Reflection Questions: Lamentations 2

For the message, When God Feels Like An Enemy given by Pastor John Ferguson
at New City Church of Calgary on March 19, 2017

These discussion questions are designed primarily to help you apply the message from the Scriptures
by helping you think through application to your personal life, your church life, and your citys life.
You can use these by yourself for reflection, or with your family or small group for discussion.
To review the sermon, go to NewCityChurch.ca/sermons

INTRODUCTION

Pray. Take a moment to pray asking God to guide you in reflecting upon the Scripture text.

Read the Scripture text: Lamentations 2

A summary of the sermon: The Poet laments over the total destruction of Jerusalem which he attributes not simply to
Babylon, but to God who has become like an enemy (2:5). The Poet weeps (2:11) and asks the question of Jerusalem,
Who can heal you? (2:13). He urges the city personified as a Lady to cry out to God. After all, where else can she turn.
Finally, we hear Lady Jerusalem cry out, but her cry is filled with complaint and even accusation (2:20-22). We are left with
her uncomfortable questions hanging in the air.

Key Quotes:

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace, But how patient should God be? The day of reckoning must come, not because
God is eager to pull the trigger, but because every day of patience in a world of violence means more violence and
every postponement of vindication means letting insult accompany injury. Gods patience is costly, not simply for
God, but for the innocent.

Christopher Wright,The Message of Lamentations, For forty years [Jeremiah] had painted in advance and in detail the
very scenes described in this chapter (to his own weeping agony in doing so) for the purpose of urging Judah to take
a different path and avoid such a fate. The point is: Lamentations 2 need not have happened.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary
act, a rebellious act where we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything.

John Stott, I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one
worship a God who was immune to it. I turn to that lonely, twisted figure on the cross, nails through his hands and feet,
back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged into God
forsaken darkness. That is the God for me. He set aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood,
tears and death.

Bottom Line:

Wright, It is a standard part of the genre of lament to cry out to God: God, this suffering is intolerable! This evil is an
atrocious, violent offence against your whole created order! Why do you allow it? Why do you inflict it? God has broad
enough shoulders to cry on and a big enough chest to beat against. God even provides words in his Scriptures
to permit us, indeed to encourage us, to do so.

QUESTIONS

1. How does this text speaks into our lives?

What grabs your attention in this text? What do you see and hear that you find noteworthy.

How does this text help you to find your voice when life doesnt make sense? In other words, how would you
describe the permission this text gives us?

How does this text help us to understand that Gods shoulders are broad enough to cry on, and his chest big
enough to beat against, as Christopher Wright says above.
 How does this text help me to understand the good news of Jesus? (Cf. the John Stott quote above).

2. How does this text speak to us as a church community.

Read the following passage from 1 Peter 2:9-10, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light.

What kind of community is this text calling us to become for the sake of the world? In other words, how does this
text form our missional identity to live out and proclaim the gospel of Jesus?

What parallels do you see between the mission of Israel and the mission of the church?

3. How does this text speak to our city?

What questions do you think people in our city would ask of this text?

How does this text challenge the thinking of our city?

How does this text critique our citys way of life? Its idols?

CONCLUSION QUESTION

What is the one thing you want to take away from this study to remember or to make a change in your life?

PRAYER

What are some ways you can turn what you are learning into prayer? List them as bullet points.

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