Destination: Lamentations 1-5 | Skip Heitzig

[Music] behind me is Columbine High School scene of a violent rampage in 1999 the Bible is very honest about the human condition God does not gloss over the intense pain and loss that's a constant part of life on Earth in the Book of Lamentations Jeremiah wept openly over the condition of the nation Israel many people have come to this Columbine Memorial to grieve and cope with the events that took place here this is an appropriate site to introduce a flight segment from the Bible at 30,000 feet now let's take a look at the book of lamentations at the writing of The Book of Lamentations there would be smoke ascending from the smoldering city of Jerusalem all this was predicted by Jeremiah but fulfillment brought this prophet no satisfaction only grief tears and great lamenting well if you were to look up the word lamentation in a dictionary it means an expression of grief and a lament or a lamentation is typically a song or a poem that expresses sorrow sorrow / loss sorrow / destitution singing the blues that's what a lament is you know sort of like a country-western song you know somebody once said if you what do you get if you play a country-western song backwards you get your wife back you get your family back you get your dog back you get your job back this is a sorrowful lament and why as was mentioned earlier Jerusalem and the City of Jerusalem the nation of Judah has effectively died in Jeremiah oversaw the death of the nation and if if Jeremiah as a book the Book of Jeremiah is the funeral of Jerusalem then this is the funeral song the dirge the lamentation over the city now this song has five dirges or five sections five laments and those are in each of the five chapters and you might think well what good is it to to read such a sad book well wouldn't we be better off if we pick some joyful theme and not dwelt on anything bad or wrong there's so much bad news and bad stuff in the world what good does it do to cover a book like lamentations well unfortunately there are people that think that way in fact I would say America is consumed with not dealing with sorrow not dealing with bad times or bad things we just want all of the glitz and all of the comfort but I got to tell you there is value in studying and dwelling on sorrow and here's why because it gets you in touch again with the reality of life it was Solomon who said in the book of Ecclesiastes these words it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting he continues for that is the end of all men and the living will take it to heart and sometimes a stroll through a cemetery goes a lot further than a nice vacation on a cruise ship because as you look at those gravestones they're giving you a message that's what Nathaniel Hawthorne once said he said every grave no matter where you find it preaches a short pithy message to the soul and what is that message it's saying you're gonna be here soon make sure that your life is all that it should be you only have a section of time on this earth make sure that it counts and so it's good to study the Book of Lamentations sorrow morning you know I don't know if you've ever studied any of the great revivals of the past but one of the marks of the great revivals of the past besides a wholesale turning to the Word of God is often accompanied with sorrow mourning over sin that marks really true revival now there has been a a movement of late last several years actually in the church in so-called revivals and it's funny how these revivals they just they're the same thing but they appear in different places whether it's in Brownsville Texas and then after a while up in Toronto Canada at the Toronto vineyard now it's over in Lakeland a Florida I hear all of these so-called revivals and part of these revivals is an interesting phenomenon known as holy laughter where supposedly this spirit of joy just overtakes people and in the middle of a church service they just start cracking up I mean laughing and howling sometimes like animals and they say it's from the Spirit of God I mean it's just flat-out weird holy laughter you know read about that in the Bible you read a lot about holy morning blessed are those who mourn they shall be comforted and Jeremiah has a good reason to mourn it's because the city that he loved the city of God's name and God's promise has been under attacked by the Babylonians now there is only a hundred and fifty-four verses in the entire book it's a very short book and it's part of a special section of scripture called the Scrolls in the Jewish Bible the five scrolls the making looked you've heard the term if you've been in the Bible from 30,000 feet the megaload the five scrolls are five short books read at special occasions in Jewish synagogues book of Ruth Esther Song of Solomon Ecclesiastes and lamentations all of those are read at five peak periods in the Jewish calendar now the Book of Lamentations is read every year on the ninth day of the month of AV of the ninth of of and on the ninth of of is the celebration or I should say really the commemoration the remembrance of the destruction of the temple that's when it fell Solomon's Temple fell 586 BC on the ninth of of the second time the temple was destroyed by the Romans it also fell on exactly the same day the ninth day of the eleventh month the ninth above so every year this is commemorated in the Book of Lamentations is read now something I just got to throw out when the Jews speak of their days and their months they always put the day first and then the month we always put the month first and then the day so for a Jewish person writing the calendar of the ninth of of they would write 9/11 and 9/11 was the commemoration of the fall of Jerusalem I bring that out because when the twin towers fell on our September eleventh our 911 when they heard those words 911 and they still hear those words 911 it rings a familiar Bell it doesn't just mean two towers fell down it means to them two temples were destroyed on their 911 there Tish Bob there ninth of all it's a very significant thing in their minds let's go to to verse 1 of chapter 1 and chapter 1 begins the destruction of the temple as seen from the outside looking in once we get to verse 11 it's reversed we'll see it from the inside looking out how lonely sits the city 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 now normally Jerusalem was very crowded and normally today Jerusalem is still very crowded it says in the Book of Psalms behold Jerusalem is the city that is compacted together where the tribes of the Lord go up and if you've ever walked through the streets of modern Jerusalem you get it it's it's wall-to-wall people it's hard to manage it's always full of people but the destruction would mean the people would be gone and I don't know if you've ever been in a city that is being evacuated when there's no one out in the streets but it's a weird feeling I happen to be in Jerusalem this very City one time when because of a supposed attack a threat they were evacuating the streets they closed and locked the damascus gate to the old city wouldn't let people in or out and they just cleared people off a crowded normally crowded street was now empty desolate and very eerie feeling what a description of a city a princess in verse 1 and then from a princess to a widowed slave someone very lonely and desolate without covering without support verse 2 she weeps bitterly in the night her tears are on her among all her lovers she has none to comfort her now five times in Chapter one cries are being brought before the Lord none of those cries are answered by the Lord it's it's the picture of somebody reaching out and getting no response whatsoever in their anxiety and in their tears all her friends have dealt treacherously with her they had become her enemies now notice the reference to lovers and friends you know those were those were other nations that Judah made political alliances with to protect themselves from Babylon so they made an alliance with Egypt they made an alliance with Edom which is down towards Saudi Arabia they made an alliance with tyre and sidon up on the northern Sea coast in modern-day Lebanon because they wanted to protect themselves against the threat of the Babylonians now what God was saying all along is don't turn to Egypt for help don't turn to eat him for help Here I am turned to me for help I'll protect you but they did not do that they turned from God and they turned toward the help of man and that was their downfall verse 4 the roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts you know what the set feasts are right there's three feasts Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles they had to come every season three times a year to Jerusalem 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 it's not some about somebody mourning or in mourning typically when somebody dies in a Jewish household the men don't cut their hair they don't cut their facial hair they let their hair grow out for a period of time and they look very unkempt and the streets the throngs the gates the gateways of the city were typically packed full of people as I said even the the very roadways themselves into all of the gates of the city had Strong's of people on them now whenever you walk on a dirt path the weeds won't grow on it you beat down that path all the way down to hard dirt if you don't have people on it for a period of time the weeds and the grass overtake the dirt path and it looks like the hair is growing out it's a path in mourning so to speak in other words nobody's walking on it the people have been taken captive and the very roads themselves because of the grasses that have grown up on it they look like a mourner verse 10 the adversary has spread his hand over all her Pleasant things for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary those whom you commanded not to enter your assembly now here they were trusting in the very temple of God the building that God was worshiped in for their protection but now those temple courts were being defiled by their Gentile enemies who came in and overtook the land and you see and see if this sounds familiar to you there were a group of people living in Jerusalem who trusted in the fact that there was a building called the temple and as long as there was the building there God would protect us and if we just go there every now and then we'll be okay you see they trusted in the ritual the ritual done at a place rather than the relationship with the person who occupies that place that is God that was their fallacy it was all outward as long as we go to the temple we'll be okay are you right with God will I go to the temple ever ask people are you okay with God do you know God will I go to church same difference I go to a building and so that's why the same Prophet Jeremiah in Chapter 7 cries out in Jerusalem and says trust not in lying vanities saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these it was all outward none of it was inward all a ritual at a place rather than a relationship with a person and it doesn't stop there when you get to the New Testament the same kind of thinking prevails remember when Jesus was at Samaria and he encountered that woman at the well and Jesus started getting very personal with that gal and as she's feeling the the sinner life being exposed by Jesus having been married several times now living with a guy outside of marriage she quickly turns the conversation to worship it's all about a place she says our fathers worship in this mountain and you Jews say Jerusalem is the place one ought to worship see what she's doing she's making it all about the place all about the ritual all about the art not about the heart that's why Jesus said woman the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth not in this mountain nor in Jerusalem but really from the heart so you can see the symptoms going on inside of the city spiritually speaking and we we had to keep that in mind a church building is great but it's just a building I remember hearing people over the years here in this fellowship as we move from the lake's apartments to building on Eubank and then to snow heights and then to here and every time there was a movie oh I remember the old building and I remember my chair in the old building and it was like a special place where I met with God okay get over it God isn't confined to a chair or a building or an apartment complex look at it this way a building this building is like the lunch sack what's inside the lunch sack the lunch is far more important than the lunch sack you don't usually talk about lunch sacks a cool lunch sack I think I dig your lunch sack far better than mine who cares about the sack what are you eating what's the lunch what goes on inside the building and who's inside the building God's holy people you the temples of the Holy Spirit is far more important than the outward lunch sack these people in Jerusalem were all about the lunch sack all about the outward stuff that's verses 1 through 11 of chapter 1 beginning in verse 12 is now from the inside of Jerusalem looking out as Jeremiah continues is it nothing to you all you who pass by behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which has been brought on me which the Lord has inflicted in the day of his fierce anger verse 16 for these things I weep my eye my eye overflows with water very descriptive of pouring out tears because the comforter who should restore my life as far from me my children are desolate because the enemy prevailed Zion spreads out her hands but no one comforts her the Lord has commanded concerning Jacob that those around him become his adversaries Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them now here's where we see I believe Jesus Christ in the Book of Lamentations I think you can see Jesus plainly in every single book even of the Old Testament and I think here's where we see Jesus in lamentations and that is this weeping prophet this very emotional prophet touched with the sin of his people because if you remember there was a rumor about Jesus in the New Testament when Jesus asked his disciples it says a real Philip I who do men say that I am well some believe you're John the Baptist others say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets there was a rumor going around in the New Testament that Jesus Christ was the Prophet Jeremiah resurrected why is that because there were similarities the weeping prophet and Jace's who wept over his people wept over Jerusalem how often I would have gathered you as a mother hen gathers her chicks but you were not willing very very compassionate in his outreach now in verse 18 Jerusalem confesses her sin through the Prophet Jeremiah the Lord is righteous for I rebel this is the city now speaking for I rebelled against his commandment here now all peoples and behold my sorrow my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity here they are mourning over their sin they're not laughing blessed are those who mourn they shall be comforted there's a confession of sin you know there's a few ways that people typically respond to sin by far the first most common way is just to deny that sin exists or deny that there really a sinner in need of me I'm fine I'm okay don't worry about me no no no there's nothing wrong I'm not a sinner I have a few hangups I have a few vices but they deny their sin another way people deal with it is to compare themselves with other people far worse than they are well look I'm not perfect but you know that guy over there he's like really bad those people in jail they're like really bad I'm not as bad as they are that's like the Pharisee in the Gospel of Luke god I thank you that I'm not like other men especially that wretched wicked tax collector and I hope he can hear me comparing himself with somebody else there's a third way people do with their sin that is they admit that they've done wrong they admit that they need help and so they try to correct it themselves they read self-help books they go through little therapies and they think I can handle this the fourth and I say the best way the biblical way is to confess which means to admit actually means to agree with God to say the same thing about your sin God says about your sin fess up fess up confess it and turn from it or even if you're locked in and it's a hard hard thing you're involved and at least admit it and ask God God I want to turn from it and that's the biblical way that's the best way you just fess up nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling that's how you get cleaned up is by fessing up when you fess up you can get cleaned up until then you'll just stay in your sin at one time in our country the bathtub was regarded as something of a luxury in fact it was called it was denounced as a luxurious vanity did you know that in the year 1840 - it was denounced in the city of Boston it was unlawful to bathe unless by a doctor's prescription okay now this is a stupid law sometimes laws need to be challenged this was one of them it was unlawful to bathe unless a doctor gave you a prescription the following year 1843 in Philadelphia they made bathing illegal between November 1st and March 15th talk about a stinky winter now what a stupid law to make it illegal to ban it some people would rather put up with their own stench than to confess their sin and Jerusalem was in that category but now they're being pressed because they're taken captive and so finally they say the Lord is righteous I have rebelled against his Commandments now chapter 2 is the second urge of this funeral song and it gives more details of God's judgment it's an interesting chapter because it pictures God as the one dismantling the city of Jerusalem as if God was a one-man wreck Kru as if God was in there doing this there's an interesting passage of Scripture in the book of Hebrews you remember the scripture that says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God here's Jerusalem falling into the hands of the Living God who is taking their city piece by piece and dismantling it verse one how the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud of his anger he cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel it's a reference to the temple and did not remember his footstool in the day of his anger footstool is a reference in scripture to the temple of God in second chronicles 28 it is a reference to the temple David says the footstool of our God referring to the temple Psalm 132 verse 7 let us go to his tabernacle let us worship at his footstool so the temples being attacked God's footstool verse 5 the Lord look at this language don't miss this the Lord was like an enemy he has swallowed up Israel he has swallowed up all her palaces he has destroyed her strongholds he has increased mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah I found something strange about this book something that is honestly uncomfortable did you know that the Prophet Jeremiah mentions Babylon 164 times in the Book of Jeremiah in the Book of Lamentations Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar they're never mentioned once by name but rather now listen to this in this book God is seen as the agent yes he's using the Babylonians obviously but here God is pictured as the agent who is sovereignly behind the scenes dismantling the city I say it's uncomfortable because sometimes the sovereignty of God is a an uncomfortable subject gods charge of this God allowed them to go into captivity God used the Babylonians God inspired Nebuchadnezzar and he here and through the Book of Daniel will take responsibility for that you say how cruel does God like get off on our suffering or something not at all if you're a parent you understand this concept you have while your kids were being raised or you do now as they are being raised sometimes you inflict pain on your child sometimes you will strike your child how cruel of you how could you do that what kind of a parent are you you don't love them do you those are all thoughts they think as you spank them as you discipline them they're thinking you don't love me anymore of course that's the very reason you're spanking them you're disciplining them is because you love them and you know that a life that is unsupervised that is left to itself is endangering any child that is left to itself has a name we call them brats you can tell who they are you've seen them I've seen them I've been out and I've looked at little personalities that have been unchallenged and unchecked and listen I want to spank them I can't but I want to it's in my heart to do so I know what that child needs now I'd never lift a hand sometimes I'll look at the parent like who's in charge here God this heavenly parent is spanking his kids chastening them why because he loves them it was CS Lewis he said something really great he said pain get this pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rebel soul in that a great saying pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rebel soul that's why it says in Hebrews don't despise the chastening of the Lord you endure it but it's going to heal the fruit of righteousness in the end whom the Lord loves he chastens even David said that before I was afflicted David said I went astray but now I keep your law verse 7 the Lord has spurned his altar he has abandoned his sanctuary he has given up the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy they have made a noise in the house of the Lord as on the day of a set feast and so the Babylonians came jeremiah saw the temple burned destroyed jerusalem fell and 586 around mid July and the captivity was complete around mid-august three successive attacks the last one was 586 when the temple was destroyed now this is an important mark in their history because now that the temple is destroyed and they're not in Jerusalem anymore they're in a foreign country that means they cannot practice ceremonial law anymore they can't offer animal sacrifices there can't be a priesthood going in and out of the temple doing all of the the sacred duties of the priests they have to abandon ceremonial law and so this is what they do now in a foreign country since they can't practice ceremonial law they turn toward the written law they become very concerned in the Babylonian captivity with interpretations and a whole new leader emerges in the captivity that has never been in the Old Testament before but you suddenly see them in the New Testaments called the rabbi under the mosaic system there were rabbis there were priests and the priest stood before the people in God and practiced ceremonial law now there's no temple so now there's a group of people called rabbis who ask questions like what would Moses do in this situation and what would Moses do in that situation and they'll sermonize and argue and discuss and eventually they'll compile a whole set of books called the Talmud the Oral Law there's two sets of Talmud there's the Jerusalem Talmud and there's the real long one the Babylonian Talmud it's all about what they think and different rabbis would say rabbi Hillel rabbi Akiba Rabbi Shammai about what Moses would do in certain situations and all of that is because the temple is destroyed by the Babylonians the children of Israel are taken into captivity so you turn to the New Testament you don't have to now but when you do and you read about the synagogue and the rabbis that's all knew there was no synagogue pre captivity synagogues who not go gay in Greek is the gathering together beit knesset in hebrew the house of gathering where they would gather and talk about the law and teach the laws of God now what what was a real problem is that by the time of Jesus many of the Jewish leaders were far more concerned with what the oral law said what the rabbi said than what the written law said the Bible that's why Jesus said you have heard that it was said by those of old but I sandy you let me get back to the original intended meaning let's escape the oral law let's go right to the written law this is what the Bible says that's why he's making those statements in Matthew for that reason verse 11 my eyes fail with tears my heart and if you have an old King James it doesn't say hard does it it says my bowels I have troubled bowels my heart or my bowels are troubled my bile literally liver is poured out on the ground because the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and infants faint in the streets of the city here's Jeremiah weeping crying lamenting over himself no he's crying for the city he loves here's a good question that you should just answer on your own what makes you cry what breaks your heart what makes you laugh and what makes you cry because when you answer those question they will reveal a lot about who you are there are certain things that honestly to break our hearts and we should honestly be shocked at other things we can become desensitized to him in a culture like ours Jeremiah saw what was happening to his country broke his heart he wept over it and he says my heart or my bowels now let me tell you what's behind this the ancients considered that your deepest emotions came from your abdomen your stomach we say the same thing I felt it in the pit of my stomach they believed that the abdomen the bowels is a place where you experience the most emotion that's why in the New Testament you read phrases in the King James like bowels of tender mercies or bowels of compassion because of that belief now why are they so distraught why is Jeremiah so broken up he says because the children and the infant's faint in the streets of the city the saddest scenes in any kind of war or any kind of situation like this is what happens to children in the first Gulf War in 1991 I think it was when Kuwait was invaded do you remember that remember all those refugees that came over the border I went over to the Middle East and I went to Jordan where hundreds of thousands of Kuwaiti refugees who had been displaced came over the borders and were just living out in the desert and we visited refugee camp after refugee camp tent after tent and to see these little children without water and food and waiting for supplies to come was heartbreaking or the time I went to Mogadishu Somalia during the Black Hawk Down episode and all did thousands of children without any parents at all roaming the streets and we knew a couple of people who are trying to corral them all into this big house and give them medicine and feed them Jeremiah saw that it broke his heart verse 13 how shall i console you to what shall I liken you O daughter of Jerusalem what shall I compare with you that I may comfort you a virgin daughter of Zion for your ruin has spread as wide as the sea who can heal you as if to say what other nation is there that has suffered like you have suffered verse 15 all who passed by clap their hands at you you know that means there were actually people who were watching Jerusalem fall who were going to yeah they were happy about it they were singing and rejoicing that the Jewish people were being persecuted and killed and you know who they were they were they'd eaten mites their neighbors the end of the book God will have a special note to say to them they'll say you know what the Babylonians came after the Jerusalemites you're next and you're not going to be rebuilt you're gonna go out of existence like most of the other nations all rebuild Zion they won't go out of existence verse 15 continues at the daughter of Jerusalem is this the city that is called the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole earth Jerusalem did have a reputation for being beautiful now some people go there today and they go this is it this is Jerusalem because there's a lot of stones and there's a lot of stuff built close to each other it's not like going to see the castles of Edinburgh Scotland or the countryside of Austria they look at Jerusalem they go hmm interesting that that God put it here but the rabbi's used to have a great saying when Jerusalem was in its prime the rabbi said he who has not seen Jerusalem in its glory has never seen a beautiful city and in the Talmud that oral law there were beautiful things written like this God gave ten measures of Beauty to the whole world nine ended up at Jerusalem and one was dispensed throughout the rest of the world it continues ten measures of knowledge were given to the whole world nine were taken by Jerusalem and one was dispersed through the rest of the world but it continues ten measures of suffering were given to the world and nine were taken by Jerusalem and one for the rest of the world there's probably never been a nation that as consistently through the years suffered attack collapse burning captivity time and time again Jerusalem has seen 36 wars it has been destroyed 17 times and rebuilt 18 who can I liken it to who can I compare it to chapter three is the next urge there 66 verses were obviously as you can look at your watch not going to be able to go through but just a few of them but I got to tell you about how the book is laid out if you've noticed so far the first two chapters each have 22 verses in them chapter 3 has 66 verses chapter 4 22 chapter 5 22 there are in the Hebrew alphabet guess how many letters 22 this book is called as Kevin mentioned and a cross stick you know what an acrostic is is that the first sentence begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet Aleph the second line begins with the second letter B we would call it bait so Aleph bit gimel dalet hey Bob Zion all the way from Aleph 2 table where we would say ABC all the way to ABC all the way to Z so that's how it's constructed till you get to chapter 3 then it's a triple acrostic the first three begin with the letter A or olive the next three B etc etc all the way through the alphabet verse one I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath or I would translate that I Jeremiah watched God spanked this nation he has led me and made me walk in darkness and not light surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day you know of all the ministries you could have I think Jeremiah's was like V first ministry he never saw any conversions and yet he had to watch this city be destroyed there are certain ministries and in the Bible you look at and go I'd like his job I'd like to be Philip he was sent down to Samaria to see and start a revival or how about Peter on the day of Pentecost and all those thousands of people responding miracles happening and people being baptized or even Jonah to Nineveh though he didn't like it a whole city decides we're gonna repent we're all gonna turn to God even our animals are gonna wear sackcloth and ashes you know our pence our pets repent but poor Jeremiah what he said what he saw and what he did and he wept he wept sometimes though not often sometimes I will turn on Christian television and I'll see preachers ranting and raving about judgment and sometimes I'll catch a preacher not always but some it's a preacher talking about judgment and it almost sounds like they're getting off on talking about God's judging the world and it's bothersome that anybody can talk about the judgment of God on the world that he loves and created without feeling some deep sense of remorse you know Dwight L Moody great preacher from Chicago preached with a sense of sorrow and remorse it was said of a of dl moody RW dale of birmingham england said i don't think there's anybody that i know of that has the right to preach on hell except white Lyman moody because when he preaches on Hell there's tears in his voice there were tears in the voice of Jeremiah he wasn't gettin off on this he didn't say serves you right you should have listened to me none of you repented now you're getting yours he broken up by it and he identified with him verse seven he has hedged me in so that I cannot get out he has made my chain heavy even when I cry and I shout he shuts out my prayer this is interesting God had previously invited Jeremiah to pray Jeremiah 33:3 call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not but did you know that three times God tells the same prophet not to pray for the people of Jerusalem don't anymore bring a prayer before me because if you do I will not hear here's Jeremiah feeling very alone very isolated even crying out to God and God is saying don't even bring the subject up Jeremiah I won't answer your prayer verse 9 he has blocked my ways with hewn stone he has made my paths crooked again the feeling of isolation verse 19 remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood and the gall my soul still remembers and sinks within me wormwood is a strong smelling plant that yields a very bitter dark green oil now verse 21 Jeremiah this is the highlight now the book is the best part of the book Jeremiah now starts reviewing what he knows to be true about God's character now listen carefully whenever you face uncertain times anybody here ever do that yeah you're a liar if you don't cuz everybody faces like troublesome on certain times and whenever things in your life get uncertain that's when you need to turn and reflect on what is certain too many of us worry about well I don't get that understand this and whatever and you get you drown in it that's when you need to turn to what you know is true about the character of God Jeremiah does that look what he says this I recall to my mind therefore I have hope through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his Compassion's fail not they are new every morning great is your faithfulness the Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I hope in him the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him it is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord now frankly this is the only bright spot in the whole book you have five funeral dirges put in a certain hebrew cadence of all the mournful songs of the ancient peoples it's just a sad sad book suddenly in the middle of it it's like the smoke clears you see the light it's like walking into a dark coal mine and seeing a huge bright diamond right in the middle Wow this is the diamond of the book here's Jeremiah Jeremiah is able to seek God's mercy in the worst of circumstances the city is being destroyed and he sees God's mercy notice what he says Lord it's a marvel that were not totally destroyed at least you're gonna save a remnant and you promise they're gonna come back you know as I look at the other nations Jeremiah could have said when God goes after him he wipes them out completely and forever not this nation they're not totally consumed they're not utterly destroyed they will be back I want you to focus on the word mercies in verse 22 through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed very often in the Bible in the Old Testament that word is translated loving kindness loving kindness you've read that loving-kindness here it's mercy it's not an easy word to translate it's two hundred fifty times it appears it's the Hebrew word has said we would say h-e sed has said and it means loyal love merciful love covenant love the love of a merciful God who has a covenant or an agreement with the group of people and so God says I will because I have a covenant with the Jews I show mercy not because they deserve it but because I have a covenant with them it's a beautiful word 250 times loving-kindness or mercy covenant love and this is where the New Testament really gets awesome because the Covenant that God made with you is that if you just believe in Jesus Christ you entered into a covenant relationship with God he's your father you're his child all of your sins are washed away so that when you blow it you don't have to go excuse me I can't talk to you and I can't even talk to God I got to go kill a lamb and shed its blood and get all that ceremony done and then I'm right with God you don't have to do that it's been done once and for all by the Savior on the cross so the Covenant now is that anytime you sin you immediately confess your sin it's cleansed it's cleansed so the ability of God to show mercy in the New Covenant far exceeds any of the previous covenant set up now look at that great is thy faithfulness so great is your faithfulness it says there's a him and I think Nick's gonna close with it tonight written by Thomas kiss Sloane he was raised as an illiterate man in Franklin Kentucky and he said that he should never fail to record God's unfailing faithfulness so he wrote a song great is thy faithfulness o God my father there is no shadow of turning with thee thou changest not thy Compassion's they fail not hast thou has been now forever will be great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness morning by morning new mercies I see all I have needed thy hands have provided great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me I was based upon this very scripture that we're reading God's faithfulness to man in affliction verse 31 the Lord will not cast off forever though he causes grief yet he will now show compassion to the multitude of his mercies chapter 4 the fourth dirge Jeremiah looks over in surveys the the carnage of the city and gives a very detailed description of the carnage verse 1 how the gold has become dim how changed the fine gold the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every Street maybe he was referring to those precious breastplate stones of the high priests that had been destroyed and scattered now around the city verse 11 the Lord has fulfilled his fury he has poured out his fierce anger he kindled a fire in Zion and it has devoured its foundations the kings of the earth all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem it's interesting this is an interesting description as if to say even the people around they could check us out and they knew that we had some like special deal going on with God he seemed to bless this country and bless this land and bless the leaders bless the kings and protect us and truly during David and Solomon's reign Jerusalem reached its zenith and it was under special care and protection in the Midrash again some of the oral writings of the Jews the Jews had a saying the land of Israel is at the center of the world Jerusalem is at the center of the land of Israel and the temple is at the center of Jerusalem as if to say the very epicenter of the whole earth is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and that has proven to be historically accurate who would have believed that on the ninth of of it would be destroyed by the by the Babylonians who would have believed when Herod rebuilt that huge temple on the Temple Mount that it could again be destroyed on the very same day on 9/11 of the Hebrew calendar verse 13 the reasons for judgment because of the sins of her prophets the iniquities of a priests who shed in her midst the blood of the just they wander blind in the streets they have defiled themselves with blood so that no one would touch their garments the leadership was corrupt the very people who were to represent God to the people and represent the people before God they themselves were corrupt and why there seems to have been no fear of the Lord ever hear that little phrase the fear of the Lord usually we hear that when we're kids and our parents I'm gonna put the fear of God in you you Oh No it's such a wonderful phrase too bad it's been ruined the fear of the Lord ABBA reverential awe and respect for the God who loves us and to walk in such a way as to be fearful of displeasing him I love him so much it is to say my greatest fear is that I would live in a way that doesn't please the Lord there was none of that in the leadership of Jerusalem and so judgment came there's an engraving in a Cathedral in Germany lubeck germany I've shared this with you before it's a haunting phrase over this Cathedral this is what it says engraved over the entrance thus speaketh Christ our Lord you call me master but you obey me not you call me light but you see me not you call me the way but you walk me not you call me life but you live me not you call me wise and yet you follow me not and so if I condemn thee then blame me not you could have written that over the Temple in Jerusalem because they were saying all the right things about God not living any of it no fear of the Lord before their eyes if I condemned thee then blaming that and the city was judged verse 21 rejoice and be glad Oh daughter of Edom you who dwell in the land of --is meta where name us where do you live us remember job lived in Land of Oz down in Saudi Arabia down in the desert the cup shall pass over to you and you shall become drunk and make yourself naked the punishment of your iniquity is accomplished o daughter of Zion he will no longer send you into captivity he will punish your iniquity o daughter of Edom he will uncover your sins see Edom the neighbor the neighbors lived southeast they were clapping at Jerusalem's fall they were promoting joy over Jerusalem's fall and so God is gonna deal with them Jeremiah prays that God would now we have the fifth and final dirge now there's 22 verses in chapter 5 just to finish what I explained before this chapter is not an acrostic it breaks from the flow of the previous four chapters and this is simply a prayer prayer of Jeremiah for the captives remember O Lord what has come upon us look and behold our reproach verse 2 our inheritance has been turned over to aliens not the Roswell kind but the foreigner kind well you got to say that these days because there's a lot of people looking for aliens everywhere and our house is to foreigners verse 12 Prince's watch this princes were hung by their hands and elders were not respected this could be a direct reference to the practice of crucifixion the Romans did not invent the crucifixion the Persians did other nations adopted it the Romans perfected it and used it widely now let me tell you a little bit about crucifixion to hang from a cross was based upon the Persian belief that the earth was sacred they called it mother earth it was so sacred a person shouldn't die on the earth they should be lifted off the ground and placed on some impaling pole their hands stretched out that's what crucifixion came from was the weird belief that the earth was sacred so they would raise people up and crucify them and as I said the Romans for insurrection and murder follow practice verse 16 the crown has fallen from our head woe to us for we have sinned verse 19 you O Lord remain forever your throne from generation to generation why do you forget us forever and forsake us for so long a time I ask you candidly aren't you glad Jeremiah said that and that this is written down and I tell you why you should be because you and I have thought the same thing from time to time and it's written in the Bible here's holy people who trust the God and were prophets who even said wait a minute God are you up there how come I keep praying and seems like you have forgotten us completely now God hasn't the book does end with a note of hope but here's the feeling of this prophet why do you forget us forever verse 21 turn us back to you O Lord and we will be restored renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are very angry with us do you know that what happened to these guys what we're reading was predicted long ago to the same people group in the book of Deuteronomy listen to these words Deuteronomy chapter 4 I'm gonna read just a few verses verse 26 God says I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that you will soon uh turley perish from this land which you cross over the Jordan to possess you will not prolong your days in it you will be utterly destroyed and the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and you will be left few a number among the nations where the Lord will drive you and there you will serve God's the work of men's hands wood and stone which neither see nor hear eat nor smell but from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul when you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days when you turn to the Lord your God and obey his voice for the Lord your God is a merciful God he will not forsake you nor will he destroy you nor will he he forget the Covenant of your father's which he swore to them God God told them this is gonna happen you're gonna blow it so bad I'm gonna kick you out of your land but when you're in that foreign land I also know because I'm merciful and I'm all-knowing you can be so fed up with your sin you're gonna cry out to me and I'm gonna hear you and I'm gonna bring you back I'm gonna bring you back into this land so here enter in the land in a few generations you kicked out of the land but I'm gonna bring you right back so really lamentations ends with hope in spite of suffering in spite of Judas sin and even in the tears Jeremiah knew that God was merciful and God was faithful and that His mercies were new every other morning I hope you caught that that's so wrong every morning it sound like man I've used up all of God's mercies there's no way he has any left for me today they're fresh and new every morning clean slate fresh start now I'm gonna ask you this question as you close as you walk through life are you the kind do you focus more on the bumps in the road or on the rest of the road that has no bumps there's a horrible road there's bumps on it yeah but by and large ninety percent of it it's nice so do you focus on the bad stuff or do you focus on all the other great stuff here's Jeremiah looking at a big bump in the road captivity is a huge bump and he says you know what I've learned God is faithful and he's merciful every morning that's what you need to focus on and to say in the midst of your suffering God your faithful God your merciful your Compassion's fail not there's a guy who joined a monastery in Spain Serrat Faina Mountain is a very odd kind of a sect of the church required that all of the people who go to the monastery live in absolute silence they're only permitted to speak once every two years and only speak two words so one guy joined the monastery complete silence after two years he was brought in for his two word interview guy says what do you have to say a guy after the first year said food horrible I went back to work a whole nother year went by at the end of the year and then another year goes in for two more words what do you got to say he said bed lumpy kept working for another couple years two years later came Zinn for there's another two-word interview and finally the same guy says I quit and a supervisor said well it's no wonder all you've done since you arrived here was complain complain complain if in the midst of your world your generation your chaotic society what words express your heart bad deal horrible existence or bless God [Music]

Channel: Skip Heitzig

Views: 3,086

Rating: 4.8400002 out of 5

Keywords: How to study the Bible, How to read the Bible, Jesus, Skip, Skip Heitzig, How to know God, Jeremiah, Lamentations, the weeping prophet, Jerusalem, distressed, nation, consequences, sin, prayer, restoration, captivity

Id: wMyf36ZjNGU

Length: 60min 0sec (3600 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019