Lamentations

The Book of Lamentations was written to express deep grief over the destruction of Jerusalem and to ask God to bring justice to his enemies and restoration to his people.

At first glance it might seem like overkill to devote an entire book of the Bible to lamentation over the deserved punishment of an unfaithful nation. We might be tempted to quote Paul and argue that believers sorrow, but not as “others do who have no hope” (1Thes 4:13). One of the main reasons for Lamentations is to emphasize that there is a place, even necessity, for lamentation and imprecation in the life of every believer. Solomon teaches that there is a time to weep and to mourn (Eccl 3:4), David and the psalm writers often lamented (Pss 3, 10, 13, 17, 22, 31, 42, 43, 44, 88, etc.), and even Jesus himself wept when Lazarus died (John 11:35). When we pour out our pain, complaints, desire for justice, and confusion to God in prayer, we are declaring that God is the only one who can comfort, calm, judge, and give clarity to our difficult circumstances. We are acknowledging that things are broken and only he can fix them. We are trusting that “the Judge of all the earth [will] do what is just” (Gen 18:25).

Additionally, the detailed description of human suffering serves to preserve the dignity of every human who is experiencing suffering. Even though God sent the pain and suffering to punish the nation for their breaking of the covenant, he does not delight in tormenting people (Lam 3:33). The cry for Yahweh to look at the affliction of his people (Lam 1:9, 11, 20; 2:20) is a recognition that every life matters. The lives of infants and children (Lam 1:5, 16; 2:11, 20; 4:2, 4, 10), young men and women (Lam 1:4, 18; 2:10, 21; 5:11, 12), the elderly (Lam 1:19; 2:10, 21; 4:16; 5:12), civil and religious leaders (Lam 1:4, 6, 19; 2:9, 20; 4:7, 16; 5:12), the abused (Lam 5:11), and orphans and widows (Lam 5:3) all have value to God. He notices when babies are cannibalized by their mothers, when children hunger, when elders are disrespected, when former leaders are powerless, when women are violated, and when children have lost their fathers and wives their husbands.

Lamentations also shows that God’s punishment of sin is a demonstration of his faithfulness. It may be tempting to think that God is absent or failing his people when he doesn’t stop his enemies from destroying his temple or killing and capturing his people. The reality is that all of these curses that came upon Judah were precisely what God said would happen to them if they broke the covenant they made with him (Deut 28:15–68). This faithfulness of God to bring the threatened curses upon his people is what gave Jeremiah hope in the midst of the darkness and became the basis of his plea to Judah to turn from its unfaithfulness (Lam 3:25–42).