We don’t often think in terms of the comprehensive suffering that Judah endured during exile. It was not just that their enemies came and put them in chains. They struggled immensely. Their sin cost them dearly. In Lamentations 5, we again get some of the details that went down after the burning of the city. The survivors of the Babylonian siege were caught in between the Egyptians and the Assyrians. They were also vulnerable to the incoming nomads who came from the desert in search of food.
The people endured murder, rape, hunger, slavery, disease, and complete disrespect from all surrounding nations. Happiness was overtaken by grief. There was no joy. The questions Jeremiah asks God at the end of the chapter are relevant. Many of us have felt the same way in our own lives.
Why have you abandoned us so long? Will you ever remember us again? Have you rejected us forever? Is there no limit to your anger?
These are tough questions to which there are no satisfactory answers. However, the expectation that Jeremiah has regarding restoration shows us that he does have faith in God’s mercy. The fact that he even asks these questions appeals to the truth that God’s character is not to reject His people. He loves us with a fiery tough love that annihilates all the impurities we seek to hold onto. He is not afraid to bring a storm into our midst that we might come to know Him and turn from ourselves.
So the question is not, why have you abandoned us? The question is, why haven’t you completely abandoned us? With as prone as we are to our sinful ways, it’s miraculous to consider that God still made a way for us into His Kingdom. He still followed through on His promises despite our unfaithfulness to Him. So when we think about Jesus, we know that whatever we are going through cannot compare to the arms of our Savior when we step from this life into eternity.