Why Prophecy

Well, good afternoon. Or, I guess it's still morning. Not afternoon yet. Good morning, brethren. No, that's fine. I guess we could say that Brian and I have been having a tag team here with singing and speaking here today. So we miss Tom. We miss him being able to be here and be able to help us out. But I'm again certainly happy to see all of you, and it's a delight. I wondered why. I just love to get in the car and drive up here every seventh day.

And that was explained to me a little more than I thought. It is something, of course, that we're accustomed to doing. But clearly, I think by God's design, we function well under his rule, under his direction and blessing. And it is a wonderful delight to be able to enjoy that.

Well, I wanted to cover something today that may take me a little longer than what I have time left to do. So I may run a little long today, but you'll just have to wait for our noon meal. But all of us, I think, are aware, and certainly as we watch world news, we see that Israel is under attack. We've been watching rockets being fired into the nation of Israel. I believe there are about eight million people who live in Israel, at least eight million Israelis. And whether that's from the Gaza Strip or whether it's from other parts of the Middle Eastern area around them, you see rockets being launched and then counter-attacks, and you hear about the defense interceptions that they are making in their iron dome. And all of this is surrounding the city that God has placed a great deal of importance upon, the city of Jerusalem. Now, they're shooting at some of the other cities in Israel that are closer to the border, but actually Israel directly, I guess Jerusalem, has not been under attack like this for many decades. There's always been war going on and warfare, and yet the nations around Israel are being stirred up. And, of course, Jerusalem is a focal point of Bible prophecy. You know, it's a focal point in many ways, but it certainly is a focal point of Christ's return and what leads up to his intervention to come to the Mount of Olives and to establish the Kingdom of God and the capital in Jerusalem. I want us to look in Luke 21. Of course, this is the reason why I mentioned this today, because this has been, I think, expanded throughout this past week, maybe more than at any other time. But here in Luke 21, we find Jesus saying, whenever he was asked, you know, what are the signs going to be that will be occurring here on earth right before your return? And I guess you can read down toward, let's see, the end of verse 25 and on, and it talks about Christ intervening and coming, returning to the earth. You'll see the Son of Man in verse 27 coming in a cloud with power and great glory, and we see that greatly elaborated on in the book of Revelation, and with chapters, at least one or two, that deal exclusively with him returning. And, of course, at that time, with the power and the authority to stop, to stop men from doing what they're doing today, which is fighting and bickering and arguing and war and distress and disaster. That's where we are today. But to back up to verse 20. When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.

It talks about even the city of Jerusalem being surrounded and oppressed.

And that, again, is a sign of the times. It's a sign of the times that we live in, and it seems more enlarged, more accentuated right now than any time that I recall here in just the recent past and even in further past. I know I was in Jerusalem when I was in college when we were doing a big dig. And, of course, being a 19-20 year old kid, I didn't appreciate or didn't learn near as much as I should have, but at least I kind of understand the setting.

That was just a couple of years after the Aloxah Mosque had been bombed. I didn't know why they were doing that either. I didn't understand a lot of things that I don't know that I fully understand yet today, but I certainly didn't know hardly anything about why there's such a conflict going on right now. I did know that we were there to do some kind of an archaeological dig, and I also knew that I was very good at that. I was very good at archaeology because I was one of the chief rock busters at the bottom of the hole. Whenever they would be digging down and you dig down into you know, little, I don't know what they call them, little, little, you're digging down in a pattern so that they can kind of chronicle things, but whenever they would come across a huge rock, Thompson, get over here! And so with a sledgehammer, I would pulverize that rock and put it in a bucket, and they would haul it out. And I wasn't the only one who could do that, but I was extremely good at that at that time. I don't think I'd be very good at it. Now, that's the maybe the extent of my archaeological expertise, but I know that we were excavating an important site there near the temple, the Temple Mount, and something we've learned far more about here over the last, what, 40-some years. But I want to focus on the way that prophecy ought to affect us.

You know, prophecy, sometimes people get really excited about prophecy. You know, they can read something in the book of Revelation or read something in Daniel, and of course Daniel has a lot of symbolic things, a lot of description that it does take some interpretation to be able to understand what those symbols mean. Some of them are directly described in the Bible, the same way with the Book of Revelation. But it's really not maybe as important to know what each and every little thing means whenever you see the description of the prophetic statements that we find in the Bible. Some people can find that intriguing, and they may find that they put more emphasis on just trying to figure out what this means than what the real intent of prophecy is, which is not simply to foretell the future or to reveal things that are to come to pass. And clearly this is what Jesus was saying, these things are going to happen. They're going to happen basically 2,000 years from my being here on earth. They're going to happen in the near future for us today. They're going to happen, they're going to come to pass, and actually you find numerous things that we learn from prophecy. You find whenever you can read in the book of Genesis, you see prophetic statements about different of the tribes of Israel, about characteristics and about even how there will become a great nation and a great commonwealth of nations. That particular prediction came to pass about 5-6,000 years later from when it was predicted. And that's only been maybe as clearly visible as it is today, 200 years ago, because 200-300 years ago, you didn't have quite the strength that the United Kingdom has had. And you certainly didn't have the great power and might that the United States became. It's almost that became, because we're on such decline, that you wonder how long can we continue to sustain an unsustainable situation? How much are we yet to see before Christ does intervene? But of course, you read verses in Isaiah in chapter 46. It talks about God saying, you know, I declare the end from the beginning. I know what's going to happen. Or I have set in motion a plan and a purpose that I am bringing to about.

And so prophecy does reveal not only the existence of God, but a belief in a plan, a belief in a process or a purpose that God is working out here on earth. He's not just randomly letting mankind go wherever it'll go. He has an intention of what he's going to do. Maybe we could read that here in Isaiah 14.

Isaiah chapter 14, of course, reveals a lot of prehistory as well, as you see a description of Lucifer's rebellion and trying to overthrow God. But I want to start down in verse 24. Isaiah 14, verse 24, it says, the Lord of Host has sworn, as I have designed, so shall it be, as I have planned, so shall it come to pass. Isaiah 14, verse 24. And in this case, when he was stating this and giving Isaiah this information, he says in verse 25, I'm going to break the Assyrian in my land and on my mountain. I will trample him underfoot, and his yoke will be removed from them and his burden from his shoulders. See, God had used Assyria, you know, in a certain way, but he was also going to break that Assyrian oppression of his people. And he says in 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 earth, for the Lord of Host has planned. And who, who can annul that plan? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? See, prophecy shows us not only the existence of God, but the plan of God and the purpose of God in dealing with human beings. And, of course, it should, prophecy should, impact our lives. You know, sometimes people will read something, and it will start, you know, start becoming intriguing to them, and start motivate them to want to know more, or to read more, or to find out more about what the Bible says, because that's really what, you know, we need to find out what does the Bible tell us. And yet, of course, let's look at Luke 21 again. Luke 21.

Prophecy, a prediction of what's going to happen, a prediction prior to it coming to pass, being brought about by the supreme ruler of the universe, it ought to be prompting us to grow, prompting us to be more fervent, to be more motivated. Here in Luke 21, we read verse 20, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know, know that its desolation has come near. You know, whenever, you know, we see certain things happening, it ought to, it ought to be motivating to us if we drop on down to verse 34. He 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 they catch you unexpectedly, like a trap, for it will come upon all who live on the face of the earth. But he says, be alert at all times.

Praying, more fervently, praying that you may have the strength or you may be accounted for worthy to escape all of these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

This, again, is a description of why God puts prophecy. I think, what is it, a quarter to a third of all the Bible is prophecy? And yet, you know, some of it is, you know, very, you know, it has a great deal of structure to it. And when you put Daniel and Revelation together, you get a lot of older and then now more current and going to happen in the next few years information that is really, really motivating whenever we study that. But you also find that the fact that God is able to write history in advance, that's what he's able to do, you find that that should also provide us hope, hope and encouragement regarding the kingdom of God. We can pray thy kingdom come and we can think, well, maybe that's going to happen. Now, the absolute fact is it is going to happen. It is going to come to pass. If we look to Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2, you find a lot of very good statements here in Daniel. And, of course, Daniel had found himself a captive. Daniel was of the tribe of Judah, and yet Daniel was of those who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army. The people of God, the people of Judah, the people who were from Israel and Judah. Israel, prior to that, and then later divided into Israel and Judah, and Israel fell, and then Judah fell. Daniel was taken as a captive. He was taken as a captive into the Gentile nation of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar's, you know, of course, he's a really good study as well, of arrogance, of dominance, of cruelty, of insanity. You know, there were years when he simply did not know what he was doing, and yet God was also even working through him to help the people of God to turn back to God. That was a part of what we see in the book of Daniel, and yet Daniel is being asked by the king Nebuchadnezzar to produce things there's no way he could produce, except the God of heaven would reveal whatever it is he needed to know.

And of course, you read this in verse 28 of chapter 2. There's a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he is disclosed to king Nebuchadnezzar what's going to happen in the end of days. He goes on in verse 29, O you king, as you lay in bed, you came thoughts of what you would be hereafter.

So he had a dream and the revealer of mysteries discovered to you what it is to be. But as for me, that mystery has not been revealed to me because of any wisdom that I have more than any other being, but simply in order that the interpretation may be known to the king and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind. That's what Daniel had to say, there's no way I could know what's going to happen. But there is a God in heaven who does know, and who is bringing to pass a plan and a purpose. And even as he concludes the explanation of the dream, and of course Nebuchadnezzar had required even more ridiculous in an interpretation what the dream was.

Daniel, of course, was blessed by God to know what the dream was and to know what it meant. And the end result of it is revealed in verse 44. It says, in the days of the final kings that will reign on the earth.

Verse 44, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven is going to set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. And nor shall this kingdom be left to other people. It shall crush all the kingdoms. It shall bring them to an end, and it will stand forever. So here is a prediction of what's going to happen yet. What's going to happen when Jesus returns? What's going to happen when the kingdom of God is caused to overrule all of the kingdoms of man? And so some of these prophecies that we can read, some of them seem to be pretty clear.

And yet, as I'm mentioning, they ought to be motivational. And I want to cover here in the next few weeks, or as I have opportunity to be able to speak to you, I want to cover the major prophets with us. I want us to go over, or be able to go over, and again, I've not gone over these extensively, and I have to really stroke. I made a D- and prophecy and school, because I couldn't figure out what they are talking about here.

And yet, I understand some of it now, and I'd like to encourage all of us to grow in understanding of these prophets. Because the prophets are divided up. The major prophets were all familiar with them, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Those are the three major prophets. And then you have minor prophets. Of course, Daniel seems to be quite prominent. He might be considered major, but I think the way it's normally divided, Daniel is a part of the minor prophets.

Daniel, Jose, all the way through to the end of the Old Testament, the Malecon. Those are all books that we could deal with at some time. Perhaps Dr. Hauslton and Dr. Robinson can cover those better than I can, because there's a lot of background information that's needed to be able to have them make sense. But I think it'd be good to go over the major prophets and be able to gain an insight into the motivation that it should give to all of us.

Because you can, Isaiah is often called a messianic prophet. And of course, why? Why would he be a prophet that spoke to Israel or Judah and, of course, has some bearing on things that we're seeing going to happen now, but also more so maybe even into the answer. You know, all of the chapters 2 and 9 and 11 and 32 and 35 and 53, these are all about Jesus Christ, about the kingdom of God being set up on earth, about the establishment of the restoration that's going to take place.

That's why he's called a messianic prophet just because of the many prophecies you read in Isaiah that are about the deliverer, about the Messiah. We often read chapters 52 and 3 at Passover time. It's clearly talking about Jesus coming and even his sacrifice the first time. But then, many of the others are talking about his return, talking about him establishing the kingdom of God. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet.

And I'm not sure I know, again, the setting is a little different, and we will try to cover some of that. I'll try to make that information a little more clear as I have it a little more clear. But Jeremiah was called a weeping prophet because he had such concern for his people, the people of Judah, the people that he loved but who were sinning like crazy, who were turned completely away from God, who were not even wanting to turn back.

And yet what you see about Jeremiah was that he was so upset, and that's the way he actually writes. Let's look at Jeremiah 9. Jeremiah chapter 9.

This is actually a pretty big part of the Old Testament that we're looking at here. You've got what would be called former prophets, and then these are called latter prophets, former prophets being more Samuel and Kings, being more history as then prophetic. But all of these that we're talking about here, the major prophets and then the minor prophets that make up the latter part of the Old Testament, you see here in Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 1. It 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, that's kind of a tone of the way that Jeremiah felt whenever he was pleading with his people and with the leaders of his people to change or to return to God. Let's go on over to chapter 13. In verse 17, he makes another statement.

It says, But if you will not listen, my soul, chapter 13 verse 17, 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. That was his feeling. He had been commissioned by God to give a message, not a message that was going to be received, but a message where he felt obligated to give the message, and yet he felt pain for the people. He felt pain for the people of God who would resist God's instruction to return to me. In Lamentations, and I want to cover a little more about Lamentations here in a little while, but in Lamentations, which is, I believe, written by Jeremiah, although I guess that could be disputed. It doesn't directly say that, but I believe that most folks believe Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentation. But here in Lamentation, which is a very short book between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but here in chapter 2, in verse 11, he says, "...my eyes are spent with weeping, and my stomach churns. My bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because the impenstain made faint in the streets of the city." See, it talks about him in a kind of emotional way that sometimes he's portrayed, not only in his action, but in his writing of what he wrote down. I'm not just crying for my people. It makes me sick. It makes me want to throw up because of what is happening to the people of God. And so, you find these different prophets. Ezekiel, and I won't go through more about Ezekiel, was commissioned to serve as a watchman or a sentinel for God's people. He was a sentry to warn of impending danger because of their sins, because of their disobedience.

They were going to be overtaken, overthrown. That's kind of a summary of the three major prophets, and we'll try to go through each one of those here as I go forward. But it's amazing when you think of prophecy, and sometimes it is hard to understand prophecy. That's why my grade was so bad in college, because I couldn't connect one with the other.

I couldn't figure out who was talking. I couldn't figure out who are they talking to, and why are they saying this? And yet, as we gain some understanding of the history of the people of Israel and of the Bible-revealed history of Israel, I mean there's a lot of other information, but the Bible gives us the basis for understanding that. You find that prophecy can be hard to understand, because sometimes it's given specifically to the nation of Israel. That's sometimes when we read some of these things, it's just clearly directed to what Israel was doing at that time, and at that time would be, say, 2,500 years ago, you know, 500 years before the time of Jesus.

And so, you know, sometimes that's what it's directed to. Sometimes it's given for the descendants of Israel and Judah today in the end time, because it states that, well, this is going to be about the time of the end. This is going to be about not just what happened to you back then, because Israel and Judah both went into captivity. The people of God, the people that God had chosen through Abraham, because of disobedience, went into captivity, and God then rescued them.

See, that this is, again, within the design and within the plan and purpose that God has in his prerogative to predict the future, his prerogative to write history in advance. And as I mentioned, sometimes it's for the nation in the past. Sometimes it's for the people of Israel today, not just the people who live in the country of Israel now and who might be termed Jewish, which I'm sure they fully believe, and I'm sure they are, descendants of Judah. And yet, the people of Israel are scattered around the world and clearly among Britain and the United States and other English-speaking peoples, you find that some of the statements are directly made to us today, and then some of them are applicable not only in the past, but even here in our time and in the future.

So that's why sometimes it's not as clear as we might like it to be. But I want to begin talking about these major books of prophecy by looking at the book of Lamentation. I mentioned one of the verses because it just described the same thing that Jeremiah wrote about in his book. He's still writing the same way in the book of Lamentation, and I believe that he is, you know, the one that is writing this, although, you know, like I said, that's not something I can fully prove, but I believe that that's what's believed.

And he had a great deal of anguish. And the book of Lamentation itself is simply a book. It's a very short book. It's a five-chapter book, and each one of these chapters are basically a poem. It's written in the Hebrew. It's written in a manner, you know, where it is a poem, or more so in this case, it is a lament. He's lamenting the fact that my people are in captivity.

My people had fallen prey to the pagan, heathen, Assyrian, or Babylonian captors, and now we're in captivity. And of course, what he was writing in these five chapters, he was writing about how horrible that is. He was writing about how distressful it is. And yet he was pointing out that God had drawn through Abraham and his descendants a people who needed to acknowledge him as being the sovereign ruler. Now as we know from the history of Israel, they didn't identify with that. They didn't fully comprehend.

Many of the leaders came to see that, but many of the people simply did not relate to God hardly in any way. But what we see whenever we read about these laments that Jeremiah was writing about, we see God's sovereignty, how he rules over even when people disobey. He can bring about justice or judgment upon them, and that's really what it was. When they were allowed to go into captivity, they were brought to that level because God is just.

He says, you've completely ignored me, and this is the outcome. This is the penalty. But we also find not only that God's rule is great and his justice is true, but that is mercy because ultimately he would bring them out of captivity. Ultimately, he would relieve them of this distress.

But when you read through the book of Lamentation, you find that it's all about distress. It's all about the suffering that God had allowed to come upon the nation of Judah, the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah, as they were now in captivity to Babylon. So let's go through a few of these chapters here. I'm not again going to read through all of them. You can do that if you wish.

It does. I think I'm trying to give you just a background enough to maybe want to see. And actually, a verse that Brian was referring to earlier is here in Lamentation. It's the fact that even though God is just, and even though he does bring about at least nationally punishment for disobedience, he also is a merciful God, and his mercy and his faithfulness revives every day. We will see that here in chapter one. Let's look at chapter one. Chapter one is Lamentations one. It's actually, you know, it's describing God's judgment on Jerusalem. It says in verse one, How lovely sits the city that once was full of people.

How like a widow she has become. That was great among the nation. She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal, and she weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheek among all her lovers. She has no one to comfort her. Here, this is talking about the city of Jerusalem and how it has been overrun and overtaken, and the walls have been broken down.

The temple has been pillared. It has, you know, it's been destroyed, and the people carried away, and they live now in captivity. But he reveals here in chapter one, why? Why had that come about? Well, you can see in verse five, Her foes have become their masters, her enemies now prosper because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitudes of her transgressions. And so here he repeats this in many ways. He goes over it well because of their sins, because of refusal to acknowledge God, and that this great calamity has come upon them. In verse eight says, Jerusalem sinned grievously, and so she has become a mockery.

And if we drop down to verse 14, it says, My transgressions, again talking about the nation as a whole, our transgressions were bound into a yoke, and by his hand they were fastened together. They weigh on my neck, sapping my strength. This was what Jeremiah was able to write under God's direction and his inspiration about how it was that the sins of the people of God had burdened them down, you know, where it sapped all of their strength. And in verse 20 says, See, O Lord, how distressed I am, my stomach churns, my heart has run within me because I have been very rebellious. See, Jeremiah saw this not only in himself in certain ways, maybe very poignantly because he had the Word of God. He had God's direction in being able to see certain things and to be able to be told to speak certain things, and yet because of sin, because of rebellion, because of transgressions, Jerusalem was in this kind of mess. And you see in different verses here, we read verse 2, No one could comfort her. That same comment is made in verse 16 and 17 and verse 21. And all of this, see, no one as far as physically around could comfort. And all of this had been brought about by God. Herein we read verse 5, because the Lord has made her suffer. And in verse 12, is it nothing to you, all you who pass by, look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

See, Jerusalem was in shambles because of the sins of the people and because God justly gave them what they deserved because of refusing to honor God, refusing to yield to God, refusing to even keep in mind His Word or His Law. You know, they were in this horrible trouble and down in verse 18. It says, the Lord is in the right for I've rebelled against His Word.

See, God was very just. He was completely justified in what He was doing with the people of Israel, or in this case, the people of Judah. And that, of course, is going to be the case as we look into the future. The people of Israel and Judah today are going to suffer a great deal here in the end time. And yet God is fully justified, even as it says here, God is in the right, because I've resisted or I've rebelled. Actually, you know, chapter 2 is another, again, another lament that shows how God's plan in, you know, maybe dealing with people, working with them, proclaiming to them, and in this case, Jeremiah was proclaiming a message. He was proclaiming a warning to them. Turn to God. Here in chapter 2, you see an entire chapter, mostly about God's purpose being carried out. We drop down to verse 17 of chapter 2, verse 17. It says, The Lord has done what He has purposed, and He has carried out His threat, as He's ordained long ago, and He is demolished without pity, and He has made the enemy rejoice over you, and exalted the might of your foe. This, again, was by God's intention, by His plan.

Now, clearly, Israel had deserved whatever God dished out, and yet this shows God's desire to, you know, be just in what He does. But then we see in verse 18 and verse 19, maybe down into, yeah, verse 18 and 19. You see what God would like to see, not only in people of the past, but in people today, and I think, to all of us, verse 18, cry aloud to the Lord, O wall of daughter Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night. Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite. Arise and cry out in the night at the beginning of the watcher. Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord, and lift your hands to Him for the lives of your children who faint for hunger at the head of every street. Look to the Lord and consider to whom have you done this. See, that was, again, written not just for them, because undoubtedly this was recorded, you know, later, as written for us. The heartfelt appeal, heartfelt repentance is a part of our responsiveness to God, and it's going to become a part of the responsiveness that people in general are going to learn.

You know, that's what God wants. He wants us to obey, but He doesn't want us to obey grudgingly. He wants us to obey from the heart, and His plan or His purpose will be fulfilled. And here in chapter 3, you actually have, in chapter 3, kind of a, it's kind of a focus chapter in the entirety of this five-chapter book. And I won't try to go through chapter 4 and 5. You can read those yourself. Actually, chapter 5 is a great deal about relief that God could provide and that He would restore.

But here in chapter 3, you have to say that this chapter, in many ways, even though it is lament about them falling into such darkness and such bitterness, and Jeremiah had to say that being a captive, you know, we're not allowed to do what we would like to do, near like we could have in our own land.

And he describes this 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. That's the way He describes it. He says we're in such a mess, it's described as darkness. He has made my flesh, in verse 4, and my skin waste away and broken my bones. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and with tribulation. He has made me sit in darkness like the dead of long ago. See, He saw that not only for Him personally, but for the nation, that we're in just you know, deep, deep anguish.

And as He says, let's see to drop down in verse 17, my soul is bereft of peace, and I've forgotten what happiness is. This is deep distress that He is writing about, chapter 3, verse 17. And yet you start seeing a little bit of a kind of an uptick, you know, a little bit of an elevation, knowing that, well, since we're in such a mess, what we need to do is return to God.

We need to repent. And actually, as we get into more of the study of Jeremiah, we see that Jeremiah had even come to see, at least later on, that this captivity was only going to last for a while. But there would be generations that would pass. It was going to last for 70 years. And yet, there would be several generations removed, and some might remember that most wouldn't. And then they would be allowed to return. But here in verse 21, but this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.

And so this is, again, a thought that Jeremiah had, that God gave him for us. He says, the steadfast love, the loving kindness of the Lord, never ceases. Sometimes if we're in any kind of distress, we need to be encouraged to know that that steadfast love of God never ceases. His mercy never come to an end. Verse 23, they are new every morning, and great is His faithfulness. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

Therefore I will hope in Him. Verse 25, the Lord is good for 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. Now that's about as positive a statement that you could read anywhere in the Old Testament. And yet He was writing this under God's direction and inspiration, and being in captivity, and being in misery, and crying all the time because of the mess that the nation was in.

And yet this whole section is this chapter 3. It really expresses deep anguish, but it also shows the great hope that God can retrieve, God can revive, God can relieve, not only the nations who He justly will punish. And yet when we read in the book of Revelation, you find people, you know, not even repenting after, you know, they have time and time and time to do that. Well, God's able to handle that too, but He'd like to see people turn.

He'd like to see people be reminded that, well, there is hope. There is hope, and the Lord is good. And He says in verse 31, the Lord will not reject forever. Although He has caused grief, or He causes grief, He will have compassion.

According to the abundance of His steadfast love, He will not willingly afflict or grieve anyone. In a sense, we bring a lot of our misery on ourselves. You know, that happens not only to us, but many people, almost all people, bring a certain level of misery upon themselves. And certainly nations bring distress upon themselves. And let's see, let's, we drop down to verse 40. He says, what we should do, let us test and examine our ways and let us return to the Lord. That's what everyone is going to need to learn to do. Again, not only us, as we approach God and as we see the times when we need to be forgiven and examine ourselves and return to the Lord. But you also find here in the latter part of this chapter, which is in sometimes a very optimistic and very encouraging chapter, and then it's almost like Jeremiah lapses back and, well, I'm still sitting in, you know, a real mess here. And I, my people are not, you know, able to even worship God and honor God as we would, we're able in our land. We just didn't do it.

And here in chapter 3, verse 45, or excuse me, verse 55, I called on your name. Or actually in verse 54.

You know, he thought, well, we're lost. I'm lost. And yet in verse 55, I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. And you heard my plea, do not close your ears to my cry for help, but give me relief. You came near when I called on you and you said, do not fear, and you have taken up my cause and you have redeemed my life. Now, again, some of these statements are ones that Jeremiah may be directly stating about his own personal situation, and some of them have to do with a desire that the nation should really appeal to God.

And certainly, these could be applicable to the future of people coming to see that there is no other way except God's. There is no other way except to honor God, to obey God, to serve God, to worship God, and to draw close to God with a true spirit of thankfulness and gratitude. As I mentioned, Chapter 4 goes through more despair and distress and because of sin.

And Chapter 5, actually, it talks about, it's in a sense, a plea for relief. And you see in Chapter 5, Verse 18, or Verse 17, verse 16 says, well, we've sinned. And because of this, our hearts are sick. In Verse 5, Chapter 5, Verse 17, because of these things our eyes have grown dim and because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate. But he says in Verse 19, but you, O Lord, and Mount Zion referring directly to Jerusalem, it has been desolate for some time, it appears.

But you, O Lord, reign forever and your throne endures to all generations. He just says, why have you forgotten us and why have you forsaken us? Please, in a sense, it's a plea for restoration. Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored and renew our days as of old.

Now, I've gone through this chapter or this book real quickly because it's a short book and it's one that I can easily read. It's one that you can easily read. And yet to understand a little more about, you know, this was a lament because of God being just in bringing about this captivity, but because of the sin of the people, they needed to cry out for restoration. They needed to cry out for a closeness to God.

And that's what we're going to see. I think you'll see more so as we go through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, some of these same things. But I mentioned these, again, as we started out, some pretty drastic things happening in the world today. And we don't need to be, you know, unattached or disattached. We need to be aware of what's happening. We need as it said in Luke, to be praying. We need to be asking that God would protect and that He would provide.

But we also want Him, you know, to bring the Kingdom. We want Him to bring the answer, the Kingdom that He says. So we can understand all of this, I think, as we read through these things. God has a perfect balance in judgment, but also in mercy. See, on Israel and then on all the other nations. He talks about this even as He punished Israel, and He would punish the nation that He used to punish Israel. And so He has that perfect balance. And of course, you know, it reiterates the fact that sin cuts people off from God. God, you know, doesn't want us to sin.

He doesn't want us to be far from Him, but that's where Israel and Judah found themselves. And if we are not watching, if we are not praying to be close to God, then, you know, we can find ourselves cut off or feeling unattached. And yet, as He also points out here, heartfelt repentance brings us into God's loving embrace once again.

And so I hope that this will be a benefit to you. I'm sure it's going to be beneficial to me to go through some of these chapters that I haven't maybe gone through for some time, and be able to be able to study, you know, the words of God, many of which are prophetic, that we can grow by and come to understand better. So we will try to do that as I have opportunity to speak to you here in the next few weeks or months.