Sermon Transcript — January 31, 2004
Well again, as I mentioned, this is the last day of January, and it used to be in the church in years past that at this time of year the prophets would, I'll say, come out of the woodwork, that somebody would say, "Well, you know," (according to his understanding and calculation, or her understanding and calculations of end-time events), "well this is the year that thus and such is going to happen. Or in a few months, you know, we need to look out for. . ." Or something like that. They would start forecasting based on their understanding of the end time events. Well unfortunately for them, none of their prognostications came to pass. It didn't happen.
Well, we don't do that anymore. In fact, I haven't heard that, you know, in the beginning of the year, the beginning of the calendar year, I haven't heard that in a long time. And that's really a good thing. I think we've grown in that regard. But brethren, it's rare; it's very rare that people have an understanding of their place in history, of the events that actually are going to happen next. It's a God-given, well, a God-given opportunity that people have had, I say that it's rare; it has happened in the past, and it will again happen in the future, and today we're going to take a look at a group of people that it did happen to. They understood what their position in history was; what the next events to take place were going to happen.
So today we're going to take a look, of all things, at the book of Lamentations. Now it's kind of interesting, I've thought a lot of things about the book of Lamentations, but someone asked me before services, "Well, what are you going to talk about today?"
And I said, "The book of Lamentations."
And he said, "Oh, prophecy." And I was just surprised at the immediate response, but today we're going to take a look at the book of Lamentations. It's an interesting book; it's a little book; it's not all that pleasant to read, as the name implies, it talks about trouble, about trouble upon trouble, disasters, problems, pain and suffering. I say it's not all that pleasant a book, but the reason I chose this book is, I looked at our congregational survey, and down near the bottom of the page where people were suggesting sermons, topics they'd like to hear about, someone suggested the book of Lamentations. And I thought, "Well, yes, we haven't heard about that for a while." So today we're going to take a look at the book of Lamentations to see what lessons we can learn from this book.
Now we're not going to go through the entire book for a variety of reasons; one is, as I said, it's not the most pleasant of reading; there's some hard things in there as you look at what is really happening, but we're going to see what lessons that we can learn from it. I'm not going to list all the sources that I use, but I'm going to say that I looked at various commentaries in preparing this message. I looked at a couple of Bible dictionaries; I looked at Flavius Josephus, and then one that I got kind of a kick out of is the World Wide (two words) Study Bible. (You have to think about that one.) And then also, the Good News Bible Reading Program covered the book of Lamentations last month in December, in the first part of December. So those are the sources that I used in preparing the following message.
I'm going to start out just giving you some facts about the book. First off, we'll just define: "Lamentations." Just to define - to lament, as to express grief and to mourn. It's a book full of grieving and mourning. To grieve audibly, actually to wail, to be hurting, to be hurting very badly, a deep feeling of the expression of grief. In Lamentations itself, the prophet mourns over the desolations brought upon by a Chaldean captivity. The prophet is sometimes called, "the weeping prophet."
Solomon once said, "Well, it's better to go in the house of sorrow than in the house of laughter." And this is one of those cases where we are going to go into the house of sorrow. But there's a certain amount of edification that can be learned from it; there are lessons that we can learn from this little book.
Again, more facts about Lamentations, it's actually a poem. It's written in the form of poetic literature. It consists of five poems, each poem being a chapter. The first four of the poems are called acrostics. And what that means is each successive stanza or verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If it were written in English, the first verse would begin with the letter, "A," the second, "B," "C," "D." I think you get the point. Just successively on through the alphabet, there's twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and there's twenty-two verses in at least four of the five chapters. The middle chapter, Lamentations 3, has sixty-six, which is three times the number, in that case each triplet or three verses begin with the same letter. It is written that way for help in memorizing, so that we can remember, or that whoever was going to memorize the book could remember. It would help them along the way. And also, then I said four of the five chapters, I believe I said four of the five are acrostics; the fifth is not. It also has twenty-two verses, but it is not an acrostic.
Now poetry teaches us, or it reaches us in a different way. When we talk about logic, which is the way we normally communicate, actually the way that we normally preach. Logic reaches our mind, you know, facts, figures, A plus B equals C; we make decisions. Poetry is different. Poetry reaches our hearts; it reaches our emotions and stirs us in a different way.
I'm going to read just a few of the Lamentations. I'll tell you where they are; you can turn to them if you like. I'm going to go through them relatively quickly.
Lamentations 1:6 - "And from the daughter of Zion all (her) splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. . ." You know, when you think of deer just kind of wandering about. "(That) (They) flee without strength before the pursuer. . ." And again, you know, deer run when sometimes no one's even chasing them.
Lamentations 1:16 - "For these things I weep; my eye, my eye overflows with water; because the comforter, who should restore my life, is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed."
Lamentations 1:20 - "See, O Lord, that I am in distress; my soul is troubled; my heart is overturned. . ." You know, it's just really, really upset. ". . .my heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves. . ." In other words, there's death outside, and it says: ". . .at home it is like death." There is no peace; there is no place to go.
Poetry says things, like you could say these same things in a different way, in a factual way, and it would not have the same effect. As I said, poetry reaches us in a different way, and the book of Lamentations is a poetic book. As far as where it sits in the Bible, there's a threefold division of the Old Testament, the Psalms, the law, the prophets and the writings, or the Psalms. Lamentations is included in the Psalms, or the writings section, but in addition to that, it's in a subsection knows as the megilloth, or we sometimes refer to the megilloth as the festival scrolls. There are five books in the megilloth, and the orthodox Jews did, and I believe still do, read each one of these scrolls on certain feast days or other appointed occasions, such as we've heard before, I think we've heard like the Song of Solomon is read during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The book of Ruth is read at Pentecost. The book of Ecclesiastes is read during the Feast of Tabernacles. And then there's a couple of other days, the book of Esther, which going through the five books of the megilloth; the book of Esther is read on the Feast of Purim, and then Lamentations is the fifth of the books, and it's read on the ninth day of the fifth month. The ninth day of the fifth month corresponds to our July or August time frame.
It's kind of interesting, the Feast of Pentecost is roughly fifty days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Lamentations is read approximately fifty days before the Feast of Trumpets. But the orthodox Jewish people read Lamentations to commemorate the destruction of the temple, of the first temple in 586 B.C.E., the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D. Both temples were destroyed on the same day, you know, different years, obviously.
Dr. Rick Sherrod, who used to be the Chairman of the Department of History at Ambassador University, he came through Cincinnati a few years ago, and he talked about the history of Israel, both ancient Israel, as well as modern day Israel. And he talked about the day, the ninth of Ab, which is when Lamentations is read. He talked about this as being a bad day. This was a bad day as far as the history of Israel is concerned. It was a fast day for the people in the Old Testament. It's mentioned, and I'm not going to turn there, but Zechariah 7:4 and 5, is referred to as a fast day. So this day, the ninth of Ab, was a fast day; it was a day that the orthodox Jewish people, or I'll say the people in the Old Testament time, read the book of Lamentations.
Okay, Lamentations, as I mentioned, is a book of woe and destruction. And as I mentioned a while ago, it's also a prophetic book. It was prophetic at the time that it was written, as we'll see, but it also pictures times that are ahead of us. It pictures the time we talk about as being the great tribulation. As far as the history of the book is concerned, the author is generally accepted to be Jeremiah. He wrote Jeremiah and then this Lamentations is directly following Jeremiah. Not that that necessarily stamps him as the author, but there are a lot of similarities.
Now some scholars tend to dispute that Jeremiah wrote this, saying that well, these events were written afterward, or the book was written after the events, otherwise, how could he write these things. Well it's easy to write these things if you're inspired by God. So there are scholars today that dispute that Jeremiah is the author. Generally it is accepted by many, many scholars that he is the author.
The occasion as we're going to see was the funeral of Josiah. Jeremiah perhaps spoke Lamentations, and I say, "Perhaps," at the funeral of Josiah. Turn to II Chronicles 35, and we'll start picking up some history and some background for the book from the Bible. II Chronicles 35.
II Chronicles 35:23 - "And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, 'Take me away, for I am severely wounded.'
Verse 24 - "His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah." Yes, they mourned for Josiah, just as much as, say, we would mourn if one of our leaders was taken out today, if one of our leaders was assassinated or died in battle. They mourned for their leader, but they also mourned for themselves because they knew something additional was going to happen. They mourned for Josiah, but they also mourned for themselves. Continuing on in II Chronicles 35:25-
II Chronicles 35:25 - "Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men (and the singing women) speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments." So here we have Jeremiah lamenting the death of Josiah, also, I'll say, picturing, looking ahead, because it's more than just Josiah that's involved in the lamentation, but that was the occasion, and as one commentator said "Whoever was the author of the book of Chronicles believed that Jeremiah wrote Lamentations." I thought that was a rather interesting statement.
Turn back a chapter, we'll pick up some more history, back to II Chronicles 34. We're going to cover a lot of material in this particular chapter. We're going to see, that as I mentioned, this was a people, the people that were alive at that time, that knew their place in history. What was going to happen next as far as the events that were going to occur, and again, for them, as I've mentioned in the book of Lamentations, it's not pleasant; it's not a pretty thing at all.
II Chronicles 34:1 - "Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
Verse 2 - "And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left." So he was a good king; he also followed God.
Verse 3 - "For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places. . ." So now he's instituted a reformation. He's trying to turn the people, taking from what they had been worshipping, the wrong gods; I'll say the pagan gods, the various gods of the land and to turn them back to the true God. ". . .he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.
Verse 4 - "They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars. . ." And it talks about a reformation that he instituted; he led in that; he wanted to bring the people back to God. Dropping down into verse 8, it says:
Verse 8 - ". . . in the eighteenth year of his reign. . ." So this is a bit later. "In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan the son of. . ." And then there are several men here, "Azaliah. . ." I have a hard time with these names. ". . .he sent . . . the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the (Lord his God )(Eternal)." So he sent these men, officials, to repair the house of the Eternal, his God.
Verse 9 - "When they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and which they had brought back to Jerusalem.
Verse 10 - "Then they put it in the hand of the foremen (workmen) . . ." So again, he's accumulated money; there was a collection, and now we're going to rebuild the temple. Now we're going to refurbish that which was in ill repair. "Then they put it in the hand of the foremen (workmen) who had the oversight of the house of the (Lord) (Eternal); and they gave it to the workmen who worked in the house of the (Lord) (Eternal) , to repair and to restore the house." So they were cleaning it up; they were making it fit again for the worship of God. Dropping ahead a few more verses in Verse 14: It says:
Verse 14 - "Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of (the Lord) (Eternal), Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law. . ." So he found the Book of the Law; I would guess if I were to guess, it's the first five books of the Bible, but ". . . the Book of the law of the (Lord) (Eternal) given by Moses." So it goes ahead and says that, and I would guess it's all five books, although we'll see it not necessarily had to be.
Verse 15 - "Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the (Lord) (Eternal).' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
Verse 16 - "So Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, 'All that was committed to your servants they are doing.' " In other words, we're building the house; we're rebuilding; we're cleaning it up; we're remodeling; we're doing whatever needs to be done to make it right. It says:
Verse 17 - "And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of the (Lord) (Eternal) and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.
Verse 18 - "Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, 'Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.' And Shaphan read it before the king." So now the Book of the Law is being read before the king.
Verse 19 - "Thus (now) it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, (that) he tore his clothes." He was sorrowful; he was repentant.
Verse 20 - "Then the king commanded Hilkiah . . . (and some other men here) saying,
Verse 21 - "Go, inquire of the (Lord) (Eternal) for me. . ." So he sent some officials to go inquire. ". . .and for those who are left in Israel and (in) Judah concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the (Lord) (Eternal)" God is angry at the situation, and they found out by reading the book. I would guess at this point they were reading either Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28, the chapters with blessing and cursing, blessings for obedience, cursings for disobedience, and obviously the king knew that they weren't being blessed for obedience. They were not obedient. It says: " . . . great is the wrath of the (Lord) (Eternal) that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the (Lord) (Eternal) to do according to all that is written in this book.
Verse 22 - Continuing on: "So Hilkiah and those (whom) the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess. . ." And then it talks about her lineage, ". . .keeper of the wardrobe. . ." Dropping ahead to the end of the verse there, it says, ". . .And they spoke to her to that effect." In other words, they went and they inquired of her for the king. It says:
Verse 23 - "Then she answered them, 'Thus says the (Lord) (Eternal) God of Israel, 'Tell the man who sent you to Me.
Verse 24 - " 'Thus says the (Lord) (Eternal): Behold I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants. . ." So God said He was going to do what He said He was going to do. He's going to do all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.
Verse 25 - " 'because they have forsaken Me. . ." And then it goes on and talks about other sins ". . . burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out (on) (upon) this place, and not be quenched.' " So God said that He meant what He said the first time, and He still means it at this time.
Verse 26 - "But as for the king of Judah. . ." This is kind of an interesting thing that gives the people insight to where they're at. "As for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the (Lord) (Eternal), in this manner you shall speak to Him. 'Thus says the (Lord) (Eternal) God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard." In other words, of destruction, of removal considering those words of punishment.
Verse 27 - "because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, you humbled yourself before Me and tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,' says the (Lord) (Eternal).
Verse 28 - " 'Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. . .' " So this punishment is coming, but not while Josiah is alive. He's going to go to his grave in peace. " '. . .your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.' So they brought back word to the king." So here the people knew, I mean, this message was given to the king, but it was also made known that yes, God was going to take down the nation of Judah because of their sins, because of their rebellion, because of their ways, but it wasn't going to happen as long as king Josiah was alive.
So they knew as long as he was alive, things were going to continue to go along, and I'll say, relatively well. But once he died, it wasn't a pretty picture that lies ahead. They were among a rare group of people, as I mentioned before, that understood what was going to happen in advance, that understood their place in history. They knew when the king died that it wasn't going to be good for them. Again, they knew what lie ahead.
Interestingly enough, just backing up, they not only knew the time, but they knew why, to set the picture, again the background of why the book of Lamentations, why the punishments. Well we read this, because the people forsook the Eternal, their God. They forsook His ways. They did not do as they were instructed to do back in the early part of the Bible in the books of Deuteronomy and the time when the children of Israel came out of Egypt.
So Lamentations was a prophecy for their time. I say there are some that believe it was written after the events occur. Jeremiah actually wrote it in advance. They knew that it was coming. Also, it's in the Bible for our learning as well. It is a prophecy of events that are going to take place ahead of us sometime in the future. It's a picture of the great tribulation, of how bad things will get, so it not only was a prophecy for then, but it's a prophecy that is in front of us as well. You know, when that will happen? We'll find out. We'll find out one way or another, whether we're alive or whether we're not at the time, but it is ahead of us, and it is coming.
Well, now let's take a look at the book of Lamentations. So if we turn over to Lamentations, starting in Lamentations 1. As I mentioned, I'm not going to go through verse by verse or chapter by chapter for that matter. But I'm going to look at certain lessons that we can learn from the book, and I will talk a little about all the chapters. Chapter 1 is the sorrows of a captive Zion, in other words, a nation that has already gone into captivity, a nation where straits, hard straits are upon them, of pain, of suffering, of punishment. It's a dire, dire situation. Let's read the first four verses, starting in Lamentations 1, it says:
Lamentations 1:1 - "How lonely sits the city. . ." and it's talking about Jerusalem in this case, ". . . that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave.
Verse 2 - "She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies." And I'm going to read through this, not rapidly, but I'm not going to take a lot of time, while it is reality, and it will be reality, it is not something that we like to think about from time to time. It's not pleasant reading, and we'll even get to more unpleasant reading a little later, but I'm not going to take a lot of time explaining, or expounding. I think it's pretty well self-evident.
Verse 3 - Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.
Verse 4 - "The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness." This pretty much sets the tone for Lamentations. Again, it's woe; it's misery; it's suffering; it's heartache; it's headache, and it's just a lot of pain. There's a reason for the pain, as I mentioned from II Chronicles. We can pick up some of the reason here in Lamentations 1, dropping down to verse 5, which is the next verse, it says:
Verse 5 - "Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; for the (Lord) (Eternal) has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions." The multitude of transgressions, this is the problem. God said He was going to do it; God did it, and God will do it again. "Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy."
Verse 8 - "Jerusalem has sinned gravely, (again) therefore she has become vile." Dropping down to verse 14.
Verse 14 - "The yoke of my transgressions was bound; they were woven together. . ." in a yoke of sin. Sin is a heavy burden to have to drag around. It says: "The yoke . . . was bound." And then dropping down into verse 18, it says:
Verse 18 - "The (Lord) (Eternal) is righteous, for I (have) rebelled against His commandment." And again, there are many other scriptures sprinkled through Lamentations where it talks about the reason for the punishment, the reason for the pain, the reason for the suffering. Interestingly enough there are several parallel passages in Lamentations as well as in Deuteronomy 28, and I've already mentioned Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and cursings. We'll take a look at a couple of those; there's actually at least fifteen passages that correspond in Lamentations to Deuteronomy 28, but we'll only take a look at a few. Let's turn back to Lamentations 1:5 first part:
Lamentations 1:5 - "Her adversaries have become the master." Hold your finger here; turn back to Deuteronomy 28:44. And again, in Lamentations we read, "Her adversaries have become the master." And:
Deuteronomy 28:44 - "He shall (will) lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; (and then) he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail." So, again, a master/slave relationship. Back to Lamentations 1:5, and this is the last part of verse 5:
Lamentations 1:5 - This is the last part of verse 5: ". . .Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy." Back to Deuteronomy 28:32:
Deuteronomy 28:32 - "Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people. . ." Again, we think about this, and it's one thing to sit and read it; it's a totally different thing to be experiencing it, to be overrun by an enemy. One of the more, maybe most unpleasant things here,
Lamentations 2:20 - Something that is very difficult for us to conceive what has happened in the past, and unfortunately, it will happen in the future, Verse 20, and I hope you're still holding your finger in Deuteronomy because I'm going to flip back there in a minute. "See, O Lord, and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, the children they have cuddled?" Just a horrible and a wretched thing to even contemplate. And yet, as I mentioned, it has happened before; it will happen again. Turn back to Deuteronomy 28: 53 to 57: We're not going to read all of these, but we'll just pick up the points.
Deuteronomy 28:53 - "You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the (Eternal) (Lord) your God has given you. . ." and then it says: ". . . in the siege and desperate straits." Turn back to Lamentations where it says desperate people do desperate things. Again, it's not a pretty picture; but unfortunately, it is reality. As I mentioned there are at least fifteen passages between Lamentations and Deuteronomy 28 that are correlations where one is, you might say, the fulfillment of another. Lamentations, as I mentioned, also, is prophetic. It was prophetic at this time, although this is disputed among the scholars. There's no question it'll be prophetic in the future. Lamentations 1:17:
Lamentations 1:17 - Looks ahead to the time of the tribulation. "Zion spreads out her hands, but no one comforts her; the (Eternal) (Lord) has commanded concerning Jacob. . ." Now it's interesting here; it mentions Jacob. Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem, which was in Judah. Jacob was captive, taken away in captivity over a hundred years before this. So here we have still a reference to Jacob. It says: ". . .those (that surround) (around) him become his adversaries." Then it talks about: ". . .Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them."
Lamentations 2: Similar phraseology or wording, it says: "The (Eternal) (Lord) has swallowed up and has not pitied all the dwelling places of Jacob. . ." Again, Jacob, not Jerusalem, not Judah, but Jacob. ". . .He has thrown down in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground, He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
Verse 3 - "He has cut off in fierce anger every horn (of) (in) Israel;" Again, another reference to the nation of Israel. Not Judah, not talking about Jerusalem, talking about Israel. And again, as I mentioned, that talks about a time in the future, a time of the great tribulation. It anticipates suffering at that time, and again it anticipates suffering that is still yet to come.
Israel at that point, as I mentioned, was already long gone. They weren't a nation on the scene any longer.
Skipping ahead, shifting gears a little bit, looking at Lamentations 2, this talks about God's anger, about anger because of the activities of the people. It talks about having punishment, although this time it's punishment with a purpose. God isn't punishing just to punish; God is punishing, trying to bring about a good end result. And of course, that's what God is looking for; He's looking for the end result, and this is a way of bringing it about. It's a rough way; it's a way that we would all like to avoid, but it's a reality, again.
Lamentations 2:1 - "How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, and (He) did not remember His footstool in the day of His anger." Well, I'm not going to read all of Lamentations 2. As I mentioned, it was covered in the Good News Bible Reading Program, and if anyone wants to continue reading as far as their personal Bible study, I would certainly encourage it if you have an interest along that line.
Moving ahead to Lamentations 3. I'm going to be skipping down again, there's more of despair; there's more problems; there's more pain; but I'm going to be skipping down to verse 19, because we kind of shift gears again. Here the prophet is shifting gears and saying something a little bit different. It says:
Lamentations 3:19 - "Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. . ." In other words, all the problems I have. It says:
Verse 20 - "My soul still remembers and sinks within me." I've got problems; I've got problems, and those who have had problems; you know, those who have really been in hard straits. You think just everything is closing in on you; everything is sinking, that you're all by yourself, that you're all alone. But then the prophet, as I say, he shifts gears.
Verse 21 - "This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope." Now what has he recalled to mind? He recalls that God was with him in the past. Yes, he went through some hard things; and if you think of some of the things of life that Jeremiah went through, I mean, he suffered as a prophet of God. But God brought him through it all, and again the end was very good. It says, "This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope." I'm not here by myself.
Verse 22 - It says: "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed." In other words, things are really bad, but I'm still alive; I still have my life. As long as you're alive, you've got hope. Things can change; things can get better. "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not." God is a merciful God. We know that, and we understand that. Sometimes when we're in the midst of the trial, we say, "Well, why is this happening?" Why is that? Well, it's happening for a purpose. Sometimes we understand the purpose; sometimes we don't understand the purpose. But God is going to bring us through. It says, "His compassions fail not."
Last week we heard a sermon about when we have problems, and it talked about David, and it talked about Asaph going to the house of the Eternal, and then he started to think about the big picture, the big picture, not just his immediate around, but thinking more about life, more about God, and the problems got a little bit smaller and more manageable. Continuing on:
Verse 22 - ". . .Because His compassions fail not.
Verse 23 - "They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." So again, the prophet now is getting his mind on God and on the bigger picture. It says:
Verse 24 - " 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul. " 'therefore I (have) hope in Him!
Verse 25 - " The (Eternal) (Lord) is good to those who wait for Him." Now again, when we're going through a trial, we can't be impatient. We can't try and you know, force God's hand, so to speak. We have to do our part; we have to pray and seek God, and not be you know, rebellious or impatient as far as that's concerned. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
Verse 26 - "It is good that one should hope and wait quietly." Again, not rashly or impatiently.
Verse 27 - "It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
Verse 28 - "Let him sit alone and keep silent. . ." Then dropping ahead a couple of verses:
Verse 31 - "For the (Eternal) (Lord) will not cast off forever." In other words, there may be a trial for a while, but there is an end to the trial.
Verse 32 - "Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.
Verse 33 - ". . . He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." As I mentioned a while ago, God doesn't punish for the sake of punishment. He punishes for the sake of results. Something good would happen in the end. And we can look back in history and see where nations have been punished, brought low, and then brought high. And it's going to happen again in the future. After punishment, God restores.
Lamentations 4. This again talks about more conditions of the siege, of the punishment of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah. It talks about the cause of the siege, and again, this is a chapter that I'm not going to read now and suggest that as you have an interest to read it for yourself in a little bit, or in your own private Bible studies.
Lamentations 5, the concluding chapter. We're going to start reading in verse 7. This talks about again, calamities; there're calamities all the way through the book. There's heartache and headache and just problems multiplied. We're going to drop down, starting in Verse 7:
Lamentations 5:7 - "Our fathers (have) sinned and are no more. . ." talking about the sins of the fathers, it says: ". . .But we bear their iniquities." And of course, they bear their own iniquities as well. Dropping down to Verse 16.
Lamentations 5:16 - It says: "The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!" So it talks about the fathers, but then now we're talking about a repentant attitude. We're saying, "We have sinned." "Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Verse 17 - "Because of this our heart is faint; because of these things our eyes grow dim;
Verse 18 - "Because of Mount Zion which is desolate, with foxes walking about (on) it."
Then in verse 19:
Verse 19 - It says: "You, O (Eternal) (Lord), remain forever, Your throne from generation to generation.
Verse 20 - "Why do You forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time?" In other words, why is it taking so long? And I've known people; you probably have, too, where trials go on for years. They have a hard time. Why do trials go on so long? Well, again, as we read earlier, if they're long, or if they're short, we have to patiently and quietly continue to serve God and go through them. I know that's easy to say, and it's very difficult to do, but also with God's Spirit, it can be done. It says: "Why do You forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time?"
Verse 21 - "Turn us back to You, O (Eternal) (Lord), and we will be restored; renew our days as of old." Again, bring us through this trial; grant us restoration. And then in Verse 22 it concludes and says:
Verse 22 - "Unless You have utterly rejected us, and are very angry with us!" Now that's not really a bitter ending, if you will. The prophet here is saying, the people as a whole speaking that remember Your promises to us. You said. . .Again, it says: . . .unless You're angry with us forever.
So that is a quick overview of the book of Lamentations and some lessons we can learn. Just to review these lessons: I'm going to talk about three of them.
Number one, sin causes problems. Sin causes big problems. The pleasures of sin are only temporary, but the consequences last a long time. Let's turn back to Lamentations 1:9
Lamentations 1:9 - "Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she did not consider her destiny." In other words, she didn't look ahead. You know, "I'm just going to do my thing, whatever I want, you know, no responsibility; I'm not going to consider the consequences." But there are consequences. There is no free lunch, as the saying goes. There used to be a song a long time ago that goes: "Look down that lonesome road before you travel on." Look where your feet are going, the path that you are taking. You will end up in a place, and it may not be the place that you want to be. "Look down that lonesome road." There's a reason for the punishment; there are consequences for sin.
Point number two as far as lessons from the book of Lamentations. The tribulation is coming. You might say, they were in tribulation back then. There is one ahead of us now. Matthew 24:9. Let's take a look there. There are several scriptures that I could turn to on this point.
Matthew 24:9 - Christ is talking about the events to take place at the end, and basically He talked about what would be the first four seals of the book of Revelation. And then Verse 9 talks about the fifth seal of the book of Revelation. " 'Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.' " There is the tribulation that is still ahead of us, that it is coming. It says:
Verse 10 - " 'And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.' "
Verse 11 - And then it says: " '(Then) many false prophets will (arise) (rise up). . .' " Dropping ahead to Verse 15, it says:
Matthew 24:15 - " 'Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken (of) by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place . . .' " So, when you see this, you're to take a certain action. This is another group of people who are going to understand their particular position in history. They're going to understand what is just ahead of them, so when you see this, take action. It says: " '. . . when you see 'the abomination of desolation,' spoken (of) by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place' (whoever reads, let him understand).' " And then take action.
Verse 16 - " 'then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Verse 17 - " 'Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house." We'll read a couple more verses. . .
Verse 19 - " '. . .woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
Verse 20 - " 'And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
Verse 21 - " 'For (then) there will be great tribulation,' " Following that time, there's going to be great tribulation. " ' . . .such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, (no,) nor ever shall be.' "
Now we look at the book of Lamentations, and we see some pretty awful things. We look elsewhere in history, and we see some pretty awful things. This is going to be worse.
Verse 22 - " 'And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. . .' " In other words, it's going to be so bad, mankind could just obliterate himself off the face of the earth. " '. . . but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened." Turn over to Revelation 12. And there's some good news in Revelation 12, and there's some maybe not so good news.
Revelation 12:10 - "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Verse 11 - " 'And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb (and) by the word of their testimony, (and) they did not love their lives to the death.' " Again, a martyrdom, talking about the fifth seal of the book of Revelation, a martyrdom for the people of God. It says:
Verse 12 - " 'Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.
Verse 13 - "Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
Verse 14 - "But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time . . ." So here during the tribulation, this period of two and a half years of just absolute horror and destruction, there's a group of people that are going to have protection; they're going to a place, and they're going to be protected. But let's drop down, it says:
Verse 16 - "But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
Verse 17 - "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
So there's two groups of people; one group that is protected; one group that is not. It doesn't really say here why one is protected and one is not, who is in one group, as opposed to who is in "not," or who is not in that group.
I know there are probably many here thinking right now, "Well I know what the answer is, back in Revelation 3, you know, there's this church era and that church era. And that may be correct, but it may not. It doesn't really say right here what is in one group and what is another. But in any case, whether we are in the group that is protected or whether we're not in the group that is protected, or whether it's not necessarily us at all, but you know, generations to come. There is going to be a group that's protected, and there is going to be a group that is not.
Third lesson that we can learn from the book of Lamentations, is we do know the timing of our place in history, and God's plan. Now we know it in a general way; we know it is because we keep God's feasts and holy days. We know, again, we know that we are first fruits; we keep God's feasts; we know what comes after. We know the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Tabernacles, and then the Day of Atonement, and the Last Great Day. We know what is going to happen next because we keep God's feasts. We are also among a rare group of people that know our place in God's plan.
Now, we don't know the timing, as I said, and years ago, people used to come out and say, "This is the year; this is the year; this is the year," and obviously, we're still here. It didn't happen then, but it is going to happen.
So, brethren, just as sure as Judah was destroyed after the death of Josiah; just as it said it was going to be, and just as sure as sin brings disastrous results, God promises a wonderful future ahead of us beyond all of the problems. We can know for sure what lies ahead. We know the end of the story, brethren, and it is good.