September 25 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Lamentations 2:17-22

¹⁷The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
¹⁸Their heart cried unto the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the LORD: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
²⁰Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
²¹The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.
²²Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Devotional:

Israel had sinned. God in His just anger had punished His people. What a terrifying scene Jeremiah paints here!

There was heartache and distress all about the city. There was physical pain and anguish and hunger of which we in our favored country cannot conceive. Above all there was the anguish of soul that is even more unbearable.

No wonder the parents were to 'arise and cry out in the night' before the Lord for their young children (2:19). One version reads this way:

Arise, cry aloud in the night
At the beginning of the night watches;
Pour out your heart like water
Before the presence of the Lord;
Lift up your hands to Him
For the life of your little ones
Who are faint because of hunger
At the head of every street. (NASV)

Today our children hunger for truth. There is anguish and pain of spirit. There is estrangement and defeat. On every side they are being fed husks which will not nourish their souls. To the sensitive Christian, today is as terrifying as was the day of Jeremiah! When did we last cry aloud in the beginning of the watches and pour out our hearts like water before the face of the Lord for the life of our young children that faint in hunger in the top of every street?

Lord, teach us as a Christian community to pray like that for our children, our grandchildren, children all over the world! Help us to give them the food they need for their souls!