When bad things happen…

When bad things happen, you have lots of questions and no answers…

What can I say for you?
With what can I compare you,
Daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea.
Who can heal you?  Lamentations 2:13

When bad things happen, you realise that you misread the signs…

The visions of your prophets
were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
to ward off your captivity.
The prophecies they gave you
were false and misleading.  Lamentations 2:14

When bad things happen, people remember who you once were, how you once were, and cannot believe it has come to this…

All who pass your way
clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?”  Lamentations 2:15

When bad things happen, the people who’ve never really liked you find plenty to say…

All your enemies open their mouths
wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth
and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for;
we have lived to see it.”  Lamentations 2:16

When bad things happen, it’s a great opportunity for those who hate you to gloat…

The Lord has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you,
he has exalted the horn of your foes.  Lamentations 2:17

When bad things happen, sometimes tears are the only option…

The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.
You walls of Daughter Zion,
let your tears flow like a river
day and night;
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.  Lamentations 2:18

When bad things happen, your natural response is to cry out to God for help…

Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
at every street corner.  Lamentations 2:19

When bad things happen, you question how God could have allowed this to happen…

Look, Lord, and consider:
Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?  Lamentations 2:20

When bad things happen, you see that suffering is a real leveller and can affect anyone and everyone…

Young and old lie together
in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity.  Lamentations 2:21

When bad things happen, the only reasonable conclusion seems to be that God is angry with you and is punishing you…

“As you summon to a feast day,
so you summoned against me terrors on every side.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared
my enemy has destroyed.”  Lamentations 2:22

Ten consecutive verses from the second poem in Lamentations. Ten different takes on when bad things happen.

Don’t ever try to tell me that the Bible is irrelevant and has nothing to say to us in our world today.

Humans are essentially the same now as then. They suffer loss. They respond in the same way. They ask the same questions. They draw the same conclusions.

About 2500 years on and pretty much nothing has changed in the way that we respond to suffering.

And this is very real and raw, isn’t it? It accuses God and puts God on trial. It’s honest. It’s not trying the say the right thing for fear of upsetting anyone or upsetting God. This is authentic grief. Uncensored.

And God’s more than OK with that.