LAMENTATIONS LESSON 4 We will begin this lesson in Lamentations 3:34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, Lamentations 3:35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, In the last lesson, we began on this series. It seems Jeremiah is speaking as if he is the person this is happening to. This is either a representative person of Jerusalem, or Jerusalem. These verses are of the calamity that has come upon the people of Jerusalem. The man has lost his right to pray, because of his repeated sin of worshipping false gods. Lamentations 3:36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. It is as if this person is saying, that this cannot possibly be God, because God is not against man. He forgets that man caused this separation. Lamentations 3:37 Who [is] he [that] saith, and it cometh to pass, [when] the Lord commandeth [it] not? The truth is, not even a sparrow falls, except the Lord allow it. God is in control of His entire creation. We can say a thing all we want to, but unless God commands it, it will not happen. Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? This is a question, not a statement. The same God that is love is, also, the Judge. God does love more than any man can understand, but each of us will be judged one at a time, and punished, or rewarded according to that judgement. Lamentations 3:39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? What right does a man have to complain for punishment for the sins he committed? The answer is no right at all. God is just. We all want His grace, but we do not want His justice. Lamentations 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. This is something that everyone living should do, and not just these Israelites. We should all examine ourselves, and see whether we be of God, or not. Just to say we are of God, is not enough. We must live the salvation that we have received everyday. Christianity is no good, unless it is an everyday affair. Turn to the Lord, while He can be found. He will help us stay on the narrow path, after we get there. Lamentations 3:41 Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the heavens. When we lift up our hands in praise to God in heaven, it is an outward expression of the submission to Him in our hearts. He will judge the condition of our hearts. Lamentations 3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. To be pardoned, one must truly be sorry for the sins he committed. Rebellion is next to witchcraft. The way to be pardoned, is to have a total change of heart. Lamentations 3:43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. Pity is not what we need. Forgiveness and mercy is what we need. Gods judgement is carried out. We must remember that there is a time, when God has lost patience with our sin. This is what had happened here. Gods wrath had come up in His face, and He carried out the punishment for their sin. Lamentations 3:44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that [our] prayer should not pass through. All the messages, that God sent them by the prophets, were rejected. Now, He rejects their prayers. He has closed His ears to their requests. Lamentations 3:45 Thou hast made us [as] the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. The lands around them, that had treated them with such great respect, have no respect for them now. They are abandoned by their God. They have no friends. Lamentations 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Their enemies are speaking badly of them, because of their obvious sin against their God. Lamentations 3:47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. They had so many fears, now, it is hard to know where to start. They were afraid of starving, or being killed. They had never known fear, because of the protection God had provided. Now, He is not fighting for them. They have nothing. All is lost. Lamentations 3:48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Lamentations 3:49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, Lamentations 3:50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven. The crying is at first like a river for the amount of tears shed. Then the tears begin to dry up, and began to be just a trickle. He has determined to cry out, until God looks from heaven, and hears the prayers. Lamentations 3:51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. The things he sees with his eye is breaking his heart. Lamentations 3:52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. Sometimes birds are chased just for the sport. This is just saying that the cause was not the ones who was chasing. The cause was Gods. Lamentations 3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. This is all intertwined with Jeremiah, and the city he loved so. He speaks as if he is that city, and that people, and yet as if part of this was things he suffered himself. Jeremiah was put into a cistern and left to die. Lamentations 3:54 Waters flowed over mine head; [then] I said, I am cut off. Jeremiah had been cut off, when he was held prisoner, but this is, probably, speaking of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was cut off from God. Lamentations 3:55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. Jeremiah was held in the cistern, and they had to take ropes to pull him out of. Undoubtedly, he cried to God during this time. Lamentations 3:56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Lamentations 3:57 Thou drewest near in the day [that] I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. God heard Jeremiah, and answered him back, to fear not. Jeremiah is, now, crying out for the people of Jerusalem, and wants God to give him the same attention, as he did when he was in the cistern. Lamentations 3:58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. There is no doubt at all that God spared Jeremiahs life in this war with Babylon, and even when the people had turned against him, and imprisoned him. God saved Jeremiahs life. Lamentations 3:59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. He is pleading for Jerusalem. His cause is in behalf of the people of Jerusalem. Lamentations 3:60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance [and] all their imaginations against me. Lamentations 3:61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, [and] all their imaginations against me; This is against Jerusalem. Me is Jerusalem, here. God sees all. He does not overlook anything. It is as if Jeremiah is pleading with God, that they have suffered enough. Lamentations 3:62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. The lips are mentioned, because it pertains to words coming from their mouths. Lamentations 3:63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I [am] their music. Jeremiah, again, is pleading for God to be aware of their daily hardships. The only good they hear is from Jeremiah, and he is like music in their ear. Lamentations 3:64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Recompence means to be safe in mind body or estate. Lamentations 3:65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. This is asking for Babylon to be judged for their sins they committed against Jerusalem. Lamentations 3:66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD. We are not to avenge ourselves. God will take vengeance on those who have sinned. He is the Judge. Jeremiah is speaking for Jerusalem here. They will not take vengeance, but want God to. Lamentations 4 Questions 1. Why has the man lost his right to pray? 2. Who caused the separation between God and man? 3. Who is in control of everything? 4. Wherefore doth a living man ____________? 5. What is one thing that all living should do? 6. When we lift up our hands to God in heaven, it is what? 7. To be pardoned, one must be ________ _______. 8. Pity is not what we need. We need __________ and _________. 9. Why does there seem to be a cloud between their prayers and God? 10. Who has lost respect for these Israelites? 11. What were some of their fears? 12. Why are the tears like a river, in verse 48, and just a trickle in verse 49? 13. What is breaking his heart in verse 51? 14. Who is verse 53 speaking of? 15. Where had he called upon the name of the LORD from? 16. God answered Jeremiahs prayer by telling him to _______ ______. 17. Whose life is verse 58 speaking of? 18. Who is Jeremiah pleading for? 19. What does it seem Jeremiah is pleading about in verse 60 and 61? 20. What does lips indicate in verse 62? 21. Why does Jeremiah call himself their music? 22. What does recompence mean? 23. Who does Jeremiah ask God to judge? 24. Who is the only one to avenge?
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:01:27 +0000
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