la·ment
[ləˈment]
NOUN
1. a passionate expression of grief or sorrow:
Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who witnessed the horrors of two invasions of Israel by external, marauding armies. Both the Assyrian and Babylonian armies were ruthless in their treatment of who they were going to conquer and ended up taking the Israelites into exile. Prior to the exile Jeremiah had been telling God’s people that they needed to turn from their wicked ways and turn to God. In short, he told them that they had to change their hearts. Needless to say, he wasn’t a very popular guy. Unfortunately, they didn’t heed the call to change and turn their hearts towards God.
Jeremiah knew that the human heart was at the center of what was transpiring in ancient Israel; pagan revelry, debauchery, idol worship. He also knew that if the people didn’t change their hearts, God would bring about discipline as a way of drawing His people back to Him.
Lamenting is a word that we typically don’t use in our Western language. Mainly we keep our grief and sorrow more subdued. And yet lamenting is something that our country has been collectively doing…yet again over the past week. How many conversations have you engaged in since last Wednesday’s horror in Parkland, Florida? Like me you have probably engaged in many. It’s important to remember that the cause for this type of tragedy always begins in the human heart. No matter how any type of violence is inflicted, it is simply a reflection of the heart of the wrongdoer.
Looking out over a wasted landscape, as the Israelites were being taken into exile, Jeremiah lamented what could have been. And so, do we.