that kind of book than someone known as the Weeping Prophet?

Not only is Jerusalem's destruction the worst thing that has ever happened to the people of Israel

by far, but Jeremiah himself had spent years

warning them about it while suffering the consequences of their unwillingness to listen.

Chapter 1 focuses on the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, aka Zion. The once thriving capital

of Judah has been emptied out. Her enemies rule over her former inhabitants. They've lost everything.

All along, God has been asking them to remember. And now they finally do. But they don't remember

him. They remember the things they used to have and the peace they used to experience.

Verse 7 says, Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wondering all the precious things that were hers from days of old.

Not only did Jerusalem forget what God had done in their past, but they also forget what God has promised for their future.

Anytime we choose sin, we fail to consider the future.

Sin occurs when we live so much in the present that we forget

about the eternal kingdom. Sin is short-sighted. The Israelites are living in nostalgia for a time

when they'd been disobedient to God. They longed for the days when things were easier for them,

but if you recall, those were days when they were sacrificing their children and worshipping idols

at the high places. This is not exactly righteous mourning. There is a way to grieve and mourn to the

glory of God, but so far in lamentations, this isn't it. The author goes on to express all the ways

God has directed this destruction. Chapter 1 tells us that God afflicted them.

He inflicted sorrow. He sent fire. He thwarted their efforts. He weakened them and handed them over to

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