But welcome back to Old Testament Survey. I know, it's nine o'clock. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, that you survived the Dust Bowl. And I'm reminded that to live in West Texas, you have to be pretty tough. Did you ever have anything like this back in South Carolina? Just hurricanes. And then here's Jacob, who's also regretting his life decisions to move to Lubbock. No, he's happy. You have to be tough. Well, we are continuing our trek through the Old Testament. In fact, we're really nearing the end of our study, excuse me. And we've worked through each book according to the Hebrew ordering, which would have been the order that Jesus himself would have been familiar with. And today we turn to the book of Lamentations. So hope everybody has a handout. There's some up here if you need one. But in your Bible, Lamentations comes directly after the book of Jeremiah. Now since the two books are commenting about the same event and are likely penned by the same author, right, Jeremiah and Lamentations is usually taken together. And obviously, there's good reasons for that, the ones I just laid out. Speaking about the same event, written by the same author, there's good reason why they're usually taken together. But this morning, we're going to consider it in the context of the writings which were collected toward the end of the Hebrew canon. The book follows Ecclesiastes, if you remember. It also follows the book of Song of Songs, which in their own way calls the people to hope in God. Ecclesiastes, hope for those fearing and following God in light of life's enigmas. And Song of Solomon, hope for those celebrating marriage in light of what marriage ultimately points to, namely union between Christ and the church. So Lamentations this morning is gonna present us with a similar message of hope, but one that really comes from the perspective of grief and lament in the face of really for Jerusalem what was pretty much a total, total loss. So let's pray and then we'll dig in and begin our time. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us today, and I'm encouraged by this book. I'm encouraged by just seeing, in many ways, Israel brought to probably its lowest place in history. And then, Father, just seeing that in the midst of that darkness, the midst of that brokenness, that Father, you reveal yourself to be one that can be trusted and that we can place our hope in. So I pray this morning, no matter what we're dealing with, no matter what fears, anxieties that we may be experiencing, Lord, I pray that this book would teach us to hope in you, knowing, Lord, that your mercies are truly new every morning. In Christ's name, amen. Alright, so this is a little bit of a review from our study in the book of Jeremiah. So what's happening as Jeremiah is writing, both Jeremiah and the book of Lamentations? The Babylonians are threatening the southern kingdom of Judah. If you remember, whenever we studied 1 Kings, there was a great split that took place within the nation of Israel. The northern kingdom became known as Israel, and the southern kingdom became known as? Okay, which one was more faithful and had a little more staying power than the other? Which one was the one that Judah was, right? That's exactly right. So, the Babylonians are threatening the southern kingdom, which is Judah, and as the book of Jeremiah progresses, Judah is invaded. And by the time we reach the end of Jeremiah, the people have been dragged away in really three waves of exile. That happens in 605, 597, and 586 BC. After the last wave of exile that comes through, the Babylonians raise the city of Jerusalem to the ground, including The glory of Solomon's work, the great temple that was built there in Jerusalem, that also is destroyed. So you can read all about this in 2 Kings 22-25 and also in 2 Chronicles 34-36. Jeremiah, he prophesied and lived really throughout all of this. First hand experience of seeing this and commenting on it. which is what we have in the book of Jeremiah and Lamentations. So why did God allow this to happen? It's a big question. That's really the question that 1 and 2 Kings answers. What's the reason for this? Remember? Unfaithfulness. Yes. Infidelity to God's covenant, right? The Covenant people had been involved in idolatry for decades. They've worshipped every strange deity from Baal to Molech to the Queen of Heaven, and they engaged in such acts of worship as temple prostitution and child sacrifice even. That on top of the dishonesty, the corruption, the injustice, the adultery, the oppression of the helpless, slander, the list can go on and on, right? They'd been sent prophets for a long time. Think about the other prophets who came and who essentially called the people back to repentance, but they did not, they would not repent. The people had made shipwreck of the covenant. Now Jeremiah is announcing the covenant curses that were written into the covenant from day one all the way back in Deuteronomy 27 and 28. But even as Jeremiah prophesies this destruction, he also describes God's way forward to complete his plan of redemption. So even in Jeremiah, which is also, you know, the word that we use is Jeremiad. Is that how you say it? I think I said Jeremiad last time. She was like, that's not how you say that word. It's Jeremiad, right? So Jeremiad is what? Do you remember the definition? A lamentation. A lamentation. A work. A work that's a writing that you're being sorrowful about something. Yeah. Lamenting something, being sorrowful about something. So we said that word. I'll correct it now. Jeremiah is the right way to pronounce that, not Jeremade. So whatever. Thank you. Yeah. So we really have the same kind of thing in lamentations as well. The Book of Jeremiah, obviously, you know, full of dread. But in the midst of that, right, we do see God revealing how he's going to complete his plan of redemption. And really it's more clearly than any prophet that we had studied up to that point. So recall the wonderful promises that we found in Jeremiah chapter 31. The promise of the new covenant where God will circumcise the hearts of his people and he will dwell with them. So we spent a lot of time on Jeremiah 31. It is one of the most beautiful, wonderful passages in all of scripture that really forms so much of what we understand, even what Christ came to do. So very important. I would encourage you to go back and refresh your memory on that if you need to. So the book of Lamentations is set right after God has destroyed his own city, the city of Jerusalem. And in this poem, Jerusalem is personified as a woman who is mourning the loss of her children, the loss of her husband, and really has no one to comfort her. So take the whole city of Jerusalem which has fallen, and really it kind of represents the whole people of Israel as a whole, but it's being personified as this woman who's just completely destitute. That's what we have in the book of Lamentations. She has been made destitute with no one to care for her. This is on the front of your handout there. I have two for you saying the same thing in a little bit of a different way. The message to those left behind after the destruction of the city is this. God is faithful, and because of his never-ceasing mercy, we can know that God is not finished with his people, even when they sin greatly. Okay, because that's the big question. This level of destruction that they're experiencing, is God finished? Okay, that's a question that the book wrestles with. The book also offers this message of hope. Hope for those remaining confident in God's reign and faithfulness to his own. Okay, so there is a message of hope here as well. So yes, I said that the focus of the book is that God has destroyed his city. And the author really makes very clear that it is God that does this in the book. This is another one of those books where God's sovereignty is really highlighted. Nonetheless, it's the people's own fault that this happened. And the people actually accept that blame at this point. Yet, as with every prophet that we've looked at, there is a message of hope embedded within it. And just like the book of Jeremiah, hope is held out in the prospect of receiving new hearts from the Lord. So there's this similar kind of idea that we find in the book of Jeremiah that's picked up as you read through the book of Lamentations. Hope of the people receiving new hearts from the Lord. The Book of Lamentations is highly structured. It's really a series of acrostic poems written in the rhyme of a funeral dirge. So there's five poems in the book, corresponding with the five chapters of the Book of Lamentations. And they each follow the Hebrew alphabet. This doesn't show up in your English translation. From Aleph to Tav, which is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and then the last. So every chapter, every stanza starts with A, B, C, D, E, all the way through. And then the next chapter, A, B, C, D, E, through the Hebrew alphabet, obviously. It does that through the whole thing. And if you look, every chapter is 22 verses. except the third chapter, which is 66. So it's still the same number, but each verse is a little bit longer. And within that third chapter, the start of each verse starts with A. So it's like A, A, A, B, B, B, C, C, C, D, D, D. That's how the whole chapter works in chapter three. So very highly structured. And I think the point of that is to show again and again just the absolute completeness of Israel's grief after the destruction that she's experienced because of her sin. I think that's why it was constructed in this way, just to show the absolute completeness of the grief that she's experiencing. The overall structure puts the theme of God's compassion in chapter three, which is the center of the book, with discussions of sin and judgment on either end. So chapters one and two and chapters four and five. And we'll finish our time together this morning by walking through these poems. And as always, I would encourage you to take some time today when you get home this afternoon to read through the book. It's very short. And I really think that if you read it, and hopefully with even thinking about the context today, I think you'll find it really helpful. I think it'll minister to you. I think it definitely ministered to me. It has in the past. It did again as I was studying it, just as we walked through various trials in our own lives, but also in our own church. So good book for y'all to study today. On the back of your handout, you will find a study outline. This one, I borrowed the one from the ESV Study Bible. I thought that was pretty helpful. Together, these poems describe a movement from horrible loss and personal shame to a restored hope and a prayer for renewal. So that's really what Lamentations gives us. Horrible loss, personal shame, and a restored hope and prayer for renewal. So let's go and start. We'll just walk through this briefly. First poem recounts the fall of Jerusalem and the sins of the people that brought about God's judgment. So turn to chapters 1, verses 1 through 3. I'll read it. It says this. Lamentations 1, verse 1. 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 she finds no resting place. Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress." Okay, so I said last time, you know, we're going to try to depress you a little bit as we look through the book of Lamentations, and hopefully you can just see by reading that where Jeremiah, speaking really on behalf of Jerusalem, kind of where his heart's at. There's a tremendous amount of anguish in these verses, and really the whole book, I think that's a good word to describe it. It's full of this kind of anguish. There's some striking statements in it as you read it. I think you'll see that. So Jeremiah compares what is left of Jerusalem and Judah as a widow who is in deep grief due to what she has lost. Lamentations, I said this already as well, is really sort of a funeral dirge, which is lamenting the loss of something great. And as such, this is helpful too, it was meant to be read and sung in Jewish worship services during the time of exile. Okay? Which is the time that, you know, this place towards the end of the Hebrew canon, so that they're in exile, and this book was something that was read and sung by the people regularly. So that's an interesting thing to think about, how it's training the people how to grieve their sin, how to show a complete repentance, and then as we'll see, hope breaking in, in light of that. Even now, within the Jews, modern day Jews, they actually still sing the Book of Lamentations at various places during annual feasts which commemorate the loss of the temple in Jeremiah's day, but also the loss of the temple in AD 70. So this is still something that modern day Jews on some holiday, I don't remember which one, will actually sing the book of Jeremiah at one of their festivals in order to commemorate the loss of Jerusalem. Look in verse 5. Her foes have become the head, and her enemies prosper. Grievous of all this, we see in verse eight that this desolation, her foes becoming her head, enemies prospering over her, we see that this desolation is deserved. We've already made comment of this. Look at verse eight. Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she has become filthy. All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness, and she herself groans and turns her face away. Just this really bleak picture. Now, we went into this in a greater detail when we studied the book of Jeremiah. What we saw there was that the judgment that was brought against Israel and Judah was a judgment which was promised by God all the way back in the Pentateuch, right? Israel was the first to fall to the Assyrians, and now Judah, who maintained the Davidic line of kings, remember, they were the ones that kind of maintained the Davidic line, now is falling to the Babylonians. And all of this was God's judgment against His people's covenant infidelity. Okay, so just to reiterate that, I know we've already made comment of that, but that's exactly what's going on here. Israel has sinned grievously, and her destruction is almost absolute. So that's really the first poem. Let's go to chapter two. And I'll read a few sections from that, too, just to, again, give you a little bit of a taste. So the second poem expands on these themes of sin and judgment, echoing much of what we saw in the book of Jeremiah. So here's 2-1, it says this. How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud. He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel. Let's just pause there. There's so much imagery there that I think should make you think of other things. Israel has been under a cloud before, hasn't it? Okay, leaving Egypt, right? But is this the same kind of cloud? No, this is a cloud of, and it actually says at one place in Lamentations, if you read it, you'll find it, that God has covered himself with a cloud and our prayers no longer reach him. So it's this idea that there's a cloud over Israel and there's a hiddenness, there's an absence of the Lord. And they know at this point, they know it's because of their own sin that's brought them to this point. So the Lord in His anger has set the daughters of Zion under a cloud. He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel. What does that remind you of? Is that Satan? Yeah, exactly. You know, Lucifer being cast down, right? Similar kind of language just to show just the judgment that has come against Israel in this case. The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the habitations of Jacob. That's chapter 2, verse 2. So we see in the second poem the totality of God's judgment against Jerusalem. It is as though God has hidden himself from Jerusalem. They are under a cloud, and they cannot see him. We see the prophet Jeremiah grieve the loss of his city in verses 11 through 19. And he essentially counsels the people to cry out to God. So as they show up in worship during this time, he's teaching them by them singing this song how to cry out to God. He's even giving them words to use to train their hearts to be able to do this. And I can't help but think about Colin, think about the lesson that he gave on the Psalms, that the Psalms really function very similarly, do they not? They give words to our worship, they give words to our prayers, they give words to our joys, our griefs, whatever emotion that we may be facing. If you live in the Psalms, you're being trained, you're being taught how to offer those things to the Lord in a way that brings Him glory and that He desires you to bring them to Him. And I think that Lamentations is a very similar kind of book that can be taken in in times of just intense grief. I mean, that's really what a lot of this is. So we see that the prophet Jeremiah, he grieves the loss of the city and counsels the people to cry out to God. And it really is heart-wrenching stuff. It really is. It's as though Israel has really hit rock bottom finally, right? They've hit rock bottom and her prophet is calling her to recognize that fact and to repent and to cry out to God for his mercy. Sorry. Number three, this is chapter three, and it begins, I am the man who has seen affliction. That's the first stanza. Chapter three, in the middle of the poem, a theme changes, and we really read a meditation on God's compassion and his goodness. It's the longest poem, at 66 verses, with the others being exactly 22. And at the heart of this entire work, we see the faithfulness and the goodness of God, as it were, even surrounded by all manner of destruction and judgment. So let's read chapter three, verses 16 through 20. Let me see if I wanna start there or start maybe somewhere else. Let me see, one second. Chapter three, I'm sorry, it's not three to 16, 22. No, yeah, we can read 16 through 20 and then we'll go on. Someone go ahead and read that for me, chapter three, verses 16 through 20. Okay, so I asked her to read that for us because it really just, again, illustrates just how far, even Jeremiah looking upon his people, he personalizes this and takes it on his own lips and speaks essentially on behalf of the people. So he has been brought exceedingly low through all of this. And then finally, once we read through verse 20, verse 21 says this, so this is where the shift happens, this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Okay, so he's wrestling genuinely with the grief that he feels and the lostness that he feels, the absence of the Lord that he feels, this complete destitution that he feels. And then verse 21, this I recall to mind, and therefore I have hope. And then let's look at verse 22 through 33. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will 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 wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust. There may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults, for the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause grief, he will have compassion, according to the abundance of steadfast love, for he does not afflict from his heart, or grieve the children of men. Okay, so this hopefully is a verse that, or a section of scripture that y'all are very familiar with. It's beautiful, it's worth memorizing. You know, I grew up in Church of Christ, and we actually had a song that we sang. I bet Landy knows it, too. And if she's up for it, we'll sing it for all of you this morning. But there's a great little song that's pretty much word for word, the Lamentations. And I just, as I was studying this, it just kept coming to my mind. And that was actually very kind of fun to, have these words on my mind going through this song in my head. But wonderful section of scripture, and we see the shift, we see the turn, and we see Jeremiah reminding himself, but then also by the fact that this is going to be recited by the people, reminding the people where their hope is. So there it is in the middle of this long funeral dirge lamenting the sin and the judgment of Jerusalem. There's a call for hope and for trust. Trust in the Lord's goodness and in the Lord's mercy and the Lord's faithfulness. What a glorious gift for Jerusalem in the midst of this. Think about that and what they've experienced, the gift that this is. I think that we see an interesting illusion. I don't know if y'all saw this as well, but I was reading this, and I couldn't help but think about the Lord. In verse 30, let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, let him be filled with insults. And I did think about, if you think about the Lord and what He did in terms of Him becoming desolate, Him becoming destitute, Him, you know, if He is this ideal Israelite idea that, you know, He becomes virtually destroyed just like Jerusalem as He takes that on. But it's not for His own sin, but it's for the sins of the people. Okay, so I thought that was an interesting maybe thing to think about that we see the destitution and the humiliation of Jesus Christ maybe foreshadowed in a little bit of an illusionary way there in verse 30. Okay, so like Jerusalem, Jesus himself suffered a similar fate, right? But it wasn't due to his own sin, it was due to the sin of the people. He gave his cheek to the one who strikes, and he was filled with the insults of the godless. Okay, and what did Jesus say to the Pharisees when he was talking about the temple? And they said, yep, tear it down, right? In three days, and what was he speaking about? And they were thinking he was speaking of the actual temple that was standing there proudly in Jesus' day. And the scripture makes clear that Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body that would be destroyed and be raised on the third day. So we see Jerusalem being completely destroyed because of their own sin. And in a, you know, Jesus kind of taking the sorrows of his people upon himself, he also would suffer destitution, but it wasn't because of his sin. It was because of the sins of the people. I think it is. I think there's ways to look at it as a chiasm with this being kind of that middle, what it's all kind of pointing to, that's kind of the main point. That's a good question. Any questions or thought about that? What do y'all think about that, those verses? I mean, there's just so much there we could talk about. I really just wanted to kind of whet your appetite this morning. Yeah. Right. The Lord Afflicting, right. Right, that's exactly right. This is probably due to Jacob Scott, he taught Wednesday night, was teaching through the Psalms, and so he taught, and I forgot exactly what Psalm it was, or most of what you said, 16. But one thing that really stuck out was he talked about this in verse 24, the Lord is my portion, says my soul, And you think about the portion of Israel. What are the portions of Israel? Think about the tribes. What was their portion early on in Pentateuch? Yeah, dividing up the land and them inheriting all this land, right? And here, Jeremiah, as they're losing their land through exile and being taken off, it's all being wiped away. He's reminding them, the Lord is your portion. Who else had a portion? Who had the Lord as their portion under the old, kind of the old system? The Levites did, okay. They were those who didn't have a land inheritance. The Lord was their portion. So we kind of see this interesting thing where, you know, the priests of the Lord, okay, will have the Lord as their portion. The people of Israel will have the Lord as their portion. He's reminding them of that. So that was, you know, Jacob just thinking through that in Psalm 16 probably made me read that with a little bit of a different focus. So really beautiful text, please memorize it, read it, study it, I think it will minister to you. Okay, let's press on. So a few verses later the author offers a meditation on the twin roles that God the twin roles that are played by God's sovereignty and also human responsibility, right? In verse 38 through 39, this is still in chapter 3, it says this, it is not from the mouth of the Most High. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad may come? What does that remind you of? Job. Yeah, Job says something very similar. Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad may come? And then why should a living man complain? A man about the punishment of his sins. So we're seeing the Lord's sovereignty, right? And we're also seeing Jeremiah recognize that why should a man complain about the punishment for his sins? So we're very much recognizing that a man is responsible for his law breaking, his sin. So both blessing and curses come from God, but we are responsible for our choices. And there's really no apologetic offered for that in the Book of Lamentations. It's just affirmed and accepted, right? From here through the remainder of the book, the author really returns to lament. And you can see verses 43. Let's just read 43 through 45. This is in chapter 3. It says this. 43, you have covered yourself with anger. and have pursued us, you have slain and have not spared. You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. You have made us mere off-scourging and refuse in the midst of the people. So it just blows my mind that you see such raw, painful words And that's that reference about the Lord being hidden and prayers not being able to pierce through the cloud that Jerusalem has been covered under. So section four, how the gold has grown dim. It's the first line there in chapter four. And we'll go through these last ones quickly. So in the fourth poem, the author returns to lament and says this, for the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater. This is just so mind-blowing to me. It says this, sorry, I get so wrapped up. The chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom. which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her." So what's the author saying there? Why is this worse than what Sodom experienced? Yeah, yeah. Well, one thing, it happened in an instant. Fire fell from heaven and wiped them all out, right? Jerusalem has been on this decline, you know, with seeing their family members being taken into exile, and then the few that are left, them being taken into exile, and then the last bit taken into exile, their temple destroyed. Just complete, long, drawn-out destitution. And he's saying, it would have been better had the Lord just sent fire from heaven and just obliterated all of us, like He did with Sodom. And no hands were wrung for her, right? That's what Martha was talking about. That's chapter 4, verse 6. 4.11 says this, the Lord gave full vent to his wrath. he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations. This letter, this poem's packed with this kind of stuff. So evocative, right? And just so devastating. The fifth poem, chapter five, one through 22, it ends with a recognition of God's rightful kingship. and another plea for His mercy. So it does end on a hopeful tone. I think the main part is there in chapter three, but it does end with this really strong, beautiful prayer or recognition. It says this in verse 19, but you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry with us. So even in the midst of the most severe judgment, God's people may still turn to Him in hope, for mercy and look forward to renewal. That's where the book ends, this hope, this plea for mercy, and this look forward to a time of renewal. And this can be a message of great encouragement and solace in the midst of any kind of tremendous suffering. We know that many of the sufferings that we may face in life, they may not necessarily be an outcome of our own sin. Why would God not punish us for our own sin? Why is that not a thing that he does? Because the punishment's already been meted out, right? Jesus Christ has taken the punishment for our sins. So if you're walking through something like what, you know, walking through a really hard time, it's not going to look exactly like what Jerusalem is walking through, if you're a Christian, right? because Jesus has taken the punishment for our sin. And though we may have consequences for sinful decisions in our life, for a Christian, we don't view those things as God punishing us, because Christ has already fully paid the price for that. So what would it mean about his sacrifice if God still has to bring punishment to us? Didn't quite do the job, right? But still, there's still a lot here for us. So let's conclude, and I have a few things just to talk through and share with you. So has God forgotten His people? Put yourself kind of in the place of Jerusalem, and that's the question. Has God forgotten His people? No. No, that's exactly right. No. And I think that Jeremiah and packing, it's not all doom and gloom, right? He packs these glorious, beautiful, you know, gems, jewels of hope that in the midst of brutal honesty about destruction, that there's something there that we can take on our lips, take into our hearts, and hold on to. We're going to see, what's interesting is we're gonna see, as we turn to the remainder of the writings, moving forward over the next few weeks, that God is not done, and he will bring restoration to Israel. Lamentations, therefore, provides a really suitable bridge back into the final narrative portion of Jesus' Bible. Here, Israel's narrative history will pick back up again, and the focus is gonna be more future-oriented. filled with anticipation of complete restoration. Okay, the destruction of all of God's enemies and the global establishment of the divine kingdom through the Messiah. So next, the books of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the final books of the Chronicles are still to come, which is where we're gonna see the Lord reestablish a measure of Israel's glory. really dovetailing with that ascension, and then also subsequent fall, we will see the coming of the Son of Man. A branch will emerge from the stump of Jesse's tree, and in this Messiah, who is of course Jesus Christ, we see that God is rebuilding a spiritual temple in which he will dwell. Okay, we have some Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 2, that explain that. and for all who are reconciled to God through Jesus that we are part of that temple. The honest cries of lamentations can be echoed in confidence that the God whose wrath has been appeased and who is now completely for us will indeed graciously meet us in our hour of need. So in some, we really see that hope, not despair, is the final word in Lamentations. And we see that in Jesus Christ, our hope is fulfilled. It's no longer a hope deferred, which does what? It makes the heart sick. That's not our situation. We don't have a hope deferred, right? In Jesus Christ, our hope is fulfilled. Any questions or comments? That's pretty much all I had for you as we think about the Book of Lamentations. But I hope that as we finish out this class, and we have maybe six more weeks of doing this, turning to Daniel, then Esther, and then Ezra and Nehemiah, where things are being rebuilt and reestablished. And then the way Chronicles ends with this really optimistic kind of view. That's the direction we're going. And we know that it's going to, you know, There will be another fall of the Israelite people, but we see the Lord come, and that really does change everything. So I'm excited about that for you. Any questions or comments about the book of Lamentations? Going once. Going twice. OK, I'll close with one more thing. Oh, go ahead. Did you have something to say? Yep, sold. I wanted to leave you with a reading of a great hymn that I think captures some of these great themes. And I could read it from my notes, but it's going to be way cooler to read it out of this 100-year-old book that Daryl and I found in York, England on our trip there. So I'm going to read it out of that instead, because it's better. But William Cowper, okay, he has a great hymn which we all know, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. I'm going to read it. And I just think that even some of the imagery that's in this hymn, I think he borrowed from the Book of Lamentations. Okay, so I'll read it. And this is one of those things you should find a recording of it and listen to it because it's just so powerful. So here it is. It's called Light Shining Out of Darkness. Here it goes. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep and unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. Beautiful hymn. Let's pray, and then we can be done. Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning. We even thank You that in kind of the most darkest of times as we think about the history of Your people, the history of Israel, that Lord, we find contained therein some of the most glorious, comforting truths that probably we know how to find. So I pray this morning that as we think briefly about the book of Lamentations and as we study it and read it ourselves, I pray, Father, that You would help us to learn how to grieve well, how to grieve for our own sin, how to have a full repentance, Lord, that knows how to turn from wickedness and to put our faith and our trust in you. So train us to do these things, we pray. And Father, we do pray that you would bring comfort to us, comfort to our church, even comfort just thinking about Stephen and Christa as they travel for a few weeks, that you would bring comfort to them. And Lord, that we know that as the hymn said, that Father, behind a frowning providence, Lord, you hide a smiling face. And I pray that that would be something that we know and we trust and we believe, even in the midst of times that may feel hard for us to make sense of. So help us to be trusting, help us to have faith. And Lord, we do thank you, we give you glory for sending Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, who bore our suffering in such a way that He, like Jerusalem, became utterly destitute. And Father, it was not a final destitution, for we know, Lord, that on the third day he rose in victory. And Father, he suffered not for his own sins, but for ours, and that Father, as we walk in this world with our own burdens to bear, he's able to be a merciful and faithful high priest to us because he has truly suffered with us. So what a glorious thing this morning. In Christ's name we pray, amen.