The Purpose of Prophecy, Part 1

If we've been watching, as I mentioned in my announcements, if we've been watching what's going on in the world today, we are watching, in a sense, unprecedented attacks on the nation of Israel and specifically on the city of Jerusalem. And of course, all of us know that the city of Jerusalem plays a very important part in the history of man, but in the future of man as well. I want us to look at Luke 21, because Jesus mentions this in the statements that he made about the end of the age. About the time when the concluding years of man's reign here on earth would occur. Now, clearly, this wasn't going to happen in the days of the first Christians, the first disciples, the first apostles. You know, they were with Jesus, they were learning, and they were there for several years. And then, of course, they were, in a sense, going on after his death and resurrection by the help and power of the Holy Spirit. They were going to be doing the work of God, but the end of the age was not happening right then. Now, I don't know exactly. They could certainly read the Old Testament. They could know that's going to happen. But that's been 2,000 years ago now, and many centuries have come and gone. And yet, for all of us today, we live in a time that is really remarkable. But what Jesus says here in Luke 21, this is recording his Olivet prophecy. It's also in Mark 13 and in Matthew 24. But here in Luke 21, it makes a very clear statement in verse 20. He says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation has come near or come nigh. And he goes ahead and talks about other signs and things that we can be watching. But particularly, he brings a focus onto Jerusalem. And so, even though, and I know I was, as a college student, I visited Israel and we worked there for a summer, and we were doing a part of the archaeological project that was there. And I was there throughout the summer. I was happy to be there. Unfortunately, I was not very bright. I was about 20 years old. I had very little knowledge of anything, as far as history, or as far as what the real relevance of Israel and Jerusalem is. And my primary role was one of the chief archaeologists. I was one of the chief archaeologists within our group because I was extremely good at busting rocks at the bottom of a hole.

Now, I mentioned that because I was really qualified for that job. I didn't know anything about archaeology. I didn't know what we were looking for. I didn't know what to try to preserve or what not. But in an archaeological project of that type, they make a grid and then they dig down. And you've got walls, you know, you've got holes. If you've seen any of those type of, and this was right at the Temple Mount. And there were things found that were of significance and were of importance. I don't remember ever finding anything because I probably broke it before I would have ever gotten to where, you know, it would have stood out to me to know that this is something you ought to be maybe careful around. But whenever you would go down and, you know, a lot of times we were hauling debris out of each one of these holes with a bucket, a rubber bucket and a rope. That's how we got stuff out. And the further down, of course, you go, the further up it is to try to haul that out. But then if you get a, you know, a large rock, well then you bring in the specialists to break up the rock into little rocks so that you can then put it in the bucket and get it out of there. And so that was my, you know, contribution to the archaeological project there in Jerusalem. But I say I didn't learn enough because I really didn't know what to look for. I didn't know, you know, a great deal about the significance of really, you know, the site itself and, you know, how it was, you know, that this was going to be a focal point more so of the of the world to come.

Because that's really what we end, and just a couple of years before that, that was in 69, a couple of years before that there had been a battle waged there. The Six-Day War had occurred. Again, I didn't know much about that. I just knew that they weren't fighting at the time we were there. That's basically all I knew. There had been at least a calm that was there at the time.

But calm in Israel is always, you know, very tenuous. That may become not calm real quick.

And, of course, as I mentioned to you, and again, you've watched any news reports recently here this past week, you've had commentators tell us, you know, that the nation of Israel itself, with its, I believe they said, eight million people who live within the nation of Israel, about six million of them are in areas where they can hopefully be easily protected from, you know, rocket fire and bombing that could take place for six million people. It's amazing that you have that extent of a problem going on right there. And again, it's not something being as far away as we are, being as we are protected by the great oceans on both sides of the United States.

We have, you know, many, many blessings to be thankful for, but the nation of Israel is really under fire. And, of course, there are counterattacks. There's defensive interceptors.

The Iron Dome, which is what they have as a defense mechanism to try to notice and then blow up before it gets here, any rockets that are coming toward them, I think they said, what was it, 1600 rockets that they had blown up before they would get there to the area there in Israel. You know, the extent of this conflict, of course, goes back through many, many thousands of years.

And yet, what we are seeing today, I believe, is fulfilling the prophecies that God has very clearly outlined. And Jerusalem is clearly a focal point of Bible prophecy, and it's the focal point of Jesus' return to this earth. And whenever we pray, Thy kingdom come. Whenever we pray that Christ will return and bring peace, which is what is going to happen. That is what's going to happen. But as we also know, what happens there before that time is really, you know, terribly destructive, terribly damaging to not only that area, but to people around the world.

Because the Bible describes a great deal of warfare that is going to happen in not only the Middle East, but that is the focal point of it. The warfare is going to happen around the globe. And all of people are going to be affected by that. So I want to ask the question today, why is God predicted and written down in the pages of the Bible so many lessons about His coming rule over the kingdom of men?

We have in the Bible a third or so of the Bible that is prophecy. You know, that's whenever you break it down. You've got numerous books in the Old Testament that are prophetic. You have a big part, even of the New Testament, that has some prophecy in it, whether it's a statement from Jesus, whether it is something that Paul wrote, whether it is something that Peter alludes to, or whether it's the entire book of Revelation, which really gives a basis.

It gives an outline for what's going to happen. The seals and the trumpets, and then ultimately the last plagues that are going to come on earth. You know, all of them, in a sense, are focused on the area in Jerusalem. What is the purpose of prophecy? What is the purpose of God predicting what's going to happen? See, sometimes people get very excited. People get very interested in talking about prophecy, or discussing prophecy, or wondering, well, what does this prophetic statement mean?

How does that tie together with what we're doing, or does it tie together at all with us today? And, of course, if we are aware of how it is that God had dealt with Israel and Judah throughout the Old Testament, and how that the descendants of Israel and Judah are predicted today to reap many of the penalties, to reap much of the judgment from God, because of their sins, if we're aware of that, if we're aware of where those nations are then, and I believe most of you are, well then we ought to be motivated. We ought to be motivated by what's happening right now. And yet, I want to point out that prophecy is just not given in order to be interesting Bible study.

Actually, if you read the book of Revelation, which almost entirely is a book that is prophetic, and clearly it was a vision of Jesus that he gave to John, and he even says that in the first few verses of Revelation 1. He says this is a revelation, the revealing of Jesus Christ, that I'm giving to my servant John to write it down.

He doesn't fully understand hardly any of it. He could understand a little bit about the vision he had of the throne of God, and of how it was that the Father and the Son and the angelic realm around them, he could benefit from that. He was close to the end of his life, I believe, but he could benefit from at least an impression of the throne of God, as we can also benefit from that.

But much of what John wrote down about the seals, about the trumpets, about the plagues, about the return of Christ, about the establishment of the kingdom of God, you know, he knew that that would be ultimately the answer. But it was not going to be something that he had to really know a whole lot about, and neither did Daniel. Whenever you read the book of Daniel, which also has a great deal of prophetic information, and it gives some, actually, in the past type of things, and it shows only briefly what the things are going to happen today, and yet the book of Revelation picks up there and introduces many, many things that we see are going to happen right before our eyes.

But as I said, prophecy is not just simply revealing the future. You know, that is one of its purposes, one of the benefits, and whenever we read or when we study prophecy, that is clearly one thing that we do learn. We learn what's going to happen, or we learn at least how much we can benefit from reading what God predicts.

But I think we also want to realize that prophecy proves the existence of God. Because when you read in Isaiah 46 that God says, this is in verse 9 and 10, God says that He can tell the end from the beginning. You know, He's the one who is mapping out a plan, as we had mentioned earlier in our opening prayer. He's mapping out a plan of salvation. He's mapping out a purpose for human lives, and He wants to motivate every one of us to draw close to Him, to be close to Him in prayer.

See, that's a requirement for every single one of us to be close to God in prayer and to be studying His Word with a zeal and with an excitement that maybe we have not experienced, or that we have not gone through. And maybe we can say, well, I used to have that excitement, and it's a little lagging today. Maybe we can say that. I'm just trying to cover all bases, because what I find is that as I read things today and as I see what's going on in the world, it motivates me. It motivates me to want to change, to want to try to draw closer to God. I don't want to just talk about praying. I want to do it. And that, of course, can be a wonderful blessing that God draws us closer to Him as we draw close to Him in prayer. And, of course, He gives us understanding. I want us to turn to Isaiah 14, and again, many of us probably recall that Isaiah 14 describes a section here that is actually even about a ruler in Babylon. And from verse 12 on down to the next few verses, it seems to be talking about what it was that happened many, many millennia ago, long ago, at the throne of God, where Lucifer chose to rebel. And so that's not the section that I want to read right now, but that section should be one that we read and that we think about and that we contemplate and we consider, well, this is actually where all of the problems of men began, because Lucifer was the one who became. He had been created with a great deal of talent and ability. He had been created with tremendous musical capacity, and he was, he says he had a tremendous wisdom, and he was beautiful.

All of the different descriptors you could give for an angelic being that God had created at the very highest level. And yet, whenever he forgot that he was a created being, he forgot that I'm still in subjection to the Father. I'm still in subjection to my Creator. Well, then you see him turning from that and becoming defective. And it says, whenever, this is over in Ezekiel, whenever, you know, it was determined that iniquity was found in you, and you have now sinned.

That came about through his arrogance, through his pride, through his deception, the deception in his own mind. And of course, that is, in essence, a foundation for what we see happen to Adam and Eve, because they fell for the same deception. They fell for a deception that God is holding out on you, and you, you really don't need to do what he says. You don't need to obey your Creator. And of course, then the history of man through the last 6,000 years has been just a sorry, what can we say, a sorry exploration into disobedience. You know, that's all it is.

And yet, a time is coming that's going to change. But I want to drop down to verse 24, because, you know, this proves, in essence, as I was saying about prophecy, it's not just to know, you know, what this vision is about, or what this horse is, you know, whatever the description is, whether it's a beast, or whether it's an animal, or a horse, or whether it's an army, or whatever it is that is being spoken of there in the prophecy. But here in chapter 14, verse 24, it says, the Lord of hosts has sworn, as I have designed, so shall it be, and as I have planned, so shall it come to pass.

In this case, he was talking about Assyria, which was a nation that he allowed to come in and to destroy the nation of Israel. He says in verse 25, I'm going to break the Assyrian in my land and on my mountains. I'm going to trample him underfoot. His yoke shall be removed from them, from his people Israel, and his burden from their shoulders. Verse 26, this is the plan that is planned concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations for the Lord of hosts has planned.

And who can annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? See, we find statements of this type describing God's ability to tell the end from the beginning. He is working out a great plan. He is working out a plan that involves us simply because of his mercy that was extended to us to draw us to Jesus Christ and to give us an understanding of his purpose for human life.

And yet prophecy not only tells the future, it shows the existence of God. And of course, it proves the validity of the Bible. Whenever we read in 2 Peter, let's go back there. We can quickly go through some of these verses. But in 2 Peter, 2 Peter 1 says in verse 19, so we have the prophetic message more firmly confirmed, and you will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning stars rise in your heart.

First of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a manner of one's own private interpretation because no prophecy ever came by human will, but it came to men and women moved by the Holy Spirit and as they spoke from God. See, the messages that are written down in the pages of the Bible, the messages, whether they are written or whether they are spoken, because there are some prophecies that are spoken and then most that we know of and that we read that are written.

And yet our study, our study of those prophecies should be beneficial to us. It should actually prompt us, motivate us, to not go to sleep, to not be lagging in our closeness to God, but to actually be motivated by that. To go back to Luke 21 again, because not only did Jesus talk about, not only did he talk about watching whenever Jerusalem comes under attack, watching whenever armies begin to surround Jerusalem. You know, it's amazing when you look at the geography of the Middle East. Israel is a very small country. It's only about 30 miles wide at the biggest part, and it's about, what, 175 miles long.

It's not very... I drive that far most every Sabbath. It's not very big, but then there are some bigger nations around it, all of which are against it, and all of which would like to see Israel pretty much blown off the map. But here in Luke 21, let's look at verse 34. Luke 21, 34, it says, Be on guard. Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap, for it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth.

Be alert at all times praying that you may have the strength or may be counted worthy to escape all of these things that are going to come to pass and then to stand before the Son of Man. See, again, Jesus wasn't just trying to think of something to say. He was giving a prediction of what those of us who live in the end time, those of us who live just preceding the time when Jesus intervenes in world affairs as the Prince of Peace.

See, He's going to come back and He's going to be a warring agent from God. And people are not going to want that. They are going to fight against Him, and yet He is going to put them down. You know, whenever we hear, and I know I was telling Pat the other day, of course, the tragic shooting down of an innocent airplane and 300 people dying, that's horrible. And the way it will be mishandled afterwards, I'm sure, will also be horrible and highly advertised. And yet, that is relatively small compared to what the Bible, and we went over this in the Bible study in Topeka the other night, there's going to come a time when it says a third of humanity will die. You know, two, two and a half billion people. That's what it says in what is it, Revelation about nine or so.

It talks about a time that will, you know, be devastating to this earth and to the life sustaining functions and systems on this earth. And then ultimately the warfare that will be taking place is going to cause a great deal of death and certainly misery. And so, yes, when we hear of, you know, a plane going down, that's sad and that's tragic. And even the warfare that's taking place over there in the area where the plane came down. Now, that's horrible, too.

Things are going to get much worse, much worse. And yet, as we see here, it tells us that we're going to have eyes at sea and ears at here. Well, then we're going to be motivated by what we see and we're going to do what it says. We're going to watch, but we are going to pray. We are going to bend our needs before God because we want to be counted worthy to escape the things that are to come to pass. You know, God has something to say about those who hear and who know and yet who don't do anything about it. That's something each of us can take as an individual directive from God, that He'll hold us accountable for that. You also find that prophecy not only tells the future and proves the existence of God and the validity of the Bible and prompts us to grow, but it also gives us a great deal of hope. I can tell you, as we study some prophecies, which we're going to do a little bit today and more so in the next few weeks, there is a tremendous amount of hope that is written in the pages of the prophetic statements that you find not only in the Old but in the New Testament. Because, as we know, these prophetic statements that are made about what is going to happen on earth and even the cataclysmic events that are going to take place, beyond that there is hope. Beyond that, there is rescue. Beyond that, there is relief because Jesus is going to bring a kingdom that will never end. In Daniel chapter 2, you see this as Daniel was giving a very far-reaching prophecy. Of course, in a sense, Daniel was just simply stating what it was that had been revealed to him, whether he understood exactly. He could say that, well, yes, I know that this description that God has given me is about you, Nebuchadnezzar, because it certainly fits you as the king and ruler, which he was, of the great Babylonian Empire. And he says, some of it is going to be about those that will follow you. This was written several hundred years before that actually took place.

And yet, here in chapter 2, we see Daniel interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And in verse 44, he says, in the days of the kings that are described at the very end of a line of Roman Empire resurrections, in the days of the kings that will come together in the end of the age, the God of heaven is going to set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. And nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all of these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it will stand forever. And just as you saw, a stone was cut from the mountain, not by hands, and that it crushed the iron and bronze and clay and silver and gold.

The great God has informed the king what's going to happen here after this dream is absolutely certain, and this interpretation can be trusted. See, Daniel was telling Nebuchadnezzar, you know, a prediction that had nothing to do with what would actually deal with him. This was for 2,500 years from then, and yet it's one of hope, it's one of encouragement, it's one of relief, and that's actually, I think, very beneficial for us to keep in mind when we think about when we study and when we contemplate what the prophets are telling us.

Now, I want to cover, as I mentioned, I'm going to cover a little bit today that will primarily be in the book of Lamentation. And if you haven't read the book of Lamentation recently, I ask that you read that this coming week, that you go through, just read the book of Lamentation. It's a short book, it's about five chapters. And yet, I later want to go through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, because these are the major prophets that we have in the Old Testament.

And then, we may be able to go through at least some of the minor prophets. You know, that's, I'm not yet that far in what I'm thinking or planning or hoping to try to cover, but over the next few weeks, I want to cover information about Isaiah so that we can read that and understand what does God want us to know? What does He want us to learn? What does He want us to know out of Jeremiah? What does He want us to know out of Ezekiel? And again, I'm pretty sure all of you have read those books. I don't know that any of us have read them recently. Maybe we have, but I'm asking that we focus on the prophetic statements that are made because, you know, these can save our lives. They can save our lives. They can draw us closer to God. And so, as I mentioned, you know, these major prophets... Let me just give a summary of these prophets. Isaiah is called the Messianic prophet. And of course, I think all of you, if you're familiar with Isaiah, would understand why it is that he would be called the Messianic prophet. Because you have so many chapters in the book of Isaiah that talk about the wonderful prophecies of the coming deliverer, the one who is the Messiah, the one who is coming to rule all nations. And you see more, and actually you find that the book of Isaiah is quoted more in the New Testament than any other book in the Old Testament because he has so much to say. But whenever you think of chapter 2 and chapter 9 and chapter 11 and chapter 32 and chapter 35, those are all prophetic of the millennium and of the kingdom that will be set up when Christ returns. And of course, chapter 52 and 53 are specifically about what he is already fulfilled when he came the first time as the suffering servant. See, the book of Isaiah has that flavor. It has that tone. And of course, if I want to read something about that, then I can turn to Isaiah and I can try. You know, there are so many uplifting and inspiring sections there. It's not all doom and gloom. There is also the glow that is after that because there is hope. And that hope comes through Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God being established on earth. Now, to jump on down to Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied, actually all of these prophets prophesied in a similar time frame, and I'll try to be a little more specific about that when we get to them. But Jeremiah is called a weeping prophet. He's called a weeping prophet because it's obvious from the things that he writes down that he is just deeply concerned about his people. He was in the house of Judah. He was in the nation of Judah. He dealt with the kings of Judah, and he also dealt with them going into captivity. And he may have been one of the captives himself. I believe that's going to be, as I read more about that, I think that that's pretty well what he's thought. And yet, whenever he had such an emotional concern for the people that he, you know, his people, he was so sad that they ignored God, that they disobeyed, that they didn't have a right attitude, that they actually, in most everything they did, was wrong.

And this just crushed Jeremiah. Let's look at a few verses here. Jeremiah wrote not only the book of Jeremiah, but he wrote, and I believe it is felt that he wrote, the book of Lamentation. Because these are laments. These are actually poems. Five poems, five chapters in this little book, five poems that are written in a certain style, and I'm not meaning to try to go into that at this point.

But see, these are laments over being in captivity. See, they had been the people of God. They still were the people of God. They were just in subjection to the Babylonians at this point.

And so he is writing messages or kind of songs almost of Lamentation. And here in chapter 2, we take a look at a few of these. Here in chapter 2 verse 11.

Chapter 2 of Lamentations verse 11, he says, My eyes are spent with weeping.

My stomach churns and my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city. He says, This makes me sick. I'm about to throw up because of the terrible calamity that has been brought upon the people of God, the house of Judah, because Israel had gone into captivity 100 years before this, or more than 100 years, I believe. And now the people who lived in Jerusalem and around the city or the nation, I guess it would be of Judah, they're now in captivity too. It really hurt him. You can see. Let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9, starting in verse 1, he says, Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people. See, this is kind of the way he writes. He seems to be emotionally involved in the way that things have turned out for the people of God, and how it is that he is so distressed over it. Let's turn to chapter 13. Jeremiah chapter 13 verse 17, he says, But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride, my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock has been taken captive. See, now he's writing a lot about why, which of course was sin, and yet he is so distraught. He's called the weeping prophet, and you can see this in this book of lamenting. And of course, Ezekiel was commissioned to serve as a watchman, a watchman for God's people, a sentry who warned them of impending danger. And this, of course, was something that Ezekiel was involved in. And again, I'm not going to go through all the verses that would connect that right now, but we will hear in the future. And he has, in a sense, these are all occurring somewhat at the same time, but God is giving a warning. He's giving a warning, not only to the people in the past, but he gives that to help us today. And in order to understand this, we may realize that prophecy may be somewhat hard to understand. If we don't have a context when we read it, if we don't understand who is this talking about and what is happening, and who is saying what about a given situation, sometimes it can be hard to understand. And I certainly know, as I think back in my years of college, and again, that's been 40 years ago, so I may not remember too much, except I remember that I didn't make a very good grade in prophecy class. I didn't because I had no idea what they were talking about. I had no context. I had, they were trying to give us some context, but I just didn't follow it at that point. And I follow it a little better today. And I think that all of us can gain insight into how it is that we can understand these things. But prophecy may have been given, especially what we read in the Old Testament, it may have been given just regarding a particular thing that happened in Israel or Judah. That may have been on the topic of it. It may have been given for the descendants.

And so you have a near view and a far view of a prophetic statement. It may be something that's entirely for today. Whenever you read about the day of the Lord, whenever you read about the calamities that are going to befall the end of the age, now that's clearly talking about the descendants of Israel and Judah and at the end time. And you have many different identifying statements that talk about that. And then you may have some that's applicable to both. You know, it was applied then. It also could be applicable today.

Or maybe there's even a spiritual lesson that we're supposed to learn from that particular application. And so, you know, that's why, you know, it may be a little difficult to follow some of the prophecies.

But I want to begin, as I said, with the book of Lamentations today, which is a book of poems that Jeremiah wrote. And you can see from his tone that he is in distress. He is frustrated. Frustrated with the condition that he is in, that his people are in. It appears that he's able to continue to function. It may have been that he was living in a sector of Babylon where the community had been taken. The community from the house of Judah was taken. And they still had a little bit of rule, but they were under subjection.

Subjection from the Babylonian Empire. But one of the things we see here in the book of Lamentation, you see, actually more than one thing, you see, and this is what Jeremiah is going to show here, it shows that God is sovereign. He rules over what happens to his people. He is sovereign. He is the ruler. He is the planner, as we've already read. He brings to pass his purposes. The second thing is that he is a just God. He will bring judgment upon his people for their sins. He may punish them by Assyria or Babylon. And because of the arrogant way they go about doing their job, he will punish them as well.

You know, that's what we find, that God is able to bring justice. But then you also find, you know, that God also is a God of mercy. A God of mercy and a God of restoration. A God of relief. Whenever people appeal to him with their heart.

That's what we're going to find here in the book of Lamentation. So, let's look at chapter one. This particular chapter, this poem, seems to be about God's judgment on Jerusalem itself. And sometimes you have Jerusalem, sometimes, and of course that's talking about the city, but other times it's just talking about the people of the city, the people of Judah, the people who lived in the land.

If they weren't directly right in Jerusalem, in the cities around Jerusalem, in the nation of Judah. But one thing we can see when you read through this first chapter is that in verse one, how lonely sits the city. How lonely is this city that once was full of people? How like a widow she has become! She that was great among the nation, she that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.

So obviously she had fallen, had been taken captive. She weeps bitterly in the night and tears in her cheek among all her lovers. She has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies. This is talking about the alliances that Judah had with nations around. And, you know, now they were in captivity. They didn't have any of those alliances to rely on. They didn't have other people who could get them out of jams.

They were in trouble. But what we find when we read through this chapter is that this destruction had come upon the people of Judah. It had come upon the city of Jerusalem because of sin. That's why it had come about. It had come about because they didn't choose to honor God. They didn't choose to please God. They chose to sin. In verse 5, it says, her foes have become the masters. Her enemies prosper because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone away in captives before the foe.

Down in verse 8, Jerusalem has sinned grievously as she has become a mockery. All who honored her despised her. They've seen her nakedness, and she herself groans and turns her face away. Here again, it's just a repetitive statement down in verse 14. My transgressions, sometimes he was writing it from a personal standpoint, sometimes from the national standpoint, my transgressions were bound into a yoke by his hand. They were fastened together. They weighed on my neck, sapping my strength, and the Lord handed me over to those who I cannot understand. And then down in verse 20, see, O Lord, see how distressed I am. My stomach churns. My heart is rung within me because I have been very rebellious. And again, this is the way Jeremiah writes these laments. He was lamenting the problem that they were now suffering. And yet he said, it's because of my sins. It's because of the sins of the nation. And of course, like we read in verse 2, there was no one to comfort her. In verse 16, it says, For these things I weep my eyes flow with tears, for a comforter is far from me. Down in verse 17, he says, I am stretched out her hands, but there's no one to comfort her. And in verse 21, it says, They heard how I was groaning, and yet I had no one to comfort me. And all my enemies heard of my trouble, but they were glad that you had done that. So this is what Jeremiah was lamenting. He was lamenting that well because of our sins, we've gotten ourselves into this mess, and we don't have any alliances. We don't have anybody that we can turn to for help. But what we also learn here in this chapter is that God brought about this justly. He brought this destruction upon Jerusalem very justified because of the sins of the people. Let's look at verse 5. The foes have become the masters, the enemies prosper because the Lord has made Judah suffer.

See, this was a part of what God justly could determine to do. In verse 12, it is, Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see, is there any sorrow like my sorrow?

Which has been brought upon me, which the Lord has inflicted on the day of his fierce anger?

So this has been brought about by God. He had justly done that. And you see this directly in verse 18.

It says, The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word.

See, God was fully justified in what he had done, in allowing his people, the people of Judah, to fall to the nation of Babylon. In chapter 2, you see more about God's plan being carried out.

He mentions that he realizes that, well, this is, you know, and actually the message that Jeremiah had been telling the kings and the people of Judah, up until the point where they went into captivity, was repent. Turn around, change your ways, don't continue to sin, don't continue to ignore God. But here in verse 17 of chapter 2, and again, I hope you'll read through all of these chapters with this thought in mind, that this is a compilation of poems that are lamenting God simply carrying out his judgment upon the people of Judah. In verse 17, he says, the Lord has done what he has purposed. He has carried out his threat, as he ordained long ago. He is demolished without pity. He has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the mighty of your foes. See, that's what God had predicted through Jeremiah. If you don't turn, you'll go into captivity. And of course, the people of this country today, they need, they need to realize that the decline that is taking a toll on this country is going to reap a penalty. It's going to reap a penalty, and that's why, of course, you know, we have so much said about the end of the age. But this is directly about Judah being in captivity. But it also gives, in a sense, some direction. If we continue to read, even though God has brought this about in verse 18, he says, cry aloud to the Lord. A wall of daughter Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night. Give yourself no rest. Give your eyes no respite. Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the watch, or pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. Lift your hands to him with the lives of your children who faint for hunger at the hand of every street. Look, look, O Lord, and consider to whom have you done this. See, he was telling them, in a sense, in this lament of being in the captivity that they were now in, you know, you can still turn. You can still turn to God. You can still repent. You can still have heartfelt repentance, and it's an appeal for the mercy of God, even if you find yourself. And as we don't know what we're going to find ourselves in as we go forward, we're going to pray for God's protection and his blessing and his direction in our lives. But we've got descriptions of some having that protection and some, you know, falling with even God, directing and blessing them. And yet, if they're close to God, you know, God understands what he's doing with people's lives.

And yet, here it talks about an appeal. And actually, here in chapter 3, it's kind of the the central part, of course, of the five chapters. And yet, it holds out a great deal of hope, a great deal of encouragement, even though when you read the first, say, 17 verses here, there is deep anguish that is being described. In verse 1, I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God's wrath, and he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light.

So here Jeremiah describes being in captivity as being in darkness, being without any light or hope or any direction. He talks about it in verse 14. I become the laughingstock of my people, the object of their taunts all day long. Verse 15, he has filled me with bitterness.

See, he was in darkness, and he was in bitterness. That's the way he describes the facts as he could see them. And in verse 17, he says, my soul is bereft of peace, and I've forgotten what happiness is.

See, brethren, we have the wonderful blessing of being able to honor God, to turn to God, to draw close to God, to beseech God for help, and to have peace and have happiness in spite of distress. And yet here he says, you know, right now I don't have any happiness. So we're not rejoicing. We are in real trouble. And of course, you see a turn here when we get down to verse 21.

He said in verse 20, my soul continually thinks about it, and I'm bowed down before you.

Or it's bowed down. My soul is bowed down within me. But this, in verse 21, I call to mind.

This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. The loving kindness of God never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. And they are actually new. And even as we go through difficulties as we do, and sometimes we labor with illness and other calamities that we deal with in this age, and I know many of us are stressed at times, and I feel stressed at times. I want to remember what it says in verse 23. The mercy of God is new every morning. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I have hope in him.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for one to bear the yoke and youth, to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, to put one's mouth to the dirt.

There may yet be hope to give one's cheek to the smiter, to be filled with insorts. For in verse 31, the Lord will not reject forever. Although he has caused grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love, for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

This is explaining the heart of God, even though he is just and he brings about what is deserved, if people turn, if people have hope, if people turn to God, then he clearly wants to extend mercy.

Unfortunately, when you read the book of Revelation, you find there are a lot of people that do not want to repent, that do not want to turn to God, that actually hate that idea.

Their minds have been so corrupted that they will probably die before Christ returns.

But for those who want to draw close to God, that mercy endures forever.

And of course, when we drop down a little further, in verse 39, he says, Why should any who draw breath complain about the punishment for their sins?

He says that they brought that upon themselves, and we bring things upon ourselves. If we sin knowingly, if we know, even when we're struggling, we realize that we're fighting against sin. And he says, let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord in verse 40.

And actually, when you drop on down to verse 55, actually, he's described in verse 48, again, his tears flowing and his eyes flowing without ceasing in verse 49. And ultimately, he says, in verse 54, I think I'm just doomed. I think I'm lost. I don't have any hope. And yet, in verse 55, he says, I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. This almost seems to be describing what Jeremiah did actually go through, having been put into a pit, having been put into a well. And we can read that later when we study Jeremiah.

But this seems to be his recollection of that. He says, I called on your name from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea. Do not close your ears to my cry for help, but give me relief. See, that's what many times, as we struggle with illness and sleeplessness, as we struggle with difficulty, with distress, with trauma, we just need relief. And yet, here's a perfect example of appealing to God and asking for help. Don't close your ear to my cry for help. Give me relief. And he says, you came near when I called on you, and you said, don't be afraid. Do not fear.

You have taken up my cause, O Lord. You have redeemed my life. Chapter 3 here is a highlight of the book of Lamentation, because it has more hope, and it has more appealing to God for his mercy than the others do. Chapter 4 is more about the despair and distress. You can read a few verses here. Verse 15 again, the people of Judah had been viewed as a way unclean. People shouted at them, away, away, don't touch. They become fugitives and wanderers. It was said among the nations, they shall stay here no longer. The Lord himself has scattered them. He will regard them no more. No honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders. See, if they had not turned people to God, if they had not said you need to obey God, well, then they were going to be among the captives as well. It didn't matter who you were. And in chapter 5, you have a conclusion, but I think you find more of the climax in chapter 3, because it is much more hopeful. But here in chapter 5, your ears are plea for mercy. I request for relief. Remember, O Lord, verse 1, what has befallen us? Look and see the mess we're in. See our disgrace.

We are weary in verse 5. We're given no rest. It says in verse 17, because of this, because we are in such distress and in captivity, the joy of our hearts have ceased. In verse 15, our dancing has turned to morning.

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned. And because of this, our hearts are sick. And because of these things, our eyes have grown dim. And because in verse 18, Mount Zion, again another name for Jerusalem, the city that is set in a certain part of the hills there on the eastern side of Israel, because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate. It says, though, and he closes this book and this chapter saying, but you, O Lord, reign forever. You're thrown in doers to all generations.

Why have you forgotten us? Why have you forsaken us these many days? So he had to bring that up, because he was in distress. But he says, I know you can rescue us. I know you can help us, but you want us to wholeheartedly turn to you. You want our hearts. You don't want sacrifices, as David said. You want a broken spirit and a contrite heart. And see, that was something that Israel, the nation of Judah in this case, wasn't really learning well. It was something that Jeremiah could say. And he says in verse 21, restore us. Restore us. He was pleading for restoration, O Lord, that we may be restored, renew our days as of old. He almost says in the very end, in verse 22, unless you've utterly rejected us or angry with us beyond measure. That is not the case, because he'd already stated that, well, God is merciful. If we just turn to him, then we can have a closeness that is extraordinary. But this whole book, and I know I've quickly gone through this, but that's the only way I know we can actually cover this in sense, since an hour, if we spend an hour on a book. But we spent a short time here on the book of Lamentation, but introducing the idea that God has shown what his plan is going to be.

He has shown what the end of the age will be like. He has shown what he wants from us. And we can read even more of that in the New Testament, from the people of God, how that our hearts need to truly be turned to him. And of course, God, and what we learn from reading prophecies of this type, and what we will go over in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, it'll show that God has a perfect balance, a perfect balance of judgment, but then also mercy. And he can deal and will deal with the people of Israel, and he will deal with all of the nations outside of Israel. You see it framed that way, because obviously Israel and the people of God and Israel are the people that God is going to, in a sense, work with to bring to an understanding of the need for God. And then the nations are also going to learn that lesson. I think it's going to be in a secondary way, because he says he'll work with Israel. But we also see that sin cuts off people from God. That's why, of course, you know, the Holy Days show us that not only are we redeemed through the blood of the Lamb, but that we want to turn from sin. We want to reject sin and move away from sin, because otherwise we're just, you know, disrespecting the sacrifice that's been given for us. And then, of course, we want to yearn for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and not only simply just having the Holy Spirit. That's clearly where he tells us that we begin, but we want to stir up that gift of God that is in us.

We want to stir that up, because he says it can be neglected. It can be, in a sense, squelched.

If we are not turning our heart to God, that Spirit can be just kind of dormant. So we want to stir it up. We want to stir it up and be excited about what God is going to do here in the very near future. And, of course, as I mentioned, heartfelt repentance is what brings every human being. Those of us now who understand his plan, his purpose, his ways, you know, heartfelt repentance, humility is a key to our remaining that way, and remaining in a loving embrace with our Savior and with God the Father. That's the way we're going to be able to be successful. And yet, all of this is revealed in the pages of the Word of God. It's revealed in the prophetic statements that we will cover here in the next few weeks and months. And I hope that all of us can be moved by the events, you know, that we watch every evening because, unfortunately, you know, before we get, you know, to the dawn of a new age, you know, we have great calamity that is going to come on this earth.

And we need to be close to God and close to his Word, you know, to be able to endure to the end.

So I look forward to covering those here in the next few weeks. I hope, please read the book of Lamentation. I'll cover this today. And then we'll go into, probably, Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel will be the pattern. So if you want to start reading, that's fine. We can't obviously read them here in church. But we can go over the overview of it. We can explain, you know, what is this about and what's kind of the format of it, the outline of it. And that's what I hope to do here in the next few weeks.