THE TURNING POINT

 

LAM. 3:1-32

            To lament means to feel deep sorrow and express it by weeping and wailing; to mourn or grieve.   This is the sentiment of the Book of Lamentations.  It was written by the prophet Jeremiah after the fall and utter destruction of the city of Jerusalem in the land of Judah.  The lament is not based simply on the fact that Jerusalem has been destroyed and the people are devastated; but also on the fact that the devastation is an act of God.  Though most of the Bold of Lamentations focuses on the sufferings of Judah as a nation after the Babylonian captivity began, in Chapter 3 Jeremiah focuses on his own personal suffering.

            Though Jeremiah is known as the suffering prophet, his name actually means ‘one whom Jehovah appoints’.  This name we find is very befitting of Jeremiah for in Jer. 1: 5 we find God saying to him “Before I formed the in the belly I knew thee; and before thy came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations”.   So God Himself appointed Jeremiah and the ministry to which he was appointed was one of great suffering.  Now Jeremiah’s suffering were not brought on by the Babylonians.  His sufferings were a result of his on people, the people of Judah, his family, his friends, his neighbors.  You see the message that God gave Jeremiah for the people was not very popular.  Basically, God told Jeremiah to tell the people to surrender to Babylon when it came to invade Judah.  This was to be God’s Judgment on Judah for it’s sin.  Rather than heed the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the people wanted to form an alliance with Egypt in the hopes that Egypt would protect Judah from the Babylonians.  Jeremiah spoke boldly against this alliance and continued to preach to the people that they should quietly accept captivity.

Jerm. 37:6-10, 15-17

            Here the Babylonians came down and encamped about Jerusalem.  The Egyptians at the request of the princes of Judah came up to assist Judah.  The Babylonian army withdraws and Judah is excited. The princes think that they have rid themselves of the Babylonians.  This makes  Jeremiah look like a false prophet.  But Jeremiah, rather than getting upset with God because things had not gone the way that he had prophesied, continues to prophesy doom and gloom.  He prophesies that the Chaldeans would be back.  Even if Judah could manage to wipe out the whole Chaldean army, leaving only wounded men, Jeremiah says still Babylon will rise up and burn Jerusalem.  This prophesy got Jeremiah labeled as a traitor and thrown into prison.  After several days, King Zedekiah brought Jeremiah out of prison and asked him what he had to say now.  (Verse 17)   Zedekiah sent Jeremiah right back to jail and commanded that he should be given only one piece of bread a day.  In the mean time the Babylonian king sends part of his army to attack some of the territories of Egypt.  The Egyptian army then withdraws to go and protect its own country.  The Babylonians return to encamp Judah again.  Jeremiah continues to preach surrender even from the prison.

Jerm. 38:1-6

            Jeremiah preached surrender to the Babylonians and live; stay here in the city and die by the sword, by pestilence or by famine.  For this Jeremiah was placed in a pit.  The pit was meant to be a grave for Jeremiah.  It was a broken well with a large stone over its opening.   The stone was loosely fit so that rain water could continue to flow into the pit and Jeremiah’s one piece of bread could still be lowered to him.   The well had no water but rather had mud in it.   Jeremiah must have felt like the author of psalms 69 where we find scriptures like  (Read Ps 69:1-2, 8, 14-15).

In excavating the land of Judah, skeletons of humans have been found in these pits.  One was placed there to die and once you died you were automatically buried in the mud.  (Talk about rescue here if have time 38:7-13.)  Jeremiah was imprisoned several times.  He spent much of his ministry years in prison.  When Judah was finally captured and taken into exile, Jeremiah was allowed to stay in Jerusalem.  However, he was later captured by a band of Jewish rebels and carried off to Egypt.  In Egypt Jeremiah continued to preach Jewish submission to Babylon.   Finally Jeremiah was stoned to death by Jews who were in exile in Egypt, because Jeremiah insisted that they should return to the land of Judah and submit to the punishment of God being meted out through the Babylonians.

            It is the sorrows of this kind of a life that Jeremiah is lamenting in chapter 3 of Lamentations.  Jeremiah realizes that the wrath of God is being executed because of the people’s sin.  But it feels to him that acting as the mouth piece of God has brought more affliction on him than on others.  You see every one was suffering because of a famine, because their water supply had been cut off and because disease was running rampart through the land.  But along with these normal sufferings Jeremiah was in a muddy pit.  He was alone and friendless; treated as a traitor and outcast.  These things he feels God brought on him.  God was the blame for these afflictions.  In verse 2, he was expecting God to lead him into the light yet he found himself in darkness.  In other words he was expecting that following God would bring him a good life, but what he found was affliction.  When he expected following God to bring him life and happiness, he found that he was drying up; that instead of being whole, he was broken.  God Jeremiah felt had turned his back on him.  He felt that God had turned away from him, and not because Jeremiah had personally sinned.  Jeremiah was suffering because he was trying to do the will of God, and even God he felt would not help him.  This was God’s fault.  He was backed in a corner.  If he did what God said, he would be stuck in prison forever, and yet he could not be quiet.  In Jerm. 20:9 he said, “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.  But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and could not stay”.  He could not keep quiet, but the more he spoke, the more he was afflicted.   Where was God?

Jerm. 1:18-19

            I can imagine Jeremiah asking God where is the fulfillment of this promise protection and deliverance.  Jeremiah probably received this promise that same way that many of us would have.  He probably assumed that it meant that the way would be cleared and made easy  for him, that all opposition would be removed.   We often don’t hear the struggle in the promise, we hear only the blessing in the promise. (Example)  God’s promise is associated with God’s mission and getting God’s will accomplished.  Jeremiah accomplished God’s mission and every time someone tried to stop him, God made a way that he could continue preaching.  He was the mouth piece of God and for that he was grievously afflicted.  Now if we would be honest with ourselves we would not want the life of Jeremiah to be our outcome of  obedience.  When we obey God we expect much more; we expect good and not evil; peace and not turmoil; happiness and not sadness, life and not death.  Jeremiah became bitter.  How could God allow this and why.  We often do not understand what God is doing.  When we are doing right it seems so unfair to have the world, our friends, and our family to turn on us.  And then to cry out to God and yet find your affliction increasing; Jeremiah was a broken man as any of us would be.  We would say he was having a pity party, and tell him to snap out of it.  You know it is easy to tell someone else that until it is you that God has appointed for affliction.  Jeremiah is broken.  He says in verse 20 that his spirit is humbled in him and Prov. 18:14 says “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded or crushed spirit who can bear.”  Like many of us Jeremiah is broken, he is bitter and hopeless, but then there is a turning point.  Something changes.  

Lam. 3:21-23

Rather than focusing on his condition and the sorrows of the people he focused on who God is.   He stepped back and took a global view of the situation.  He looked at the ruin of Jerusalem; the war, famine, pestilence and disease that had spread through the land and he realized that it was nothing but the grace and mercy of God that had kept all of Judah from being wiped out.  Judah had failed God, but God had not failed Judah.  He had compassion on them.  He had been faithful in preserving Judah even when they had been unfaithful to Him.  With this Jeremiah concludes that God’s compassion towards man start anew every morning and his faithfulness toward us is great.

            Whether we feel like we are in the lowest pit or on the highest mountain, the faithfulness of God is a tremendous encouragement to the Christian.    Because the Christian has placed his most prized possession in the care of Jesus Christ the Faithful one, we can always have hope.  When we are at our lowest and in deepest despair, if we can for one second think on the faithfulness of God, we will find hope.

No matter what our situation, God is faithful.

I John 1:9 - If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteous.  If we will not confess our sin, Ps. 119:75 says in faithfulness He afflicts us.  He afflicted Judah to bring them to repentance.   He does not leave us to our sin, but like a loving father, He chastens us that we might live.

 Heb. 2:16-18 - Jesus saw a benefit in taken on flesh like ours.  Now he can empathize with us.  Heb. 4:15-16 says that we do not have an high priest, a guardian of our souls, who can not feel for our weaknesses.  He can understand how we feel and therefore we are encouraged to come to him to find mercy and help when ever we need it.   Because Jesus was tempted, He is able sympathize with us and to provide relief when we are being tempted.  Even when we are having our pity party and cannot get anyone else to listen, Jesus will be there.  He is never too busy and no problem is ever too small. 

I Cor 10:13 - When we are being tempted, we can count on God to be faithful and provide a way for us to escape temptation.  When we cry to him for help in the midst of our temptations he will provide a way of deliverance.

I Thess 5:24 says faithful is he that calls us.  We can count on Him to complete the work that He has begun in us.  He will not give up on us.  His compassion starts anew with us every morning. 

I Peter 4:19 - When we suffer for the will of God, we can commit our way and souls to God trusting Him to make provision for us just as He did for mankind in creation.  No matter what our struggle we must think on the faithfulness of God.   His provision is always better than what mankind deserves.  Jeremiah saw that in God’s mercy He spared a remnant of Judah.  God protected and blessed the remnant during their captivity, and then permitted them to go home.  Judah had sinned, but God was merciful and faithful unto them.  When Jeremiah thought on this, his spirit was lifted and he realized that “The Lord is good to them that wait for him, and seek him”.  In the midst of his despair, Jeremiah's turning point came when he turned his gaze from his problems and the sorrows of his people and focused on God.  Though his situation did not change, his attitude did, because as he looked he saw the mercy and faithfulness of God.  His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness. 

Rev. 22:12 - Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.   Those that have followed Jesus will be resurrected to eternal life, and those who have not will receive eternal damnation

John 3:16-21.