Lamentations 2
“They cry to their mothers, ‘Where is bread and wine?’ as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom.” (Lamentations 2:12, ESV)
I recall when our children were young and became ill, just how helpless we felt. They would be coughing in the middle of the night or feverish, and we could do so little to relieve their suffering. But our children never went to bed hungry because of a lack of food in the house. I can’t imagine the horror of watching your children starve to death when you had nothing to give them. But this is what mothers endured during the Babylonian siege. No doubt Jeremiah could not forget the look on the children’s faces and the sound of their desperate cries. They died in their mothers’ arms.
There are places in the world today where children go to bed hungry and die of malnutrition. This is tragic when there are others who have a surplus of food. But even worse than the lack of physical food is the famine of spiritual food. Physical malnutrition can lead to physical death, but spiritual malnutrition leads to eternal death. Again, what a tragedy this is when we have been blessed with so many spiritual riches in Christ!
“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘That I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east. They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it.’” (Amos 8:11–12, NKJV)
How can we endure the cries of those who have no spiritual nourishment? They cry for all the things they want that they think will satisfy them. But these things will not quench their spiritual thirst, nor satisfy their congenital hunger for God.
Jeremiah wept profusely over the plight of his people. May God strike our stony hearts to bring forth a river of tears. Before we can be reapers of souls we must first become weepers of souls.
“Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord. Lift up your hands to him in prayer, pleading for your children, for in every street they are faint with hunger.” (Lamentations 2:19, NLT)