How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
with the cloud of his anger !
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.
Without pity the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
the strongholds of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
down to the ground in dishonor.
In fierce anger he has cut off
every horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand
at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything around it.
Like an enemy he has strung his bow;
his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
all who were pleasing to the eye;
he has poured out his wrath like fire
on the tent of Daughter Zion.
The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
and destroyed her strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
for Daughter Judah.
He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
he has destroyed his place of meeting.
The Lord has made Zion forget
her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;
in his fierce anger he has spurned
both king and priest.
The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces
into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
as on the day of an appointed festival.
The Lord determined to tear down
the wall around Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts and walls lament;
together they wasted away.
Her gates have sunk into the ground;
their bars he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,
the law is no more,
and her prophets no longer find
visions from the Lord.
The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have sprinkled dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
My eyes fail from weeping,
I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground
because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.
They say to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away
in their mothers’ arms.
What can I say for you?
With what can I compare you,
Daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea.
Who can heal you?
The visions of your prophets
were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
to ward off your captivity.
The prophecies they gave you
were false and misleading.
All who pass your way
clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?”
All your enemies open their mouths
wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth
and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for;
we have lived to see it.”
The Lord has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you,
he has exalted the horn of your foes.
The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.
You walls of Daughter Zion,
let your tears flow like a river
day and night;
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.
Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
at every street corner.
“Look, Lord, and consider:
Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
“Young and old lie together
in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity.
“As you summon to a feast day,
so you summoned against me terrors on every side.
In the day of the Lord ’s anger
no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared
my enemy has destroyed.”
My thoughts -
So this is rock bottom. Jerusalem has fallen. Babylon has conquered. The people have been captured and only a small remnant remains. Things are looking bleak.
The Bible is a love story between God and God's people, and here God is playing the role of a scorned lover. Rather than being the people's strength and salvation we find that God is "like an enemy". The relationship has broken down. The people have betrayed God. They have been unfaithful. They have worshipped other Gods. They have not upheld the law. They have shown no concern for righteousness or justice. And they have fallen.
Things are so bleak we have a description of such desperation that mothers, starving, may resort to eating their young. Surely it can't get any worse than this. Surely this is rock bottom. Surely they have fallen enough.
They are conquered. They are defeated. They are literally starving to death. Their king has watched his sons be put to death and then had his eyes gauged out. He will never know freedom. The last sight he saw was horrific and he will die alone in a cell. Those who remain have inherited a land that has been stripped of everything of value. They are poor. They are desperate. They are starving to death. And their God who could have been their shelter, who could have been their protector, who could have been their salvation, has become like an enemy to them.
Surely it can't get any worse than this. Surely this is rock bottom. Surely they have suffered enough and can turn back to God now.
Have you ever watched a loved one hit rock bottom? It breaks your heart. You want to try to help but it seems that there is nothing that can be done. You want to reach down and pull them back up but they are oblivious, they just keep digging. When reading this I can't help but fast forward a bit.
God has seen humanity at its worst. God has seen us at our most depraved. God has seen the suffering that we cause for each other. God has seen our abuses. God has seen our wretchedness. God has seen us suffer. God knows us at our worst. We are an awful, pitiful mess.
God saw Jerusalem hit rock bottom and God has seen all of humanity hit rock bottom. God's heart, even as God in this passage is playing the role of the scorned lover who has been betrayed by an unfaithful people, has to have broken. You can not watch a loved one suffer like this, even if the suffering is self inflicted, without your heart breaking.
God saw us at our worst and sent Jesus to redeem us. God saw us broken and sent Jesus to restore us. God saw us lost and sent Jesus to guide us back. We hit rock bottom and God sent Jesus to tell us to stop digging, grab his hand, and be lifted back up.
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