The Dark Night

The reaction from others compounds the suffering. Those who pass by scorn her. Taking credit for what God has done emboldens the enemies of this nation.

Anyone with any sympathy whatsoever is disturbed by this image of a city destroyed at the hands of God. What are we to make of this? How do we explain God’s action? First, remember the uniqueness of this situation. This nation is the (singular, definite article) chosen people of God. They are unique. They were to have a love relationship with God like a bride to her groom. As such, God would use them to be a blessing to the nations and to fulfill all his covenant promises. Their rejection of their groom/God was serious because their responsibility to their God was great. Knowing this instructs us not to attach divine motives on national or natural disasters when they occur in other times or to other nations. Israel is unique, and so is her relationship with God. This uniqueness is clear in the summary verse quoted above (v. 17).

While we are cautious not to compare certain disasters to Judah’s disaster in Lamentations 2, what is instructive is how we should respond to God in moments of crisis. This is found in the final section of the chapter.

Lamentations 2:18-22

God is not an impersonal force. God is not an entity void of reason and relationship. We can communicate with him, and we are compelled to initiate communication with him. The people respond to God by crying out to him. The activity of prayer is at once reflexive and right. It is our impulse and our only hope. Some impulses can harm you; other impulses can save you.

In prayer, ironically perhaps, they are suggesting that the one who is destroying them is the only one who can save them. The one who is the enemy is now their only hope and salvation. Thus we see this beautiful cry come from this destitute wasteland.

Verse 18 is a powerful plea for a gut talk with God: do not let yourself rest until you have prayed all of this through. Pour yourself out like water to God. They had some specific topics to pray about: the lives of their children (v. 19), cannibalistic infanticide (v. 20), and the death of people of all ages (v. 21).

Unlike some passages this one does not end optimistically. Terror is on every side, no one has escaped, and Jeremiah is watching the demise of those people he has cultivated (v. 22).

When life is tragic, how do we respond? What are we to think about the relationship of evil and suffering? The only response is humility and sobriety.

The inevitable question is, What about now? This is a theodicy for a people, for a community. If today God’s anger is provoked with a people—a community of believers—does he react in the same way? Does the coming of the Christ insulate us from corporate discipline?

First, Israel as a nation is unique. As mentioned above, Israel is the one and only people of God. There is no nation like her, nor will there ever be one comparable to her. As a Gentile Christian I know I am grafted into this nation and find mercy before God in that way (Rom 11:11-31). So again, when disaster happens in a community today, we should be slow to assume we know God had a motivation for allowing this.

Second, remember that the ways of God are higher than ours. Meaning, as was the point of the book of Job, we are not created with the capacity to understand all that happens in the world. While this does not scratch our itch of intellectual curiosity, I find it satisfying to know that even with the greatest education, the greatest minds could not understand why evil happens in the world. It is beyond our capacity to grasp.

Third, God specifically warned the churches of the New Testament that he reacts in demonstrable ways to disobedience. Some examples would include God’s killing Ananias and Sapphira for lying about their gift (Acts 5:1-11) and the threat of illness and even death for those taking the Lord’s Supper without discernment (1 Cor 11:27-32).

These are individual examples. So, what about a local church corporately? The final book of the Bible includes seven examples of Jesus’s addressing specifically the needs of a congregation. If for no other passages in Scripture, pastors should be motivated to lead their people in purity against the backdrop of these warnings.

Ephesus lost her first love and was warned:

Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Rev 2:5)

Pergamum was listening to false teaching and was warned:

So repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (Rev 2:16)

Thyatira was guilty of tolerating false teaching and was warned:

I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. Look, I will throw her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great affliction. Unless they repent of her works, I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who examines minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works. (Rev 2:21-23)

Sardis was asleep and was warned:

Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you. (Rev 3:2-3)

Laodicea was admonished to find again her first love:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,” and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see. (Rev 3:15-18)

Then Jesus comes to a full stop. The summary in Revelation 3:19 is stunning and breathtaking: “As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent.” As many as Jesus loves. Does God discipline communities of faith? Yes, the ones he loves.

This, in a real sense, is glorious. The beginning of Revelation makes it so clear that God is not an impersonal force; he is a loving Father. A force, an abstract automaton, does not discipline. God loves people and God created churches. Each church, like a child, has strengths and weaknesses and areas that need affirming and challenging.

We began by asking the question about the reason behind suffering. This, in complete honesty, is the best answer we can give: For someone in Christ, God disciplines his children. And what God does individually, he still does corporately to local bodies of believers. Again, without the mind of God, we do not know when or how this happens, so we respond to tragedy with humility and sobriety. When tragedy happens, we respond humbly because we don’t know why it happens, and we soberly examine ourselves.

Certainly, we don’t look for equivalency in tragedies that happen to others. We don’t say, “Hmm, I wonder what God is up to there.” Israel, and her discipline, was unique. They were God’s people. Yet, as those grafted in, we can’t be dismissive about God’s ways. God has not changed. He loves his local churches; and, as the letters to the seven churches testify, he relates to each church individually, he encourages each individually, and he disciplines each individually. God, have mercy!