📖 Utangulizi wa Agano la Kale — Sehemu ya 10: Manabii Wakubwa – Kifungu cha 2 (Yeremia na Maombolezo)📖 Old Testament Survey — Unit 10: The Major Prophets – Part 2 (Jeremiah & Lamentations)

I. Picha ya UjasiriI. A Profile of Courage

Fikiria mhubiri wa siku zetu aliyesimama mimbarini wiki baada ya wiki na kuwaambia watu wake kwamba Mungu hayuko tena upande wao — kwamba mambo yale yale waliyoyapenda zaidi, nchi waliyoijivunia, dini ya starehe waliyoizoea siku zote, sasa yalikuwa chukizo mbele za mbinguni. Fikiria aliendelea kusema hivyo, hata wakati hakuna aliyesikiliza. Fikiria alipigwa hadharani, akatumbukizwa kupitia mlango wa sakafuni ndani ya shimo la matope, akatishwa na wafalme, akaachwa na marafiki. Na fikiria kwamba hatimaye alipojaribu kuacha, hakuweza — kwa sababu, kama alivyosema mwenyewe, neno la Mungu lilikuwa kama moto uliofungwa ndani ya mifupa yake, naye alikuwa amechoka kulizuia.Imagine a preacher in our own day who stood in his pulpit week after week and told his people that God was no longer on their side — that the very things they loved most, the country they were proud of, the comfortable religion they had always known, were now an offense to heaven. Imagine he kept saying it, even when no one listened. Imagine that he was beaten in public, dropped through a trap door into a pit of mud, threatened by kings, abandoned by friends. And imagine that when he finally tried to quit, he could not — because, as he put it, the word of God was like a fire shut up in his bones, and he was weary of holding it in.

Huyo ni kama mtu tunayekutana naye katika kitabu cha Yeremia. Yeye si maarufu kuliko manabii wote, wala hakuwa, katika maisha yake mwenyewe, mwenye mafanikio kuliko wote. Isaya alimwona Masihi kwa utukufu zaidi. Danieli alitazama milki zikiinuka na kuanguka. Lakini kwa ujasiri mtupu, wa kudumu, na wa upweke, Yeremia anasimama peke yake. Alihubiri kwa miaka arobaini (takriban 627–586 K.K.) chini ya wafalme watano — Yosia, Yehoahazi, Yehoyakimu, Yehoyakini, na Sedekia — na hakuwahi hata mara moja kuona uamsho. Taifa alilolipenda liliangamia mbele ya macho yake, naye aliendelea kusema jambo lile lile gumu mpaka mji ukateketea. Hata hivyo vizazi vya baadaye vilimwita labda mkuu kuliko manabii wote. Mara nyingi huitwa tu nabii wa machozi, na jina hilo limedumu kwa miaka elfu mbili.That is something like the man we meet in the book of Jeremiah. He is not the most famous of the prophets, and he was not, in his own lifetime, the most successful. Isaiah saw the Messiah more gloriously. Daniel watched empires rise and fall. But for sheer, grinding, lonely courage, Jeremiah stands by himself. He preached for forty years (c. 627–586 BC) under five kings — Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah — and never once saw a revival. The nation he loved went down in front of his eyes, and he kept on saying the same hard thing until the city burned. And yet later generations called him perhaps the greatest of all the prophets. He is often called simply the weeping prophet, and that title has stuck for two thousand years.

Mimi na wewe tunajaribiwa kupima huduma kwa yale tunayoweza kuona — kwa majengo, kwa idadi, kwa matunda yanayoonekana. Yeremia hatakubali tufanye hivyo. Anasimama kama karipio refu na la uvumilivu kwa yeyote aliyeamua kwamba uaminifu lazima uonekane kama mafanikio.You and I are tempted to measure a ministry by what we can see — by buildings, by numbers, by visible fruit. Jeremiah will not let us. He stands as a long, patient rebuke to anyone who has decided that faithfulness must look like success.

II. Ujumbe wa YeremiaII. The Message of Jeremiah

A. Wito wa Kusitasita (Yeremia 1)A. The Reluctant Call (Jeremiah 1)

Yeremia alikuwa kuhani kijana kutoka kijiji cha Anathothi, maili chache kaskazini mwa Yerusalemu, neno la BWANA lilipomjia kwa mara ya kwanza. Hangeweza kuwa na umri wa zaidi ya miaka kumi na saba au kumi na nane. Neno hilo lilishangaza: "Kabla sijakuumba katika tumbo nalikujua, na kabla hujatoka tumboni nalikutakasa; nimekuweka kuwa nabii wa mataifa" (Yeremia 1:5). Maisha yake yalikuwa mradi wa Mungu kabla hayajawa yake mwenyewe. Ndivyo yalivyo maisha yako pia, ikiwa wewe ni mali ya Kristo.Jeremiah was a young priest from the village of Anathoth, a few miles north of Jerusalem, when the word of the Lord first came to him. He could not have been more than seventeen or eighteen years old. The word was startling: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5). His life had been God's project before his life had been his own. So has yours, if you belong to Christ.

Jibu la kwanza la Yeremia lilikuwa jibu ambalo wengi wetu tungetoa. "Aa, Bwana MUNGU! Tazama, siwezi kusema, kwa maana mimi ni mtoto" (1:6). Alikuwa mdogo mno, hana uzoefu, hana umuhimu. Lakini BWANA aligusa kinywa chake akasema, "Tazama, nimetia maneno yangu kinywani mwako" (1:9). Maono mawili yalithibitisha wito huo. Fimbo ya mlozi — mti unaochanua mapema, mlinzi wa miti — ilimfundisha Yeremia kwamba BWANA hulilinda neno lake ili alitimize. Sufuria inayochemka, iliyoinamia upande wa kusini, ilionya kwamba hukumu ilikuwa karibu kumwagika kutoka kaskazini. Tangu wakati huo maisha ya Yeremia yalikuwa na mwelekeo mmoja tu. Hakuweza mwishowe kukataa, kwa sababu njia ya wajibu daima ndiyo njia ya usalama, na kuendelea kukataa wito wa Mungu ni kupoteza nafsi yako.Jeremiah's first response was the response most of us would give. "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth" (1:6). He was too young, too inexperienced, too unimportant. But the Lord touched his mouth and said, "I have put my words in your mouth" (1:9). Two visions sealed the call. An almond rod — the early-blooming tree, the watchman of the trees — taught Jeremiah that the Lord watches to perform His word. A boiling pot, tilted toward the south, warned that judgment was about to spill out of the north. From that moment Jeremiah's life had only one direction. He could not finally refuse, because the path of duty is always the path of safety, and to go on refusing the call of God is to lose your soul.

B. Mahubiri ya Hukumu na Mafundisho kwa Vitendo (sura 2–29)B. Sermons of Judgment and the Object Lessons (chapters 2–29)

Sehemu kubwa ya Yeremia ni hubiri moja refu lenye uchungu. Nabii analichunguza taifa lake kwa mistari miwili mikali: "Kwa maana watu wangu wametenda maovu mawili; wameniacha mimi, niliye chemchemi ya maji ya uzima, wamejichimbia mabirika, mabirika yavunjikayo, yasiyoweza kuweka maji" (Yeremia 2:13). Angalia picha hiyo. Mungu anatoa kijito safi kisichokoma kutiririka; badala yake watu wanachagua kuchonga matangi yao wenyewe ya kuhifadhia maji mwambani — matangi yanayopasuka na kuvuja na kuwaacha na kiu. Kila kizazi hufanya hivi. Kila moyo hufanya hivi. Tunaibadilisha chemchemi kwa birika, kisha tunashangaa kwa nini tumekauka.The bulk of Jeremiah is one long, anguished sermon. The prophet diagnoses his nation in two sharp lines: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Notice the picture. God offers a clear stream that never stops flowing; the people choose, instead, to chip out their own holding tanks in the rock — tanks that crack and leak and leave them thirsty. Every generation does this. Every heart does this. We trade the fountain for the cistern, and then we wonder why we are dry.

Yeremia alihubiri Hubiri maarufu la Hekaluni (sura ya 7), akisimama langoni mwa nyumba ya BWANA na kuwaambia waabudu kwamba hekalu lenyewe halingewaokoa; Mungu hakulihitaji jengo lao. Aliuigiza ujumbe wake kwa mafundisho ya vitendo moja baada ya jingine — mshipi wa kitani ulioharibika, gudulia la udongo lililovunjwa, vikapu viwili vya tini, nira ya mti aliyoivaa shingoni, gombo la chuo lililotupwa ndani ya mto Frati. Lililo maarufu zaidi ni ziara yake nyumbani kwa mfinyanzi katika sura ya 18. Nabii aliona chombo cha udongo kikiharibika juu ya gurudumu; kisha akamtazama mfinyanzi akiukandamiza udongo ulioharibika kuwa donge tena na kuufinyanga upya, "kama ilivyompendeza mfinyanzi kuufanya." Hivyo, BWANA alisema, ndivyo nilivyo karibu kulitendea taifa hili. Na hivyo ndivyo alivyo tayari kuyatendea maisha yoyote yaliyovunjika yatakayokubali kubaki juu ya gurudumu.Jeremiah preached the famous Temple Sermon (chapter 7), standing in the gate of the Lord's house and telling worshipers that the temple itself would not save them; God did not need their building. He acted out his message in object lesson after object lesson — a marred linen sash, a smashed clay jar, two baskets of figs, a wooden yoke worn around his neck, a scroll thrown into the Euphrates. The most famous is the visit to the potter's house in chapter 18. The prophet watched a clay vessel come apart on the wheel; then he watched the potter press the spoiled clay back into a lump and shape it again, "as it seemed good to the potter to do." That, said the Lord, is what I am about to do with this nation. And that is what He is willing to do with any broken life that will stay on the wheel.

Nina jirani — tumwite Bw. Cooper — ambaye ana vifaa vibovu vingi kuliko mtu yeyote niliyewahi kukutana naye. Trekta yake haiwaki kamwe bila betri kuwekwa kwenye chaja. Lori lake hukaa siku nyingi uani. Pampu yake ya kunyunyizia dawa ya magugu inavuja. Lakini Bw. Cooper ana kipaji ambacho sisi wengine hatuna: anaweza kuchukua kifaa chochote chenye kasoro na kukibembeleza mpaka kifanye kazi tena. Analowesha gasketi. Ananyunyizia etha kidogo ndani ya kabureta. Kitu hicho kinakoroma muda wa kutosha kumaliza kazi. Shida ni kwamba si kila mtu anaweza kutumia vifaa vibovu jinsi Bw. Cooper anavyoweza. Mimi nikiviazima, vinakufa hatua chache kabla ya kuvuka mpaka wa shamba lake. Rafiki, Mungu ni Mfanyakazi wa aina inayoweza kutumia vifaa vyenye kasoro — na hilo ni jambo jema sana kwako na kwangu, kwa sababu sisi ndio aina pekee ya vifaa alivyo navyo vya kufanyia kazi.I have a neighbor — call him Mr. Cooper — who has more broken tools than anyone I have ever met. His tractor never starts without a battery on the charger. His truck spends most of its days in the driveway. His weed-sprayer leaks. But Mr. Cooper has a knack the rest of us do not have: he can take any flawed tool and coax it back to life. He soaks the gasket. He sprays a shot of ether into the carburetor. The thing puts along long enough to do a job. The trouble is that not just anybody can use flawed tools the way Mr. Cooper can. I borrow them and they die ten feet from the property line. Friend, God is the kind of Worker who can use flawed tools — and that is a very good thing for you and me, because we are the only kind of tool He has to work with.

Kuna hadithi ya zamani ya mbeba maji huko India aliyebeba mitungi miwili mikubwa, mmoja kila upande wa mti uliowekwa begani mwake. Mtungi mmoja ulikuwa mkamilifu; ulifikisha kipimo kamili cha maji mwishoni mwa safari ndefu kutoka mtoni hadi nyumbani kwa bwana wake. Mtungi mwingine ulikuwa na ufa, na ulifika ukiwa nusu tu. Baada ya miaka miwili ya kile ulichokiona kuwa kushindwa kwa uchungu, mtungi wenye ufa ulimwomba radhi mbeba maji kwa sababu ya kasoro yake. Mbeba maji akajibu, "Je, umeona kwamba kuna maua upande wako tu wa njia? Hiyo ni kwa sababu nimeijua kasoro yako siku zote, nami nimeitumia. Nilipanda mbegu za maua kando ya upande wako wa njia, na kila siku, tukirudi kutoka mtoni, umezimwagilia. Kwa miaka miwili nimechuma maua haya kupamba meza ya bwana wangu. Kama usingekuwa jinsi ulivyo, bwana wangu asingekuwa na uzuri huu wa kupamba nyumba yake." Kila mmoja wetu ni mtungi wenye ufa. Kila mmoja wetu ana kasoro. Mfinyanzi Mkuu haioni haya kwa sababu yake. Anaitumia. Anapanda maua kando ya njia ya kila maisha yatakayomruhusu kuyabeba.There is an old story of a water-bearer in India who carried two large pots, one on each end of a pole across his shoulders. One pot was perfect; it delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house. The other pot was cracked, and arrived only half full. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, the cracked pot apologized to the bearer for its flaw. The bearer answered, "Did you notice that there are flowers only on your side of the path? That is because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds along your side of the path, and every day, while we walked back from the stream, you watered them. For two years I have picked these flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, my master would not have this beauty to grace his house." Each of us is a cracked pot. Each of us has a flaw. The Master Potter is not embarrassed by it. He uses it. He plants flowers along the path of every life that will let Him carry it.

C. Kitabu cha Faraja na Agano Jipya (sura 30–33)C. The Book of Comfort and the New Covenant (chapters 30–33)

Katikati kabisa ya kitabu hiki cha giza, Yeremia alipokuwa amekaa katika chumba cha gereza, BWANA alifungua mbingu juu ya kichwa chake. Sura 30–33 zinaitwa Kitabu cha Faraja, nazo ni kama dirisha la nuru lililokatwa katika ukuta mweusi. Uhamisho hautakuwa neno la mwisho. Mungu atawakusanya watu wake waliotawanyika. Nchi itapandwa upya. Na — la ajabu kuliko yote — Mungu atafanya Agano Jipya na watu wake: "nitatia sheria yangu ndani yao, na katika mioyo yao nitaiandika; nami nitakuwa Mungu wao, nao watakuwa watu wangu… kwa maana nitausamehe uovu wao, wala dhambi yao sitaikumbuka tena" (Yeremia 31:33–34).In the very middle of this dark book, while Jeremiah was sitting in a prison cell, the Lord opened heaven over his head. Chapters 30–33 are called the Book of Comfort, and they are like a window of light cut into a black wall. The captivity will not be the last word. God will gather His scattered people. The land will be replanted. And — most wonderful of all — God will make a New Covenant with His people: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people… I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:33–34).

Ni mojawapo ya vilele vikuu vya Agano la Kale. Mwandishi wa Waebrania ananukuu kifungu hicho chote kuthibitisha kwamba Kristo ameshalizindua agano hili (Waebrania 8:8–12). Usiku ule aliposalitiwa, Yesu alipokiinua kikombe akasema "hii ndiyo damu yangu ya agano jipya," alikuwa akirudi nyuma miaka mia sita na kuweka mkono wake juu ya Yeremia 31. Kila tunapokuja kwenye Meza ya Bwana, tunakunywa kutoka katika ahadi iliyotolewa kwanza kwa mfungwa aliyevunjika moyo. Agano hilo lilitiwa sahihi kwa damu — damu yake — na kuandikwa tarehe ya usiku uliotangulia msalaba. Yeremia pia alitabiri kwamba uhamisho ungedumu miaka sabini (Yeremia 25:11) — idadi ile ile ambayo Danieli aliisoma baadaye katika uhamisho wake mwenyewe (Danieli 9:2). Neno la Mungu halikosei hata kwa mwaka mmoja.It is one of the great peaks of the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews quotes the entire passage to prove that Christ has already inaugurated this covenant (Hebrews 8:8–12). On the night of His betrayal, when Jesus lifted the cup and said "this is my blood of the new covenant," He was reaching back six hundred years and laying His hand on Jeremiah 31. Every time we come to the Lord's Table, we are drinking from a promise first given to a broken prisoner. The covenant was signed in blood — His blood — and dated on the night before the cross. Jeremiah also predicted that the captivity would last seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11) — the exact number Daniel later read in his own exile (Daniel 9:2). God's word does not miss by a year.

D. Kuanguka kwa Yerusalemu na Siku za Mwisho za Nabii (sura 34–52)D. The Fall of Jerusalem and the Last Days of the Prophet (chapters 34–52)

Sura za mwisho zinasimulia habari ambayo Yeremia alikuwa akiionya kwa miaka arobaini. Nebukadneza anauzingira mji. Kuta zinaanguka. Hekalu la Sulemani linateketezwa. Watu wanaburutwa wakiwa na minyororo kuelekea Babeli. Mabaki machache wanakimbilia kusini hadi Misri, kinyume na neno la wazi la nabii, nao wanamchukua Yeremia na mwandishi wake mwaminifu Baruku pamoja nao. Hata huko, katika nchi ya kigeni, nabii yule mzee anaendelea kusema. Kitabu kinaishia bila gwaride la ushindi — ila kwa uaminifu wa kimya na wa ukaidi wa mtu ambaye hakuacha kusema yale BWANA aliyomwambia aseme. Hakuna habari ya kifo chake. Anamaliza tu mwendo wake.The closing chapters tell the story Jeremiah had been warning about for forty years. Nebuchadnezzar besieges the city. The walls come down. The temple of Solomon is burned. The people are dragged in chains toward Babylon. A small remnant flees south to Egypt, against the prophet's clear word, and they take Jeremiah and his faithful scribe Baruch with them. Even there, in a foreign land, the old prophet keeps speaking. The book ends without a victory parade — only with the quiet, stubborn faithfulness of a man who would not stop saying what the Lord had told him to say. There is no biography of his death. He simply finishes his course.

Ni muda gani umepita tangu ulipomlilia rafiki aliye mbali na Mungu? Ni muda gani tangu uliposema neno gumu kwa upendo kwa sababu mtu uliyemjali alikuwa akitembea kuelekea hukumu? Yeremia anatufundisha kwamba huduma ya kweli humgharimu mjumbe kitu fulani, na kwamba imani isiyo na machozi kwa kawaida ni imani isiyo na matunda.How long has it been since you wept over a friend who is far from God? How long since you spoke a hard word in love because someone you cared about was walking toward judgment? Jeremiah teaches us that real ministry costs the messenger something, and that a tearless faith is usually a fruitless one.

III. Maombolezo: Tiba ya TaabuIII. Lamentations: The Therapy of Trouble

Mapokeo yanatuambia kwamba baada ya Yerusalemu kuanguka, Yeremia alipanda kilima nje ya mji uliokuwa ukifuka moshi na kuketi pale peke yake. Alichokiandika juu ya kilima kile kikawa kitabu cha Maombolezo — sura tano fupi za ushairi ambazo zimeitwa ukuta wa kuomboleza wa Biblia. Ni kitabu kidogo, kurasa tano tu katika Biblia nyingi, na wengi wetu tunakipita haraka. Hatupaswi kufanya hivyo. Kuna majira katika kila maisha ambapo Maombolezo ndicho kitabu pekee katika Maandiko kinachojua tunavyojisikia.Tradition tells us that after Jerusalem fell, Jeremiah climbed a hillside outside the smoking city and sat there alone. What he wrote on that hill became the book of Lamentations — five short chapters of poetry that have been called the wailing wall of the Bible. It is a small book, barely five pages in most Bibles, and most of us hurry past it. We should not. There are seasons in every life when Lamentations is the only book in Scripture that knows how we feel.

Angalia kwanza muundo wake, kwa sababu huzuni katika kitabu hiki imepangwa kwa uangalifu. Sura 1, 2, na 4 kila moja ni shairi la akrostiki (la kialfabeti) lenye mistari ishirini na miwili — mstari mmoja kwa kila herufi ya alfabeti ya Kiebrania, kuanzia aleph hadi tau, kuanzia A hadi Z. Sura ya 3, iliyo ndefu kuliko zote, ina mistari sitini na sita iliyopangwa katika makundi ishirini na mawili ya mistari mitatu, mistari mitatu kwa kila herufi ya Kiebrania. Sura ya 5 ina mistari ile ile ishirini na miwili lakini bila mpangilio wa akrostiki. Unaona, hata huzuni imepangwa kwa utaratibu. Hata machozi yanaweza kumiminwa ndani ya chombo. Yeremia anatuonyesha kwamba maombolezo si kupoteza imani; ni mojawapo ya lugha za imani.Look first at the structure, because grief in this book has been carefully shaped. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 are each acrostic poems of twenty-two verses — one verse for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from aleph to tau, A to Z. Chapter 3, the longest, is sixty-six verses arranged in twenty-two triads, three verses for each Hebrew letter. Chapter 5 has the same twenty-two verses but without the acrostic pattern. Even sorrow, you see, has been ordered. Even tears can be poured into a vessel. Jeremiah is showing us that lament is not a loss of faith; it is one of the languages of faith.

Kila moja ya sura hizo tano inaandika tabaka tofauti la huzuni, na kila moja inakatizwa na mwanga wa ghafla wa ufahamu — somo ambalo nabii asingejifunza kamwe katika shule nyingine yoyote:Each of the five chapters records a different layer of sorrow, and each one is interrupted by a flash of insight — a lesson the prophet would never have learned in any other school:

• Sura ya 1 — Ukiwa. Nabii anajiona ameachwa kabisa. Kisha linakuja somo: "BWANA ni mwenye haki; kwa maana nimeiasi amri yake" (1:18). Wengi wetu, taabu inapotupata, tunatazama juu na kumshtaki Mungu kimya kimya. Yeremia anatazama juu na kusema: Mungu ni mwenye haki; mimi ndiye niliyeasi. Hiyo ni sentensi ngumu kujifunza, nawe unajifunza tu gizani.Chapter 1 — Desolation. The prophet feels utterly abandoned. Then comes the lesson: "The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word" (1:18). Most of us, when trouble strikes, look up and silently accuse God. Jeremiah looks up and says: God is right; I am the one who rebelled. That is a hard sentence to learn, and you only learn it in the dark.
• Sura ya 2 — Ukamilifu wa hukumu. Yeremia anatazama mbali zaidi ya majeshi ya Babeli hadi kwa BWANA aliye nyuma yao. Somo ni: Mungu ni mwaminifu. Ametenda sawasawa na alivyosema atatenda (2:17). Mungu anapoahidi baraka, huitimiza; Mungu anapoahidi hukumu, huitimiza pia.Chapter 2 — Thoroughness of judgment. Jeremiah looks past the Babylonian armies to the Lord behind them. The lesson: God is faithful. He has done exactly what He said He would do (2:17). When God promises a blessing, He keeps it; when God promises a judgment, He keeps that too.
• Sura ya 3 — Maumivu ya binafsi, na kiini cha kitabu. Kutoka katika giza zito kuliko yote unainuka mstari unaopendwa zaidi katika Maombolezo: "Ni kwa rehema za BWANA kwamba hatukuangamia, kwa sababu rehema zake hazikomi. Ni mpya kila siku asubuhi; uaminifu wako ni mkuu" (3:22–23). Angalia mahali maneno haya yanaposemwa. Hayasemwi asubuhi yenye jua na mtu aliye na starehe. Yanasemwa na nabii aliyeketi katika majivu ya mji wake wa nyumbani. Tumaini la kiwango hicho hufuliwa tu katika matanuru ya moto.Chapter 3 — Personal pain, and the heart of the book. Out of the deepest darkness rises the most-loved verse in Lamentations: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (3:22–23). Notice where this is said. It is not said on a sunny morning by a comfortable man. It is said by a prophet sitting in the ashes of his hometown. Hope of that quality is only ever forged in furnaces.
• Sura ya 4 — Hukumu isiyoaminika. Nabii anaandika maovu ya kutisha yasiyowazika kiasi kwamba hawezi kuyaamini — lakini hata hivyo anayataja. Imani haijifanyi.Chapter 4 — The incredibility of judgment. The prophet records horrors so unthinkable that he can hardly believe them — and yet he names them. Faith does not pretend.
• Sura ya 5 — Kudhalilishwa. Kitabu kinaishia kwa somo la mwisho: "Wewe, BWANA, unadumu milele; kiti chako cha enzi kinadumu kizazi hata kizazi" (5:19). Wanadamu huangamia katika huzuni yao. Mungu haangamii. Na kwa sababu yeye hudumu, masomo anayotufundisha katika huzuni yetu hudumu pamoja naye.Chapter 5 — Humiliation. The book ends with a final lesson: "But thou, O Lord, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations" (5:19). Men perish in their sorrow. God does not. And because He endures, the lessons He teaches in our grief endure with Him.

Hivi ndivyo Maombolezo inavyolifanyia kanisa: inatupa msamiati wa mateso. Kitabu hiki ni onyesho refu, zuri na lenye maumivu kwamba Mungu hutumia taabu kama tiba. Waraka kwa Waebrania unatuambia kwamba hata Bwana wetu Yesu, ingawa alikuwa Mwana, "alijifunza kutii kwa mateso hayo yaliyompata" (Waebrania 5:8). Ikiwa Mwana wa Mungu asiye na dhambi alifundishwa na huzuni, kwa nini mimi na wewe tutarajie kuhitimu bila kupitia masomo yale yale? Maombolezo inakataa kutupa mwisho nadhifu. Maswali yanabaki. Machozi yanaendelea kutiririka. Ili kupata sehemu iliyobaki ya hadithi, lazima ufungue ukurasa na kutazama kuelekea msalaba.This is what Lamentations does for the church: it gives us a vocabulary for suffering. The book is a long, beautiful, painful demonstration that God uses trouble as therapy. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that even our Lord Jesus, though He was a Son, "learned obedience through what he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). If the sinless Son of God was schooled by sorrow, why should you and I expect to graduate without the same coursework? Lamentations refuses to give us a tidy ending. The questions remain. The tears keep falling. To find the rest of the story, you have to turn the page and look toward the cross.

IV. Kristo katika Yeremia na Maombolezo — na Mambo Mawili Tunayoyashika kwa UthabitiIV. Christ in Jeremiah and Lamentations — and the Two Convictions We Carry Away

Huwezi kusoma vitabu hivi viwili kwa makini bila kumwona Yesu karibu kila ukurasa. Katika Yeremia, yeye ndiye Chemchemi ya Maji ya Uzima ambayo watu waliiacha (2:13). Yeye ndiye Tabibu Mkuu anayemfanya Yeremia alie, "Je! Hakuna zeri katika Gileadi? Hakuna tabibu huko?" (8:22). Yeye ndiye Mchungaji Mwema anayelikusanya kundi lililotawanyika (23:4; 31:10). Yeye ndiye Chipukizi la Haki kutoka ukoo wa Daudi (23:5). Yeye ndiye BWANA ni Haki Yetu (23:6) — jina lile lile ambalo hatuwezi kulipata kwa juhudi bali tunalipokea kwa imani tu. Agano Jipya la Yeremia 31 limetiwa sahihi kwa damu yake na kuandikwa tarehe ya usiku uliotangulia msalaba.You cannot read these two books carefully without seeing Jesus on nearly every page. In Jeremiah, He is the Fountain of Living Waters the people forsook (2:13). He is the Great Physician who makes Jeremiah cry out, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" (8:22). He is the Good Shepherd who gathers the scattered flock (23:4; 31:10). He is the Righteous Branch from the line of David (23:5). He is The LORD Our Righteousness (23:6) — the very name we cannot earn but receive only by faith. The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 is signed in His blood and dated on the night before the cross.

Katika Maombolezo, ulinganifu huo karibu hauvumiliki. Yeremia analia juu ya Yerusalemu mwaka 586 K.K. Zaidi ya miaka mia sita baadaye, Nabii mwingine anasimama juu ya Mlima wa Mizeituni na kulia juu ya mawe yale yale: "Ee Yerusalemu, Yerusalemu… ni mara ngapi nimetaka kuwakusanya watoto wako, kama vile kuku avikusanyavyo vifaranga vyake chini ya mbawa zake, wala hamkutaka!" (Mathayo 23:37). Mstari "Na amwelekezee yeye ampigaye shavu lake" (Maombolezo 3:30) unatimizwa askari wa Kirumi wanapoupiga uso wa Mwana wa Mungu mbele ya Pilato. Maombolezo si wimbo wa kale wa msiba tu; ni kivuli kinachotangulia Kalvari. Kinampa Yesu jina ambalo Isaya alikuwa ameshampa: "mtu wa huzuni nyingi, ajuaye sikitiko" (Isaya 53:3).In Lamentations, the parallel is almost unbearable. Jeremiah weeps over Jerusalem in 586 BC. More than six hundred years later, another Prophet stands on the Mount of Olives and weeps over the same stones: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Matthew 23:37). The line "Let him give his cheek to the smiter" (Lamentations 3:30) is fulfilled when Roman soldiers strike the face of the Son of God before Pilate. Lamentations is not just an ancient elegy; it is a foreshadow of Calvary. It earns Jesus the title Isaiah had already given Him: "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3).

Basi tunachukua nini kutoka katika sehemu hii? Mambo mawili tunayoyashika kwa uthabiti. Kwanza, kwamba uaminifu katika huduma haupimwi kwa mafanikio yanayoonekana. BWANA hutuza uvumilivu, si umaarufu, na wengi wa watumishi wake bora — Yeremia akiwa mmoja wao — hufa bila kuwahi kuona mavuno. Ikiwa umechoka usiku huu kwa kazi ambayo hakuna anayeiona, uko katika kundi jema. Pili, kwamba kuna aina ya tumaini ambayo ni wale waliovunjika moyo tu wanaoweza kuligundua — upendo thabiti ulio mpya kila asubuhi, uaminifu mkuu kiasi cha kuimbwa juu ya majivu ya mji ulioharibiwa. Tumaini hilo liliandikwa kwanza na nabii wa machozi juu ya kilima. Bado linaimbwa na kanisa leo. Na litaimbwa katika Yerusalemu mpya ambapo hapatakuwa na maombolezo tena kabisa.So what do we carry away from this unit? Two convictions. First, that faithfulness in ministry is not measured by visible success. The Lord rewards endurance, not popularity, and many of His best servants — Jeremiah among them — die without ever seeing the harvest. If you are tired tonight from work that no one notices, you are in good company. Second, that there is a kind of hope only the brokenhearted ever discover — a steadfast love that is new every morning, a faithfulness that is great enough to be sung over the ashes of a ruined city. That hope was first written down by a weeping prophet on a hillside. It is still being sung by the church today. And it will be sung in the new Jerusalem when there are no more lamentations at all.

Tuma MtihaniSubmit Exam Anza UpyaReset