In literature it is called a “eucatastrophe,” that is, something that is bad (a catastrophe) that leads to something good (the Greek prefix “eu”). Think Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings or C. S. Lewis and the Narnia series. Something bad that leads to something good.
In this Old Testament book, the prophet cries out to God about everything bad that is going on around him. Trouble, destruction, violence — it was a brutal time to be alive and the prophet — and God’s people — felt abandoned.
God’s answer was not what they wanted. While verse five reads as if something really good awaits on the horizon, what follows is a lot of bad news. God tells the prophet that the Babylonians will overrun the country, and the last vestiges of good in their lives will be stripped away.
And you think social distancing is tough?
“The rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would say, was ultimate good news. The people had come to believe that the only place they could find or experience God was in the Temple in Jerusalem. When that was destroyed and they were exiled to Babylon, they were delightfully stunned to find that God was with them everywhere they were. Good news that came out of bad news.