Everything Falls on Leadership

An appalling, horrible thing

has taken place in the land.

The prophets prophesy falsely,

and the priests rule by their own authority.

My people love it like this.

But what will you do at the end of it?

Now we know what they will do. At the end of it all, they are stumbling in the streets. They have shed blood so they are unclean. Even among the pagan nations no one will touch them (vv. 14-15). The Lord has scattered them, and—this is the scariest part—the Lord no longer watches over them (v. 16).

When your leaders let you down, your world is in ruins, and the enemy is more powerful than you, you need a savior. So the chapter closes with a measure of hope.

Lamentations 4:21-22

There is hope that God would punish the wicked. Just as Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 49:7, Edom, who rejoiced at the destruction of the nation, would meet her end (Lam 4:21). It often seems extreme that God would be explicit that other nations, enemy nations, would suffer. Yet the nature of a covenant-keeping God is that he would bless those who blessed his people and curse those who cursed his people (Gen 12:3). Even when the relationship between God and his people has been complicated by so much sin and betrayal, he keeps his promise. The promise given in the initial events of the covenant are kept as the events of the Old Testament are ending. He is seeking wrath on those who hurt his people.

There is also hope for deliverance. A beautiful couplet of hope closes out the chapter (v. 22a). God does for them what they cannot do for themselves. What a remarkable end to this story! Can we wrap our minds around it? Here is the flow of the story Jeremiah is lamenting:

In the end we learn that only God can save us from God.

So, in the end, what do we do if leaders fail us? There are so many natural responses that are wrong:

After the dust settles, we could simply wallow in despair and self-pity. But this is where the gospel enters.

There is so much about the gospel in this passage that it’s hard to know where to start. This is a metaphor for life. People who disobey God are set on a certain path of destruction. Like the rogue nation, they cannot change trajectories, so God offers a way of escape from his pending judgment. God saves us from God. This is the good news of the gospel. God’s wrath hangs over everyone in the world. All sins will be punished. Yet as the hand of judgment is falling, Christ stands up. He takes the blow for us. Charity Gayle encapsulates it beautifully in the song “Divine Exchange” when she writes,

On the cross hung my pain

And the guilt and the shame

Jesus bore my suffering

To the grave to make me free

Oh the blood that was shed

It now flows to cover sin

It washes, clean, and purifies

In its healing crimson tide

Jesus, He took my place in divine exchange Hallelujah!

Grace is mine.

Now I live by faith for the One who saves

He gave all to give me life.

There is a more subtle gospel note in Jeremiah’s song. He complained, “The Lord’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their traps” (v. 20). This is a reference to their human king. Yet the Lord’s anointed is more than a moniker for a human king; it was the title for the King of all kings.

Another song prophesies that in the end the whole world will set itself against the Lord’s Anointed. When this happens, God will laugh (Ps 2). God is not threatened by anything. Nothing intimidates him the least bit or gives him pause.

The Anointed One is the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. He was never captured but gave his life so that those whose lives were in ruin, those whose enemy is stronger than they are, those who have leaders who let them down will never be captured again. We will be captured by grace and saved from judgment by the one anointed, the one chosen, to redeem us. The deliverance from my future problems is already provided.

This is the greater lesson—a lesson about present failure and future grace. The failure of present leaders makes us want a better Leader. This Leader we have in Christ. He is the Leader who never falters, never leaves us. Present failure feels like hitting a brick wall. God takes the bricks from our wall and creates a path.

Present failure is a window into a future. The reason God is such a good leader is due to his character and his nature. His character is as one who always does good. He lacks the capacity to give us anything but good leadership because he is so good to us. And his nature is all knowing. God leads us perfectly because he knows the future perfectly, and he wills good things for us. Wow! This is just amazing! Every failure of every leader creates a thirst for a leader who is all-knowing and all good. Praise God! He is so good!