In preparation to launch an all-out offensive, I went through and re-read Jeremiah and Lamentations this week, and let me tell you, the campaign is on.
Don’t get me wrong, though, Jeremiah’s life and the events that took place in Jerusalem at that time have to encapsulate one of the ugliest stories ever told.
Put it this way, Hollywood is never going to make a movie out of it, and if they ever did, I’d be the last to see it.
I really wouldn’t be able to stomach it.
Fast-forward all the way to Lamentations, which basically functioned in the same way that a presidential visit to declare a state of emergency does today.
Here’s Jeremiah, surveying the damage that he’s spent his whole ministry predicting, and borne constant persecution to that end.
The word “Lamentations”, of course, means weeping or wailing, and that’s what Jeremiah does plenty of as he sees what has become of God’s chosen people.
All along, he’s been speaking the Word of the Lord that instead of fighting against Babylon, the people need to surrender and go along with the program, and all along, they’ve resisted the Word of God and listened to false prophets declaring “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. (Jer. 6:14).
It’s a simple Word that he’s declared all along. Two options
A. Surrender to Babylon and keep your life as a price of war
B. Resist Babylon/flee to Egypt, and die of sword, pestilence or famine
Israel goes with Option B—kinda like we Sons of Adam are always going with option B—and God has carried out his promise for disaster, and as we come up to Lamentations, it’s just at the time when Jerusalem is surrounded by Babylon and basically starved to death until they surrender.
That’s why you see absolutely tear-jerking, gut-wrenching literal statements like these in Lamentations:
“Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt this? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?” (Lam. 2:20)
“Even the jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness. The tong of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.” (Lam. 4:3-4)
“The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they have become their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.” (Lam. 4:10)
How in the wide world is Jeremiah going to handle this?
No wonder he’s the weeping prophet.
"For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for my comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.” (Lam. 1:16)
“My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.” (Lam. 2:11)
“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; my eye causes me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.” (Lam. 3:49-51)
Is there any hope for God’s people?
Will the comforter from Lam. 1:16 ever come?
Will the Lord from heaven look down and see from Lam. 3:49?
Oh yes, there is hope. And the hope of Jeremiah is eternally tethered to both the steadfast love and the sovereignty of God.
It’s not enough if all we know about God is that he has a love that is steadfast. There’s no comfort for Jeremiah or the daughter of his people in a handcuffed lover.
On the other side of the coin, there’s no hope in a sovereign King who’s out to get you. In fact, there’s no more hopeless situation than to be God’s opponent—which we all are without Christ.
Just at the height of Jeremiah’s weeping comes some of the most staggering worship we could ever imagine or experience:
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.” (Lam. 3:21-24)
Is there hope? Oh yes, there is hope. God’s steadfast love is absolutely unconquerable.
It’s unconquerable enough to sustain Jeremiah in a situation that defies the imagination or even description.
But God’s love is shown to be even more unconquerable than that at the Cross.
For Israel, there was judgment:
“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.” (Lam. 3:42)
God was not about to let the idolatry of his people—the adultery of his wife—slide past the scales of justice. That’s why Jerusalem was besieged.
But at the Cross, Jesus endured the entirety of God’s wrath for his people. That’s why he says, “It is finished.” What is finished? God’s forgiveness of his people’s transgressions.
And what about hope? For Jeremiah, there was God’s never-ending love shown all down through Israel’s history, but on this side of the Cross, it’s the resurrection that secures our hope in his promise.
In the resurrection, God showed that he’s not only powerful, but that he’s for us.
To the believer in Jesus, God’s not a handcuffed lover, and he’s not a “bear lying in wait for me.”
The Good News is that the sovereign King is for me.
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