The past few weeks in Mississippi and Louisiana, we certainly don’t have any trouble understanding the problem of dry weather: our yards are crunchy and our crops are withering. But think about how much worse it was for the ancient people of Judah, who had no deep wells but relied on cisterns to provide drinking water for them: no rain meant nothing to drink (14:3). In fact, it had been so dry for so long that even the wild animals were becoming desperate for something to eat (14:5-6).

So, Jeremiah asked the question that so often makes us wonder: where was God when His people were in terrible trouble? Was He somehow unable to solve their problems? Had He abandoned His people, moving on from them the way a traveler packs his bags every morning to head to his next destination (14:8-9)?

Well, we don’t always understand why God allows suffering to come into our lives. But in this particular case, the cause was clear: through their painful circumstances, the sins of God’s people were being revealed (14:7). You see, God’s people had started worshipping another god called Baal. They thought that if they made sacrifices to Baal and performed rituals for him, he would send them the rain they needed (see 11:17). And so it only made sense for the One True God to remove the blessings that His people thought Baal had given them. There was thus a clear connection between their sin and their suffering (see also Deuteronomy 28:15, 23-24).

Now, we know that individual people’s sin often have terrible consequences: those who abuse drink or drugs or tobacco often lose their health, and those who commit crimes usually end up in prison. But the same sort of thing might just be happening to modern American culture as a whole. We suddenly don’t have enough workers to go around: could it be because we have killed 60 million of our own children through abortion? There is so much violence in our streets: could it be because so many fathers have abandoned their responsibility to guide and care for their families? In short, has our abandonment of Biblical traditions and our devotion to the sexual revolution finally begun to yield deadly fruit?

So, how should we pray, as either individuals or as a group, when our sin comes back to haunt us? As Jeremiah models for us in verses 7-9 and verses 19-22, we must call on the Lord, acknowledging that He is in our midst. We must confess how we have sinned against Him, and give Him all the glory for all the blessings He has given us. We must cling to Him alone as our hope. We must cry out to Him to remember His covenant with Jesus and save us, not only so that our suffering would end, but also for His name’s sake, so that unbelievers might see our redemption and give Him praise.

Will we turn away from our false gods and turn back to the Lord? Or will we cling to our sin and wither away?

Jeremiah 14:1-9 (NASB)

That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in regard to the drought:
2 “Judah mourns, And her gates languish; They sit on the ground in mourning, And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended.
3 “And their nobles have sent their servants for water; They have come to the cisterns and found no water. They have returned with their vessels empty; They have been put to shame and humiliated, And they cover their heads.
4 “Because the ground is cracked, For there has been no rain on the land; The farmers have been put to shame, They have covered their heads.
5 “For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young, Because there is no grass.
6 “And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; They pant for air like jackals, Their eyes fail For there is no vegetation.
7 “Although our iniquities testify against us, O LORD, act for Thy name’s sake! Truly our apostasies have been many, We have sinned against Thee.
8 “Thou Hope of Israel, Its Savior in time of distress, Why art Thou like a stranger in the land Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?
9 “Why art Thou like a man dismayed, Like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet Thou art in our midst, O LORD, And we are called by Thy name; Do not forsake us!”