Notice the word mercies.
Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. 250 times in the Old Testament that word appears. It's usually translated in New King James loving kindness. The Hebrew word is chesed.
Chesed is literally a covenant love. God is merciful because he has made a covenant with his people. We often ask why God allows us to experience difficulties in life. Well, today on Connect with Skip Heitzigs, Skip covers a painful time in Israel's history, sharing important insight with you about why God allows suffering.
But before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that helps you live today in the eternal hope of Jesus' resurrection. It's pretty obvious that this world is filled with imperfect people, and that's on purpose. God is into restoring human beings.
You know, he could make perfect people and then populate heaven with perfect people, but he doesn't do that. He's been beat up, bruised by time, damaged by sin, and he does a full resto job on them. Complete restoration. Celebrate the joy and beauty of redemption with the morning that changed everything with Skip Heitzig. This DVD collection of six hope-filled Easter weekend messages is our thanks to you when you give $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's word and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ. Restoration is based on redemption, and redemption is tied to resurrection.
To give, call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, we're in the Book of Lamentations as Skip Heitzig gets into today's message. God is willing to give us hurts if it will turn our hearts. The hurts he allows to come are in order to turn our hearts back to him. He gives the hurts because he wants our hearts.
He has a goal in mind. God doesn't have a mean streak. God isn't getting back at you.
God has a love streak. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens, the Bible says, and he disciplines every son that he receives. Any parent knows this. A child left to himself or a child left to herself, we have a name for that. It's called a brat. You've seen brats. Brats are produced by parents who do not believe in disciplining children. Oh, just negotiate with the child. Distract the child.
Talk him out of it and talk him into something else. And what will happen is you will have a child who's used to getting his or her own way forever. And so David writes in Psalm 119, before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word. You get the picture, right?
In other words, the spanking really helped. Your hurt got my heart. And now I give it back to you.
C.S. Lewis put it this way, pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rebel soul. Always love that quote. Verse seven of chapter two. The Lord has spurned his altar. He has abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given up the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord as on a day of a set feast. An interesting development. I'm going to make this quick. You know how I like to sit and probe deeply.
But that's for a different kind of a study. Okay. It says the Lord abandoned his sanctuary. Notice that? When the temple was destroyed, the Jews were taken captive, they faced a problem. No temple. No temple. How do they do sacrifices?
They don't. They cannot practice ceremonial law and be obedient to God in a foreign land. So a brand new institution developed in Babylon, in captivity, that continues with us to this day. It's called the synagogue. And rabbis. You don't read of rabbis until the New Testament. You don't read of synagogues until the New Testament.
You know why? They didn't exist in the Old Testament. They were born in captivity. Now you had elders sitting around saying since we can't practice ceremonial law, we can at least discuss ritualistic law. And we can apply the law of Moses to different life situations. So they developed the tradition called the oral law.
Questions like what would Moses do in this situation? And they would argue and sermonize and they would write down what was orally passed down into what is called the Talmud. And you have two Talmuds. The Babylonian Talmud.
I have a copy of it upstairs. It is also over and against or compared to the Jerusalem Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud I think is nine times longer than the Jerusalem Talmud. But it's all these adjudications and opinions, legal rabbinical opinions that came from the oral law. By the time of Jesus, the oral law in some cases superseded the written law, the law, God's law. That's what Jesus meant when he said, now it's going to make sense, you have heard that it was said by those of old, but I say unto you.
A lot of it, they took the law, but they added stuff to it and it became the oral law. But Jesus now let me tell it to you straight. Okay, verse 13. How shall I console you to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea. Who can heal you? In other words, what other nation has suffered like this nation, God's nation?
We'll get back to that in a second. Verse 15. All who pass by clap their hands.
Can you picture people walking by? They're applauding the destruction, they hated Jerusalem. Neighbors like Moab and Edom that collaborated with the Babylonians and the Babylonians gave them land as a reward, the lands of Judah. They rejoice, they clap their hands, they were so happy about it.
They hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city that is called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth? Remember Psalm 148? Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. In the mountain of our God, in the mountain of His holiness, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion and the sides of the north, the city of the Great King. Beauty of the earth. The rabbis used to say this, God gave ten measures of beauty to the world.
Ten measures of beauty to the world. Nine were given to Jerusalem and one to the rest of the world. Now if you're from Colorado or Oregon and you go see Jerusalem, you'll dispute that, but that was their saying. But they also said this, the rabbis said God gave ten measures of suffering to the world. Nine were taken by Jerusalem and one distributed to the rest of the earth.
And when you understand their history, they were on to something. Chapter 3 has 66 verses. It is three times longer than chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 that have 22 verses. Why 22 verses do these chapters have? Because the Hebrew alphabet has how many letters?
22. So those are acrostic chapters. That is, it begins with the first letter aleph and then bet and then gimel, then hevav, zayin, all the way. So A to Z, it's an acrostic with the exception of chapter 5.
Follow me? Now we get to the middle chapter and it's three times longer because the first three letters begin with the first letter of the alphabet, the second three verses with the second, the next three verses with the third letter, etc. So it's tripled. Though the verses are tripled, they're one third shorter than the rest of the book. So three times longer, but the verses are truncated.
It's a certain kind of style known as the kinah meter, this clipped or quick meter. If you're into literature, you'll like that. Also, if you know literature, you'll appreciate this. The flow of the whole book of Lamentations is a chiastic model.
If you have a literature background, you'll understand what chiastic is. It's like this, A, B, C, and then beginning with C, back to B, back to A. That's how the rhythm of the book flows. Enough said. Chapter 3 verse 1, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. In other words, Jeremiah said, I'm the guy that watched God spank the nation. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not light. Verse 7, he has hedged me in so that I cannot get out.
He has made my chains heavy. Even, verse 8, when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer. Why would Jeremiah say this? Because, on one hand, God told Jeremiah to pray, call on me, Jeremiah 33-3, call on me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not. But, there came a point at which God three times said, Jeremiah, don't pray for this people anymore.
I'm done listening, I won't answer. Verse 9, he has blocked my ways with hewn stone. He had made my paths crooked, I feel isolated. Verse 19, remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood and the gall, the strong smelling plant that yields that very bitter, bitter dark oil. Verse 20, my soul remembers and sinks within me. Now, in the midst of all this pain and destruction, there's a gem right in the middle, right in the heart of this book. Suddenly, Jeremiah recalls something he knows of the character of God.
Do that. When you face uncertain times, call to mind that which is certain. When you don't know what to do, call to mind what you do know about God. Verse 21, this I recall to my mind. Therefore, I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed because his compassion fails not.
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. This is the only bright spot in the whole book.
Five elegies are given, five dirges, five sad, sad songs. This is like a diamond in a bunch of coal. You're raking through the coal and now you see this beautiful diamond. Notice the word mercies. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed. Two hundred and fifty times in the Old Testament, that word appears. It's usually translated in New King James, loving kindness.
The Hebrew word is chesed. Chesed is literally a covenant love. God is merciful because he has made a covenant with his people. And because of the covenant, he will show mercy.
He will show love. So God made a covenant with us and therefore, because of the covenant, he acts in mercy. It's an interesting word. And it's a word, it's interesting to me because a couple years ago, I sat in the office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, who was talking of Jesus. And he was looking for the right word. He goes, Jesus was filled with, what's the word?
He goes chesed, chesed. And he was saying it to his aide and I recognize the word. I said loving kindness. He goes, yeah, that's it. Loving kindness.
Jesus was filled with love and brought to our people loving kindness. And I thought, well, you're on the right track. Keep that thread going.
Keep searching through that thread. But I love it. He says, great. Verse twenty three, great is your faithfulness. There's a great hymn. In fact, we're going to close the evening out with this hymn written by Thomas Chrisholm.
Thomas Chrisholm was born in a little shack back in Franklin, Tennessee, and he wrote a great hymn that you know, great is thy faithfulness. O God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not thy compassion's they fail not. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Great, great song penned based upon the words of this this great portion of Jeremiah's writing of Lamentations. Go down to verse thirty one. The Lord will not cast off forever. Verse thirty two, though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. All of this is a statement of faith based upon not what he saw, but based upon what he knew in spite of what he saw. Here's what I saw.
Destruction, bad stuff happening, death, desolation. But this is what I know to be true, regardless of what I see. And so this is his statement of faith.
God is faithful. You know, for a couple of years, about three years, I lived in a little Southern California town called San Juan Capistrano. What's famous about that town is its mission. Mission San Juan Capistrano. And what's famous about the mission, among other things, is that there's a species of bird called the cliff swallow that makes the six hundred mile journey every year from Argentina to California.
To that mission. It leaves on March 19th from Argentina to go to California. And October 23rd leaves California.
Go back to Argentina. And you could just be there on the day. Set your watch. Hang out there. Sure enough, on that day, they're faithful to show up. Or let me put it better. God is faithful to put into that bird brain the ability to make it six hundred miles without a GPS unit to a mission in San Juan Capistrano, Southern California. And it's an amazing truth of nature. But all I can say, if God cares about the timing of birds that much, don't you think God will be in perfect timing in the situations that arise in your life, child of God, better than a cliff swallow?
Yes, he will. The fourth dirge. Chapter four.
Jeremiah surveys the scenes, describes the heartache. Verse one. How the gold has become dim.
How changed the fine gold. The stones of the heavy sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street. Verse 11. The Lord is afflicted or the Lord has fulfilled his fury. He has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled the fire in Zion. He has devoured his foundations, the kings of the earth, all of its inhabitants. I'm going down to verse 12.
Sorry, I'm skipping around. Verse 12. All the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem. The Jews had a saying. The land of Israel is at the center of the world. The land of Israel is at the center of the world. Jerusalem is at the center of the land of Israel. The temple is at the center of Jerusalem. That's their way of saying the very epicenter of the earth is the temple. Jeremiah, who loved the temple, watches as it is destroyed, dismantled by the Babylonian army.
What are the reasons? Verse 13. Because of the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, who shed in her midst the blood of the just. If you remember the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah had a ministry buddy by the name of Uriah, not Uriah Heap, the band Uriah the prophet, the contemporary of Jeremiah, who was murdered by the leadership in Jerusalem. Verse 14. They wandered blind in the streets. They had defiled themselves with blood so that no one would touch their garments.
So the leadership was corrupt. Verse 21. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom. You dwell in the land of Oz. You know who was from the land of Oz?
Joe. So that land east of the Dead Sea, the land of modern day Jordan, is the land of Oz or Edom. The cup also shall pass over to you. You shall become drunk and make yourself naked. The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. He will no longer send you into captivity. He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom. He will uncover your sins.
I said Edom took a role in promoting the fall of the destruction, clapping their hands, collaborating with the Babylonians. The prophet says you'll get your up comings. God's watching this. And so it takes us to chapter 5. We have just under three minutes to finish the book. The fifth dirge breaks the pattern. What is the pattern? The acrostic. Remember the acrostic A to Z? The letters in this chapter do not all begin with the letter of the Hebrew, the subsequent letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Why?
Couldn't tell you. Maybe it's to kind of illustrate the confusion brought on by the destruction. It is a prayer of Jeremiah for the people. Chapter 5, verse 1. Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us. Look and behold our reproach. Verse 2. Our inheritance has been turned over to the two aliens.
Our house is to foreigners. Our princes were hung up by their hands and elders were not respected. A possible, I'm just saying possible reference to crucifixion. The typical means Babylonians use to kill victims of a raid like this was impaling. It could be this is a reference to crucifixion. One thing we know is that the ones who will succeed the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, are the ones who really invented as a way of destruction, sometimes mass destruction, but capital punishment. They developed crucifixion.
Then the Romans picked it up later on. Verse 16. We're getting there. Verse 16. The crown has fallen from our head.
These are the captives speaking. Woe to us, for we have sinned. There's the admission.
There's the confession. Verse 19. You, O Lord, remain forever. You are thrown from generation to generation. Why do you forget us forever and forsake us for so long a time? Turn us back to you, O Lord, and we will be restored.
Renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are very angry with us. So the book ends with the possibility of hope. The captives looking for, in spite of suffering for sin, that Judah would not be abandoned.
Jeremiah certainly knew through all of his tears that the city and the country would be restored. God would be faithful and merciful. Question as we end. What do you do when you get a phone call?
Good, yeah. Some would say ignore it, some would say it depends who's there. But you answered what I wanted you to. You answer it. And if need be, you act on it.
If it's an emergency, you act on it. Every August in Finland, there's a contest called the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship. Yeah, I know. It's like, really?
You got nothing better to do than that? They have people throw phones. Years ago, a guy from Finland won, like 86 meters. The record standing now is the German who threw a phone, a mobile phone, 136 meters.
Pretty amazing, right? I feel like that sometimes. I want to throw that stinking phone sometimes, right? But for 40 years, Jeremiah announced, God is calling.
And for 40 years, they chucked it and chucked it, threw it, didn't listen. The wages of sin is death. There's always a consequence to sin. If God is trying to get through to your heart, pick up the phone. Jesus said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will open the door, I will come in and have fellowship with them, sup with them. If God is speaking to your hardened heart, pick up the phone.
He's faithful. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from his series, The Bible from 30,000 Feet. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep this broadcast going strong, connecting more people like you to the good news of Jesus.
The Lord truly is slow to anger, and He desires that all people come to repentance and trust in Jesus. Our goal is to send God's word out into a world that needs to hear the life changing news of the gospel. And I want to invite you to take an active role in that exciting mission. Please consider giving a gift today to keep these teachings coming your way and going out to encourage a world in need.
Here's how you can give right now. And watch thousands of powerful Bible teachings and live services. Find more information on the broadcast page at connectwithskip.com. And real quick, catch Connect with Skip Heitzig on the Hillsong Chat on Saturdays at 4.30 p.m. Mountain, or watch it on TVN on Sundays at 5.30 a.m. Eastern. Check your local listings. Join us next Monday as Skip Heitzig shares important insight with you as he explores the incredible visions of the prophet Ezekiel. Don't miss it. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
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