You, LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. – Lamentations 5:19

Today's Scripture Reading (September 23, 2026): Lamentations 5

With the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939, the Polish Government went into exile. The Polish Government-in-exile ruled Poland, at first, from Paris, France. However, when France fell to the advancing German army in 1940, the Polish government-in-exile moved to the United Kingdom. There, the Polish Government-in-exile functioned for the next 50 years.

During the Second World War, the Polish Government-in-exile was quite effective in governing through the Polish Resistance at home. However, following the war, Poland became a puppet regime of the growing Soviet Bloc of nations. As a result, the Polish Government-in-exile began to shadow the puppet nation's decisions. No longer did the exiled Government have any pull at home, but they continued to refuse to accept the reality that the nation that they loved was now under Communist control. It was not until 1990, when Communist rule in Poland came to an end, that the Polish Government-in-exile gave up their fight and formally bestowed their power onto the Third Polish Republic. Finally, fifty years after it began, the Polish Government-in-exile retired from the world stage, placing its high hopes onto the people of Poland.

Part of the struggle in Judah was that so much of what the people understood as power was centered in Jerusalem. Now, with Jerusalem in ruins, not only was the seat of power gone, but the power itself had also disappeared. I am not sure that the Jewish people could even conceive of a "government-in-exile." Power belonged in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem no longer existed.

But the situation went beyond the loss of national political power. God's home on earth was also in Jerusalem. Solomon's Temple had been built in Jerusalem to give God a resting place on earth. That resting place had been destroyed along with the city. In many ways, all of this meant Jeremiah's words would have sounded strange. How could God's throne endure? How could God's rule on earth be from generation to generation, when the Temple was gone?

Jeremiah's message seems so obvious to us now (especially after 1900 years of God's rule without a temple in Jerusalem). His message is simply this: God's rule transcends place. The earth, all of it, was created by God, and he rules throughout its length and breadth. He is always present, and he always sees, even in those moments when we think he might be deaf and/or blind. Jeremiah needed the people to understand that God does not rule in exile, because there is no place where he does not belong, and no place where he is not still the reigning King.    

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 26