LAMENTATIONS 5 A

Consequences of a previous generation verse 1-7

REMEMBER – O LORD – what is come upon us
CONSIDER and BEHOLD our reproach
our inheritance is turned to strangers
                                    our houses to aliens
We are orphans and fatherless – our mothers are as widows
we have drunken our water for money
                        our wood is sold unto us
                                    our necks are under persecution
we labor – and have no rest
            we have given the hand to the Egyptians
                        and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread
Our fathers have sinned – and are not
and we have borne their iniquities

Joy has left the nation verse 8- 18

Servants have ruled over us
            there is none that does deliver us out of their hand
We gat our bread with the peril of our lives
because of the sword of the wilderness
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine
            they ravished the women of Zion
                        and the maids in the cities of Judah
            princes are hanged up by their hands
                        the faces of elders were not honored
            they took the young men to grind
                        the children fell under the wood
            the elders have ceased from the gate
                        the young men from their music
The joy of our heart is ceased
our dance is turned into mourning
                        the crown is fallen from our head
WOE unto us – that we have sinned
for this our heart is faint
                        for these things our eyes are dim
BECAUSE of the mountain of Zion – which is desolate
the foxes walk upon it

Prayer of restoration verse 19- 22

YOU – O LORD – remain forever
            YOUR throne from generation to generation
WHEREFORE do YOU forget us forever – and forsake us so long time?
            TURN YOU us unto YOU – O LORD
                        and we shall be turned
                                    RENEW our days as of old
BUT YOU have utterly rejected us
            YOU are very wroth against us

COMMENTARY:

DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers

: 7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have bornetheir iniquities.
(5445 “borne” [cabal] means bear, labor, drag oneself along, to endure something unpleasant or difficult whether on one’s own behalf or on behalf of someone else, carry, support, or carrying a load of pain.
DEVOTION: The present circumstances in Israel was not good. The majority of the children of Israel were either dead or in captivity. The LORD had put up with their sin long enough and had to judge them according to HIS standards. HE had sent warnings and they would not listen.
Now Jeremiah is admitting that the nation had sinned and that the present generation were enduring the consequences of the sins of the past and the present. There was no revival that Jeremiah would have liked to happen with his messages from the LORD. The false prophets sounded better than him. The people listened to the wrong group.
Today we find ourselves in a nation that was started on Biblical principles with the Ten Commandments as a standard of the laws of the country. This has changed over the last thirty or more years. We have the Ten Commandments coming down in many states of the union. We have the President forbidding the military of any type of Christmas greeting. We have store managers telling their people that they can only say “Happy Holidays” to prevent anyone thinking that we should be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
This not only happens at Christmas but also at Easter when we should be celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior. The nation has changed but not for the better as far as their understanding of the standards that should be in our society.
One of the problems is that even those who are genuine believers fall into the trap of not saying Merry Christmas or HE is Risen at Easter. It is sad but true. We find that many genuine believers want to be politically correct rather than be a witness for the LORD. They think a silent witness is enough.
Jeremiah was dealing with the sins of the past because the nation had started listening to the wrong voices and worshiping the wrong god. Can this be happening even in the lives of those who claim to be believers today?
CHALLENGE: Stand up for the LORD no matter what people think of you. Stop being politically correct and remember to be BIBLICALLY CORRECT at all times.

DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers

: 15 The joyof our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. (4885 “joy” [masows] means mirth, exultation, rejoicing, gladness, delight, gaiety, or merriment.
DEVOTION: This final chapter of the book by Jeremiah is where he describes his reaction to the destruction of Jerusalem. He is called the “weeping prophet” because of this reaction. He knows that the children of Judah were not listening to the visions he had from the LORD. They tried to kill him. They tried to silence him. They took him away with them when they were fleeing from the Babylonian army. He had been through a lot for the LORD and HIS work.
Now he is praying to the LORD for the restoration of Israel to the Promised Land. He is asking the LORD to remember the reproach of HIS people. He expresses how each people group are being treated by the Babylonian army and the neighbors of Jerusalem.
The statement of this verse just makes your heart wonder about how the LORD can take away HIS chosen people’s gladness. However, it is not HIM that has taken their gladness – they did it to themselves. HE sent the prophets to warn them that judgment was coming. HE told them if they would repent HE would stop the Babylonians from coming to destroy Jerusalem. The false prophet told the leadership of the nation that Jeremiah was lying and that the LORD was only going allow them to go into captivity a short time or not at all.
The people liked the lie rather than turning their live over to the LORD and repenting of their actions. So in reality the gladness was taken away by their personal hands. They made a choice and the LORD allowed their choice to stand.
We sometimes receive warnings from the LORD and if we don’t confess our sin HE will send HIS judgment on us. This is HIS way of getting our attention. Once HE has our attention we can work with HIM for our restoration.
Jeremiah wanted the LORD to return the children of Israel to a time when they could celebrate their relationship with HIM. HE prayed for the people who wanted to kill him. HE cared about HIS fellow Israelite.
We sometimes have our rejoicing taken from us by others. Sometimes it may be from fellow believers. While I was in Bible School at Buffalo Bible Institute there was a girl walking to a meal at the dining hall singing praises to the LORD. Another student at the school walked up to her and asked what “her problem was.” He thought it was not appropriate for her to be so happy. He was wrong and she was right but his comment caused her to stop singing praises to the LORD.
We need to make sure that we are not taking away the merriment of those who love the LORD. Some of them take it away themselves with their sins but it is a sin for those of us who love the LORD to take it from them because we don’t like it.
CHALLENGE: Our desire should be to work with people to cause them to confess their sin and receive the gladness that LORD can bring into their life. We should manifest this gladness on a regular basis.

DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers

: 21 Turn YOU us unto YOU, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. (2318 “renew” [chadash] means to be new, make anew, repair, place in a state or condition identical or nearly the same as a prior state or restore.)
DEVOTION: The prayer of Jeremiah here and the prayer of small churches today have a lot in common. Jeremiah is praying that Israel could be restored to its former glory. The small churches today, that have been large in the past, want the same thing to happen to them.
Jeremiah realized that sin had been the cause of the children of Israel losing favor with the LORD. Many times small churches have the same problem. The people of God see things happen and know that they are blessed. They were yielded to the LORD for direction. The hard times seemed to be gone.
The people of God relaxed in their blessings. They forgot that it took a hard time to get them close to the LORD. Now they were looking at their blessings and didn’t want to hear about their closeness to the LORD. They started blaming others for their lack of blessing. They were not looking inward to see if they were the cause of the lack of blessing to the nation of Israel. We need to look inward to see if we are the cause of a lack of blessing of the LORD because sin in our life.
God warned them that they needed to stay close to HIM but they didn’t listen. They started thinking that the blessings came from their hard work and not from the LORD. They started thinking that they deserved the blessings. They started to relax their relationship with the LORD.
THEN the problems started to develop in the nation and in the church. We are slow learners. We think that if we put more effect into the church it would grow again like it did in the past. NOT SO.
The children of Israel and the small church forgot to get back with the LORD first. They needed revival in their midst first before the LORD could bless them again with joy.
They prayed for things to go back to the way they were in the past but didn’t have the close relationship they had with the LORD in the past. There needed to be a turn around. Revival is the only answer.
Jeremiah wanted the LORD to remember them. He wanted a remnant to return to the Promised Land. His desire was for the joy of the LORD to flow again in Jerusalem. That was his prayer. He ends his second book with a prayer. After the tears of repentance then can the joy of the LORD come into their midst!!!
What is our prayer today for the churches of America and our world? Restoration only comes through repentance. With repentance comes revival and with revival Christians are right with the LORD and the world sits up and takes notice.
CHALLENGE: Ask what the world is seeing in your church today. Do they see a loving fellowship of believers or people who are not getting along with one another? Remember all revivals start with you and me!!)

DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:

BODY

Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)

SOUL

Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)

SPIRIT

Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)

Prayer of Jeremiah verse 1- 22

Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)

DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:

Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)

Remember verse 1
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 19, 21
Consider verse 1
Throne verse 19
Anger of the LORD verse 22

God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)

Strangers verse 2
Aliens verse 2
Egyptians verse 6
Assyrians verse 6

Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)

Sinned verse 7, 16
Iniquities verse 7
Elders not honored verse 12, 14

Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)

Reproach verse 1
Inheritance verse 2

Suffer persecution verse 5
Labor verse 5
Rest verse 5
Deliverance verse 8
Music verse 14
Joy of heart verse 15
Turn toward the LORD verse 21
Renew verse 21

Israel (Old Testament people of God)

Orphans verse 3
Fatherless verse 3
Widows verse 3
Pay for water verse 4
Pay for wood verse 4
Work for bread verse 6
Zion verse 11, 18
Judah verse 11
Forgotten verse 20
Forsaken verse 20
Rejected verse 22

Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)

QUOTES

5:6–7 The people remembered when they made alliances with Egypt and Assyria in order to survive in the midst of the political and military intrigues that swirled around them. Verse 7 may imply that their ancestors sinned by making alliances with foreign powers from time to time rather than depending on God. The present generation was bearing the consequences of their sins (see Exod 20:5; but cf. Jer 31:29; Ezek 18:2; John 9). It is theologically essential to maintain a distinction between being punished for another’s sins and experiencing the evil consequences of that person’s sins. Failing to do so makes God unjust in his dealings and serves to excuse us from our responsibility for our sins. (Huey, F. B. (1993). Jeremiah, Lamentations (Vol. 16, p. 486). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

6–7It is true that Nebuchadnezzar claimed to be continuing the Assyrian power, as did Cyrus later (cf. Ezra 6:22); but that can hardly be the force of “Assyria” here (v.6). The poet is referring to something “our fathers” did (v.7). It cannot refer simply to political alliances, for there is no suggestion that such alliances were motivated by famine conditions. If that had been the case, they probably would have turned to Egypt rather than to Assyria. The answer is suggested by Hosea. In Hosea 2:5, 8 he shows Israel worshiping the Baalim, the fertility gods of nature. This reduced Yahweh for them to a god among gods, and so they sought alliances with Egypt and Assyria (Hos 5:13; 7:11; 12:1). Now their descendants had reaped the bitter harvest, as Samaria had done a century and a half earlier. (Ellison, H. L. (1986). Lamentations. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel (Vol. 6, p. 731). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)

5:6–8. Still another reason accounted for Judah’s calamity. She submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. The words translated “submitted to” (nāṯannû yāḏ) literally mean “to give the hand to” or “to shake hands.” The phrase implies the idea of establishing a pact or treaty (cf. 2 Kings 10:15) and often referred to one group surrendering or submitting to a more powerful group or person as part of a treaty (1 Chron. 29:24; 2 Chron 30:8; Jer. 50:15). Judah had pledged her allegiance both to Egypt and Assyria in her history, for the sake of national security (cf. Ezek. 16:26–28; 23:12, 21). Judah’s past leaders (fathers) shifted their allegiance between countries, and their fickleness ultimately destroyed them. Their sin brought their death, and their survivors bore their punishment. The present generation was not claiming to be suffering unjustly for their forebears’ sins (cf. Lam. 5:16), but saw their punishment as a logical conclusion to their ancestors’ folly. Their forefathers’ willing submission to godless nations was now bearing bitter fruit. Babylon appointed cruel taskmasters; men of low degree were exalted and the people of Judah were forced to submit to them: Slaves rule over us. (Dyer, C. H. (1985). Lamentations. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1222). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)

“We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us” (ver. 4). All that this world has for the soul away from the Lord comes high. It may seem as though much is to be gained by taking one’s own way and casting the fear of God behind the back. Satan will suggest, too, that it costs too much to live for God, and will allure with tempting baits the already unhappy heart that has begun to lust after other things; but it will only be to prove in the end that disobedience to God is a costly indulgence, an unholy luxury, if we may use the term, that none can really afford. They who here complain that they have drunken their water for money, had foolishly forsaken Him who is “the Fountain of living waters” (of which all might drink freely), and had hewed out for themselves cisterns that could hold no water (Jer. 2:13). When they sought it from the enemies of the Lord, a price was put upon it that it burdened them to pay. And then, of all that they purchased so dearly, it could be said, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again;” while Jehovah’s living water satisfies the weary soul. Departure from God is the most foolish and worst investment any child of grace ever made.
“Our necks are under persecution: we labor, and have no rest” (ver. 5). How could it be otherwise? Was rest to be found in taking their own way? It could not be. “Thou hast made us for Thyself,” said Augustine of Hippo, “and our souls can never be at rest until they rest in Thee.” It is the most egregious folly to seek for it anywhere else. That worldlings should make such a mistake is no cause for surprise: they have never known anything better than the alluring enticements of Satan’s realm: but for one who has shared in the deep, true peace which the Spirit gives to those that obey Him, to turn his back upon the only source of rest and seek it in the world from which he was once delivered, is an anomaly beyond explanation, save on the ground of hidden backsliding of heart long before. Such we know was the case of Judah. Their heart went out after unholy things first; then the feet soon followed. But they found, like the dove sent forth out of the ark, no rest for the sole of their feet. A raven, type of the evil nature in every man, could rest upon a floating carcass, while feeding on the carrion; but the clean, pure dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit and of the new nature which all God’s children have received, could find neither rest nor food in such a scene, but must needs return to the ark, a type of Christ, for both. (Ironside, H. A. (1906). Notes on the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah (pp. 348–350). Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.)

Ver. 7. Our fathers have sinned, and are not, &c.] In the world, as the Targum adds; they were in being, but not on earth; they were departed from hence, and gone into another world; and so were free from the miseries and calamities their children were attended with, and therefore more happy: and we have borne their iniquities; the punishment of them, or chastisement for them: this is not said by way of complaint, much less as charging God with injustice, in punishing them for their fathers’ sins, or to excuse their’s; for they were ready to own that they had consented to them, and were guilty of the same; but to obtain mercy and pity at the hands of God. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 5, p. 730). London: Mathews and Leigh.)

What unspeakable consolation, dear fellow-saint, is in this precious fact for every tried and suffering child of God! Circumstances may be very hard; blow upon blow may strike; disaster follow disaster; until the stricken heart has not one earthly thing left to cling to. In such an hour Satan would fain lead the soul to believe that God too is gone: that it is no longer the object of His care, that He has left it to die alone. But no! It cannot be. Faith looks up and shouts, “Thou, O Lord, remainest!” for He abides the same “yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” (Ironside, H. A. (1906). Notes on the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah (pp. 351–352). Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.)

“In that day,” in place of lamentation and wailing, “shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Isa. 26:1–4). Then Jerusalem’s mourning will be accomplished; her warfare will be ended! (Ironside, H. A. (1906). Notes on the prophecy and Lamentations of Jeremiah (p. 354). Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.)