Lamentations 1:18-22

The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against His command; hear now, all peoples, and behold my pain; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders perished in the city while they sought food to restore their strength themselves. See, O Lord, for I am in distress; my spirit is greatly troubled; my heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword slays; in the house it is like death. They have heard that I groan; there is no one to comfort me; all my enemies have heard of my calamity; they are glad that You have done it. Oh, that You would bring the day which You have proclaimed, that they may become like me. Let all their wickedness come before You; and deal with them as You have dealt with me for all my transgressions; for my groans are many and my heart is faint.”^[1]

It is far easier to blame everyone and everything else for the predicaments in which we find ourselves than to confess that we have rebelled. This is true for individuals and it is true for nations. It is also easy to run to scripture and find comfort in the prophetic utterances therein. While it is true that scripture tells us that certain events must take place in the last days, how many believers of the hundreds of years since those warnings were written have done the same thing? The difficult thing, the honest thing, the integrious thing is to admit that we are in the predicament because of our sin.

That is what Jerusalem did here. They acknowledged their sin and the righteousness of God. They confessed that they had knowingly rebelled against God’s righteous decrees and were now suffering the consequences of that rebellion. Their confession was right but invoking a curse on their enemies, though common practice in that day, was contrary to what Jesus would teach, “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). Whatever horrific situation in which we may find ourselves may not be the result of an attack of the enemy. It may not from any external cause, but may be the result of nothing more than our arrogant rebellion. Let us not be like Jerusalem who thought they could escape God’s punishment for their rebellion. Let us own our sin, confess our sn, and be forgiven of it.

Dear Jesus, thank You for dying for us while we were still laboring in our sin. Convict us today of our sin and rebellion. Trouble us until we cease deflecting the guilt away from ourselves to others and take responsibility for it. Forgive us of our arrogance individually and collectively as a nation that causes us to think we are above Your law and beyond Your wrath. Call us to accountability that we may confess boldly before You and receive mercy. So humbly we bow before You and ask for Your forgiveness and restoration in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), La 1:18–22.