The Anger Of The Lord Series

Introduction

In the first chapter of this somber book, we saw the city of Jerusalem sitting solitary, like a weeping widow abandoned by all her friends. The prophet described her pain from the outside, looking in. But here, in chapter two, the focus shifts dramatically. The lens zooms past the Babylonian soldiers, past the political failure, and fixes upon a shocking and terrible reality: The agent of this destruction is God Himself. This chapter forces us to wrestle with the difficult truth of divine judgment. It is a raw, unflinching look at what the Bible calls the fierce anger of the Lord against sin, an anger poured out not upon a foreign enemy, but upon His own covenant people.

I. The Lord as an Adversary (Lamentations 2:1-10)

A. He Has Cast Down His Glory. The chapter opens by declaring who has done this: “How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!” (v. 1). The "beauty of Israel," the temple itself, God’s own "footstool," has been cast down. God has not held back; He has swallowed up the habitations of Jacob and thrown down the strongholds of Judah without pity (v. 2). He is actively dismantling the kingdom He established.

B. He Has Bent His Bow Like an Enemy. The imagery becomes that of a divine warrior turned against His own. “He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.” (v. 4). The Lord is not a passive observer; He is the active aggressor. The hand that once delivered is now raised in judgment. He has become, in the words of the text, “like an enemy” (v. 5).

C. He Has Silenced His Sanctuary. The very center of Israel's life and worship has been violently destroyed by its own God. “And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle… he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.” (v. 6). The Lord has abhorred His own sanctuary and forsaken His own altar (v. 7). The silence of canceled feasts and forgotten sabbaths is a deafening testament to His fury.

II. The Agony of the People (Lamentations 2:11-19)

A. The Prophet's Personal Grief. The spectacle is too much for the prophet to bear. His report is choked with tears. “Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.” (v. 11). This is not a detached theological observation; it is a heartbroken cry from a man watching his people, especially the most innocent, perish before his eyes.

B. The Failure of False Prophets. In the midst of this suffering, the prophet identifies a key reason for this calamity: spiritual malpractice. “Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.” (v. 14). The people were betrayed by leaders who offered comfortable lies instead of hard truths. They failed to expose the sin that was leading the nation to ruin, and now the ruin has come.

C. A Call to Ceaseless Lament. Seeing the devastation, the prophet urges the city itself to take up his cry. “Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.” (v. 19). There is to be no rest, no quiet acceptance. The only proper response to this level of suffering is a constant, desperate, and heartfelt appeal to the Lord who has caused it.

III. The Appeal to the Lord (Lamentations 2:20-22)

A. A Question of Unprecedented Suffering. The lament now shifts to a direct and agonizing address to God Himself. “Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?” (v. 20). This is perhaps the most shocking verse in the chapter. The suffering is so complete that the basic bonds of human nature have broken, leading to cannibalism. The city cries out, "Look, God! See what has become of us! Is this who we are, your chosen people?"