Lamentations 1:1.2.3.

The first day of fall…the equinox of day  and night.

How bereft is the nation who has left God out.

When one of Jesus' disciples asked Him how to find eternal rest in God, Jesus answered, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). This is not just a bold statement. It is a grace statement. The fact that the way was made for sinful humanity to be reconciled to a holy God is merciful and miraculous. It reveals Truth is a person, Jesus Christ.

This confident expectation is offered to us as well. We can believe in Christ deeply and love others freely, knowing we have a secure place with Him in eternity. First5First5

But here’s the deal: what we do, and who we are, touches lives, plain and simple.  This matters more than ever, in a divisive world, a world on edge, a world where a kind word or gesture makes all the difference.

So. What if we let our light shine? What if we build a world where people matter? Where humanity blossoms, permeating inclusion and dignity and mercy and creativity and kindness and magnanimity and hope. Where we walk the earth each day in search of good deeds and acts to carry out. Because how we live makes a difference. Terry Hershey “SabbathMoments”

Lamentations 1:1.2.3.

1 How lonely sits the city

That was full of people!

How like a widow is she,

Who was great among the nations!

The princess among the provinces

Has become a slave!

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,

Her tears are on her cheeks;

Among all her lovers

She has none to comfort her.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

They have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into captivity,

Under affliction and hard servitude;

She dwells among the nations,

She finds no rest;

All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

The prophets depicted Israel’s political and spiritual abandonment of Yahweh as adultery. 

Deportation was a common practice for the Assyrians and Babylonians, but it was also the ultimate punishment for breaking the covenant with Yahweh. Judah experienced three deportations to Babylon. Faithlife Bible.

This describes Judah’s sin of turning away from God and toward the gods of Canaan. Also, the sins of Judah often involved the sexual forms of pagan worship that characterized the Canaanite people.

The southern kingdom Judah is personified here as Jerusalem was in captivity. The implications are made clear. The reference here is to the Babylonian captivity suffered by Judah following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. NKJ Bible.

Exodus 22:22 “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.

Isaiah 47:8 | “Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I  shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children’;