19 My [g]soul, my [h]soul! I am in anguish! [i]Oh, my heart!
My heart is pounding in me;
I cannot be silent,
Because [j]you have heard, O my soul,
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.
20 Disaster on disaster is proclaimed,
For the whole land is devastated;
Suddenly my tents are devastated,
My curtains in an instant.
21 How long must I see the standard
And hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 “For My people are foolish,
They know Me not;
They are stupid children
And have no understanding.
They are shrewd to do evil,
But to do good they do not know.”23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was [k] formless and void;
And to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
And all the hills [l]moved to and fro.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, [m]the fruitful land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.27 For thus says the Lord,
“The whole land shall be a desolation,
Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.
28 “For this the earth shall mourn
And the heavens above be dark,
Because I have spoken, I have purposed,
And I will not [n]change My mind, nor will I turn from it.”
29 At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees;
They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;
Every city is forsaken,
And no man dwells in them.
30 And you, O desolate one, what will you do?
Although you dress in scarlet,
Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,
Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,
In vain you make yourself beautiful.
Your [o]lovers despise you;
They seek your life.
31 For I heard a [p]cry as of a woman in labor,
The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
The [q]cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
Stretching out her [r]hands, saying,
“Ah, woe is me, for [s]I faint before murderers.”
Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet, and no doubt we will see why when we get to the book of Lamentations–yes, he wrote two full books, not just one. Yet it isn’t Jeremiah weeping here over the judgment of Judah, but rather God himself who cries out. Or at least that’s the way it seems, though one might argue it was Jeremiah at the start, and God’s words later on.
But I don’t think it is too much a stretch to say that God’s heart broke as He poured out judgment on His own people. God never stopped loving His people. He cannot, for He does not change with the years or the seasons. Further, He knew the calamity and evil deeds that would come with war and conquest by a foreign nation.
Ultimately, God could not stand idly by and watch Judah wallow in their sin and filth without taking action. Just as His love caused anguish for His own heart, so did God’s love compel Him to fulfill His word. It’s an incredible paradox, and is difficult to understand. Would that we could capture but a part of it in our own hearts, that we would let Him fill our hearts with His love.
Our hearts ought to break at the sin sick state of our world, and not be angry or enraged at the foolish deeds carried out in our world. Rather, we need to ask God for His love to fill us up, so that we would see people with His eyes. So that we would know how much He desires to rescue them, and share His love with others.
There will be a day for judgment, when God cannot hold back any longer. We don’t know when that is, but it is not today. Today is a day to love people well, to love them with a heart that breaks to see them lost and in pain–and doesn’t want them to stay there. Put away the rage of the mass, the hysteria of the media who shouts for carnage, and love people with the love of God.
Meet lost people where they are, and show His love in any tangible way that you can. Never stop loving, because God doesn’t and cannot. Love is who He is, let Him shine through you.