We also need the book of lamentations to understand the rest of the Bible.

So we don't characterize the Christian life is all victory in Jesus, sweetness and light.

Dr. Reed Lessing, author of The Issues that Set are a Book of the Month for January,

the new Concordia Commentary on Lamentations.

The book of Lamentations is a hard stop against such a perversion of the Christian life.

Learn more about the Concordia Commentary on Lamentations at IssuesetC.org. So far in our series on the book of lamentations with Dr. Reed Lessing, we've covered the terrible circumstances that the prophet Jeremiah witnessed and the Old Testament people of God underwent that

brought from them this prophetic lament, these songs, these dirges, these repentance,

and this seeking God's reconciliation. And sooner or later, we have to deal with the dark

ending of the book of lamentations.

Dr. Reed Lessing is Edwin F. and Esther Lash chair of Old Testament Studies.

At Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota, he's author of the issues, etc., a book of the month for January,

the new Concordia commentary on Lamentations.

Let's pick up where we left off yesterday

with Dr. Lessing's answer to my question. How does the book of lamentations address trauma?

The book of lamentations obviously is trauma literature to be anachronistic, right? That's not what

Jeremiah called it or anyone in the Old Testament called it.

But certainly people today that understand and study trauma are going to pick up biblical books like Lamentations

and begin to see what the book is trying to do is to help survivors work through their trauma

so that they aren't not only politically destroyed but spiritually and emotionally destroyed.

So the survivors need to find a way to talk about what happened.

People who study trauma, a lot more than I do.

I've got maybe 10 pages or so on this in my commentary.

...