Lamentations 5:1-22--Restore Us to Yourself, O LORD

Lamentations 5
English Standard Version

Restore Us to Yourself, O LORD
5 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
    the wood we get must be bought.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks;
    we are weary; we are given no rest.
6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,
    to get bread enough.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
    and we bear their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us;
    there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
    because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven
    with the burning heat of famine.
11 Women are raped in Zion,
    young women in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
    no respect is shown to the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
    and boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The old men have left the city gate,
    the young men their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart has become sick,
    for these things our eyes have grown dim,
18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
    jackals prowl over it.
19 But you, O LORD, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old--
22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

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This brings us to the end of the writings of Jeremiah, who is considered one of the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets.  When Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I am?," one of the answers was that He had to be Jeremiah or one of the other prophets come back from the dead.  Jeremiah's last words that we have recorded here are a cry to the LORD for restoration.  Judgment is coming, but it will not last forever, and then the LORD will need to remember His people and restore them because of His great love that He has for them.

It would appear from the outside like they have been cast out and abandoned (many make similar arguments now forgetting that the LORD promises an even better restoration for the nation of Israel that is yet to come).  They currently are without land, food, water, or shelter.  They struggle for any of their basic needs to be met.  They are captives of a pagan culture.  They have made deals with evil nations for food and now they do whatever is necessary, even putting their own lives in peril to get food.

They used to be the head, but they are now the tail.  Slaves rule over them.  Those who were once their princes are now common laborers or have been executed.  They lack vision or hope of a better future.  The old men who have survived no longer conduct business and share wisdom at the city gate.  The young men no longer make and play music.  There is no laughter--only mourning and weeping.  No joy--only sorrow.

The people who were once first among all the nations have had the crown fall from their heads.  They have sinned against the LORD and are under the curse of the Law.  Their hearts are sick and where there was once light, there is now nothing but darkness.  The place that was the The City of the Great King is now in ruins a place for jackals.  There is nothing beautiful about The Beautiful Land anymore.  We'll see in the book of Ezekiel that the glory of the LORD departs from that place (not because He abandons His people, but because He makes the journey with them into Exile--He dwells among His people wherever they go).  The glory of the LORD may have departed Jerusalem and the Temple, but one day He would return as the Word made flesh who "tabernacled" among us, and He lives with us today by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah may feel in the moment like the LORD's people are abandoned and forgotten forever, but He has a plan to restore and renew them that would cost Him His own Son.  He would be the one that would be utterly rejected for us.  He would take the anger and wrath upon Himself so that we might have the blessings that only He deserved.  Jeremiah can't quite see the whole picture yet, but God is already going to give a better answer to Jeremiah than he could have ever anticipated when the timing is perfect.  It just isn't time yet, so we continue to wait in anticipation as we come to the end of another book of the Old Testament that points us towards the needs for something better that is fulfilled in the New Testament in the person and work of Jesus.