“Is It Nothing to You, All Ye That Pass By?”

(See a video of this post in the right column.)

He sat and viewed the ruins, the destruction of a once great city, the City of David, the earthly home of the God of heaven and earth. He had given everything he had to avert this catastrophe; but people never listen. And the despondency overwhelmed him: “My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled; my bile is poured on the ground…” And why? “…because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city” (Lamentations 2:11). And the people seemingly didn’t care. “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” (Lam. 1:12) Had the people of Judah become so calloused, so apathetic to their religion, that the destruction of their temple, the mocking of their God by their enemies was a trivial thing to them? Apparently they didn’t care, and as a result, “Judah has gone into captivity,” (Lamentations 1:3).

Jeremiah had done all he could. Now he mourned while the uncaring inhabitants of the “princess among the provinces” (Lam. 1:1) trailed meekly into a humiliating slavery. It didn’t have to be. But it was.

Why? Why did it happen? Jeremiah tells us and we will briefly relate the sad tale.

1. “The Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions” (Lam. 1:5). It took a “multitude” of those sins before Jehovah was finally fed up. He has mercies that are boundless; even this sad book tells us so: “The Lord is good to unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (3:25). But, “Jerusalem has sinned gravely, therefore she has become vile” (1:8). The Lord’s patience will run out. "They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills" (4:5).

2. Judah listened to the wrong people. “Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back the captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions” (Lam. 1:14). As mentioned before on this blog, living a righteous life is difficult; it’s sin that’s easy. And there is always a market for false prophets. “If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people” (Micah 2:11). Those who tell people what they want to hear will always have a larger audience than those who will speak the truth. It was in Micah and Jeremiah’s days, and it is so now. God's word cannot be gainsayed: "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?" (Lam. 3:37).

3. Judah failed to consider the consequences of their foolish actions. “She did not consider her destiny; therefore her collapse was awesome” (Lam. 1:9). Moses had warned them nearly 900 years before: “Oh, that they were wise, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deuteronomy 32:29). God warned the people repeatedly in the Law of Moses that disobedience would bring destruction (e.g., Deut. 8:19; Lev. 26:14ff). But men do not heed the words of the wise and prudent; they prefer the flattery of fools. The Lord, however, meant what He had said: “The Lord has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word” (Lam. 2:17). Actions have consequences and if we fail to consider them—especially when explicitly warmed by the Lord and His servants—we have no one to blame but ourselves when destruction comes.

“How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!” (Lamentations 1:1). It can happen again. But there is an answer: "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again the the Lord" (Lam. 3:40