Shabbat Shalom everyone. Let's open our Bibles to the book of Lamentation. In Hebrew, the book is Eicha. The name of the book is really How. What a name we have in Scripture to the writers or those who translated gave the title lamentation and the reason they gave it because of the lamentations that Jeremiah lamented over the condition of our people Israel and the city of Yerushalayim. So Eichah Lamentation chapter 2 and I would like to read the 22 verses of Lamentation, chapter 2, and I would like you please to follow with me as I'm reading these verses. How has 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 remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger.

The Lord has swallowed up all the habitation of Jacob and has not pitied. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has polluted the kingdom and the princess thereof. He has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire which devours round about. He has bent his bow like an enemy. 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.

He poured out his fury like fire. The Lord was as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. and has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. And he has violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden. He has destroyed the places of the assembly. The Lord has caused the solemn feasts and Shabbats to be forgotten in Zion and has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given up unto 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 has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line. He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying. Therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament. they languish together her gates are sunk into the ground he has destroyed and broken her bars her king and her princess are among the Gentiles the law is no more her prophets also find no vision from the Lord the elder of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence they have cast up dust upon their heads they have girded themselves with sackcloth the virgins of Jerusalem hung down their heads to the ground mine eyes do fail with tears my bowels are trembled my liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

They say to their mother, where is corn and wine when they swooned as they wounded in the streets of the city when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom? What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great, like the sea. Who can heal thee? Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee, and they have not discovered thine iniquity to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

All that pass by clap their hands at thee. They hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, we have swallowed her up. Suddenly this is the way that we looked for. We have found. We have seen it. The Lord has done that which he had devised. He has fulfilled his word that he had commended in the days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, and he has caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee.

He has set up the horn of thy adversaries. Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, Let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no rest. Let not the apple of thine eyes cease. Arise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watches, pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hand toward him for the life of the young children that feigned for hunger in the top of every street. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?

Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? The young and the old lay on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. Thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger. Thou hast killed and not pitied. Thou hast called as a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escape, nor remain. Those that I have swaddled and brought up has mine enemy consumed. Well, this is the word of the Lord. This is the passage that you and I might like to avoid reading.

And you and I might say, God, I don't quite understand why did you put this book of Eichah, lamentations, the canon of scripture? Why do we need even to read it? You and I might say, and yet, beloved brothers and sisters, we know very well that whatsoever things will happen a full time, become for our learning. Romans chapter 15 and verse 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11 shows us that whatever happened historically to our people of all, the people of Israel, serves to be an example to you and I who believe in Yeshua the Messiah today. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 11, now all these things happen unto them, namely Israel, namely Yerushalayim, namely the people of Israel, the Jewish people.

And they have become an example, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the end of the world are come. So as we study the book of Eichad, that is the book of lamentation, this is really for our own benefit. Now, I do not know if you realize that, But there is a principle that the Bible teaches us that whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. The book of Galatians chapter 6 teaches us this. In other words, the people of God, whatever they sow, whatever they produce in their life, whether they follow the Lord or whether they don't, whatever decision they make in their lives eventually they will bear the consequence of their doings whether it will be good blessings whether it will be bad or sinful eventually there will be judgment but God always deal with us as a father and the purpose behind it is not merely to punish us the purpose behind it is to lead us into repentance and restoration and the blessing that he is intending for God's people.

To remind you that at 586 BC, on the ninth day of the Hebrew calendar month of Av, God have allowed the Babylonian to come to Jerusalem to burn the city, to break down the walls of Jerusalem, to burn the temple, and to carry our own people to Bavail. From 586 BC until today, we live in a period of time that in the Bible it is called the times of the Goyim, the Gentiles, where the kingdom had been removed from Israel and was handed out to the Gentile world. It began with Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian, continued with the Middle Persian, later on with the Grecians, and ultimately with the Romans.

And the Roman Empire will be revived one day and restored one day, and then at the end of the days, the Messiah will come, and he will destroy the future world empire that he will destroy and a messiah will come and yeshua is going to reign as king of kings and lord of lord but until this day we are finding ourselves in the study of the book of lamentation that in 586 jeremiah yirmiyahu after 40 years of preaching warning to our own people to judah beware, judgment will come listen to the voice of the Lord humble yourself before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob don't do your own thing return, in Hebrew Shuvu, return O Israel come back to me, God is saying through Yirmiyahu but Israel, Judah did not obey and because of the disobedience God said there is a day coming when I'm going to carry you away from your very own land.

And so when 586 B.C. came and the Babylonian came and destroyed Jerusalem, Jeremiah, Yirmiahu, went on the ground and humbled himself before God. And instead of saying to the Jewish people, I told you so, he broke with tears. His heart was yearning. And he saw the Jewish people carried to Babylon. And he fell on the ground and he humbled himself before the Lord. I remember just recently I've been in the Holocaust Museum in the city of Jerusalem. And you see some videos and clips how our own people were taken by the Nazis and were carried to the guest chambers. And you look at those pictures and you see little children.

With the Star of David on them. And they were carried all the way to this terrible place. And six million people who were murdered not too many years ago. Seventy-something years ago. And Jeremiah saw that. He didn't see what happened by the Nazis. But he saw what happened by the Babylonians. And it broke his heart. He couldn't see that. and he cried to God in these lamentations five of these lamentations he is crying to God lamenting over the condition that existed there and then 586 BC for us today we forget about all these things we continue on in our life but when we study this it can break our hearts to see how he was so concerned about the condition of his own people, the beloved city of Jerusalem.

In Psalm 48, in verses 1 and 2, we read, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city. Listen to this, brothers and sisters. In the city of our God, verse 1, in the mountain of his holiness, Beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north. The city of the great king. This beautiful city of Yerushalayim, of which the psalmist of Israel was singing about, the beautiful city of Yerushalayim in these days is the sons of Korach. In chapter 50 of Psalm 50 verse 1, it's the psalm of Asaph the mighty God even the Lord has spoken and he called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down the rough and look what we read in verse 2 out of Zion the perfection the beauty of God has shined so Zion, Zion, Jerusalem is the city of the great king is the city of God and now Jeremiah who look back and he see the condition that is there and he began to weep before the Lord and to sing this sorrowful song lamenting and asking how is it possible?

How is it possible? And so in Lamentation chapter 2 once again we have 22 verses exactly 22 verses after the 22 Hebrew aleph, bet, alphabet? From aleph to tav, from the first letter to the end. And you have them acrostically. Every verse have one Hebrew letter. Verse 1, aleph. Verse 2, bet. Verse 3, gimel. Verse 4, daled. And you have the whole 22 Hebrew alphabet, perhaps to convey the fact that God is thorough. in what he is doing. He is completing everything. He doesn't do anything partially. He is thorough in the way that he deals with his very own people. And so, in the first ten verses of Lamentation chapter 2, we have Jeremiah lamenting over the anger of the Lord against the city of Jerusalem.

Now, I don't know about you. We get angry a time. But many times our anger is not righteous at all. We get angry because something doesn't go our own way. We get angry because maybe somebody didn't do what I want him or her to do. But when God is angry, his anger is righteous because he's holy. His indignation is not an indignation the way you and I are getting angry at times. He is righteous in everything he's doing. And so in verses 1 to 10, Jeremiah is lamenting over the anger of the Lord against Zion, against Zion. And notice it says in verse 1, 2, and 3, he's asking how is this that the Lord poured out such a furious anger upon the city of Jerusalem.

Notice the first three verses of Lamentation, chapter 2, verse 1, 2, and 3. How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud? in his anger and he cast down from heaven upon the earth the beauty of Israel and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger. You notice how Yirmiyahu that is Jeremiah began in chapter 2 it is the second time that he used the word how? Eicha that's the name of the book. How? How is it possible God that your anger was so severe against the city of Yerushalayim, he called it the daughter of Zion. In Hebrew, we call it bat Zion. And notice he said three things.

He covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud. Secondly, he has cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel. And thirdly, he remembered not his footstool in the day of his fierce anger. The three words, the daughter of Zion, Batsion, the beauty of Israel, Tiferet Israel, and his footstool, this is Hadom Raglav. And you know what is his footstool? According to the time when David received the instruction as to build the temple, the footstool of the Lord is really the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy of Holies in the temple in Yerushalayim. So Jeremiah saw the temple is burning. As he's looking back, he see the flames are rising from this temple.

And he said the Jewish people are carried to Babylon. And he looks back and he says, how? How is it possible, God, that you have been so angry with our own people of Israel that you have covered the daughter of Zion, that you have cast down the beauty of Israel and that you did not remember the temple and the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant where the people of Israel, the Holy of Holies, where Aaron would put the blood in between the keruvim, the cherubim, upon the Ark of the Covenant. How is it possible? Jeremiah is asking. He continues, notice in verse 2 and 3, gives us a description of what the Lord have done against his people, his city, and his temple.

Notice the descriptions, beloved brothers and sisters, in verse 2 and 3. Notice it is the Lord's doing even though Nebuchadnezzar have done that but the Lord have allowed the king of Babel to come to do what he did in the city of Yerushalayim. It says in verse 2 he has swallowed up all the habitation of Jacob. In other words the people of Jacob, Yaakov, the people that belong to Jacob, the Jewish people, he has allowed them to be swallowed up. He has not pitied them. He has thrown down his wrath, the strongholds of the daughter of Zion. All the things, all the protection that the Jewish people had, the walls and the fences and so on, he had cast these down.

He had brought them down to the ground. He had polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. You see, Israel was a kingdom, Malchut. There was a king and there was a kingdom. But the kingdom of Israel was divided by the time that we are speaking here because Israel, the northern ten tribe, and Judah, the southern two tribes, have fought against each other and divided themselves.

So by the time we come to 586 BC, he has already sent the northern kingdom to assyria now that 586 bc the southern kingdom this is judah and benjamin have also gone astray and now he bring the babylonian to take them away captive and so we read here he has thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of judah he has brought them down to the ground he has polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof verse 3 he has cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of israel he has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy and he burned against jacob like a flaming fire which devours round about now you notice

brothers and sisters that he says here in his fierce anger what did he do he cut off the horn of israel when you think about horn in hebrew we call it keren the horn of israel means the horn which you have on a goat or you have a horn and horn speaks of strength and god in a judicial way remove the strength of israel from them he weakened them that anybody can come and do to them whatever he wants to do to them you know spiritually speaking for us today when we disobey the lord and go away from the lord you know that spiritually we are weakened it reminds us of shimshon samson when he

was the most strongest man in those days one of the judges of Israel but he departed from the Lord he went with Delilah and he went away from the Lord and when the time that Delilah said to him Delilah the Philistines are coming the Philistines are coming and you read this very sad description she cut the hair that represent him as a Nazarite devoted to the Lord and when the Philistines came Every time they tied him, he could take the ropes and rip them apart.

But when the Lord went out of him, the strength has departed. And when he tried to do it as before, there was no strength in him anymore. It's like for you and I in our walk with the Lord. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, he helps us spiritually, giving us spiritual strength. But when we disobey him, all that spiritual energy and strength that we had is going by the wayside. And that's why the Lord removed from us sometimes spiritual strength because of our disobedience. That's what happened in the days of our people Israel. In his serious anger, he cut off the horn of Israel, the strength of Israel.

And then you notice also what we read, that he had drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. In other words, he removed the protection. In other words, what he's saying to Israel, Israel, you want to go your way? You think that when I gave you guidelines and instruction as to how to live your life as a chosen people, the moment Israel went outside of the will of the Lord, He removed his protection. It's like parents, isn't it? When our children were young, we protected them. Watch how you cross the road. Watch who are your friends. Make sure that you accomplish what I'm telling you to do.

When there is a rebellion and disobedience, the parent says, okay, let's see. You go ahead. And they remove their protection. And you find out how quickly the enemy come and cause us to wander around and to find ourselves later on in a sad, sad condition. And so Jeremiah is now in verses 1, 2, and 3, he is really at awe, asking how God, the Lord, how did you pour out such an anger against your people of Israel and the city of Yerushalayim? You notice, by the way, that in this text that we have, there is interchanging the words Zion, Israel, Jacob, Jerusalem. It is interchanging. He's speaking about the same people, the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of the people of God.

He's speaking about the people that he has chosen for himself. You and I today as believers in Yeshua and Jesus the Messiah can be applied to us how God is speaking to us and asking us as believers in the body of Messiah that we too will be guarded because God is able to discipline his very own people whom he loves so much. So if you remember, we just read in 1 Peter 4 and verse 17, judgment must begin at the house of God and it began at the house of God. What shall be the end of those that obey not the gospel, those that reject the Messiah? If the believers are being judged by God as a father, what's going to happen to the unbelieving world who deny the finished work of Yeshua, the Messiah?

So in verses 4 and 5, as we move along, remember, it's Aleph, Bet, Gimel, A, B, C. Acrostically, this chapter is going, and in verses 4 and 5, the Lord took the position as an enemy against his beloved nation, Israel, and the city of Yerushalayim. How is it possible? Jeremiah is wondering, now the Lord who loves Israel, who have chosen these people of Israel for himself, Now he turned around and he acted as an enemy. Notice verses 4 and 5. We read here, he has bent his bow like an enemy. He stood with his right hand as an adversary. And he slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

He poured out his fury like fire. Verse 5. The Lord was as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all the palaces. He has destroyed his stronghold and has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. You see, brothers and sisters, this is also, it's amazing. You know, the Bible tells us that the Lord loved Israel so much. In Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3, the Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. He's speaking to Israel, to our own nation. My love towards you is an everlasting love. But what happened when his own people turned away from him?

according to the passage we read in the book of Eichad, the book of Lamentation, is that he's turning against his own people, and he becomes for a season, you might say, as an enemy. And here you notice in verses 4 and 5, he said, he has bent his bow like, notice the word like enemy. What does the enemy do? He takes his bow and his arrow, and he shoots an arrow against someone who is his enemy. But this time, 586 BC, on the 9th of Av, God bent his bow and became as an enemy to the daughter of Zion, the city of Jerusalem. He stood with his right hand as an adversary, verse 4, and he slew all that were pleasant to his eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion.

He poured out his fury like fire. Now again, brothers and sisters, if you'll ask me, I would like to sit and read a passage that speaks about the blessing that we receive, the future that we have, and the glory that we will receive. But to read such a passage from Lamentations chapter 2 about the Lord becoming as an enemy, as an adversary, is something that we're not too attracted to. But the Spirit of God is able to use it to speak to us, to give us this red light of caution. Because God, who loves his people, is able to deal with us as a father that loves his son or daughter and chastens them in order to restore them when they go astray willfully.

Whom the Lord loveth, he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives. Shlomo, Solomon said, which is quoted by the Hebrew writer. And so you notice verse 5, the Lord was as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. He has increased, notice what it says at the end of this verse 5, he increased in the daughter of Yehudah, Judah, mourning and lamentations. In other words, he brought about sorrows among his people Israel because of Israel's disobedience. Following the God's small g of the Gentile world. Adapting the manner of life of the world and its system.

Rejecting the word of God and not obeying the Lord and what he commanded our own people to do. like we do it today in the present day age in which we live in. Believers reject the word of God. Reject the will of God. Carry on in our own life. God is dealing with his people. And so we read now how Jeremiah is at awe. God become as an enemy to his very own people. And as we move along in Lamentations chapter 2 in verses 6 and 7, the Lord really disowned his sanctuary and the worship system in the city of Yerushalayim in Zion. He totally disowned it. Even though emotionally it was continuing on, he completely disowned it.

And you know why? Because going on through the motion, it's only outwardly for everyone to see. But the Lord knows the heart. He searched the hearts. he tries the reins he knows our hearts and you and I today might go to a meeting congregation or church or assembly meeting and if the heart is not there and we merely go through the motion it's not pleasing to the Lord and that's why you notice in this next verses 6 and 7 he totally disowned that which he has established for a season because he's going to discipline his people. So we read in verses 6 and 7, and he has violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden.

He has destroyed the places of the assembly. The Lord has caused the solemn feasts and the Shabbats to be forgotten in Zion. And notice what he says, And he has despised the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest. In other words, the temple worship was going on, but the heart of the people departed from him. They were keeping Shabbat, ritually, without a heart in it. The feast, the Moadim, the seven feasts that God had given to Israel, Leviticus chapter 23, It was the Moadei Yehovah, Moadei, the feast of the Lord. The ritual continued, but the heart was not submissive to him. And so you know what the Lord does?

According to this verse 6 and 7, as we read here, he have caused the solemn feasts and the Shabbats to be forgotten in Zion. And he allowed the Jewish people to go to Babel because there they will remember what they had in the city of Yerushalayim. You know, it reminds me of believers in the days in which we live in. And we experience this in a personal way. When we minister the Word of God and we gather together, preach the Word of God and the believers grow, the spiritual grows, there are more people coming and then the people of God start to fight and start to be proud and arrogant.

and instead of humbling themselves and living for the Lord and being a servant among the people of God they're starting to be proud and arrogant and they go through the motion and really the heart is not in it and it doesn't take too long and the Lord blow on it and he scatter the flock and then five years later we say I remember those days when we used to be together and enjoy the word of God and learn about Yeshua the Messiah I remember so the Lord allows his people to experience the consequence of their evil doing he allow it in your life he allow it in my life he allow it in our family life and all of us have to remember that God is real if there is a God he is real and if God created us we are created for his pleasure and if he saved us He didn't save us so we will live for the world and we live for other gods.

He saved us so we can live for Him. So our time and our energies and our talents and whatever He had given us to give for Him so He can be honored and we can be blessed. But when we pride ourselves and when we don't realize that this is the kind of life the Lord wants His people to live, then He will blow on it. God resists the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. Humbel thyself under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time. The Hebrew prophets and the apostles wrote in the Hebrew scriptures and the Brit HaChadasha in the new covenant.

And here we find out that now, where is the Shabbat? Where is the Moadim? Where are they? You can keep it in Babylon if you want, but not in my city of Jerusalem, which I set my name, and you dishonored the temple and the word of the Lord. It says here, notice in verse 6 at the end, he said, in his indignation of his anger, the king and the priest, in other words, what happened? That the Shabbat and the high holidays or the high feasts had been forgotten, and even he despised in his indignation the king and the priest. Well, why did the king was given to Israel?

Why was the priest given for Israel? The king watched over the people of Israel politically. The priest, the Kohen, watched over the people of Israel spiritually. But of course, like us, they didn't take the responsibility seriously. Oh, I'm the king, and oh, I'm the priest. Ani ha-melech, ani ha-Kohen. And they did not take it seriously. And what happened? They end up to be taken to Babylon. This verse came to my mind as I'm thinking in 2 Timothy chapter 4 when Paul warned Timothy about the latter days in the assembly, in the church, in the ecclesia. He said to them, for the time will come, he said to Timothy, when they shall not endure sound doctrine.

But after their own lusts, they will heap for themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth. And they shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, and do affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Shaul Paul said to a younger brother by the name of Timothy, he says, I'm telling you, in the last days, this is the condition that will prevail in the assembly, in the church, in the ecclesia. They will not induce sound doctrine. They want a priest or a teacher to tickle their ears rather than to give them the word of the Lord.

That's what the apostle is saying. And that's what Jeremiah is telling us in the book of Lamentation. Let's move along. Notice in verse 7 now, we read, the Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls and her palaces. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of solemn feasts. In other words, the Lord has allowed the altar where the lamb was laid and the blood was sprinkled. He allowed it to be cast down. Then what happened, it says here, his sanctuary. This is the temple itself.

He had allowed the Gentile Babylonians to come into the temple and commit what you call abominations there. Defile it. God gave it over to them. It says at the end of verse 7, they have made a noise in the house of the Lord as in the day of solemn feasts. You know what that tells us? That when the enemies of Israel came to destroy the temple, They made so much noise that it sounded very similar to when the worshippers were there without their heart worshipping the Lord. It's like noise for God. Sometimes it's really humbling to think that even in our prayer, we are like noisemakers if we don't have our heart involved in this.

This is very humbling. It's very moving when you really think about it. So Jeremiah continue 9 verses 8, 9, and 10 as he is lamenting over the anger of the Lord against Yerushalayim. We find out that the Lord, not only did he disown his sanctuary, the temple, and the worship, he also disowned the city itself, Yerushalayim, and he also temporarily disowned his very own people, the Jewish people, allowing them to be carried to Babylon. Notice these three verses, very moving here in verse 8. The Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line. He has not withdrawn his hands from destroying.

Therefore, he made the host, this is the people, and the wall to lament. They languished together. Even the wall wept, we read here. The people wept, and the wall wept together. The wall, when you see the wall, that was a high wall that was placed as a protection for the people of Israel. The wall itself had been broken down, crying as it were. Look what happened to me. And the people of Israel had been lamenting together the daughter of Zion, here in verse 8. In verse 9, the Lord destroyed the gates and the bars of the city of Jerusalem. Notice, her gates are sunk into the ground and has destroyed and broken her bars.

Her king and her princess are among the Gentiles. The law is no more. Ain't Torah in Hebrew. The law is no more. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. Look at the sad condition. Because what we find here in verse 9, that the gates were broken and the bars were broken so people could come in. But then he says, even the king and the prince are among the Gentiles. If you read the end of 2 Kings 24 and 25, you find out that the king of Judah was carried to Babylon. And the princes, all those who were the leaders of our own nation, the Jewish leaders, they also have been carried on.

You know, some of the people that were carried on to Babylon was young people, like some of us that are here, young brothers and sisters, like if you remember, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael. These were Jewish boys that were carried to Babel by Nebuchadnezzar, but they were godly boys. Daniel was the one that in the lion's den, the lion could not destroy Daniel when he was cast into the lion's den. Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, when they cast them into the fire, there was a fourth man, a fourth individual right there, appearing like one like the Son of God. Messiah appeared there and protected Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.

They were godly boys who learned from their parents, but they were carried away because the vast leadership of Judah was not obeying the word of the Lord. And we find out in this verse also, brothers and sisters, that the law is no more. Everything has been carried away. There is no guideline to go by because right now they have been carried to Babylon. They couldn't practice what the law commanded them in the temple in Jerusalem. But now the law is no more. Very interesting description in Torah. But in Torah does not only speak about the five books of Moses. But Torah in Hebrew goes beyond merely the Ten Commandments.

Torah to Adonai simply means the word and the instruction of the Lord for his people. You and I read the scripture today. this is the word of the Lord Torah Adonai, Torah Elohim and then it says very sadly, look at this that even the prophets verse 9 at the end they found no vision from the Lord in other words the purpose of the prophets is to speak to the people the word of the Lord so they are looking for some revelation from the Lord God give me something to give to your people but the Lord did not give them a message. These ones were good prophets, a godly prophet, but they could not give a message because God has shut himself from allowing his own people to receive from him anything because they have rejected the word of the Lord.

You know, one day, you never know if the Lord will allow us to gather ourselves together the way we gather regularly. You never know. You know, in a former Soviet Union, they couldn't have the privilege of meeting together many years ago before the Iron Curtain was broken. You know, in Muslim country, you will try to gather together as a believer in Yeshua the Messiah, specifically in the places that they reject the believers and so on. You will not be able to do that. And you would love to say, wow, where can I gather myself with other believers and read the scripture? They will not allow you.

So here, what we find out, that the law was no more. The prophets didn't get a vision from the Lord, no ministry. You know, we are privileged, brothers and sisters, to go to a meeting and to sit humbly before the Lord, to pray together, to sing together, to read the Bible together, to study the Word of God together. You never know what's going to happen in the future. And you and I are privileged today to be able to do so in such a simple fashion. But in that day when God's anger was against his people, there was no vision from the Lord. Even the prophets who wanted to give a word from the Lord, they had nothing to give.

According to verse 10 now, we find out that the Lord brought down even the elders of the daughter of Zion. And he brought them all down. And it said, the elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and they keep silence. They have cast up dust upon their heads. They are mourning. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. Neither the elders nor the women of Jerusalem could even rise up from the ground because they were totally devastated 586 BC on the ninth day of the month of Av when the Babylonian finally destroyed the temple in the city of Jerusalem so in verses 1 to 10 of Lamentation chapter 2 Yirmiyahu that is Jeremiah is lamenting over the anger of the Lord this righteous anger against the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people.

And so now in verses 11 to verse 17, Jeremiah now, he has a personal response to the Lord's anger. He's responding. You know, how do you respond? How do I respond to a time where God disciplined his people? Look at the way in which Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu, responded to the Lord in the way that he had angrily, righteously judged his own people. Look at that Jeremiah, what a man. He's called in the scripture the weeping prophets. He was crying like a baby all the time. And you know why he was crying? Because his heart was yearning for his people. He didn't do so for any other reasons because he did care for his own people.

And so notice what we read here in verses 11 to 17. We read his personal response to the anger of Jehovah, the anger of the Lord. First of all, in verse 11 and 12, Jeremiah's entire inner being had been moved. His entire human being was in turmoil. Can you imagine when you see what happened there? His all inner being was in turmoil. And so in verses 11 and 12, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, we see how Jeremiah was carried on in that situation. How he felt everything in his very own body and his soul. It says in verse 11, Mine eyes do fail with tears. My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughters of my people.

Because the children and the sucklings lay aside or faint. This word for swoon, S-W-O-O-N, comes from really the word of they are fainting. They are laying aside in the streets of the city. Verse 12, they say to their mothers, where is corn and wine? When they are fainting as wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom. Jeremiah looking around and he see the little babies, the little boys and girls, and as they are fainting, they are just by the wayside. They are all completely at awe. And then Jeremiah saying that his eyes were full of tears. He was weeping as he was looking at the condition of the people.

That's what reminded me this morning when I was preparing for the message.

I was thinking to myself how they have been carried, little boys and girls, who are helpless and hopeless without their parents they carry them away and they're hungry they're thirsty and they are looking for their parents they're looking for where's my mom, where's my dad they're for Abba, they're for Ima and they are worried they're faint, they're tired that's what Jeremiah is seeing Jeremiah is looking back and he's seeing this and he says you know my eyes are full with tears he said my liver my bowels everything within him was affected his soul, his heart his liver according to this passage every part of his body was affected he was emotionally physically, mentally spiritually affected

by the event that occurred there at 586 BC and we find out beloved brothers and sisters look at the children says here the daughter of my people because they're children and the word for suckling children suckling come from the Hebrew word olel veyonek veyonek is where they were still feeding on their mother's breast for milk but they didn't have anything and olel is a little young one they were helpless so what do you think Jeremiah is going to do when he sees such a condition what would I what would you do when we're going to see such a thing such an event like this where God came in judgment upon his beloved people and they

say to their mothers they want to have where's the corn and the wine here it's not like they're drinking alcohol it's a simple drink that they could feed them and will give them some nourishment where is the food and as they were fainting in the streets of the city wandering around little kids you know I'm just thinking even now it doesn't matter whether they're Jewish or whether they're children, non-Jewish, Muslim kids I was just thinking when all the bombings going on in Syria think about the little boys and girls they're trying to find their ways they're trying to find their parents they can't find them bombing all over destruction of the cities and the towns

that's what evil does in this world that's where God also when he allowed this to happen and so the children suffer the children pay for that eventually he continued Jeremiah in verses 13 Jeremiah is now overwhelmed and he asks what can be compared to such an event as this Jeremiah is saying notice verse 13 what thing shall I take to witness for thee what thing shall I liken to thee O daughter of Jerusalem what shall I equal to thee that I may comfort thee O virgin daughter of Zion for thy bridge is great like the sea and who can heal thee you see what he says he's trying to compare did it ever happen something

like this before how can we compare what happened wherever it happened something like this the 9th of Alv in 586 BC when did it happen before in history he's really saying now we know that many evil things happened over the years in this world many holocausts have happened many destructions have happened but he was so overwhelmed beloved brothers and he was trying to find a way as it were to tell you know it happened before you're going to be able to make it I'm comparing it to something that happened in another situation but no Jeremiah says I cannot even find any place else something like this has happened to comfort thee he wanted to comfort

his people brothers and sisters you know we have responsibility to comfort our brothers and sisters to be a blessing to God's people when they are going through trials we are not only to point fingers and to condemn and judge others we are really to be a blessing to the people of God and seek to be an encouragement to them and then he says who can heal you see in the book of Exodus chapter 15 and verse 26 God said to Israel I am the one, I am the Lord that healeth thee.

I am the one who is able to heal you. He's asking, who can heal? And so he knows that the only one who can heal is the Lord himself. In verse 14, notice about the false prophets right now. All this happened because the teachers, the prophets, have given to Israel wrong message, not warning. They didn't preach the word of God. And you notice what it says in verse 14. Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee. And they have not discovered thine iniquity. In other words, they didn't tell you you're wrong. Don't go this way. Turn around. Shuvu Yisrael. Go back, Israel. Repent. Turn away from your way.

He says they are the ones that have given you wrong message. You know, we have to be careful that we will not allow any false messages to come across. That we will not have itching ears to try to have them tickled. So we will be happy when somebody says, carry on, do what you want. You know, you're okay. You're fine. That's what they said to Israel. It's fine. You can carry on. And so we read it, the prophets have given you vain and foolish things. They have not discovered thy iniquity to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

They gave them wrong message, and that brought about this situation. And in the next verse, verse 15, even the people who were passing by and so on, notice how the passers by, all the Gentiles around the city of Jerusalem, It says in verse 15, all that pass by clap their hand at thee, they hiss and awake their hand at the daughter of Jerusalem saying, is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? Is this the city? All the passers by, look at the city of Jerusalem that is completely destroyed and they say, is that the city of Yerushalayim that we heard about?

The perfection of beauty? Is this the city? Look what happened. And instead of yearning for this city, they are clapping their hands and they are happy to see the destruction of Jerusalem. And they wag their heads. And they mocked at the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the Jewish people. That reminds me how in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 39 when Yeshua was on the cross all that passed by looked at him and they wagged their heads they say he saved others himself he cannot save if you are the Mashiach, the king of Israel come down from the tree but of course thank God that Yeshua didn't come down from the tree otherwise you and I will have no hope But like Jerusalem, so the Mashiach himself, the experience of the suffering and the sorrows are very similar.

Of course, Jerusalem is guilty for her own sin. But Yeshua is holy, innocent. He suffered for the sin of this world. In verse 16, we have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we were looking for. You see, the enemies of Israel were looking for that day. we have found we have seen it in other words they were so happy in verse 16 all the enemies have opened their mouth against thee they hiss and they gnash their teeth and they say we have swallowed her up suddenly this is the day that we look for we have found we have seen it the enemies of israel always wanted israel to be defeated and when they saw this situation they were clapping their hand they were happy for this and they said this is the day that we were looking for to happen and so in verse 17 Jeremiah confess that all this really is from the Lord because of Israel's disobedience verse 17 the Lord has done that which he had devised he has fulfilled his word he had commended in the days of old he has thrown down and has not pitied and he has caused thine enemies to rejoice over thee he has set up the horn of thine adversary in other words whatever happened to Yerushalayim was already predicted by the Lord and executed by the Lord because of Yerushalayim because of our own people's disobedience and the Lord eventually brought this to fruition.

Well, the last verses, please. In the last verses, 18 to 22, those last verses, Jeremiah now presents before us and before Israel the purpose of the Lord's doing. Why does the Lord sometimes punish his own people? Why does the Lord discipline his own people? He's always for the benefit of his own people. He always disciplined in view of restoration. So when you have and I have some problem in our life and we feel like the Lord has disciplined me, well, don't turn away from the Lord, but confess your wrongdoing, my wrongdoing. Turn back to the Lord so he will be able to continue on to bless his very own people.

So there is a reason Jeremiah is now presenting before his readers. why is it that jehovah have allowed this to happen to his own people so verse 18 their heart cried unto the lord oh wall of the daughter of zion let tears run down like a river day and night give thyself no rest let not the apple of thine eyes cease you see what happened it is the cry of israel now who is now crying to the lord and saying to the lord you are our wall not the walls here you yourself are our wall and we are the daughter of zion we are the apple of thine eye you know the apple of god's eye is that the pupil that you and i have right there the small little one is like the apple of god's eye israel the jewish people not because they are better than any other nation But by divine design, he has chosen this nation to become the apple of his eye.

The book of Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 10, Moses reminded Israel that Israel the apple of God's eye. The psalmist of Israel as well in Psalm 17 and verse 8, remind us that Israel is the apple of God's eye. So precious to the heart of God. Zechariah chapter 2 and verse 8 mentioned this as well. And you know, brothers and sisters, every one of us who belong to Yeshua the Messiah, we are the apple of God's eye as people of God today. Those who are believers in Yeshua, dear to the heart of God. And so they prayed, they said, don't allow us to cease. Verse 18, don't allow the apple of thine eyes to cease.

Verse 19, they are praying and they are saying, Arise, cry out in the night and in the beginning of the watches. Pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. They are speaking to each other, Jerusalem, encouraging each other. Cry to the Lord. And he continues and he says there in verse 19, Lift up thine hand toward him for the life of the young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street. In other words, lift up your hands in prayer and be sincere, Jerusalem. Jeremiah is saying to the people of Israel in order that God will accept it and that he will respond to your prayer.

In the next verse, verse 20, we say, Behold, O Lord, consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall a woman eat the fruit, the children of this pen long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? You see, Jeremiah in a sense reminds the Lord and he says, Lord, look who you did it to. These are your very own people. These are your chosen people. Look, these are your people, Lord. Don't allow this to continue on. Do you want that the women will eat the fruit that is the children of their care? There's no food, Jeremiah is saying. And then verse 20b, he said, do you want the priest and the prophet to be slain in a sanctuary, O Lord?

In other words, do you want them to remain there, dead, and no nation going to be risen for your glory and honor? And then he continued there in verse 21, and he said, the young and the old lie on the ground in the streets. my virgin and my young men are fallen by the sword thou had slain them in the day of thine anger thou has killed them and not pitied in other words Jeremiah is saying Lord look the young the old you are all slain there you have slain them in the day of your anger and they are now killed you didn't have any pity on them and then the last verse here in verse 22 this is the letter tough the final hebrew letter thou has called as a solemn day my terrors round about so that in the day of the lord's anger none escape nor remain those that i have cared for it says here and they brought up hath mine enemies consumed and so eventually we find out that the people of Israel were called to repent and to turn to the Lord in prayer and ask for the Lord's mercy now what about us how do we relate to such a passage you might say brother Gideon I don't need to hear this kind a passage.

I like to hear about things that are much more pleasing to me. And yet, you know, brothers and sisters, by divine design, God placed it in the canon of Scripture to show us that if we will choose a wrong path, dishonoring to the Lord, the Lord's anger, righteous indignation against sin will fall upon the very people whom he loved so much. So I'm closing with this verse. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 17 For the time is come the judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, Peter said to the first century believers what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Judgment must begin at the house of God. May the Lord help us to see that. May the Lord help us to discern that, to humble ourselves before Him and allow Him to work in our lives so we can live a life that is pleasing to Him.