Today, we continue in the book of Lamentations. Last time I preached, I had the privilege of introducing the book. It was a lot of fun preparing for that and getting to understand the genre a bit more. And the background, I know we spent quite a bit of time walking through Jeremiah, and that certainly was a great preparation for the Book of Lamentations, but it was a delight to get to be used by the Lord in preaching such an introduction last week, and getting to go over that, how great is God's faithfulness. Well, this morning we're gonna start our journey through the Book of Lamentations. Our passage this morning, if you'll turn there, is in Lamentations chapter one, verses one through 11. The poet writes, how lonely sits the city that was full of people. How like a widow has she become. She who was great among the nations. She who was a princess. Among the provinces has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks. Among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude. She dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place. Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival. All her gates are desolate, her priests groan, her virgins have been afflicted, and she herself suffers bitterly. Her foes have become the head, her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone away, captives before the foe. From the daughter of Zion, all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They fled without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the foe and there was none to help her. Her foes gloated over her. They mocked at her downfall. Jerusalem sinned grievously. Therefore, she became filthy. All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns her face away. Her uncleanness was in her skirts. She took no thought of her future. Therefore, her fall is terrible. She has no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things, for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation. All her people groan as they search for bread. They trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised. This passage, these first 11 verses, serve as a cry of grief from Jerusalem. Also referred to in the text as the daughter of Zion, or even Lady Zion in some translations. It illustrates this very stark reality of loss following destruction, great and terrible loss. Now, our text is, it's very moving. It's a very moving description of sorrow, and it's mingled with a sense of abandonment that only heightens the pain. It's reflecting that collective heartbreak of all of Judah, including the poet, who have lost their identity and security. But the poet knows better. As Jeremiah writes, he has warned them before. This text, it reveals stages of grief, deep emotional scars, clearly, that's left by tragedy, and it serves as a model for even our own understanding of experiencing loss. It's a great model in this regard. Very few in history have suffered in such a way. Grieving is no sign of weakness. If done rightly, that is to God in reverence, it's actually a sign of wisdom to know how to grieve rightly. Prayers mingled with tears, searching for the grace that is needed and the mercy to endure, offered up to the one person who can truly help and save. This is not only wise, but it honors God. It honors him. In our passage today, the poet would have us really to bear witness to the pain and suffering of the people of God. It must drive you to pity them for what poor souls that they have become. The poet also makes it very clear that their tragedy is due to the nation's sin and unfaithfulness. That's revealed in these first 11 verses. But what father would God be to let them to continue in their sin forever? They would not listen to the prophets that he had sent them. They stoned them, they killed them, they imprisoned them, but they will listen to the foreign pagan invader that he would and eventually did send to them. Now we are to take special note of God's hatred of sin and his seriousness in dealing with it. It's one thing that we should be taking note of as we go through this book. As his children, we're not immune to his chastening. It invites his correction when we act unfaithfully and we have our own sin that we deal with. It invites his correction and we need to be equipped to not only know how to express our grief biblically, but also to be able to help others through their grief when the providence of God hurts to the core, when it cuts to the quick. Sometimes it does. These first 11 verses give us bits and pieces of grief suffered by the prophet, who's the poet here, and the people of Judah. So we always have at least two personalities that are at work here in the writings. We have Jeremiah himself suffering with them, and then we have his expression of the city and the people. there are elements of grief that we will see this morning. So I have two main headings in my outline if you're taking notes. Number one, elements of grief in its loneliness. Elements of grief in its loneliness. And this appears in verses one through seven. And then secondly, elements of grief in its causes. Elements of grief in its causes. And we find that in verses eight through 11. So, my first point, elements of grief and its loneliness. The journey the poet describes for his readers as he takes them through, again, both his grief and Jerusalem's grief is composed of a number of elements. For example, the most repeated word in chapter one is the word all. It appears 16 times altogether. It's repetition, it rings of the totality of Judah's tragedy. And five times, five times we hear of the deathly sound of groaning. There is, again, as I mentioned when I introduced this book, there is also an art to the poetry of the writer. captured in these words. Now I believe it is gonna be helpful for us today if I can try to break things down a bit more for us. So I do have a couple of sub points to help guide us under this first point in my outline, which tackles the people's profound loneliness. Verses one through three. we read of the people's, their profound pain and their abandonment. So you could put that as a subtitle if you'd like. Profound pain and abandonment. And in verses four through seven, we read of Jerusalem's loneliness as they are facing the empty void. Facing the empty void. Well, let's reread verses one through three. How lonely sits the city that was full of people. How like a widow has she become. She who was great among the nations, she who was a princess among the provinces, has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks. All her lovers, she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude. She dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place. Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. Recall last time when I preached how I mentioned how Jeremiah made use of the literary device of acrostics. to spell out Judah's grief from A to Z, really to give a fitting memorial of their devastating experience, so that nothing would be left out. In these first three verses, they begin with the first letters of the Hebrew alphabet in succession, and they trend all the way through verse 22 of the chapter. The Mazarites, a people group, scholarly scribes who preserved the traditional text of the Old Testament. It's one of the things that they could claim. They served somewhere in the 6th to 11th century AD. They used the first word of the book of Lamentations. They used the first word of the book as its title, Echa. which translates as how, or in some of your Bibles perhaps, alas. It could seem odd for us for them to do this, but it does seem fitting for such a message of judgment on the people of God. And as we had noted last time, the perplexing abandonment that they feel from God. Truly how, how did all of this happen? How did this happen? They reflect upon what they had. How did this happen? Zion, the city of God, once known as the epicenter of this region of the world, the city to which we read of Queen Sheba visiting and others flocking to, to behold its splendor. where silver and gold was said to be in such abundance in 2 Chronicles 1 that it was as common as stone. Can you imagine? Now the city sits alone, stripped of its bounty of people and riches, no longer great among the nations, no longer a queen, but sits as a widow. This is a great reversal. It is an about face from the city's former boastings recorded by the prophet in Isaiah 47 verse eight where the city is quoted as saying in its very proud and indolent heart, I am and there is no one besides me. I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children. to which Isaiah prophesied in the very following verse, these two things shall come upon you in a moment. In one day, the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. You could say she had it coming. Now she weeps, weeping. She weeps, weeping. That is the sense of what Jeremiah writes in the first line of verse two, this bitter weeping. There is no respite for her weeping. When she formerly found rest in the night, now her nighttime is filled with streaming tears flooding her cheeks. It is a profound picture of grief that he paints here. Jerusalem enjoyed many lovers. Something that, again, we learn when we went through the book of Jeremiah. Where are they gone? Where are they now? Now nowhere to be found. As one commentator asked, where is her husband? She's a widow now. Where's her husband? Did her husband die or did he abandon her? If abandoned, could it be because of her many lovers? Or unfaithfulness? She has this to think about. Regardless of the answer, it doesn't change the fact that now there is no one to comfort her. Nobody. This theme of none to comfort, it's repeated throughout this chapter. Comfort. given to his people is one of God's repeated gifts that we see throughout scripture. And now comfort is as foreign to them as the thought of their own sovereign rule. They know their days are over as a nation. What comfort is there left to be had, considering what they've already lost? The same with her so-called friends. They're friends. There's a great reversal there. It reminds me of Proverbs 14, verse 20, which reads, the poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends. The city's riches are all gone now, and so are her friends. In fact, it says, they've turned. They're now treacherous, that word treachery. It invokes an understanding of that there was a faithfulness, a trust that's been violated. Now they're vying for control of the land that's been deserted. They're like vultures picking a dead carcass, these fair weather friends. Verse three. Exile is what Jerusalem knows now. That's what they know, exile. Some, few, deserting to neighboring nations with no hope of return, because truly, what is there to return to? It's all gone. And most of them being exiled to the far off land of Babylon, a far off land that they've only heard rumors about. profoundly experiencing the pain of finding no resting place. Friends, that is another theme that runs throughout this book. Rest is a theological theme that runs throughout all of scripture. Rest does. From the rest that God enjoyed on the seventh day, Thus inaugurating the Sabbath day all the way through the rest won by Christ and enjoyed upon his second advent by all that belong to him in the new heavens and new earth, an eternal rest. It runs throughout scripture, the theme of rest. What Israel and Judah had once known under the old covenant was the gracious gift from Yahweh. of land promised to the patriarchs with all of its accompanied blessings. That was the rest they knew. That was their former rest where the presence of God dwelled among them with the traveling ark and the now destroyed temple. That was the rest they knew. It's gone. The temple is gone. Where they were commanded to worship and bring their offerings. where the ritual, the sacrifices would be carried out. The loss of all this seemed like a death blow to them, an identity crisis. They also suffered an identity crisis. That's hard for us to see sometimes. But truly, that's another thing they were suffering. And those of you that have suffered in some similar way to that, perhaps you can understand or appreciate a little bit how hard that is to shake off. You can understand the loss of material things, but how do we even know me and my place in the world? And during that, who are they without the rest promised them in a land secured by God's presence? Who are they now? We, too, today, beloved, we, too, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are multiple generations away from the American Revolutionary War that you could say made our present rest today what it is, okay? There's a lot of other factors involved, but we're several generations from where it started. Try to look past all the political messes that we have made for ourselves in our own version from falling from grace. Try to look past that, because by far, the general population of the United States enjoys a type of rest that very few else in the world enjoy. There's a growing and popular genre of literature these days, and it's one of apocalypse, and it's popular even in my own home. It's been a popular thing in literature for a long time now, really. People are drawn to the thought of surviving something like an EMP, knocking out all electricity, forcing us into some sort of 19th century existence, right? How would we cope? How would we cope? I realize, as you probably do here, in comparison to Judah's devastating loss, we Americans losing the conveniences of electricity seems trivial, perhaps even insulting to the memory, but still, there would be cries going up to heaven. The question of many would be, would God understand? Would he hear us? Would he respond? In Christ we know, but for many they wouldn't understand this. Christ is always the key. For Judah, as we will realize as we walk through all five chapters of the book, God's silence is deafening. It's so silent that it's deafening. No word from God is offered in response to their cries. It's another thing we can be looking for as we go through the book. There's nothing recorded of that in the book of Lamentations. Jerusalem's profound desolation and loneliness, it's a reflection of how grief can isolate a person, make you feel like you're alone on an island where nobody understands. Their loss of identity, honestly, it began centuries earlier. They just didn't know it. As their hearts grew cold toward their God who redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. It started a long time ago. Beloved, for those of us in Christ, in the security of the new covenant made secure by the blood of Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, Christ, our Lord, he meets us in our isolation. We have a great high priest who's gone before us, always interceding for us, mediating for us. What a blessing it was to hear last week, going through the eighth chapter of our confession, of who Christ is and how great he is. That's who we have. He meets us in our isolation. A very classic text confirming the Lord's closeness is found in Romans 8, verses 38 and 39. Paul writes, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. Can you find anything in there that falls outside of that list? No. And that love of His is an ever-sustaining love. It is steadfast. And it equips us to endure whatever comes our way. Blessed is our Savior. Let's talk about my second sub-point here, facing the empty void that they had. Verses four through seven. Verses four through seven. Let's read those verses again real quick. The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival. All her gates are desolate. Her priests groan. Her virgins have been afflicted and she herself suffers bitterly. Her foes have become the head. Her enemies prosper because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone away, captives before the foe. From the daughter of Zion, all her majesty has departed her. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They fled without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old when her people fell into the hand of the foe and there was none to help her. Her foes gloated over her. They mocked at her downfall. These verses begin like the first verses begin alphabetically. Here we start with the fourth letter of the alphabet through the seventh. The poet continues spelling out the devastating loneliness that they felt in the city and the people themselves. These verses, they focus on the loss of religion as they had known it for centuries and the travail that they suffered by the strong and how the weak and the innocent suffer along with them. Although it's already suspected, as we read this book of Lamentations with the knowledge that we already have, it is not until verse 4 where the name of this afflicted city is first named. It's Zion, God's dwelling place on earth. It's Jerusalem. In the Old Covenant, that mostly meant the physical city of Jerusalem focused in on the Temple Mount. But the temple's destroyed now, it's gone. It's holy raiment has been taken away to a foreign god. The roads, the roads that once ran busy with pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem to worship, now they're empty. There's no one going up to the festivals to worship. They mourn these roads. Deuteronomy 16 verse 16 commanded at least three visits per year for the faithful Jew. But there are even more festivals that could have invited a pilgrim to come to Jerusalem on these roads. They're now mourning. The roads are mourning. It sounds similar, to the groaning of the whole creation that was subjected to corruption, brought by Adam's failure to keep covenant, awaiting a day when Christ will come and return that will do more than return creation to its former glory, so to speak, before the fall of man, the new earth. the heavenly Jerusalem, it won't depend upon what was supposed to be the faithfulness of Adam and his progeny to cultivate it. Christ, the second and better Adam, who is God himself, will be its husbandman, its cultivator, its king. The final consolation of Christ's redemption is the church's great hope and expectation for this new earth, this heavenly Jerusalem. For Jerusalem in verse four, for them, there seems to be no hope at all. The loss of hope is devastating to a person. And the groans extend, as the text reads, to the shepherds of Israel, to the priests. They're groaning. The young women who once danced freely at the festivals, they're afflicted as well. In Jeremiah 13 verse 21, he questions Judah's false prophets, including the king, asking, what will you say when they set as head over you those whom you yourself have taught to be your friends? Jeremiah is talking about Babylon conquering the land of Judah. In Deuteronomy 28, verse 44, as Moses dictates the curses for Israel's disobedience, he reads, quote, he shall lend to you and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head and you shall be the tail. It's part of the curses that they would face for disobedience to the covenant of unfaithfulness. Again, Jeremiah saying, what will you say when they're sitting as head over you? These people that you think you're friends. It's a great reversal, a turn of events. This curse has now come upon them. Verse five in our text says, her foes have become the head. They are now reduced to becoming the tail. How could this be? That is the question that the reader should be asking themselves as the poet writes it out. Now we're no longer the head. How can this be? Didn't God dwell among us? Verse five makes it clear how this could all be. It doesn't leave anything up to the imagination. It is for the multitude of her transgressions. The sinfulness of sin had marked the chosen people of God for promised judgment. Even the innocent are affected, writes the poet. The children, they're not responsible for violating the covenant. It was their parents, the leaders of the land. Yet they are carried off into captivity. You know, wartime is particularly devastating to the children who can be separated from family. They lack the maturity to be able to cope with such a loss. And the mothers and the fathers knew this, of the suffering of their children. Can you imagine? Verse seven records what often happens to people when they lose the good things that they once took for granted. And again, we see the common phrase in Lamentations, that there was none to help her. They're remembering what they once had. Yeah, it's gone now. You should have given it the thankfulness and the gratefulness and the attention of your heart when you had it. You know, that's, we've all been guilty of that in a way. But now there is none to help her. And to add to the violence that was suffered, their enemies gloated over them and mocked their new position as the tail, not the head. You know, one day, one day Jesus, the true Israel, he would suffer similar taunts as he hung on the cross. atoning for the sins of possibly even some of those that were mocking him. He endured the insults of priests telling him to save himself. He endured the insults of priests telling him to come down if he is who he really claims to be. Well, praise God forever and ever that Jesus did not meet their challenge and come down from the cross, because he had that power to do so. He was faithful to keep that covenant to the end. Rather, he stayed and he endured the mockings, the jeerings. A very big difference between Jesus' endurance of the mockings and Jerusalem's experience was that Jesus was completely innocent. and Jerusalem was full of guilt. God ultimately raised up Jesus and transformed him to receive his eternal reward as king of kings with a people mighty in number and faithfulness. We too, beloved, we too can trust that God will continue to transform us into the very image of Christ. And he will use whatever means he deems necessary. And so often it is through these trials. Our call is to endure. That call remains. But we can trust that our Lord and his spirit will sustain us. We have hope. My second point in my outline is witnessing elements of grief in its causes, verses eight through 11. In verses one through seven, we just went through, we encountered elements of grief in its loneliness, which help us to see their devastation and how profound their loneliness was. Now in these remaining verses, we're gonna encounter their elements of grief in its causes. Just like I did in my first point, I'm going to break down my second point to help us understand the flow here a little bit better. If what encountered are causes of grief, then may it affect a godly grief. May our grief be a godly grief. I'm giving verses eight through nine the subheading of May It Be a Godly Grief. In these verses, we reread of Jerusalem's appalling guilt of sin, how it's displayed. Let's read verses eight and nine. Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy. All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans and turns her face away. Her uncleanness was in her skirts. She took no thought of her future. Therefore, her fall is terrible. She has no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed." The prophet Jeremiah, he labored for decades. exposing Judah's unfaithfulness to God. They treated him badly for it. Isaiah earlier had likened God as Israel's husband. Isaiah 54 verses 5 and 6 reads, For your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. The God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife, deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. One of the main storylines in the book of Hosea is how the Lord pursues Israel as the unfaithful wife. Her treachery was prophesied to her, yet she remained blinded by her sin. Steadfast in her sin. God remains faithful to his covenant threats in punishing Israel. Hear Judah. And yet, seeing lamentations through the lens of the New Testament, we see his purposes of true mercy. It's true mercy in judging his people. Verse eight says she became filthy. Literally an object of derision. Filthy fits that understanding. Now she's despised. Her nakedness has been exposed. You know, even in our post-Christian world, in our culture, the majority of society, even today, would sense the shame if their own nakedness was exposed. But not half the shame that would have been felt by a Jew in the 6th century BC. Not half of it. On a community level, This same metaphor of nakedness, of exposed nakedness, it could refer to now the exposed land, the nature of the land being open for attack, for looting, which indeed happened. But really, it is the shame felt by Jerusalem that Jeremiah is conveying here, that utter shame. For verse eight ends with Lady Zion groaning and turning her face away. She can't bear to face even her enemies, many who once allied themselves as friends. She can't bear to look at them. All weakness has been exposed, and all hope for avoiding catastrophe has been dashed. She groans and turns away. You know, it's even worse when your sin finally has come to a point where you are caught in it and you know there is no concealing that sin. All the fears, the consequences of that sin you know are coming true, that they will come true. That you feel your heart fall out There is no hope for avoiding consequences for their sin. She's starting, Lady Zion is starting to understand this more and more. Jerusalem had been warned repeatedly by Jeremiah and other prophets who repeated in their ears the consequences of unfaithfulness and disobedience. I referred to Deuteronomy chapter 28 earlier about the curse. But verses 15 through 68, a very long passage in Deuteronomy 28, we see Moses listing the consequences of such actions of unfaithfulness, of disobedience, actions from a hardened heart. The curses are listed such as, you know, being cursed in their daily activities, suffering from diseases, experiences defeat and despair, not merely depression, despair, loss of all hope. Their enemies will overpower them, leading to a life of oppression and loss, even dire consequences, such as famine, siege, even cannibalism. during times of extreme distress. The people being scattered among the nations, serving foreign gods, living in fear and uncertainty every day. I was already warned to them. Verse nine continues the thoughts found in verse eight. Based on the lewdness of the city, Exposed on the first line in verse nine, it really is somewhat surprising that Jerusalem could be ashamed of anything. Let's read what the prophet wrote of them in Jeremiah chapter six, verse 15. He writes, were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No. They were not ashamed at all. They did not know how to blush, he writes. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. They didn't even know how to blush. Fall they did, as verse nine picks up in the second line. Therefore, her fall is terrible. And then that, again, that repeated theme. She has no comforter. Rub it in. Let's remind everyone who's reading our pain, we have no comforter anymore. Three times now, Jeremiah notes that Jerusalem has no comforter or helper. God has seemingly abandoned her. Her lovers and friends have left her, they even mock her, and her enemies are overly oppressive and cruel. For the first time, seen in verse nine, Lady Zion is speaking, and she speaks in her distress, crying out to God. She says, O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed. For you'd only listen and give me a word, but God does not answer. This compounds her distress. The prophet writing all of this, even on behalf of Lady Zion, he knows of the how and the why of what is happening. He knows. He even knows the promises of restoration. But the people don't. They have been very poor students of the Word of God. God, in fact, does restore them. The nation of Israel, however, never regains its former glory, but true Israel, seen in Christ, consequently seen in his church, does endure and does strengthen. God meant for this judgment in time of exile to teach them in ways that conventional means of teaching failed to produce. God still does that with his church today. He still does. One of the more sad stories that can be heard among the masses today, I think, is how persons can feel so unworthy of God's love and forgiveness that they fail to believe upon the person of Christ and what he's accomplished for poor sinners. I can't go to him. Those people do not understand that no one is worthy of Jesus and his unconditional forgiveness, but that his purpose was to come and save sinners, sinners like you and me. And regardless of our pasts, Jesus saves to the utmost. Yeah, there are consequences to sin, and that troubles us. Even after receiving Christ as Lord and Savior, we can suffer consequences to our sin. But now God uses even those consequences to sanctify and strengthen and prepare us for eternity in heaven. And he glorifies himself in the process. Dear friend, do not let your shame from receiving Christ's love keep you from receiving Christ's love and his redemption that he offers. Pray that your grief that you have, that if it's a result of sin, which certainly does happen to Christians, that it may be a godly grief. that Paul would later write in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10, that it would be a godly grief, a grief that leads to repentance and salvation. But regretfully, for much of Jerusalem's grief, it was of a worldly sort, a grief because of the loss of worldly things and status, a grief that Paul says produces death. My last sub-point, verses 10 and 11, is about spiritual sustenance in the midst of sorrow. Let's read these two verses, these last two verses, 10 and 11. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things, for she has seen the nations. Enter her sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregation. All her people groan as they search for bread. They trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised." There wasn't a thing worth anything that Babylon did not either destroy or take for themselves. The temple and its holy things, they were granted no sanctuary. They had no exception for the looting. All was for the taking. God had abandoned His footstool on the earth. The people's harlotry with the nations, idol worship would be their portion, and the Baals, they would have to save them. Let them save them. Of course, Those things either would not or could not save. Ophir were their friends that they had at best in Egypt and Edom and Ammon. Jeremiah had prophesied that Judah did not even charge for her harlotry. She gave herself for free. Now she was utterly despised. God would not answer Lady Zion's cry in verse nine. He didn't. Would he still remain silent to the fact that pagans have invaded his temple? Even the holy of holies? Don't let this escape what Jeremiah is trying to convey here. Listen to me, Lord. Hear me. These things are happening. That's what is being conveyed here as some of these most grievous atrocities are being brought to the forefront. Deuteronomy chapter 23 verse 3 says, no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the 10th generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever. And yet it's happened. God's answer to their ears was a deafening silence. thus adding to their loneliness. Verse 11 speaks of some of the harder, more difficult things to witness of their fall and destruction. The years-long siege had decimated the city. No one was unaffected. Later on in Lamentations, we'll find that the poet goes into further detail of the effects of the siege, but for now, we hear of a great reversal. You know, what kind, really, what kind of oppressive and unkind mind would the people of Jerusalem possess, namely the rich and the well-off, as they lusted for wealth over the needs of their neighbors? All they wanted was more wealth, putting their hope and future in their collections of their treasure. You know, God turned things around now for them. What they wouldn't give for a piece of bread, Those treasures now are being spent and depleted just to try to survive. They could have bought omers of bread, if I could use their language. Lots of bread, and now that jewel could just get you a piece of it. Again, ladies, I am groans. Look, oh Lord, for see, see, for I am despised. To the unsuspecting and the unlearned, this may seem like God is uncaring, unforgiving, and unloving. But the ultimate theme of redemption in scripture, it's not thwarted by the period of judgment that Judah suffered. We know this. In fact, God would himself send his only begotten son to take on flesh and suffer even greater loss and loneliness than Judah could even comprehend. Even going through all of this, greater than what they could comprehend. As was read in the call to worship this morning, those first five verses of Isaiah 53, it tells of the suffering servant who was despised and rejected by men. He bore our sins, and the grief He bored of absorbing God's wrath. I love the way that was put last week. His wrath that he suffered was absorbing God's wrath on the behalf of those who would believe on him, who would trust in him alone. Beloved, when we are tempted to think of our suffering that God uses to sanctify us, that it's unfair, that it's unloving in some way, Just look back to the cross of Christ and see what our Lord suffered in his innocence to save sinners like you and me. And then see how your complaining can even turn into thanksgiving. As we read of so many of these songs of lament in the Psalms ending in thanksgiving. You look to the cross. I'm gonna wrap things up here now. Christ, he became the embodiment of our grief and suffering, having endured the ultimate sorrow of the cross. His presence affirms that not only does he understand our pain, but he also, he transforms it. He invites us into a relationship where our brokenness can be met with divine healing. Endurance, producing faith, producing maturity in Christ. This connection draws believers to see their suffering in lights of Christ's redemptive work. It keeps our eyes and thoughts where they gotta be, on Him, not on our pitiful circumstances. We also better understand through this book that it would be inhuman not to grieve the kind of loss that Judas suffered, that they experienced. You know, when good things are taken away, it hurts. That's real. But we must also see and protect our hearts against having those good things become replacements of the person of Christ. becoming idols. It happened to Israel, the people of God, who had witness to God's majesty, the supernatural power. It happened to them. The Bible teaches that this is impossible to do outside of faith placed in Christ alone. So Peter tells us, it is better to grieve over loss due to suffering for the name of Christ than to suffer for the sake of sin. May that be so for you and me. Dear Father, may our children know this and fear you. May our parents and our grandparents remember this and fear you. Let's pray.