Lamentations is a poem expressing personal and national grief for the ravages that disobedience brings. Seeing the devastation that has now fallen on Jerusalem, Jeremiah's weeping continues as he now tries to point the destroyed nation back to its God. Jeremiah is appealing to a nation under the judgment of God to help them to examine how they came to be under judgment, the results of their disobedience, and how they were to move forward.

Lord, I praise you that you see us through even the darkest hours. And as we read this testimony here in Lamentations, that you would help us see our way more clearly through those darkest hours. Amen. Well, Lamentations is a book about the darkest hours Jeremiah or perhaps the nation of Israel ever experienced. It's helpful because it gives us a testimony of how to think about those dark days.

Will you face dark days? Maybe not as dark as this, but you'll face some dark days. Things will happen. Disappointments will go down. Things won't turn out like you thought.

People may die. People will disappoint. There are various things that happen to all of us, and so this is a helpful message, particularly for times of despair. I pray that a book like this would sort of set you up for a time of despair that is in the future. The message of Lamentations is focused on despair.

Lamentations is a poem that expresses personal and national grief And the title of the book is a short Hebrew word, eka, and it means how. It indicates a loud cry. And you'll see that all through the reading of Lamentations. Of course Jeremiah is the author of Lamentations and he's appealing to the nation which is under judgment to examine how and to cry out to God. So Jeremiah, he explains, first of all, how all this happened.

Secondly, what were the results? And thirdly, how do you go forward? And Lamentations answers all three of those questions. This is a nation under judgment and Jeremiah is appealing to the nation under judgment and he wants to show them the disastrous results in his cry And the scene here is that the Babylonian captivity is in motion now, and they have time to meditate on the captivity. And Jeremiah is helping them to meditate properly.

Now this is one of the most heartbreaking books in the whole Bible and Jeremiah is providing this running commentary on economic collapse, political collapse, military collapse, social collapse, spiritual collapse, everything has fallen in. But for Jeremiah it wasn't just a national disaster, It was also a very personal disaster for him, as you can tell from the cries of his heart. The warning from Lamentations I think we should take note of. I think there's a warning for young people here, not just old people. Young people are mentioned nine times in these five chapters.

I think that's pretty interesting. There's an emphasis on young people in Lamentations and how they experience troubled times, disasters. Because you're young, don't think that a disaster cannot befall your nation. Young people think they're exempt, but here in Lamentations we find, no, they're not exempt at all. They're thrown right in with everyone else.

There's one phrase in here, the old and the young will experience this together. But it's a warning, I think. Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8, Let cry the warning. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." Don't be deceived. What you sow you will reap, and this is a picture of reaping a whirlwind of sorrow. It's a case study of rejecting God's order, particularly God's order of worship and of morality.

Those are the two issues upon which the judgment of God hinges. And here in Lamentations you see the severity of God coming against wickedness among his people. It's a picture of Romans 11, 22. Therefore consider the goodness and the severity of God on those who fell. Severity, but toward you goodness.

If you continue in his goodness otherwise you also will be cut off. In Lamentations you have a front row seat on the severity of God And His severity does not just stand alone because His severity always stands alongside of His mercy. And so we'll read of both of those things. But the warning is if you're entertaining sin, look out. God is a good Father and he doesn't let his sons and his daughters entertain sin for very long without resisting it vigorously.

And you see this great vigor of God to come against the sin of the nation. There's a trajectory of the judgment in this third item in your outline, and I'm just going to just summarize it very quickly. First of all, evil is real, therefore mourn. Secondly, evil will be punished, therefore confess. And then finally, God is real, therefore hope.

I think that forms the basis of much of what is being said here. Let's talk about the time frame and the fourth item in your outline. Jeremiah, when he has penned the book of Jeremiah, he's speaking of Nebuchadnezzar at the city gate. He speaks of, he's warning Judah just before Nebuchadnezzar comes, but then Nebuchadnezzar comes. So the book of Jeremiah is written from that perspective.

However, when you get to the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah is looking back. He's looking back at the destruction. So with Jeremiah and Lamentations, you have the look from the front end and in Lamentations you have the look after the fact. So there are two different perspectives on this and of course you know the weeping prophet has been weeping for quite some time and his weeping only deepens when he looks back. So lamentations is an observation of what Jeremiah calls the dire straits.

Dire straits. Such a terrifying term to consider that God would bring upon his people, but that's exactly it. So soon after the Babylonian captivity, you see these dire straits, you see what it's like. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Judah from 588 to 586 BC, and it finally felt it was a long siege. It fell on July 19th, 586 BC.

The temple was burned on August 15th, 586 B.C. And it's quite likely that Jeremiah wrote this from Egypt, because he was carried there by his countrymen. You can read about that in Jeremiah 43, 1-7. So now the judgment has come, it has set in, and it really, it's a fulfillment of prophecy. And there are two particular prophecies.

One is, remember when Hezekiah was cured, God gave him 15 extra years of life. Remember how what he prayed when God gave him those years? Oh Lord, at least it's not gonna happen in my lifetime. Well now it happened in Jeremiah's lifetime and at the time of Nebuchadnezzar. So it's really a fulfillment of Hezekiah's words, not in my lifetime, here it is now.

It's finally come down. But if you look at Deuteronomy chapter 11, particularly in verse 26, Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you have not known." So it really is a fulfillment of the blessings and the curses of Deuteronomy. You can also read about this very same thing in chapter 29 verses 22 to 28. Moses prophesied this very event that Jeremiah is writing about in the book of Lamentations. The fifth item I'd like to help you grasp is this whole matter of its use in public mourning, because Lamentations was useful to the people of God.

It was used as a guide for public mourning after Nebuchadnezzar's invasion and the deportation that took place. And you read about this in 2 Chronicles 35 verses 20 to 25. We read, After this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neko king of Egypt came to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. So here's the scene. Josiah is king, he was the last good king of Israel.

We talked about him when we were in the book of Jeremiah, and Josiah goes out to battle at the Battle of Carchemish and he disguises himself and Pharaoh Nico kills him. He's dead in battle and it was such a time of mourning for the people of Judah because he was such a good king. He had his problems but we see in verse 24 it says, so he died and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah and to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel and indeed they are written in the laments." So here in 2 Chronicles 35 verse 20 to 25, we learn that the lamentations were used by the people of God from this time on, And they use lamentations to lament Josiah's death as well as these other calamities that have come upon them.

So Jeremiah composed these laments and Israel used these to celebrate, to commemorate Josiah's death. In Zechariah chapter 7 and 8 there's a record of fasting to lament the fall of Jerusalem, the siege walls, the temple, and all these things, and this was done on a regular basis. So what I'm saying is that the book of Lamentations was used by the people of God to help them to lament. It's a lamentation guide. I think we should recognize that It's not wrong to commemorate tragedies.

Grieving can be good for the soul. We live in a time where nobody wants to grieve about anything. They just want to keep on moving, take another pill, keep on rolling. But it's right for the people of God to grieve and lamentations is given to us for that purpose. Let's talk about the genre.

This is funeral poetry. It's a five chapter long funeral song. It's gloomy, it's heavy, and in terms of Hebrew poetry it's known as a quina in its meter. This kind of Hebrew poetry creates kind of a rising and a falling pattern of the rhythm. One author said that it was mimicking the start-stop movement of mourners walking behind the coffin in a funeral procession.

So Lamentations delivers a melancholy tone and you see it all throughout. Let's talk about structure. Now this is really very interesting here. The structure of the poem is governed by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet as an acrostic. If you notice the five chapters, It's broken up into 22 verse increments.

Chapter 1 has 22 verses. That's the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 2 has 22 verses, and so forth. Now when you get to Chapter 3, there are three sets of 22. And then we get to chapter 4, there are 22 verses.

Now when you have these patterns of 22, each verse is headed by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Beth, Ghemel, Dalek, right? And so forth in the Hebrew alphabet. So it's structured according to the alphabet in the same way that Psalm 119 is. Now when you get to chapter 3, there are three verses per Hebrew letter because there are three sets of 22 in chapter 3.

So it's organized in the form of an acrostic with a letter for each verse. Now why an acrostic? Why such orderliness? Why such balance and form? You know, perhaps in order to give the opportunity to grieve in a complete way and in an orderly way.

You know when you're grieving you're just sometimes just all over the place, right? But lamentation sort of gives an order and a sequence to the grieving so that you make sure that you cover all the bases. You know, you might be tempted to just grieve and only grieve and not remember the mercy of God. Or you might just only remember the mercy of God and not grieve. So Lamentations gives you both.

You have this balance that's built into the very structure of it. So perhaps there's such structure in order and symmetry in order to teach the people of God to grieve in a balanced way and in an orderly way. And so you've got five different poems in five different chapters that follow this very same pattern. Key verses, I've got them listed there for you. Let's talk about the outline.

You see the outline before you, and let's get into the book now and begin with chapter one. Now as you read this lamentation, Be mindful of the various categories that are there, and I've got this outline for you to help you see the progress of it, but let's begin in chapter 1. There are 22 verses in chapter one as we already said, but chapter one lays down the consequences of sin, and let's begin in verse one. How lonely sets the city that was full of people. Lonely.

This is one of the great consequences of sin. Isolation and loneliness. How like a widow she is, who was great among the nations. The princess among the provinces has become a slave." Verse 2, then there's weeping. She weeps bitterly in the night.

Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies." Now this is the truth about evil. This is the truth that everyone who turns away from God will experience weeping.

And then enslavement, verse 3. Judah has gone into captivity under affliction and hard servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits." You know this matter of no rest?

There's so many elements of verse 3 that you could pick out and really examine and speak about at length. You know, you have the servitude, you have no rest, you have the dire straits. Look at these two words, no rest. She finds no rest. Every person in the world is in search of rest.

Every person in the world is in search of happiness. All of us are. We're built that way. We're like happiness seeking missiles. We're like rest seeking objects.

But here what you find with sin is that you get no rest. This is why Pharaoh in Egypt didn't give the people of God rest. This is why Jesus said, come to me, I will give you rest. And then there's desolation, verse 4. The roads of Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts.

All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. And then in verse 5, you see her adversaries have become her masters. And then in verse 6, fear fills the hearts of the people.

Verse 6, And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed, her princes have become like deer that find no pasture, that flee without strength before the pursuer." This is a picture of fear. When people turn away from God, one of the things that happens to them is that they become a people of fear. They fear every shadow. That's because they have quit thinking about a sovereign God who orders all things for his glory." The God that governs every detail of life on earth, but fear fills the heart. And then You see the cause of the desolation in verse 8.

It's sin. Jerusalem has sinned gravely, therefore she has become vile. Look at verse 9. She did not consider her destiny. She had no comforter.

These are just the results of sin. You end up with a broken city and verse 10 makes us so clear. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you commanded not to enter your assembly." And so she's been invaded. Now then when you go to verse 11, there's a very interesting twist that the prophet Jeremiah invests in the verses from 11 to verse 19. And here Jeremiah personalizes the suffering of the nation.

It's as if he's speaking of himself and the nation at the same time. He so identifies with the nation. He says, see, O Lord, and consider, for I am scorned. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which has been brought on me which the Lord has inflicted in the day of his fierce anger So Jeremiah from this point on in chapter 1 is personalizing it.

The pain of the nation is his pain. And look at verse 13. From above He has set fire to my bones and it overpowered them. He has spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all the day.

Look at verse 16. For these things I weep. My eye, my eye overflows with water because the comforter who should restore my life is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed." Verse 18, the Lord is righteous for I rebelled against his commandment. Verse 19, I called for my lovers but they deceived me.

You see how Jeremiah is personalizing all these things? His nation's sins have become his own sins. Their grief has become his grief, And so he's very closely identifying with him. And then he makes a confession in verse 20. See, O Lord, that I am in distress.

My soul is troubled. My heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. Now you might say, well, how is Jeremiah rebellious? Well we're not really told, but again he's speaking for himself and for the nation. He's not distancing himself from the sins of the nation.

He sees the sins of the nation in himself and they in some ways act as a mirror for one another. So in the first chapter you have this picture of of a broken city and Jeremiah personalizing the brokenness of that city now another theme in lamentations is this matter of the city And the city has figurative meaning in the Bible. And the city symbolizes the people of God. You have the city of God and you have the city of man. And Jerusalem the city is illustrative of heaven, it's illustrative of the people of God, it's illustrative of the worship of God.

Jerusalem the city has a meaning across various categories, but what's happening to the city is critical to understand. And as you read it, you might just think about that. What do I learn about the city? What happens to the city when idolatry enters in? Okay, let's go to chapter 2, and here you find this picture of a broken people and there are many reasons given for God's anger.

There are six references to God's anger in this chapter here and let's look at verse 1. He first says that anger is like a cloud and this anger is a cloud that just marrs the beauty of the people of God. How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud of his anger. He cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel and did not remember his footstool in the day of his anger. So there's this cloud of anger that's there.

Verse three, you see the anger as well. He has cut off in fierce anger every horn of Israel. Look at verse five. The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed her strongholds and has increased mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah." Now look at the language in verse 5. It was God that did this. It was God who increased the mourning and the lamentation. The morning and the lamentation.

Here's why I want to point that out. God in His mercy would raise lamentation in your heart. He would do things to cause you to lament, to bring you to a better place. Here it is God that is causing the lamentation. When you find yourself lamenting, recognize perhaps why that's there.

That God has put it there as a sign. And there are various things that it could be pointing to. It could be a sign of your unbelief. It could be a sign that you need to pay attention to your sin and that the grieving is legitimate and you ought to lament because God has put it there. Verse 6, he has done violence to his tabernacle as if it were a garden.

He has destroyed his place of assembly. The Lord has caused the appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In his burning indignation, he has spurned the king and the priest. Notice the words that I just read. He has, he has, he has, he has.

It's God that has done all of this. Every calamity has been ordained by God for his own glory. And the earlier you can learn that, the happier you'll be. And you know, you can live your life in this constant state of turmoil because you think God has abandoned you because a difficult thing has happened. You really will have missed what the Bible teaches about calamity and difficulty.

He has, he has, he has. There has never been a calamity that you have entered into that God did not ordain. Look at verse 9. This really shows the tragedy here in the nation. The law is no more and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.

The law is no longer being held to. What this means is that the people do what's right in their own eyes. There's no government of the soul, no government of the tongue, no government of the emotions, no government of anything, and people are just doing to one another whatever they wish. What a terrifying society. When you pull the law of God back, you get chaos in a society.

The law is no more. Now in verse 11 and in the verses following, you find what the captivity was like. You know, if you've ever wondered what it was like in Babylon, what were people experiencing? Well, here you have it right here. My eyes fail with tears.

My heart is troubled. My bile is poured on the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. Because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city. I mean, here you have such turmoil that, you know, Jeremiah's bile is poured out onto the ground. It was gut-wrenching to him to the degree that I think that this has to do with regurgitating.

And you have children and infants fainting in the streets of the city. Infants. I mean just picture that for a minute. Infants fainted like the dead in the streets. Verse 12, they say to their mothers, where is the grain and wine as they swoon like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out in their mother's bosom?

Look at verse 14, you can see why it all happened. Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not uncovered your iniquity to bring back your captives, but have envisioned for you false prophecies and delusions." This is an important point to pause with. He says that the prophets were guilty of not uncovering the iniquity of the people. Translation, the prophets did not preach against sin and exposed sin.

And this was at the heart of the problem. The prophets wanted to please people so much that they refused to speak about the judgment of God. You know, people want to hear a happy message. They don't want to hear about trouble and downfall. They don't want to hear how bad they are.

But when you have shepherds that don't speak of sin, Then you have a people who are overcome with sin, and that's what happened here. They have not uncovered your iniquity, and they prophesied delusions. And then you see this massive change in the city. Verse 15, is this the city that is called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? Well, not anymore.

It was that way, but not anymore. And then there's just this visceral cry of the heart beginning in verse 18, their heart cried out to the Lord. And there's just this continual reference to the troubles of the people and the fainting in the streets and the hunger. Well we're not done with describing what happened there, but here in chapter 2 is a very visible picture of a broken people and just what has happened to them in the midst of the city. And here's what happens to your city when you reject God.

And then chapter three takes us to the cure, but it takes Jeremiah a little time to get to the cure. In the first 18 verses, he laments, and let's look at a couple of the things that he is lamenting. In verse 1, We read, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not light. Look at verse four.

He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones." Look at verse 7. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. Verse 9. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone.

He has made my paths crooked. Verse 10 is remarkable. He has been to me a bear lying in wait like a lion in ambush. These images are remarkable. Bears lie in wait.

Lions set an ambush. Two of the most terrifying animals that God has put in the earth. Jeremiah sees God as blocking him in every way, stalking him, ambushing him. This is how Jeremiah is processing this whole event. Verse 16, he has also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes.

You have moved my soul far from peace. Verse 17, I have forgotten prosperity. Verse 18, and I said my strength and my hope have perished from the Lord. So Jeremiah registers his pain in such a clear way here. And then in verses 19 through 39, there's a change and the sun comes out and It really begins with verse 19 where we read, remember my affliction in roaming, the wormwood and the gall, my soul still remembers and sinks within me.

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope." Now we have a vision of hope. Verse 22, through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not. This I would just suggest is the heart of lamentations verse 23 is the beginning of the next section in the acrostic. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

Now notice he comes to the end, he comes to the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet and says, though the Lord's mercy, Through the Lord's mercy we are not consumed because his compassion fail not. And then when he turns to Oliph to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet in verse 23, he says, they are new every morning. It's a new beginning. Great is your faithfulness. You know the beginning of the blessing of God is marked by the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

They are new every morning. Then the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet verse 24, the Lord is my portion says my soul therefore I hope in him. The third letter of the Hebrew alphabet verse 25 the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him." And then the next letter, it is good that one should hope and wait quietly for salvation is of the Lord. So now you have Jeremiah, he's balancing his lamentation with the truth that he's meditating upon. He's meditating on God's mercy, meditating on God's faithfulness.

You know, one of my favorite songs that I've sung for many, many years, maybe four decades, is a song right out of Lamentations 3 in these verses here. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercy never comes to an end. They are new every morning. New every morning.

Great is your faithfulness, oh Lord." A beautiful song. Let's write out of this passage of Scripture. Interestingly enough, the next verse, verse 27, has a direct relationship to youth. He says, It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. What he's saying here is that it it's good for youth to feel the lamentation, to bear the yoke, to bear the weight of the yoke.

It is good to bear that yoke, to see your humiliation, to see what your sins have done, to lament what your sins have done to you and to the people around you what has been the effect of it well that's really the whole matter of lamentations and to bear that yoke but while you're bearing that yoke you cannot forget that's not the only yoke the Lord Jesus Christ said take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. This is the yoke of the Lord. But here he says it's good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Sometimes in youth you feel like you're going to be overwhelmed. You feel like that there's no open field in front of you.

You feel like things will never turn out like you hope they will and this is part of bearing the yoke in your youth looking out and not knowing what will befall you but knowing this the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, and therefore drink. Drink of His mercies every morning. As you're burying the yoke of your youth, the burdens of youth that all youth have, Their greatest help is to get connected with the mercy of God. There's nothing greater for the soul than to have a filling of the love of God, to fill your mind with the love and the mercy of God and it's everywhere in Scripture.

In verse 32 he says, though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. So this is a critical part in the lamentation where the focus is the mercy of God and the love of God. And then there's a call for examination here, Verse 40, let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled, you have not pardoned.

You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You have slain and not pitied." This is just an appeal to search your heart and examine your ways. Verse 40 really should remind us of what God commands the New Testament Christian to do at the Lord's Supper to examine himself. And this is what you thought to do. They ought to be examining themselves.

To examine their ways, it says in verse 40, and turn back to the Lord and lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven and to recognize any way you possibly transgressed or rebelled. Transgressed or rebelled. And then Jeremiah calls, verse 55, I called on your name, O LORD, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice. Do not hide your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help.

You drew near on the day I called on you and said, Do not fear. Jeremiah cries from the lowest pit. God hears, and what does God say to him? Do not fear. This is the most often used command in the entire Bible, do not fear.

And this is what God says to his people, do not fear. If you're full of fear, you need to ask yourself who's talking to you, who are you listening to? Because God over and over commands us not to fear. And then in verse 64, Jeremiah actually prays for his enemies. Repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

Give them a veiled heart, your curse be upon them. In your anger, pursue and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord. That brings us to chapter 4 and here is a picture of barbarism, the siege of Jerusalem, the starvation, again the consequences of sin, and the difference between Israel's ancient glory and their current degradation. Look at the language in verse 1 in chapter 4. How the gold has become dim.

How changed the fine gold. The stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, valuable as fine gold, how they are regarded as clay pots, the work of the hands of the potter. How the gold has become dim. This is always the result of turning away from the Lord.

The brightness is lost in your life, The luster, the joy, the desire, the hope, it's all gone. And these are the ghastly conditions that took place during the siege. Look at verse three. Even the jackals present their breasts to nurse their young. But the daughter of my people is cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them." Here's a picture of women who've lost their compassion on their young. They're pushing their babies away. They're not caring for them. They've lost the natural human attraction and love for a child.

This has actually happened in our own society where there's such a lack of love for children and people want to figure out how to get away from babies. They're accursed to them. The Bible says children are a blessing, but in times of judgment, in times of sin, women become like ostriches in the wilderness. They just don't care for their young. They're cruel.

And then there's this really shocking verse, verse 5. Those who ate delicacies are delicate in the streets. Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace ash heaps. And in verse 6 we learn that their sin was greater than you can imagine. The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment with no hand to help her.

Look at verse 9. Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger. For these pine away stricken for lack of the fruits of the field. You know in Sodom and Gomorrah they were just wiped off the face of the earth. The death is quick.

You've heard people speak about how they would rather, you know, die in bed or die, just die quickly rather than die slowly. Well that's what he's speaking of here. He's saying those just slain by the sword and die, they're better off than those who die by degrees over the weeks and the months. And that's what happened to them. Look at verse 10.

Astonishing. The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children. They became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people. Refined and compassionate women completely losing all feeling, all love, and they actually are cooking their children. It's such a grizzly picture.

You know, in verse 13, again, Jeremiah comes back to something that he repeats. Why did all this happen? Why the siege? Because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests who shed in her midst the blood of the just." God holds those in leadership accountable. He judges them harshly.

That's why in the New Testament you read, let not many of you become teachers, for they'll incur a stricter judgment. Notice the people also had their own skin in the game. Verse 16, they had no respect for the priests and the elders anyway. The face of the Lord scattered them. He no longer regards them.

The people do not respect the priests nor show favor to the elders." So it's such a time of calamity and difficulty and heartbreak and so there's this picture of this broken kingdom and the lack of love that has filled the hearts even of the women with children in the place that you would not think it could ever happen. And then in chapter 5, the final chapter, there's a cry for help to restore in verses 1 through 15. And here you find a praying and repentant nation. Again, it's important that we grieve properly in an orderly way and not find ourselves grieving in monotone, but to grieve in the way that God would have us to grieve, to Consider all the matters of grief. Verse 3 in chapter 5, we have become orphans and waifs, our mothers are like widows.

We pay for the water we drink and our wood comes at a price. The things that just should be a normal part of free living or gone. Verse 7, our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities. I think you should recognize something about the way that life works in the world. There are times when one generation suffers for the sins of the previous generations.

You may suffer things, you may experience pain, you may shed tears because of your suffering and it may be because of your sins, but it may be because of the sins of your fathers. Our fathers have sinned is what he says. In verse 9 he says we get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. Verse 10 our skin is hot as an oven because of the fever of famine. They ravished the women in Zion, the maidens in the cities of Judah.

Princes were hung up by their hands and elders were not respected. Young men ground at the millstones, boys staggered under loads of wood. Do you think this could ever happen in America? Where everyone is a slave, where everyone is hungry, where the women don't love their babies anymore, where no one respects the prophet and the prophet has nothing of value to say. That's what we see here.

It's such a terrible time. These dire straits are here. Could this ever happen in America? This type of thing has never happened in America, but could it? Don't think that it couldn't.

We shouldn't think that we're above the wrath of God. And this is why ever more we ought to be a people who obey God and cry out to the population to turn to Jesus Christ. Verse 15, the joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance has turned to morning. You know, all the beautiful and happy things of life have been taken away.

Where do you get it back? How do you find your way back to the joy again of your heart? Well, David said, you have turned my mourning into dancing. Here their sins have turned their dancing into mourning, but God can reverse it. Turning your head toward Him, lifting up your eyes, raising your hands toward Him, crying out to him, seeking him with all your heart, remembering his mercies.

This is how you get it back. So there's a cry of repentance in verse 16. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, we have sinned. Verse 19, you, O Lord, remain forever.

You're thrown from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever and forsake us for so long a time? Turn us back to you O Lord and we will be restored. Renew our days as of old unless you had utterly rejected us and are very angry with us." And really the answer from the Lord is, I haven't completely rejected you. My mercies are new every morning.

Lift up your eyes, lift up your head, lift up your hands to me, and return to me." So there it is, that's the picture. Now let's just end up with Christ in Lamentations. Christ is pictured in Lamentations. Both were despised, both Jesus Christ and Jeremiah were despised. They were both rejected by the people, they were both rejected by family, they were both slapped, they were both imprisoned, they both shed tears.

Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as we know in Isaiah 53. The Lord Jesus Christ was weeping over Jerusalem in Matthew 23 verses 37 through 38 in the same way that Jeremiah was the weeping prophet. So Jeremiah is a type of Jesus Christ as he weeps for the sins of his people and the trouble that has come upon them and their need to come to him. Those who are weary and heavy laden, to receive His rest, to receive His yoke upon them. Okay, let me give you some lessons finally.

Lesson number one, Calamity sometimes falls on God's people. Here are three things you need to always know about calamity that falls on God's people. Number one, sin has caused it. It may not be your sins directly, but it could be your sins directly. Secondly, God has ordered it.

Thirdly, mercy transforms it. You know, why has America not seen this calamity? It's because God has not ordered it yet. You know, why did God leave such a lamentation so that people would pass by and see that God judges his people? There's a time when God says no more, Very much like in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 where we see that the Lord Jesus Christ takes the lampstand away from the church.

So this should help us to realize that yes, calamity can fall upon God's people. Number two, ministers must speak of sin or social decay ensues and if the people don't listen, it's all over. If the people don't respect and listen to the prophets and the priests, they're just marking time until the judgment of God falls upon them. When they hear a message where the mouthpieces of God are crying out against sin and they harden their hearts, recognize what that means for them. If they scorn and spurn the prophet who is crying for a turning away from worldliness and sin, it indicates a trajectory that we see here in Lamentations.

Finally, pour out your heart to the Lord. Lamentations shows us a man who's pouring out his grief before God and pouring out your heart before God is a good thing. Let your requests be made known to God. In wrath, remember mercy. When you see the sufferings from your own sin, don't forget that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end. They're new every morning because God is faithful. And so this is how you should think about times of calamity and difficulty in your life. You will face low points. What do you do?

Go to lamentations. Follow the pattern. Follow the ABCs of lamenting and crying out to God. So there you have it, lamentations.