Shabbat shalom everyone. Just watching this historical clip and move your heart when you think of what it meant for our own people Israel to be taken captive by the Babylonian in 586 BC. The city of Jerusalem had been burnt completely. The temple had been destroyed. And the Jewish people were taken to Babylon. In the beginning, the times of the Gentiles had begun. For many, many generations, including today, even though our own people are back in the land in some small measure, they are still under constant friction, constant conflict. And this day of conflict and sorrows and trial will end when the Messiah will be accepted at the future day, at the end of the tribulation when all Israel will say Baruch Haba B'Shem Adonai.

Until that time, we would pray for our people. The Gospel can be shared. People would get saved, accept Yeshua the Messiah and embrace Him as the Messiah, the Lord and Savior. And so we are studying together the book of Lamentations. And I'd like you please to turn to Lamentations chapter 4. And I'd like to read the 22 verses. And we can see how the prophet Jeremiah is this time lamenting over the siege and the fall of the city of Jerusalem. In Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu in Hebrew, he was a prophet of Israel, he loved the nation, he was called by the Lord to speak to the Jewish people, to warn them about coming destruction.

Unfortunately, the people of Judah and Benjamin, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom did not obey the word of the Lord, and they ended up being taken captive. and Jerusalem was totally destroyed and there was such a sad condition that is described for us here in Lamentation chapter 4 in these 22 verses and here is Jeremiah once again asked the question how and to remind you beloved brothers and sisters the name of the book of Lamentation in Hebrew is Eicha. How? How is it possible that this thing has happened to the people, to the chosen people of God? So we read Lamentations chapter 4 verse 1. How is the gold become dim?

How is the most fine gold changed? The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers? The work of the hands of the potter. Even the sea monster draw out the breast. They give sack to their young ones. The daughters of my people become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the sucking child cleavers to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets.

They that were brought up in scarlet embraced dunghills For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom. That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of saphir, their visage is blacker than the coal, they are not known in the streets. Their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it is become like a stick. They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger.

For these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful woman have soldered their own children. They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord has accomplished his fury and has poured out his fierce anger and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundation thereof. The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They have wandered as blind men in the streets They have polluted themselves with blood So that men could not touch their garments They cried unto them Depart ye, it is unclean Depart, depart, touch not When they fled away and wandered They said among the heathen they shall no more sojourn there the anger of the Lord has divided them he will no more regard them they respected not the persons of the priests they favored not the elders as for us our eyes yet fail for our vain help. In our watching, we have watched for a nation that could not save us. They hunted our steps that we cannot go in our streets.

Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled. For our end is come. Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven. They pursued us upon the mountains. They laid weight for us in the wilderness. The breath of our nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the heathen rejoice and be glad or daughter of Edom that dwelleth in the land of Uz, the cup also shall pass through unto thee. Thou shall be drunken and shall make thyself naked. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. He will no more carry thee away into captivity.

He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom. He will discover thy sins. I've read 22 verses that are found in Lamentation chapter 4. Now to remind you again, dear brothers and sisters, that the book of Lamentation was written by Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu. The name of the book is Eicha, how. The word Eicha is mentioned in chapter 1, in chapter 2, and here in chapter 4, it is mentioned more than one time. And the question is simply, how is it possible that this thing will happen to the people of God? We also have learned over the study together that in chapter 1, 2, and 3, and now also in chapter 4, the 22 verses of this chapter is really an acrostic.

We have the whole 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning from Aleph and ending in Taf, which shows us that perhaps what God is seeking to say to his people is that God is thorough. He will deal with his people for good, for blessing, or for bad, for discipline. He is thoroughly a God of order and a God who begin and completes it in a thorough way. And that's why perhaps we can learn from the 22 verses of the Hebrew alphabet. And again, notice here the word Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Hei, Vav, Zayn, Chetet, Yud, Kaf, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Ein, Pei, Tzadik, Kufrei, Shin, Tav. You have 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and every one of these 22 verses of Lamentation chapter 4 began with a different letter of the alphabet.

All 22 letters are mentioned here in the fourth chapter as well. So what happened now? Jeremiah is now on his face, seeing what happened to his people, to his own nation, to his own city, to the temple of God, to Beit Hamikdash. He's mourning, he's weeping, he's so much concerned of what's going on among his people. And now he describes what we just watched earlier, how the Babylonians, for about 18 months, besieged the city of Jerusalem. They surrounded the city of Jerusalem with plenty of soldiers. The military campaign, the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar came surrounding the city of Jerusalem. And for 18 months, about a year and a half, there was no food coming into the city of Jerusalem.

Can you imagine for a year and a half, no food coming in? And you are not able now to bring something in in order to feed your wives, your children, your people, the elderly, the young, the babies. Can you imagine what it meant for the people of Israel, for the city of Jerusalem? So Yirmiyahu, he's now describing here, he's musing over what happened, the condition of Jerusalem because of that siege. And in the first 10 verses, he described for us things that have happened to the people of Jerusalem because of the siege. In Hebrew, it's called Matzor, the siege of the Babylonian and the lack of food, the lack of provision for Jerusalem before even the city was destroyed.

And so notice what it says here in verse 1. He began with the temple. You remember we just observed how the temple was burnt with fire? And he began and he asked the question, notice verse 1. He's speaking about the gold of the temple, then the stones changed. They used to be situated beautifully because King Shlomo Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem. And then he says now, how is the gold become dim? How is the most fine gold changed? The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. When the soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, what happened is that the stones that were broken down had been scattered all over the streets of Jerusalem.

And that gold that was so precious, the King Solomon in 1st King chapter 6, when he built the temple, he overlaid much of the furniture and many parts of the temple with gold. now the gold had been melted the stones had been scattered all over the streets of Jerusalem now the gold that is supposed to be shining became very dim and the most fine gold now changes of course we know that gold in itself does not change but when it's poured out and melted from the fire and it's scattered around the streets and the stones of the temple are laying all over can you imagine what it meant he's looking around and he's really overwhelmed by what happened to the temple in jerusalem just by way of importance is the gold in the temple in jerusalem always represented the divine nature of the messiah if you remember the wise men who came from the east to give gift to the baby yeshua that was born in bethlehem they gave him gold And if you remember, more represent of his suffering.

And they brought him all kind of perfume that speaks of his glory. But the gold represent the deity. The God is divine. The Messiah is divine. And here we can see that even the gold, the temple of Jerusalem, was poured down, poured out in the streets and become dim. The stones are scattered throughout the streets of Jerusalem. In verse 2 we see that even the children, the young people that belong to Zion, to belong to Zion, it says here in verse 2, the precious sons of Zion, in Hebrew it's called Bnei Zion, Bnei Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of a potter, the children of Israel, of Zion, the sons and daughters of the people of Israel.

Israel, who were very precious to the nation, now they looked upon as no longer the way they dressed, the way they behaved, the way they appeared, the way that they maintained themselves because they were running around because of the fire and the destruction and the killing that was going there. It says that they were esteemed as earthen pitchers, no longer like fine gold, but like earthen peaches, not so valuable as they were before when they were under the guidance of God in obedience to the Lord. Notice what it says in verse 3 and 4. Their mothers became rather cruel to their own children because of the fact that they didn't have any food, any milk, anything to give to their children.

Look what we read in verse 3 and 4. it says even the sea monsters draw out the breasts and give suck to the young one the daughters of my people become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness the tongue of the suckling child cleavers to the roof of his mouth for thirst and the young children ask for bread and no man breaketh it unto them What we see here, a description of the behavior of the mothers. Now, the mothers could no longer give milk to their children because they themselves did not have any food for themselves because of the siege that the Babylonians have done to the city of Jerusalem.

And therefore, there was lack of food. The babies did not have any milk to drink. The young men, the young children did not have any food. bread to eat and the mothers became rather cruel because they could not provide for their children and it's interesting it's using cruel as the ostriches in the wilderness in hebrew the word ostriches is yanim it's like a bird that treat their babies that are born is that the mothers of jerusalem in their treatment of their baby or the children became rather cruel like these birds in the wilderness the way that those birds behave so the mothers in Jerusalem behave in the same way no milk no food no provision what do we do in a time like this it changes our behavior even towards one another even towards their own children in verse 5 the ones who used to eat and dressed very well, now they are no longer dressed in the same way.

Notice, they that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets. They that were brought up in scarlet embraced dunghills. In other words, they are no longer having the things that they have had in the past. Verse 6, for the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of sodom that was overthrown as in a moment and no hand had stayed here in other words jeremiah is observing to see what is going on in the city of jerusalem and he says look at the situation the jewish people there some of them are taken away some of them scattered around the city of jerusalem he says listen the punishment that the people of jerusalem of experience is really even greater than the punishment that Sodom and Gamora had received.

You remember Genesis chapter 19, when God said to Abraham, I'm going to Sodom. And he said, the wickedness has been risen all the way up to me. And then God came and eventually judged the city of Sodom. If you remember, he destroyed Sodom with fire in a moment. And Sodom and Gamora were destroyed completely. But here the city of Jerusalem is now dying while living. Not like in the time of Sodom and Gamora, as it says here in verse 6, then it says the sin of Sodom, they received the punishment, but it was done suddenly. While the sin of Israel, It was a prolonging experience of sorrow and trial for the people of Israel.

Jeremiah continued by describing, as he musing over the condition of Jerusalem in verses 7 and verse 8, he's speaking about the Nazarites. Notice that these two verses, 7 and 8, the Nazarites, who were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was a saphir. Now look what happened to them in verse 8. Their visage is now blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clearest to their bones. It is withered. It is become like a stick. So you remember the Nazarite, the Nezirim. These are not Nazarenes. These are the Nazarite. It's two different Hebrew words.

Nezirim, these are the people who devoted themselves to live for God. They were not coming from the city of Nazareth, but there were people in Israel that separated themselves unto the Lord. Even to them a change happened. When they were purer than snow, whiter than milk, They were ruddy like rubies, they were polished like Saphir when they were right with God and enjoyed fellowship with God. But the judgment of God came. And even they have changed. They are no more in the same condition that they were when they walked with the Lord. Their visage has changed. They are not known anymore in the streets. Their skin cleaves to the bone and they become like sticks.

In other words, they are no longer like they used to be before. Again, brothers and sisters, I always want to make an application is when the people of God walk with the Lord and submit to the Lord, He uses them, He blesses them, and they become a testimony for Him wherever they are. But when they depart from the Lord and the judgment of God coming upon them, they are no longer pure like snow. They are no longer whiter than milk. They are no more ruddy like rubies, and they are no longer polished like the Safir. Things completely changed in those days for the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem.

I mentioned that before about Samson, who was a Nazarite, Nazir. He was supposed to live for the God of Israel, to be devoted for him. But things changed when he disobeyed the Lord. And instead of him being a strong man, a testimony for the God of Israel, he ended up to be defeated. His eyes were plucked off, if you remember, he became a blind man. And he was no longer able to do what he had done before when he was right with the Lord. But the Lord gave him grace at the last day of his life and allowed him to destroy the Philistines, Killed so many in his death because he asked for the mercy of God.

And God had enabled him to accomplish something even at the last days of his life. So you see the different things, things change when Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonian and carried captive eventually by them. In verse 9, Jeremiah is saying, It is better to die with a sword than to die slow in hunger. It says in verse 9, They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger. For these, waste away, stricken through for lack of the fruits of the field. In other words, it's so much better to die suddenly, to die immediately, rather than to die slowly and to experience the consequence of the judgment of God that came upon the city of Jerusalem.

And so Jeremiah, in describing the condition of Jerusalem because of the siege, in verse 10, the horror of the siege caused even the fact that people had no food to start cannibalism, to eat humans, which is abnormal. In verse 10, the hands of the pitiful woman have sordered their own children. They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. You know, when hunger rises up, when you are destitute and you are looking for something to put in your mouth, to put in your stomach, the condition that prevailed here that eventually, as it says in verse 10, they sodden their children and they were their food, their meat in the destruction.

of the daughter of my people. Jeremiah is saying in this verse. If you just turn back to chapter 2, notice what it says there in verse 20. Look at this, it says, Behold, O Lord, and consider, to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, children of the span long? Shall the priests and the prophets be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord. He already had mentioned that earlier of the fact that the women in hunger began to feed upon their own children. So sad description of the condition that existed in the land of Israel during the time of the siege of the Babylonian and the destruction of the city.

This is the first 10 verses of Lamentation chapter 4. So again, one letter after another is mentioned here in the first 10 verses. Every one of these letters is going in order here as we study Lamentation chapter 4. Now from verse 11 to verse 16, I want you to notice that, Jeremiah now confessing the reason that Jerusalem have experienced this suffering. He was honest enough to say, God, I know the reason why we are in this situation. He could have blamed the Babylonian. He could have blamed everybody else. But Jeremiah is sincerely broken before the Lord and he's confessing the reason for this condition that happened to Jerusalem. The suffering that came upon the people of Judah, the people of Israel came because of their own fault.

When they disobeyed the Lord and the Lord had warned them all along, He eventually sent the Babylonian to bring upon them the judgment that He had in mind for them. So verses 11 and 12. Jeremiah is mentioning the fact that God was angry. His righteous indignation brought about the judgment. Notice verse 11. The Lord has accomplished his fury. He has poured out his fierce anger and has kindled a fire in Zion and it has devoured the foundations thereof. Verse 12, the kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

God was angry with his people Israel. This anger is righteous. He is the God of the nation. He is expecting from his people to worship him. He is expecting from his people to obey him. And when they don't obey him, he sent the prophets. He sent Jeremiah. He sent other prophets to speak to the nation. Shuvu, shuvu Yerushalayim. Jerusalem, turn back, turn back in Jerusalem. But Zion had failed to repent and turn to the Lord. So Jeremiah is honest. And he says, the Lord had accomplished his fury. The Lord had poured out his furious anger. And because God is righteous, he had authority over his own people.

So when He disciplined His own people, His fury, His anger is righteous, His righteous indignation against sin. What do you think was the reason that the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, had to die on the cross? He didn't die for His own sins. He didn't die for anything that he have done wrong, but he have died for our sins. He have died for our guilt. He became one that received the fury of God against sin, but instead of God punishing us, the believers, he punished him. He became a substitute. Now, can you imagine what's going to happen to a person who rejects God, rejects the Gospel, rejects the Messiah?

He or she who reject the Messiah, God cannot help them. Because God is holy, the judgment eventually is going to have to come upon that person who reject the gospel. Well, here it came upon the people of God because they have disobeyed Him and violated His word. And therefore, we read here in verse 11 that the Lord hath accomplished His fury. He has poured out his fierce anger and he has kindled, notice, a fire in Zion. You and I might say, as we observe, we could say, well, it was the Babylonian who made the fire going on there in Jerusalem. It was the Babylonian who burned the temple in the city of Jerusalem.

But what we learn from here, according to Jeremiah, the prophet, he says, God has kindled a fire in Zion. It was actually the judgment of God. The Babylonians were like a vessel in the hand of a holy and a righteous God. The Babylonian could not do anything to the people of Israel had God protected the people of Israel. But he brought his hand back, as it were, and he allowed the Babylonian to come and destroy the city to the extent, Listen to these brothers and sisters that in verse 12 Jeremiah is saying the king of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world they would have not believed that the adversary and the enemy would have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

They were probably saying one to another how is it possible? Jerusalem was a city that was always protected by the God of Israel. And now look what happened. How was it possible? They were wondering in verse 12, all of them saying they would have not believed that the adversary was able to enter into the city of Jerusalem. You know, the protection of God for his people is always there as long as they are in submissiveness to him. But when they're not, God will say, okay, you think that you can go ahead without me? I will lift up my hand. I will allow you to see how you can handle your own way.

And eventually you will see the consequence of the wrongdoing. What a sad experience, Jerusalem of experience in those days of old. Jeremiah in chapter 21, in his own book, not in Lamentation. In chapter 21, verse 12 and 13, we read, O house of David, thus saith the Lord, execute judgment in a morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like a fire, and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doing. Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitants of the valley and the rock of the plain, saith the Lord, which say, who shall come down against us?

Or who shall enter into our habitation? So Israel trusted in themselves. He said, no, no, no, we can do it on our own, God. We're going to carry on in our own way. We don't need your protection. And God said to them, okay, let's see. You want to have your own way? and eventually allowed the Babylonian to come in and everybody was marveled. How is it possible that this will happen to the city of Jerusalem? But it did happen because God is the one that have invited and called the Babylonian to come to judge his very own people. So Jeremiah is being honest. He's confessing the reason that his own brethren, his own nation have been in such a situation And now notice that, verses 13, 14, 15, 16, he is mentioning the sins and the iniquities of the prophets and the priests and the leaders and the people of Israel.

and he's mentioning this as he says here in verse 13 for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests that have shed the blood of a just in the midst of her, in the midst of Yerushalayim they have wandered as blind men in the streets they have polluted themselves with blood so that men could not touch their garments. See, the spiritual leaders of the city of Jerusalem and the people of Israel have deviated from leadership. They themselves turn away from following God. So what happened, their iniquities and their sins brought about this condition. They were responsible over the people of Israel. And what happened now, they wandered as blind men in the streets.

They polluted themselves. They have no longer become those people that can be an example and a blessing. And they no longer could be effective. Even no one could even touch their garments because they have polluted themselves. The Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, John in the New Testament, in the Berita Hadash, always speaks to the leadership of God's people in order to give them guidelines and warnings that they ought to be an example to the flock. If you remember, Peter was saying in 1 Peter 5, as an elder, he was speaking to the leadership of the people to whom he was writing. And he said, hey, listen, you know, do what you do.

Feed the flock of God. They belong to the Lord. They belong to God. Feed them, minister to them. Be an example to them. Be a blessing to them. And in turn, they will also, them, be an example and live a life for the Lord. He is speaking to the leadership. And here we find out the prophets have sinned Afghanistan. The priests have their iniquity. They shed the blood of the just in the midst of the city of Jerusalem. And then they will no longer benefit for the people of God. And that's why Jeremiah is confessing the condition. Notice he continued in verse 15 and verse 16. He says, they cried unto them, depart.

It is unclean, depart, depart. They became almost like what the lepers metzorim in Hebrew. The metzorah used to say, you know, in the book of Leviticus, when anyone had leprosy, he could no longer be in the midst of the people. So he had to be outside the camp. He had to put his hand over his lips, his upper lip, and said, unclean, unclean, don't come close to me. I am unclean. And here we see that they cried unto them, said, depart, depart, I'm unclean, I'm unclean. Touch not. When they fled away and they wondered, they said among the heathen, they shall no more sojourn there.

In other words, even the heathen, the neighboring countries could see that they are no longer effective among the people of God. And here Jeremiah says again in verse 16, The anger of the Lord has divided them. He will no more regard them. They respected not the persons of the priests and they favored not the elders. The people no longer had any respect for the elders and any respect for the priests, for the Kohanim, for the leadership of Israel. And no wonder, when the leadership are not seeking to be an example, they lose their respect. And here we could see that the people respected not the persons of the priests and they favored not anymore their elders.

They couldn't have any counsel from them anymore because they were not an example to them. And you and I know very well that if we want a godly example, we're going to go to a brother or we're going to go to a sister that can be a help to us spiritually. if we want to have some spiritual guidance and decision making in our lives to whom shall we go we're going to go to the one that's going to be an example for us to the elder it could be a brother could be a sister who living for the lord and we can ask them some counsel some spiritual helper to know how to handle situation in our life but when the elders and when the priests are no longer walking with the lord how can we ask for spiritual guidance when they fail themselves to obey the Lord.

That's why it is so important and may the Lord raise in the midst of God's people, godly brothers and sisters who take the things of the Lord seriously and who become an example. It doesn't mean that they are not failing. It doesn't mean that they don't have weaknesses in their life, but at least they seek to please the Lord, to be an example among the people of God. And here in the days 586 B.C. was the climax. Years earlier God gave the warning. Jeremiah preached again and again and again and they did not listen. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 that in the last days in the professing church of today perilous times shall come.

Days will come where there will be such a condition the Apostle Paul already prepared younger Timothy and he said to him there will be days you will see, Timothy, that things will not be as they were in the beginning. He said in 2 Timothy chapter 3, Know this, that in the last day perilous times should come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, furious, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.

Religious, but denying the power thereof. It says, for this sort are they which creep in into houses, lead captive silly women laden with sin, Led away with diverse lives. Ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth. And then he's saying to them, you better make your change. Your life should be different. And that was the last days that are yet before us as we live in, you can say, in the church age. In the city of Jerusalem, some years earlier, in 586 BC, that was a consequence of departure from the Lord. Now then, what's going to happen? The city is destroyed. Now we all are scattered.

The judgment of God failed. Jeremiah was honest. He shared his own failure and the failure of his people with God. And he says, God, I realize that the reason is because you were righteously angry against your people and it was you who sent the Babylonians to bring this about among your very own chosen people. And so in verses 17 to 22, Jeremiah is now described the helplessness of Jerusalem. When these things happen, and when God had disciplined the city of Jerusalem, the Jewish people, then you could see how helpless they were. They are no longer self-confident. They are trying to get help from one place and from another, and they find out no one could help them, only the living God of Israel.

and so in these last verses Jerusalem did not even receive a help from any nation verse 17 it says here as for us our eyes fail for our vain help in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save they were looking into Egypt because Egypt in those days when the Babylonian came was a place to escape and to get some help from but even egypt could not help them anymore because they were taken also by their own enemies they're looking for help help doesn't come from any places only from the lord in verse 18 the babylonian hunted them the hebrew word sayadim they were hunters they were hunting after the jewish people who already lost their home lost lost the city, lost the temple.

In verse 18, they hunted our steps that we cannot go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled for our end is come. That word for hunting is that a Babylonian now were hunting the remaining Jewish people who were not yet carried to Babylon. Wherever they have fled to, they were hunting them. Maybe they were hiding behind some places. They found them. They were helpless. No nation could help them. They were hunted by the Babylonians. Verse 19, notice, not only did they hunt them, but they persecuted them. Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven. They pursued us upon the mountain. They laid wait for us in the wilderness.

You run to the mountain to hide, they found you there. You go to the wilderness, the desert to hide, they found you there. And they persecuted the Jews. They persecuted them as much as they could. And they continued on to hunt them and to persecute them. And many of them have lost their lives and died. And notice in verse 20 now, Jeremiah said, Our breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. This is the king, Tzedekiah, of whom we just observed to see what they have done to him.

The anointed is the melech, the king. He is not speaking here about the Messiah, but the king of Israel who should have led the nation into victory. And look what happened to him. According to verse 20, we should have depended upon him, but he was taken in their pits. And we thought that we are going to be under the shadow. And then we find out that we are now have been scattered. And then we lived among the heathens. And so Tzedekiah, the king, was himself taken, and he could not help them. And so Jeremiah, after he mentioned, first of all, he's musing over the condition that existed because of the siege in Jerusalem.

He confessed the sins of the nation and the reason that Israel have experienced it. And now he's showing, my help is not coming from anybody, not the king, not Egypt. No one could help me. The only one that can help us is God himself. And so he's finalizing this fourth lamentation of his by now looking at Edom and pronouncing judgment on Edom. And Edom is present-day Jordan today. The Edomites come from the word Edom, red, descendants of Esau, Esav. And the descendants of Esau were happy when the descendants of Jacob, The Jews were taken captive by the Babylonians. And the descendants of Esau will receive consequence of their evil doing to the people of Jacob, to the Jewish people.

And here we see, he's saying now in verse 21, rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom. What is he saying? You're rejoicing now to see what happened to the Jewish people. He said, you that dwell in the land of Uz. And then in verse 21b he says, But the cup also shall pass through unto thee. Thou shall be drunken and shall make thyself naked. In other words, he is saying to Adam, Okay, you are happy with what happened to our people, the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob, these two brothers who came from the very same mother, and the descendants of Esau, which is Adam, have gone against the descendants of Jacob, and here he pronouncing judgment upon them.

He says, one day what happened to us will happen unto you. The same cup of God's righteous indignation against us one day will be poured upon you. And he says, you will see it will pass through unto you when you are happy to the fall or to the harm of the nation of Israel. And so he's concluding here, and he said, The punishment of thine iniquity, this is Edom, is accomplished. And he's now saying, O daughter of Zion, he will no more carry thee away into captivity. Now he's speaking about Jerusalem in the middle of verse 22. And he says, listen, there will come a day when you are no longer going to be taken into captivity.

And now he takes us really to the end of the tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, when Israel will no longer suffer anymore as they have suffered in past days. Days coming with the captivity will no longer be. And Israel as a nation will be restored back to the Lord. And I just want to read these verses in Jeremiah chapter 33, just to close this, to see how beautiful the promises of God to the people of Israel. In chapter 33 of the prophet Jeremiah, he said, And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return. And I will build them as at their first.

I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me. And I will pardon all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. He's speaking about a future day when the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride will happen and will exist in a future day when Israel eventually will be restored to the Lord. And here he doesn't speak of days of today yet. He's waiting for the day of the end of the tribulation when Israel finally will be restored and no more be carried away into captivity.

But when it comes to Edom, the end of verse 22, He will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom. He will discover thy sin. God eventually will punish the daughter of Edom for the fact that the Edomites were happy when the people of Judah were carried captive to the land of Babylon. So here, beloved brothers and sisters, we finish today Lamentation chapter 4, Jeremiah lamenting and weeping over Jerusalem, and he's expressing that which he had in his heart. He's yearning for his people, confessing their sins, admitting that the punishment of God came because of their own sins and he's turning to the Lord to be the help for the nation who eventually is going to restore Israel and bring Israel back to himself.

So with these thoughts, we can perhaps apply this to ourselves and ask ourselves, Lord, how does that speak to me about the condition among the people of God today? Am I carelessly neglecting what's happening among the people of God? Or am I being used by Thee, Lord, to be a blessing to God's people, even though God's people are under a time of discipline from the Lord? So may the Lord help us and encourage us. And when you have a chance, go to the YouTube. Search there for this seven and a half minutes video that we showed. The name of the video is the Babylonian Conquest and the Destruction of the First Temple.

This informative video was prepared by Megalim, the City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies. Look and see what happened to our people Israel in those days during the time that Nebuchadnezzar burnt the city of Yerushalayim and took our Jewish people to Babylon. We pray that the Lord will hasten the day and will restore Israel back to himself.