Shabbat Shalom everyone. Today we are going to begin the study of a new book, the book of Lamentations in Hebrew is Eicha. And the Lord lay on my heart somehow, as I was praying about the decision of which book to study together, somehow the Lord laid it on my heart, the importance of the study of the book of Lamentations. And the reason for that, of course, is because the book of Lamentation, or the book of Eicha, present before us the heart of the man by the name of Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, who had such a burden for the condition that existed among our people of old, the people of Israel, where the days where God, in judgment, allowed the city of Jerusalem to be destroyed, allowed the temple of Jerusalem to be burnt, allowed the Jewish people to be taken captive and to be taken to Babylon, and have allowed them to experience the consequence of their disobedience to the God of Israel.

And I would like always, as you know in our Bible. Teaching to make by way of application how does that apply to us today who are believers both Jewish and non-Jewish we are part of the assembly the ecclesia we belong to the Lord Yeshua Jesus the Messiah we have been saved by grace God has brought us into this wonderful truth to be part of the body of Messiah, we have a hope to be with him one day in heaven, but also the condition of the church over the last 2,000 years of church history do not prove to be much better than the history of our people Israel over the years where they had such a privilege to be a chosen nation, a nation that God has blessed to be part and parcel of a relationship with Him.

So today, I would like just simply to give us an introduction to the book of Eicha, Lamentations. And the first thing I want to do, of course, is to read one verse, so please turn with me to the book of Lamentations, to the book of Eicha, and I would like to read the first verse for this ministry meeting today as an introduction. So the book of Lamentation began like that. Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu says, how does the city sit solitary that was full of people? How will she become as a widow, she that was great among the nations? And princess among the provinces how is she become tributary or a slave in Hebrew it is read Jeremiah began this interesting book of lamentation or interesting writing about his lamentation, And his concern for the people of Israel that have experienced destruction, desolation, and obviously a departure from the land that was promised to their forefathers.

Now again, if you just read the book of Lamentation and think about it from our present day age in which we live in, nearly 2,000 years since the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, came from heaven, died on the Roman cross, was buried and was raised and went to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit of God, build the body of Christ, the body of Mashiach, the body of Messiah. 2,000 years have passed by till we live today and look at the condition of the body of Messiah, the body of Christ, these last days in which we live in today. So let me begin by way of introduction, reading another verse that is found in the New Testament in Romans chapter 15 and to remind you, beloved brothers and sisters, that the New Testament writers also were teaching the early believers in various towns and cities whether it is Rome or whether it is Corinth or whether it is Galatian the area of Galatia and Asia Minor or whether it is in Philippi or Colossae or Thessalonica they were charging the believers in their local assemblies never to forget the history of Israel and to remember that the history of Israel is simply become for us believers today as a lesson, as an example in the life of all the people of God.

And in Romans chapter 15, Shaul, Paul, wrote to the early believers. Now remember, this is 2,000 years ago. This is not today, because the new covenant was written 2,000 years ago by the early apostles, and Paul already then and there said to the believers at Rome, in Romans 15, 4, for whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we, through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Paul wrote to the brethren in the local assembly at Rome and he said to them, whatever happened to Israel, our people in their history is serving to be a lesson, And learning for us today that we will learn from Israel's experience and see where do we fit or how do we conduct ourselves.

How does that apply to you and I, believers who are part of the body of Messiah? So let's think for a moment with me, beloved brothers and sisters, of the background of Israel. You know, we read in the Hebrew Scripture that the Jewish people, our own nation was called the chosen people. You remember how God had chosen Abraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? And he brought Abraham all the way from Mesopotamia and brought him to the promised land of Canaan. Abraham, of course, had a son by the name of Yitzchak. Yitzchak had a son by the name of Yaakov. Yaakov had 12 sons, the 12 tribes of the people of Israel.

And how wonderful God had blessed them and promised them a blessing. He will make from Abraham a nation that will be a testimony to the world in which we live in today. And so our own nation, our own people of Israel, Jacob and his sons, ended up going down to Mitzrayim, to Egypt. And there they were for many, many years in the land of Egypt. And after years that they were away from the promised land of Canaan, God have allowed our own nation, Israel, the Jewish people, the Hebrews, to come out of Egypt. And how did they come out of Egypt? He taught them a lesson.

You will take a lamb, you will kill the lamb, you will put the blood on the doorpost and the lintel, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And lo and behold, hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands, In fact, it says 600,000 only male came out of the land of Egypt. Nearly 2 million Hebrews have left Mitzrayim, that is Egypt, and began their journey to the promised land. For years our own nation was in the wilderness, and in the wilderness God has taught them many, many lessons. And during the time when Israel, our own people, in the desert, they rebelled many times against the Lord, the one who brought them out of Egypt, the one who loved them so much and was willing to bear with his own people whom he had chosen.

And finally, after about 40 years, he brought them and he stood them before the promised land. And you remember how Israel was supposed to get into the promised land. Now, many of the older generation died. In fact, all the older generation died physically in the wilderness. They were under the blood, they came out of Egypt, but they died physically doing their journey because of their rebellion. But God allowed the new generation, headed up by Yehoshua Binun and Kalev Ben-Yephune, He allowed them to enter into the promised land and to begin to conquer the promised land that God had promised to the people of Israel. Well, you know, during the time of Joshua, the people of Israel, every tribe was supposed to take his possession.

And it didn't take too long when they were tired and maybe rebellious and disobedient. And many of them did not possess all the land which God had intended to give to the people of Israel. They will possess it in the future day in the Messianic kingdom. But during those days, they did not possess all the land. And because disobedience, they couldn't enjoy the promises that God had for them in the land. Like you and I, who God had promised us spiritual blessings in the heavenlies if we will submit to his authority. But we fail many times in our life and no wonder many professing Christians or people who claim to belong to the Lord don't enjoy the things of God.

And we also, because we are not always submissive to the authority of the word of God. And yet God bore with them and graciously allowed them to be there in the land. And he raised among our own people of Israel the Shoftim, that is the Judges. And when the Judges were raised like Samson or like Yiftach or like Dvorah that he had raised among the people of Israel, for a while they followed the leaders, the godly leaders. But it didn't take too long when they rebelled and they turned away and God allowed the Midianites, the Ammonites, the Philistines and all the nations around to cause our people to become servants for years to their enemies.

And yet God never forsook the Jewish people. He always had in mind for them to be a blessing to the world. So once the Judges ended, God raised the Kings. And you know very well, the first king was Shaul, Shaul HaMeler, Saul, the king. But Saul, the king, didn't want to follow the Lord. The people's choice, head and shoulder above everyone, but yet he did not follow the Lord. And God said to Shmuel, I will raise a man which is after my own heart. And he raised a man by the name of David, Melech Israel, David, the king of Israel, Who was that beloved one that God had raised him.

And he was the one that God wanted to lead the nation of Israel. And indeed, as long as David was right with God, he was a blessing to our own people, to the nation of Israel. But even David became what is known to be a bloody man. And God did not allow him to build a house for God, the temple in Jerusalem. And he did not allow him to build that house. And he says, you are not going to build it, but your very own son who is going to come out of your bowels. He will build a house unto my name. And so when David died, and he allowed his son Shlomo, Solomon, to become the king of Israel.

Shlomo, the king of Israel, when he was young, he was the one that was used by the God of our fathers to build a temple in the city of Jerusalem. Magnificent temple. There was no sight like this temple in the whole world. Nations after nations, leaders came from the whole corners of the universe to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel in the temple in the city of Jerusalem. The temple was the house of God, where he dwelt in between the cherubim, the kruvim, where God received the praises of Israel, as David says, Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, in the 22nd Psalm.

And the nations of the world came there to worship the Lord. But you see, even King Shlomo HaMelech, the King Solomon, did not remain as he ought to have been, faithful to the God of Israel. It didn't take too long time where he was attracted to the gods of the nations. He ended up getting married with 700 wives and with 300 concubines and they took away his heart from the will of God and King Solomon departed from the ways of the Lord. Later on we know as we read the book of Ecclesiastes that he gave counsel to our own nation Israel And he says, remember thy creator in the day of thy youth.

And sure enough, beloved brothers and sisters, God said to Solomon that he eventually will rend the kingdom from him. But it will not be in his days. It will be in the days of his son. And his son became the king of Israel. And when he became the king of Israel in pride and in arrogance, he thought that he will treat the people in the wrong way. And God ran the kingdom from him and that's how we began the division of the kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south two separate nations fighting against each other instead of enjoying themselves because of the God of Israel they have ended up to fight with each other and again beloved brothers and sisters by way of application the condition that exists today among the professing church of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the friction, the lack of love and care and concern for the people of God, the divided condition of the body of Christ in this day of age in which we live in.

The same, even worse, because we live in the days of grace today while our people of old Israel were living during the days that God has separated them from all the nations of the world. They didn't have what we have today. They didn't have the full canon of Scripture. They didn't have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling every believer. They didn't have the Messiah's death, burial, and resurrection. All was in anticipation. Yet, you see, God had bore with them. And as that kingdom had been divided, then the two kingdoms did not continue in God's way. They went further and further and further from the ways of the Lord up to the time where God says, that's it.

And God, by the time we come to 2 Kings chapter 25, God came in judgment upon the people of Judah as he came in judgment earlier about the people of Israel and he scattered them and he sent them into the diaspora, the dispersion as we understand it. Chapter 25 of 2 Kings, and it came to pass, verse 1, in the ninth year of his reign and in the tenth month, And in the tenth day of the month that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his hosts against Jerusalem, and he pitched against it, and they built forts against it round about, and the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of King Tzedekiah.

Now you notice it says here that Nebuchadnezzar besieged. He made walls around Jerusalem by armies and so on. We call it in Hebrew, matzor, did not allow anything to come in or come out until you might say almost choked the city of Jerusalem, choked the Jewish people, brought them to their wits end. And by the time you read a little bit further down in 2 Kings 25, in verse 8, And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuchadnezzar, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem. And listen to this, beloved brothers and sisters.

And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, And every great man's house burnt here with fire. Verse 10 and 11. And all the army of the Calades that were with the captain of the guard break down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And notice verse 11. And the rest of the people that were left in the city and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon with the remnant of the multitude did Nebu Zardan, the captain of the guard, carried away. And here now, by the time that we arrive here to 2nd King chapter 25 and verse 11, the city of Jerusalem was besieged.

Later on, the wall was broken. The temple was burnt with fire and the Jewish people are carried to the land of Babylon. And of course, we can quote, as I have been quoting many times, Psalm 137, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and we wept as we remembered Zion. There in Babylon, they that took us captive said unto us, Sing unto us one of Zion's songs. And the Jewish people who were there by the rivers of Babylon says, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Sad condition that happened to our own people at about 586 BC. As we go back and we look at this picture of the lamentations, we notice immediately that in Hebrew, the name of the book is actually not lamentation.

In Hebrew, we call it Eicha. Eicha simply means how. In fact, the name of the book is how. How is it possible that the chosen people of God find themselves in such a condition, a people and a city that was favored by God how is it even possible that this thing would happen to the people of God so while in Hebrew the word is Eicha in English the word is Lamentations and how did we get the word Lamentations? Because there are 70 rabbis who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek at about 250 years BC, it's called the Septuagint, they named the book of Eicha in the Greek from the Hebrew Eicha to where we get the name Lamentations.

And why did they name it this way? It's because of the content of the book. The book contained lamentations, or we might call it, and another word is, contained weeping and sorrowing and an expression of care for the city and the people that have been taken away from the city of Jerusalem. In fact, in the Greek, it's called phreinoi, the T-H-R-E-I-N-O-I, which simply means lamentations in plural. And lamentations simply mean the cry, the lamentation, the whipping over a situation that happened in the life of one person or a nation. And that's how in the English we get the name lamentation. And as we look now in this picture here, you notice now that in the Hebrew Scripture, the Tanakh, in the order of the Hebrew Scripture, the book of Lamentation is part of the writings.

If you would open a Hebrew Bible today, in the Hebrew text, the order, the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the prophets beginning from Joshua all the way to Malachi, Malachi. But when it comes to the writings, Psalm, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentation, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scripture, the book of Lamentation is part of the writings. But in the English, which you and I hold ourselves today, the book of Lamentation is placed immediately after the book of Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, after that you have lamentation, and often times when you open your Bible you notice it says the lamentations of Yirmiyahu, of Jeremiah.

The English put it in the order in which it was placed when the Hebrew was translated into the Greek by the 70 rabbis who translated it into Greek for the benefit of the world, And therefore, this is placed in the order of events rather than the order in which it was originally placed in the Hebrew text. Now, just bear with me by way of introduction because it is very important to introduce the book before we even get to the actual text itself. Now, there were three deportations that happened in the history of our people Israel. In 605 BC, Daniel and his friends were carried to Babylon and some of the articles that were taken by the Babylonian.

Later on in 597 BC, Yehezkel, Ezekiel was carried away out of the land of Israel. And finally, at 586 BC, we read or we understand that now the whole city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the walls were broken down, the temple was burnt with fire, and at that time, Jeremiah, that is Yirmiyahu, was still in the land of Israel. And he himself was one of the only ones you might say from the prophets of Israel that was literally there to experience the destruction of Israel and if you look at the first slide that we have here you can just imagine as they watch the condition there the walls are broken down the people of Israel are being taken away the temple is destroyed and he is lamenting the people are lamenting and weeping, and if you can look at this, he's crying to God as he sees the condition that's existing there in the city of Jerusalem.

586 BC. It had been said that in July, the month of July, on the 9th of Av, the city of Jerusalem was burnt with fire. I want you to notice here that in the writings there are five known to be in Hebrew megilot scrolls it begins with the song of Solomon Ruth lamentation Ecclesiastes and Esther these five scrolls we call them scrolls or in Hebrew megilot each one of these five scrolls are read during a different season in Jewish worship in the Senagogues today. For example, the first one, the Song of Solomon, is usually being sang in the Feast of Passover in the Senagogues. Why? Because the Song of Solomon speaks about the relationship between two, King Solomon and Shulamit, speaks of love and God in love that brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt and redeemed them unto himself.

Then we have the book of Ruth, immediately after. And the book of Ruth is usually being read in the synagogue during the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. Why? Because Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, the gleaning was there, and everyone was gleaning like Ruth, a Moabitish woman, she gleaned in the field of Boaz. And what we know very well, that during the Feast of Shavuot, The people of Israel were called to bring all that which they have gleaned during the early days of the spring, and they brought it to give thanks to the Lord during the Feast of Pentecost. We jump for a moment over Lamentation, and the book of Ecclesiastes, that is mentioned also after Lamentation, the book of Ecclesiastes is usually read in the Seneca during the Feast of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.

And why? Because Ecclesiastes remind us that there will be an end. Remember your Creator in the day of your youth. You realize that you're not going to be here forever. You're going to have an end. And therefore you have to make sure that you have a relationship with God and the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, bring us to a climax, to an end of the seven Feasts of the Lord which will ultimately bring this celebration and it speaks about the Messianic kingdom. We also notice that we have the fifth Megillah, it's the book of Esther. And when this Esther is being usually read, during the Feast of Purim, the Feast of Esther, the whole book of Esther, the whole scroll of the book of Esther is being read during this time in the synagogue.

Why? Because it reminds us how supernaturally God have delivered our people from Haman that wicked man who wanted to kill all the Jews and now the hands of God even though the name of God is not mentioned in the book of Esther yet the hand of God who raised someone like Esther the queen and Mordechai the Jew who is the one that told to Esther perhaps you came to this situation in your life to be the queen for such a time as this. But as I mentioned, there is the fifth scroll called the Lamentation. And that book of Lamentation which we are going to study together is often time read during the month of Av.

We call it Tisha'a Be'av, the ninth of Av. Why? Because on the ninth of Av in the Hebrew calendar the temple in Jerusalem was burnt with fire by the Babylonians. And not only this, beloved brothers and sisters, because on the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, which is the 5th month in the Hebrew Scripture, also in 70 AD, on the 9th of Av, the second temple was destroyed by the Romans. In fact, in Jewish history, the rabbis look at the 9th of Av and they record many atrocities that happened to the people of Israel during the month of Av on the ninth day of the month of Av.

We call it in Hebrew, Tisha B'Av, the ninth of Av. And the ninth of Av is not a biblical holiday that is found in Leviticus 23, one of the seven feasts of the Lord. But the month of Av became to all Israel A month or a day of the year that is very similar to the Day of Atonement, where there is mourning, where there is weeping, where there is sorrow, where there is remembrance of what happened to the people of Israel and how the temple had been destroyed. And now the second temple in 70 AD was destroyed and I wanted to remind you that it was Yeshua Jesus our Messiah who said in Luke chapter 21 he said in verse 24 they shall fall by the edge of the sword and they shall be led away captive into all nations and listen to them Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Luke 21 and verse 24. So the times of the Gentiles began in 586 B.C. On the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av where the temple was destroyed and the Jewish people have been carried away into Babel. What a sad, sad condition that existed in those days that brought about this man by the name of Jeremiah to lament and to write these five poems or five songs of sorrow over his own people Israel, the city of Yerushalayim and the temple of God that was burnt with fire. In fact, I would like to suggest this, that had we had the condition, the spiritual condition that Jeremiah had, we would also lament over the condition of the people of God today who are divided, who are scattered, who are broken to pieces, whom the Lord is outside knocking on the door as we read in Revelation chapter 3 in the day of the Laodicean.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and will let me come in, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. Because the Lord is outside, knocking on the door, desiring to come in. And no wonder, beloved brothers and sisters, we don't have to blame anybody. We have to look at our very own heart. I remember days ago when I was a younger believer, I remember when we used to go to meetings and had prayer meetings. Now I'm speaking about 40 years ago where the brethren were praying and crying. Praying and crying of a family that are unsaved, souls that are lost, broken condition, division among the people of God.

I remember in some small ways. And think about it, beloved brothers and sisters. Had we had the heart of the Apostle Paul, Shaul Paul, who was so burdened with the condition of the assemblies, who said to the Ephesians, I know that after my departure, grievous wolves will come, will not spare the flock. And he said, I remember that for two years, with tears, I shared this with you, the apostle Shaul Paul said this to the elders of the people of Ephesus. He was broken before the Lord, like Yirmiyahu, who was broken before the Lord over the condition of the people of God. But of course, sadly, we are not in such a spiritual state.

And therefore, we carry on. Oh yes, we are believers, we go to heaven, our ticket had been paid for, we are saved, but our heart is not stirred within us in a way that God has expected from us to have. And you notice, beloved brothers and sisters, as we're going to study the book of Lamentation, Jeremiah was not pointing the finger at everybody else, but he was confessing his sins, the sins of his people. Like Ezra, like Nehemiah, like Daniel, who never only blame everybody else, all are wrong, and I'm the only one who is right. They were broken before the Lord, and they were weeping before the Lord, and saying, we have sinned before you.

Not they, but they include themselves. These are the kind of men and women of God that we can learn from. For whatsoever things were written aforetime, they were written for our learning, that we will learn from that and apply it to our own hearts so we will be men and women, brothers and sisters, boys and girls, in some small measure, like this man called Yirmiyahu. And so we just, by way of introduction, I'd like you to bear with me as I'm giving you some additional information. Turn to the book of Jeremiah for a moment itself, just before Lamentation. We read the first verse in Lamentation chapter 1.

How does the city sit solitary that was full of people? How is she become as a widow? She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces. How is she become tributary, to become a slave? Then notice what we read in Jeremiah chapter 1 about the man, Jeremiah himself. First of all, the name Jeremiah comes from the Hebrew word Yirmiyahu. The Hebrew word Yirmiyahu, Yarem, Yahu. May Jehovah be exalted. Or some suggest that Jehovah will exalt us. He is the one that is able to to raise and to lift us up out of the dust and the condition that we find ourselves in. In Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 1, 2 and 3 we read of him.

It says the words of Jeremiah or Yirmiyahu, the son of Chilkiah, of the priests that were in Anatot, in the land of Binyamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the day of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and to the end of the eleven years of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, and notice at the end of verse 3, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Jeremiah was called by the Lord to be a servant and a prophet among our people of Israel.

And he was the one that was called by God in the days of Josiah. Josiah was a godly king who was awakened to the fact that Israel had violated the word of God and he restored the worship of the Lord. Josiah became a king at 627 BC. So Jeremiah was preaching to the people of Israel from about 627 BC all the way to about 586 BC until the carrying away of the Jewish people to Babylon. If you notice, it's nearly 40 years that Jeremiah was preaching and prophesying to the people of Israel, warning our people and saying to them, Beware, judgment of God will come. Listen to the word of the Lord.

Return, O Israel, back to your God. But Israel did not listen to the words of Jeremiah. And as we mention here, by 586 B.C., the Jewish people were carried away by the Babylonians to the land of Babel. It is also interesting to note here that Jeremiah's father was a priest. You notice verse 1? The words of Jeremiah, the son of Chilkiah, of the priests. His father, Chilkiah, was a Levite, a priest. And therefore, Yirmiah himself was a priest also. He was a priest and a prophet at the same time. And where did they live? According to verse 1, the priest that was Anatot in the land of Benjamin.

Anatot is about five miles north of Jerusalem. Today, and it was a little place or a city that was allotted by the people of Binyamin to the Levitical priesthood. Every tribe, because the Levites did not have any possession in the land of Israel, so every tribe was to give a little place or a location where the Levites, the Leviim, could live. They didn't have an inheritance here in this world or even in the land of Israel. They were the ones that were the priests. They were the ones that were leading the people of Israel in their worship. And they were the ones who lived in various towns of the portion of the land that belonged to the various tribes of the people of Israel.

And so Jeremiah prophesied for about 40 years to our own Jewish people. From the time of Josiah until the time when the Jewish people were carried away to Babylon. And then he himself eventually had been taken, according to Jeremiah chapter 43, he was taken to the land of Egypt and there he stayed for a while when the Jewish people were carried away. And you can just imagine as he was carried away, he's looking back and he sees the condition of the city. The temple is burned, the smoke is running above, the walls are broken to pieces and the Jewish people are carried away. And he began to put down in pen these lamentations.

One lamentation after another as he is lamenting over the condition of the people of Israel. Now there are some lessons that we have to bear in mind that we learn from the book of Lamentation. Again, look again, the name Lamentation in Hebrew the word is Eicha, meaning how. How is it possible that the conditions are like that? How is it possible that the city that was solitary, now that was full of people, look what happened to this city. Desolation carried away, the Jewish people away. He began to, you might say, sing and lament over the people whom he loved so much. Now, there are certain lessons that we learn as we're going to study this book together.

And I would like to suggest there are three lessons that we learn from the book of Lamentation. The first lesson that I would like to suggest that we learn from the book of Eichah is that God will judge sin. God, who is holy, he will punish his own people and we can be definitely assured by the word of God that God will judge his erring people who rebel against him. Never mind the world outside. He will judge the unbelieving world. But God will also discipline his own people. He loves his people. He chose his people. He brought them into a relationship with him. He brought them into the land that he had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our forefathers.

But when they will rebel against Him, He will definitely discipline the very people whom He loved so much. Let me remind you of a verse that Peter wrote to the assembly to whom he was sharing the word in the early days. In 1 Peter 4 and verse 17, Simon Peter said to the brothers and sisters in their locality 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 17 for the time is come the judgment must begin at the house of God and if first it began at us what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God God will discipline his people and you know what brothers and Sisters, it's very natural.

You and I are parents. And when we have our own children that we love them, when they are at their age under responsibility and we are responsible over them, at times we will discipline them. Does that mean that we hate them? Not at all. Does that mean that we want their evil or their bad? Not at all. Whom the Lord loveth, he chastens. And he scourges every son whom he received. It was Solomon who said it in the book of Proverbs. So disciplining his people is natural for God. He loves his people, but when they turn away from him, what do you think he's going to do?

He will have to discipline his own people. Secondly, that we learn from the book of Lamentation, is that there is a consequence to sin. In a second, there is a consequence to sin as we find it, for example, in Galatians chapter 6, and I'll read now another verse in the New Testament, Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7. We learn this from the book of Lamentation. The Apostle Paul said, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. There is no doubt, beloved brothers and sisters, that we learn from Eicha, from lamentation, from the songs that Jeremiah is singing, the mourning, the lament, the wailing that he wailed here, that whatsoever man soweth, he will eventually have to reap.

That speaks to our heart. Because at times, we too neglect to realize the seriousness of being in relationship to Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah. And therefore, we have the responsibility, like Israel, so the body of Messiah have the responsibility to bear whatsoever we sow, we will reap. Third reason, the third lesson that we learn here is very important as well. Not only that God will judge sin, not only that the consequence of sins will bring results for ourselves, like it happened to our people Israel, but also what kind of an attitude we have when God's people are going through experiences of sufferings and so. How do I, how do you, how do Jeremiah Yirmiyahu behave?

And what did he think when he saw the suffering of his own people? Did he say to them, I told you so? And you are so here as you deserve and you get that. And I'm so happy that you are going through these problems and these trials. No, that was not Yirmiyahu. You know, when you and I have such a condition in our heart, you better check yourself. We better check ourselves whether our attitude is at all in line with God's ways. But no, Jeremiah was so painful when he had seen the condition of the people of Israel. We read in Lamentation, chapter 1, in verse 15b, in verse 16, we read here, The Lord has trodden down the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as a winepress.

And then verse 16, for these things I weep, he says. Mine eyes and my eye runneth down with water. That's what Jeremiah's attitude towards the condition of the people of Israel. He didn't point at the wrong. He didn't say, I told you so, and you should have that, and you should have that. Jeremiah sat, you might say, on the ground and wept and prayed to the Lord on behalf of the people of Israel. This is something that we should emulate, that we should seek the law to help us, not to be happy when someone suffers, not to be satisfied when even someone who wronged us experiencing some problems in his or her life.

But the opposite, we should have an attitude that Jeremiah had, as he said, my eye runs down with water. I'm weeping for the people of God, because I want them to be blessed, and I'm not happy when they are going through these sad experiences. So, what lessons to learn? I want to notice now in the next slides that we have here in the division of the book of Lamentation. This is very interesting. And I just want to suggest to you today, beloved brothers and sisters, that in the book of Lamentation, we really have five songs of sorrow. Five songs of the experience of the soul in sorrowing over the people of God, the people of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem.

In fact, if we will look at the outline, and here we can see this, this is a very interesting outline. In chapter 1, we see the lonely groaning. In chapter 2, we see the angry exhorting. In chapter 3, we see the broken and weeping. In chapter 4, we have the desperate anguish. And in chapter 5, we have the pleading, really pleading for God that He will restore the people of Israel. Let me give you another way of reading those five songs of sorrow. Chapter 1, verses 1 to 22, there Jeremiah's sorrow over the destruction of Jerusalem. Chapter 2, verses 1 to 22, there is Jeremiah's sorrow over the anger of God against the city of Jerusalem.

Chapter 3, verses 1 to 66, we see Jeremiah's sorrow and prayer for mercy for the city of Jerusalem. Chapter 4, verses 1 to 22, we see Jeremiah's sorrow over the siege of the city of Jerusalem. And number 5, chapter 5, verses 1 to 22, we see Jeremiah's prayer for mercy. For the restoration of the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people, his own brethren. This is when it comes to the divided or to the outline of the book of Lamentation. Now we're going to go to another chart now, and this is also extremely interesting. The book of Lamentation is divided into five sections, five chapters, and in every one of these five chapters, you have the 22 Hebrew alphabet that we find in the Hebrew Scriptures or in the Hebrew language.

Let me just give it to you, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Daled, He, Vav, Zayn, Chet, Tet, Yud, Kaf, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Ain, Pei, Tzadi, Kuf, Reish, Shin, Tav. 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and interesting enough is that those 22 letters have a numerical correspondence. In other words, every letter corresponds to a number, and that's why many times you find out that those who learn the Hebrew and teach the Hebrew oftentimes use the numerical value of every letter. For example, Aleph, the first letter, is 1. The value of that, the numerical value of Aleph is 1. And of course, you have Bet, Shteyn, 2, Gimel, 3, Dalet, 4, He, 5, Vav, 6, Zayn, 7, Chet, 8, Tet, 9, and Yod.

This is the smallest letter. You remember what the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, said, not one jot or not one tittle. It comes from the Hebrew word Yod. In other words, nothing will be taken away from the word of God, even though the smallest letter, this is the Yod, the numerical value is 10. In other words, you can see that every letter has a number. The moment that you get to number 10, then you don't count 11 or 12 and 13, then you go by 10. 20, Kaf is 20 Lamed is 30 Mem is 40, Nun is 50 Samech is 60, Ein is 70 Pe is 80, Tzadi is 90 And Kuf is 100 So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 And then 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 And by the time that you get to the last letter It goes by hundreds Kuf, the last letter is 100 Resh is 200 Shin is 300 And Tav is 400 The letters equivalent to a number in the Hebrew language Now what is interesting here That every one of these Hebrew letters You have included in those five songs of sorrow But even more that is very interesting that most of these five sorrowful songs, the Hebrew alphabet is acrostic.

In other words, in Jeremiah chapter 1, there are 22 verses. Every verse began with a different letter. Verse 1, with Aleph. Verse 2, with Bet. Verse 3 with Gimel, verse 4 with Dalet, and so on, and so on, the divisions of the chapter. That's why, beloved brothers and sisters, you notice that there are five chapters. Chapter 1 has 22 verses. Chapter 2 has 22 verses. Chapter 3 have three times 22, 66 verses. Chapter 4, back to 22 letters. And chapter 5, 22 letters. The first four chapters of the book of Lamentation, their verses go acrostically, in order. Chapter 1, verse 1, Aleph. Chapter 2, verse 2, Bet, and so on. And you notice that in the third chapter, where you have 66 verses, There you have every three verses began with the same letter.

Aleph, the first three verses. Bet, the second three verses. Gimel, the third three verses. Very, very interesting as we study the book of Lamentation. Now, just to mention another thing, that only chapter 5, which has all the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, yet in this chapter the order is not acrostic. It's not following one after the other in the very same order for one reason or another, which only really the Lord knows and those that pen for us the book of Lamentation, Jeremiah, and the Spirit of God who guided him. Now, this is not the only book of the Bible, the book of the Hebrew Scripture that is acoustic and numerical in such a way.

For example, the longest Psalm, Tehillim, Mizmor, Ledavid, the longest Psalm, this is Psalm 119, is divided into 22 sections. And every eight verses began with a different letter. The first eight verses, all of them began with the Hebrew letter Aleph. The second eight verses all of these second eight verses began with the Hebrew letter Bet. Then you have Gimel and Dalet all the way to the end. And you know what also is extremely interesting that if you know in the book of Proverbs the virtuous woman those of you sisters that are here who love the Lord and want to be a blessing to her husband and to the people of God You read the Proverbs chapter 31 from verse 10 on.

You will notice that the virtuous woman, the 22 verses that I mentioned there, are acrostic. Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Dalet, He, Vav, Zain, and so on, all the way to the end, to Tav. All of them are going acristically, 22 verses. So immediately, one might ask the question, why is it so that these verses or these passages give us an acrostic? The whole 22 Hebrew letters of the Hebrew language, why is it all inclusive? And why they are going in such an order? Just as a suggestion to think about is when God is working about among His people, He will do a thorough work from the beginning to the end.

He will not stop. He will continue on to work in the lives of His people. And when he come in the days of Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, when he took our own people Israel to Babel in discipline, he look forward for a time of restoration. He will judge, he will punish, but he will ultimately restore in order that his own people will come to enjoy the presence of the Lord. Same thing in our life we often time read Romans 8 and verse 28 for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to His purpose He knows why He allows you and I to go through trials and tribulations and difficulties in our life because He that began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

One day we are going to be with our blessed Lord and He is going eventually to show us that which He worked about in our life and will bring us eventually to a final time to be with Him. Now the final word that I want to mention about this introduction There is a theme, of course, to this book, to these five sorrowful songs that Jeremiah sang out of lamentation for his people. And the theme, really, in this book is found here in these verses of this chapter 1 and chapter 3. And I want to mention, the first thing that we learn here, that the theme is the lamentation over the destruction of Jerusalem.

He is lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem. And that's why he says in verse 12, he says, Is it nothing to you all that pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me wherewith the Lord has afflicted me in the days of his fierce anger. This verse is extremely interesting. It is, of course, in the context, it speaks about Jerusalem, the Jewish people, the city of Jerusalem that had been destroyed and the Jewish people had been carried away. But isn't it amazing when you think about how much Jerusalem is linked with the Lord Jesus the Messiah?

You remember what the Lord Jesus the Messiah said in the Garden of Gethsemane? Gatshmane where he said, I have a sorrow there is no sorrow like unto my sorrows. The Lord Jesus, the Messiah in the Garden of Gethsemane, anticipated his sufferings on the tree. And he was sorrowful even unto death. And you remember when he cried to the Father, his father, if it's possible, take this cup away from me. That cup was the cup of God's righteous indignation against our own sin. And God was going to lay upon him, upon Yeshua, the Messiah, all the sin and sins of this world. And he was so sorrowful.

And you remember his sweat was of the gray drops of blood falling down to the ground. And yet he had to go and take this cup. When he went to the cross, he says earlier, Father, not my will, but thine be done. And he went indeed to the tree to the cross and he suffered for the sin of this world but there is a link there is a link between Jerusalem suffering and sorrow the people of God and a Messiah who is depicted here who can say like Jeremiah and Jerusalem say is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord has afflicted me in the days of His furious anger.

Jerusalem was guilty and deserved to be afflicted. But Yeshua the Messiah was not guilty. The righteous anger of God fell upon Him not for His own sins but for yours and for mine. For the sin of the whole world. And He wants us to kind of look at him by faith and says it is nothing to you all you that pass by do you realize what I have experienced when God judged me for your sins for our sins do you meditate upon that do you think that we can forget what the Lord Yeshua the Messiah had to experience in his life when he died for us on the tree and of course the answer we need to meditate upon the sufferings of the Messiah that he had experienced on our behalf as Jeremiah was pointing here to the sufferings of the city of Jerusalem who suffered the hands of God and the judgment of God.

But this is not the end because in Lamentation chapter 3 and this is the last verse I'm reading today in Lamentation chapter 3 in verse 22 we learn that the theme as well is the mercy of God and the compassion of God and the faithfulness of God that is never changes. As we read here, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassion faileth not. They are new every morning. Jeremiah is saying and he says, Great is thy faithfulness. Yirmiyahu looked forward for the day of restoration of the Jewish people and the people of Israel back to the promised land in the Messianic kingdom.

And he says, We are really sustained because of the mercies of the Lord and because of His compassion which faileth not. And think of us, beloved brothers and sisters who are part of the assembly. If it wouldn't be the Lord's compassion and mercy, we will be consumed as well. So we thank the Lord for His compassion. We thank the Lord for His restoration. He will work it out in our life as He will work it out in the life of the people of Israel.