We Must grieve sin

Lamentations 2:11-19, Jeremiah 5

We have seen deep sorrow as we continue to read the author's words. It is not a sorrow of confusion of God in all of this but of confusion of the people of Jerusalem. We see that they mourn the blatant sin of their people. The author is most likely Jeremiah, who saw prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and is not living out the exile of his people in Babylon. He remembers watching false prophets lead the people in lies, the exaltation of dead things, and the disobedience of God’s people.

He is mourning not only the physical destruction of Jerusalem but the spiritual destruction. It’s easy to read this and question God - why are you doing this to them? Aren’t you the God of mercy? Yet, when we read the words of Lamentations 2, it is not the blame of God but the people. They forgot who their God was and, in turn, looked to their own hands to control the things they worshipped. It’s easy to escape guilt when your god is silent and dead.

Yet, the Most High God is alive and offended by our sins. Not only our sin but the sin of the false prophets, the wickedness of the kings who turned to evil deeds, to Israel as a whole. This is important in our individualistic society because we assume people will repent and turn on their own. That is not how the Church works. We are united and are one, and we should live like that - which means we should root out sin in ourselves and the Church body as a whole.

Church, do you mourn and repent of your sin and the sin in the Church? Do you lament the wickedness of other believers? Do you grieve in a way that non-believers see that you are just as torn up about it as they are? We should be, and we like our God, should stand up for justice. Do you trust God in that process and in his leading you to mourn and repent?