Lamentations 4:17

‘Still our eyes failed us,
Watching vainly for our help;
In our watching we watched
For a nation that could not save us.’ (Lamentations 4:17)

Who’s ever been in a situation where they needed help but it never came? Some of us might have been in that physical situation, at least for a while. More frequently I think we go through it spiritually. This is what Jeremiah is saying here: ‘Our nation needed help, but although we watched out for help from a nation (namely Egypt I believe), they could not save us.’

Here, he place emphasis not on the fact that there was no-one to help them, but that they were looking to the wrong place – they were looking to a nation that couldn’t save them anyway.

How often do we look to the wrong place for help? It is an epidemic of humanity. People that are depressed or sad turn to drink or drugs to help them out...but that can’t save them. People that are struggling internally look to themselves for strength, but they can’t help themselves. As Christians, we are sometimes in dire straits spiritually, but who do we turn to? Ourselves? Our friends? The five-step guidebook to a better spiritual life? None of these can save us. None. And we look in vain to them to do so. We must look to God. It is the knowledge of and relationship with God that will save us.