NOTES for Lam 2:14
In the Book of Lamentations, as in some other biblical books, the theme sounds of God's rejection and punishment of His people. At first glance these statements may appear too human; in them God appears like an angry earthly ruler. But on closer consideration, behind them one discovers spiritual depth and an awareness of certain very important laws of spiritual life.
Of course, this is not about punishments in the human sense of the word. Sometimes, however, God can use fairly severe methods of influence on a person in order to bring him into the needed spiritual state, but even here it is not a matter of punishment, but precisely of a strong and sometimes unexpected spiritual impact that the person himself may perceive as something undesirable for him, at least at first. But more often it is otherwise.
God has a plan for every person and for every people. Or more exactly, He has His own plan for humanity, in which every person and every people can take part if they wish: there is a place in God's plan for everyone. All the more will such a place be found for the people of God, whose very existence is inseparable from God's plan. But what if an individual person or a whole people refuses to take part, does not want to use the opportunity to take the place assigned to him by God in God's plans?
Then, obviously, such a person or people will end up where they were not supposed to be, with all the consequences that follow. And then not God's will, but chance will determine the existence of such a person or such a people. Not Providence, but fate, destiny. And if this is destructive for any people, it is doubly destructive for the people of God: after all, their very existence is possible only within the framework of Providence. But it was precisely this fact that the people-community had to realize, in captivity.