Shabbat Shalom! Turn in your Bibles to the book of Lamentations. And we are studying in Lamentations, chapter 3, in Hebrew, Eicha. And as we have learned so far, that Yirmiyahu, that is Jeremiah, was asking the question, "How?" Eich, in Hebrew. How is it possible that this happened to our people of old, the people of Israel, and to the city of Yerushalayim? In 586 BC, the Babylonians came, destroyed the city of Yerushalayim, burned the temple in the city, and carried our people Israel into the land of Babel. And here you see Yirmiyahu, that is Jeremiah, lamenting over the city of Yerushalayim, and the people of Israel, who were carried captives by the Babylonians.

We have covered chapter 1 and chapter 2. And today, I would like you to turn with me to Lamentations, chapter 3. It's a long chapter, but with short verses. And I would like you just to follow me as I'm reading these 66 verses of Lamentations, chapter 3. And we begin verse 1, "I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned. He turned his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He had broken my bones. He has builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail.

He has set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He has hedged me about that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. When I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone. He has made my path crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drunken with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He has covered me with ashes. And thou has removed my soul far from peace. I forgot prosperity. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remember mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.

Because his compassion faileth not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him. To the soul that seeketh him. Good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he has borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust. If so be, there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him.

He is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High. To subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commendeth it not? Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good. Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled. Thou hast not pardoned. Thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us. Thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made us as the obscuring and refuse in the midst of the people. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and snare is come upon us. Desolation and destruction. Mine eyes runeth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Mine eyes trickles down and ceases not without any intermission. Till the Lord look down and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. Mine enemies chased me so, like a bird without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head. Then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice. Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee. Thou saidst fear not, O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul.

Thou hast redeemed my life. O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong. Judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me. The lips of those that rose up against me and their device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down and their rising up. I am their music. Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart. Thy curse unto them. Execute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord. This is Lamentation chapter 3.

Sixty-six verses are placed together in such a long prayer of lamentation, of sorrows, Jeremiah, the servant of the Lord, was presenting now as he's pouring his soul unto the Lord because of the situation that exists in the city of Jerusalem. Now, beloved brothers and sisters, we have already said that the book of Lamentation gives us five songs of sorrows that Yirmiyahu, Jeremiah, the prophet of Judah, the prophet of our own nation Israel, have cried to the Lord at about 586 BC to remind you that Judah disobeyed the Lord. Yirmiyahu served God among our people. He preached a message again and he gave warning to Judah. And he said, listen, if you are not going to turn back to the Lord, God will eventually judge you.

Turn ye, shuvu Yisrael, back to the Lord. But Israel, but the Jewish people, fail to return back to the Lord. And God said this about Israel and he may very well say this But all those who turn away from him, for my people have committed two evils. Jeremiah, chapter 2 and verse 13 They have forsaken me, the fountain of the living waters, and they have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. In other words, God in his love for Israel, who said to Yirmiyahu, that my people, that is Israel, that is Israel, Judah, they have committed two evils. Evil number one, they have forsaken me, the fountain of the living waters.

And number two, they hewed for themselves cisterns, their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. In other words, God in his love for Israel, who said to Yirmiyahu, that I have loved you with an everlasting love. He said to the prophet Jeremiah to say to Israel. And yet, when Israel turned away from him, they have turned their hearts from the living God. And they sought to live their life without the God of Israel. Believing in the gods of the nations, in the idols of the nations. Turning away from the Lord, which made it necessary for the Lord to send the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar to come against his very own people.

You remember we said that, and I'm repeating these verses again and again, according to what we read in 1 Peter chapter 4. Judgment must begin at the house of the Lord. And that is the way God is. He is holy, he is righteous, and he will judge his own people whom he loves dearly. So in these five lamentations, we see Jeremiah weeping, crying, heavily burdened with the condition of the people of Israel. To remind you that in these five songs of sorrows, we have the whole 22 Hebrew alphabets from Aleph to Taf. 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet found in every one of these five lamentations. In chapter 1, we have it acoustically.

Verse 1, Aleph. Verse 2, Bet. Verse 3, Gimel. All the way to the end. And there we learn about Jeremiah lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem. In Lamentations chapter 2, we also have 22 verses. And once again, every one of these 22 verses began with a different Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, verse 1, Bet. Verse 2, and so on. And Jeremiah once again lamenting over the anger of the Lord against Jerusalem. Now this time, it is very interesting. We arrive to the third lamentation song of sorrows that Jeremiah is now expressing before the Lord. But this time, you don't have only 22 verses, beloved brothers and sisters. But you have actually 66 verses. But it is very interesting that somehow he is like a poet who cries to God from his heart.

Who is yearning for God's people and God's city and God's temple. He is now giving us these 66 verses. But every three verses began with the Hebrew alphabet. So, verse 1, 2, and 3 began with the letter Aleph. Verse 4, 5, and 6 began with the letter Bet. Verse 7, 8, and 9, each one of them began with the letter Gimel. And so on. Each one of these verses began with the Hebrew letter all the way to the end of the chapter. Now, you and I may very well ask, how come every one of the Hebrew alphabet is included? Well, the only suggestion that we may have is that God is thorough in his dealing with his people.

Whatever he began, he will also conclude. He doesn't do part work like we at times do things partially. We do things not completely. We are not always carrying on with the job or the ministry that the Lord had given to us. We are very partial. We are very limited because we are sinners who are saved by grace. But God is thorough. Whatever he does, he's going to complete. Eventually, he will deal with his people and he will bring them into full restoration in the future day. You remember what Paul said in the book of Philippians. He who began a good work will complete it until the day of Yeshua, the Messiah, Jesus the Messiah.

So there are many lessons to learn for us because whatever was written a full time about Israel now served to be a lesson for us today. And so in Lamentation chapter 3, though there are 66 verses, every three verses began with a different Hebrew alphabet, completing the full 22 Hebrew alphabet found in the Hebrew language. Now, you notice, beloved brothers and sisters, that also Jeremiah, like others, like David, David and others, they are in a sense becoming a type and a picture of Yeshua, the Messiah, the man from heaven. God, who became a man and entered into this world, he took union humanity with divine nature, and he came to this world to suffer for the sins of the world.

Yesterday, we studied Isaiah chapter 53. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. And we read this very moving verse that says he was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And we were kind of thinking how sad it is to look at the Lord, just like you look at a lamb that is being led to the slaughter. And the lamb do not know that he's going to be slaughtered in a few moments. But Yeshua knew very well that he was going to die for the sin of this world.

And as a lamb, he went to the slaughter, knowing very well that he will die for the sin of this world, not for his own sin, but for mine and for yours. And he went knowingly and he opened not his mouth and he went all the way. He was that man that experienced affliction and sorrow and the rod of God's wrath against him. Now here what we learn, that in a miniature way, we see the prophet expressing his heart here. And in the first 18 verses of Lamentation chapter 3, we see Jeremiah expresses his own suffering and sorrow. And he speaks to the Lord, admitting that it all came from the Lord against him and against our own nation Israel.

And so can you imagine as they are traveling away from Jerusalem, carried to Bevel, Jeremiah looking around and he see the burnt temple, the broken walls, and now he's expressing his heart. Notice in the first nine verses, Jeremiah experienced opposition from the Lord himself. The Lord came in judgment upon Israel and upon everyone that belonged to this nation because of his righteous indignation and because Israel's sin. And so in the first three verses, Jeremiah experienced affliction. We read, "I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has led me and brought me into darkness but not into light. Surely against me is he turned.

He turned his hand against me all the day." These three verses began with Aleph. Jeremiah is saying, "Look, God has turned against me. God, in a sense, became the one who opposes me." Now why did God oppose Jeremiah? Why did God oppose the Jewish people during the days of the Babylonian captivity? Because they turned away from him. And God warned them all along, "Israel, if you're going to turn away from me, I will become your enemy. I will go against you." Notice he used the word, "all the day." The Hebrew word is kol hayom. Whatever they did, wherever they've gone, whatever the Babylonian carried them away, God was against the people whom he loved because the people have turned away from him.

In verses 4, 5, and 6, Jeremiah experienced the sadness of darkness because God turned against him. You see, he said, and again, this verse 4, 5, and 6 began with the second Hebrew letter, Bet. And he said in verse 4, "My flesh and my skin has he made old. He has broken my bones. He has built it against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He has set me in dark places as they that be dead of old." Now sometime, beloved brothers and sisters, God's people, even the body of Christ today, the body of all believers, whoever they are today, when they turn away from the Lord and willfully going against God and against God's ways, not judging themselves, will bring about the necessity of God to lead them into dark places.

Again, I always think about the prodigal son who says, "Father, give me that that belongs to me." And he left his father's house, turned against his own father, and went to the world and its system. And he finds himself in dark places, seeking to feed upon some food. And he ends up to feed upon the husks that the pigs were eating. And he went away from God, from his father. And God had allowed him to experience the wrong that he had done. He continued, Jeremiah, and experiencing the opposition of the Lord. He said in verse 7, 8, and 9, he experienced spiritual imprisonment. It's like he's in jail, spiritually.

No spiritual impowerness, no ability to enjoy the Lord. Notice verse 7, 8, and 9. He has hedged me about that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shut out my prayer. He has enclosed my ways with hewn stones. He has made my path crooked. I especially highlighted to myself, he shutteth out my prayer. Can you imagine, beloved brothers and sisters, the only avenue that one has with God is prayer. Is speaking to God and sharing with God the burden that we have on our souls. And praying when we are willfully gone against God's way, God cannot answer prayer.

He will not answer prayer of one who reject him and do not follow his instruction. We read in the Psalms. We read in the Psalms. It is very interesting. Psalm 66 and verse 18. The Psalmist of Israel had expressed when he was in trial. He said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Why? You see, it is interesting because when we willfully continue on to go against the Lord and then we cry to the Lord for help. The Psalmist of Israel said, the Lord will not hear me. Isaiah 59:2 says, your iniquities have separated between you and your God that he will not hear you.

Jeremiah is saying here in this verse 8 of Lamentation chapter 3 says, you have shutteth out my prayer. I can pray. I can talk. I can speak. But God shut my prayer. He did not respond to my prayer because we as a nation, Jeremiah confessed on behalf of Israel, have turned away from the Lord. So in verses 1 to verse 9, Jeremiah experienced opposition from the Lord. Brothers and sisters, listen. The Lord will oppose his own people when his own people oppose him. The Lord will oppose those whom he loves and he will allow them to be going through the experience of trial and sorrow when they go against him and violate his word.

It happened every time. Look at scripture. Look at the history of Israel, our own people. Look at the history of the assembly, the church. When God's people didn't continue to follow the Lord, God ended up in judging his very own people. So Jeremiah experienced opposition from the Lord. But now we move along in verses 10 to 18. Jeremiah also experienced animosity from the Lord. Now, people sometimes say, well, all we need is love and God is so good and he's loving and so on. But listen, if God is God and truly he is, if God is holy and indeed he is, he will oppose and he will become an enemy to those that do not submit to his authority.

Here is what Jeremiah is saying. In verse 10, 11 and 12, this is the fourth Hebrew letter. There we find out that Jeremiah became God's target for discipline. Look at that. Look at that. Verse 10. He was unto me as a bear, laying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. In other words, God is shooting arrows. He bent the bow and the target was his own person, his own people, Israel, Judah, Jeremiah. He went in judgment against them.

He's shooting the arrows and he's seeking to cause his own people to learn a lesson and to realize the consequence of their wrong doing. You notice the verses that I read so far, every one of these verses speaks about the Lord's doing. His rest. He has led me. He had turned away from me. He had broken my bone. He had built against me. He has set me in dark places. He hedged me about. He enclosed my ways. He was unto me as a bear, lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. And as we read also in verses 11 and 12, it is the Lord's doing against his own people who turn against him.

Notice verse 13, 14, 15. Jeremiah felt God's bitterness and God's gall. The bitterness that come from God's judgment. So we read in verse 13. He has caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reigns. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the days. He has filled me with bitterness and he has made me drunken with warm wood. Notice the word for bitterness is what we usually use in Pesach, in Passover, the bitter herbs. It comes from the Hebrew word maror or merorim, bitter. And the experiences of bitterness that Jeremiah had experienced in those days when he was experiencing the judgment of God over the city of Jerusalem.

This verse kind of reminds us of the suffering of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, of whom we read in Psalm 22 of the bitterness that he had experienced, not for his own sins, but for the sins of this world. But Jeremiah and Israel experienced this bitterness because of their own wrongdoing. Psalm 22, Yeshua cried and he said, I am a worm and no man. I am a reproach of men and a despise of the people. All they that see me left me to scorn. They shoot out their lip. They shake their hands saying and so on. Yeshua experienced this bitterness, but not for his own sins, for the sins of Israel and the sins of the world.

But here, beloved brothers and sisters, Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu is expressing the sorrow that he has gone through because of the sin of the nation. You know, sometimes we wonder, why was Daniel taken to Babylon? Why was Ezekiel taken to Babylon? Why were the three friends of Daniel taken to Babylon? Why was Jeremiah taken captive as well? He went eventually to Egypt. And the answer is simply this. When God's people failed to obey God's word, even the godly men and women suffering alongside all those who failed to obey the Lord. So when Israel disobeyed the Lord, even the prophets, the godly prophets of Israel suffered along with the rest of the nations because of their own evil doing.

So, verses 13, 14, 15, Jeremiah felt God's bitterness and gall. Now, notice verses 16, 17, and 18. Jeremiah did not have shalom, the peace of God have gone away from him because of God's judgment. And so we read in verses 16, He has also broken my teeth with gravel stone. He has covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far from peace. Tis noach shalom. I forgot prosperity. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. So Jeremiah had no peace, no shalom, just like every one of the Jewish people in 586 BC, when they were carried away to Bevel and the city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the temple is burnt with fire.

No shalom, no rest. And you know, the Bible teaches us of two kinds of peace. The peace with God and the peace of God. Shalom im Elohim. Ve shalom shel ha-Elohim. What's the difference? Peace with God we receive when we first came to trust in Yeshua the Messiah. Romans 5 says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. This is once and for all shalom that one have when he or she have accepted Yeshua the Messiah. But the peace of God, this has nothing to do with our salvation. That has to do with the manner whereby a believer lives. That's why Paul said to the Philippians and the peace of God that passes all understanding shall guard your heart, your mind.

And that shalom comes when the believer walk with God and enjoy God and submit to the Lord. But here they didn't. Israel did not submit to the Lord. So the Lord judge our people of all. And Jeremiah experiencing this in his own soul, the judgment of God because he was part of the nation. And so he cries to the Lord and he said to him, Even shalom, even peace, I do not have anymore. En shalom amar Adonai l'reshayim. There is no peace, says the Lord unto the unrighteous, unto the wicked. There is no shalom. And so Jeremiah have experienced this here in verse 17. Notice verse 18.

I said my strength and my hope is perish from the Lord. So in the first 18 verses, beloved brothers and sisters, Jeremiah expresses his own suffering and his own sorrow, understanding that everything he has came upon him as a judgment from the Lord. But he continues. And I want you to notice how interesting, because in the next verses, all the way from verse 19 to verse 39, Jeremiah now expresses the hope that is found in the Lord. In other words, if the Lord judge, if the Lord discipline his people, does he do so without something in view to restore his people? The Lord does not find pleasure in judging his people and keeping them judged.

He wants them to repent. He wants them to turn to him. And when they turn to him, they will eventually be restored. And it's beautiful to see in verses 19 to 39 that Jeremiah now expresses his own hope in the Lord and in the Lord's mercies and grace. This is precious to the heart. Many people use these verses today to sing many songs of the mercies of the Lord in light of hard time. The Lord's mercies are still there. And so notice now from verses 19, 20, 21. Don't forget, every three verses continue with the same letter. Verses 19, 20, and 21. Jeremiah is recalling to mine all his affliction. And so we read in verse 19.

And so we read in verse 19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery and the wormwood and the gall. My soul has them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. In other words, what Jeremiah is saying, I remember the exercises or the trials that the Lord have allowed me to experience. In other words, whatever happened to me, it's always for my good. When God disciplined me, he meant good for me. Again, we apply this to parents. When we as parents raised our children when they were young and the time we had to give them spanking, it didn't give us joy.

But the spanking or the correction, we might say, was for our benefit. And when we remember these corrections and maybe these afflictions and trials and the misery and the wormwood that we have experienced, then we can turn around and we say, wait a minute. This is my God. This is my Abba, my Father. He does it for my well-being. And now Jeremiah, like every Jewish person represent here from the time that Jerusalem was destroyed. Now he remembers. And notice three times you have the word remembering or remembrance or recalling. Verse 19, remembering my affliction. Verse 20, remember my soul, remember still them. Verse 21, this I recall to my mind.

This is very important, beloved brothers and sisters. When you and I go through trials in our lives and then we repented and returned to the Lord and the Lord brought us back to a relationship with him, we can't forget these trials that we have gone through. And that become for us like a warning, but also to remind us, hey, wait a minute. God was right in what you have done, what you have allowed for me in my life. I was wrong. I failed to submit to the Lord. I was living an unholy life. So when he have done this to me, he did it because he loves me and he cares for me and he wants me to be restored to him.

So notice he's turning now to hope. In verse 21, this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The word for hope is okhil. Sometimes we use the word tikva. The different word here is the word okhil means I'm longing for something. I'm wishing for something. I'm desiring something to change in my life. Paul said it in Romans 8:28, he says, For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. God has a purpose in our life. And all things work together for our own good. Not only all good things, but even the bad things work together for our own good.

Shaul Paul said to the Roman believers in Romans 8:28, So Yirmiyahu, that is Jeremiah, remembering, recalling to mine, and therefore have I hope. Tikva, okhil, I have a hope. And what is the hope, beloved brothers and sisters? Is the hope is found in the Lord, that he will restore his own people. So notice now verses 22, 23 and 24 again with the letter Chet, each one of these verses. This is one of the most beautiful verses. In the midst of all the sorrows, the songs of sorrows, the lamentation after lamentation. Then Yirmiyahu is musing over the mercies of the Lord. And he said it is of the Lord's mercies, that we are not consumed, because his compassion fail not.

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. This is very precious, isn't it? Notice he used the word "we" now. He turned from "I" to "we". And he's speaking about all the Jewish people, all Israel during those days. And he can speak about all the people of God in the present day age in which you and I live in today. To the assembly of believers. And he said it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Do you know that we deserve to be consumed by a holy and a righteous God who is a consuming fire?

He is a holy and a just God because of his mercies. The Hebrew word is "Chasadei Adonai" or "Chasadei Yehovah". You know sometimes we have a song, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever". It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Do you know that, beloved brothers and sisters? God, who is just and holy. He could have been done with humanity a long time ago. But he has a purpose for mankind. He wants to save humanity for himself. He delights us in the human race which he had created for his own pleasure. But we turn against him. We turn away from him.

Even as believers today, how many times we turn away from the Lord. We don't submit to his authority. We don't recognize that he is our God, he is our Lord, he is our Savior. So because of his mercies, he allows us to continue seeking to see whether we will be restored and turn back to him. His compassion, fail not. He is constantly have compassion looking upon his own people. And he sees their need and his compassion never fails. We fail in showing compassion to others. But not God, not the Lord. His compassion never fails. And you notice it says here that they are new every morning.

You know, if you just read in the last book of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi, God says to our people of Israel, before the Messiah came in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6. He said, He said, I am the Lord. I change not, he said to our people of all. Therefore ye, Bnei Yaakov, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. We read of the Messiah. We read of Yeshua the Messiah in Hebrews 13 and verse 8. Yeshua HaMashiach, the same yesterday, today and forever. He changes not. We change, but he changes not. And that's why Israel will not be consumed. So, it is of the Lord's mercies that Israel cry in the person of Yirmiyahu here, that we are not consumed because his compassion failed not.

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion. And then he says, Beautiful verses, dear brothers and sisters. We read those verses in various funeral services. We read those verses when believers are going through trials because we there again and again remember the mercies that the Lord has towards us. But now we continue. In verse 25, 26 and 27, Jeremiah now trusts in the Lord that he will deliver eventually Israel. And notice what he says. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth. You see what Jeremiah is saying. It is essential that when God discipline us. And when God had to do something in order to correct us. Let's not get discouraged and turn away from him. But wait on the Lord. The word for wait means hope in the Lord. And the Lord is able to restore. It is good that a man will bear his yoke in his youth. In other words, when you are young and you learn those lessons early in your life. It will assist you as you grow up and you become older in years.

Because it teaches you many lessons how to conduct yourself here in this world. We are to be so thankful for the older brothers and sisters who have gone before us. And their experiences teach them that they need to wait on the Lord and to trust in his mercies. Because God is a merciful God. In verse 28 to 30 Jeremiah point to the right attitude that we should have when we are disciplined. What do we do when we are being disciplined? When the Lord have to correct us like a parent corrects his own child. Does the child rebel against the Lord and turn away from him? Well notice in verse 28, 29 and 30.

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he has borne it upon him. He putteth his mouths to the dust. If so be, there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach. The right attitude when the Lord discipline his own people is to sit quietly and to accept it from the hands of the Lord. To close our mouths and not rebel and speak against God and against those who are in authority over us. It's far better to be humbled and broken and waiting on the Lord than to rebel and speak against God and against those that are in authority over us.

Here Jeremiah is expressing the right attitude. The person who learned this lesson will grow spiritually and live to be a man and a woman of God in a world that is contradicting anything that has to do with the living God. In verses 31, 32 and 33, this is the letter Kaf in the Hebrew alphabet. Jeremiah is committing and trusting that God's affliction is only temporary. He's really saying, listen, whenever God judge me, it's going to be only for a temporary season. Notice in verse 31, For the Lord will not cast off forever, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of man.

You know, it's so good to know that whatever trial we go through and whatever difficulty we experience in our life, it is temporarily. You know, there's many verses in the Bible. He says, and it came to pass. In other words, whatever trial we go through, it's temporary. The Lord gives us some challenge in our life. The Lord gave Jerusalem here, an amazing disciplinary action here against Jerusalem, against our own people Israel. In the ninth of the month of Av, he destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and he scattered the Jewish people in 586 BC. And now Israel is to learn that it is all temporarily, and it's not going to be forever.

And so in these verses 31, 32, 33, he is admitting that God's affliction is temporary. Notice verse 34, 35 and 36. Jeremiah point to three things that the Lord disapprove in a time where he disciplined his people. Notice that. Verse 34, to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. To turn aside the rights of a man before the face of the Most High. And to subvert a man in his cause. Look at the last stanza. The Lord approveth not. In other words, when the Lord allows us to experience these trials, we must be humble before the Lord and not to cause a man to be subverted. Not to turn aside to the right of a man before the face of the Most High.

And not to crush under his feet all those that are going through difficulties here in this world. So God is not pleased with those that are behaving in such a way. Notice now verse 37, 38 and 39. Jeremiah declared that God cannot be opposed by anyone. Anyone who will oppose him will find that he will not be successful. 37. Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth not? Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good. Wherefore, does the living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sins. No one can oppose the Lord. No one can oppose the Lord.

When he disciplines, he disciplines and no one can complain because he or she are being disciplined by the Lord. How do we react when the Lord disciplines us? Do we complain against the Lord? Do we say to him, God, listen, I don't think you should have allowed me to experience this. Are you wrong in the manner in which you discipline me? Well, Jeremiah says that no man should be complaining because he received the punishment of his or her own sins, as it says here in verse 39. So, so far we have covered more than half of these 66 verses of Lamentations chapter 3. Now let's move along in verses 40 to verse 48.

Jeremiah encouraged Israel to be humbled and to turn back to the Lord by faith. And so he says in verse 40, 41 and 42. Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and we have rebelled. Thou hast not pardoned. So Jeremiah, as a godly man, is encouraging Israel to search their ways and to turn back to the Lord. This is a sign that he's a man of God who is humble before the Lord. And he says, let us return back to the Lord. Let us no longer continue in the way that we have lived.

Paul was this kind of man. And Paul said to the Romans in Romans chapter 6. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Don't you know that you have been brought into the body of Messiah? You belong to him. We cannot continue in our own way. Let us turn back to the Lord. Jeremiah says, let us turn back to the Lord. Let us not continue in this way. In verse 43, 44, 45, Jeremiah reminds God of his righteous anger against the city of Jerusalem. Notice, thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us, namely Jerusalem, Israel. Thou hast slain. Thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with cloud that our prayer should not pass through.

Thou hast made us as a scam and refuse in the midst of the people. Jeremiah is speaking now on behalf of Israel. Notice the word here is us and we and our. He is speaking on behalf of Israel. On behalf of the city of Jerusalem. And he says, God, look what you have done to us. You have slain us. You have covered yourself with clouds. So our prayer, you know, they were praying and it's like a cloud is up there that did not allow the prayer to rise up to God. Do you know, brothers and sisters, we learn from this as well. When we go away from the Lord and when we seek to pray to the Lord, it seems to be that our prayer does not rise above the ceiling.

There is like a cloud that does not allow the prayer of the saints to rise up to God. But when we repent and confess and return to the Lord, this cloud is like disappearing. You remember first John one, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. First John one, nine. And when we have repented, that cloud moves and we can lift up our hearts and we can pray to the Lord with joy. We can sing to the Lord. We can praise him with our heart freely. But when we don't, that cloud does not allow our prayer to rise.

Then notice verses 46 to 48. Jeremiah shows what the enemies of our own people have done to us. Notice verse 46. Verse 46. All our enemies have opened their mouth against us. Fear and snails is come upon us. Desolation and destruction. He's speaking to the Lord. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. The daughter of my people is the city of Yerushalayim. My people are the Jewish people, the people of Israel. And so his eyes, the tears were running down. He's called in scripture the weeping prophet. He's weeping and weeping. Mine eye running down with rivers of water. You know, when people spoke about Jeremiah, Yermiah, they said he behaved like a woman that weepeth.

As if a man cannot weep and cry. But he behaved in a godly care for his own people. The daughter of my people, Yerushalayim. And the Jewish people. I'm weeping and weeping like the rivers of water coming down from my eyes. I remember years ago when we used to go to meetings. And I'll never forget that when the brethren were going on their knees. They were praying. And as they were praying, they were weeping. It would always touch my heart when I saw the older men. Weeping on their knees before the Lord and asking for mercy for their own people. It was moving the heart.

It was touching the heart. And God's people weep for the condition that existed among their own people. Do you know, brothers and sisters, had we had this type of attitude, what a change that would make in local assemblies, local congregation, local churches. Had we wept. But sadly, the only time that we weep is when God disciplined us. And we feel it in our very own heart. And we are broken before the Lord. And then we began to cry. And weep for mercy. But when things seem to be fine, we don't. And we just continue. And I don't have to speak for you. I'm speaking for myself.

But when God comes in judgment. And all of a sudden we see the great need. And even my own need. Your own need. Then all of a sudden we begin to see how we need God's mercy. And begin to weep before the Lord. In the last portion here. Verses 49 to 63. Jeremiah is grieved over the people's ruin. Look at verse 49, 50 and 51. He says there, "Mine eyes trickles down and ceases not without any intermission." No, stop. Weeping, crying, tears. Verse 50. "Till the Lord look down and behold from heaven mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my cities." Notice that? The weeping came from his heart.

"My eye affecteth my heart." It was real, genuine cry, weeping before the Lord. "And for whom he had done so, not only for himself, but for all the daughters of my city." "Yerushalayim is the city." "The daughter of Jerusalem is an expression of the people of Israel." "And today we can cry for the people of God, for the assembly, for the congregation, for all believers, wherever they are, in every people, tongues and nations and country, we can cry to God to help the people of God today." You notice in verse 52 to verse 54, Jeremiah weep over the enemy's doing. We read in verse 52, "Mine enemies chase me so, like a bird without cause.

They have cut off my life in the dungeon and they cast stone upon me." Verse 54, "Waters flowed over mine head. Then I said, I am cut off." Look at this. "Enemies that came against Israel, against Jerusalem, against the temple, against Jeremiah and his people. They came against them and they chased me so, like a bird without cause." When a bird is trying to fly, to try to get to another location, and the enemies are shooting the bird down and do not allow the bird to fly. In verse 55, 56 and 57, the letter Kuf, in the Hebrew alphabet, Jeremiah called upon the name of the Lord for help.

And so we read in verse 55, "I call upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice. Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drawest near in the day that I called upon thee. Thou saidest, fear not." So Jeremiah called for God's help. And what did he hear? "Al tifchad, fear not." Many times, Yeshua, in his life here, when he spoke to various individuals, he said, "Be not afraid." Now, I don't know. This kind of word, "Be not afraid," in a time such as this, makes you wonder, when you hear it, how you will react to it.

It's so precious. When God said to Jeremiah, "Be not afraid," as we read here, "fear not," verse 57. Notice verse 58 to 60. The letter Reish in the Hebrew. Jeremiah now proclaimed that the Lord has seen all that he has gone through. And so we read the Lord, "Thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul. Thou hast redeemed my life. Lord, O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong. Judge thou my cause." Verse 60. "Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imagination against me." In other words, Jeremiah understood that God sees everything. "Nothing is hidden from the I with whom we have to do." He sees our trials.

He sees our sorrows. He sees our trouble. He sees the challenges that we experience in our life. The Lord sees everything. And Jeremiah proclaimed that to the Lord, "You know everything I am going through. The wrong that I have done, I repent of it." Israel repenting of the wrong that they have done. Lamenting over this. Accepting it from the hand of the Lord. Notice now the last verses 61, 62, and 63. Before the closing three verses. There Jeremiah experienced the evil devices of his enemies. We read in verse 61. "Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imagination against me. The lips of those that rose up against me and their device against me all the day.

Behold their sitting down and their rising up. I am their music." So Jeremiah said in his prayer to the Lord, "Lord, you know exactly what's going on. You see what my enemies have done to me." Notice he said that he became their music. That reminds me of Psalm 137 where the Babylonians said to our own Jewish people there, "Sing unto us one of Zion's songs. Let's see. Where is your God? Let's sing unto us one of Zion's songs." And they thought the Jewish people would sing to them in mockery. They were mocking the scattered and the dispersed Jewish people. And you know, they said, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" And you remember they made a decision.

They said, "If I forget the old Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I not desire Jerusalem above my chiefest joys." They realized that they needed to turn to the Lord. Their enemies were playing and they become their music. They were singing in mockery against the people of Israel. "I can tell you, when you and I as believers will go away from the Lord, the world will sing against us." Oh, you were singing about this Yeshua, this Jesus. And you were claiming that He is the Messiah, the anointed one. Where is He now? "Look at you," they will say. And they will mock God's people in song.

God sees it. And sometimes we deserved it. Because of the way we behaved. But the Lord eventually is so merciful. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassion faileth not." "There I know every morning, great is the Lord's faithfulness." Not our faithfulness, but the Lord's faithfulness. These verses make you wonder, after all this long lamentation over the condition of Yirmiyahu himself, over the condition of Israel, and over the condition of the fact that God judged Israel, and this prayer for Himself and for Jerusalem in lamentation, chapter 3, at the end, notice what he prayed for. In the last three verses.

This is the letter Tav, the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Jeremiah is saying, "Render unto them recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart. Thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord." That makes you wonder, why would Jeremiah cry such a cry, or pray such a prayer, against his enemies? After all, don't we understand from the Brita Hadashah, the new covenant that we are to pray for our enemies? To do good to them who persecute us? We must understand that when Jeremiah Yirmiyahu lived, Israel as a nation was under a present day, a different era in history of humanity.

And in those days, Israel's enemies were God's enemies, and you many times find this expression, prayer against the enemies of God, against the enemies of the people. They call it "impercatory prayer." Very difficult word even to pronounce. This is prayer against those enemies of God who ultimately want to destroy the plan and the program of God against his people and against his city. We find out in Psalm 137, in verse 7, "Remember O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, "Raise it, raise it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy shall be he that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us." And notice verse 9, "Happy shall he be that taketh and dashes thy little ones against the stones." That's what the prayer, "impercatory prayer." Because God's enemies hate God's and God's way and the people of God, and eventually God will end up judging them.

So Jeremiah is aligning himself with the mind of God. And he is asking, "Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to their own hands." You and I today, as part of the body of Messiah, should pray for our enemies, should wish them to be saved. We cannot pray this prayer today, but prior to the coming of the Messiah, you find it again and again being prayed by our own Jewish people in biblical days. And that's how we conclude today with Lamentation, chapter 3, 22 Hebrew alphabets, 66 verses. Every three verses, begin and continue with a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet. for good.