The list of blessings and curses found in Deuteronomy are a major reason we read the Babylonian's destruction of Jerusalem as God punishing the disobedience of his people. Just read the following consequences for breaking the terms of God's covenant:
"The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture... They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down...
— Deuteronomy 28:49 & 52 NLT
"And all the surrounding nations will ask, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why was he so angry?'
"And the answer will be, 'This happened because the people of the land abandoned the covenant that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Instead, they turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods that were not from the LORD. That is why the LORD's anger has burned against this land, bringing down on it every curse recorded in this book. In great anger and fury the LORD uprooted his people from their land and banished them to another land, where they still live today!'"
— Deuteronomy 29:24-28 NLT
Pretty clear cut, right?
The reporter is very much a "Deuteronomy man," whereby the legalistic nature of that book influences how he views God's response to sin. But he changes his mind. Between songs, the reporter rejects his legalistic stance of Lamentations 1 and sides with Daughter Zion in chapter 2.
Which is the opposite of clear cut.
What does Daughter Zion say to transform his opinion?
The irony is she also appeals to Deuteronomy; playing this legalistic book against itself.
Which is why we really need to talk about Deuteronomy.
