Nathan Lewis - Class 1: Lamentations - Intro

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   And the meaning of suffering, and we’ve got today an introduction and overview. And will commence by singing together him number 147. And then after that, if you’ll remain standing will start with prayer. So him 147. If thou, but suffer God to guide the and hope in him through all thy ways. And number 147, Our Father.

2. 4:14

   We are so grateful that you are. Not a god far away. But a god, very near We thank you that through Jeremiah and through the book of Lamentations. We are able to understand something of this.

3. 4:39

   That though you punish it is for our good. In the good of all of your people. We pray that you will help us to learn this lesson. We pray that it may influence the way that we behave, the way that we interact and especially the way that we think about the future and the promises that you have made in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

4. 5:22

   our opening reading this morning is Jeremiah chapter 52 and the first 16 verses. Jeremiah chapter 52, verses 1 to 16 and brother Jonathan Bowden is going to lead us in that reading. Reading together from God’s word from Jeremiah 52 verse 1 to 16. Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to Reign and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Herm a towel, the daughter of Jeremiah of lidner and he did that which was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. According to all that, jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of Yahweh, it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah till he had cast them out from his presence that zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the 9th year of his reign in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month. That nebuchadrezzar King of Babylon came. He and all his Army against Jerusalem and pitched against it and built forts against it.

5. 6:47

   Roundabout. So the city was besieged, unto the 11th year of King zedekiah. And in the fourth month in the ninth day of the month, the famine was saw in the city so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up and all the men of War fled and went forth out of the city By Night, by the way, of the gate between the two wolves which was by the King’s Garden.

6. 7:17

   Now, the cooled Ian’s were by the city roundabout and they went, by the way, of the plane. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook, zedekiah in the plains of Jericho and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king and carried him up into the up unto the king of Babylon to rib. Le in the land of hey math where he gave judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon.

7. 7:44

   Slew the sons of zedekiah before his eyes. He slew also all the princes of Judah in Riddler. Then he put out the eyes of zedekiah and the king of Babylon, bound him in Chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison, till the day of his death.

8. 8:04

   Now in the fifth month in the tenth day of the month, which was the 19th year of nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon came nebulizer, Aiden captain of the Guard which served the king of Babylon, enter Jerusalem. And burnt the house of Yahweh and the King’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the Great Men burn tea with fire.

9. 8:29

   And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the Guard, break down all the walls of Jerusalem roundabout. Then never use arrayed in the captain of the Guard carried away. Captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city. And those that fell away that fell to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude. But nebulizer, Aiden, the captain of the Guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers. And for husband, Thanks very much brother, Jonathan. So G we have today this morning studies in the Lamentations. The meaning of suffering, this is study number one, an introduction and overview to be led for us by our brother, Nathan Louis, Well, thanks for the pool and good morning, brothers and sisters and young people. It’s wonderful to be able to be here Monday morning and get into the studies proper.

10. 9:50

    And I’m really looking forward to sharing Lamentations with you this week and I guess as we start this morning, I can sort of pretty much read the faces and minds of all of you. And all of you are pretty much thinking the same thing, which is why study Lamentations, as we said in our introduction night, couple of nights ago, it’s a pretty well.

11. 10:15

    X. It sounds like a pretty miserable topic. A lament is certainly going to be I guess, depressing, almost by definition, certainly not the most popular book in the scriptures to study. I’ve brought what I’m not the oldest brother here by any stretch of the imagination but I haven’t heard anything in my life, really on Lamentations. And I thought it would be interesting to look at this book Because as we know, most of the time, there’s Hidden Gem. Did that really to be found?

12. 10:50

    If only we look So why study Lamentations? It’s it’s miserable, it’s depressing. It’s poetry which has a very limited appeal. It’s like a funeral dirge its dreary it’s bleak Well, as we dig into this book this week, I hope that our ignorance will be taken away, and as we see the things that are written here and we will see just like every other book, there are amazing things to be found at all actually point forward to and Center into the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

13. 11:26

    So I hope that your appreciation for this little tree Ties, on the meaning of suffering will grow for you as it has for myself. So what are we going to do this week? What’s our plan? Well, we have five sessions this week and this morning, I just want to spend the whole morning introducing Lamentations because there’s actually a lot of things to talk about before we even start looking at the book. The setting, the structure, the way the book is laid out. So we’re going to spend this morning, really looking at a bird’s eye view from 10,000 feet at the book of lemon, lemon, tations and God willing we will plunge down into The detail in the next few days to give it tomorrow. We plan on looking at Lamentations 1 and 2 and The Afflicted Daughter of Zion.

14. 12:16

    Then we’re going to look at chapter 3. The man that has seen fliction, then we’re going to look at the precious sons of Zion Lamentations 4 and 5. And lastly, I want to spend a whole session looking at fellowshiping the sufferings of Christ, because in the ultimate sense, the it’s of Jeremiah and the nation would only point forward and foreshadow, the work of our master and Messiah and already just even in those those titles.

15. 12:48

    Hopefully, you can see that chapter 3 is clearly the pivot of the book of Lamentations before in chapters 1 & 2. We have The Afflicted Daughter of Zion But after chapter 3, that same nation is going to be described as the precious sons of Zion, there’s something that’s going to happen in the middle of this book which is going to turn the experience and thoughts of the Nation on its head and more about that in a little bit of time. So let’s just Begin by asking what is this book basically about?

16. 13:23

    When did it happen? What is it? Describing well we just read Dura Maya chapter 52 together. The horrific Babylonian assault of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and the awful deportations of Judah into captivity, and it doesn’t take much effort or time to put together the similarities between Jeremiah chapter 52 and the Book of Lamentations. We just read that Jeremiah fell after a lengthy Siege. And when we come to Lamentations and we come preps to chapter For look what we read in chapter 4 and verse 11. And 12 Yahweh has accomplished.

17. 14:08

    His Fury, he has poured out his Fierce anger, just kindled a fire in Zion devoured, the foundation’s their of the kings of the Earth, all the inhabitants of the world would never have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the Gates of Jerusalem. It didn’t seem to be possible that God would allow City to be decimated by such an idolatrous assault.

18. 14:36

    And yet it had happened. Jerusalem fell after a lengthy Siege, the horrors of The Siege, we read in Jeremiah 52 and verse 6 included famine. And if you were there in chapter 4, look what it says. In verse 4, the tongue of the sucking child Cleaver to the roof roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children, ask bread.

19. 15:00

    And no man breaks it unto them in Chapter 2, the young children ask for corn and wine but there’s nothing. There’s no food to be had feminine had besieged the city The Babylonians, we read in chapter 52 of Jeremiah and verse 13 had desecrated the temple and burnt it to the ground and look what we read in in Lamentations chapter 20 and verses 3 and 4.

20. 15:32

    He has cut off in his Fierce anger. All the Horn of Israel his drawn back as right hand from before the enemy. And he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire. Which devour And about his bent his bow like an enemy, he stood with his right hand as an adversary and slew all that were pleasant to the eye.

21. 15:52

    And the Tabernacle of the daughter of Zion, he poured out his fury like fire and he did even the temple was destroyed by flames in the Babylonian assault. In Jeremiah 50 2 and verse 15. We read that the people were carried away, captive into Babylon. And when we come to Lamentations and chapter 1, in verse 5, it says, at the end of the verse, her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. The end of Verse 18, My Virgins in my young men are gone into captivity the time of Jeremiah 52. In Lamentations is exactly the same. Those that were left in the land. We read in Jeremiah 52 and verse 16 were made menial slaves. And when we come across to Lamentations chapter 5, we have a description of these times.

22. 16:46

    Verse to, our inheritance has been given over to strangers. Our houses are inhabited by aliens. We are orphans fatherless and mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water. Money, Atwood, sold unto us. And Nick’s under persecution, we labor and have no rest. The Jews that were left in the land were put into slavery that to buy their own water that to buy back their own wood to cook and to heat. Their houses was a horrific time in the history of the nation. In Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 18. We find that just prior to the Babylonians coming into the land.

23. 17:34

    Israel had looked to Egypt for help, they decided that Egypt would be the Ally who would come to help them against the forces, from the north. But when we come to Lamentations, we find that Egypt had deserted Israel. They were unreliable chapter 1 and verse 2. Says she weepeth saw in the night, her tears on her cheeks among all her Lover’s. The there are none to comfort.

24. 18:04

    Her verse 19 I called for my lover’s, but they deceive me. The nation’s that Israel was relying on to defend them. Had deserted them. And in chapter 4, we read in verse 17 this lament as for us our eyes as yet failed for our vein, help in our watching, we have watched for a nation that could not save us and there was a dreadful realization.

25. 18:36

    That Egypt that they had looked to for help was nowhere to be seen. And lastly in Obadiah, describing the destruction of Babylon, we read that Edom rejoiced at the downfall of Judah. And in Lamentations chapter 4, at the end of this chapter, God is going to bring into remembrance. The sin of Eden as they beheld the the Troubles of Judah with such Delight rejoice and be glad o daughter of Edom that dwellest in the land of ours, that cup also shall pass through unto thee. God would not, remember his, his judgments and his righteousness, and Eden would be judged, Thou shalt be drunken and shalt make thyself naked, the punishment of that in it. Is accomplished o, Daughter of Zion. He will no more carry their way into captivity. He will visit thine iniquity o daughter of Eden. He will discover thy sins in the Glee, with which Eden beheld. The destruction of Jerusalem would be visited upon them in due time.

26. 19:57

    So clearly Jeremiah 52 and Lamentations are the same event. Jeremiah 52 is going to present. The facts Lamentations is going to provide the feelings of the nation. Jeremiah 52 describes the terrible events, but Lamentations gives us this insight into the terrible and deep, anguish and hurt of the people. Everything that was important to the nation and to the profit their security, their religion. The priesthood, the monarchy their family homes. Their positions, their relatives torn apart ripped apart by the Babylonians suddenly and ruthlessly. It was devastating overwhelming and Lamentations is like a window into the feelings of the people of Judah, right? At this horrific time.

27. 20:58

    It’s going to record their disbelief. The anguish, they hurt their passion for God. Their struggle to understand. They had been warned so many times, but they didn’t really believe that judgment was coming. His an exhortation, isn’t there in this for us? How many times brothers and sisters in young people have? We heard Christ is coming.

28. 21:28

    Christ is coming. And yet, somewhere in the depths of our heart, sometimes we don’t really believe it. He’s about to come. Well, the nation of Israel had been warned and warned and warned judgment is coming, but they didn’t really believe that God would so drastically disturb the equilibrium. Not to the a generation.

29. 21:57

    God would never do this to his Temple. Not to his people. But now, as they looked around at the devastation, the smoking ruins, the dead bodies. Piled up in the streets, he had how, how, how could this be This is the book of Lamentations and actually in the Jewish tradition, this is the title given to the book that we know, as Lamentations, it’s the word. How The word.

30. 22:36

    How, in fact, the title of the book traditionally used as used by the Jews as the first word of the three great laments in the book, if you hadn’t noticed or known Lamentations 1, & 2 & 4 are the three, great laments of Lamentations. And look how they start, how does the city sits solitary chapter 2? How Hef Yahweh covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, chapter 4.

31. 23:14

    How is the gold become dim? How is the most fine, gold changed. This is actually the traditional name of Lamentations for the Jews. It’s this Hebrew word ech, which means how it really speaks of bewilderment, and confusion. Grief and disbelief, how could this happen to us? How could we have leaked this happen to us? Now we know other examples of how Lamentations and you might like to take a note of these if you like against chapter 1 and verse 1, this is a well-known one. The lament of David for Saul and Jonathan in second of Samuel 1 verses 17 to 27 How are the mighty Fallen? The beautiful upon the high places of Israel Or what about Isaiah?

32. 24:15

    1 in verse 21. Isaiah laments, the state of Judah and the nation. How is the faithful City become a harlot before they used to be judgment and righteousness dwelling in the city but now murderous seems Isaiah chapter 1 has it come to be so Isaiah 14 in Verses 4 and 12 the perhaps slightly satirical lament over the destruction of Babylon.

33. 24:49

    How has the oppressor ceased the Golden City ceased, or Jeremiah 48 and verse 17. Another lament in the book of Jeremiah this time about the nation of Moab, how is the strong staff broken? The Elrod perished. Or lastly, Ezekiel chapter 26 and verse 17, the destruction of Tyre how they destroyed the renowned city, which was strong in the see this word, how describes the Pathos and the emotion of a lament. The whole book is to contemplate. This question, how could this be? And if we think about any kind of suffering, this is how all of us think to begin.

34. 25:40

    With how could this happen? How could this happen to me when we are confronted with intense challenges or trials or suffering of any kind? This Is How We Begin. We do not begin with them more soul-searching question of Why? Has this happened to me? We start off with the question. How has it happened to me to us? And this writer is no different.

35. 26:10

    It all seems incomprehensible. Almost unbelievable. So who is the writer of Lamentations, who wrote the book while there’s really no reasonable doubt? That it was Jeremiah the prophet and almost every commentary or translation. Since the 3rd Century attributes it to Jeremiah, and there’s a few, very good reasons for that, which will go through quickly now, The first one is the evidence of the Septuagint superscription.

36. 26:49

    So the Septuagint was a translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek by a bunch of seventy Scholars around, 250 BC and already by 250 BC. This is what they put at the front of Lamentations, which we don’t have in our Bible, but is there in the Septuagint and it came to pass after Israel had been led into Activity in Jerusalem had been laid waste Jeremiah set weeping and he lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem and he said how does the city sits solitary?

37. 27:28

    So that’s the superscription from the Septuagint and the Vulgate eggs with a bitter Spirit sighing and wailing. So that’s the first piece of evidence that it’s Jeremiah. Then we have Jeremiah’s dungeon experience you remember this we won’t go back to Jeremiah 37 and 38 but you remember that he was cast into the pit to the dungeon we’re in was no water but Maya and he’s sunk in the mire and he was pulled out of the mire by E bid me lick. And when we come across in Lamentations to chapter 3, look what we read in Lamentations 3 verse 52. Or let’s read from verse 53.

38. 28:13

    They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me Waters flowed over mine head. Then I said, I’m cut off. I called upon thy name, O Yahweh out of the load dungeon thou Hast heard my voice hide not thy near at my breathing at My Cry. Dad ruis near in the day that I called upon thee.

39. 28:37

    They are sensed fear, not In the experience of Jeremiah and the dungeon is here, recorded in Lamentations chapter 3. And perhaps were given the information in Lamentations. Why he bid me? Like ask for 30 min to help him from the city to rescue? Jeremiah in, Jeremiah wasn’t like an emaciated profit writing probably just weighed less than me. I mean, it would be easy to pull Jeremiah out of the pit with a couple of young men.

40. 29:10

    But 30 min or here in Jeremiah, it says they cast a stone upon me and perhaps 30 min we needed to pull back. Back the heavy stone that lay upon the top of the dungeon pit that how Jeremiah in. The phrase fear on every side is a watch cry in the book of Jeremiah.

41. 29:35

    Not sure if you knew that fear on every side, it’s what Jeremiah says over and over again. It’s actually the Hebrew word Meg or mr. Beebe. And if you come back to Jeremiah chapter 20, He’s just one chapter where it occurs a couple of times, but the other references are up there. Jeremiah chapter, 20, look what happens in verse 3, it came to pass on the morrow that pashya brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks then said Jeremiah unto him.

42. 30:07

    Yahweh hath. Not called died name pashya but may go. Mr. Beebe. Mego mr. Beebe and look what it says in the margin. It says fear roundabout. That was what Jeremiah had been saying over and over to the people and now Yahweh renamed pashya by Jeremiah’s. Watch cry, fear. On every side, verse 10, for I heard the deformation or the defaming of many fear on every side. It’s a term that’s used right through the book of Jeremiah and women come to Lamentations lo and behold this very phrase is going to occur in Lamentations and at the end of chapter 2 in verse 22 thou Hast called as in a solemn day, my Terrors roundabout.

43. 30:59

    It’s exactly the same phrase fear on every side. So the watch Cry of Jeremiah Finds Its way into Invitations chapter 2 and perhaps has a suggestion? Maybe Jeremiah himself borrowed, this watch cry from Psalm 31, which of course, is a highly Messianic Psalm, which you can look at in your own time. The fourth reason why we believe that Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations is a simple one and that is the abundance of cross-references in the margin of Lamentations to Jeremiah. So what I did was just cut and paste, all of the middle Center margins of Lamentations, in codon, the references to Jeremiah, and lo and behold, every few verses is a reference back to Jeremiah.

44. 31:50

    These books are in intrinsically linked together. Get it. Then, of course, we have a couple of other phrases, which Jeremiah likes to use and users often through the book of Jeremiah, which also find their way into Lamentations. We won’t look these up but the Virgin Daughter of Zion which is used in Lamentations 2 and verse 13 to describe due to come straight from Jeremiah 14 and verse 17. And Jeremiah is known for his indictments of the prophet and the priest.

45. 32:25

    Like, we looked at with brother Johnny this morning, the prophet, and the priest should have been the vehicles for the word of God Deuteronomy 18 and Malachi chapter 2, but in the days of Jeremiah nowhere to be seen and Jeremiah and deitz profit in Priest, prophet and priest have perished. There is no. They speak lies and falsehood And when we come to Lamentations and chapter 4, we have exactly the same thing verse 13 for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests. That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. So indictment of prophets and Priests is exactly the same. And lastly, there’s the evidence that. Well, if Jeremiah led, the national lament at the death of Josiah Well, it would seem appropriate, wouldn’t it? That Jeremiah leads the national lament for the death of the nation, if it was Jeremiah that, that would do it for one man. Surely he would do it for the whole nation. So, it seems pretty clear that this is the outpouring of Jeremiah’s grief at the Desolation and misery that he saw all around him.

46. 33:46

    Probably just days or weeks after the Babylonians had left and the nation was floundering trying to come to grips with the utter tragedy that had befallen them. This is Jeremiah’s poem of hurt and sadness. Describing the obstinacy of a people who refuse to listen. So when exactly did Jeremiah Wright sit down and pin this heart broken record? Well, it appears from chapter 1 and verse 11. All her people sigh, they seek bread. And as we read in chapter 4, in verse 4, The children ask bread and no man break with it unto them that the city is still in the grips of feminine.

47. 34:43

    But the Babylonians have just left chapter 4. In verse 22, the punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished. He will no more carry their way into captivity. The Babylonians have just left Jerusalem. And everyone is just sitting down, trying to comprehend the misery that has befallen them. So Lamentations is Jeremiah’s eyewitness account of the horror of the siege, the destruction of the city, and the temple, and the immediate aftermath in the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah is going to pour out his emotion and heartache onto the pages of a scroll, as he overflows his own feelings and bitterness and regrets.

48. 35:33

    And disbelief this is a very emotional book. A very demonstrative book, a very graphic book and as a result it’s quite unique in many ways. If you think about the rest of the scriptures, Pretty much most other books or areas that we might study have a very simple story or narrative that we follow.

49. 35:57

    So, if you think about say job Romans or the story of Elijah, it’s usually some kind of narrative argument or thesis but Lamentations is quite quite different. Every chapter is going to be a self-contained poem. The thoughts are not like a simple story or an argument that broken disjointed distressed. And yet what is incredible in the book of Lamentations is that for all of that, there is this amazing structure to the book So look at this, this is the writing style of the book of Lamentations and see how complex the book is. First of all, the book is acrostic, so it’s made up of five chapters and every single.

50. 36:55

    Well, the first four of those chapters are acrostics. Now, we know that acrostics ABCD, right through to Z actor, both Aid memory but also to give Completeness of thought. So if you write out your thoughts with one verse standing with a and then B and then C right through to Z, you get the feeling with, by the time you get to the end that you have got a completeness of thought, because you have finished the alphabet of thoughts and so Lamentations is an acrostic.

51. 37:30

    It’s a fully outpouring of Jeremiah’s grief. And as you know there are many other acrostics in the scriptures which which you probably have a note of already. Not only is it an acrostic, but it’s also poetry Now. Hebrew poetry is different to English poetry, which has maybe better Rhyme or meter Jewish poetry is really a rhyming of ideas rather than words, but it’s got a very graphic beauty of its own. So for example, just read with me Lamentations 3 in verse 16 and see if this doesn’t conjure up just a dream. Awful awful image.

52. 38:13

    He has also broken my teeth with gravel Stones. His covered me with ashes mean, perhaps. I’m slightly biased seeing the the terribleness of that verse, but it’s still very graphic, isn’t it? What about chapter 4? And verse 64.

53. 38:34

    Sorry, verse 5, they that the did feed delicately are desolate in the streets, they that were brought up in Scarlet, Embrace dunhill’s. I mean, who would do that? This is the graphic language of Hebrew poetry. Then we have a whole lot of parallelism in the book of Lamentations, especially Lamentations chapter 5 where 21 out of the 22 verses with verse 9.

54. 39:06

    Paralleling verse 10 are parallel statements, so just to give you a bit of a feel for that, perhaps, we read, say, verse 11, they ravished the women in Zion and the maids in the city of Jerusalem. The two parts of the Versa paralleled together, princes are hanged up by their hand. The faces of the elders were not honored.

55. 39:31

    So, parallel statements, there’s a lot of this, in the book of Lamentations, in fact, around two-thirds of the whole book exhibits parallelism, and it’s a way of expressing inconsolable grief, I mean, if it was bad enough, That the princes were hanged up by their wrists to die. The faces of the elders would disfigured, I mean, it just adds grief to grief. It’s a way of expressing the terribleness of the situation. Then that laments as we have noted Lamentations one and two and four dirges which are concluded by a prayer and it’s going to be my suggestion that Lamentations 5 is really the prayer that concludes the lament of chapter 4. So chapter 1 is a lament finishes with a prayer chapter 2 and lament finishes with a prayer, chapter 4 and the mint and it finishes with the rare of chapter 5. And lastly, over and above all of these things. There’s also a drama.

56. 40:44

    There’s a play of characters that’s happening in the story, which we’ll look at in just a second. This is a very complex composition. Imagine writing. In acrostic. Dramatized funeral poem. I mean it’s like so much kind of crammed into one type of writing, clearly God wanted this book with its memories its Horrors and it’s hopes to be recorded and I believe rather than sisters that the horror of the Babylonian captivity is recorded for us because in all of its horror, it’s going to point forward To the experiences of Christ. I don’t know if you noticed this but every as we read through Jeremiah chapter 52, did you notice? And perhaps this is one of my little pet topic. So forgive me.

57. 41:42

    But did you notice verse 7, then the city was broken up all the men of War fled and went forth out of the city By Night. By the way, of the gate between the two walls which was by the King’s Garden These are picture brothers and sisters of crucifixion. A wall on one side, a wall on the other in between the Kings gate.

58. 42:10

    There is Devastation, death destruction. All portrayed here in the end of the Commonwealth of Judah, at least by the Babylonians, and it’s going to stand forth as an example of suffering of which Jeremiah would be part, is it? It is an embodiment of what was going to come in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a masterpiece brothers and sisters that has transcended and outlived the fall of Jerusalem itself. So who are the characters in this remarkable drama? This political acrostic poem.

59. 42:50

    Well, it’s extremely helpful to, to know who the characters are in the book of Lamentations and afterwards. You might like to Avail yourself of one of these, this is just a copy of the whole book of Annotations with all of the pronouns and the different sections colored in. So if you’ve got nothing to do in the afternoons, this would be a wonderful way to spend an hour just to color in.

60. 43:16

    There’s no markings it’s just coloring in right through the book of Lamentations, but it really helps to understand who’s speaking who’s talking because there are a bunch of different characters in this drama. So these are the characters in the story of Lamentations. First of all, Jeremiah is going to speak as an on looking narrator.

61. 43:39

    He’s going to narrate the story. He’s going to describe the nation as an oppressed woman and he’s going to use the pronouns, she and her. So for example, this is how the book starts and Lamentations 1 verse 1. How does the city’s solitary? That was full of people? How is she become a widow? She that was great among the Nations and Princess among the provinces.

62. 44:06

    How is she become tributary? How has the princess become a slave? He’s describing Jerusalem as an oppressed woman, then we have Jeremiah’s personal Reflections and that’s characterized by the pronouns, my or mine. So we know that it’s Jeremiah personally reflecting on the situation. So for instance, in Chapter 2 in verse 11, it says mine eyes. Eyes, do fail with tears.

63. 44:41

    My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured upon the Earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people. This is Jeremiah speaking himself. His personal reflections. Then we have Jerusalem herself, talking. That’s also going to have the personal pronouns, my or mine, or I, but it’s not Jeremiah speaking. It’s the city of Jerusalem.

64. 45:15

    Speaking. So for instance chapter 1, if you’re there at the end of verse 9, o Yahweh behold my Affliction for the enemy has magnified himself. That’s not Jeremiah speaking. That’s the city of Jerusalem speaking. Or perhaps later on in that section verse 14, the Yoke of my transgression has Bound in his hand, they’re raised in come up upon my neck.

65. 45:49

    He hath made my strength to fall. Yahweh has delivered me into their hands from whom I am not able to rise up. Yeah, we have trodden Under Foot, all my mighty men in the midst of me. This is not Jeremiah speaking. The me is Jerusalem speaking, as the oppressed woman. Then we also have the enemies, the enemies of Jerusalem, the Heathen, the persecutors, which are going to speak. So for example, chapter 2 and verse 16 at the end of the verse, well verse 16 and entirety, I guess then enemies have opened their mouth against them, they hiss gnash their teeth and they say we have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we look for we Found and we have seen it.

66. 46:41

    This is the joy of the Babylonians as they Encompass Jerusalem and took her Then there’s those that pass by, there’s the other nations that are looking on like Edom and Moab with such delight at the downfall of Jerusalem. So, if you’re still there, in Chapter 2, there in verse 15, all that pass by clap their hands, they hiss, and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem saying, is this the city that men call the Perfection of beauty, the joy of the Whole earth. You can just imagine the derision of the edomites. if you thought you were special, look at you a smoking ruin, They’re going to be incorporated into the drama of Lamentations those that pass by.

67. 47:38

    And lastly we have in chapter 3 is we read in verse 1. I am the man that hath seen Affliction by the rod of his wrath and chapter three is going to be largely again the description of Jeremiah’s feelings. But from the point of view of someone who is almost like above, Jeremiah himself, this man who has seen affliction So here’s a list of of where all of those people occur and all of its on this handout and color. So that would be a good way of doing it. If you if you would like to in the next couple of days there are only 30 copies.

68. 48:29

    So perhaps share. If you’re a couple or if you would or young people share or once you’ve finished bring them back up and someone else can use them, that will be great. So we have this, this Cascade of different characters Dura Maya is going to narrate, he’s going to share his own personal grief.

69. 48:48

    He’s going to impersonate the nation is a crushed desolate. Woman is going to describe the enemies in the gloating Nations round about. But then in chapter 3, he’s going to describe his own position of loneliness and sorrow. Amidst the suffering surrounding him. So, as we’ve said, primarily chapter 3, the man who has seen Affliction, the primary sense is the faithful Prophet Jeremiah, but of course in the ultimate sense, it is really going to prefigure our Lord Jesus Christ.

70. 49:25

    And as we said at the beginning, the man of chapter 3 is going to be absolutely critical to this story of Lamentations and without even looking at what he says in chapter 3 Just by looking at the structure of the book, we can clearly see that this man and his thoughts are the turning point of Lamentations. So here’s the five chapters of Lamentations and just look at the structure of each of the chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 and 4, as we said, are the three main laments that all acrostic, they all have 22 verses 1 verse for each letter of the Hebrew.

71. 50:07

    Alphabet They are two, three lines per stanza, three lines per stanza in two lines per stanza. So by the time we get to chapter 4, there’s a little less coming into the lament of chapter 4. Just a little less. The overwhelming grief is subsiding by chapter 4. But they are all national laments that start with the word. How, how could this happen?

72. 50:39

    But when you come to chapter 3, chapter 3 and chapter 5 are quite different. Firstly, chapter 3 is still an acrostic, but it gives three verses to each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So this 66 verses in chapter 3 and when we come to chapter 5, there’s only one line per stanza and it’s not acrostic but still 22 verses.

73. 51:08

    So something’s happening, isn’t there in the story? And when we come to chapter 5, look how it starts, it does not start with the word how it starts with the word. Remember o Yahweh. Now there’s a change, isn’t there? This is no longer the nation asking. How has this happened to us? This is the nation seeking to remember now.

74. 51:38

    Is that idea come from? And the answer is, it comes out of chapter 3. We’re in verses. Say 17 to 21. The prophet is going to remember. He’s going to recall to mind certain things in chapter 5 draws. Its inspiration from chapter three, chapter 3 is an individual lament and a prayer in chapter 5 is going to be the National Prayer after the national lament so we can see that chapter 3 really becomes the basis for the change in the nation’s thoughts that we can see in chapter 5.

75. 52:25

    It’s different It’s different by the time we get to chapter 5. So chapter 3 is the turning point before the nation appealed to the passes by for sympathy. Is it nothing to you only that pass by Lana grief? By the time you come to the end of the book, they’re no longer appealing to passes by for sympathy. They’re appealing to God for Mercy. There’s a change in this book.

76. 52:56

    Is a turning point. So what’s happening or Lamentations one and two, the situation is confusing hopeless and overwhelming, the city that was described as the Perfection of Beauty. And the joy of the whole earth is is in smoldering ruins. It’s gone from being full of people, vibrant bustling, Two solitary in empty Jerusalem, has gone from being a princess to a slave from wealthy to being a widow. The walls in the towers symbols of God’s protection gone. The prophets and the wise men symbols of God’s guidance, gone the temple and its priests symbols of God’s presence, gone and Lamentations one, and two the expression of almost in Express.

77. 53:49

    Double grief, disbelief and hopelessness. But then, out of the smoking, ruins of the city emerges in chapter 3, a single Survivor, a man who has seen Affliction, a single individual, one faithful man who in the heart of the book and chapter three is going to bring hope to a hopeless situation. He’s going to make sense of what has up until now been incomprehensible.

78. 54:22

    A man who can see past the suffering to the ultimate good, who doesn’t just ask how, but who remembers who it is? That is in control. However, desperate the situation is This man. Is of course our Lord. Jesus Christ. He knows that it is God who has brought the Affliction and even though we might not comprehend why he always has a reason. And amongst the devastation, the ruin lives that have been left behind this man, who’s seen Affliction steps forward to offer hope.

79. 55:00

    And meaning in the climax of the book is there in chapter 3 in verses 31 to 33, For Yahweh will not cast off forever, but though he caused grief yet. Will he have compassion? According to the multitude of his mercies for? He does not afflict willingly nor grieve The Children of Men. This man who was also shared in the Affliction of the nation.

80. 55:33

    But in chapter 3 is we read in verse 52. Mine enemies. Chase me soar like a bird without cause this man is innocent. So here’s a man who shared all the sufferings of the nation, but he hadn’t done a single thing wrong.

81. 55:51

    And he still suffering. This man is able to bring perspective and awareness of God’s presence and his chastening hand and appreciation that this chastening is necessary. And an acknowledgement that he ultimately will save us if we turn to him. So this book is actually a parable of Our Lives, a parable of Our Lives. It starts out in chapters 1 and 2 with the community Afflicted because of sins suffering terribly. Then in chapter 3, we’re introduced to this individual man who is Afflicted with the community. Despite his innocence verse 52 And this one individual is able to inspire the community, to pray to God and to return back to him.

82. 56:53

    This is the story in the picture of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And so, the nation does they see in this man, the man who is able to provide that hope they participate with him in his, in his hope, in seeing purpose and meaning and he in turn. Able to become their representative. This is a parable, a picture of the atonement the saving work of Christ, who suffered more than all of us, despite being completely Innocent. But who is able to inspire us with meaning, and hope even in the most desperately Bleak situations. So that we can turn to God become associated with the one who is able to bring Salvation, its Christ perspective in the face of suffering.

83. 57:43

    That can bring meaning yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. So chapter 3 becomes the turning point of this book what Was incomprehensible despair. Now has meaning though he will cause grief yet? Will he have compassion? We are not the victims of the capricious forces of natural selection. We have a heavenly father, who cares?

84. 58:14

    For us who is merciful as well as faithful to his word is good to those that wait for him. So this book has a development of understanding and progression of how we think about suffering and affliction. We start out and chapter one with Jerusalem’s affliction. By the time we come to chapter 2, we realize that has been brought by God himself a growing realization. This is not just random God has done this. In chapter 3, we see that same Affliction as a necessary chastening tool.

85. 58:54

    That could turn the nation if they confess their sins and repented and lastly be delivered from that Affliction in chapter 5. There is a progression of thought, through the book of Lamentations in really chapter 4, is there so that we can learn the attitude of the man of chapter 3, we can be conformed to His Image.

86. 59:22

    The man of chapter 3 brings, Perspective. And meaning it’s a similar book and some ways to the Book of Job, whereas The Book of Job is all about personal suffering. And God’s Assurance of control. The book of Lamentations is really about National suffering and God’s Assurance of meaning. So Lamentations once unwrapped a little bit brothers and sisters as far from a miserable poem about depression, it’s really God’s Assurance to us that when we suffer, whatever is happening to us, or has happened to us, the Lord will not cast off forever, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. Christ can make us see the sinks amongst their despair offer light when everything seems so dark bring hope to hearts and dreams that have been utterly crushed and broken. This poem is a dramatic play about our response. To God’s Affliction.

87. 1:00:35

    It’s not bemoaning the Affliction. Although it does. It’s describing what ought to be our response. And, you know, Brothers and Sisters. Let’s Not kid ourselves. While we might not be dying of hunger, among the smoking and smoldering ruins of Jerusalem, all of us have suffering of some description. And as I was contemplating this and putting some thoughts together for these classes.

88. 1:01:04

    I looked around our own Ecclesia. And I went through our ecclesial list and this is what I found. I found husbands and wives struggling to have children. Or having miscarriages, I saw brothers and sisters and young people, still suffering from anxiety. And stress from the earthquakes, I saw brothers and sisters bearing, the burden as well as the joy of disabled children.

89. 1:01:36

    I saw brothers and sisters, who experienced the tragic loss of a sibling or a loved one may be at a young age. Maybe a 20 year old brother who got taken away in a car crash or a motorcycle accident. Broken marriages, marriages Under Pressure brothers and sisters with unbelieving Partners brothers and sisters dealing with childhood abuse.

90. 1:02:00

    I saw brothers and sisters dealing with the loss of a spouse. I saw brothers and sisters who might have wanted to marry but never did. I saw parents with children who didn’t come into the truth or parents with children, who left the truth? I saw depression mental illness. I saw cancer other related afflictions, artificial limbs that people had to put up with all their lives suffering, brothers and sisters is not an optional part of discipleship. And Lamentations is a dramatized poem on our response to that suffering, if it hasn’t come.

91. 1:02:41

    It certainly will. You know, it’s good to reflect on the inevitability of suffering because sometimes I think we, we think to ourselves. Well, if I go to the meeting and in the truth and I’m, I’m faithful then good things should happen to me, right? I mean good things blessings should happen. I’m following and obeying God.

92. 1:03:07

    we did we get that idea from That’s not from the scriptures over and over again. In the scriptures, as we will see, God promises suffering, trials, Temptations. It is his way of relentlessly conforming us to the image of his son. Do you know in the parable of the two houses at the end of Matthew chapter 7 there’s a house built on the rock and a house built on the sand.

93. 1:03:37

    In the point of the story is not that if we build our house on the rock, That the storms will never come because the storms come to both houses. Suffering and sorrow and heartache. Will inevitably come? It is only through much tribulation pressure that we will enter the kingdom and suffering brings that pressure.

94. 1:04:05

    It’s not optional brothers and sisters it is an inevitable. And if it hasn’t happened in your life, then give thanks build. Stores of trust and faith because it is coming. None of you will get into the kingdom. Without suffering. I’m not going to be able to look at you and go. Wow! Brother Stu got in there and he just had a sweet ride because it’s not going to happen.

95. 1:04:32

    You’re not going to see my life without suffering because suffering is God’s way of pushing the unyielding clay of are characters in molding us into the Exquisite vessel of proportion and beauty that he desires the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will happen. It’s a bit like the music teacher, who had a lazy nonchalant student, but they had a fine voice.

96. 1:05:01

    And after weeks of frustration, he says, if only, I could somehow bring you some sorrow that would break your heart, you would have one of the finest voices in the world because sometimes brothers and sisters, we can be technically sound, but it’s the emotions of suffering that brings out the the finest notes in our lives. And sometimes it’s the same with our discipleship. We can be technically well-versed in the truth, plenty of theoretical knowledge and yet there’s something lacking in the spiritual maturity of Our Lives as disciples and in the Angels hands suffering provides that maturity. It shapes our hearts and Minds like books Never Can It teaches us, it forces us to turn to him win before we just knew that we should.

97. 1:06:01

    Lamentations is God’s witness that he will bring that pressure. A heavenly father keeps his promises. He means what he says he foretold judgment. He brought it. Just as suffering is inevitable in our lives as disciples if we respond. If we learn the lessons of this book, he has also promised inevitable salvation and deliverance. If we put our faith and trust in him, this is our perspective on affliction.

98. 1:06:36

    Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but Grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth, the Peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that exercise there by for our light Affliction, which is, but for a moment, works for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory. Or some 34, his anger and Jews for a moment in his favor is life weeping. May endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning. This sport to be our perspective on the sufferings of this life just for a second just for a moment. Just for the present, the hard times might be here, but they’re going to bring righteousness and Glory life. Enjoy, how thankful are we brothers and sisters for our Lord.

99. 1:07:32

    Jesus Christ, the man who has seen fiction terrible Affliction, but who can show us how to see past the suffering, to the righteousness, and the glory, and the life in the joy, the ultimate good. That God has in store for all of us. but before, before we get there, We have to go into the black depths of Despair. The inconsolable incomprehensible grief of The Afflicted, Daughter of Zion.

100. 1:08:11

     And this we will do tomorrow, God willing. Thank you very much, brother, Nathan. It’s now, morning, tea time and will be until I was going to say 11:00. But no morning. Teas, going to finish a long time before 11:00. Could you be back here? Well, in time. Maybe five minutes to 11:00. We will close this session now with Prayer and and also thanks for the morning.

101. 1:09:02

     Tea led by Brother. David Dangerfield, please. Gracious, Father in Heaven above, we draw near to you once more thankful for your Mercies. And we are thankful that for this, this time that we have. Been able to consider the life of Jeremiah and his insights in into the fall of that City Jerusalem. A city that is so precious and close to your heart. And so, please help us to consider these things. And to reflect upon the necessity of suffering, we thank you for the food that you have provided for us and we seek your blessing now through Christ Jesus your son, amen.