Lamentations 5

Verses 1-16, “Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us; Look, and behold our reproach! Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, And our houses to foreigners. We have become orphans and waifs, Our mothers are like widows. We pay for the water we drink, And our wood comes at a price. They pursue at our heels; We labor and have no rest. We have given our hand to the Egyptians And the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers sinned and are no more, But we bear their iniquities. Servants rule over us; There is none to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the risk of our lives, Because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is hot as an oven, Because of the fever of famine. They ravished the women in Zion, The maidens in the cities of Judah. Princes were hung up by their hands, And elders were not respected. Young men ground at the millstones; Boys staggered under loads of wood. The elders have ceased gathering at the gate, And the young men from their music. The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!”

Here we get a glimpse at the full weight of the consequences of disobedience toward God. The Jews had lost their inherited land and their homes to foreigners. Their families were gone, and those who were left were financially destitute. They were so under Babylonian control that they were not even permitted to gather wood and water, the basic necessities. If that wasn't bad enough, their women were brutalized, their princes were hung disgracefully, and their young men were reduced to women's work of grinding. For all the pride this nation once had, thinking they could do as they pleased, there was nothing left to boast over. God had thoroughly humbled them, because they would not humble themselves.

The question for all of us is...how bad does it have to get in our lives for us to humble ourselves in obedience to God? You see, God will not force us to obey Him. We do have free will. But our choices to fulfill the desires of our flesh are not without consequences, because God is just. Therefore, if you continue down this path, your spiritual inheritance will be taken away.  Galatians 5:16‭-‬21, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

As bad as the situation was for the Jews, it was nothing compared to the eternal torture that waits for those who disobey God. If you cannot or will not crucify your flesh, but continue to obey its desires over obedience to God; then you will not escape His wrath. Now is the time to examine yourself and put off these behaviors that show you are not restrained by the Holy Spirit. Colossians 3:5‭-‬11, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”