In his sermon on Lamentations chapter 2, Eric Bechler discusses the fierce anger of God against Judah. He describes the historical context, where God's wrath led to the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the exile of its people. Bechler interprets the text as a reflection of God's judgment and correction for Israel's persistent rebellion and idolatry. He explains how God's right hand, usually a symbol of protection, was withdrawn, leading to complete devastation. The sermon emphasizes the emotional and spiritual desolation experienced by the people of Judah, including the loss of their religious and social structures. Bechler draws parallels between the past and present, urging believers to find comfort in God's sovereignty and reminding them that trials are part of God's plan to restore and guide His people. The sermon concludes with a call to trust in God's ordaining of all things and to reflect His love and support to others in times of need.

Thanks for joining us at Barnet Bible Church. This week Mr. Beckler continues his teaching series in the Book of Lamentations. Our sermon today comes from the book of Lamentations in chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. Please stand and we'll read through that.

How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remember not his footstool in the day of his anger. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pity. He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He hath brought them down to the ground. He hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

He hath cut off his fierce anger all the horn of Israel. He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. He hath bent his bow like an enemy. He stood with his right hand as an adversary. He slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

He poured out his fury like fire. The Lord was as an enemy. He had swallowed up Israel. He had swallowed up all her palaces. He had destroyed his strongholds and hath increased the daughter of Judah, mourning in lamentation.

And he had violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden. He hath destroyed his places of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn feast and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The Lord hath cast off his altar. He hath afforded a sanctuary.

He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out her line. He hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying her.

Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament. They languished together. Her gates are sunk into the ground. He hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles.

The law is no more. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence. They have cast up the dust upon their heads. They have verded themselves with sackcloth.

The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. Amen. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day. We thank you for your holy word that we can read and that we can study, that we can put in our hearts.

Lord, we thank you for such an amazing gift as your word. I pray that we would not be ungrateful or ignore it, that we would study it. Lord, we thank you for this little book of lamentations kind of hidden in the middle of the book. And we don't go through very often, but Lord, there's still a lot there that we can learn from in this book. And I thank you that we have time to go through it and just grow and draw closer to you through this book.

May your spirit be among us that you would prepare our hearts to receive your word. In Jesus name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Last time we went through in the book of Lamentations, we were in chapter one. Before we go through there, I'll just as a reminder to give you a quick overview of the five chapters of the book of Lamentations.

In chapter one, the focus is Jerusalem's misery and desolation. Chapter two, the Lord's anger against His people. Chapter three, Judah's complaint and basis for consolation. Chapter four, the contrast between Zion's past and present. And chapter five, Judah's appeal for God's forgiveness.

Last time we finished going through chapter one, and it's a reminder of the main points that we discussed in chapter one, were the great suffering of God's people through the destruction of Jerusalem and a temple, and the exile of her people, And through the abandonment of her friends and allies, not only offering neither comfort nor support in her time of distress, but becoming her actual enemies. Through this great suffering, Judah acknowledged her great rebellion against God, that she deserved the punishment God afflicted with her. Note that their sin against God was not singular, not a single point in time, not a one-time event. Judah had rebelled against God and his commands for years, actually for centuries. One of the applications we touched on last time was the futility of putting trust in earthly alliances for security.

Does not yield security and never has. We see that played out in our world today in many ways. We should put our trust in God and in God alone. Another application related to this is the reaction of the people of Judah. Jeremiah uses very emotional language and imagery in describing how shocked and in disbelief the people of Judah were at the destruction of Jerusalem in their holy temple.

Jeremiah had prophesied God's punishment on his rebellious people. They'd been told over and over this was about to happen. This should not have been a surprise. How do you handle tragedies and attacks? Are you surprised?

Are you shocked? Well we shouldn't be from 1st Peter chapter 4 verses 12. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. We're told not to be surprised. Trials are not some strange thing that happens.

They happen regularly. They happen to everyone, even Christians. In these times, do your eyes and thoughts turn to Jesus, or do they turn inwardly to yourself? So in turning to chapter 2, my Bible has the first half of this chapter broken out in three sections. Verses 1 through 5, God's fierce anger.

Verses 6 and 7, the destruction of the temple. And verses 8 through 10, the destruction of Jerusalem. As with chapter 1, chapter 2 starts also with the word how. How hath the Lord? Why does he start with the word how?

Long ago the scriptures were copied onto scrolls, and in that there were no punctuation, there were no chapters, there were no numbered verses, none of that was used. Thus, before the development of titles, the first word or words of a text were used as the title. It's called the insipid. In some of the documents the insipid was decorated much more than the other words in the text. You may have seen an old book where the first word was very elaborate and very decorated.

In Lamentations the first word is how and in Hebrews it is the word echok. In this case not only chapter 1 but also chapter 2 starts with how. Well how is used to express Jeremiah's lament, his observation of what has happened. In chapter 1 Jeremiah's lament was focused on the devastation of all that was holy and precious to Judah and the state of her people. How could this happen?

And in chapter two, how is used a little bit differently. In our verses today from chapter 2, Jeremiah focuses on at least 26 different actions the Lord undertook against Judah, actions that come from God's fierce anger. For hundreds of years, God waited patiently for the cup of wrath to be full. The time had finally come. The cup of wrath was finally full.

It was time for God to pour out His cup of wrath on His people. It was time for Judah to experience God's chastisement and to experience God's fierce anger. In verse one, how hath the Lord, covered with a cloud, cast down the beauty, remembered not his footstool? Three actions that he takes here, two of these three are done in his anger or in the day of his anger. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger?

Who is the daughter of Zion here? It is the city of Jerusalem. Think about a bright sunny day abruptly changed by a dark stormy cloud, a violent storm bursting upon the land, cold, dark, and threatening. God's anger is something to fear. How hath the Lord cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel?

What is the beauty of Israel? This could be Jerusalem. This could be the temple. The picture is going from greatest prosperity to utter misery. Jerusalem is gone from the glory days of David and Solomon to the complete destruction of the city and the temple and exile of her people to Babylon.

And then the third action here, how hath the Lord remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger? What is meant here by his footstool? If we compare what is written in First Chronicles 28-2 and from Psalms 99-5 and 132-7, we can get an idea from 1st Chronicles. Then David the king stood up upon his feet and said, Hear me my brethren and my people, as for me I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God and he made ready for the building." From Psalm 99 5, exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool, for he is holy. In Psalm 132, 7, we will go into his tabernacles, we will worship at his footstool.

We get the idea here from these verses that the footstool is actually the ark of the covenant. What is implied here is that during the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple that the ark also was destroyed. A lot of arguments on that point whether it is or isn't, but we're gonna go with that today. Since the Lord here remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger, This gives us an indication of the intensity, the severity of God's anger here that he not only destroyed Jerusalem, his city, the daughter of Zion, and his holy temple, the glory of Israel, but also the ark, the holy place where God met with his people. His destruction was complete.

And we note here the punctuation. We don't see in these Lamentations of Jeremiah, there's not too many exclamation points. There's actually five. Three of them are in the first verse of chapter one, and then there's two others. So this is a point where we get a lot of emphasis here, where God's hammering this point, that he wasn't going to remember even his footstool, even the ark itself.

In verse two, we find four more actions taken by the Lord. The Lord has swallowed up the habitations, he has thrown down the strongholds, has brought them down, has polluted the kingdom and princes, and we'll go through each of these. The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied, he hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. Here we have pictured both the habitations of Jacob, which refers to the pastures and dwellings of shepherds, areas that are not fortified and are without walls. And the strongholds, these are fortresses and walled cities, both being destroyed, swallowed up, and thrown down, is the language used here, even stressing that there would be no pity shown even to the shepherds.

The Lord hath brought them down to the ground. This imagery shows that God had brought them down low, beat them down low with his anger and with his fury. The Lord hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. What once was holy, God made common. By the sin and rebellious conduct of her rulers, her leaders, her priests, the kingdom was destroyed and was polluted.

We go to the Psalms and read a few verses here from Psalm 89 verses 39, 40, and 44. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant. Thou has profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou has broken down all his hedges. Thou has brought his strongholds to ruin, and thou has made his glory to cease and cast his throne down to the ground.

Continuing we have a series of three more actions in verse three. He hath cut off the horn of Israel, drawn back his right hand, and burned against Jacob like a flaming fire. He hath cut off his fierce anger all the horn of Israel. Who or what is all the horn of Israel? The horn is a symbol of power and strength that is used in scripture, whether offensive or defensive.

When it says all the horn of Israel, this is all their strength and all their power. God has cut off all the power and strength of Israel in his fierce anger. The Chaldeans have utterly destroyed all the power of Israel, of Judah. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. God's right hand is a symbol of protection.

There is strength, there is power, might, and righteousness in God's right hand. From Psalm 17 17 we read, wondrously show your loving kindness, O Savior, of those who take refuge at your right hand from those who rise up against them. God's right hand is a refuge. It protects. For Judah, God has drawn back his right hand.

He has removed his protection as the enemy approaches and does not intervene as the Chaldeans destroy Jerusalem and the temple. So God had cut off the power of Judah. God had withdrawn his protection over his people. What follows? Utter destruction.

He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire which devoureth round about. John Gill states here with this, his wrath was like a burning flaming fire which consumes all around wherever it comes. Thus the Lord in his anger consumed Jacob and left neither root nor branch. Moving on to verse four, we have another series of three actions by God. He had bent his bow, he stood and slew, and he poured out his fury.

He has bent his bow like an enemy. God is depicted here as an archer ready to shoot. God is no longer a protector of Judah, but appears as an enemy executing judgment. Although God appears to be an enemy to Judah, we need to remember he's not their enemy. He's using Nebuchadnezzar to judge his people.

He stood with his right hand as an adversary and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion. We talked about God's right hand in verse 3, how there is strength, power, might, and righteousness in God's right hand. It is a source of protection. Here there's no protection. Here God's right hand is an adversary, an enemy.

And using Nebuchadnezzar he slew all, all that were pleasant to the eye, all that were dear and precious to Judah. Again the daughter of Zion here is representing Jerusalem. God is destroying all in Jerusalem. The warriors, the leaders, the priests, the princes, the women, the children, even the babies, everyone. He poured out his fury like fire.

As with the climax in verse 3, we have the same thing here. Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed, burned with fire, complete destruction. And in verse 5 we have again four more actions taken by God. He has swallowed up Israel, has swallowed up all her palaces, has destroyed his strongholds, has increased mourning and lamentation. The Lord was as an enemy.

He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. Here we have God swallowing up imagery for destruction the nation of Israel, including her palaces, which might include the rulers, residences, and the temple. Also his strongholds, which would be the fortresses throughout Judah, the walled cities, the castles.

We notice here also in this verse when it talks about palaces, it's her palaces. When it talks about strongholds, it's his strongholds. So language here is the palaces are from the daughters of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem it's a connection with her, and with his it's more used to represent just the places of the land or of the people of Israel in general. I thought that was interesting, the change in gender there.

He hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. All of this destruction caused the mourning and lamentation of the people to increase. This is somewhat interesting. We don't see this so much in the English. Again, the book of Lamentations is a poem, and it's set out in a meter, and the words in Hebrew sometimes really flow well and help you emphasize certain points in this particular verse.

In the ending here, the Hebrew words are of the same root and have kind of a repetitive sound to give emphasis of the sorrow for the word mourning, aniyah, and the word lamentation, saaniyah. And so you get a kind of a reputation, aniyah and tainiyah. So, I'm not so great at Hebrew, but anyway, it's just you can picture that this is actually a poem, and because it's in English we're missing a lot of what happens here in trying to convey the emotion and the sorrow. This is just a place that I found noted that really kind of stresses that. So here we've gone through five verses of God's fierce anger.

His fury is poured out on his people, his protection withdrawn, the destruction is overwhelming, resulting in great mourning by his people. The remaining verses today are broken into two sections, the destruction of the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem. In verses six and seven we have the descriptions of the actions God took to destroy the temple. He had violently taken away his tabernacle, destroyed his places, caused the feast and Sabbaths to be forgotten, despised the king and priests, cast off his altar, abhorred his sanctuary, given up the walls. So let's go through those one at a time.

And he had violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden. In the Jewish feast of tabernacles, even today, the Jews will build a small shed or a booth outside their house or in their garden to celebrate this feast. I think it's a week long. I actually worked with some Israeli guys in Austin, and they actually, in Austin in their subdivision, built little booths next to their house. So it's a practice that's done even today.

When the feast is over, they take it down. They either store it, or they throw it away. The image here is that God, just like you would take these booths out of your garden during the Feast of Tabernacles, He's going to take away His temple in Jerusalem just as easily as done after the festival, after the feast. The difference here would be the level of violence that God would use in taking away his tabernacle. He had destroyed his places of the assembly.

The Lord hath caused the solemn feast and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. Because God had the temple destroyed, the places to assemble, the places to celebrate the feasts, the places to celebrate the Sabbath, the places for the people to meet with God were all destroyed. With no places for these activity, they will soon be forgotten. He hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. Why does God despise the king and the priest?

He despises them in the indignation of his anger. Noah Webster defines indignation in a couple of ways. One as anger or extreme anger mingled with contempt, disgust, or abhorrence. Another way he defines it as the anger of a superior, extreme anger, particularly the wrath of God against sinful men for their ingratitude and rebellion. I really like the Noah Webster dictionary.

It really has some good definitions here for us. We see that God was very angry at the king and the priests in Jerusalem, not only for their ingratitude, but their rebellion, and their rebellion for years and years. The Lord hath cast off his altar. The altar is where the sacrifices were performed. With no more altar, there would be no more sacrifices performed, nor received by God.

He hath abhorred his sanctuary. The temple was carefully built by Solomon. Every detail was laid out to David by God for its construction. It was one of the most beautiful and remarkable buildings of its time, maybe of all time. And yet because of the rebellion of God's people, God looked at his sanctuary with abhorrence, with extreme hate, and allowed it to be profaned and torn down, destroyed.

I just would make this has got to be a very difficult thing for the Jewish people to accept. This was a very precious place in their, really the center of their lives. Whether you lived in Jerusalem, whether you lived countries and countries away, you came back to Jerusalem. This was, you know there's a verse, if I ever forget Jerusalem, cut off my hand or something like that. So this is a very intense moment.

It's easy for us to read through this and say, oh that's kind of flowery, oh they look sad. There's a lot of grief here, there's a lot of sorrow. When we see the altars are given up, when God looks at his temple with abhorrence. We don't use that word very often in our day-to-day language, but it's like the worst hate. There's really nothing worse than abhorrence.

So I just want to stress that it's something. He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces they've made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of a solemn feast we look here who is they they here is the Chaldeans the enemy of Judah the tool that God utilized here God gave Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldeans and with it the temple. They destroyed Jerusalem. They profaned and destroyed the temple. They sang and they rejoiced as conquerors, and the level of noise within the temple, within the walls of her palaces, was as much as would be heard from the priests when they sang during their festivals.

Again, how sad it must have been to see their holy temple, God's house, profaned, despoiled, and destroyed. In verses 8 through 10, we have descriptions of the destruction of Jerusalem, four more actions God took, and the descriptions of the conditions within Jerusalem after the dust had settled. The Lord had purposed to destroy the wall that stretched out a line, had not withdrawn his hand from destroying, and he had destroyed and broken her bars. Again, let's go through these one at a time. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion.

Again, the daughter of Zion here is Jerusalem, and God has purposed that the protective wall around Jerusalem, even around the temple, will be destroyed. The wall here is a symbol of strength and security. With this gone, the enemy will have free reign throughout the city to do what they will. He has stretched out a line. Just as a builder uses a plumb line to properly build a wall or a building, and we're actually most familiar with that particular usage, or at least I am, but those who are also involved in demolition, they also use lines to indicate what should be torn down and what should remain.

Here we have a picture of God stretching out a line, marking out what was to be destroyed. And in this case, it was everything, all of it. He had not withdrawn his hand from destroying, Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament. They languished together. This is the third time God's hand or right hand has been used.

God will not stop until the cup of wrath has been fully poured out, until the full judgment has been administered. Why are the walls and the ramparts mourning? They're laying as rubble on the ground, no longer serving the purpose that they were designed and built for. Her gates are sunk into the ground, he hath destroyed and broken her bars." Typically the picture of the gates, you have the hooks in the back and a bar holding it closed for security or some other mechanism of bars. Here we have, as we saw with the ramparts and the walls, the gates of Jerusalem were destroyed.

The bars holding them secure were broken. Nothing left here but rubble laying on the ground. So, finally here, what now is the result from God's fierce anger being poured out onto Judah? Jeremiah uses the rest of verse 9 and 10 to describe this situation. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles.

It gives you the picture that they are now in exile. They were carried away to Babylon. We have that the law is no more. A central part of Jewish society is the law. It's no longer there.

Judaism is a national, was a national religion. Judah was destroyed and exiled. The law was read aloud to the people on a regular basis in the temple. And we have no temple, we have no nation, we have no law. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.

This was interesting. I find after the exile here to Babylon, we see that there are really very few prophets that show up anymore. I think there's three after the exile between that and Christ. So the number of prophets really kind of drops off. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence.

Elders silent. The elders typically sit at the gates and judge different cases or causes before them. They offer advice, they offer counsel. People from all over the city come to them to hear what they have to say. But now after all that's happened, they just sit quietly with nothing to say, full of sorrow.

They've cast up dust upon their heads, they've girded themselves with sackcloth. The nobles, the elders, they usually adorn themselves in wealthy, distinguished attire. They're casting dust on their heads and they change their clothes to sackcloth. Sackcloth, of course, was typically what you wore in times of great mourning or times of great humbling. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads to the ground.

The picture here of young maidens would be of brightly clothed, heads up high, energetic, fun, and playful, but in this case they're downcast, filled with shame and sorrow to such an extent that their heads even reach down to the ground. Wow, so this is the picture Jeremiah describes for us, for the people there in Jerusalem. It's a difficult time for Judah. God did not abandon them. God was correcting Judah for the sins she had committed.

Was every Jew rebelling against God? We look at the people there in Jerusalem, the people throughout Judah. Can we say that every one of those were wicked and rebelling against God? We all sin and so that that's there, but probably there were some righteous people, faithful people, that lived their lives as best they could to the Lord. So it's a lesson for us that okay, when there are times of judgment, the righteous suffer the same thing.

They feel the pain. Some will die. Some just suffer. Life is not fair. Life is hard.

We can look at our world today and there's a lot of reasons for our nation to be judged. There's a lot of signs of changes coming. Who knows what they will be. But we need to remember in what we're reading today in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, God was correcting Israel out of love. God was correcting them with a view to restore them.

We know that before the exile the Jews had a real propensity for idolatry. They would take up the idolatry of their neighbors over and over and over again. After the exile we don't see the same thing happening. Not that they're not sinning and rebelling, but that's gone. So we see that God is trying to restore them.

So the question to ask yourself is how do we respond when we suffer, maybe it seems undeservedly or because we're part of the crowd, how do we, or maybe we deserve it. How do we respond? Do we get angry with God? It's convenient that our teachings these weeks are about God's decree, and it comforts us to know that God ordains all things. He does this at His pleasure, and He does this for his glory.

And we need to remember this. As I said, it should comfort us, especially in the more difficult and really tragic times. There are no surprises. There is no luck. There is no chance.

Everything that goes on has been ordained by God. Praise the Lord. He's in control. We can take comfort in that. Let us pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for being such a righteous and just God. We thank you for your sovereignty, Lord, over all things. Lord, what great comfort we have knowing that you created all things. Lord, that you ordained each thing that's happening. Lord, that not a single atom is outside of your control.

We thank you Lord that the world around us is not left to chance but again is left to your ordaining and your purpose. Lord we thank you for those difficult times that we face that draws closer to you, that challenge us. Lord, those times when we get off the beaten path and we need chastisement and Lord that you give it to us. We don't like it but Lord it's an expression of love and we thank you for getting us back on the right track, grabbing our attention and helping us turn back to you. We thank you for that.

Lord, as we live our lives and go through joyous times and trials, no matter what the circumstances, Lord, we just praise you for the love that you pour out on us and pray Lord that we would deal with those around us, friends, neighbors, strangers even, that Lord we would reflect that love that you pour out on us. Lord that we would be willing to help others that are experiencing great sorrow or great troubles, Lord, help us reach out and show them love, sometimes just sitting by, sometimes doing other things. Lord, help us see those around us that may need support or care or love. Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us. And I pray that we would try to be more thankful, try to be more grateful for all that you