Paul Dubuc's Reviews > The Message of Lamentations

During this Lenten season my scripture reading guide took me through the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. To get more out of my reading, I read along with The Message of Jeremiah by Derek Kidner and this exposition The Message of Lamentations by Christopher Wright. Both of these books helped my reading immensely. During a time when our world is threatened by widespread sickness, it's even more sobering to read of a time and place that was much more severe.

These books put their subject in historical and biblical context, giving the reader a much better picture of what it was like in ancient times for a city to be invaded by a cruel and powerful army; its starving people brutally treated, killed, led into exile in a foreign land. Forsaken by the God whom they had forsaken. Kidner and Wright also shed light from the New Testament on the writings of Jeremiah and Lamentations helping to connect their meaning with our own time and place.

It is difficult to read Jeremiah and Lamentations without help from those with in-depth understanding of them. This is probably the main reason these books of the Old Testament are largely ignored by Christians. Kidner and Wright do a very good work in showing what real gems are these biblical books.