Lamentations 5, II Peter 2, Psalm 69 OR Sirach 22
I know that skipping Saturday’s blog is becoming a little too regular; this week I had an excuse as I was moving my son into college. Be assured that I am still reading!
Anyway, although today we read the last chapter of Lamentations, I do want to pick up also on a verse from Saturday: “Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken, by want of the fruits of the field.”
Often, reading the Bible or historical accounts of our world, we reflect on how barbarous our ancestors were and how civilized we have become, with our targeted drone strikes and tactical interventions. Yet siege, that medieval word, is still a reality of our world.
Those of us of a certain age will think of the Siege of Sarajevo, for which war crimes prosecutions have been pursued. Yet siege per se is not against international law (http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/siege/).
Those of us who remember the stories, who read Lamentations and weep, might pass a thought and a prayer for those living under the Gaza blockade, which some would say is a siege by any other name. I invite you to research and make up your own mind about the civility and humanity of such a strategy (see, for example, http://www.globalresearch.ca/maintaining-the-unlawful-siege-of-gaza-is-a-crime-against-humanity/5395417) .
How far have we really come, O Lord? And how far have we fallen? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?
Epiphany's Bible Challenge 