Latest / Journey Elgin / Journey Through Scripture - Lamentations
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: It's good to see you today. My name's Philip Thomas, pastor of Journey here in Elgin and welcome to our Journey Through Scripture. And if you were reading ahead, we were reading ⁓ Lamentations. These are important books. I do encourage you to read these. There's some big picture things this really teaches us about God and our relationship with God. And so, so what, what we've had is now we've had the complete fall and destruction of Jerusalem. ⁓ The city has been destroyed, it was under siege for months and months. ⁓ Horrible things happened. There was probably cannibalism that went on. Children died, women died. I mean, it was just a brutal, brutal time. ⁓ so Lamentations is written in response to that. It is traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah. ⁓ That would make sense, but. We don't know that for sure. There's no official ⁓ author to this, except that it's obvious that it was someone who was there, who experienced this, who saw what was happening in the city as Jerusalem was falling. And now again, it's so important to remember this whole picture. This is why I really, sometimes it makes it a little difficult going in chronological order, because I know we jump back and forth. But I think it's vital that we do this. So we've seen how it has built over time, over years and years and years, of how the people have just been falling away from God, ⁓ how they have started to worship other gods and to replace God and even do horrific ⁓ acts of devotion to other gods, including child sacrifice. So they have completely gone off the rails. And the prophets were trying to warn of this for years and years and years. The people just did not listen, especially the leadership. Many of the people, I have no doubt, did listen, but the leadership did not. And that eventually leads to the fall of this great nation and of this great city and of the temple. ⁓ so Lamentations gets into that. We see chapter one, it starts off, says, 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. ⁓ So you'll see there's poetic language to describe what is happening, but it's pretty obvious, you know, the devastation that is seen. ⁓ continues on, verse 8, Jerusalem has sinned gravely. Therefore, she has become vile. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs and turns away her... Sorry, verse 9, she did not consider her destiny. Therefore, her collapse was awesome. She had no comforter. The Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy is exalted. 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." So everything is collapsing. ⁓ it's the recognition that this is the result of the people's rebellion. This is the result of their sinfulness, ⁓ that there now is no comforter. The Lord is actually the afflictor. ⁓ And this is ⁓ very difficult for them to swallow. This is a time of deep grief, that they are grieving for their city, they're grieving for people, they're grieving for the loss of their faith, in essence, that they're seeing that crumble. And verse 16, for these things I weep. My eye overflows with water because the Comforter, who should restore my life, is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed." So they are in a, the writer here, Jeremiah, more than likely is in a deep state of grief where he feels completely alone. One thing that I really appreciate about Lamentations, is deep and it is pretty dark in many places, except maybe one of the most brightest scriptures of hope as well here in just a minute. But it does teach us something about when we're going through difficulty, whenever it feels like the world is collapsing around us. That one, we need to look and we need to make sure that it's not because we have been unfaithful. That is part of what we need to be doing. But many times it's not. Like there would have been a lot of people caught up in the city who had been worshiping God the way they were supposed to. And we're looking at everybody else going, what are you doing? Why? Why are you following Baal? Don't you know that we should be following the one true God? Don't you know that this is going to lead to trouble? Right? But yet they still feel the grief. They feel abandoned as well. And one thing that happens a lot in our ⁓ culture that I hear a lot is, ⁓ you know, well, God, why, why did you do this? Why are you punishing me this way? And, and that can easily become an anger and a bitterness and a turn away from God. What we see here in Lamentations is they are, the writer is expressing that anger, but who is he expressing it to? He's expressing it to God. He's telling God, feel like you're the one, you're the one that's afflicting me. I feel alone because you are not comforting me. ⁓ But that is an important part of our grief is that we lean into God even when we don't feel like it, even when we feel like He's the one that's responsible. And in this case, He was the one that was responsible, right? Directly. ⁓ That He was responsible. He was ⁓ exacting His justice. And man, that can be uncomfortable. And so as the writer, Jeremiah, is calling out to God, he's frustrated and he feels alone, but he's directing that to God. So therefore, he gives the chance to experience comfort from God later. If you just express your anger with God, just constantly and about Him, and you just kind of turn your back from Him, well, guess what? You're never going to be able to experience the comfort that He does provide. We have to be really careful with how we grieve and how we allow grief to overcome us. And we also need to know that the days of lamentations are coming for all of us. We are all going to experience this. We live in a fallen world. ⁓ Things are going to happen that are out of your control and things are going to happen because of decisions that you made and that you're going to have to deal with. we are going to feel like these poems and lamentations at times. ⁓ But if we choose to feel that anger and turn away from God, then we'll never be able to experience the healing and reconciliation that also comes from God. chapter two talks about God's anger with Jerusalem. ⁓ Verse five, the Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed her strongholds, has increased mourning and lamentation. And the daughter of Judah, he has done violence to his tabernacle as if it were a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. The Lord has caused the appointed feast and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In his burning indignation, he has spurned the king and the priest. The Lord has spurned his altar. He has abandoned his sanctuary. 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." So God is basically destroying the whole... religious structure. And this is a balance. The temple was very important. The beauty of the temple was important. The priests were important. The acts, the rituals were all important, things that God had told the people to do. But yet, He destroyed all of that. Why? Because what is most important to God is not the buildings, it's not the priest, it's not the rituals. It's that you have a true relationship with God and live according to his precepts. If we decide not to do that, if we go through the motions and go through the rituals and pay for the building and shine up the gold on the building, but yet live ⁓ opposite of God's commands, that completely misses the point. You don't know who God really is. So he'll destroy all of that other stuff, even though It's very important. He instituted all of it. But it matters zero in comparison to the importance of living righteously. And if we don't live righteously, it doesn't matter what you're doing ⁓ as you worship or where you worship or how much money you give to a church or how big the church is or how beautiful the building is. None of that matters. It is all about whether we are living righteously. Are we living good lives following God? And that is what he is concerned about. You continue to go on and you'll just, you'll hear the anger, the repentance, all of it. You know, there's always the acknowledgement of the sinfulness in here. That's important. They never once does in lamentation, so try to make an excuse for what has happened. So, you know, God, we really weren't that bad. You know, we only sacrificed a few children. You know, come on. No, there was none of that. was they understood that this is what was coming. Chapter 3 is powerful. I really encourage you to read all of chapter 3. This is why it definitely feels like this is Jeremiah. said, verse 3, chapter 3, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day. And then it keeps going of how he has struggled and the difficulties that he has found. Verse 16, he has also broken my teeth with gravel, covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace. I have forgotten prosperity. And I said, so, so just again, read all of that, all this horrible stuff. And then verse 18, and I said, my strength and my hope. have perished from the Lord. Then verse 19, remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall my soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed because His compassions 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. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth." This is the premise for the song, is Thy Faithfulness. Great is Thy Faithfulness is one of the most powerful hymns ever written. and it is written. based on a scripture that was first penned and said during a time of extreme lamentation, when it felt like God was not being faithful, yet they knew that God was faithful. They had to move away from what they felt about God and to hold on to what they knew to be true, that God is one who does not allow us to be consumed, that He is compassionate. that He is faithful even when we're going through the darkest and most difficult times. Now that doesn't take away the difficulty, but do not allow your trust and your hope in God to be diminished by the circumstances that you are facing. It is vital that we lean into God during the difficult times, not away from Him. It is a lie from the pit of hell to encourage us and encourage us to question what God has done to start turning our back on him when things get tough. Right. And that those, you know, and all of us are going to have those questions, right? Whenever things start going bad, it's like, God, why are you doing this? What's going on? If the longer we entertain those kinds of questions, the easier it is for us to fall away from him. So entertain those questions and take them. to God. Allow God to answer those, and the way that He answers you is He says, great is my faithfulness. Just encourage you. Think about that. Continue to read. Verse 55 in chapter 3 is wonderful. called on your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice. Do not hide your ear from my sign, from my cry to help. You drew near on the day I called on you and said, Do not fear. Thanks. So there's this beauty of this relationship with God even in the midst of the lamentation. Chapter 4, again, just continues the lamentation. Then chapter 5 is a prayer for restoration. Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us. Look and behold our approach. Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our houses to foreigners. We have become orphans and waifs. Our mothers are like widows. Verse 19, you, O Lord, remain forever. You're thrown from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever? and forsake us for so long a time and turn back to you. ⁓ Turn us back to you, O Lord, and we will be restored." Right? When we turn back to Him, we will be restored. If we don't turn back to Him, sorry, restoration's not coming. Right? Like if you just cry to God and say, hey, God, we're really sorry. ⁓ We hate that you destroyed Jerusalem. You know, please welcome us back. And you know what? We'll reduce the number of children we're sacrificing to bail. That's what we'll do. No, turn back to him and you will be restored. Renew our days as of old. And then there's the very honest question, unless you have utterly rejected us and are very angry with us. So if we don't, you know what? I understand it. I understand why you would not. receive us back if we do not turn to you. I encourage you to think about that. I know it's not easy sometimes to read those lamentations, but it's very important that we do and know that God is faithful no matter how deep of a pit you may be in, no matter how dark the path that you are walking in right now, great is his faithfulness. All right. We're going to look at just a couple of ⁓ ... verses in 2 Kings chapter 25. You've probably already read that at some point. We've read through on many of the different parts, but it just kind of connects with Jeremiah. And then we're going to read Jeremiah chapter 39 through 44. So 39 through 44 of Jeremiah. All right. Well, we will see you on.