Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;
Look, and see our reproach! (5:21).

Oh the state they are in. And as we wrap up this book “that consists solely of laments,” the dire picture of deprivation, destitution, dearth, and disgrace is descriptively detailed. And beneath their extreme affliction and oppression, beneath every lament, their regret of living life apart from Him is unearthed. And what they were now experiencing was exactly what they had desired. And God had granted their request to live life as their own master, a life devoid of His rule and reign; and now they were reaping the consequences.

And the writer depicts the details of buying into their own pride, alongside the enemy’s lies, while profusely expressing their buyer’s remorse over all that has befallen them, asking God to remember it all. Oh, but God indeed remembered.

“I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth,
The love of your betrothals,
Your following after Me in the wilderness,
Through a land not sown.
³ “Israel was holy to the Lord,
The first of His harvest…
⁷ “I brought you into the fruitful land
To eat its fruit and its good things.
But you came and defiled My land,
And My inheritance you made an abomination,” (Jeremiah 2:2-3, 7).

And now, it was really God Who was calling on them to remember. For In Every Reproach, if they would but listen, God would Rouse Remembrance of what only He can give, what only He can do; In Every Reproach, He would Rouse Remembrance of what He had called them to be, as in their days of old, Rousing Remembrance that if they had only obeyed, they would not have been moved out from His protection and provision to find themselves in this place of Reproach, so utterly desperate for His restoration and renewal.

Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored;
Renew our days as of old, (5:21).

In Every Reproach, He Rouses Remembrance of His Faithful and Unchanging, Unceasing, Unfailing Love as Our Unshakeable Stronghold Who provides the Surety of His Shadow, offering His children the opportunity to Remember, Repent and Return.

Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; (Revelation 2:5).

Consider Him Who Rouses Remembrance In Every Reproach

As we read the writer’s lamentations of the current condition of his nation, In Every Reproach entailing deprivation, destitution, dearth, and disgrace, if we will turn our ears to listen and our eyes to see, we too will hear and see Him Who Rouses Remembrance in Every Reproach.

In Every Reproach…

• …He Rouses Remembrance that in Him we have a sure inheritance:
  Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
  Our houses to aliens, (5:2).
  • The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
    You support my lot.
    ⁶ The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
    Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me, (Psalm 16:5-6).
    • Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:3-4).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that He is our Father through Whom we exist:
  We have become orphans without a father… (5:3).
  • But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
    We are the clay, and You our potter;
    And all of us are the work of Your hand, (Isaiah 64:8).
    • yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him, (1 Corinthians 8:6).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that we are betrothed to Him in righteousness forever:
  …Our mothers are like widows. (5:3).
  • “I will betroth you to Me forever;
    Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
    In lovingkindness and in compassion,
    ²⁰ And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
    Then you will know the Lord,” (Hosea 2:19-20).
    • “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. ⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” ⁸ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints, (Revelation 19:6-8).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that He is the Living Water, freely offered, to satisfy our every need:
  We have to pay for our drinking water,
  Our wood comes to us at a price. (5:4).
  • “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
    And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
    Come, buy wine and milk
    Without money and without cost.
    ² “Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
    And your wages for what does not satisfy?
    Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
    And delight yourself in abundance, (Isaiah 55:1-2).
    • Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water,’” (John 7:37-38).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that He is our Rest:
  Our pursuers are at our necks;
  We are worn out, there is no rest for us. (5:5).
  • I am at rest in God alone;
    my salvation comes from Him, (Psalm 62:1 HCSB).
    • “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” (Matthew 11:28-30).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that He is the Bread of Life:
  We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. (5:6).
  • He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, (Deuteronomy 8:3).

• • • “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh,” (John 6:51).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that He alone can set us Free:
  Slaves rule over us…(5:8).
  • Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
    the LORD answered me and set me free, (Psalm 118:5 ESV).
    • “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed,” (John 8:36).

• …He Rouses Remembrance that He alone is our Deliverer:
  …There is no one to deliver us from their hand, (5:8).
  • The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
    My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
    My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, (Psalm 18:2).
    • He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, (Colossians 1:13-14 ESV).

How do we respond to Him Who Rouses Remembrance In Every Reproach?

Remembering that He has preserved history in writing, let us ask Him for a teachable heart, that we would learn from what happened to His chosen people.

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come, (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Oh, that we would be Roused to Remembrance in our times of plenty, that we would live in gratitude for every good and perfect gift.

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow, (James 1:17).

But the truth is, we are so prone to wander, so prone to forget, so prone to go our own way rather than seeking and following after His Will. Let us ask Him to Rouse our Remembrance through what was written for our instruction, that we would not wait until we are in the throes of Reproach, drowning in deprivation, destitution, dearth, and disgrace before we cry out to Him for His restoration and renewal.

Restore us to You, O Lord, that we may be restored;
Renew our days as of old, (5:21).

We live in a world that constantly bombards our mind with deceptions and lies, and the truth is, we need to come to Him and His Word for restoration and renewal each and every day if we are to be enabled to live according to His Will.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, (Romans 12:2).

Today, let’s close out our time in the book of Lamentations asking God to Rouse our Remembrance, not through Reproach but through His Glorious Grace, that we would be Roused to daily Remember Him Who Rouses Remembrance.

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in Your Covenant.

Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, (1 Chronicles 16:15).
And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” (Mark 14:20).

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in all Your Benefits and Blessings.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
³ Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
⁵ Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle, (Psalm 103:2-5).

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in Your Word.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you,” (John 14:26).

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in Your Death.

“This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, (1 Corinthians 11:24-26).

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in who we once were.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins… ¹² remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, (Ephesians 2:1, 12).

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in who we now are in You.

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13).

Lord, please Rouse our Remembrance in You, our First Love. Lord, if anything is hindering our memory, if anything is competing with our relationship with You, please restore and renew us as only You can, that we would remember, repent, and return, with all our heart, to You Who Rouses Our Remembrance.

“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first,” (Revelation 2:4-5).

Let’s Grow Together!