Faithful in Righteousness

Lamentations 3:52-57

We saw in our previous article how Jeremiah had changed his tone from speaking about his own enemies (fellow Jews), to the common enemy (Babylon). Jeremiah wept for Jewish people who were being persecuted and slain by the Babylonians. But he still held out complete hope in God (verse 50).

Jeremiah’s tone changes back for the remainder of this chapter. He no longer appears to be speaking about the Babylonians, but about the enemies who mocked and abused him, the same enemies he spoke about in the beginning of this chapter (verse 14). Here we will see more about how Jeremiah was hated by his own people and how he responded to it.

We read in Lamentations 3:52-54 how Jeremiah was hunted down like a bird (verse 52), thrown into a pit (verse 53) and struggled to stay afloat (verse 54). His enemies did not like the message he preached, and they wanted to silence him.

This portion of this chapter may be based on the experience Jeremiah had in the book of Jeremiah, specifically in Jeremiah 38:4-6. Jeremiah had preached and let the Israelites know that God had told him that they needed to surrender to the Babylonians or they would be killed. The Jewish leaders rejected him and threw him down into a dungeon where Jeremiah sank in the mire (swampy, boggy ground).

We do not know if this was the same situation that Jeremiah writes about in Lamentations 3. If it is, then Jeremiah was not just cast into the dungeon, but he also had people throwing stones at him while he sat helplessly stuck in the boggy ground. He did what was right and was rewarded with mocking and slandering. His love for his people was reciprocated with hate from his countrymen. If it is not the same time, then he was cast into a dungeon on multiple occasions.

Jeremiah once again shows us what the perfect response is when you find yourself being attacked unjustly. As Jeremiah sat in “the lowest pit” (3:55) he cried out to God to rescue him (3:56). Often times this is the only time that we cry out to God, when we really have no other choice, and God rescues us. Here, Jeremiah had been doing right and still found himself in a terrible situation, yet he still cried out to God. I think it is easier to cry out to God when we have done wrong and find ourselves in bad situations (like the Israelites in Judges), because we are crying out to a gracious God who, though we are aware we don’t deserve it, will come to our aid. It is more difficult, in my opinion, to cry out to God and trust Him when we have done righteously and are still being persecuted.

I recall a time in college when I was doing well and really trying to grow and walk with God and yet I was dealing with darkness. I remember getting mad at God because I was doing right and yet suffering for no apparent reason, and, to my shame, I turned from trying to do right. I didn’t want to wait on Him and suffer unjustly; I wanted to figure out how to get away from the darkness. Turning from Him only made the darkness grow. By God’s grace, He still rescued me out of that situation despite my sinfulness, but I failed to heed the advice of Jeremiah, the advice of the Scriptures, to wait on Him and trust Him to deliver me, and, while I was waiting, remain faithful.

In Lamentations 3:57, Jeremiah writes, “You drew near on the day I called on You and said, ‘Do not fear!’” When you experience God’s answer to your cry and it is the answer you want to hear, it is an awesome experience. It is a massive weight off the shoulder, a supernatural peace and joy. But reader, don’t give up if you do not immediately get the answer you want. Sometimes God will tell you to wait (or continue to wait). Sometimes you won’t hear anything. God is still there, and we can still cry out to Him, but we may continue to feel forsaken and alone.

Don’t do what I did. Don’t give up after a few days. Remain faithful. Keep praying. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Our faithful, good Father will rescue us when the time is right. When that time comes, we will rejoice as Jeremiah did at hearing our Father tell us, “Do not fear, I am coming to rescue you!”

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