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Reading Lamentations 1:12-22 where the singer mourns over the suffering he is enduring because of his rebellion against God, crying out that God would deliver. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
When you sin and rebel against God, you may feel it in the consequences that you have to face and even within your very bones. But may that cause us to draw near to Christ and turn away from sin when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.
In our study of the Old Testament, we come back to the book of Lamentations. You know, when we went through Ecclesiastes together, I had said this study was not going to be very cheerful or uplifting.
And Lamentations is that same kind of way. But we do have glimmers of hope throughout Lamentations that even in deep darkness, even in a moment of sorrow, especially sorrow over one's sin, there is a light of rejoicing there to see that God is faithful to his people and his mercies are new every morning.
That statement, which of course is a line in the famous hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, comes from Lamentations chapter 3. So even when we are in the deep sorrowful portions of Lamentations, we still want to keep those things in mind.
We come back to Lamentations chapter 1, and after reading, first of all, this description of the condition of Jerusalem in the first 11 verses, we now read this call to Yahweh for help. And that's beginning in verse 12.
I'll read through verse 22 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Lamed. He has made me desolate, faint all day long. Nun. The yoke of my transgressions is bound. By his hand they are knit together.
They have come upon my neck. He has made my strength stumble. The Lord has given me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to stand. Samech. The Lord has rejected all my mighty men in my midst.
He has called an appointed time against me to break my young men. The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. Ayin. For these things I am weeping. My eyes run down with water, because far from me is a Comforter, one who restores my soul.
My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed. Peh. Zion stretches out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob that the ones round about him should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them. Tzadi. Yahweh is righteous, for I have rebelled against his command. Hear now, all peoples, and behold my pain. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
Koph. I called to my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city, while they sought food for themselves in order to restore their souls. Resh. See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress.
My inmost being is greatly disturbed. My heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves. In the house it is like death. Shin. They have heard that I am sighing.
There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of the evil done to me. They rejoice that you have done it. You have brought the day which you have proclaimed, so that they will become like me.
Tav. Let all their evil come before you, and deal severely with them as you have dealt severely with me, for all my transgressions. For my groans are great, and my heart is faint. Now this section here, verses 12 to 22, it works as something of like a testimony, but it is also a prayer unto the Lord.
This is Jerusalem testifying, look at what has happened to me, but very honestly testifying. Not saying, be sad for me because of this punishment that has come upon me. But even expressing why this punishment has come upon me.
Because God is holy, and I have transgressed against that. And that is why this is happening. So it becomes a testament to others. If you rebel against God, this may be your fate as well. But it also serves as a prayer, because the one lamenting is also turning that lament toward the Lord.
And asking for deliverance, not only for deliverance, but for justice. That those who have done this to me, that they would experience the same thing I'm experiencing, if not worse. Because they've done this to me.
Now the first 11 verses that we had read last time, they ended with that plea to God. See oh Yahweh, and look for I am despised. And then we have that plea to the Lord come up at the end of this second section as well.
Now each one of these stanzas begins with a Hebrew letter. As I had said in the introduction of the book of Lamentations, that's difficult for us to grasp reading an English translation. But it's something that I believe the Legacy Standard Bible has done as much as they can to preserve.
So when you read it in the LSB, you'll see each section beginning with a different Hebrew letter. And that's what I'm announcing before I get to that next stanza. And the entire book of Lamentations is this way.
So when we get to chapter 2, which is essentially like the next poem in Lamentations, it starts over again in the Hebrew alphabet. So let's pick up once again in verse 12 with Lamed. Is it nothing to all you who pass this way, look and see if there is any pain like my pain, which was dealt severely to me, which Yahweh grieved me with on the day of his burning anger.
Now there's obviously a turn of voice here. After the first 11 verses, we have an appeal to those who are looking on. Look at what has happened to me. Like, is this nothing to you who pass this way? Are you so cold in heart that you don't even think about what has transpired against Jerusalem?
Surely you can see it. Surely you can see the land that is laid waste. You can look at Jerusalem's walls and see that they've all been torn down. The majesty that this city used to be, that people from distant lands used to come to behold its beauty and hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And yet what he's built, the temple and his house and all of that, it doesn't even stand anymore. It's all been torn down. So that which was once beautiful, it was precious. It was the envy of nations around.
And now it's been torn to the ground. Is that nothing to you? So this is an appeal to others. Look at what has happened to me. If there is any pain like my pain, which was dealt severely to me, which Yahweh grieved me with on the day of his burning anger.
Now I want to say here, in application, there are many times in which we might see a very famous preacher or somebody that we knew to be a Christian. Somebody very, very popular who was a Christian. I'm going to stick with a pastor, a very famous pastor, because I think this works best in that way.
Somebody who was a very famous pastor, had a big platform. You watched all their YouTube videos. They had like keynote positions at all of the big conferences and things like this. And what has happened to that preacher, but he fell into some great moral failing?
And a lot of times, very sadly, it's probably adultery. It's probably some kind of sexual sin. And that becomes public and it becomes shameful. And then the question becomes, now is all of his preaching suspect?
Should we take down all of his sermons off of the website? You know, now none of that mattered at all. That tends to be where the debate goes. And then there are some people, there's a group of people that will actually rejoice at his fall, won't they?
Of course, we expect the atheists to behave that way. Oh, look, see, this is exactly what we said. You Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites. Look at the best among you could not even stay moral, according to the words that you guys are always preaching at us.
So, of course, they're going to rejoice, rejoice over it. But even among Christians, there are factions. And so some of those factions are going to look at this preacher who was kind of the figurehead of this particular faction of Christians.
And they're going to rejoice because, oh, see, your guy fell because your theology wasn't solid after all. But is this the healthy approach that we should have whenever we see somebody that we greatly admired and who preached the gospel whenever we see them fall?
We should rather be humble in those circumstances. That's what Paul says to the Corinthians. That's also what we have in Galatians, that if any of you needs correction, do so. But keep a close watch on yourself, lest you, too, be tempted.
None of us should ever have this prideful attitude that I wouldn't fall like that guy. Yeah, you probably can. You could fall just like that person can. And we should not be so cold as to see a person fall and then just kind of shrug our shoulders at it like it's no big deal.
It's a huge deal, even if it's someone that is of a theological camp that we know is a problem anyway. Like, we'll see big charismatics. This will happen to them. I did the video. What was it last year or the year before on Jimmy Swaggart?
Yeah, it was last year. One of the biggest preachers in the history of televangelism, and yet had failing after failing after failing, was constantly going after prostitutes. And that's nothing that I rejoice over, because he had one of the biggest television programs that a preacher has ever had in the history of the world.
Preached to many people, almost as many as Billy Graham, but through his television network. And a lot of people saw this man who was a revered and respected preacher, and he just could not stay away from prostitutes.
Kept falling into this sexual sin over and over and over again. And this should be something that makes us mourn. We don't rejoice over that, even though we know the guy was a heretic in his theology.
That shouldn't be something that makes us rejoice, but rather we would lament. Look and see if there is any pain like my pain, which was dealt severely to me, Jerusalem says, which Yahweh grieved me with on the day of his burning anger.
We should behold that and mourn and wail ourselves. Jerusalem's theology wasn't solid either, was it? No, even worse, they were worshiping false gods and carousing around with all the pagans and their cult prostitutes.
And so as we would see this happen with Jerusalem, as we would see it happen with any Christian, any preacher today, it may cause us to stand in fear and put away our sin and draw near to Christ and to his righteousness.
We go on to verse 13. From on high he sent fire into my bones and it dominated them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate, faint all day long. You know, one of the consequences that we will face because of our sin against God will be physical.
We will feel it in our flesh and in our bones. It can even make you ill because you have sinned and you continue to repress that sin instead of dealing with it and confessing it before God. God will even afflict us physically because of the guilt that we feel over our sin.
Consider Psalm 38. Oh, Yahweh, reprove me not in your wrath and discipline me not in your burning anger. For your arrows have pressed deep into me and your hand was pressed down upon me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation.
There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities go over my head as a heavy burden. They weigh too much for me. My wounds stink and rot because of my folly. I am bent over and greatly bowed down.
I go mourning all day long. So David is expressing there the feeling of grief that he has even in his own flesh and bones because of his sin. And there are a lot of people to this day that try to mask that feeling that they have.
It's affecting them even physiologically. And they try to suppress those feelings with addictions, alcohol, some sort of dopamine kick, maybe even prescription meds. Or they will go to a therapist and get something prescribed to them so hopefully this prescription will help me feel better about the guilt that is actually eating away at my bones.
And I'm not saying that every occasion of depression is this. But there are a lot of people who are greatly depressed and the reason why they are depressed is because they're holding on to some sin that they're refusing to confess or turn away from.
And I'm going to share this autobiographically even as we continue on here. So going on to verse 14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound. By his hand they are knit together. They have come upon my neck.
He has made my strength stumble. The Lord has given me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to stand. So it's not just the physical oppression that a person feels because of their sin. Not just what would be within their own body.
But even the oppression that they feel from those around them. And there are occasions as well God may turn us into the hands of somebody else who would be our judge or our oppressor as a result of the sins that we have committed.
And we go on to verse 15. The Lord has rejected all my mighty men in my midst. He has called an appointed time against me to break my young men. The Lord has trodden as in a wine press the virgin daughter of Judah.
It's said in the Psalms that there is a cup in the hand of the Lord that is filled with wine. That is pressed down and well mixed and he will pour it out on the ungodly. So the wrath in his hand being like wine that he is going to pour out and the ungodly will drink it down to the dregs.
This is talked about in the book of Revelation as well. So the Lord has trodden me as in a wine press. And all of this has happened according to an appointed time. We are not going to escape the judgment of God.
The Apostle Paul even preaches about this in Acts chapter 17 at the Areopagus. There is a day that God has fixed on which he will judge the world in righteousness. My friends, that day is coming. It is not delayed.
It will happen in the day that God means for it to happen. So turn from your sin now to the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said in Romans 2, God's kindness and forbearance and patience is meant to lead you to repentance.
So repent and turn to the Lord. Verse 16, It is good to weep over our sin. It is good to mourn over it. In fact, I am very concerned about the person who doesn't weep over their sin. But be sure that when you are weeping over your sin that it's for your sin and not the consequences of your sin.
Does that make sense? Do you understand the difference? I can tell you right now a lesson from something that happened just yesterday in the news. Carmelo Anthony, who was on trial because he had murdered another young man named Austin Metcalf.
And he was found guilty in his trial and will spend 35 years in prison. He really deserves the death penalty because he took a life so his life should be taken. But the penalty that he's receiving is 35 years in prison.
There in court he wept. But he wasn't weeping over the life that he took. He was weeping because of the consequences that he was facing as a result of the life that he took. Now, you may not have killed anybody.
So that may be an example that is far from you in that sense of being able to relate to it. But nonetheless, the lesson should still apply. That when you are grieved over your sin, may it be because of your sin.
And the person here in Lamentations who is weeping is weeping for that reason. God is holy. I have transgressed against him. That is why this is happening to me. He is facing the consequences of his sin.
But he's not weeping over those consequences. He's weeping because he sinned. That is a healthy lament. That's exactly the kind of lament that we should have. You can be grieved over the consequences.
That's fine. But that can't be the source of your grief. The absolute grief that you have in your soul and in your heart is because you sinned against God. Like Paul says in Romans 7, Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death? And then he goes on to say, Praise be to Jesus Christ, my Lord, who delivers us from our sin, death, and the consequence, the real consequence of our sin, being the wrath of God.
Hell is going to be filled with people that are weeping and gnashing their teeth, as Jesus describes it. But they're not weeping because they sinned against God. They're weeping over the consequences that they have received and will suffer eternally because they did not repent.
Continuing on to verse 17, Zion stretches out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob that the ones round about him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.
Used to be the place where God dwelled. He isn't there anymore. He has abandoned his people to the hands of their enemies because they would rather have had the company of those who were supposed to be regarded as their enemies.
But as said in verse 18, Yahweh is righteous, for I have rebelled against his command. Hear now all peoples, and behold my pain. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Who should be the picture of purity in Jerusalem.
The virgins and the young men. That would be the picture of purity. And now what has happened to the virgins? Well, they've whored themselves out with men in the surrounding areas. What's happened to the young men?
Well, they've taken pagan prostitutes to themselves. So the virgins and the young men had already been taken by the pagans around them, but now they've really been taken having gone into captivity. So verse 19, I called to my lovers, but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city while they sought food for themselves in order to restore their souls. Here's where I wanted to be a little more autobiographical. So there was an occasion, I've shared this with you before, when I was in my young twenties, when I was with my girlfriend and doing things with my girlfriend I should not have been doing.
Things that only a husband and wife should be doing together. But it was done in secret. Nobody knew about it. It was just us enjoying the passions of our flesh. And I was being tormented with guilt over it, but I did not want to acknowledge that the illness and the sickness that I was feeling at that particular time had anything to do with my sin.
And it was even years later before I would even come to an understanding. The reason why I was so sick during that period was because we were sinning and trying to cover over that sin. And trying to just ignore that we were doing anything wrong.
I was a part of a church where there were a lot of preachers, because it was charismatic. So there's, of course, people all over the place that think that they are just as qualified to be pastors as anybody else.
There's faith healers, you know, they'll come to your house and lay hands on you or anoint you with oil and pray for you. And there would be a healing ministry and things like this. And there were all kinds of people that were continually approving of me and my conduct.
But no one ever actually challenged me to examine my heart or my circumstances to see if I was actually in sin. My priests and my elders continued to be approving of this relationship that was actually very, very unhealthy for me, that I should not have even gotten into in the first place.
Anytime I felt sick, we'll just lay hands on you and pray and you'll feel better. We'll speak in tongues around you. Because no one was ever challenging my heart to examine whether or not I was actually walking in the faith.
Was I walking in the passions of my flesh? Some of the girlfriends I had, they should have just been able to look and see. Gabe has no business being with that girl. But no one ever challenged me on that.
Instead, my priests and elders sought food for themselves in order to restore their souls. They were not looking out for the benefit of those that they were called to shepherd. Many, many pastors doing that today, not even calling out sin.
I just did a video on this recently, in fact, where I was talking about Brandon Lake. They won't call out sin. They won't say, these things are evil, have nothing to do with them. Instead, they go and partner with those who are walking in darkness, like Brandon Lake doing a duet with Jelly Roll.
Or any other number of people that he communes with and then tells people that they need to be doing the same thing. Not calling out sin, but actually partnering with it. It's a very, very common thing among American pastors.
They don't want to call out sin because it's not popular. They will lose people, fan bases, so on and so forth. And I've already got people filling in my comments on that video, telling me how judgmental I am and how awful it is.
And that's exactly what these preachers are trying to avoid. They don't want to be called out for being judgmental because they're going to lose revenue. They'll lose people. They're out for themselves, feeding themselves instead of having care and interest in the souls that they are called to shepherd.
And so, verse 20, See, O Yahweh, for I am in distress. My inmost being is greatly disturbed. My heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. In the street, the sword bereaves. In the house, it is like death.
I've been very rebellious. Yahweh, I'm in distress. This is like the person lamenting, calling out and saying, How long must I be in this distress? But they fully recognize and acknowledge, I'm here because I rebelled against God.
To the point that the sword, the judgment, has even come into my own home. It's not when I leave the house, but even when I should be in a place of comfort. I'm not comforted. And this all is coming upon me because of my rebellion against God.
Verse 21, They have heard that I am sighing. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of the evil done to me, and they rejoice that you have done it. You have brought the day which you have proclaimed, so that they will become like me.
And again, whenever we see somebody fall, or even if somebody knows you personally, and you fall into sin, and you've got an unbeliever in your life looking at you going, You're not any better than me.
For all the stuff that you preach, you still fall into the same sin and wickedness that the rest of us do. And they will boast over you. They will rejoice that you have done it. But then, the prayer that comes here in Lamentations 1 .22 is that God's justice would be done.
Let all their evil come before you, and deal severely with them, as you have dealt severely with me, for all my transgressions. For my groans are great, and my heart is faint. And this actually is a very healthy, spiritually healthy appeal here.
Yes, I am suffering because of my rebellion against God. I deserve it. So do they. And I want to see God's justice done, even against the wicked who would rejoice over the fall of God's people. And God will, in His timing, and in His day, bring judgment upon all who do wicked and rebel against God.
But my friends, let us recognize our own rebellion, our own sin, and repent of it. Because nobody can repent for you. There is no one who is going to turn you back to the path of righteousness. You can't depend on somebody else to bring you back into a state of fellowship with God.
You have got to turn to God. And you have to do, as said in 1 John 1, 9, that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. David praying in Psalm 51, Take not your Holy Spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of my salvation, and renew a right spirit within me.
We'll come back to a study of lamentations. We'll be in chapter 2 next week. Heavenly Father, we thank You for what we have read, and I pray that You would work out in our hearts a desire for Your Word, to be obedient, to walk in Your ways.
Keep us from grumbling and complaining whenever that gets hard. Help us to listen to conviction whenever Your Spirit speaks to us in this way, so that we would turn from our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, be cleansed, and be saved.
There are so many people out there wanting to hear from God, hear from the Holy Spirit, have some sort of vision or some sort of word. Well, we've been given the Word right here. And when we are convicted, we are given a pull from God to come away from sin and back into the righteousness that You give to us in Christ our Savior.
Lead us in those paths of righteousness. May it be for Your name's sake. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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