Horatio G. Spafford and his wife Anna were pretty well known in Chicago in the 1860s. Horatio was a prominent lawyer. He was also a good friend and supporter of the great evangelical preacher D.L. Moody. In 1870 things started to go wrong for Horatio and his wife Anna. They lost their only son to scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later things got worse for them. Most of their money was invested in property and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed everything that they owned. In 1973 they set out to England to accompany D.L. Moody on one of his evangelistic preaching tours. It was supposed to be a bit of a family holiday, although things got a little busy. So at one point Horatio sent his wife and four daughters to go back home and while they were on the ship, the Lockean, the ship collided with another one called the Villa de Havre. It sank in just 12 minutes and 226 people on board lost their lives. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck with her daughters Anna Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna herself was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. It was shortly after these events that Horatio wrote the song, When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul." I grew up always thinking that that line about the sea billows rolling was just a metaphor for the troubles of life. I had no idea it was talking about the way in which he lost his family. It's extraordinary isn't it when you see people's faith rise out of the ashes of circumstances like this. I spoke last week about how when we face suffering or grief in our lives it can result in two things really. It can increase our cynicism, it can harden our hearts against God or it can cause us to reassess what is really important in life. Obviously this is what happened for the Spaffords. They must have sat and thought hard about what had happened and tried to work out why it had happened and think about what really matters. The last verse of the hymn goes like this, and I think here we see what really is in the heart of Horatio and Anna. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul." What really matters? We have been given an incredible hope that not even the most horrific circumstances of life can destroy. Our hope is in God. And even beyond that, our hope is for God Himself. James, thanks for reading that passage from Jonathan Edwards. I didn't meet with James and collaborate anything, but that's just it. Our hope should be in God. This lament in chapter 3. It changes tone a little bit, or not just a little bit, in the middle. It certainly changes tone in a great way. But it's different from the other chapters and this is an individual speaking. He's speaking on behalf of the nation and he's talking about the suffering that he himself has gone through. And as we go through from verses 1 to 24, what we see, just as we did last week, is that all of his suffering relates exactly to the covenant curses that we saw in Leviticus 26 and in Deuteronomy 28. They focus primarily on the loss of rest, on the loss of peace and abandonment by God. We can see how that rest is lost. The author talks about having a troubled and tormented mind. He lives in darkness. He's like one who's hunted. The covenant curses of famine and siege are applied to him personally. He has made my flesh and my skin to waste away. He has broken my bones. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation. I'm sure from time to time we all go through moments when the pressures of life just feel like they are too much. Like it doesn't matter which way you turn, everything is going wrong and you can't see any way out of it. One of the covenant curses was that the cities of Israel would be put under siege and that happened quite literally. But here the author of chapter 3 is saying that metaphorically that's what's happened to me as well personally. I've been besieged, I have no rest. He's lost his peace. Verses 15-17 he says, He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel. It's a horrible image, isn't it? He made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is. In verses 7-10 he also speaks about that feeling of abandonment. He has wooled me about so that I cannot escape. He has made my chains heavy though I crawl and cry out for help. He shuts out my prayer. Have you ever felt like God just isn't listening? The darkest moments of your life, crying out and feeling that you're just speaking to the air. He has blocked my way with blocks of stones. He has made my path crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding. So worse than just being abandoned by God, God's hunting him down. in order to bring this judgement on him. Then from verses 19-20 we get this astonishing transition as we move from despair into hope. In verse 21 he says, But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I wonder if you actually did your homework and went away and read the rest of Lamentations like I asked. I wonder if when you got to these verses you asked yourself, where did he get this from? We can hear the story of Horatio and Anna and marvel at the faith in the face of their suffering. But when we come to chapter 3 and Lamentations, we should be even more deeply struck by what we see. Because the story of Horatio and Anna, as tragic as it is, is really about the tragedy just of the circumstances of life. In Lamentations, what we see is something quite different. This isn't just stuff that happened. The suffering and the turmoil and the agony that this man is going through is a direct result of God's own action. This is His judgement on his sin. How can someone who knows that turn to God in hope? Deuteronomy really is the key to understanding lamentations and all that's going on here. Chapter 28 talks about the blessings if they remain faithful to the covenant and then follows on for the rest of the chapter talking about the curses and it talks about those things that we see actually happen in Israel. Siege, famine, famine to the point where they turn to cannibalism in order to survive. They are abandoned by God. They have lost their peace. They have lost their rest. They feel utterly hopeless. But then when you get to Chapter 30 in Deuteronomy, the tone changes. You see, when this judgement comes upon Israel, it has a purpose. God's intent is not simply to punish them and then to leave them. It has a goal. And when all these things come upon you, as they just have, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey His voice in all that I command you today with all your heart and with all your soul, Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has gathered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more numerous and prosperous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you might live. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecute you and you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today." Can you see how Deuteronomy really provides the structure for chapter 3 of Lamentations. Chapter 28 is the curses and the Lamenter begins talking about how these curses have come upon him. Chapter 30 speaks about this wonderful hope that we have, that God won't abandon us, that he'll come back to us in grace and restore us to himself. And so that's where we are now in the middle of Lamentations. And then if you go on, at the end of this passage that we just read, it talks about God bringing judgment on those who, in God's hand, brought that judgment on the nation. And that's what we see at the end of Lamentations too, a call for God to bring justice, to judge those who have done these terrible things to them. But this is what the Lamenter has remembered. He's remembered that even when speaking of the curses and judgments that will come, As a result of their unfaithfulness, God still promises to bless them. He promises to bring them back to himself, to bring them back to the land. And at the heart of this passage is that line, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. Verse 24 of Lamentations 23 says, and this is exactly what James read to us this morning, The Lord is my portion. That is, He is my inheritance. He Himself is the one that I long for. Therefore I will hope in Him. This is the key. God's intention is to turn them back to Himself. There's more to the story than this as well. Jeremiah 29 is a very famous passage, and I'm sure one verse in particular you'll know off by heart. This is from verse 4 down to verse 14. Jeremiah is speaking before the judgement has even taken place that God will promise to restore His people, that He's going to bring the people back out of exile. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them. plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on his behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." I'll skip down to verse 10. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you. And I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." He will restore them. He'll bring them back to their Eden, to the land of peace and rest, and most importantly, the place where they can meet with God, where he walks among them. In Lamentation 3.33 we begin to understand, at least we get to see what's really behind God's action in bringing this judgement. The ESV says, for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. We might have a problem looking at that because the rest of the laments, and we know the history of Israel tells us that it was in fact God's will to bring this judgement on them. But we need to understand this the same way as we do when it says in the New Testament it's not God's will that anyone should die, but that all should come to repentance. If it was to be translated literally it would say, he does not afflict or grieve from the heart. Now the reason they don't translate it that way is because in our culture the heart is the centre of emotion. But not for the Hebrews, it's really the bowels are the centre of the emotion and the heart is the centre of the will. But we need to understand that will in terms of desire, I think. We separate those two as part of our heritage of Greek philosophy where the will and the emotions are almost opposite forces. But the heart is not completely devoid of emotion. God does not desire to afflict or grieve the children of men. That is not his purpose. That is not his goal in what he is doing. God is not a sadist. He doesn't enjoy watching his people suffer. He does it instead to restore them in a relationship with himself which did not end with his judgements. That relationship came to an end when they walked away from it. When they worshipped other gods. When they forgot who he was and turned their backs on him. Now at this point the lament seems to be suggesting that God has in fact achieved his purposes. This is a lament for the nation. We know that after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, that this lament was read in synagogues right through the world, wherever Jewish people met. That was the purpose. The lament was written to give voice to the grief and suffering of the people. We're not quite sure how it was used originally, if the people in exile or even the tiny number of people left in Jerusalem gathered together and actually read this lament together. So it seems that when we come to the heart of lamentations, it seems that God has achieved his purposes. Surely the lament is telling us that the heart of the people has turned back to God. Unfortunately, history tells us otherwise. In fact, as a lament for the nation, this lament is a fraud. When God's judgement has come to an end, when the 70 years has passed, when all his wrath has been spent, when Babylon falls, the Persians come to the throne and tell the Jews that they can go home, almost nobody goes. Some of the estimations I've read is that somewhere between 5% packed up their things and returned to Israel. And then as you read on further in the story, going to Ezra and Nehemiah, you see that even those that returned, it doesn't take long before they fall back into old habits. Worshipping other gods, intermarrying with the nations around them and thereby bringing their gods into their homes. Not observing the laws of how to conduct themselves in the temple, getting lazy and they stop building the temple. Do you understand the significance of that? The temple is where God will come and be in their presence again. If they stop building it, what is it telling you about the desire they have for their future? Why? What's happened? What's going on here? Surely the judgement of God was intended to turn their hearts back to Him. Why doesn't anyone want to go back to live in His presence? I think there are a few things that we need to see. Back in this passage in Jeremiah 29, have a look at verses 5 and 6. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease." Does any of that language sound familiar? We've got gardens and produce and multiplying. In Ezekiel chapters 10 and 11, Ezekiel is given a vision of God. basically packing up his things and leaving the temple. He has a vision where he sees God rising above the temple in his carriage, in his throne, and he leaves. Do you know where he goes? That in itself would have been horrific for the people who heard the vision. God is leaving the temple. God is abandoning his people. The temple is the source of our hope, the source of our security. God is leaving the temple, but where does God go? He goes east. That's where the exiles are. For those who are in exile, this vision is of extraordinary hope. God isn't going to abandon them. God is going to go to where they are and watch over them. And while they may not be able to experience his presence in a tangible way like they can in the temple, they know that he's still with them. So they're going to have all that they need. They're going to have a certain amount of peace. They'll be able to rest there in the work that God has given them to do and God himself will be there and look over them. So why don't they go home? Well, the problem is they've become comfortable in their exile. God is there. He's blessing them. He meets their needs. He's making them fruitful and multiplying. They're continuing to fill God's creational purpose. The only thing that's lacking is that tangible presence of God in their midst. And when they're given a chance to return to the land, the significance of the land isn't the blessings that come with the land, But the presence of God himself, they don't want it. Perhaps they don't want to risk losing what they've found. We're living in peace. We have all we need. We're at rest. Why would you risk that? Perhaps here we start to see what's been lying at the heart of the problem of the nation of Israel all the way through. They want the benefits of God, but not God himself. They want the prosperity and the protection that he gives them, but their hearts don't really ache after him. When you read through commentaries on lamentations, all of the commentators that I've seen say it's really difficult to know how to apply this in a Christian context. And you can see why. It's a lament. The appropriate place to use this would probably be at a funeral. It's written to give voice to the pain and suffering that the people were enduring. But when we look at the story of Israel and see where this fits into it, then we should stop and ask ourselves some questions. First of all, we should be asking ourselves, what is it that I hope for? Do I seek after God himself or just the benefits of God? When you think about what happens when you die, what do you think about? Do you think about heaven as a place full of blessings, full of abundance? Or do you think of God himself? The language of the exile is applied to Christians in the New Testament. In 1 Peter, from 1.17-19 he says, And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Then over in chapter 2, 11 and 12 he says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of his visitation. In Philippians, Paul reminds us that we have our citizenship in heaven. For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly, and their glory is their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. We need to ask ourselves some tough questions. Have we become too comfortable in our exile? Are we enjoying the benefits of God so much that we've stopped longing after God himself? If we begin to think that the life we now live is somewhat Edenic, We have peace, we have rest, we have the presence of God by His Spirit. Then we stop hoping for the restoration that lies ahead. Romans 8.24 sums it up fairly succinctly. Who hopes for what he sees? Have you ever asked yourself the question, why is the church in the West slowly dying? While in countries like China, India, Central Africa and some of the poorest countries in Asia, it's exploding. I think the answer is this. They're not living with any delusion about having already arrived. When you live in a country where every time you go to church you know there's a possibility that the police will be there waiting to arrest you. When you live in a country knowing that the Muslims across the border could fly down with their jets and bomb you anytime. When you live in a country like India, and I'm sure you all remember the story from a few years ago when the missionary and his two sons were set on fire as they slept in their van at night by some Hindus who didn't like their presence. They don't live with any delusion about having already received the fullness of God's peace, the fullness of that rest, or even the fullness of that presence. Yes, he gives us rest. Yes, he gives us peace. Yes, he is with us by his Spirit. But you know that even Paul says that the Holy Spirit is a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Who in their right mind has ever been satisfied with a deposit? There are some problems with the way we read some of these passages, I think. We love to extract Jeremiah 29 verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. And without even realising what we're doing, we turn it into a kind of prosperity gospel. How do we apply that passage to ourselves as Christians? Well, a university student wondering what they're going to do after they've finished university. Oh, don't worry, Jeremiah 29 verse 11. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. The problem is that if we extract it from its context then we don't see what God's plan and purpose for them is because it actually tells you in the next few verses. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me and you will seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place which I sent you into exile." What's his plans? To bring us back to himself. For us as Christians, what does that mean? It means heaven. It means a new creation. It means that wonderful day when we stand in his presence again and see him face to face. I think another problem is the book of Job. We don't really understand how we are supposed to approach it. Instead of being a critique of the simplistic way that wisdom is applied, We read it as if it's a paradigm of how we should understand all blessing and suffering in the world. Why does Job suffer? Because God gives Satan permission to go and do some nasty stuff. So when we suffer, what's going on? Well, it's the work of Satan. And at the end of the story, what happens to Job? Well, God comes and blesses him. So that's how we'd understand it. When we're blessed, it's God giving us. When we suffer, it's Satan attacking us. You know, I suspect that maybe quite often it's the other way around. I suspect that if Satan had his way with the Christian community around the world, we'd all have big homes. Enough toilets so that you never have to wait to have a pee. Enough money to replace our car every 12 months so that you never have to endure the hardship of a breakdown. 42 inch LCD TV hanging on the wall with 1.5 channel surround sound so that you can have your rest. It'd make us comfortable in our exile so that we stop hoping. Why is the church growing in places like China and Central Africa and India and Asia? Why is it growing as fast as it is? Because they have nothing to cling to but that hope. And because they have nothing else to cling to, it's all they think about. And because it's all they think about, it's all they talk about. So the Gospel is spreading like wildfire. Why don't we talk about it? Because we don't think about it. Because we don't hope for it. Because who hopes for what he already sees? I wonder what it would take for God to wake up the church in Australia. We'll quickly rush through the rest of this chapter because there's some good advice here for us. Just really quick summaries. In verses 25-39 we are given some general advice on how to approach suffering, how to think about it. Verses 25-30 we are told how we should approach God when we endure suffering. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. We should live in hope. Verses 31-33 The reason the sufferer can hope is that God is compassionate according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 34-39 We know also that God sees injustice and is behind the punishment for sin. We are reminded that behind all suffering is human sinfulness. We are reminded that we can't be complacent about sin, even in the light of the cross, especially in the light of the cross. At the cross we see once and for all the judgement of God, the horror of human sinfulness. I know I suffer from complacency about my sin from time to time. We are in danger of taking His forgiveness for granted. In verses 40 and 41, the man speaking calls for a corporate response. He calls us to repent of our sin. And then in verses 42 to 47, you have kind of a communal lament. And in verse 40, it says, Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord. You notice what's really at the heart of repentance? Test and examine our ways and return to the Lord. He doesn't say anywhere in here, let's test and examine our ways and make sure we get it all right next time. What lies at the heart of all sinfulness is a desire to be independent from God. So let us return to the Lord. Verses 48 to 51. The valiant man weeps at the suffering of his city. And we should weep at the suffering that we see in the world. This is a harsh place. There are people dying of starvation in Africa at the moment. We should weep over those things. We should be seeing those things and being reminded by them every day that this isn't it. We should read our newspapers and see the number of sexual abuses that happen in our community and we should be reminded that this isn't it. Down in verses 52-54 we are reminded that persecution will come. In verses 55-58 we are reminded that we should call on God to deliver us from our suffering. And finally in 59-63 the man in the laments declares that Yahweh knows all evils committed against him by the enemies and he calls on God to judge them. We should wait for His justice. And finally, the man in the lament prays that Yahweh will punish his enemies. Now, you know, sometimes we struggle with that concept. How could we dare ask God to judge others when we ourselves have been saved from our sin? But as Christians, I think that in here we should be reminded to long for the day when Christ returns. When He comes to judge all evil and put it all away once and for all. I ache for the day when I am free of my own sinful wretchedness. I ache for the day when I will stand in his presence and see him face to face. I ache for the day when I can walk with him in the garden. Lord, haste the day when faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. Let's not become complacent and comfortable in our exile. Let us hope with all our hearts on the restoration that's to come. Let's pray. Loving Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace to us. Thank you that you will not look on sin and leave it unpunished. Thank you that you have judged our sin in your own Son on the cross, in order to set us free and restore us to yourself. Lord, help us to be uncomfortable in our exile. Help us to look at all the evil that's in the world and ache for the day when you said it all right. Father, do not delay in sending your Son back to us. Give us more time so that we can reach the lost. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.