Our mind is a powerful tool that
God had given for each one of us. If we don’t find a settlement in our minds
concerning the past, we can never move on to face the future. Many people would
rather forget the past and try to move on in life. The reality is that without
dealing with our past, it is hard to move on. If we are to find total healing,
dealing with our past is inevitable. In Jeremiah’s second lament in chapter 2:1-10,
we see him doing just that. He was recalling the past. Hence, we see him
recounting again the calamities which he had described in chapter 1. He was
honestly confronting that which had been lost. In so doing, it helped him to
cope with his sorrow.
Chapter 2 is the second lamentation
of Jeremiah’s five laments. In the first lament in chapter 1, we discover that
sin always brings about inexplicable ruin and that rebellion brings consequences.
In this second lament, Jeremiah seemed to be recounting the tragic event that
had taken place in 587 B.C. This takes us back to the fall of Jerusalem.
Reading the verses of Lamentation 2 tells us how tragic that day of the fall
was. Jeremiah recalled the glorious day of Jerusalem that was gone. Lamentation
2:1-1o describe for us the judgement that God’s people had to endure in that
tragic event. Here, we cannot get away from the fact that it was Yahweh who had
brought about those calamities. Three metaphors are used to show how God had
dealt with them. He paralleled what took place in Judah as a solar
eclipse. In God’s anger, he covered Judah with a cloud of anger. Then secondly,
he depicted Judah’s fall to a falling star. He said God had cast the glory
of Israel from heaven to earth. The third metaphor, Jerusalem, the footstool of
God, had been forgotten in the day of His wrath. In what God had done, He had
brought about Israel’s perplexity. He had brought
them low and seemed to have abandoned them.
Everything in Jerusalem was
not spared. The word ‘swallow’ was used repeatedly to show that nothing
was spared. God had swallowed them all up. It appeared as if Yahweh had become
their enemy. “The horn of Israel,” referring to their strength as a nation was
demolished. Their dwelling places, the palaces, the rulers had all fallen.
Youth who was once the delight of the nation was destroyed. God seemed to have
refrained from assisting them in the face of their enemies and He had even come
against His own people in hostility. Verse 6 tells us that the Temple was
easily dismantled, like bringing down a booth in the garden. With the
temple destroyed, everything ceased. Feasts could not be celebrated, the
sabbath was no longer observed, the king and priest had no more roles. The
celebration noises that once came from the Temple was no more. The noises that
now hailed from their place of worship were noises made by their enemies.
Yahweh had brought about the demolition of Jerusalem. Gates and bars that once
protected the city had all been destroyed. They laid underneath the rubble and
irreparably useless.
What about the kings and princes? They were carried
into a foreign land. No longer could the laws that were given by God be obeyed. They were
devoid of vision. The false prophets who foretell the deliverance from the hand
of Babylon now had nothing to say. The elders had no word of comfort for
the people. The calamitous situation had brought low the spirit. The absence of
the song of joy from the maidens was deafening. Remembering the past
dealings of God, though frightening, can be a good reminder of what not to do.
Failing the Lord once is bad enough. To fail Him again would be foolishness.
But we cannot change when there is no self-awareness. Recalling the past can be
therapeutic. It drives us to do better. However, the needful thing is not to
camp in our past. We should learn as much as we can from them, arising from the
ashes of our past had to take place if we are to progress in God. So, let’s
learn, repent and move on!
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