Nathan Lewis - Class 2: Lamentations - The Afflicted Daughter of Zion

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

1. 0:04

   Thank you for the same, The Afflicted Daughter of Zion. And I thought Thanks brother, John Owen, good morning, my dear brothers and sisters and young people, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Hmm. And welcome back to our series on Lamentations Jeremiah’s, emotional poem of heartache and misery and meaning. And hopefully, you can cast your minds back to yesterday where we looked at the structure of the book and just to remind ourselves, this is as it were in a nutshell, the essence of Lamentations. In really, it is a picture if you like of Golgotha and the sufferings of Jesus Christ on this side and Lamentations chapters 1 and 2, we have the nation of Israel. A thief like Nation, who rob God of his time and honor. On this side, we have the same Thief like Nation, but gradually changing.

2. 1:23

   Coming to repentance turning to God. And that change has been affected by the man who stands in the middle of the chapter or the book chapter 3, the man who has seen affliction, This Central character effects, the nation and is able to save them and Lamentations really is the story of how we respond to suffering.

3. 1:49

   We begin as we’ll see here in chapter one, with appealing to those who pass by for sympathy. That’s how we start, isn’t it? Brothers and sisters. We whinge to each other about our lat, how hard it is in life. The struggles that we’re going through, We complain to each other, But the purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ is to give us perspective and meaning and to make us progress through to a stage where instead of Moaning to each other, we appeal to God, for Mercy, we turn to him in Repentance and he is able to save and heal.

4. 2:29

   So now we come to A second, a second session, chapters one and two, The Afflicted Daughter of Zion the dark chapters of Lamentations Jerusalem. Lay in ruins, everything that was important to the nation and the profit, their security, their religion, their priesthood, the monarchy their homes, their positions, their families had all been ripped apart by the Babylonians. Suddenly and ruthlessly torn away, they have been warned, so so many times, but they didn’t really believe that God would so drastically disturb the equilibrium. But as they looked around, In the smoking ruins of the city. He had he had done that to his people, to his Temple. How how, how could this be?

5. 3:24

   And look at the nation’s feelings in chapter 1 and verse 12, is it. Nothing to you all. Ye that pass by Behold. And see if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, where with Yahweh has Afflicted me in the day, of his Fierce anger has anyone experienced this amount of grief and pain before the nation was overwhelmed? And as we start this morning, looking at chapters one and two. I thought I would begin by giving you a montage of the feelings of the book Because as we know, Lamentations gives us the feelings that Jeremiah gives us the facts for it’s a very emotional and demonstrative book. So just so we can put ourselves there in the ruins of Jerusalem to feel the utter misery and hurt and in comprehensibility of the situation, let me just read out to you. The graphic descriptions that come through Lamentations, and you might like to sit there, you can read it on the screen or you can sit there with your eyes closed. And just listen to the descriptions that Jeremiah weaves into this dramatic and emotional book. The horror of this time.

6. 4:53

   Just let it wash over you, imagine, you were there in Jerusalem back then. How would you feel? The city that was once full of bustling people is now empty. You feel betrayed by all your friends. The gates are desolate. The feasts have been abandoned. The priests It disconsolately On The Ground. Even the young maidens full of joy and happiness.

7. 5:26

   All depressed. Everyone is in misery. you can only think of the good old days, the Heathen have ransacked and desecrated the sanctuary that you love Everything you own has been sold to buy a loaf of bread. You feel like God is burning your bones or catching you in a net. You feel like you keep getting knocked down, but you’re unable ever to rise.

8. 5:57

   You feel like you are crushed grapes? Squeezed to know more drops run out. You just can’t stop crying old people are dying in the very moment that that crying out for food. You can’t stop, sighing. You’re too tired to even move. You feel like God has thrown you down from heaven, to be dashed upon the Earth, you feel like God is shooting arrows at you in his anger, you feel like God has torn up your carefully.

9. 6:34

   Manicured Garden that you spent your whole life? Cultivating. The elders that you love and respect, sit on the ground with dust on the heads in silence. God has poured your liver out in the ground in front of you. Nursing babies. Breathe. Their last breath. Still sucking for milk. You feel like the sea is crashing down on top of you relentlessly. Every wave.

10. 7:03

    Stopping you from getting a breath passes by rather than helping Mock and laugh. Your enemies actually think they have brought you down. Tears flow like a river day and night. Children, lie down to die at every intersection mother’s. Eat their own newborn children to stay alive, young and old dial. I Canna piled up in the streets, you feel like you’re in a maze, you can never Escape, you feel like any cries for help.

11. 7:41

    Go deliberately unanswered, you feel like God is like a lion A beer tearing you to pieces, you feel like you live. It is the practice Target for God’s arrows. You feel like God has filled your mouth with gravel. It’s impossible to remember anything good anymore. You feel like food scraps or sewage thrown into the streets?

12. 8:06

    You feel like you’re drowning everything left as worthless, even the gold that you used to treat it. The children’s tongues stick to the roof of their mouth for Hunger restaurant owners, eat scraps, fashion models embrace dunhill’s your skin sticks to your bones and you look like a black wizard stick. Those killed by the sword, a blessed compared to those who are starving to death.

13. 8:40

    The compassionate mother’s boil their children to end their pain. Houses are turned over to be inhabited by complete strangers. The woman in the maids are ravished. The princes are tortured, the elders are mutilated and disfigured. All the young people are sold as slaves. Any thought of music and song dies in your throats.

14. 9:12

    Can you imagine such a nut uribl anguish? Can we be shaken brothers and sisters from our comfortable lives and our lethargy to be moved by the spectacle. How, how, how could this be? This morning, we want to delve into the hopelessness. The utter Blackness of grief of these people is that floundering around for meaning amongst the chaos trying to make sense of all of this pain.

15. 9:45

    Now obviously, in chapters 1 and 2, we have too many verses to do as a detailed verse by verse study. So what I want to do this morning is hard as it might be is try and highlight for you the main ideas or themes of these two chapters. The themes of Lamentations one.

16. 10:09

    And as usual, the main theme is going to come up in the first few verses and then be expanded on in the rest of the chapter. The First theme of chapter one, is that all their lovers and friends had left verse 2 among all her Lover’s? She had none to comfort her verse 8.

17. 10:33

    All that honored, her despise her. This 19, I called, for my lover’s, but they deceive me. There was suddenly amongst the rubble, the ruins of the city sudden feeling of loneliness. Of Abandonment. Where was everyone? We was everyone that was supposed to help me to support me. To care for me to protect me in the nation’s suddenly realize that everyone had abandoned them in their most desperate hour of need. It was an overwhelming feeling verse 1. How does the city sits solitary?

18. 11:19

    That was full of people. How is she becomes a widow? She that was great among the Nations and Princess among the provinces. How is she become tributary? The NIV has hard after City sit deserted, everyone was gone. and I’d like you to come to Isaiah and chapter 22 because These days had been foretold. In the book of Isaiah.

19. 11:55

    Isaiah chapter 22 and look at this description of what Jerusalem used to be like verse 2. Now that aren’t full of stars. A tumultuously city, a joyous City. They slain men are not slain with the sword nor dead in battle. Jerusalem, was a city of excitement of bustling of bustling, happiness people everywhere.

20. 12:25

    And in verse 12 God called for repentance and in that day did Yahweh Elohim of armies call to weeping to morning to baldness to girding, with sackcloth. He called for repentance, but what did he get? Brothers and sisters. He got verse 13. Parties and behold, Joy gladness, slang oxen killing sheep. Eating flesh, drinking wine. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow. We shall die and God was provoked to anger. All he wanted was a relationship with the nation that they were obsessed with everybody else with making friends with everybody else and look what it says in verse 14. It was revealed in mine ears by Yahweh of armies. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, saith, Yahweh, Elohim of armies.

21. 13:29

    In the Fulfillment of verse 14 is the book of Lamentations and by the time Judah woke up to their mistake, the city of stirs, the tumultuous city was gone, they were alone deserted Abandoned. Of course, of course, they were married. God himself was their husband their protector, but you see their iniquities had separated them even from him. And when we come back to Lamentations chapter 1 in verse 1, we find that.

22. 14:08

    Even God had Turned from husband to enemy. They had become a widow. They’d become a widow. God, the husband had even abandoned them. Do you know Jeremiah actually says in Jeremiah 15 and verse 8 that their widows increased like the sand of the sea, what an indictment for Abraham’s seed, the Seed of Abraham That was supposed to be like the sand of the seashore for multitude.

23. 14:39

    Now their Windows increased, like the sand of the sea. Their husband was gone. They felt like, even God had abandoned them. But it got worse because verse 1 continues, the princess has become a tributary. What a calamitous fall from grace, all the servants are gone. The Glamorous girl of the nation’s has to cook in the kitchen.

24. 15:04

    She’s gone from glittering princess to slave. Girl was almost Unthinkable. This fall from grace But it became worse again. Because verse 2 says, all her Lover’s in friends have deserted her, this is a woman who is totally and absolutely alone. Jerusalem’s lovers all started with. Solomon strange wives and connections that lead to idolatry political alliances.

25. 15:37

    And suddenly Judah, was more friendly, more Reliant, more, trusting of other Gentile Nations, who lovers then she was of God. She wanted to turn to Egypt in Isaiah, 30, and Isaiah 36. We know those verses, it’s like a read that if you lean upon it, it will pierce through your hand. So also is Pharaoh king of Egypt. Come across to zekiel and chapter 23 because strangely enough.

26. 16:17

    The nation of Judah. Felt that actually Babylon was their friend Ezekiel 23 and verse 22. Therefore o Holub are thus saith Nar way. Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee from whom thy mind is alienated and old bring them against the on every side, the Babylonians and all the called Ian’s p-card and sugar and color and all the Assyrians with them.

27. 16:46

    All of them desirable young men, Captains and rulers, great Lords in renowned all of them riding upon horses in the lover of Babylon that Judah had relied on turned against to, in her hour of need and came down and assaulted the city. Everybody had abandoned this woman that relied on Edom that relied on Eman and everybody turned against two, What a lesson brothers and sisters. No amount of diplomacy, no amount of political connections. No.

28. 17:25

    Amount of Reliance on friends can replace our love and trust in God, riches will evaporate youth, will disappear friends, will let us down a health condition appear in a moment. And for Jerusalem, it was all too late, the Babylonians, swept in the lovers, The parties, the good times, the friends, evaporated, and suddenly Judah, awoke to the fact that even God, her husband had turned against her, she was desperately Alone.

29. 17:59

    Look at verse 19, I called, for my lover’s, but they deceived me, my priests and mine Elders. Gave up the spirit in the city while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. Jerusalem is portrayed as an Unfaithful woman who abandoned her husband, her maker and put her trust in anyone. Other than God In this is how it turned out.

30. 18:28

    Who do? We trust him brothers and sisters in our lives. Is it our neighbors wealth? Is it? Our friends in the world? A secured job are own native abilities. Anything other than God, it’s a searching question, isn’t it? Because sometimes trusting and other things may even seem legitimate like, here in verse 19.

31. 18:53

    I mean, surely, we can trust our brothers and sisters, I mean, surely, we can trust The priests and the elders. But in the ultimate sense brothers and sisters, we can only trust our heavenly father tune over the page to chapter 2 and verse 14. By prophets have seen Vain and foolish things for thee. They have not discovered thine iniquity to turn away. They kept tivity but have seen for the false burdens and causes of banishment, even the priests, the elders and the prophets could not help.

32. 19:34

    And the overwhelming lesson of Lamentations one. Is that the only person we must trust is our heavenly father. and if we look hard at our lives, And we find a fear amount of Reliance on self or anyone else. Then we are probably doomed to repeat judah’s mistakes. Do you know in Chapter 2 and verse 14?

33. 20:01

    That little phrase Vain and foolish things is quite an interesting phrase. The revised Standard Version has false and deceptive Visions. But in the Hebrew, the Hebrew word for foolish things is very interesting and it doesn’t actually mean anything, like what it seems literally it should be The prophets have seen. Untempered whitewash. Would you have guessed that from the verse untempered whitewash and four out of the seven times?

34. 20:42

    It occurs it occurs in Ezekiel chapter 13, just come there very quickly and read these verses with me and see if they’re not appropriate to the nation. In this state this morning, Ezekiel 13 in verses 10 to 16. because even because they have seduced, my people saying peace when there is or was no peace and one built up a wall And low others.

35. 21:17

    Dabbed it, with untempered mortar, say unto them which debit with untempered mortar that it shall fall, there shall be an overflowing shower and yeoh great hailstones shall fall and a stormy wind shall Rend. It low when the wall is Fallen, shall it? Not be said unto you. Where is the door bang? Which you have dabbed it.

36. 21:40

    Therefore thus, saith ni Yahweh. I will even Rend it with a stormy wind And in my Fury and this should be an overflowing shower in mine, anger and great hailstones in my Fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall that you have Dead with untempered mortar and bring it down to the ground? So that the foundation thereof shall be discovered. It shall fall ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof. And ye shall know that I am Yahweh. Thus will, I accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon them, which have dabbed it with untempered mortar and we’ll say, To you.

37. 22:15

    The wall is no more neither. They that have dabbed it to wit. The prophets of Israel, which prophesy concerning Jerusalem and which see visions of Peace for her, and there is no peace. You see what the prophets and the priests were saying that, divined lies to cover up the truth. The Babylonians upcoming, it’s all going to be okay.

38. 22:42

    It’s all going to be fine. There were like dishonest Builders who covered up a crumbly wall with a Fresh coat of whitewash. That’s what their leaders were doing. It’s where we get the phrase wallpapering over the cracks and trusting and friends and jobs, and wealth, and Connections in abilities in anything other than God, Is like wallpapering over the cracks.

39. 23:11

    It’s like dabbing a Fresh coat of whitewash on a crumbling wall and the prophets have seen Vain and foolish things and the city woke up. And everything had been taken away. They were Afflicted broken. Forsaken. The second theme in chapter one is that there is none to comfort me. It happens actually over and over again.

40. 23:44

    In this chapter 7 times, there is none to comfort her none to comfort me. Without God, we are lonely and Abandoned and in actual fact in this little section of chapters 1 and chapter 2, there’s a real emphasis on weeping. Look, at verse 2, she weepeth saw in the night who tears on her cheeks verse 16 for these things.

41. 24:17

    I weep my mine. I run us down from wart with water. 2:11 mine eyes, do fail with tears, chapter 2 and verse. 18. Let tears run down like a river day and night, you can see the Hopeless situation, constant tears, the nation is inconsolable, they can’t stop the crying and there’s none to comfort.

42. 24:51

    You know, it’s bad enough, isn’t it? When we are suffering to go through the actual problems? Half the solution is being able to talk to someone and receive some comfort, but for these people that were going through all the problems and there was no one to turn to abandoned and lonely. Affliction seven times actually, in the whole chat in the whole book.

43. 25:16

    It’s the key word of the book as a whole, but it certainly here predominantly in chapter one Affliction and suffering. Look at chapter 1 and verse 7, Jerusalem Remembered in the days of her Affliction and of her miseries all her Pleasant things which she had in the days of old when her people fell into the hands of the enemy. Me and none did help her the adversaries saw her and did mock at her.

44. 25:45

    Sabbath’s. The pleasant things were all gone only misery remained and at an actual fact in this little section there’s a little emphasis on the pleasant things. Verse 7, all her Pleasant things have gone verse verse 10.

45. 26:10

    The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her Pleasant things verse 11. They have given their Pleasant things for meat, everything that they treasured had gone. It was only Affliction. Now all their goods were stolen. Their houses were occupied by the enemy the memories burned smashed. What a horrific time. And in verse 11, as we read verse 11, all my people sigh, they seek bread, they have given their Pleasant things for meat, to relieve the soul. What does that remind you of?

46. 26:49

    They have given their Pleasant things for meat, to relieve, the soul, doesn’t that seem to be an allusion to Esau. They’ve despise their Birthright, they’ve sold their Heritance has yahweh’s people just for a mess of pottage that’s what all the parties feel like. Now imagine it. The descendants of Jacob acting like Esau are afflicted, polluted profane.

47. 27:20

    And all they can do. Throughout chapter one is. Sigh. There’s just nothing left to say her priests. I verse 4. Ye Shi Saya. ‘The intern of backward. Verse 8. All her people sigh verse 11. They have heard that I sigh verse 21 for my size. A mini verse 22 overcome with grief and despair.

48. 27:58

    There’s nothing that can be said that will make this situation. Any better? All you can do is You know, hold your hand in Lamentations 1 and come forward to Ezekiel 21 because this is exactly what God had prophesied of the nation.

49. 28:23

    Ezekiel 21 in verse 1. And the word of Yahweh came unto me saying, son of man, sit by face toward Jerusalem and drop, they word toward the holy places prophesied against the land of Israel and say to the land of Israel. Thus saith, Yahweh behold, I am against thee and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath and will cut off from Thee.

50. 28:48

    The righteous and the wicked seeing then that I will cut off from the righteous and the wicked. Therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath. Against All Flesh from the south to the north. That All Flesh may know that I Yahweh have drawn forth, my sword out of his sheath, it shall not return anymore.

51. 29:11

    Sigh. Therefore, the son of man with the breaking of thy loins and with bitterness sigh before their eyes and it shall be when they shall say unto thee, we’re for syas there. That thou shalt answer for the tidings. Because it cometh. And every heart shall melt and all hand, shall be feeble if every Spirit shall faint and Olney, shall be weak, as water, behold it cometh? And it shall be brought to pass the Babylonians were going to come in.

52. 29:51

    God said to Ezekiel sigh son of man. And in business sigh for your people. And we know what happens in the rest of this chapter verse 25. They are profane Wicked Prince of Israel. Remove the diadem take off the crown, I will overturn overturn. Overturn it, it will never be the same.

53. 30:17

    God had prophesied sighing and grief and in comprehensibility and Lamentations. One is the proof that it all came to pass. In all it’s awful detail. Just as he had said, Jerusalem was crushed and broken. So Lamentations, chapter 1 is all about man’s hopelessness man’s inadequacy, how without God. We are all the things of Lamentations.

54. 30:48

    Chapter one, broken Afflicted crushed. Forsaken, abandoned troubled, distressed. Ain’t desolate. Comfortless. and it’s when we realize brothers and sisters in young people that are situation in life without god without trust in him is so desperately Bleak and without any comfort That we come to chapter 2. In Chapter 2, we have quite different themes.

55. 31:28

    The first one is the name of God Yahweh or Adonai seven times. Yahweh seven times Adonai and most of you may be aware that probably in all of the times that Adonai occurs in Lamentations to the seven times, it should probably be translated as the sofrom or as Yahweh, the name of God.

56. 31:58

    So seven times we’re told in chapter one, there is none to comfort. Now, we have the answer. Yahweh hath done this. Yahweh hath done this verse 7. Yahweh hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his Sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh as in the day of a solemn feast.

57. 32:32

    Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line. He has not withdrawn. His hand from destroying verse 20, behold o, Yahweh. Consider to whom thou Hast done this. This was God’s workings. It was his anger over and over again. In this chapter, it was his anger not the Babylonians.

58. 33:03

    Another theme, he has swallowed up. Just look at this 2:2. Yahweh has swallowed up the inhabit. The habitations of Jacob verse 5. Yahweh was as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel, he has swallowed up all her palaces verse 8, He has verse 8. It says he has stretched out a line, he hath, not withdrawn his hand from destroying but in the margin it says, swallowing up verse 16, we have swallowed her up. That’s how the nation felt.

59. 33:47

    They felt that God had swallowed them up, horrific an awful feeling. And God the last theme has not petite. He is not pitied. He is not pitied verse 17. Let’s just read verse 17 together. Yahweh have done that, which he has deserved devised. He had fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He hath thrown down and hath not pitied. The revised Standard Version has Yahweh has done. What he purposed, he has carried out his threat. As he ordained long ago, he has demolished Without Pity and there was a growing realization.

60. 34:35

    That actually this was not Nebuchadnezzar’s work. This was yahweh’s hand his anger, his determined purpose, his indignation, his fire, you know, one of the other themes of chapter one, is the theme of the enemy. The enemy that has done this. The Babylonians. Look at verse 5, her enemies Prosper. Verse 7. They fell into the hands of the enemy verse 9. The enemy hath magnified herself. This team.

61. 35:22

    Verse 13. It says the Heathen entered into the sanctuary. The adversary has spread out his hand upon all the pleasant things. The enemy prevailed verse 16 Mine enemies have heard of my trouble. Do you know, when we come to chapter 2, look what we read in Verses 4 and 5. He has been to his bow like an enemy.

62. 35:47

    Who was the true enemy? It was not the Babylonians. There was a growing realization that the true enemy here had actually been God himself, he stood with his right hand as an adversary in Slough, all that were pleasant to the eye, in the Tabernacle of the daughter of Zion, he poured. I doubt his fury like fire. It wasn’t the Babylonians at all Yahweh was as an enemy, he is swallowed up Azrael, he has swallowed up. All her Palace has destroyed his strongholds and increased in the daughter of Zion mourning and lamentation. What a terrible Dawning realization, brothers and sisters that the sufferings that you’re going through weren’t actually the Babylonians, this was what God was doing. Verse 17 Yahweh has done that which he has devised. What a turnip of events.

63. 36:50

    God was responsible. And in verse 17 at the end of the verse, it says he has caused thine enemy to Rejoice over thee, he has set up the Horn of thine adversaries. Well what a terrible situation when God is elevating, the Horn of the adversaries in exactly the same chapter. As we read. In verse 3, he is cut off in his fierce. Anger, all the Horn of Israel.

64. 37:25

    There’s a dramatic turn of events happening here and are just realizing how disturbing it is. Everything was upside down the Horn of the adversaries, exalted, the Horn of Israel cut down to the ground and God had done it. What part of the nation had his hand not destroyed and chapter 2 of Lamentations is really like a catalog of God’s Fury poured. Upon the different parts of the nation. In verses 1 to 5 God poured out his fury on the strongholds, on the Palaces, on the monarchy, this words like horn and Kingdom in verses 6 to 7.

65. 38:11

    He poured out his Fury upon the temple upon the Tabernacle. The priests, the altar, the religious Feasts. Inverses. 9:52. He poured out his Fury upon the walls of Jerusalem. The ramparts the gates, the bars, the defenses, In verses 11 to 14. He pulls out his Fury upon the children, the week, the vulnerable and in verses 15 to 19.

66. 38:44

    He pours out his Fury upon their reputation, their image, their Prestige, their self-esteem. Nothing would Escape his hand. In Lamentations to they realize, God has taken away everything in their lives. He had removed the Bible class. The Sunday School students were piled dead in the streets. The bread and wine that we read of in Chapter 2 and verse 12.

67. 39:16

    The corn, and the wine, even the memorial meeting had gone. Even in verse 9, we read the law is no more. What a, what a dramatic realization to to the nation. And to Jeremiah’s mind a shocking revelation.

68. 39:38

    That what was a religious sham had been dissolved by God himself and he hadn’t even hesitated to do it. Every type of leader was also gone the king despised, the priest violently taken away. The prince scattered the prophets exposed the elders, humbled every single, part of the leadership of the nation had been torn Away by God in this assault, by the Babylonians. Do you know come to Ezekiel in chapter 7? Because shockingly.

69. 40:23

    Lamentations to is the exact fulfillment again of ezekiel’s words. Ezekiel chapter 7. And verse 23. Make a chain for the land is full of bloody crimes in the city is full of violence. Wherefore? I will bring the worst of the Heathen and they shall possess their houses. I will also make the pomp of the strong decease and their holy places shall be defiled destruction cometh, and they shall seek peace. And there shall be none.

70. 41:05

    Mischief, shall come upon mischief and rumors, shall be upon rumor and they shall. And here it is. Seek a vision of the prophet. But the Lord Shall Perish from the priests. And counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn. The prince shall be clothed. Distillation the hens of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do unto them after their way and according to their desserts, will I judge them and they shall know that I am Yahweh and all five types of leaders mentioned in verses 26 and 27, the prophet, the priest, the ancients The king and the princes are all systematically dismantled in Lamentations chapter 2, forsaken.

71. 42:05

    Taken away. Just as God had said, and God did unto them after their own way, he gave them their own Just Desserts. They had wanted to be like the heathen. Friends with the world mingle, with the nation’s, to be friendly with their neighbors, little worship together and be friends, and God gave them their desire. Back in Lamentations chapter 1, do you know what he did brothers and sisters they wanted to be together with the world? Look what it says in chapter 1 in verse 10, the Heathen entered into her Sanctuary whom thou didst command that they should never enter into the congregation. Or chapter 4 in verse 12, the kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would never have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the Gates of Jerusalem and God brought the Babylonians right into Jerusalem and right into the sanctuary.

72. 43:20

    Just not in the way they wanted. And not in the way they thought. They wanted to be one with the world. God gave them their own way and he brought the Babylonians into Jerusalem. But as their assault as in and in tormentors not as their lovers or friends, it’s shocking, isn’t it? Brothers and sisters, they desperately wanted to be United with the nation’s and God was going to grant them, their wish, but just in the most unimaginably awful way, I want you to look at this because when I saw this, I was shocked. This is a description of.

73. 44:11

    Israel, Judah from the book of Lamentations. It describes, the humiliating Fall From Grace, they’re described as a virgin daughter. They’re described as sitting on the ground. In the dust. The nakedness is exposed. The sitting in silence in darkness. The no more, the Lady or the princess of the Nations. They remembered not, the last end. It says, in Lamentations, 1 verse 9. They were given over to Pleasures to Pleasant things. They became a widow and childless. They said in Ezekiel 8 everybody’s seeing us Nobody can see what we’re actually doing.

74. 45:08

    False prophets. They had none of which were able to help. They were consumed ultimately, by God’s fiery, judgments. I’d like you to come to Isaiah in chapter 47 and read with me these words.

75. 45:38

    Isaiah 47 in verse 1. Come down and sit in the dust. o virgin daughter of Babylon. Babylon. Sit on the ground. There is no Throne o daughter of the Chaldeans for Thou shalt. No more be called tender and delicate take the millstones. Grind meal, uncover thy locks, make beer the league, uncover the thigh pass over the rivers, thy nakedness shall be uncovered.

76. 46:14

    Yeah. Thy shame shall be seen. I will take Vengeance and I will not meet the as a man. As for Our Redeemer, Yahweh of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel sit there silent and get the Into Darkness, o daughter of the Chaldeans for Thou shalt no more be called The Lady of Kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance in given them into thine hand.

77. 46:44

    Now did show them. No mercy upon the ancient hostile, very heavily laid their yoke and our said stop. I shall be a lady forever so that they are did not lay these things to Heart. Neither did star Remember the latter end of it? Therefore here. Now, this now that are given to Pleasures that dwell carelessly, that’s asinine heart. I am and none else beside me.

78. 47:12

    I should not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children, but these two things shall come to the in a moment in one day. day, the loss of children and widowhood, they shall come upon the in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries and for the great abundance of dine and chant moments, What’s happening brothers and sisters?

79. 47:40

    What is happening? When we put together Lamentations and Isaiah forty seven, Israel is receiving word for word, line for line babylon’s punishment, The words of Isaiah written over 100 years, previously outlining Babylons. Judgments are happening to The Afflicted virgin Daughter of Zion. How how how could these things be in Jeremiah quotes from Isaiah forty, seven over and over and over again and Lamentations what a tragedy? What an indictment and, you know, it’s not just Babylons punishment as outlined in Isaiah, forty seven because look at this.

80. 48:34

    We read in Lamentations that the houses would be spoiled their women ravished, that’s Isaiah 13. The destruction on Babylon, Lamentations forces they would be destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah. Exactly like Babylon. That’d be cast down from Heaven to Earth exactly like Babylon and Isaiah 14. The passers-by would be astonished just like Babylon trodden. Underfoot yahweh’s purpose would be accomplished. The gates would be broken.

81. 49:03

    The Has destroyed all that passed by would hiss and astonishment. They would be caught unawares in yahweh’s. Net young men would fall in the streets. There would be none to raise him up, and ironically both Israel and Babylon would feel they would experience their livers poured upon the Earth. The experience of Israel exactly mirrors, the experience of Babylon, Isaiah forty seven, Isaiah 13 and 14, Teen.

82. 49:34

    Jeremiah chapter. 50 in Lamentations is full of it, brothers and sisters. The destiny of Babylon, had become Israel’s fate. It’s pretty clear what Jeremiah is doing. Israel without God in their lives and hearts is no better than the idolatrous sinful Pagan Babylonians. So what of us brothers and sisters? What of ourselves? Where is God, and our lives is he just getting the leftovers?

83. 50:13

    Is he slipping to the outside to the periphery? Are we too busy at work, too busy at school, too. Many worldly attractions too. Many babylonish garments. Absorbed by our own Ambitions friends in the world. is God at the center of our Lives because with God at the center, they worship their hearts. Judah was the beauty of Israel.

84. 50:46

    She was God’s princess, his wife. but without God at the center, she was just like the Babylonians naked widowed childless humiliated comfortless. Broken. and as they woke up, And saw the Babylonians traipsing off with most of the good people of Judah into captivity.

85. 51:18

    Lamentations 1 and 2 as a very dark place, indeed. Hopeless place a place of Blackness and pain. Us. As bad as Babylon. Yes. It’s bad as Babylon. As bad as that adulteress, idolatrous impostor that God hates. Yes.

86. 51:48

    As bad as that. Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. It was grief so complete, it was misery. So humiliating justice. So poetic that it was almost Indescribable how had this happened. And yet, brothers and sisters, even in the gloomy, Blackness of self-pity and despair. There are inklings of Hope. And I just want to show you these as we conclude because these are definite shift and thought between Lamentations 1 and Lamentations to, because Lamentations one is all about my lover’s.

87. 52:36

    There’s none to comfort me. It’s all about my Affliction, my size. But when we come to chapter 2, it’s all about what God has done. He has done this, his anger, he has swallowed up. He has not pitied. The self-obsession, the blind miserable self-absorbed. Pity is now giving way to an acknowledgment of God’s hand. It’s still misery without meaning, but there’s a definite shift of thinking there are stirrings of Hope. In a movement towards God.

88. 53:12

    Here it is. As we finish Lamentations 1 and 2. I am become vile. We read in chapter 1 in verse 11. This is the very beginning of a recognition of their own state. Of their own guilt. A desperate Cry for Help as God brings the nation to its knees but they realize their position.

89. 53:41

    The comforter that should relieve my soul verse 16. There’s an acknowledgement that they ought to be relief. Someone to, as the margin says, bring back my soul. This should be someone who can recover. Bring relief. We get to verse 18. Yahweh is righteous. For I have rebelled. This is a critical step of progress.

90. 54:07

    Repentance is impossible. Without this acknowledgement. God has to be right? Even when things look wrong, and now God can work. And when we come across to chapter 2 in verse 13, this is the turning point of Lamentations 1 and 2. What things shall? I take to witness for thee. What things shall I liken to the O daughter of? Mmm.

91. 54:31

    What should I equal to thee? That I may Comfort thee o virgin Daughter of Zion for they breach as great like the see who can heal thee their sins. Have separated them from God as Isaiah 59, and verse to said, it was like a dam bursting, and Jeremiah uses the sea with all its vastness to express.

92. 54:52

    The immeasurable Calamity that has befallen the nation who can heal, who has healing. Do you know, actually the word for breach in Lamentations to in verse 13, for they? Breach is great. Like the sea is actually the word for bruised for. They bruise is great, like the sea and it comes straight out of Jeremiah and Chapter 30, Jeremiah is quoting God’s words. Let me just read them to you.

93. 55:25

    If you want to you can come to Jeremiah 30, just very quickly. This 12 for thus saith. Yahweh thigh bruise is incurable. They wound is Grievous. There is none to plead thy cause that thou mayest be bound up. There has no healing medicines. All they lovers have forgotten the they seek the not for. I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one.

94. 55:53

    For the multitude of thine iniquity because they sins were increased. Why Christ? Therefore thy, Bruised. It should be. It’s exactly the same word as verse 12. Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because they sins were increased. I have done these things unto thee verse 17, but I will restore Health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith. Yahweh how amazing is this.

95. 56:28

    The bruise was incurable by men, the wound Grievous. There was none to help none to comfort, but God had promised to will restore Health to heal thee of thy wounds. And now and Lamentations 2 and verse 13. We have the first hint of looking to God for the solution. Rather than the cause of the problem, who can heal God can heal and amazingly. He had promised back in Jeremiah 30 that he would even before he brought the punishment.

96. 57:02

    That’s the graciousness of our God, isn’t it? True, brothers, and sisters that down through time. There’s only been one answer. One, Healer of all our diseases. How often do we try and seek after the positions? Like the woman with the issue of blood and mark, five. And In verse 26 but they can never help us out.

97. 57:25

    A condition only gets worse, but God can heal us. He can relieve our souls and restore us to health. This is the point of suffering brothers and sisters to bring us to him. He can heal us of our incurable wounds, the bruises of sin. And so in Chapter 2 and verse 19, we lift up our hands towards him.

98. 57:53

    If the theme of chapter one was there is none to comfort the in here. There is a growing realization that Comfort may be possible. Is still confusion, they still misery without meaning. And as we read in Chapter 2 and verse 21 thou Hast, slain thou Hast killed and not pitied. There’s still a problem in the nation’s thinking God was never unrighteous, so unfair, But there seems to be a hint of bitterness that maybe God should have pity a bitterness or resentment that needs to be rectified.

99. 58:31

    They’re seeking for healing. But they wondering whether God should still be blamed and it is out of this overwhelming, Blackness this foggy, Despair and desolation with, just a stirring, an inkling of Hope like a gleam on the horizon. that the man of chapter 3 emerges, A man who can answer their questions. A man who has sheared are Affliction despite his innocence and can share with us within his hope. But that’s the subject of our next class tomorrow. God willing.