The Book of Limitations has, as I said, has five different chapters. And so I can make an adjustment. I had some setting that wasn't quite right. I was getting some feedback and hopefully this will fix it. The Book of Limitations is five chapters. And if you recall why Jeremiah is. God, the Holy Spirit used Jeremiah to write the Book of Lamentations, or to pen it via the human instrument, to write it down. It's to demonstrate what was going on in their minds, in their lives, in their hearts, during this captivity, maybe even before, in some senses, in some cases, before the captivity happened, during the captivity, and even after the captivity. I mean, you think of conflicts that we have in the, you know, no matter what time period in history, when tribulations are coming into someone's life, or into a particular nation's life. Yes, there's conflicts before, like Israel had conflicts and troubles and struggles before, for captivity. Certainly during their captivity, but even after the fact, 70 years after, or not 70 years after, when the captivity was over, captivity that lasted 70 years after the captivity, There were still struggles, they were facing trials, and this is, the Book of Lamentations is trying to capture those things. So, and we're here, we picked up, we left off last time with verse 7. I'll read verses 1 to 7 quickly, and then that way we can be reminded of what happened before, and then we'll go on to take the new material in verse 8. Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us. Consider and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money. Our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution. We labor and have no rest. we have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled over us, and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand." So here in verse 8, it says, servants have ruled over us. Now, what do you suppose Jeremiah here, in this book of Lamentations, how, how, what would, first of all, what would that be like, and what is he describing, what is he actually saying, with this, with this, with this hearing verse, in this part of the, let's say, let me ask the question, who, who are servants? OK. That's that's a good way of describing we made the show for the butler and. And generally, the servants are the ones that you mentioned a couple of examples there. And I guess there could be there could be more examples given. But there is a good disturbance and not not to be. I don't want to limit it to those ones that were just mentioned. The ones we just mentioned, you know, the butler, the baker and. the maids and the people who take care of household things in a big estate. We could expand it and it could be... Sorry about that. It could be. Yep, that's true. That's good. Community helpers. I'm sorry, I'm having technical trouble here. The community helpers, that's a good point, a good observation. It says, servants have ruled over us. Now, generally the servants aren't the ones that are ruling. But here in this case, Israel, particularly Judah, there's two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, have come to the point in their life where the people that once were servants, were classified as servants, are now the ones that are ruling over them. And it says, there's none that doth deliver us out of their hand. When we think of someone being delivered, I think, do you think of any conflict in history when people, or any example from history, when people need to be delivered, when people are held captive, there are certain situations when people are stuck in some situation when they need to be rescued, and there are plans made to rescue those people, to deliver those people, but here, in this place, the servants are ruling over us, Scripture states, but then there's nice this big continues on says there is none that deliver us out of their hand so they are stuck in this position of being ruled over by It's bad enough I suppose in their mind to be ruled that they have to be controlled by the Babylonians, but then if you have somebody that would be at one point a servant in their way of thinking, in a particular structure in their mind, that brings tremendous grief and tremendous sorrow to their hearts. If you think of, if we reflect back for a moment to the account about the prodigal son, we recall the prodigal son, he left his father's house and then When he finally came to himself, when he was there thinking, reflecting to himself, he says, you know, my father's servants in my father's house have it better than I do. They have a place, they have food, they have shelter, they have clothing. And so he thought of, he compared himself, his present state to the servants back in his father's house. And so here, that's an illustration of servants we mentioned. One folkship service is to take care and watch out for particular needs of a household. And so here, they're stuck in this position and they're lamenting this fact that the servants are all over them. And not only that, but there's nobody to deliver them from this particular state. We get our bread with peril, our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Now, what does it say, what does the scripture mean here? What is the Holy Spirit communicating through the pen of Jeremiah about how they acquired their bread? Now, it's possible bread here can go beyond just a loaf of bread. I mean, it could also be limited to that, but I think perhaps It maybe could be broader than that. But here are the examples. It talks about bread. How did they get their bread? Well, that was when they introduced money. They had people cultivating in the fields. They didn't have the money that they had because the Bible already was stolen. So they were all poor again. And this word peril, what does that word mean? Danger. OK. And so they have they have this. Now, when we think of it in our time period, I'm not sure if it's I don't necessarily want to say our time period has always been like we are today. Now, we don't we couldn't make bread today if we want, if we and probably some people do. And from time to time, my wife, my daughter, they make bread with different types of equipment. They get the, well, you put all the ingredients in, the flour, the yeast, the water and salt, and sometimes eggs or raisins and different types of ingredients from different types of grains. And we put it in this thing and you get it all mixed up and then you, anyway, saying all this to say is in a lot of times, you know, it's just it's it's more convenient to to go to a store and where someone else has made the bread and and you repurchase the bread. But here and I'm bringing I'll bring in all this stuff is it's usually not difficult to acquire bread, no matter if you if you were to make it or if you were to buy from someone who made it. But here it says it says we got our bread with peril. the peril of our lives. I mean, usually one doesn't think of risking their life for bread or for food. I mean, sometimes when people go hunting, there may be certain risks that may be taken, but they're minimal. I mean, I don't want to downplay any hunting accidents, things like that, but as far as It says, we gather with peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Now, what is a characteristic about the wilderness? What's something that's unique about the wilderness? Sherman. Yes, it's dry. It's a desert, desert place. I mean, usually the I think in one point, one time in American history, a particular part of the United States was considered the wars. I'm not sure when that was or where it was. But in other words, it was a part of the country that wasn't really explored or. But here are the willows. We think of the one is. We have the when the children of Israel left Egypt to go off to Jerusalem, you know, they wandered. in the wilderness, which was there was a woman's meaning. I would think no civilization, a lot of desert area. And this is the sword of the wilderness. Now, what is what is a sword? A sword is what type of instrument? I would think it would have some reference to that. As far as they were there, the Babylonians. And so they were occupying with what was the word that's called it's like a block of the sort. So we're preventing it's the purpose is to prevent things from getting from one spot to another spot. And so that would certainly. be part of it. Yeah. Right. Mm hmm. All these things. And so they have had the world's best servants. Very difficult to come by food to come by. Even simplest of foods, bread. This is our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. Now, what How often is, where else do we find famine in scripture, and what is famine? Worse in places. Mass starvation, mass starvation, a lack of food, lack of nutrition. And where, where else, or is it mentioned any place else in scripture, famine? Pardon me? Now there's a different kind of famine, a famine of the scripture, famine of the word. He is in Psalms that talks about people dying for lack of knowledge. I think that's what it is. Any other types of famines as far as physical famine, famine of food? Jacob. Jacob, that's right. Jacob. He saw that there was corn in Egypt and the reason there was there was a famine in the land, a great famine in the land, not only in in where Joseph or Jacob was. Jacob was living, but down in Egypt and Joseph was down in Egypt and Joseph. through a dream that he had, or actually through a dream that Pharaoh had, the king of Egypt, God revealed to him there was going to be a famine coming. Seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. So they remember that during that seven years of plenty, Joseph stored all this extra food up in the warehouses, and when the famine came, they were ready. They had food, and so Joseph was able to trade land, for food, and was able to make the king of Egypt richer than he already was. But more importantly, he was able to save the life of people because he had the food. He had the food there to give the people. And it says, our skin was black like an oven because of terrible famine. Now, I suppose it depends on when you look on the inside of an oven. But it depends on what type of oven you look inside of. But. And if you leave it on an oven, that would be oven, it would be a sort of oven that would be over open coals or over logs or something. What color would the inside of the oven generally turn to in time? It would begin to become black. And so here it said that the famine is affecting affecting their complexion. In a sense, because I guess they don't have this particular is particularly the particular nutrition that I need that may affect the color of pigmentation in their skin. I can perhaps may affect their ability for their skin to wear. I'm not really understanding why. famine brings in a change of skin color, or perhaps there's something in nutrition that protects our skin from the sun, that gives us protection. There's something that they were lacking that caused their skin to turn black like an oven. And here it continues on as far as this is the enemy, the Babylonians, talking about what they were going through. This is all This is all the sorrow that's happening to them, all the results of the law of sowing and reaping. They sowed disobedience to God, and now they're reaping this punishment that's coming, that God is permitting to bring upon them. And this is to be at the mercy of the hands of the Babylonians. Scripture says in verse 11, the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah." And so they were taken... Zion generally refers to Jerusalem, and in the surrounding cities of Judah, there's two tribes of Benjamin and Judah. They took advantage of the women, and it says in verse 12, "...princes are hanged up by their hand, The faces of elders were not honored. Now, before, any comments here on verses 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12? Before I, before we move on to verse 13. They took the young man The princes are hanged up by their hand. What is that referring to? Okay, being tortured, being hung up by their hand. The faces of elders were not honored. I think later on in verse 14 we'll see where the elders usually are. They're usually at the gate. They were not honored. This is all before the captivity. These things weren't happening. Now, there was rebellion. There was rebellion against God. And at certain points when Israel was following God, like they should have been following God, none of these things in this 5th Lamentation that's mentioned here in chapter 5, none of these things were happening when they were obeying God. But their sin and their disobedience to God, it brings this grief into their life. And it not only affects the people who were violent in God's command, it affected the entire, the whole two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It affected everybody. And the children fell under the wood or rather the faces of those were on. They took the young men to grind. And so what were they taking to grind in the when they take the grain in the middle? And I guess there was this there's no we have there's a walk. Got to go around a circle and they got the millstones and millstone presses down the grain and pounds that grain into powder into flour so that so that at least the Babylonians could have their bread. But here the young men were taken to grind, and the children fell under the wood. This is all because of Israel's sin. If you remember the instance of someone being taken to the mill to grind during the time of the judges, the Samson, once he was deceived and once he fell, once he told the secret of his strength, They took him to the mill. They put out his eyes and took him to the mill to grind. And this is the same thing that's happening again here, later on, in this time period in Israel's, in Judaist history. And it says, the children fell under the wood. Now, when you carry wood, wood can get heavy, I suppose. It can get heavy. If you pile up all this wood in your arms and you're having children now, carry the wood for the fires that were needed to heat the ovens and maybe give warmth to people. And so the children, it says, well, the young men were forced to grind, work at the mill to grind the grain into flour, and the children were taken and they were forced to carry the wood from one place to another place. And again, this is a result of their disobedience and their sin and rebellion against God. And the point of the lamentations is to express their grief and their mourning of what's going on. They realize what's happened. They can identify that the situation they're in is very sorrowful to them. And so that's why it's called a lamentation. They're lamenting the fact of what's happening to them. Verse 14, the elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. And so the custom of the time was the elders would sit at the gate, and when people would come in of the city and leave the city, the elders would be there, perhaps to ask advice, perhaps to give advice, perhaps to make judgments on the activities of the city. If you think of today's city councils, Perhaps that was part of the function of the elders there at the gate to make sure things were being done proper there in the city. And now, because of Israel's sin and because of a rebellion against God, God took them into captivity. In the process of coming out of this captivity, all these things that were established before, things the way things used to be, are no longer there. And there's no more, there's no elders at the gate. Which means there's no one giving advice, no one giving, no one having any control. over the city, as far as in an autonomous sense, so that the Babylonians had control. They had control. They're in the process of being released from captivity, or in the sense of even being throughout the captivity. And this is the young men from their music. And so let's have ceased. The elders have ceased from the gate, and the young men from their music. There's no music. apparently being played. Music is a... it can be expression of joy. I mean, there is music that can express sorrow, but there's no music whatsoever that's being played. And here it says, in verse 15, it does talk about joy. It says, the joy of our heart is ceased. There is no joy. The joy is withered. If you remember the book of Joel, He talks about their joy being, the people's joy being withered, in a different context, but still, by principle, it's right there. And why? Because all this, it goes to their, this is what they've reaped. They sowed disobedience, they sowed rebellion, and now they're reaping what they've so gotten to bring in, the Babylonians punishing them, and to bring judgment upon them, and they are now, they're expressly immersed. I mean, when, if you have, if you recall, the children are brothers and sisters that, or even yourself, when discipline had to come into your life for violating some rules, some principle, no matter who was administering it, there's sorrow and remorse about that. And so here, there's been 70 years of captivity, and throughout that 70 years of captivity, there was sorrow. And even after that, reflecting back upon it, there's sorrow. And restoration takes time. Restoration takes time. When fellowship is broken, Restoration does take time. And so, this is what they're in the process of doing, and they're realizing the fact that in a real sense of what a terrible state and condition they are in, and have been in. The joy of our heart is ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is falling from our head. Woe unto us that we have sinned. So they're coming to themselves in verse 16 here. It says, Woe unto us that we have sinned. They're expressing sorrow and remorse of what they've done. They're acknowledging in a roundabout way that what they have done, their sin, has brought about these trials which have brought apart this remorse and their lamentation about what they have done. They're lamenting about the condition they're in. But here in verse 16, they're identifying the reason why they are in that condition. They say, Woe unto us, for we have sinned. For this our heart is faint, for these things our eyes are dim. What is a faint heart? Jeremy. Okay. All right. That's good. Yeah, I would say so. That's a good... identifying the release of the New Testament, well not the release of the New Testament, in the New Testament, in the same principle of the Old Testament, but I'll, the word repentance is made up of, it's a compound word, meta, which you've heard of the word metamorphosis, different terms, which means change, and transforming in. Noyao, which comes from, which is the stem of that word, that word refers to mind, or thinking, so you change mind, so it's in the sense that it would be a beginning of repentance, or they're at least coming to the point, when somebody repents, they have to identify what they've done is a violation of God's principles, God's law, and it's sin. and said, Bebendus, we have sinned. Our hearts faint, for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Now, I don't know much about foxes, although I did, I think I have seen a few foxes, living, I've seen Foxes that were not living, that were stuffed foxes. And I believe I've seen foxes walking around or running around. But usually if an area is inhabited, heavily populated, usually the wild animals are not ones to hang around where a lot of people are. And so the principle here is, if Zion, if Jerusalem was virtually abandoned, not completely abandoned, but by comparison to what it used to be, how it used to be occupied, abandoned. And we have here foxes running around on the mountain on Zion. And it says, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Thou, O Lord, Remains forever again. This is this is I guess like you were like was mentioned There's knowledge in the fact that sins, and then they're acknowledging the fact that God Is immutable is eternal? He does not change and he's been here He's always been here. He's presently here, and he always will be here and They're acknowledging the eternality of God. It says, Thou, O Lord, remainest. And remainest also in the sense He is also immutable. He does not change forever. Thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us forever and forsake us so long a time? They're asking a question. And now they're asking, now they have a prayer. us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. We know our days as of old." And so they want things to be returned and restored the way they were. And they want God's hand of intervention. They want to say, God, help us turn ourselves around. Help us to get back where we should be. But Dallas utterly rejected us. They are very rough against us. They're acknowledging Although the Babylonians there have taken them into captivity, the Babylonians are oppressing them. They're ultimately acknowledging and recognizing that the point and the source of the punishment, and the reason for their punishment is because they've submitted, they've sinned, they want God to turn them around. And here it says, Thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art very wroth against us. And so they're acknowledging and are sorrowful, and have acknowledged to God what they have done and how He has responded to what they have done. God is very patient, He's very long-suffering, but they disregarded God's law for so long that God could not let them go by any further without bringing punishment upon them. And so the punishment is the captivity, And all the ramifications of all that came with that before the captivity, during the captivity, even after the captivity, there was still a consequence to their sin and to the condition they found themselves in. Any thoughts or comments about these verses here and this part of the book, this end of the book here of Lamentations, or perhaps in the whole book? Jeremy. I think, even though there's so many more, I'd like to hear about some of their dealing with We know that, you know, like, you know, my God, my God. Right. And so I'll switch to talk about the heart of stone and God turning the heart of stone to heart of flesh or in a not another. That's the words that are used, but. And so God is involved, and He wants to be involved in the process. Any other observations or thoughts? Let's look to the Order of Prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to thank You for Your mercy and Your longsuffering to us. Lord, we ask that you would continue to be gracious to us and demonstrate to us and show to us the areas in our life that sin has crept in. And please assist us in identifying that and give us the strength and the grace that we must have in order to change and to be in line with what your scripture says. Please dismiss us this evening with your blessing. Give us safety as we return to our homes. In Jesus' name, amen.