pardons …”( 3:31-32). Let us search and examine our ways, and turn back to God”( 3:40).
We can draw two lessons about hope from Lamentations. The first calls us to look inward and take a measure of responsibility for the painful situations in which we find ourselves.
Lamentations reveals that Judah’ s fault lay not simply in failing to honor God’ s commandments, but in a stubborn unwillingness to face reality. The leaders and residents of Jerusalem seem to have harbored the fantasy that the city was impregnable:“ The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any inhabitants of the world that foe or adversary could enter the gates of Jerusalem”( 4:12). The arrogance here is only matched by the unwillingness to recognize the downfall of other great cities also thought to enjoy the protection of their gods.
The prophet Jeremiah fills in some of the political back story missing in Lamentations. Jeremiah inveighed against antagonizing Babylon:“ Serve him and live! Otherwise you will die … by sword, famine and pestilence, as God has decreed against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon”( Jeremiah 27:13). Instead, Zedekiah imprudently rebelled against Babylon, setting the stage for Nebuchadnezzar’ s destruction of Jerusalem and exile of its survivors.
Lamentations also observes that the rulers of Jerusalem“ gave no thought to her future”( 1:9). As Rashi explains, this means that“ they were not mindful of what their end would be,” i. e. they didn’ t consider the divine consequences of their sinful behavior. But we can extend that to include a more general failure to properly assess the implications of fomenting rebellion against the overwhelming power of Babylon.
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