Shabbat Shalom everyone. Open your Bibles. Today we are going to conclude with the Lord's help the last message on the Book of Lamentations, Eicha in Hebrew. Shabbat Shalom, the book of how the servant of the Lord, Yirmiyahu Hanavid, Jeremiah the prophet, was lamenting over the fall of the city of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, the destruction of the temple, the burning of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, the carrying of the Jewish people to Babylon. And Jeremiah in 586 B.C. was one of those that experienced this destruction, and he began to lament, to sing those songs of weeping, and songs of lamentation, of cry, and asking God, Eicha, how?

How is it possible that this has happened to the people of God, to the Jewish people, the chosen people, who were judged by God, who loved them, who wanted them to be enjoying fellowship with Him, but because of sin, and because of disobedience, He had to allow our people of all to be judged and taken captive by the Babylonians. So, the fifth chapter of lamentation began with the word remember. Verse 1 says, Because remember, O Lord, what is come upon us, consider and behold our reproach, our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens, we are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows, we have drunken our water for money, our wood is sold unto us, our necks are under persecution, our necks are under persecution, we labor and have no rest, we have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread, our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities.

Servants have ruled over us, servants have ruled over us, there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand, we get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness, our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine, they ravished the women in Zion, and the maid in Israel, and the maid in the cities of Yehudah, princes are hanged up by their hand, the faces of elders were not honored. They took the young men, they took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood, the elders have seized from the gate, the young men from their music, the joy of our heart is seized, our dance is turned into mourning, the crown is fallen from our head, woe unto us that we have sinned, for this our heart is faint, for these things our eyes are dim, because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

Thou, O Lord, remainest forever, thy throne from generation to generation, wherefore dost thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old, but thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art very wrath against us. Reading this fifth chapter is extremely moving when you think of Jeremiah, Yirmiyao, praying to God on behalf of the people of Israel. Again, I would like to remind you, dear brothers and sisters, that we have gone over already four chapters in the book of Lamentations. In the first chapter, there was a lamentation of Jeremiah over the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

In Lamentations chapter 2, there was a lamentation of Jeremiah over God's anger against Jerusalem. In Lamentations chapter 3, Jeremiah lamented and prayed for the city of Jerusalem. And in Lamentations chapter 4, Jeremiah lamented because of the siege that brought about the fall of the city of Jerusalem. And now when we arrive to the 5th chapter, Jeremiah is lamenting and praying for God's mercy for the city of Jerusalem and for the people of Israel. This is amazing when you really think about it. Yirmiyao, Jeremiah is called in Scripture the weeping prophet. He was not merely just giving truth and sharing the word of the Lord with Israel, but his heart was inside.

He couldn't see what happened to his very own people and thus be so hard-hearted and careless. He was so broken, beloved brothers and sisters, for Israel, for his own Jewish people, as he saw them being carried to the land of Bavail. He looked back and what does he see? He sees the temple is burned with fire. He looked back and he sees the walls of Jerusalem are broken down. And he wept. Like you and I need to weep when we see the condition that existing today in the professing church of our Lord, Yeshua, the Messiah. Jeremiah was not careless. His heart was involved so much.

And so in this last lamentation of his, Jeremiah is now praying and asking God for mercy. Sin brought about judgment. But when judgment comes and we are in the midst of the judgment of God, what can we do? We cannot justify ourselves. He didn't try to justify Israel or justify himself, but he actually turned to God with confession and repentance. You remember what we read in the New Testament, in the Brit HaChadasha. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is Yeshua, the Messiah. 1 John 1, verse 9, the apostle Yohanan, John said to the believers in the days of old, 2,000 years ago, he said, when we go astray, he's speaking about believers.

He doesn't speak about the unbelieving world now. They need to confess their sins in order to be saved. But the people of God need to repent when we go astray. And God is faithful to restore and to help his people. So it is so interesting, beloved brothers and sisters, that we know this so far, that in the first four chapters, that the way those four chapters were written down is with an acoustic. Chapter 1 has all the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet from Aleph all the way to Taf, which is at the end. And every verse of chapter 1 was going acoustically in order, Aleph, Bet, and all the way on to the end of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Chapter 2, it was very similar. Verses 1 to verse 22, the prophet Jeremiah also gave us Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet. Every verse began with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the third chapter, we notice that it is not only 22 verses, but there are 66 verses. And in these 66 verses, every three verses began acoustically with the same order. The first three verses with Aleph, the second three verses with the letter Bet, and so on. And in chapter 4, he goes back to the 22 verses. And there, once again, we also have verse 1, Aleph, verse 2, Bet, verse 3, Gimel, all the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Now, you and I might ask, why is it?

What was the purpose behind it? It seemed to be that the Holy Spirit of God somehow allow us to see it and read it, because God is a God who began at the beginning and concluded at the end, and He thoroughly finished whatever He has in mind to accomplish among His people. Remind me of the book of Philippians, where we read, He who began a good work in you shall complete it unto the day of Yeshua the Messiah. But now, in the fifth chapter, there is also 22 verses, but it's very interesting. For one reason or another, these 22 verses of chapter 5 do not include all the 22 Hebrew alphabets.

In fact, half of them are missing. You only have 11 of the 22 of the Hebrew alphabet. Very interesting, because the letter Gimel and Dalet and Vav and Chet and Tet and Samech and Pei and Tzadik and Kuf and Resh and Tav, all those 11 Hebrew alphabets are missing from these 22 verses of the fifth chapter. But not only that, some of the verses of the fifth chapter of Lamentation repeat the same Hebrew alphabet. Some it's repeated twice, one time it's even repeated three times, and other times it's only one. So we have 22 verses, like we had in all the other four chapters, but they are not acoustically. Not all the Hebrew alphabets are mentioned there in the beginning of every verse, but nevertheless, there are still 22 verses equivalent to the 22 Hebrew alphabets.

Now, I don't want you to be occupied with the Hebrew alphabet, but I would like you to be occupied in this ministry meeting with the Lamentation and the prayer of Jeremiah for mercy, for chesed verachamim in Hebrew, the mercy and grace from God on behalf of the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people who were taken captive by the Babylonians. I want you to notice that the first verse, Jeremiah appeals to God to remember and to consider. You notice how it began? Lamentation chapter 5 and verse 1, Yirmiyahu asking the Lord to remember. It says here in Hebrew, Zechor Adonai. Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us, consider and behold our reproach.

Now, Jeremiah doesn't say to God to remember because God has forgotten. God hasn't forgotten anything. In fact, he is the one who brought about the Babylonian to judge his very own people. He didn't forget anything. But Jeremiah is us all. And the people of Israel historically. You notice it many times in the Hebrew scripture that the people of Israel, when they needed the Lord, the Lord's mercy and the Lord's help, they often use the word Zechor, remember. And when you and I have problems in our lives, when things are not working so well, and when things are bad and we have issues and problems, we need to turn to the Lord like Jeremiah and ask the Lord, Lord, look at the situation that I find myself in.

Look at what's going on in my life. Look at the conflict and the challenges. And remember that these things happened to me. Don't forget. And of course, we know that God never forgotten his people. You remember what we read in scripture? I will never leave you, nor forsake you, the Lord said. He remembered his people Israel. He remembered the believers in the body of Messiah. He had never forgotten his own people. But Jeremiah is appealing to the Lord for mercy on behalf of the people of Israel. And he began by saying to him, remember. Now, you know, the first time in the Bible that the word Zechor is mentioned is found in Genesis chapter 8 and verse 1, just after the flood.

And we read that the Lord remembered Noah and his family and the animals that were in the ark. God did judge the world with the flood. No one remained alive here in this world. Only one family. Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, Yefet, and their wives, and the rest of the animals that came with him into the ark. But God remembered. That thought of remembering means that God is faithful to his covenant-keeping people, whoever he had blessed and called to follow after him. And he is not going to forget them. Even though he will allow them to go through the challenging time in their life. Noah was remembered.

And now Jeremiah, Yirmiyahu, asking the God of Israel to remember his people, the Jewish people who are now in a time, as it says here, consider our reproach. You know, the word reproach comes from the Hebrew word cherpa. We usually use the word busha vecherpa, shame and reproach. Those are the people of God. Just a few years earlier, they have enjoyed the presence of God in the temple in the city of Yerushalayim, the song of the Lord, the worship of the God of Israel. But now look at them. They are taken captive. No temple, no city, no liberty, no freedom. And look at the shame that they have experienced.

So Jeremiah is asking God to remember the condition. Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us. And consider and behold our shame and our reproach. It's a beautiful way to turn our hearts to the Lord when we are in a time of need. There's no room for arrogance. There's no room for pride. There's even no room for self-justification. God, I have been pretty good and I have done everything well. No, there is a need of bowing our knees before the Lord and asking Him for mercy. And asking Him to look at our condition and that He will be able to help us along the way.

So that's how this chapter of the book of Lamentation, the book of Echa, began. He says, remember, O Lord, what has come upon us and consider and behold our reproach. And as he continues in prayer, in verses 2 to verse 10, now Jeremiah presents before God the list of Israel's wounds and sorrows. He's like making a list, you know, of course, I don't know how much time he had to make a list, but he knew of the things that have happened to his own nation, to his own people, Israel. And so in Yirmiyahu, he is presented before the Lord the wounds and the sorrows that his own people have experienced because of the Babylonian captivity and the destruction of the temple.

And I just want you to look with me at this list for a moment. In verse 2, he says, our inheritance and our houses are taken. I was just thinking about it in preparation for this meeting. Do you know God had promised Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, and all the 12 tribes of Israel that he will give them the land for an everlasting inheritance? Read it in Genesis 13, Genesis 15, Genesis 17. God had promised to give the land of Israel as an everlasting inheritance. But look what happened now, Jeremiah is saying in verse 3, our inheritance is turned to the strangers and our houses are given to an airline. In other words, to people who are not belong here.

In other words, God took their homes, their inheritance, and he handed it over to other people. And in this case, it is the Babylonian. Now, God is going to give the inheritance to Israel in due time, in a future day. We can see even today, in the days in which we live in, that God has already allowed the people of Israel to be restored to the land of Israel. But Israel is still, today, partially blinded. As a nation, they haven't accepted that Yeshua is the Messiah. And therefore, Israel will have to go through a time still of dispersion before they finally will receive the blessing that God had for Israel.

But now, look at this. All their inheritance, all their possession was given to somebody else. Can you imagine if somebody is going to come to your home and take your home, take your house, take your land, and own it, and you become homeless? Terrible experience. So all our inheritance have been turned to strangers and our houses into aliens. I just want to remind you and I, because we are believers in this present day, the Bible teaches us that we also today have an inheritance, but the inheritance of the believer in Yeshua the Messiah is not necessarily here and now on earth, but our inheritance belongs to us in heaven in the presence of God.

Look what Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit and to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, grace be unto you and peace be multiplied. Now notice verses 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the Messiah from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fatheth not away, but not as reserved in heaven for you.

Yours and mine as believers in the present day age of the church age of the assembly, our inheritance are not here and now on earth, but it is really in heaven. If all things will fall apart here in this world, eventually the believer has an inheritance that is kept and reserved for us in heaven. It does not fade away. It is not temporary. It is eternal. But it reserved for the believer of the present day in the presence of God in glory in heaven. But for Israel, our people, God gave a land, not only physical land that He had blessed them with, but He also gave them spiritual blessing.

So what we see here, that now the land of promise had been handed over to someone else. Strangers had been taking it. Notice what else happened here in verse 3. Israel became orphaned and fatherless and widows. What happened there? Well, a person who become orphaned, that means that he does not have a parent. He has no home to be. He is fatherless because his father was taken or killed. The mothers become widows. Why? Because their husbands died. In this case, the context shows us so many of the Jewish people have been killed by the Babylonians. In 586 B.C., when they came and scattered the Jewish people, that many of the Jewish people became orphaned, fatherless, widows.

What a condition to be it. And it's always in connection with the head of the house. Jesus is no longer there to lead the family. In verse 4, we read that now even their oppressors, namely the Babylonians, sell them water that belonged to the Jewish people, but the Jewish people had to pay for the water that belongs to them. Look at verse 4. We have drunken our water for money. And our wood is sold unto us. In other words, this is our land, this is our water from the streams, this is the trees that we own, but if we want to use it now, the oppressor says, you have to pay in order to be able to use your very own water to drink and your very own wood.

If you want to hit the house or whatever you want to do, you will have to pay for that which is yours already. In verse 5, we find out that Jeremiah is saying, our necks are under the persecution. We labor and have no rest. In other words, they were constantly persecuted by the Babylonians. See, many of them were already taken to Babylon, but some who remain and haven't yet been quite taken or destroyed or killed, they were persecuted. The persecution of the Jewish people already have been from generation to generation, as it says here in verse 5, our necks are under persecution and we labor and labor and have no rest.

En menucha, as we say it in Hebrew. In verse 6, Jeremiah continues, he says, we made a holy alliance with the godless nations because we were in so desperate condition. We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread. There's no food. So we kind of connected ourselves with the unbelieving Gentile world, Gentile nation, who opposed the God of Israel because there was no food. So in order to be satisfied with the necessary food, as it says here, we have given our hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians. And now notice verse 7. Jeremiah is continuing and admitting the fact and really in a sense is like speaking on behalf of the rest of the nation.

Our fathers have sinned and are not. They died. But we have borne their iniquities. They have sinned and we bear the consequence of their evil doing. You know, it's like this in our life. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. When we go in the wrong direction, somehow we influence or we affect others. Maybe our children, maybe our parents, maybe our friends, maybe our families, maybe our brothers and sisters. When we go in the wrong direction, it's somehow affecting others. Eventually, Jeremiah is saying, look at this. And in a sense, it's almost like the younger generation later on will speak to the Lord and they will say, hey, Lord, you know, our fathers have sinned, but we are the ones that borne their iniquities.

Now, we have to be careful because there are other passages that tells us in the book of Jeremiah and also in the book of Ezekiel 18, Jeremiah 31, that the children will say, our fathers ate sour grapes and our teeth are set on edge. In other words, our parents ate wrong food and now that's why we have teeth that are not in order. In other words, they were blaming their fathers. And God said to them, no, no, you cannot do so anymore. If your fathers sinned, I'll deal with them. If you will sin, I'll deal with you. And don't blame someone else. But in the context here, the fathers who have gone wrong and disobeyed the God of Israel, eventually they have died and be taken away, but the consequence came upon their children and the children borne their iniquity.

We continue in verse 8. Jeremiah is saying, you know, people who are servants, they're actually ruling over us. We're supposed to rule over them, but the reverse happened. Notice in verse 8, it says servants, the Hebrew word actually is avadim, slaves. Slaves have ruled over us. And there is none that does deliver us out of their heads. How is that possible? That the one that we should rule over, they are in turn rule over us. You know, it is only possible when God, in judgment, disciplined his people. God will not allow his people to continue on in their own way and condone it and not deal with it eventually.

He surely will as he has done it among the people of Israel. And you can take this really from the book of Genesis in chapter 9 and verse 26, in the time when Noah came out of the ark, God already said to him, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. And who was Canaan? Canaan was the son of Ham. Even though we read in Genesis chapter 9 and verse 1 that he blessed Noah and his sons, yet you could see a little bit later on that when Noah's son Ham violated his father by looking at him as he was naked, and in turn, God, through Noah, cursed Ham by actually judging his son, his descendant, by the name of Canaan.

That's why he says and Canaan shall be his servant, namely Shem's servant. And you can see even though God blessed all the family, yet when one of the sons of Noah disobeyed and exposed the nakedness, the shamefulness of his father, then you could see that Noah as a prophet is actually pronouncing judgment and the blessing that God had intended to give the sons of Noah, yet he turned it into a curse and he cursed now not directly Ham but his son. And from there on you could see that the descendants of Ham, namely Canaan, became the servants of Shem whom the Lord God had blessed in the context of Lamentation chapter 5 and verse 8.

And so in verse 9 Jeremiah continued to share with God we get bread to eat with danger for our lives. It says we get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. When the Jewish people who remain in the land or anywhere else around in those days 586 B.C. and so on when they were searching for bread to eat they were trying to meet their need they were in danger to try to find food for themselves. And finally in verse 10 even their skin of their body became dark and black because of the hunger that the famine brought in those days.

And I'm reading verse 10 our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. The famine brought about hunger that brought about a change even in the way that the skin on their body appeared. That is the consequence of God's judgment upon his own beloved nation of Israel. So Jeremiah is preparing that list and he presenting it before the Lord what kind of wounds and sorrows the people of Judah the people of Jerusalem the people of Israel has experienced during the time of the Babylonian destruction on the ninth day of the month of Av where the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. So in the fifth chapter he began he began first by asking the Lord to remember verse 1 remember O Lord what has come upon us.

Then he presented a list before the Lord in prayer showing to him look at our condition look at the wounds and the sorrows that we have experienced because of your judgment upon us.

and now Jeremiah in the next verses 11 to 14 Jeremiah presents to God the effect that Jerusalem have experienced because of this destruction what it brought about in the condition of the Jewish people during those days you know persecution judgment affecting our lives it affect our children the parents it affect our meetings it affect the worship of the Lord it affecting every area of the life of God's people and so Jeremiah is now continuing presenting before the Lord the effect that this thing have made upon all the people of Israel and I want you to notice beloved brothers and sisters it affected the women it affected the princes the leaders it affected the elders it

affected the young men the young women it affected the order in the worship and the order in the life of the people of Israel and it affected even their joyfulness there was no longer joy in the land of Israel it affected every area of the Jewish life in those days so look at that he began in verse 11 and he shows us that Jerusalem fall affected first of all we see here the women are mentioned you know what the Babylonian did to the Jewish women in those days it says here in verse 11 they this is the Babylonian ravished the women in Zion and the maids in the cities of Judah many of the women

were raped here the word is ravished the Hebrew word is enu la'anot to rubbish is to abuse the women and as it says here the maidens the word for maids is the Hebrew word betulot virgins you see what happened the evil treatment by the enemies of Israel that they have taken the women and they actually ravished the women in Zion and the maids in the city of Judah they raped them and treated them in an evil way can you imagine what's going on even in the world today when any dictator or any evil men fight against a group of people what they do to the women how they treat them and how that affects the

rest of their lives that's what they did they ravished the women in Zion in Zion that's speaking about Jerusalem and the maids in the cities of Judah all the cities in an area that belong to Yehudah to the tribe of Judah they have gone from place to place from house to house from corner to corner and they ravished the women in Zion the wicked treatment of the Jewish women in those days but it's not only the Jewish women look what happened to the princes it says in verse 12 the princes are hung up by their hand in other words what did they do to the princes to the leaders some of the princes in Israel

they hung them just yesterday in our Bible class on the book of Galatians we read in Galatians chapter 3 how the Messiah was hanging on a tree and the apostle Shaul Paul referred to the book of Deuteronomy and he quoted in Deuteronomy 21 verse 22 and 23 if a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be put to death thou shall hang him on a tree his body shall not remain all night upon the tree but thou shall in any wise bury him that day for he that is hangeth is accursed to God in other words what these Babylonians do to the princes in Yehudah and in Zion they killed them and

hung them and it was like a testimony you might say to their evil doing you know similarly we think about what the Romans did some 2000 years ago in the days where Yeshua was upon the face of this earth when somebody of God against the Roman authority they would crucify him and place him on a shameful cross and of course sadly they took Jesus the Messiah who sinned not the perfect lamb of God and they place him on a shameful cross on a tree cursed is a man that hang on a tree and you know beloved brothers and sisters he the Lord Yeshua the Messiah was hanging on a tree not because of any sin

that he committed he was hanging on a tree for the sins that you and I have committed he became a curse on our behalf God judged him so you and I will never need to be judged but you can see what these men have done to the Israeli princes they hung them up by their hand and you can see them as a display of shame a curse that they have done to these princes of Israel so the women were raped the princes were killed and hung on a tree but then we read not only this the elders of Israel were not honored the elders of Israel the Zkenim who supposed to be honored and respected

they treated them in an evil way in a shameful way we are to honor the elders they are to honor the older men and to treat them for their age with respect and care but no they have hung the princes the younger one and they have not honored the elders in fact they put them to shame so you see how it affected every area in the life of the people of Israel now notice what happened to the young ones they in they they became slaves it says here in verse 13 they took the young men to grind and the children fell under the wood in other words the young people of Judah the young men

they took them to grind to work it was like they became slaves and the children could not bear to be able to continue so they fell under the wood they could not continue to do so they were crushed they were not able to continue on it affected the young people as well and now notice in verses 14 and 15 look what we read about the order and the joyless experience that they had during those days it says in verses 14 and 15 the elders have seized from the gate and the young men from their music the joy of our hearts is ceased our dance is turned into mourning so the elders are no longer going

to the gate the gate is the place where the elders meet the council of the people of Israel right by the gates in the city of Jerusalem and in any other gates in Judea in Israel and the elders are counseling together and giving instruction to the people of Israel but they are no longer going there because the gates are destroyed and the elders no longer can continue to lead the people of Israel because Israel were in a state of confusion destruction and they have been taken captive by the Babylonian can you imagine if we don't have the leaders counsel and give advice to us so we can continue on to walk here in this world

no no no the elders they seized from the gate they no longer went to the gate with the time to give counsel and to meet together and you notice that the young man seized from their music couldn't sing anymore it says here the young man seized for music the joy of our heart he seized our dance is turned into mourning and you know beloved brothers and sisters I'm repeating it many times but I will repeat it one more time with respect to what happened to the people of Judah during the time of the Babylonian captivity Psalm 137 by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembered Zion we hung

our harps upon the willow in the midst thereof there in Babylon by the rivers they that carried us away captive this is the Babylonian required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us a mirth saying sing unto us one of the songs of Zion and look what they said how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land they couldn't sing if as as we read here in Lamentation chapter 5 and verse 14b the young man sees for music verse 15 said the joy of our heart is seas our dance has turned into morning they could not sing anymore how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land

we read in the same psalm 137 that they made a decision later on they said if I forget thee oh Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning they said if I not remember thee this is Jerusalem let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy this is Psalm 137 verses 1 to 6 you see they could not sing and why they couldn't sing because they were under the captivity of the Babylonian and why they were under the captivity of the Babylonian because they disobeyed the Lord they violated the word of God and God in judgment allow the Babylonian to take them captive and so

there's no more song there's no more dance no more joy no more celebration how could you how can one celebrate when his heart is heavy his father might have been killed his mother might have been raped his daughter must have been treated evilly how can you sing you can't and knowing that we disobey the Lord and the Lord came upon them in judgment so verses 11 to 15 beloved brothers and sisters Jeremiah presents to God the effect that the destruction of Jerusalem made upon the whole Jewish society you know sometimes I'm wondering today how our own Jewish people in spite of all the history can still sing in spite of the persecution can still sing

this this is amazing how the Lord somehow allow them to rise above the circumstances and if you notice many of the songs that even we sing are melancholy a very sad song because we always have this experience in our history of persecution and rejection and hatred this is the history of our own people Israel from the day that we came out of the land of Egypt up till the present day in which we live in and it will continue until the end of the tribulation where the Messiah will be accepted and Israel as a nation will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn recognize I have rejected him for so many

years and he is the promise Mashiach I should have accepted him and he is the one who will restore our people and bring the nation to himself and that will be an amazing glorious day that is yet before the nation of Israel now let's draw towards the end in verses 16, 17 and 18 Jeremiah confesses the cause of the condition that Jerusalem is at right now he admits and in a sense the whole nation is admitting here is the reason that we are in such a condition notice verses 16, 17 and 18 he says the crown is fallen from our head and notice verse 16 be woe unto us that we have sinned this is

exactly the reason Jeremiah is honest Israel had to realize the reason that we find ourselves in this condition it is because we have sinned against the Lord Isaiah says in Isaiah 6 verse 5 woe is me for I am a man with unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips for mine eyes have sinned the king the word for woe come from the Hebrew word oy and it represents the pain that come out of the judgment of God woe unto us that we have sinned verse 16 verse 17 we read because this thing happened unto us he says for this our heart is faint for these things our eyes

are dim what do you mean this this is the sins that we have committed disobey the Lord that's the reason why our heart is so heavy and faint this is the reason why our eyes are so dim we are tired we can't take it anymore in verse 18 Jeremiah says because of the mountain of Zion the Hebrew word is harzion the mountain of Zion that has a reference to the temple to Beit Hamikdash because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate the foxes walk upon it now the house the temple of the Lord where God presence was in the midst of the people of Israel where the song was there where the worship was

there where the sacrificial system was offered every day now it is desolate and Jeremiah is saying the mountain of Zion harzion on the top of Mount Zion Mount Moriah the mountains of Jerusalem is Zion you saw from far away the temple Beit Hamikdash the Jewish people were coming from all over the lands of the world to worship the Lord three times a year Pesach Shavuot weeks and Sukkot the Feast of Tabernacles but now what where shall we go it is desolate it's no longer there and why it's because we have sinned against our God that's what Jeremiah is saying to the Lord as he lamenting and praying for mercy and brothers and sisters here's the

conclusion in the last four verses 19 20 21 and 22 Jeremiah is praying for Jerusalem's restoration and you notice what he says in verse 19 thou O Lord remainest forever thy throne from generation to generation even though the temple is destroyed and we have been carried to Babylon and the city of Jerusalem is burnt with fire but you Lord you remain forever you don't change we change but you change us not thy throne is from generation to generation you are still in control even though things seem to be so poor in our life and so he continues in verse 20 and Jeremiah is saying wherefore dost thou forget us forever he is asking the Lord

are you going to forget us forever and you forsake us for such a long time you know he felt the people felt as if God forsook them and he said did you forsake us forever you have forgotten us your people forever is that what's going to happen God and then he beseeched the Lord this beautiful verse in verse 21 turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned renew our days as of old God we've sinned I repent I confess the nation will repent he says I want you to turn us the Hebrew word here is hashivenu come from the Hebrew word shuvu repent turn around and you notice that he says

God I want you to turn us because we in such a condition that you need to work it out in our hearts you know sometimes we wonder why people don't turn to the Lord in fact the sin nature that we all possess only drive us further and further from the Lord John 3 19 says that men love darkness rather than light and if you think that you love light you don't know your heart by nature men love darkness Yeshua said it rather than light and we need the Lord by his spirit to turn us around and he will use any means if needed to bring someone to turn to himself and here it is that

Jeremiah is praying Lord turn thou us unto thee and we shall be turned in other words if the Lord gonna do that work it will happen it will not be unsincere it will be a genuine work of the heart of an individual that's why when someone gets saved today he or she if they are truly turned to the Lord it is the work of the spirit of God where the spirit of God is working in the heart and turning that person back to the Lord and then we shall be turned renew our days as of all we don't want to stay where we are now we remember the old days where we enjoy thy presence

don't allow us to continue on in the way that we are now that's the Hebrew way of saying that verse 21 turn thou us O Lord and we shall be turned renew our days as of all many times we as well when we go wrong and we turn away from the Lord then we look back at the days of old and we say Lord I had it good but I fail you I disobeyed I made my choices and now I pay the consequence but I remember those days what a blessing when we could be together when we can enjoy the Lord when we can be under the sound of the word but we decided to

make steps further and further from the Lord And it doesn't take long and catch up with us and then we realize like King Saul the king of Israel Shaul said I play the fool I was a fool to make such a decision I should have listened to the word of the Lord and so the conclusion now in verse 22 but thou has utterly rejected us thou art very wrath with us now it sounds like dear brothers and sisters as if this whole book of lamentation is concluding with God utterly rejecting the Jewish people as it says here and he is very wrath against the Jewish people and if you ask many they would think that

even up till today God consistently and continuously rejected Israel as if it were Israel do not have a future restoration but the truth of the matter that there is a promise of a future restoration and God will never disannul the covenant that he made with the people of Israel look what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 35 thus says the Lord which giveth the sun for a light by day and ordinances of the moon and the stars for light by night which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar the Lord of hosts is his name if those ordinances depart from before me says the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall

cease from being a nation before me forever thus says the Lord verse 37 if heaven above can be measured and the foundation of the earth searched out beneath I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done sayeth the Lord in other words what God is saying if you can measure how high the heaven is and if you can measure how low the foundation of the earth is then I will cast the people of Israel from being a nation can you measure that can I measure that God knows very well that we cannot measure if those ordinances speaking about the sun the moon the stars and so on he

said if those ordinances shall depart from before me says the Lord then the seed of Israel shall be ceased can can can you turn off the sun can you turn off the moon can you have the stars cease from existing of course not God will never completely eliminate and reject the people of Israel God have not cast away his people and that's why the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11 said in verses 1 and 2 I say then as God cast away his people God forbid for I am also an Israeli of the seed of Abraham the tribe of Benjamin God has not cast away his people which he foreknew he continue and he says

to the brethren at Rome for I would not brethren that you should be ignorant of the mystery lest ye should be wise in your own conceit but blindness in part happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in and so all Israel shall be saved Romans 11 verse 25 and 26 as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob from Jacob God will restore his people Israel in the coming days and now when Jeremiah concluded his lamentation in chapter 5 and verse 22 he said but thou hast utterly rejected us and art very wroth against us it is better read this way unless

thou hast utterly rejected us and unless thou art very rest against us in other words God did not cast the people of Israel away he will restore the people of Israel back to himself eventually when the times of the Gentiles which began at 586 BC will come to its end at the second coming of the Messiah at the end of the tribulation and Israel the nation will be restored one final comment in the synagogue when the lamentations are read today verse 21 is repeated again after verse 22 as the end the fifth chapter of lamentation because it sounds like it is a negative verse in verse 22 so in order to end the book in

a positive presentation in a synagogue verse 21 is read once again after verse 22 and so we read turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned renew our days as of old unless thou has utterly rejected us thou art very wroth against us but they continue back to verse 21 turn us unto thee O Lord and we shall age as of old that's the book of lamentation of Jeremiah what a wonderful care this man had for a people that erred a people that have gone astray a people that were judged by God and yet there is a day coming that Israel will be turned back to the Lord and renew their

days as of all even greater than of all where Israel under the King Messiah will be fully restored and reign and rule with Yeshua the Messiah for a thousand years of the Messianic kingdom which is soon to come upon us