THE AFTERMATH

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan,
her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease.

The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe. All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.

In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction. Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away.

Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her. “Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.” The enemy laid hands on all her treasures; she saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary—those you had forbidden to enter your assembly.

Lamentations 1:1-10

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Go back to September 11, 2001, a date we now most often refer to in its shortened version, 9/11.

On that day, horrific attacks took place in two of the largest and most prominent cities in the United States, New York City and Washington DC. Only a sheer act of bravery onboard one of the jets hijacked for the purpose of terrorism minimized further damage on the nation’s capital.

In the aftermath of the appalling, shocking events of that day, events that killed almost 3,000 people, there was great lamenting that took place. Lamenting that our national security could have been violated in such a terrible, evil way but even more so lamenting over the deep loss that took place that day. An entire nation was changed forever by one significant, saddening event.

Why do I mention this?

Because today, we begin our journey through the Book of Lamentations and as the title would suggest, it’s not a book that invokes a lot of joy and happiness. Rather, it is five chapters of unadulterated mourning, sadness, and regret over the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem as well as the subsequent exile of the Israelites to Babylon. The author is unknown but many suggest that it was Jeremiah as he was one who witnessed and experienced most of what is covered in the lamentations.

As chapter 1 opens, we are welcomed into the aftermath of Jerusalem’s destruction and the exiling of God’s people. In the lamenting, pay close attention to how the author highlights what has happened and why it took place. Look at these words again:

How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed festivals. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease.

The Lord has brought her grief because of her many sins. Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe. All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.

In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction. Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away.

Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her. “Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed.” The enemy laid hands on all her treasures; she saw pagan nations enter her sanctuary—those you had forbidden to enter your assembly.  Lamentations 1:1-10

Go back to my mention of 9/11 earlier. The events were horrible and atrocious, there is no questioning that. But in the case of Washington and New York, only a particular location was targeted in each instance. The remainder of the cities went unscathed but just imagine how different things would have been if either of the two mentioned cities would have been completely destroyed. It would have made what did happen on 9/11 pale in comparison.

But returning to the Old Testament and our scripture passage from Lamentations, that’s exactly what happened to Jerusalem. The once mighty, thriving, sacred city was completely laid to waste and drained of all its treasures. Nothing was left after the Babylonian attack as the former great city became an utter ghost town, left deserted and in ruins. Every gateway was left desolate and no one could come anymore to the appointed holy festivals, times when the city would bustle in a flurry of special spiritual remembrance, worship, and focus.

As for the Israelites, they were taken captive and marched to Babylon to serve a seventy year sentence imposed by God. They were essentially enslaved at that point and back to being the oppressed people their ancestors once were before God rescued them from the clutches of the Egyptians. They had no one to comfort them. No allies who would come to their rescue. Rather, they were isolated, alone, and anguished, left only to cry out their lamentations over their suffering and hardship.  

This is what the aftermath of God’s judgment looked like but how did the people get to the place where God would do such a thing? Why did God punish His people?

Go back to the scripture passage for today as God’s word gives us the answers.

For we are told point blank that the Lord brought grief on the Israelites because of their many sins, sins that He had warned them about through His prophets, sins they had continued to commit after receiving those warnings.

In other words, as the Israelites were lamenting, they had to also be regretting the choices they had made, especially the choice to turn from God’s will and way to do what they wanted to do. This was particularly evident in their worship as they opted to give their devotion to false gods and idols while turning away from the God who commanded them to have no other gods before Him. Their inclination toward wickedness made them unclean before God and they were so caught up in sinning in the present that they had no consideration about their future and that God’s judgment might be a part of it. They needed a wake-up call and so God gave them one, a call that would last seven decades.

In the end translation as we look at the aftermath of God’s penalties on His people, the scriptures are showing us two things:

First, the Israelites left God with no choice but to take action. He had commanded them as to how He expected them to live and they were obligated to do so in obedience and honor unto Him. They decided to disobey His will and way to do their own thing but God didn’t send consequences immediately. Rather, He cautioned His people to stop sinning and turn back to Him, letting them know that if they failed to do so, they would suffer His punishment. The Israelites still did their own thing and disregarded God and so He did what He had to do to get their attention.

He did it then and don’t think for one minute that He won’t do it again.

And that brings us to the second thing the scriptures are saying to us as we open up this study of Lamentations:

Don’t think this can’t happen again.

You see, God took action against His people when they decided to sin against Him and refused to repent and turn away from those sins, ignoring His calls to do so but this wasn’t just some Old Testament way of doing business. The same God who commanded obedience from His people more than 2,000 years ago is the same God who demands it from us today. And in looking at the aftermath of what happened to Jerusalem and the Israelites in our scripture passage today, we need to ask ourselves this:

Do we really want to repeat the mistakes of the past?

 Because the next time that God brings full judgment on a city, you can replace Jerusalem with any other major city in the world today and envision what that would look like. If you think lamenting over 9/11 was bad, an event like that would result in mourning that would be unprecedented.

Perhaps it would just be easier to turn from our sins and back to the God who wishes for us to live in peace under the auspice of His favor, pleasure, and blessing as we live in righteousness and serve Him in bettering His kingdom here on earth.

It’s a lot better aftermath than the one we find following judgment, that’s for sure.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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