Lamentations 3:10-18 :

He is to me as a bear lying in wait,
as a lion in hiding.
He has turned away my path,
and pulled me in pieces.
He has made me desolate.
He has bent his bow,
and set me as a mark for the arrow.

He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
I have become a derision to all my people,
and their song all day long.
He has filled me with bitterness.
He has stuffed me with wormwood.

He has also broken my teeth with gravel.
He has covered me with ashes.
You have removed my soul far away from peace.
I forgot prosperity.
I said, “My strength has perished,
along with my expectation from Yahweh.”

It’s bad enough for God to turn his back on you. It’s even worse for Him to go on the offensive and attack you. That’s what these verses describe. When we become an enemy of God, He will attack and He will obviously win.

In this passage, God’s attack is compared to a bear and a lion. Mankind doesn’t have much of a chance against these beasts, but the passage also describes God as having weapons. If a bear had a weapon and you had none, then you can pretty much assume that you are dead. God will win when He chooses to attack you and this passage tells us that God does attack people. It’s important that we are honest about these things with each other. It may not be popular to talk about in our culture, but it is the truth and as I mentioned before, it’s here for a reason. Hell is real and it is an attack by God on those that refuse to accept His provision for sin.

This passage also talks about the fact that other humans join in and put down a person that God doesn’t like. That’s pretty easy to understand. We know that when someone is unpopular, it’s pretty common for there to be people who enjoy the process of making a person feel like dirt. We read here that God uses this as a part of His punishment too. This reminds me that Hell is not a party. Your friends won’t be friends there.

This passage also says that God removes peace from a man that He despises. I think that another way to look at this is that God can cause a person to be under constant stress. It’s good to remember that this is a part of God’s wrath. As Christians, we don’t have God’s wrath anymore and we shouldn’t be under constant stress. We need to remember that God saves us from that and that we should expect His peace in our lives.

As I’ve mentioned before, hope is one of the most important mental states in this life. In battle, it is obvious. Troops without hope are not likely to succeed. Ultimately, that’s what is taken away when God becomes an enemy. Thankfully, God was not leaving Israel for good.