Prevention and Condemnation

Lamentations 1

Main Idea: To ignore God’s prevention is to embrace God’s condemnation.

1. The State of Jerusalem (1:1-7)
2. The Sin That Brought Them There (1:8-14)
3. The Sentence of God’s Condemnation (1:15-22)

The millisecond after Kevin Hines jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge to the bay below, he felt instant regret.

“I said to myself, ‘What have I done, I don’t want to die, God please save me,’” recalls Hines, 34, of his suicide jump in September 2000. “The moment I hit freefall was an instant regret—I recognized that I made the greatest mistake in my life and I thought it was too late.” (Herbst, “Man Who Survived Suicide”)

Kevin Hines is one of the more than 1,000 people who have attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate bridge. He is one of only twenty-five who have been known to survive. The stories of survivors are similar: they immediately regret the decision to attempt suicide. As he retells in his book Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving after a Suicide Attempt, he did not want to die. He wanted to live, so he voiced a prayer to God to help him survive. The prayer, in its essence, was that God would reverse the consequences of his decision. In Hines’s case, God seems to have intervened. However, he does not always do that. In fact, when we ignore God’s laws, we face God’s consequences. In other words, the natural consequences of our decisions are rarely reversed. This was certainly the case for Judah. They were committing spiritual suicide. They had violated God’s law, and the consequences were rushing toward them.

Chapter 1 develops three themes woven throughout the chapter: the state of suffering the people find themselves in, the sin that caused the suffering, and God’s response of condemnation—or, if you will forgive the alliteration, the state, the sin, and the sentence.

The State of Jerusalem

Lamentations 1:1-7

The opening line of poetry is haunting. “How she sits alone.” Jerusalem was once lovely and vivacious, the center of the nation that was central to God’s plan. Was there a more envied place in the whole world? She was God’s bride! This is the place where David ruled with imperial, military gravitas. This is the place where Solomon built palaces so grand that the queen of Sheba came to visit. Jerusalem was spectacular, magnificent, marvelous! The beauty is important to remember because it makes Lamentations 1:1 more provocative. She went from epicenter to wasteland. One immediately thinks of once-thriving cities that are now a fraction of their former glory. But that metaphor would not be strong enough. This is Berlin after WWII. This is Atlanta after the Civil War. This is Aleppo after the Syrian civil war. This is NYC, Paris, or Prague reduced to a dumpster fire—but worse.

It reminds us, in a provocative way, that nothing lasts forever. Great people become bywords. Great churches become massive empty buildings whose presence stands as a monument to a bygone era. Great companies are subsumed. Great universities falter. Those beholden to formerly great institutions become intuitive historians. The old buildings of the former institutions stir hard memories—memories that make us smile so that, perhaps for a moment, we don’t have to wince. As I am writing this, I am thinking of once-glorious institutions, leaders, movements, and churches that now remind us that nothing lasts forever. In fact, every great movement that is currently vital is ultimately fleeting. We do not normally sense it, but it is true. Nothing lasts forever. This is the sad tone of the first chapter of Lamentations.

Yet this city is like no other city. This is the city, the only city, that will descend from heaven. We Christians know the rest of the story: this is the city to which Christ will return. She will ultimately see the opposite of loneliness and despair. However, in Jeremiah’s time that reality was light-years away. There is nothing like that at the moment. This was desperation and despair.

The Sin That Brought Them There

Lamentations 1:8-14

The sin that brought the residents of Jerusalem to this low point is rehearsed throughout the book of Jeremiah. This is not a case of suffering without reason. This is not like what happened to Job. This is a circumstance that they created. The evidence of this is the existence of the prophet Jeremiah. A prophetic voice is the evidence that God did not want this. He sent Jeremiah to help prevent it. But they passed up the possibility of prevention, and they learned the hard lesson that to ignore God’s prevention is to embrace God’s condemnation.

Jeremiah writes that Judah is suffering because of her sin (v. 5), and that is why she is despised by all (v. 8). She fell because she failed to consider the consequences of her actions (v. 9).

Suffering is inevitable. We think obedience is too much of a hardship. We don’t want to obey, and we resent God for asking us to do so. Following God is not easy, but the price of obedience is a bargain compared to the price of rebellion. Prevention costs less than destruction. Avoiding sin costs less than repenting of sin.

Then, tragically, we see the result for those who will not put on the yoke of obedience: they are forced to suffer under the yoke of their sins, by which they are broken and defeated (v. 14). Zedekiah was asked to put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. He refused. In chapter 3 Jeremiah will counsel us that it is good for a young man to bear his yoke in his youth. The yoke in both cases relates to discipline. To bear the yoke means to absorb the wrath that was intended. Yet notice how it is developed here. The yoke represents the sins of the nation. In this case it seems that God does not reverse the natural consequences for sin.

As in the story of Kevin Hines above, God did not immediately reverse the consequences of their sin. This was something they had to live with.

As we think about this in a new covenant context, we are reminded that we serve a God who will never leave us or forsake us. He gives us all the grace we need to face the challenges of this life and to overcome condemnation in the next life. Upon our salvation, he reverses the eternal consequences of our sin. Yet we must be careful to remind ourselves that God does not always reverse the temporal consequences of sin. Addictions must be fought with tenacity, relationships must be restored, and debts repaid. For the repentant God reverses the eternal consequences of sin, but he does not always reverse the temporal consequences of sin. For Judah, the consequences of sin become her yoke.

The Sentence of God’s Condemnation

Lamentations 1:15-22

The reason they are in this position is no mystery. This is God’s doing. While this theme is more fully developed in the following chapters, the people of Judah are in this position because of their own sin. Considering Jerusalem, Jeremiah writes that she will be crushed and trampled, her children will be desolate in defeat, and there will be no one to comfort her despite her pleas because God has turned against her (vv. 15-17).

As difficult as this is to read, we are reminded that Judah was warned on many occasions that it did not have to be this way. The presence of the prophet is the witness that it did not. They could have turned from sin and come back to God.

God is just because that has always been his essential nature. He is always consistent with his nature. Even though we might project him with a light, frothy attitude toward sin, we cannot change his character. He is against sin; he reacts against sin because that’s who he is. Nothing about his character has changed since Jeremiah wrote these devastating words about the lonely city that sits on the hill.

Conclusion

The idea is clear: sin brings ruin. Sin ruins individuals; sin ruins families; sin ruins churches; sin ruins cities. The weight of destruction is heavier still in light of the warnings: the prophets, the metaphors, the miracles. All the things God did in the past to prevent this from happening are now clear.

Suffering brings clarity. It always does. The right thing to see when we suffer is that we have a pure heart like that of Job, of whom it was said that in all of his suffering he did not sin (Job 1:22). After all, what value is there when we suffer for our own wrongdoing? “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil” (1 Pet 3:17).

Since all Scripture is given for our benefit (1 Tim 3:17), we have to ask what the benefit is of reading of the destruction of Jerusalem. Well, perhaps the reader should be warned. A nation disobeyed God after several warnings. God punished them.

God allows suffering as corrective discipline. However, this does not mean all suffering is corrective. Discipline, and sometimes suffering, can also be instructive. The question that inevitably surfaces is, Which is it? Is this trial a result of my disobedience or simply God’s instruction to me? The question is not answerable. The answer, simply put, is that it’s possible we will never know in this life. However, that does not matter. Our success in the trial is not dependent on our knowing what is going on behind the veil. The response is the same: we repent of sin and trust him. We trust him with our trials, and we hate the sin that brings ruin.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How does Jeremiah describe the state of Jerusalem?
2. Why is the city lonely? What does this imply?
3. Where else in Jeremiah and Lamentations does he use the metaphor of the yoke?
4. Why is the yoke metaphor a good one for Jeremiah?
5. Why is he now using the metaphor of the yoke on himself?
6. How does suffering bring clarity?
7. Can you give an example from history or experience where sin has brought ruin?
8. Can you explain the difference between God’s corrective discipline and his instructive discipline?
9. Does God discipline his children? Is there a New Testament text that affirms this?
10. If God forgives all sin, does this mean he immediately reverses the natural consequences of our decisions?