Lamentations 1: How do you intercede for those suffering under God’s wrath?

Thought of the day: How do you intercede for those suffering under God’s wrath?

Context:

Jerusalem use to be a beacon of God’s favor in the world. Now the people have been scattered among the nations. Removed from the land, a physical representation of God’s provision. Removed from the garden.

Jeremiah is not like Job. He is not pleading for a righteous man or people. He is interceding for people who have denied their God and are suffering not from the world but from the judgement of God.

Scriptures to highlight:

v1-2

Female metaphor: God as her lost husband, not due to death but to her own unfaithfulness:

“become a slave” The land was the physical representation of God’s grace. They lost it. They were not just thrown out of rock and grass but thrown out of the promise.

“she weeps at night”

“In the night suggests that her grief was so intense that daytime alone was insufficient to express it and the time normally allotted to sleep and recuperation had also to be used for mourning.”

“among her lovers” Those false gods, idols, and nations that Israel was unfaithful with.

We don’t just intercede with the so called “righteous” but also for those currently suffering under the consequences of their own sin. We don’t get a free pass if people “deserve it”.

v8-11

“They have seen her naked” They saw Jerusalem’s shame. What they tried to keep hidden was brought to the light. Remember Jeremiah said the people had “forgotten how to blush.” God made them remember.

The switch from her to my (Lamentations 1 is split into 2 parts: grief observed and grief felt.)

“when any one stronger than another seeks to mitigate another’s grief, he will be disregarded if what he adduces seems to proceed from an unfeeling barbarity.”

translation: When we grieve with those who grieve, we will be completely ineffective if we cannot deeply feel the suffering they are enduring. Not just observational pity but empathetic suffering.

How do we suffer well? Seek God on behalf of those suffering in sin. v11 look, Lord and Consider.

v13-17

The magnitude of God’s judgement. “Woven my sin together as a yoke” “like a wine press” “spread a net for my feet”

God has done these things, why?

“So what had happened was not a sign of divine weakness or lack of concern, but proof of the Lord’s commitment to the standards of his covenant.”

v16 Suffering well is weeping.

v17 “The Lord has decreed for Jacob” Reverting the entire nation's name to Jacob which means "deceiver". He literally strips Israel of it's name given by God.

How do we suffer well? Weep and feel.

Perform Lamentations 1 from the ESV