Lamentations (Program #3) – The Third Lamentations (2)

The prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament had much to be sorrowful for.  For all around him is God’s judgment.  This judgment fell upon God’s people Israel because of their degradation and their unfaithfulness.  It also fell upon the nations that surrounded Israel for opposing God’s people and His purpose.  And finally God’s judgment fell upon the prophet himself, not so much for his own failures and sins but rather because the prophet Jeremiah properly identified with his people Israel and thereby shared in their judgment.  It was these sufferings that brought him to pour out his heart and soul to Jehovah in the short book called Lamentations.  But in so doing, we see some wonderful passages that can be immense help to those of us in the New Testament economy.  For Jeremiah learned to practice three marvelous things that sustain him and likewise can sustain us.  We will look at these three in today’s program.

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Lamentations (Program #2) – The Third Lamentations

The book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah after he had witnessed the devastation that had befallen on the nation and people of Israel.  Altogether he includes five lamentations in this short book.   The third of which is perhaps the most important for us, God’s New Testament people because this lamentation is one of the prophets being identified with the rebellious people of God, the apostate nation of Israel.  Even though Jeremiah himself had remained utterly faithful to the Lord.  Yet because he still was an Israelite, God was demonstrating to him that every true prophet must identify with God’s people even in their chastisement and suffering.  But another striking element of this lamentation bears a uniquely New Testament quality and even hints of God’s desire to restore His chosen people, even to impart Himself to the deepest part of their being.

With that in view, now listen closely to Jeremiah’s own words in this third lamentation. “It is Jehovah’s loving-kindness that we are not consumed, For His compassions do not fail;They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; Therefore I hope in Him. Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him, To the soul that seeks Him.“

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Lamentations (Program #1) – Introduction

No two books of the Bible are probably more linked than the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Lamentations.  Jeremiah, a book of God’s judgment and punishment upon His rebellious people Israel is followed by the prophet Jeremiah’s lamentations over the sufferings of Israel.  Listen to his word in the first of these lamentations, chapter 1:1-2 “How the city sits alone That was full of people! She who was once great among the nations Has become like a widow; She who was a princess among the provinces Has become tributary.  Bitterly she weeps in the night, And her tears are on her cheeks. There is no one to comfort her Among all her lovers; All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.”  This was Jeremiah’s speaking of the utter destruction and devastation that had been visited upon the city by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.  And the suffering of Jeremiah reflects that of all of God’s people, especially no doubt the few righteous among them.

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Jeremiah (Program #23) – A Supplement to the History of Captivity

After so many chapters in Jeremiah dealing with God’s judgment upon the sins of His people Israel, the prophet turns his attention to the judgment upon worldly nations and governments.  The height of this judgment is centered on the one nation throughout history that has been the greatest evil and the greatest offense to God, Babylon.  In chapter 51, Jeremiah uttered these prophetic words about what will befall this evil city. “And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words; And say, O Jehovah, You have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that nothing should dwell in it, neither man nor animal, for it will be an eternal desolation.”  But as severe as this judgment sounds, it was not the final judgment against this mighty city and what it represents.  For at the end of the New Testament, the judgment of Babylon is once again a key factor in the events related to the end of this age.  What is this city Babylon?  What does it represent and why does it occupy such a prominent position in the history of mankind and all that stands and opposes God?  We will consider the judgment of Babylon on today’s program.

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Jeremiah (Program #17) – Jehovah as the Potter and Israel as the Pottery

The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a difficult almost impossible situation. On one hand, he himself was part of the nation of Israel. A nation that had rebelled against the Lord and as a result was suffering under the hand of Jehovah’s discipline and chastisement. Therefore, Jeremiah was suffering along with all his countrymen. Yet Jeremiah was unique in that he had faithfully spoken Jehovah’s word to Israel pointing out their unfaithfulness and warning them to turn back to the God who had so marvelously brought them into the Good Land. But this faithful speaking by Jeremiah was rejected by Israel and caused them to hate him and even further persecute him.  So it’s not surprising to hear this man of God crying out in anguish to the one person who would surely sympathize with him – his own mother. In chapter 15, the prophet said “Woe is me, my mother, because you bore me, A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land. I have not lent with interest, Nor have they lent to me; Yet everyone curses me.” But before his mother could speak a comforting word, Jehovah intervenes. And in the discourse that follows, we see that Jeremiah had a different view from Jehovah regarding the way that the Lord was dealing with His people, Israel.

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Jeremiah (Program #16) – A Full Picture of God’s Economy by His Dispensing

The book of Jeremiah reveals God’s righteous judgment upon His people, Israel, for their many sins and the idolatry that had overtaken them. But if we look carefully and consider this book in the light of the entire Bible, we see that in the midst of all this negative history, God’s economy – that is His desire to dispense Himself and His riches into His chosen people that they might be reconstituted with Him and become His very corporate expression, is also revealed. In the first pages of Jeremiah’s account, God commissions him to tell all the people that their greatest evil is that they have forsaken Him not as their Creator nor even as their God, but as the fountain of living waters.

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Jeremiah (Program #14) – Jehovah’s further Commission to Jeremiah (1)

The prophet Jeremiah was one with the Lord in many regards. So much so that during the troubling and tumultuous time in which Jeremiah lived, God used him as His own mouth. Bringing Jehovah’s direct speaking to the apostate and rebellious people of Israel. Yet despite being the Lord’s called and anointed prophet, Jeremiah also suffered greatly, sharing in Israel’s judgment. It’s understandable then at times he was given to complaining and bitterness. Yet the Lord was continually with him, comforting him and encouraging him not to speak “worthless things” as the people did. But to speak words that matched the preciousness of Jehovah and all that He had revealed to Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah (Program #11) – A Word concerning Israel’s History

On Mount Sinai, Israel was in the dawning of a divine revelation. God had revealed the law to them as a portrait, a picture of Himself. And opened His heart’s desire to them that He would be everything to them, even a Husband that they would be a people to Him and eventually become even His duplication. But the history of Israel reveals how quickly they have departed from this revelation and this sunrise soon became a sunset, leaving Israel in darkness and under the chastising hand of Jehovah. This was the situation when God had to call a young boy to be a prophet for Him. Jeremiah was raised up by the Lord because Jehovah found no one among His kings, princes or even His priests that would be faithful to Him and speak His word to the people. To see Israel in the sunset of the divine revelation becomes a sober warning to us today – never to forsake Him, the fountain of living waters.

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Jeremiah (Program #10) – A Word concerning Israel’s History

Many people think the book of Jeremiah is not easy to read nor to understand. Well, it maybe hard to ready because it seems to be full of the failures and degradation of God’s people, Israel. Yet despite page after page of such failures, there are wonderful crystals of God’s economy and of the new covenant and of Christ Himself. It’s hard to understand because much of it is based on the history of God’s people and what has led up to the time when God called a young man, even still in his mother’s womb to be a prophet for Him and speak on His behalf to the rebellious and unfaithful people of Israel. This was the prophet Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah (Program #9) – Israel’s Sin against Jehovah, Jehovah’s Punishment upon Israel (2)

During one of the dark hours in Israel’s history, Jehovah poured His heart out to Jeremiah, the prophet that He raised up to speak to Israel on His behalf. Listen to his word and see if you can sense in His speaking the anguish of a distraught husband over the unfaithfulness of a wife to whom He had been faithful to the uttermost. Jeremiah 3:6-9 “Then Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel the apostate has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree and committed fornication there. And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to Me; but she did not return…And I saw that because of all the adultery that Israel the apostate committed I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce, And because she treated her fornication lightly, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.”

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