Jeremiah’s Visual of the Consequences that Resulted from Rebellion Against the Lord

Food had been scarce during the last several years not only because of the siege, but also because of the famine that had struck the land. The lack of food continued even outside the walls of fallen Jerusalem. Attaining food was not only difficult, but also dangerous because of the raiders who
moved freely through the land searching for food.

Dehydration (from lack of food and water) made the bodies of the Jews who remained in the land feverish and discolored.

The people left behind have been abused and continued to be abused:

• Women who endured a two and a half year siege inside the city of Jerusalem were raped
• Virgins from all the remote rural towns in Judah have been taken by Babylonian soldiers and officers.
• Princes, the bodily remains of men from the royal family that did not try to escape with Zedekiah and where not taken back to Babylon are still hanging by their hands on the walls, buildings and trees for birds and wild animals to eat.
• Elders are no longer recognized, in fact in Lamentations 5:8 it indicates that many of these former slave owners are now working mercilessly for their former slaves who had apparently been given some kind of authority by the Babylonians (These elders may have gone into hiding only to reappear after the Babylonian forces had left the land since 2 Kings 24:14 says, “only the poorest people of the land were left” after the 597 BC exile that took Ezekiel and the other craftsmen.)
• Young men were forced to labor like an animal
• Boys have had their childhood stolen from them since they now work like pack animals

Before the Babylonian invasion these people’s lives had been quite different:

• Elders ruled with authority in the city gates
• Young men played music
• Women and young girls where filled with joy as the danced in the glory that came from culture with structure and freedom.

But, all this has changed because of sin.

The ruins of the glorious Temple and its courts on Mount Moriah are now nothing more than hunting grounds for wild jackals who are also scavenging this desolate land for food.

Yet, in this hopeless state Jeremiah ends his book of lamentation seeking the Lord and crying out
for mercy. What else can they do? So, now, they wait in hope for their restoration.

“Jesus “Christ is the object of all things, the centre towards which all things tend. Whoever knows him knows the reason for everything.”
– Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French scientist, mathematician and thinker in his book “Pensees,” (meaning "thoughts") a defense of the Christian faith
(read it here)