Lamentations 3:37-5

[wolfpurplemoon]

Yeah, why should any living person complain when punished for his sins, especially when those sins have been arbitrarily decided by a deity who loves to deliver over the top punishments.

Lamentations ends with a final lamenting prayer, the people are asking why God has forgotten them.

Comments

[zteccc.livejournal.com]

Chapter 3:37-66 The Prophet continues. "We shouldn't complain when we are being punished, Instead we should think about the way we are living and turn back to the Lord." People should admit their sins to God and God will forgive.

Chapter 4 - Another monologue from The Prophet. The people of Jerusalem suffer due to their sins. The suffering is great, but so were the sins. The Prophet doesn't defend the sins or claim that the punishment is unjust, simply horrible.

Chapter 5 is a prayer from the people of Jerusalem. They tell God that they understand their punishment and that they are waiting for God to restore their relationship with God once more.

You mention that you feel the punishments to be both arbitrary and over the top. I submit that you are ignoring a few facts. First, the punishments were clear from well before the people began violating the covenant. Second, God repeatedly gave warnings and gave opportunities for the people to return to the covenant. When the people did so, God repeatedly welcomed them back. The prophets were sent to give these warnings, and several of them did so, generation after generation. The people kept drifting further away from the covenant, willfully disregarding the warnings. Third, the consequences only came after the people willingly refused to return to the covenant.

If a person disregards the laws of society and isn't caught immediately, the person often continues to disregard the laws in greater and more outrageous fashion. The person might even receive several warnings. Eventually though, when the crimes become heinous enough, the person is sought after, arrested and punished by society. Often, the criminal will complain about the arbitrary nature of the punishment and the enforcement (after all, they should have been arrested the first time and weren't). Eventually, if the person is allowed enough time, the person may even commit a capital offense and people will protest and complain that it is unfair and arbitrary to punish the person as the law provides. To the contrary, the social contract and the written laws exist precisely so that nobody can make such a claim. Because the law is publicly available to read and learn, nobody can claim to be unaware that certain crimes will necessitate certain punishments. Eventually crimes must be punished or the law and society would be meaningless.

This is even more true with the covenant. The people of Israel and Judah were taught from an early age about their history and about the covenant. They knew their responsibilities, the benefits and the potential consequences involved, yet they consistently turned away from the covenant in more egregious ways. Eventually the consequences of their actions had to visit them or the covenant would have been meaningless.

-- Jeff