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Bro. Ben Mitchell
Perfect day for me to be doing this. We got a nice, small, forgiving crowd. All righty, well, it's nice to be doing this again. I had a lot of fun last time, I guess last couple of times. I think the last time I did this it was an online only, so it was a little bit different not getting to be with you guys and see you guys, but it's a lot of fun for me to have this opportunity.
I don't take it lightly at all. In fact, I'm always having to think about it a little bit prior to feeling like I can tell dad I can do it just because it's a really big deal. I don't really know how to describe it, but again, I don't take it lightly for sure.
Again, just like last time, I basically want to share with you guys just some stuff that I've been thinking about a little bit going back to early fall in terms of how I put this particular topic or subject together.
Of course, when I'm getting all the notes ready and I had this outline in my head going back, I guess early last week or something like that, started putting it on paper, started finishing up last night, and I'm like, oh my goodness, I hope this makes sense or just not going to be all over the place.
It made perfect sense in my head in terms of the outline. We'll see if it comes out that way. Again, going back, as far as the topic goes, I guess if you want to call it a title or whatever it may be, the subject that I want to be talking about is peace and tribulation, which of course is kind of an oxymoron.
It sounds like an oxymoron anyway. It's two totally opposite ends of the spectrum. How can you have peace when trouble times are going on? You're in the midst of some kind of tribulations, the exact opposite of a peaceful time or a peaceful season.
And so that's kind of the broad subject that we'll be covering, but there's a few components to it that we're going to look at. Again, this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. It started when, I want to say it was September of last year.
As I've told you guys already a couple of times, I did the Bible in ear for the first time, which was an awesome thing. I'm doing again, thanks to Ash for encouraging last year. We're doing it again this year.
I loved it. But I think it was around September of last year, came up on the book of Lamentations. And I read through that, of course, and reading through it, I honestly couldn't remember the last time I had read through the whole thing, maybe hearing some passages here and there and other lessons or sermons I had heard.
But as far as going through the whole book, I was like, wow. By the time I was done with it, there's just so many interesting things in that book. And so that is what kind of got me thinking about this particular topic, because obviously, Jeremiah is talking about some pretty heavy stuff and was going through a huge time of tribulation, probably the greatest he ever experienced in his life.
But at the same time, we also have these kind of Christian mandates, if you will, or mandates as believers in the New Testament of how to deal with those times, which we'll be getting to. And Brother Bill actually talked about quite a bit of it this morning's Sunday school lesson that is being joyful even in the toughest times.
We're going to get to that and essentially cover Brother Bill's Sunday school lesson again at some point. So anyways, again, it's something I've been thinking a lot about the past couple of months, like the dynamics of both tribulation, but also the possibility of remaining in a peaceful season or having peace in life in general.
The idea that it's possible to have peace even in the toughest times, but kind of seeing this balance in the Bible in terms of dealing with that tribulation. And again, it all started with lamentations, right?
So mourning, going to the Lord with our feelings of what's happening, showing our distresses. There's obviously a lot of dynamics to it, a lot going on. So I want to try to tackle that. We see a lot of examples, especially in the Old Testament, of the saints, many saints, again, lamenting over their tribulation, mourning in some cases, displaying some very transparent discourse in multiple forms, whether it be Job to his friends or Jeremiah in this kind of poetic way that he wrote lamentations.
We see multiple ways where they are sharing this transparency or sharing these strong feelings they were experiencing, how exactly they were feeling, and they didn't hold back. And it's really interesting to read these kinds of passages in light of it being inspired.
I don't know how to describe it. It's obviously them, that person, being very candid, being very transparent with how they're feeling in these really tough times, but they're writing it down, being inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And of course, the reason for that being is that we have these examples that we're going to be looking at and knowing what to do with them. Now, so we have those examples. We have these examples of the Old Testament saints, again, lamenting, mourning, sharing their distresses, being very candid.
But we also have a higher standard set before us as well. So we have those examples, but we have a higher standard that we get in many places in the New Testament. We see that it is okay in those Old Testament examples to lament, to take our sorrows to the Lord when we are going through really, really tough times.
However you define tribulation, I mean, it's obviously a very broad thing. It can look very different depending on what you're going through, but there are obviously several forms of tribulation that we as Christians can go through at any point in time when we are going through that.
We can take those sorrows to the Lord. We can mourn. We can lament. And we actually have examples of what that looked like when the saints of the Old Testament did it. We even have examples of the apostles doing it as well in the New Testament, where really, really tough times, how they were dealing with that.
We have some examples of that in Acts when the apostles were just being persecuted like crazy. But again, we have a higher standard. We also have this Christian mandate in this particular age that we're in now to be joyful in all things as well.
So Philippians 4 .4, like we looked at it in Sunday school this morning, we're going to look at it again later. We know that while it is perfectly okay and normal, natural for us to experience similar feelings that were set before us in some of these Old Testament examples, as we'll see in Lamentations, as we saw in Job, Ecclesiastes, a number of places, we also have this higher standard as well to shoot for, right?
We know that it is possible because of our particular standing as believers to be joyful even in really tough times. So in this study, what I hope to do, we'll see if it happens or not. This could be all over the place.
We'll see. What I hope to do is to convey a somewhat clear view of all of the dynamics of that reality, of the strong emotions through tribulation, the sorrow, the distresses, as well as shooting for that higher standard as well.
So now what I mean by trying to see it in this kind of broad picture, all of the different variables, if you will, we're promised persecution. So one example of Escalations 4 .29, we're promised tribulation.
1 Thessalonians 3 .3 -4 covers that. We're obviously very aware of how tough life can be. Did you happen to find that verse, Brother Bill? Okay, there's this verse that Brother Bill referenced a couple times a few months ago, and you guys may remember in study school, where he would say, like, if there was one verse that, you know, if I could cut a verse out of the essentially was telling us we as believers are promised to be persecuted.
Y 'all remember that? He referenced a couple times. I couldn't find it last night. I had Brother Bill looking for me. I will find it. We'll find it eventually. We'll get it in there. But we're promised that tough times are going to come, especially as believers.
So there's all these things coming at us, and we know it's coming, but we are commanded to live life joyfully. Again, Philippians 4 .4. There's other examples as well, but that is the prime example that it is possible for us.
And again, I believe it's a mandate as believers to live life joyfully, despite also having these examples that we're going to look at in a little bit of the mourning process through those times when times are really tough, kind of a glimpse at the very, very candid feelings of the Old Testament saints in so many different examples.
So we're going to be looking at all these things throughout the study. Again, it's a very dynamic thing, maintaining peace, maintaining joyfulness through every season of life. It's not an easy task, and I would say it's not supposed to be an easy task.
It's supposed to be something that prunes us, that helps us grow, that brings us near to the Lord, which of course, that kind of corresponds with the last topic that I covered, which was the relationship with our Lord.
And we actually looked at examples of that study of how going through the tough times, in many cases, is what's needed in order for us to refocus back on what is most important. So with all that being said, we're going to start with kind of point one, if you will, or the first segment of this study.
And that's starting kind of at what comes most naturally to every human when we're going through times of tribulation, going through tougher times, and that is lamenting through hard times. What does that look like as believers and people with strong faith?
Does that mean that we're immune to, you know, having these feelings, these emotions, sharing those emotions? Now, before we really dive in here, I want to start with what I feel like is a perfect starting point for at least this segment of the study, really the whole study, or lesson, I should say, but this first segment as well.
Let's go over to Ecclesiastes, if you will. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and we'll start at verse 1. We're going to do just the first 10 verses here. But Ecclesiastes chapter 3, I mean, again, right off the bat, it just really sums up a lot of different things.
To everything, there is a season. To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up.
Verse 4 here is kind of the key verse I wanted to hit, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Now, Ecclesiastes, this isn't even really where we're going to be, but this whole book which you know again I'm kind of using it just as the intro here, the springboard if you will, the whole book is so fascinating.
It's always been so fascinating to me. I remember when Miss Thurston read it, did a verse by verse study in Ecclesiastes 4 when I was in like the 10th grade or something like that and I think that was the first time I ever read through that book and it sounds so bizarre when you have just so many other passages talking about how rich and full life can be.
The key though of course is that Ecclesiastes is very much from the human viewpoint of what life looks like without a strong relationship. Life can be full and rich if we have the relationship with the Lord, but it's always been so fascinating to me because it's a perfect and an experienced example.
Assuming you know of course that Solomon being the author, he gave an experienced example of what life can look like without the Lord because we know that he went through some very unique times where he kind of strayed away from that relationship.
In fact, we looked at 1 Kings or yeah I think maybe it was 2 Kings chapter 10, the last lesson that I did with you guys where it was basically displayed kind of the downfall of Solomon and some of his just you know things that he did later on in life after reaching the peak of his kingship, he pulled away from that relationship with the Lord and it did not look very good and so we know through experience he can give some pretty example, some pretty great example of what how bleak life can be from the human viewpoint without that relationship with the Lord, without a strong relationship with him.
Ecclesiastes is all about life from the human viewpoint and so with that kind of setting the context for what we just read, you know we all know the main theme of Ecclesiastes, everything is vanity, right?
And after setting the theme, Solomon goes into a number, he sets the theme like the first verse, maybe first couple of verses. After setting that theme, he then goes into a number of proofs to kind of back up his premise of the book.
Why is life vanity? Why is literally everything vanity? Of course he lists a number of things as well to be specific. So all of the above verses that we just read, Ecclesiastes 3 1 through 10, you know to everything there's a season, a time to weep, a time to mourn, all of these things.
All of those verses, it's kind of another proof if you will of Solomon's to back up his premise that everything is vanity from the vantage point again of kind of just a general like all these specific verses in this chapter, it's kind of from the vantage point of just a general weariness that can permeate everything in life.
He's showing us basically kind of the flip side of the of the coin of every circumstance that you're in. Joy, you know mourning, you know time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones, a time to weep, a time to laugh.
He's giving us like the flip side of every circumstance we could be in. He's giving us a great reminder as well of what exactly we asked for in the Garden of Eden. What was it that we asked for? What was it that we were tempted with and that we willfully agreed to take part in?
And that is the knowledge of good and evil. So what he's reminding us here is that in every circumstance we find ourselves in there's always the other side of the coin. You know if there is a time to laugh, there's going to be a time to weep.
If there is a time to mourn or if there is a time to dance, there's going to be a time to mourn and we asked for that. And so again Ecclesiastes is you know the whole book but this particular passage that we just looked at is another great example of you know getting what we asked for.
You know recently I was listening to a podcast that a cousin of mine and Ashton's did on her side and he was talking with his brother-in-law in the podcast and it was fun just listening to them talk about different things and one of the things that it was Landon one of the things that he brought up was this you know of course people always bring up discussion if there's a good God why does evil exist and they're kind of talking back and forth and Landon is talking about like how he answered it and it was a great answer and then his brother-in-law who's a pastor gave a great answer and he and his it was a long you know well thought out answer but it was basically he's basically saying evil exists because we asked for it because we wanted it we were the ones that wanted the knowledge of good and evil and again Ecclesiastes is a great reminder of that so we got what we asked for but we know given the state that we're in now there is a time to weep there is a time to mourn because of this is how life works we need to expect these times and of course many of us have gone through these times already so we kind of know what it feels like now with that in mind knowing that there's a season for everything time to weep a time to mourn we're going to start this particular segment in obviously the most obvious place you know we're going to be taking a look at the lamentations of Jeremiah during the most devastating point in his life.
So the context before we jump into the specific passage I want to look at in lamentations the context of the whole book of lamentations was Judah was being attacked they were there a siege was taking place and eventually they were driven into the to the Babylonian exile and all that is covered of course in Jeremiah the book of Jeremiah now of course Jeremiah who's kind of throughout lamentations acting as the spokesperson in several different places of of all of Judah he of course added kind of his own touch right of his own feelings on the adverse on the adversity that he was going through you know he is the person giving us these lamentations directly.
So it's there are some points where it's it's kind of like he's talking collectively as all of Judah other points where he is being very candid about just his individual feelings of what he's going through and it's through that particular lens where we get kind of his own individual take and where we start seeing what it can look like to be in a time of mourning caused by tribulation.
Now just keep in mind guys as we go throughout this first segment because it's you know i'm not trying to cover like all the most oblique passages in the bible this is supposed to be a very encouraging message the the whole topic is finding peace in tribulation right.
And so we're just just keep that in mind because in the end we're going to be talking about how even though we have these examples in the old testament obviously now we are in a different age and these guys whether it be Jeremiah Job David a number of different guys who went through a number of these saints that went through these tough times they went through those times for our sake so that we could look back and have these examples.
So we're going to cover you know some some you know passages that are that are pretty uh you know i don't know how to describe it you know kind of sad in many ways but it's all kind of leading up to a really really great place that we find ourselves in today.
So we're going to be taking a look at lamentations three if you guys want to go there um again we're looking at what it can look like to be in a time of mourning caused by various forms of tribulation we could find ourselves in.
We're going to be in lamentations three for a good portion um i want to give you guys just a little bit more context. So you know lamb uh lamentations was written kind of during the whole babylonian exile or it's the siege and then eventual exile um but within lamentations itself because we're gonna be looking at three.
Chapter three it starts in lamentations one with the grief of jerusalem's uh total destruction um it continues in the second chapter of lamentations with god's wrath being poured out on his people as he promised he would do if they didn't keep their end of the deal which was made centuries beforehand.
So again it gives us a great example a wonderful example of of the lord's long-suffering spirit toward his people i mean they broke the deal and were were living idolatrous lives or living lives in idolatry and a number of terrible terrible things for a long time before you know god.
Finally um after many seasons of this again long-suffering spirit that he's always had toward his people starts bringing his wrath that he said would come if they didn't follow his commandments. So lamentations two kind of gives us an example of god's wrath pouring out on his people.
Um lamentations three which again is going to be our focal point for this particular spot is where we see jeremiah's individual candid response to everything happening before his eyes. So this will be in limitations three.
On the other side of that limitations four it showcases the lord's anger toward a people that have indulged in total evil again for so long and because of that the ensuing siege of jerusalem as kind of the means to an end which of course was the lord punishing his people justifiably for their gross sins for so long.
And then of course the book ends lamentations five with a remnant which of course is always a key at the end of so many of the books in the old testament. A remnant of god's people praying for mercy as a response to the devastation happening around them.
Of course jeremiah was one of those people. So let's go over to lamentations three. We're going to cover the first 18 verses where we're presented with jeremiah's own afflictions his individual take on things in the midst of everything we just summarized kind of covering the whole of lamentations there.
So the first verse of limitations three um it has a couple of words italicized. Um i i in this first verse i kind of like i really like the way it reads if you take those words out that were added to our to our english bible.
Um so i'm going to read it that way. For this first verse it starts with i the man hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me into darkness but not into light. Now right off the bat again.
Why are these passions so bizarre sometimes. Um expect i don't want to say in isolation. Uh they're kind of bizarre in in the broad context on the surface level of the whole bible. Compare just that first phrase to psalm 23.
Well we all know so well psalm 23 too. He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Contrast that with he hath led me and brought me into darkness again. On the surface level it seems bizarre.
Of course there's no contradictions. And there's uh these these all fit together so perfectly. And again that's one that's something i hope to accomplish as we go throughout this. But obviously jeremiah isn't feeling it right now.
Right. He just right off the bat. Um he's seeing the devastation. He's seeing god's wrath. He's confused by what's going on. He's wondering if god's character is changing. And he's just laying it out there.
He hath led me and brought me into darkness but not into light. Verse three. Surely against me is he turned surely against me as he turned he turneth his hand against me all the day. And so in these first three verses here jeremiah he's kind of giving us these metaphorical visuals of his perception of everything that's happening everything that's been transpiring and limitations one and two.
And everything that was covered in the book of jeremiah judah has is being harshly afflicted. And jeremiah with it. Of course and that's a whole new that i mean that's a whole nother topic we could cover.
I think we did cover it a little bit. Dad covers it all the time. Um because talking about like in this day and age that we're in now we may be like we may strive for individual relationship with the lord and doing everything that we can um to you know be blessed just for godly living being set apart.
However we are also going to be going through the judgment judgments that our country will go through because of the collective moving away from the lord that has been happening for so long. And dad always parallels that with old testament examples when uh you know the people of judah for example are being taken captive and all these terrible things are happening.
Jeremiah the man of god at this time is going through it with him. Even though jeremiah had that strong relationship with the lord he's going through the collective punishment that the people as a whole went through.
And so again uh judah as a whole is being harshly afflicted at this point in time jeremiah is being afflicted with it. He's still god's man he still has a relationship with him. But he's going through it too because the people as a whole failed miserably.
So he feels. What's interesting about it though in this particular lamentation because there's multiple lamentations about the old the old testament we're going to look at one of joe's in a little bit but in this in this one where jeremiah is the one sharing his feelings he feels singled out which is interesting to me.
Um he feels as if god has totally reversed his character. Um he feels as though he's just stumbling around in the dark. Um and he starts using you know again these kind of unique visuals to kind of give us a picture of what he's feeling.
He uses the phrase he turneth his hand against me in verse three. What's interesting is so many passages in the old testament we see god's hand of favor toward his people. But now we see the flip side of that.
We see god's hand being turned against his people directly. And and jeremiah is pointing it out pointing out how terrible the feeling it is. He says verse four. My flesh and my skin have um my flesh and my skin have he made old.
He hath broken my bones. And again i think that's it's kind of a metaphor for just his internal struggle that the the internal um feelings that he's having. Um verse five he hath builded against me. He compassed me with gall and travail.
He hath set me in dark places in they that be dead of old. Okay. So verses four to six here jeremiah is starting to kind of describe the toll that these afflictions are taking not only on his spirit but also on his physical body.
So again maybe the broken bones is more metaphorical. But um you know my flesh my skin hath he made old. It's taking a toll on him. And uh it doesn't feel so great in spirit but certainly not physically as well.
And how does he respond to it. He responds. And we'll see this later. He responds with bitterness. And again he's not holding that back. He is bitter. He's not holding it back. He is. He has very strong feelings about what is happening to him and to his people.
And he's simply not holding these feelings back from the lord. He's just laying it all out there. Verse seven says. He hath hedged me about that i cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also when i cry and shout he shut it out my prayer.
That is just devastating. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. In these verses here he is literally describing prison. That is what jeremiah felt like he was in. He is feeling imprisoned by god not a lot of hope in in that particular feeling.
His prayers are being shut out and unheard something no believer would ever want to feel. But jeremiah is feeling it here. His freedom is gone. His situation was inescapable. And his lord that he relied on so heavily wasn't there.
At least from jeremiah's viewpoint. Verse 10 says. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate.
He had bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. It's so interesting because here jeremiah starts shifting a little bit and begins to really really single out himself.
Remember he is talking and he's lamenting as what is happening as a whole to his people. But here he is directly talking about the fact that he feels singled out. Um he starts singling out himself his own afflictions as if god was pouring out his vengeance on jeremiah alone.
He described this feeling like being made a target being made a target by god himself so that jeremiah could act as god's target practice for his vengeance being poured out as his wrath and judgment was unleashed.
He says it's as if god mauled him like a bear waiting for his prey. So he's just not feeling too good right now. And possibly this may be one of the examples of when the biggest internal struggles that has ever happened in all of humanity at least within god's people.
He goes on in 14 to say i was in. I was a derision to all my people and their song all day. He's being he's being uh his uh. People are turning his own people are turning their back on him. He hath filled me with bitterness.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He had also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He had covered me with ashes and thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. So that obviously ties into what we're looking at again.
What is this. This is an example that we are given of the devastation that can be had even as a believer. Now i mean it is so important to be reminded that this is happening all this is happening because of the choices that god's people were making.
It wasn't that this affliction was coming unjustifiably. But even so and i think jeremiah knew that. But even so again it is it is really hurting him and his peace is gone. So again the study is all about finding peace when we're going through tribulations or troubled times.
Um for jeremiah he wasn't he he wasn't having it at this moment. He again he did not have peace. He says i forget prosperity in verse 18 which will be our last verse in this passage. And i said my strength and my hope is perished from the lord.
In verses 14 and 15 he's being mocked by his own people. He was filled with the bitterness of his as the bitterness of his afflictions. Let me describe that with wormwood later on in the passage a little bit later down with gall his peace was taken away which again is a key phrase here his prosperity was taken away.
Now what's cool is that this chapter doesn't end at verse 18 and as it continues it opens up into a really interesting interesting focal point in the book because we have the backdrop of the sins of god's people we have the backdrop of of uh jeremiah's afflictions and the way he's feeling about it.
He's going to segue over to his hope and god's promises and start talking about how the lord's compassions and are new every morning. And it's really it's a really beautiful way that it kind of segues into that because it seems totally contradictory or just opposite of what we just saw in the first 18 verses.
So it doesn't end in verse 18. It'll continue in a way that again kind of contrasts that bitterness and mournfulness described by jeremiah in a super beautiful way. We're going to revisit that later but we're not there just yet.
Um one thing that jeremiah will eventually get to is like what he'll kind of describe i think later in in lamentations three in the same chapter is that the affliction that he was experiencing is happening because of god's sovereignty not outside of the bounds of his will.
Yeah it's i have it here verses 37 and 38 of that same chapter. Um he starts pointing out uh that you know this is happening according to plan and that's obviously a very important key to all of this because we can look at these this particular passage these 18 verses of jeremiah of lamentations or jeremiah is talking and just think you know how can this be happening to the prophet the prophet at the time and jeremiah in the midst of all of those feelings he's having is the one that points out to us and reminds us that it is happening because of god's sovereignty not outside of his will.
It was all part of the same plan. We have another very expressive lamentation in the old testament and there's a lot we can look at honestly like several passages we can look at where um you know these men the lord are really laying it out there.
Um and it gives us but but we're going to look at just a couple more in particular. Um and one that we're going to look at here gives us a very similar look at what true tribulation i say true tribulation um what harsh tribulation can look like.
Obviously again tribulation can can be in many many different forms many different levels of severity i suppose. But we get another example of a really really harsh tribulation and what that can look like in the mournful response by the saint that was experiencing that affliction.
So you guys want to turn over to job three. Um now the context for this chapter in job which obviously is a very it's a very long book and so many different nuances if you will within that that are so incredible.
The context where we're going to be reading chapter three. The context leading up to chapter three was right off the bat in job the first couple of verses job we learned that he's a perfect and upright man one that feared god eschewed evil.
And as a result of that satan proposes to god that this is only because of job's prosperity. The only reason why job is a perfect and upright man is because of the prosperity that he has uh been able to enjoy.
I imagine all like his whole life up until this point. God then tells satan to smite all that job has but to spare job. So that's an interesting thing in and of itself. Um so satan takes out nearly everything but job quote sinned not nor charged god foolishly.
That's job 122. So job kind of passes the first test. Right. Satan is then told by god that job is in his hand. So now he took previously told satan don't touch job. Now he's saying he is in your hand but you can't kill him.
And uh we find out later of course that that would have been job's choice. Uh he would have preferred to have been killed at that point in time. Um so what happens. Satan smites job with boils and job's wife tells him to curse god and to die in in the midst of all that job still didn't send with his lips which we see joe 210.
So that is the context leading up to this chapter where we are now presented with job's lamentation. Uh after a solid week of just sitting in a circle with his friends not saying a word job 3 -1 says after this opened job his mouth and cursed his day.
So again right off the bat what job means by cursed his days. Essentially he is cursing the day of his birth. Um i raj uh for those of you know raj uh i can't remember it was a few months ago we i can't remember where we were but i was telling him how i was doing the bible in a year.
I was going through all the major prophets and some of them are just so tough. You know some of the the major prophets um ezekiel um jeremiah um isaiah reading through them. There are just some passages.
I'm like man you know what i asked him like if there was a particular commentary that he would recommend that i could just kind of follow along with and some of those uh those passages and he brought me one from the guys at dallas theological seminary like walvard i think was one of them.
It was a number of guys that collectively did an entire old testament commentary and dad was like oh yeah this is gonna be great and it's awesome. It has been awesome so far. But in that particular commentary uh one of the guys i think it was roy zuck he pointed out in that passage he says interestingly oh so well first of all so again going back to one for a second it says joe cursed his day.
So in the commentary it points out that joe made haste you know to to curse his birthday the day of his birth wishing it never happened. And he said interestingly he did not curse god. And so that's kind of an interesting uh uh way to set the tone because again what are we presented with here we're presented with a lamentation of an old testament saint giving us an example and he's not holding back his feelings.
He's not holding back uh how distraught he is the morning that he's experiencing. And he goes as far as to curse his birthday wishing he had never been born. We're gonna look at some other like like he got pretty explicit with how much he wished he didn't even exist.
But he never cursed god in the midst of all of that. So it's a really just really interesting key to this example we have verse two says. And job spake after cursing his day and said let the day perish wherein i was born.
And the night in which it was said there is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness. Let not god regard it from above. Neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it.
Let a cloud dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it. And the hebrew word for blackness there is interesting because that isn't used any other place in the old testament but it's literally referring to like an eclipse or a thick or thick storm clouds proceeding like a tornado or really bad storm just utter darkness.
That's kind of has kind of a terrifying uh uh connotation to it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it. Verse six. As for the night let darkness seize upon it. Let it not be joined into the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months low. Let that night be solitary. Let no joyful voice come therein. So at this point he's kind of personifying the night of his conception. And he's literally saying that and desiring that the night itself be solitary or barren.
And of course that he's implying that he wishes his mother had just been barren so that he had never been conceived. Which of course was a huge deal. I mean it's it's always a huge deal. But back then for a woman to be barren of course was a particularly um big deal.
And job is just wishing this upon his mother at this point and just dreading the fact that he was even conceived. Verse eight. Let them curse it. That curse the day who are ready to raise up their morning.
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark. Let it look for light but have none. Neither let it see the dawning of the day because it is because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Why died i not from the womb. Why did i not give up the ghost when i came out of the belly. Why did the knees prevent me. Why the breast that i should suck for now. Should i have lain still and been quiet.
I should have slept then had i been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth which built desolate places for themselves. Or with the princes that hath gold and filled their houses with silver. Where's the hidden untimely birth.
I had not been. Or as an hidden untimely birth i had not been as infants which never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together.
They hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there. And the servant is free from his master. Since he um you know since his wish to not have even been conceived obviously was not fulfilled.
He then shifts to describing his wishes desire to the day of his birth. Where again he describes his wish to have just been stillborn because that would have put him at rest at the very least with the kings and the counselors of the earth.
Rather than experiencing the troubles he is now going through as a man he wished that his mother had just not nursed him so that he would have died. And describes how death is the collective resting place for all these people they're free from their master.
Um he describes how how freeing death would be at this point. Um all these people who otherwise would have experienced trouble they are all at rest. And why can't i be there with them. Verse 20. Where wherefore is light given to him.
That is in misery and life into the bitter and soul which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more than hid than hid treasures than forehead treasures which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave.
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid in whom god hath hedged in. That's an interesting phrase right there. So there's a really interesting contrast because in job 1 10 which we didn't we didn't really read the passage.
But in job 1 10 satan talking to god mentions job's hedge of protection. I think that's where we probably get that phrase from is is these the early passage of joe and joe. Maybe it's other places as well.
Satan mentions in job 1 10 that joe has a hedge of protection given to him by god and it says i'll just read really quick has thou not made a hedge about him in about his house and about all that he hath on every side.
So that's when satan is like taunting god and saying he's a perfect upright man because you've set this hedge around him. Right. So satan there is pointing out a hedge of protection. Now later on we get to 323 which we just read job is now using the hedge to describe being in prison.
So it's just kind of a strange contrast there because it was pointed out two different times but in two totally different again. It's like the flip side of the same coin. Initially he had this hedge of protection.
At this point he is now within a hedge of imprisonment. At least that's the way he's feeling. And what's really crazy is it's also a very similar statement to what we read earlier in lamentations 3 7 where jeremiah says he hath hedged me about that i cannot get out.
So jeremiah is describing imprisonment within this hedge. Job is now describing the feeling of imprisonment within this hedge. Verse 24 says. For my sign cometh before i eat and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Verse 25 kind of a kind of a key verse here for the thing which i greatly feared has come upon me and that which i was afraid of is coming to me. That kind of speaks to me big time because i am afraid of certain different circumstances all the time when you have kids it's hard not to be afraid of certain things that can happen.
You're afraid of course that your kiddos could get hurt you know in some way which of course the smallest little injury freaks me out. It doesn't freak me out. I just get mad. I'm just like why did this have to happen.
And so you know like you you have all these different circumstances you hope never occur with your kiddos with your spouse with if you have a family as big as ours on both sides huge family out doing stuff all the time you know that that's always just like you know if you think about it too much and and you know you're like you know worried that someone may have accident or something or something bad may happen.
So you have all those kind of family related circumstances that you're always afraid of. But you could probably think of a dozen more. And joe is saying i've had those feelings i've had these circumstances that i have hoped would never happen that i greatly feared and they are now come upon me.
And so you know that's something i hope to never experience again. I believe joe went through these things for our sake so that not that we will go through times as drastic as he did. I mean i think this may be one of the most like top of the peak in terms of a tribulation that a believer could go through is what he was experiencing um and so i think he went through that not because we're going to go through it as heavy as he did we may or may not.
But regardless of the level or severity of tribulation that we may experience we have this example of the feelings that he was experiencing. Of course later we have god's response which plays a big part in later in the lesson.
But yeah verse 25 there that which i greatly feared has come upon me. That which i was afraid is um come unto me. Okay. Um all right. Let's see verse 26. I was not in safety. Neither had i rest neither was i quiet yet trouble came.
So since joe was conceived and born since he was not a stillbirth he is now longing to just die in this moment as a man. So he's just going he's just going down the line here just why couldn't i have not been conceived why could i i've just been dead at birth.
Why can't i now and while reading this particular chapter kind of gives a feeling of dread. And it really does i mean this is this is a really this is really heavy stuff. We already i mean in lamentations 3 is another great example of it.
But certainly this even though um it kind of gives that feeling. It's very interesting how the lord addresses these particular feelings that are being shared later on which of course we'll get to in a later segment but just to kind of just to kind of get to the kind of the punch line a little early god when he later addresses joe doesn't reprimand him for having these feelings.
In fact he doesn't even really address the feelings that joe is sharing. It's almost as if the lord is like i get it but remember this stuff. And then of course he goes into his long discourse which is incredible.
We're going to get to that later maybe possibly next week um and so anyway we'll get to that later. The way that the lord addresses these feelings of dread that we're reading is super interesting. Now remember the whole point of this topic guys i want to remind you one more time is discovering how peace is possible for us even in tribulation.
But also you know kind of to discover or at least attempt to discover and convey the dynamic nature of combining the feelings combining the emotions all the stuff we experience in these hard times which are given to us by the lord by the way as jeremiah pointed out is is pointed out later in as well.
We experience those hard times which are given to us by the lord. But they're given to us with standards set before us to live up to by the apostles later on as well. We have examples of the emotion. We have examples of what it's like to lament and even that it's okay.
But we're also set with some higher standards later on as well. So we're trying to tie all of that in because it's it seems that you know again it's it's on the surface level. It can seem bizarre at some kind at some points.
Now quickly let's look at one more quick passage kind of demonstrating the emotions that can be experienced in hard times. So obviously there's a lot of different psalms. We can look at psalm 69 just i'm going to read a couple of verses real quick.
Psalm 69 uh two and three. It's in verse two it says. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I come into deep waters where the floods overthrow me or i'm sorry where the floods overflow me. Verse three says.
I am weary of my crying my throat is dried my eyes fail while i wait for my god. So we've taken some time to look at how even the greatest old testament saints whether it be jeremiah joe david other examples as well experienced strong emotions and mourning in times of tough tribulation.
We have some great examples of that some very very expressive examples of that. But remember guys this is just one component of what i believe is otherwise a very positive message even though we've taken some time to cover the more the more heavy stuff.
The overarching theme here is very very positive. And with that being said i'll segue into the second section and i'll i'll go through this pretty quick. It's 12 10 i think is if my watch is correct so i'll be rounding it out here in just a couple minutes.
But the the next section here is living up to that higher standard that i've kind of alluded to a couple of times. Okay so what is that standard. Exactly the whole point in our last section that we just finished up more of the heavy stuff was to show examples of mourning lamenting sharing our feelings with the lord even when they are very strong feelings i might add as we saw and how it's a natural thing to do.
Obviously the passages that we read like i mentioned earlier they were inspired. Right. They were inspired and given to us as examples for a reason it is a natural thing to lament and to go to the lord with these with these types of feelings.
And it's important to understand that it's okay to experience those times of mourning like jeremiah did or job or david or any of them and many others uh as they experienced kind of those feelings the way they shared those feelings all under the inspiration of holy spirit they are there as in samples as paul tells us.
Now we have to ask though with as many examples as we have of that are these the only examples that we have on how to deal with the tougher times while it's perfectly fine to have and to share those very strong feelings of mourning even despair with the lord is that the only possible place to be during those times.
Now we've already mentioned this passage at the very beginning but obviously the first place the mind immediately goes to when it comes to kind of this higher standard that we've alluded to is paul chained to a prison wall from which we receive the book of philippians and the words of philippians.
And if you go to philippians 4 starting at verse 4 at this point we're going to start rehashing brother bill's sunday school lesson. Um starting verse 4 we're going to cover a couple of verses here or the first four i'm sorry four to seven.
So it says again this is immediately where the mind goes rejoice in the lord. Always and again i say rejoice. And brother bill talked about this this morning. It was awesome in in the context of his lesson which was persecution of the believer.
And yet we have this higher mandate right. We have this high standard. Paul is chained to a prison wall here and he's telling us rejoice lord lord all the way and again i say rejoice. And brother bill already said it this morning but i'll say it again it's always fun to to look at this through the lens of the way brother myron has always told us the most redundant verse in the bible he tells us the prefix re means again so you can literally read it again.
Have joined the lord all the way and again i say again have joy. Most redundant verse in the bible. And it's that redundant for a good reason. It is giving us that standard that target to shoot for when we're down and feeling like jeremiah or like job and job going as far as wishing he had never been born and his mother had just been barren jeremiah feeling like his prayers were totally unheard and being shut out and feeling imprisoned by the lord himself and his freedom and his prosperity was stripped away.
And yet even though we may experience similar times we are told to rejoice in the lord. Always and again i say rejoice. Let your moderation be known into all men the lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing or be anxious for nothing.
Anxiety can certainly is certainly a big piece of this uh you know topic of peace and tribulation. Troubleless time. Anxiety of course is could be a result of that. Be anxious for nothing. There's that higher standard.
But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving which is a very tough thing to do. Let your requests be made known unto god. Our natural selves will tend to lament the way that jeremiah or job or david did which is perfectly fine.
But that doesn't mean it's not possible to be joyful to be anxious about nothing even in the midst of the most troubled times to through prayer and supplication to be thankful in those times as well. It is possible.
It's hard but it is possible. Verse 7. And again this is the key into this topic here. And the peace of god which passeth which passeth. All understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through christ jesus peace is possible even in tribulation.
Regardless of the fact that peace and tribulation is an oxymoron how can you have a peaceful season in the midst of a tribute of a season of tribulation. It may be an oxymoron to the rest of the world.
But as believers they can coexist. And it's a supernatural thing. And it can only coexist because of a strong relationship with the lord. So that of course all ties into that particular topic. Paul of course was possibly the prime example of having joy and peace having peace of mind even in the toughest times.
On many of his missionary journeys he find himself up against a lot of different obstacles whether it be the pharisees the magistrates of rome. Uh so many different obstacles he ran into. And he was imprisoned.
He was was he stoned. But what was it that happened to him where he survived it. But it was he was stoned. Um so i mean he went through so much tribulation. It's it's crazy think of the contrast of the way he dealt with it compared with the old testament saints.
It's not that they were wrong. And the reason we know they weren't wrong is well for one you you could argue it was inspired. The holy spirit was leading them and moving them to write those words as heavy as they are.
But again as we'll look at later in this study um the way god responded to job even we it's a natural thing it wasn't wrong. But paul set a higher standard for himself and he gave us that standard to shoot for as well.
So he's a prime example of having joy and having peace even in the toughest times. He had so many obstacles all the time. Yet he gave us that higher standard of dealing with tribulations. And here's one of those examples.
So obviously philippians is the first place that i always think of philippians 4 4. But here's another example act 16. We're almost done here. Um act 16. Uh starting verse 22 if you'd like to turn there just a couple more passages here and we will round this one out.
Um it says starting verse 22. Acts 16 22. And the multitude rose up. This is i believe. This is paul and silas i believe. And the multitude rose up against paul and silas. And the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them.
And when they had laid many stripes on them so they did beat them. They're whipping them. They cast them into prison charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.
And in the midst of all of that what happens. And at midnight paul and silas prayed. That's a great place to start so conversation with the lord. And who knows what that prayer looked like. That would be.
That's an interesting thought. Because obviously what we see with joe well joe's discourse with his friends it wasn't necessarily a prayer. But certainly you could look at jeremiah's lamentations as a form of prayer.
And then a lot of david's psalms as a form of prayer just talking to the lord laying it out there it'd be interesting to know what that prayer what those prayers were like. But they started with prayer.
So again it comes back to reconnecting with the lord. First having peace in this particular circumstance has to be supernatural. So how do you get there. Uh bringing the situation of the lord. They prayed.
Then they sang praises unto god. So there they are having joy always right. And they are literally singing praises. And the prisoners heard them and later on they would be saved. So it turned into them being witnesses in the midst of this tribulation.
So think about that for a second if we are able to shoot for that higher target and to let the lord lead into be connected with him having a strong relationship with him going to in prayer first to where we are capable of having peace and joy even in the toughest times.
Think about the kind of witness. Think about the kind of testimony that can be to everyone around us. So paul in a separate passage and second corinthians if you guys want to turn there second corinthians six um he again sets this standard before he goes on to kind of commend the ministry of the church at corinth.
He starts by setting the standard um or revisiting the standard. So in second corinthians chapter six just starting at verse one there we're going to read first about 10 verses. But i'll go through them pretty quick.
He says. We then as workers together with him beseech you also that you receive not the grace of god in vain giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed being all things approving ourselves as the ministers of god and much patience in afflictions in necessities and distresses in stripes and imprisonments.
He's talking from experience here in tumults uh in labors in watchings and fastings by pureness by knowledge by long suffering. That is a very tough attribute to have. We have a prime example of it with the lord himself by kindness by the holy spirit or by the holy ghost.
By love unfeigned by the word of truth by the power of god by the army of righteous. I'm sorry the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left by honor and dishonor. By evil report and good report as deceivers.
And yet true doesn't matter what's thrown at you all of these things will be thrown at you. Doesn't matter it doesn't matter if it's through honor or dishonor having an evil report against you a good report both sides of the coin remember it can look going back to ecclesiastes.
We can go through these seasons where it's great go through these seasons where it's the exact opposite. But paul is telling you where we're about to get to in a second is shooting for that higher standard even within that as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live is is uh how do you pronounce that chastened.
Uh as chastened and not killed. Verse 10 kind of the key here as sorrowful yet always rejoicing goes back to the standard is poor yet making many rich is having nothing and yet possessing all things because of our position in christ now.
So he's just revisiting that standard and giving us another another. Um he's exhorting us to to go out and shoot for it even in the midst of the various kinds of things. Notice he mentioned the good. He mentioned the good and the bad just like ecclesiastes ecclesiastes did.
Uh peter. So i think this is our last passage here. Um and again this is me totally rehashing what brother bill covered this morning much more eloquently than i'm about to. But if you want to go over to first peter chapter 4 starting in verse 12 which is funny brother bill because i put this together last night i technically knew you were in first peter 4 how i i forgot that you ended at verse 11 last week.
So when you started at first peter 4 12 this morning i was like you know i didn't know if it was a neat thing or a good thing. It was neat. You know if it was a good thing or if i'm kind of made me a little more self-conscious.
Um anyways let's start at verse 12 for a second. And peter using the sufferings of christ kind of as the prime example for us here and exhorting us to take part in them tells us in first peter 4 starting at verse 12 just a couple of verses here beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you.
So we're right in the middle of this tribulation. And this is a very specific example of a specific kind of tribulation. And brother bill broke it down for us this morning in great detail. But when that's happening to you don't think it's some strange thing.
Um uh and and he goes on later to explain like this is for a purpose it is serving a purpose. And that goes back to lamentations when jeremiah reminds us that what was happening to him was part of the lord's sovereignty.
It wasn't just something that happened outside of his will. And peter is reminding us that here as well don't think it's some strange thing happening to you but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Now the context of this passage in first peter uh as you kind of continue down and as brother bill covered this morning is of course talking about the sufferings that we will experience as believers as christians.
It's a promise for his namesake for christ's namesake. So because we are believers and because we are following him we're going to receive we're going to be co-sufferers if you will with with the lord.
Um and that we'd be happy that we're reproached for the name of christ. All that was covered uh this morning in sunday school so you guys can listen to the recording of that if you weren't here this morning it was awesome.
So it's a very specific form of tribulation but considered in the grand scheme of things. Of course um we're given this very these very potent reminders that joyfulness and peace and tribulation is possible by our standing position that we have in christ.
And this morning brother bill you you you kind of pointed it out and kind of in an outline so i wrote it down because i thought it was awesome that peter gives us when we're in these times of tribulation peter in this passage and i don't have the whole passage in here but if you read the whole passage he gives us kind of uh brother bill outlined the the different um you know ways to approach it.
The first one is to accept the tribulation just accept it because it's not some strange thing that's happening it is happening for a reason we need to accept that. The second thing which is the toughest thing is to rejoice in them as well.
So uh we have and i'm stealing this from brother bill by the way this is directly from from sunday school. So thank you for that brother bill uh rejoice in it after accepting it you need to rejoice in it and be joyful always right even amidst that tribulation.
The third one which i thought was so interesting is evaluate the reason why it's happening in the first place is it because you are a believer and because of the world is persecuting you because of your status or your position as a believer if so that's a great thing if the persecution or if the bad tribulations around you is happening because perhaps you're not living right that's a totally different story.
Um and what's really interesting is that in jeremiah's example it was more that but it wasn't because of him as an individual it's because of the collective group they were not living right and so they were being persecuted by god as punishment for that as he said he would do and they just didn't listen to him in in job's example that was just happening because we'll get into this in more detail.
I think i'm i think i'm doing this again next week so maybe we can continue some of this i'm not sure yet but if we are that's great if not it's okay. But job of course that was a unique example where he's literally i mean i think he was just given to us in his.
It's an example that the lord's ways are not our ways and that his thoughts aren't our thoughts and that you can get through times like that and they in order to do that sometimes you need to be reminded of the awesomeness of god which dad recently talked about um and which which the lord himself gives later on.
So evaluate the reason was number three number four was entrusted to god and remember that he's there with you and he'll get you through it. So that was straight from sunday school this morning um which was awesome.
Now he finishes. Peter finishes chapter 4 by saying in verse 19. Where for let them that suffer according to the will of god. Which is is just validating what jeremiah said in lamentations 337. According to the will of god commit the keeping of their souls to him in doing well as into a faithful creator.
So in conclusion for today as christians were promised to face persecution were promised to face tribulations troublesome times times that bring mourning in many cases sadness possibly even confusion like jeremiah experienced and we're given examples from several saints of the old testament of what it's like to mourn within those perilous times.
It's really heavy stuff but it's natural. And um again i believe we're given those examples for that reason just to understand that it is okay to share our distresses even in the most expressive explicit ways you can think with to the lord to share those with them through those perilous times.
Through these examples we see an intimacy which is really interesting. We actually see an intimacy that those men had with the lord that allowed them to share their emotions in the first place and consider why those things were happening to them.
And they shared those things in faith. So their faith i don't know i i was i was going to say their faith was unwavering. Perhaps it depends on how you look at that but the point being is their their position in believers of the lord that didn't change they they went to the lord with these lamentations with these with this really heavy stuff in faith again and i believe it was inspired just so that we could see that it reassures us that we in this age today can share those moments with the lord similar moments ourselves when life hits its toughest points.
And our mere humanity as we see in those examples clearly starts to play its role in things. And that is what's the natural thing to do. It's to lament to be mournful it's to feel bad for ourselves. But it was natural for job and jeremiah.
But even though we have those examples and thankfully we do have those examples i think it's a good thing that we do and that we and that we are reassured that we can have similar feelings. We're also presented with a new and higher standard when it comes to how we're capable as believers of handling those same scenarios that those men uh dealt with now it may not be as severe.
Maybe it is severe though but whether or not regardless of the severity level of the tribulations we're going through we are set with the standard that shows us we are capable of handling those. It's possible to remain joyful.
It's possible to experience peace within times of tribulation because of our position in christ. So if i do end up doing this again next week we're going to continue the study by looking at some passages that showcase god's nature and how being reminded of his power can actually be one of the catalysts if you will to bring peace and joy in tough times just being reminded of god's character how that can can lift our spirits and bring us back to that season of peace even when tribulation is happening in parallel we're going to be considering some of the problems around us that literally permeate everything at every level and how little we have kind of going back to the ecclesiastes you know viewpoint of things without the lord.
So we're going to revisit that and that's going to play an important key and also talking about how it's a good thing that so much around us is what we would consider bad how that is actually a good thing how the lord uses what we consider bad for good and we'll break that down and how continual peace is a promise for believers regardless of how bad the times are or how tough and severe the tribulation is.
So um in my head i came up with seven points i covered two of them today so we'll see how many we can cover next week if we end up doing this. Um and so this is this has been great though and i really appreciate y 'all um kind of just letting me do this um and for sharing some things that i've been thinking about.
And um obviously having this opportunity is unique because it kind of forces it forced me into a position to put it out put it all on paper and you know really think through it and try to um in as a linear way as possible kind of uh outline it and attempt to convey it.
So in doing this it's helping me get dive into this even more which of course is is the intention i suppose. So um anyways with that being said i guess i'll pray dismiss this and we do have lunch today so that'll be great.
So i'll go ahead and pray really quick dear heavenly father lord thank you so much for this wonderful day. Thank you for uh giving me this unbelievably uh unique opportunity to be the one to uh share your word um and for um just you putting these things in my heart to share and i just pray lord that these things be edifying to everyone uh that's here today and of course listening in um and just thank you lord so much for bringing us together and for this particular church body this this church family and um the relationships we have the fellowship that we experience on a weekly basis.
We don't take it for granted lord we never want to and we just ask that you continually have your hand on us guide us protect us and give us this peace that we can have uh positionally in you regardless of the times we're going through.
Uh lord we ask you once again to bring mom and dad home safely to us bring dave and pop pop back safely to us. They're probably getting pretty close at this point and all of our friends and family out there that are you know currently sick and dealing with and uh you know just feeling feeling bad whatever virus they may have that they get over it and uh can can rejoin us maybe this time next week.
And thank you for the food we're about to have for the fellowship we're about to have be with us as we all go home later today. And we love you. We thank you for everything you do amen all righty guys you are dismissed.