Lamentations

Lamentations is often ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah.  At least that is whom tradition asserts wrote the book.  However, I personaly find a few problems with this.  Particularly the extreme repentant state of the author in the book of Lamentations.  There is even one portion in which the author says that they should have listened to the voice of God before it was too late.  This does not seem to fit the writing style of Jeremiah who rarely spoke of his own sin but rather focused more on the corporal nation of Israel.  Though it could be Jeremiah.  The book is written shortly after the Babylonian captivity sweeps through Israel and carries off the people and destroying the city.  The authors I think would be the most likely candidates are Zedekiah and Jehoiachin.  Although it could even be one of the priests that put Jeremiah in prison.  Whatever the case, the author definitely exhibits a repentant state.  They are obviously distraught about the fact that they now see the people of Jerusalem turning to cannibalism to get food and tooping to the lowest of lows in various matters of providing for themselves.  The book serves the purpose of reminding us to keep our eyes and ears open to God.  Israel/Judah/The Southern Kingdom ends up suffering because they did not heed the word of the Lord when they had the chance.  The nation of Israel as a whole is known throughout the Old Testament for believing that which is convenient for them even though it makes no sense.  Much the same way that people today believe that Evolution actually makes more sense than Creation.  Once a good postive prophecy is spoken, it becomes more of a system of faith.  The church as a whole needs to be aware of its sins in difficult times and they need to speak out and to reform the things that need to be reformed in the church.  However, many people turn away from the thought of social activism simply because they want to deviate away from all controversy.  Basically Israel's culture became enmeshed with the culture of foreign lands and thus God was not pleased with israel for such a matter so he judged the nation accordingly and they wish they would have listened to his command.  Food for thought, in what ways do we need to be more attentive as a church to the state of the corporal body of the invisible church at this moment.