Jeremiah’s second lament rehearses many of the same calamities as the first. Those who have suffered a great loss can understand the need for such repetition. A vital part of the grieving process is to honestly confront what has been lost. The process cannot be rushed. The tears should not be suppressed, nor the sorrow denied. There is something healthy about remembering the days that are no more, lamenting the irrecoverable past. In Lamentations 2, Jerusalem seems to have lost everything. Gone is her glorious temple, the place where she met with God and made sacrifice for sin (v 1, 17). Gone are her homes, her ramparts, and her gates. All these have been pillaged and burned to the ground (v 2-3, 5, 7-9). The city has lost her political and spiritual leaders (v 9)—though in the case of the prophets, the loss may not have been significant, as they no longer spoke for God (v 14). Those who survived the invasion of Babylon could only “sit on the ground in silence,” with heads bowed low (v 10, 18). Jeremiah, too, was so devastated by what he had seen that all he could do was join the mourners (v 11a), beg for God to display mercy, and invite others to pray with him (v 18-22). To be sure, the horrific suffering was a consequence of Judah’s own sin. But the reality still had to be faced: the disaster that had come upon them was the Sovereign LORD’s doing. He had not only allowed His own city to be defeated, He had helped destroy it. While He used the Babylonians, God Himself was the ultimate cause of Jerusalem’s affliction. He had hurled down the temple, burned the city, and left its people to die in the streets. When Israel came out of Egypt in the days of the exodus, God showed Himself to be the Warrior God who fought for His people to bring salvation and rest (Deut 20:4). But when Israel was taken to Babylon in the days of the exile, God had become their enemy, the destroyer of the kingdom. This adds a rather terrifying dimension to the entire lament: here is the Divine Warrior fighting against His own people (v 1-8). If the people had been listening to Jeremiah, they would not have been surprised to find God as their enemy. The prophet had long predicted that Judah would be judged for her sins. When judgment finally came, he said, “The LORD has done what He purposed; He has carried out His word, which He commanded long ago” (v 17). The fall of Jerusalem revealed the justice of God, but it was also an act of divine love. God’s purpose was to discipline His children so they would turn from their sin and trust in Him alone. For further meditation: