Lamentations 5: What Despair Looks Like

I have found that a great deal of wisdom comes from learning the lessons of others.  Why suffer the hard knocks and painful experiences that result from bad decisions yourself - when you can instead benefit by applying the truths that others have discovered to your own situation?  Such is the case when it comes to the horrible circumstances endured by the residents of Judah when God's judgment falls by the hand of the Babylonians.  We can stand in their shoes vicariously and appreciate the salvation that God provides through the grace of His Son Jesus Christ.

The trauma inflicted upon the Jews is stunning in its totality.  Every sphere of society and demographic group is destructively affected.  Women and virgins?  Raped in Jerusalem and the towns of Judah (vs. 11).  Princes and elders?  Hung by their hands and disrespected (vs. 12).  Young men?  Enslaved and put to work (vs. 13).  Old men?  No longer found at the city gate (vs. 14).  Jeremiah surveys the situation and writes, "The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning" (vs. 15).  The nation of Judah is irretrievably smashed and broken.

There is only one hope left: that the Lord will somehow relent and restore the people.  Only God can turn things around.  The nation (if you can still call the loose assemblage of people a nation) is quite helpless.  But is it still possible?  Jeremiah seems to have his doubts: "Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old—unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure" (vs. 21-22).  

That is how close the story of God's people and His redemptive work in history came to being wiped out.  The failure of the Old Covenant to secure a right relationship with God prepares the way for the work that He will do in the New Covenant.  While the basis of faith remains the same, it is only the God-man Jesus Christ who is able to fulfill the terms of sinless perfection while simultaneously serving as our guilt offering.  Because of God's redeeming and sanctifying grace through His Son and His Spirit, the spiritual fate of Judah will never have to be suffered by God's people again.