Scripture makes it clear that God opposes the proud (James 4:6), offering countless examples of people whose pride was brought low through God’s discipline, including Pharaoh (Ex. 14:26—15:10), Samson (Judg. 16:21–24), David (2 Sam. 12:7–15), and Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:21–23).
God let the people of Judah suffer humiliation because of their arrogant rebellion. Lamentations likens Jerusalem to a woman put to shame. Note the reversals brought about by the Lord’s judgment:
• From wife to widow (Lam. 1:1).
• From princess to slave (1:1).
• From friend to enemy (1:2).
• From honor to shame (1:8).
• From respectability to prostitution (1:9).
God intended the Israelites to enjoy the honor of being His people, but their sinful ways left them despised by the nations.
At times we may see our contemporaries face a similar reversal of fortune. When their wrongdoings come to light, they fall from honor and prominence to shame and disrepute. Nations can suffer the same upheaval. We can expect that sooner or later God will humble a government that openly defies Him and establishes laws that oppose His truth and values. God does not allow people to ignore Him forever. He will be honored.
More: Several years before Jeremiah’s birth, the Lord made an example of a government official who persisted in pride when he should have cried for mercy. See “God Humbles the Proud” at Is. 22:15–23.
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For generations, Judah ignored the Law’s obvious commands against idolatry, oppressing the poor, cheating in the marketplace, relying on foreign governments for security, and other sins of public life. Though the people kept up temple rituals and maintained a pretense of worship, their hearts and actions had turned against God (see “What Is Religion?” at Jer. 7:2–4). When the Lord sent prophets to notify the Judeans of impending disaster, they shut out His words (2 Chr. 36:15, 16). Despite all of God’s warnings, the people were stunned when the Babylonians arrived and destroyed their way of life.
Just as the people of Judah failed to think through their actions and their potential consequences, there may be decisions in our lives that we fail to confront—a relationship that needs healing, a problem that needs solving, a habit that needs changing. Let’s make today the day to get started on mending the broken places in our lives—before it’s too late.
More: Failure to consider consequences often stems from laziness. See “Letting Go of Laziness” at Prov. 24:30–34.
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We rarely feel responsible for other people’s sins. Yet the Bible teaches us about corporate sin and accountability—an entire group of people held liable for the sins of some members. And where there is corporate sin, there is a need for corporate confession.
Lamentations offers an example. Jeremiah spoke in terms of personal sin when he said, “I rebelled.… Behold my sorrow.” Yet Jeremiah’s first-person statements refer not only to his individual guilt but also to the collective guilt of Judah, for Jeremiah identified deeply with his fellow Judeans. Years later, Nehemiah also engaged in corporate confession, using the term we as he prayed for his people’s forgiveness and restoration to the Promised Land (Neh. 1:4–11).
We, too, bear corporate responsibilities. We may not have contributed directly to past wrongs, but just as we inherit benefits from our predecessors, so we must accept legacies of sin. Like Jeremiah, we should humbly confess and seek healing for what we have done as a people. We must recognize that past sins may cause consequences to linger with us, and we should ponder the impact of our choices on future generations.
More: To learn more, see “Group Sin” at Lev. 4:13, 14. Corporate solidarity helps us understand much of Scripture, including David’s encounter with Goliath. See “Corporate Solidarity” at 1 Sam. 17:8–10.
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Jerusalem’s destruction revealed an astonishing fact: God goes to extraordinary lengths to draw His people back to Himself.
The people of Judah were not irreligious. On the contrary, for the most part they maintained the Law’s religious rituals. They gathered in the temple week after week to offer sacrifices and observe the Sabbath. But during the rest of their days, they ignored the Law. They forgot what Jesus later called the “weightier matters” of the Law—justice, mercy, and faith (Matt. 23:23; compare Mic. 6:8).
The people strayed from God because they confused means and ends. They forgot that the sacrificial system, the Sabbath, the temple, and even the Law were only means to the far more important end of knowing and serving God (see “Knowing God” at Jer. 22:15, 16). God eventually took these means away, as important and valuable as they were.
• He destroyed Jerusalem.
• He pulled down the temple and its furnishings.
• He did away with the religious rituals.
• He removed the king and the high priest.
• He allowed the written Law to be destroyed.
• He stopped giving visions to the prophets.
The removal of these things must have been distressing to the ancient Israelites. But God was determined to get His people’s attention and rebuild their relationship on a fresh foundation.
Our spiritual activities and resources have value, but they are not the sum of life. God Himself is what matters, and He will do whatever it takes to remind us of that fact.
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The men of the Bible seem to have had little or no shame about weeping. They felt free to express both grief and joy through their tears. Jeremiah, for example, wept bitterly over his people’s desperate plight after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians (compare Jer. 9:1). Many other men in Scripture also shed tears:
Abraham | Wept and mourned when his wife Sarah died (Gen. 23:2). |
Jacob | Cried joyful tears when he met his cousin Rachel (Gen. 29:11). |
Joseph | Sought a private place to cry when he met his younger brother Benjamin after years of forced separation (Gen. 43:29, 30). |
David and Jonathan | Cried as they parted company after Saul’s vicious attacks (1 Sam. 20:41, 42). |
Elisha | Wept as he foresaw the cruelty that Hazael’s troops would inflict on Israel’s women and children (2 Kin. 8:11, 12). |
Hezekiah | Wept bitterly when he was told he would not recover from a fatal illness (2 Kin. 20:3). |
Israelite elders in the time of Ezra | Broke down in tears of joy when the foundation for a new temple was laid (Ezra 3:12). |
Ezra | Wept over the disobedience of Jewish men who had married pagan wives (Ezra 10:1). |
Nehemiah | Was moved to tears on hearing of the dire conditions at Jerusalem (Neh. 1:4). |
Job | Poured out tears after the painful loss of his family, his health, and his belongings (Job 16:20). |
Isaiah | Grieved with tears over the troubles that were coming upon his people (Is. 22:4). |
Jesus | Was moved to tears at the tomb of His friend Lazarus (John 11:33–36). |
Peter | Wept with bitter shame after realizing that he had betrayed his Lord (Matt. 26:75). |
Paul | Acknowledged that he was sometimes moved to tears in his work (Acts 20:18, 19). |
John | Wept when he realized that no one in heaven was worthy to read a scroll (Rev. 5:4). |
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Jerusalem’s fall in 587 B.C. seems to have shocked its inhabitants, but the real surprise is that they did not see it coming. Despite repeated warnings about the consequences of idolatry and other corporate sins, they were taken aback when the Babylonians breached the walls, sacked the city, and dragged survivors into exile.
This tragic and unnecessary outcome fulfilled words God had spoken in the distant past and more recently:
• The Law (c. 1500 B.C.) spelled out blessings for obedience and judgments for disobedience (Lev. 26; Deut. 27–28). God specifically warned that persistent rebellion against Him would result in invasion, devastation of Israelite communities, and exile in a foreign land.
• The prophet Micah (c. 742–687 B.C.) charged Judeans with perverting justice. Jerusalem would be reduced to “heaps of ruins” and the temple scraped bare (Mic. 3:9–12).
• The prophet Isaiah (c. 740–670 B.C.) spoke out against Judah’s rebellion, idolatry, pride, and hypocritical worship (Is. 1–5). He pronounced woe on Jerusalem (29:1–10) and warned King Hezekiah that the Babylonians would eventually ransack the city (39:5–7).
• The prophet Zephaniah (c. 640–609 B.C.) promised that all of Judah would be devoured (Zeph. 1:18) to cleanse it from idolatry.
• The prophetess Huldah (c. 640–609 B.C.) was consulted when the Book of the Law was found in the temple, a discovery that likely included the portion of Deuteronomy cited above. The Lord told her that the sins of Judah’s people and rulers would cause Him to bring on Jerusalem the calamity promised in the Law (2 Kin. 22:16, 17).
• The prophet Jeremiah (c. 626–580 B.C.) spent most of his life warning Jerusalem and its leaders of its impending judgment (Jer. 1–39). He specifically predicted that Jerusalem would be destroyed (6:1–30; 38:17, 18).
• The prophet Habakkuk (c. 600 B.C.) pled with God as he envisioned the devastating violence that the Babylonians (Chaldeans) would inflict on Jerusalem (Hab. 1–3).
• Other prophets were sent by God to warn the people to no avail (2 Chr. 36:15, 16; Jer. 26:20–23).
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As Jeremiah witnessed Jerusalem’s devastation, he reflected on the darkness and despair that covered the city (Lam. 3:1–18). But after considering that harsh reality, he looked to God. He recognized that his people had no hope but in the Lord—no refuge but in His mercy, compassion, faithfulness, and goodness (3:22–24).
We also have a message of hope to offer the world. We do not have every answer to every question, but we have Jesus, the Light of the World, who can illumine every willing heart with His grace. And He calls us to shine His light into the darkness (Matt. 5:14–16; John 1:4, 5; 1 John 1:5). God could have used angels or miracles or any other means to announce His message, but He instead chose everyday people to carry the Good News. As He works through ordinary people who endure the real struggles of everyday existence, He lets the world know that He offers hope that is bigger than the problems we face here and now.
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The destruction of Jerusalem was the darkest moment of Jeremiah’s life. The city’s demise crushed the prophet and his peers. The Israelites’ magnificent temple was reduced to ashes, the city walls were pulled down, and most of the populace was dead or gone. The only inhabitants who remained were starving women, children, and the elderly (Lam. 2:10–12).
Only one thing kept hope alive when God’s people were tempted to despair: assurance of the Lord’s mercies. That mercy (Hebrew: chesed; see “The God of Mercy” at Deut. 7:9) involved His undying love and loyalty. The Lord had committed Himself in a covenant with Israel, and He could be counted on to keep that pledge. He might discipline His wayward children, or allow them to be ravaged by enemies, or even let their temple and the Law be destroyed (Lam. 2:9), but He would never abandon His people.
The same is true today. God extends mercy and grace to all who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1), and nothing will ever separate us from His love (8:31–39). So we possess hope (5:1–5; 1 Pet. 1:3–5) even in the midst of the worst of circumstances (2 Cor. 1:8–11).
More: Jeremiah’s eloquent expression of God’s faithfulness and compassion formed the basis of the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” For other hymns drawn from Scripture, see “Psalms into Hymns” at Ps. 103:1.
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Jeremiah wondered how anyone could complain about being punished for sin. Scripture teaches that sinners in the hands of a just God should expect judgment. Yet often we expect the Lord to overlook our transgressions. We make excuses for our offenses against His holiness. We rationalize our wrongdoing. We convince ourselves that we do not deserve God’s wrath. We claim to want justice—just not in our case.
The only honest way we can deal with sin is to admit what it is—wrong—and to turn back to God in humble repentance (Lam. 3:40; 1 John 1:8–10). Instead of complaining about whatever punishment comes our way, we should acknowledge the Lord’s righteousness and throw ourselves on His mercy.
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Equal Sin and Unequal Punishment
In an ultimate sense, no sin is worse than another. Every transgression violates God’s holiness and is subject to His righteous judgment (Rom. 1:8; 3:21–23; James 2:10). But even if there are not degrees of sin, there are degrees of punishment. Jesus declared that a servant who knows his master’s will yet disobeys will receive harsher judgment than a slave who lacks that knowledge. “To whom much is given,” He said, “from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48).
The Lord gave much to the Israelites, particularly to Judah. Yet despite the presence of God in their temple, their awareness of God’s will in the Law, and the evidence of God’s wrath against the northern kingdom, the Judeans remained obstinate. Judah surpassed the evils that Israel had committed, sins that were, in turn, worse than those committed by the unbelieving Canaanites (2 Kin. 17:19; 21:9).
The Lord responded to this continual rebellion by allowing the Babylonians to overrun the land and destroy Jerusalem. Jeremiah commented that the nation suffered an even greater punishment than the city of Sodom (Lam. 4:6; compare Gen. 19:24, 25). Yet this greater judgment was justified; while Abraham had failed in his search for ten righteous people living in Sodom (see “The Legacy of Sodom and Gomorrah” at Gen. 19:29), Jeremiah had searched in vain for even one righteous person living in Jerusalem (see “Not One Righteous Person” at Jer. 5:1).
God will hold us accountable for how we use our privileges, resources, and opportunities—which should not only be used wisely but also for the sake of others (2 Cor. 1:4). Because God has given us much, He will expect much from us.
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The least hazardous but most protracted method of capturing an ancient walled city was to surround the city, cut off supplies and reinforcements—and wait. Sooner or later, water or food ran out. The people inside would either grow desperate and surrender or would quickly fall once the city was finally attacked.
The Babylonians employed this strategy in the final siege of Jerusalem. The invaders arrived in late 589 B.C. or early 588 B.C., and except for a brief retreat the following summer (Jer. 37:5), they remained encamped around Jerusalem for two years (2 Kin. 25:1, 2). There was little danger of the city running out of water, thanks to King Hezekiah’s foresight prior to an Assyrian siege in 701 B.C. (see “Hezekiah’s Waterworks” at 2 Chr. 32:30). But there was no such endless supply of food.
By the “ninth day of the fourth month,” perhaps counting from the beginning of the siege, all the food was gone (2 Kin. 25:3). Jeremiah described the severity of the situation with a before-and-after picture of a group of Nazirites (see “The Nazirite Vow” at Num. 6:2). Nazirites normally appeared in public wearing carefully laundered clothing and were accorded an elevated social status. But as a result of the siege, their robes, which had been “brighter than snow,” were now “blacker than soot” (Lam. 4:7, 8). They went unnoticed in the streets, not because they had lost their high rank but because they looked no different from anyone else: they were unwashed and emaciated.
The famine affected the entire population of Jerusalem from the highest social spheres to the lowest (compare 4:16). It accomplished exactly what the Babylonians had planned, and it meant that the end was drawing near. For those inside the city, it brought desperation. They were forced to watch each other slowly die—or worse, resort to cannibalism (4:9, 10).
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The Edomites were delighted to hear the news of Jerusalem’s fall (Lam. 4:21; compare Ps. 137:7). These neighbors to Judah’s south were the Israelites’ sworn enemies despite their common ancestry (see “The Edomites: Perpetual Enemies of Israel” at Gen. 36:9). During the years of Babylonian domination, the Edomites took the opportunity to raid Judah and seize more territory (Obad. 10–14). Later, after Nebuchadnezzar had deported the Judean captives to Babylon, he gave some of Judah’s lands to Edom.
God rebuked the Edomites for their hateful behavior. His exhortation to “rejoice and be glad” (Lam. 4:21) was spoken ironically. The Lord was essentially saying, “Enjoy your gloating while it lasts, because it won’t last for long.” Soon it would be Edom’s turn for judgment (compare Jer. 49:17, 18).
Scripture never encourages God’s people to enjoy the suffering of others, even if they get what they deserve. The love that God calls us to “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6). Instead of gloating over our enemies’ misery, we should pray that their circumstances will turn them toward the Lord and away from evil (Rom. 12:14–21).
More: As Jeremiah reflected on the tragic destruction that he knew was coming on Jerusalem, he reacted not with gloating but with compassion. See “The Heart of a Prophet” at Jer. 9:1, 2.
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The survivors of defeated cities generally suffered cruelly at the hands of their captors. Jeremiah mentions some of the gruesome indignities faced by Judeans after Jerusalem’s fall. He also reports elsewhere that King Zedekiah was forced to watch his sons be put to death before being blinded and led in chains to Babylon.
As cruel as the Babylonians were, they were generally more lenient than their predecessors, the Assyrians. Records of Assyrian military victories detail even more severe atrocities. Captives were often beheaded or had arms, legs, or hands cut off. Some were staked to the ground while tormentors disemboweled them. Others were impaled on sharp poles erected outside the walls of conquered cities. These detestable cruelties aimed to humiliate the conquered and to deter others from resisting Assyrian demands.
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The Book of Lamentations ends with a powerful piece of wisdom, affirming that the Lord remains forever. This truth dramatically contrasts with the stark scene of Mount Zion, silent and deserted except for a few wild animals that wandered through its ruins (Lam. 5:18). Jerusalem was no more. But God remains.
So it is throughout Scripture. God always has the final word. The Flood carries away a wicked generation, but God remains (Gen. 7:21–23). Job despairs of life, but discovers that God remains (Job 42:5, 6). A generation of rebellious Israelites dies in the sand, but God remains (Ps. 90:2). Empires rise and fall—Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Alexandrian, Roman—but God remains (Dan. 4:34, 35; 7:13, 14). Even the world itself is destroyed and remade, but God remains (Rev. 21:5, 6; 22:13).
This fundamental truth lends perspective to the events of our lives and of history. Families, careers, communities, nations—everything in this world comes and goes. But God remains forever. Therefore, as Solomon concluded, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Eccl. 12:13).
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