God has given us one book that can change the entire direction of our lives, the Bible.

And in this study, journeying through scriptures, we will take a brief big-picture look at every book of the Bible, tracing God's unfolding story

from Genesis to Revelation. Our prayer is that this journey will stir your heart to open God's

word daily. Let's join Scott Pauli for today's study.

The old radio commentator Paul Harvey could tell a story like no one could tell a story. And then right in the middle of it, he would say, and now for the rest of the story.

Well, the book we've come to today is just that.

It's the rest of the story.

Most recently we journeyed through Jeremiah,

and now we're journeying through Lamentations. What is Lamentations? Well, many people have suggested

that Lamentations is simply an addendum to the previous book, and I think that's a very apt observation

because it picks up exactly where Jeremiah chapter 52 left off.

In fact, both books have the fall of Jerusalem as their main event.

In Jeremiah chapter 52, we're left in the smoldering ruins, in the ashes of the city of Jerusalem.

Someone said, the saddest words of tongue or pen, are these four, it might have been.

Perhaps sadder yet, are these words it was.

You see, there was a day that the blessing and glory and favor of God rested on Jerusalem.

And now, not only is that removed, Jerusalem is removed.

This is a picture of what sin does. If Jeremiah was a book of warning,

then Lamentations is a book of mourning. The prophet Jeremiah looked forward to the city of Jerusalem

being destroyed in his first prophecy. He was looking ahead to it, but in the book of Lamentations,

he's looking back to it. It is literally book of Lamentations, he's looking back to it.

It is literally a funeral dirge.

...