Tuesday, July 3, 2018

accepting responsibility and consequences

The Lord is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and see my suffering;
my young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
Lamentations 1:18

Once God had judged, and an awareness of the consequences began to set in, the survivors in Jerusalem wept over their losses. And the first step toward repentance began as they acknowledged that God was right to judge them for they had truly rebelled against His Word for generations. This was why they suffered. This was why the youngest, best, and brightest among them were led away captive to Babylon.

Counting her losses and tending to her wounds, Jerusalem is pictured like a war widow in grief. But this widow has also seen her children dragged from her by the enemy and because she was also unfaithful, she found no consolation in her other lovers who themselves have also perished (Lamentations 1:19). She can only cry out in grief and cold pain, well aware that her own sins have brought her this low (Lamentations 1:20).

And true repentance must always accept responsibility for sin and live with the consequences of sin. In that humility and brokenheartedness, God can work to rebuild. Anything less is probably still self-centered. To accept responsibility but not consequences says that God is an unfair judge. To accept consequence without responsibility is fatalistic. Real repentance must accept both.

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