Week 36 Reading Guide
Judgment, Restoration, and God’s Faithfulness in Sorrow
Jeremiah 30-55, Lamentations 1-5
Big Idea: In this week’s readings, we move from Jeremiah’s prophecies of judgment and exile to God’s promises of restoration and a new covenant. Lamentations reflects the grief and sorrow of a people who have experienced the devastating consequences of sin, yet it also offers hope in God’s enduring faithfulness. Together, these chapters call us to trust in God’s redemptive plan, even amid brokenness and despair.
Reading Plan
Monday: Jeremiah 30-33 (The Promise of Restoration and the New Covenant)
Tuesday: Jeremiah 34-39 (The Fall of Jerusalem)
Wednesday: Jeremiah 40-45 (Life After the Fall: Obedience and Rebellion)
Thursday: Jeremiah 46-52 (God’s Judgment on the Nations)
Friday: Lamentations 1-3 (Grief, Hope, and God’s Faithfulness)
Saturday: Lamentations 4-5 (Remembering God’s Mercy Amid Sorrow)
Weekly DNA Questions
Discover
What does God’s promise of a new covenant in Jer. 31:31-34 teach us about His plan for redemption?
How does Lamentations give us permission to bring our grief and sorrow to God?
Nurture
In what ways do you struggle to see God’s faithfulness in times of sorrow or discipline?
How can you embrace both the honesty of lament and the hope of God’s faithfulness in your own life?
Act
Spend time meditating on Lamentations 3:22-23 this week, thanking God for His new mercies each day.
Reach out to someone who is going through a difficult season and offer them encouragement grounded in God’s promises.
Key Verse: Lamentations 3:22-23
Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
Reflection for the Week
Jeremiah 30-52 reveals both the depth of God’s justice and the breadth of His mercy. Even as He disciplines His people for their sin, He promises restoration through a new covenant, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. Lamentations captures the anguish of exile, yet it also reminds us that God’s mercies are new every morning. These chapters invite us to lament honestly before God while holding onto His promises of redemption and hope.
Bible Project Resources
Guide to Lamentations: As a memorial to the Israelites’ pain and confusion following the destruction of Jerusalem, Lamentations shows how prayerful lament is a crucial part of our journey of faith in a broken world.
Lamentations: The Volatile Voice of Grief: Much of what we recoil at in Lamentations—the level of debasement, the humiliation, the judgment of God—are little pictures of what Jesus would suffer as he bore the sins of the world.
