What You Should Do When Trouble Comes

Trouble has come to Israel. And in Lamentations, Jeremiah pulls no punches about what has happened. The Lord Himself has taken her down. Lamentations 2 rehearses the nature of her judgment as nothing less than God's active wrath poured out upon His own chosen people. 

Lamentations 2:5 (ESV) The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

When we are disciplined for sin, it can seem like God is our enemy. And let us not forget that Lamentations is the cry of Jeremiah's heart over what has transpired. He expresses what the people perceive. They felt abandoned by God but it was they who abandoned Him. Sin carries severe consequences.  

Lamentations 2:11–12 (ESV) My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. 12 They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.

Jeremiah has watched the suffering and weeps. He is overwhelmed with the cost of sin. He witnesses not only the personal pain but also the international disrepair of Judah's reputation. 

Lamentations 2:15–16 (ESV) All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” 16 All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!”

After assessing the damage of sin, Jeremiah does what every good preacher should do. He implores the people to call out to God. 

Lamentations 2:18 (NLT) Cry aloud before the Lord, O walls of beautiful Jerusalem! Let your tears flow like a river day and night. Give yourselves no rest; give your eyes no relief.

Think of that line. "Give yourselves no rest... your eyes no relief". In other words, get serious about your situation and call out to God. 

Lamentations 2:19 (NLT) Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord. Lift up your hands to him in prayer, pleading for your children, for in every street they are faint with hunger.

What should we do when our lives are troubled by sin? Never stop praying! Let God know what we feel and how we need Him to change us! 

In verse 20, Jeremiah moves from asking people to pray to being the intercessor of the nation. 

Lamentations 2:20 (ESV) Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Do we look at our estate as Jeremiah? Do we see the just recompense of sin's consequences on our lives and then turn to God for deliverance? Perhaps there are personal accountings we should take when we see areas of our lives in shambles. It's hard to do this. For Israel, it cost them 70 years. Their stubbornness was their own undoing. But Jeremiah walks them through it, pointing to the cause and presenting the opportunity for relief. If we listen and learn, we could save ourselves decades of discontent.