Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, page 869 in most of the Pew Bibles. Lamentations, which is one book with five poems. It's not too difficult to distinguish the separate poems. Four of them are acrostics, very, very clearly structured. And so we take that first of five poems this morning, Lamentations chapter one. So you'll notice there's 22 verses, because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Again, quite a few Psalms do that. It was a year and a half ago, we spent some time, we went selected sections from Psalm 119, that was also in an acrostic, in a different way, in a bigger way. Well, here Lamentations is laid out structurally, is laid out, of course, theologically. And so we'll read this first poem, People of God, together, the inspired poetry, the book of Lamentations. We begin with chapter one and we read it in its entirety. Let us hear the word of God. How lonely sits the city that was full of people. How like a widow she has 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 from 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 the 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 has become 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 the precious things, for she has seen the nations enter the sanctuary, those whom you forbade to enter your congregations. 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. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see, if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. For from on high he sent fire into my bones, he made it descend. He spread a net for my feet, he turned me back, he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. My transgressions were bound into a yoke. By his hand they were fastened together. They were set upon my neck. He caused my strength to fail. The Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst. He summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden, as in a winepress, the virgin daughter of Judah. For these things I weep, my eyes flow with tears, for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit. My children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed. Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her. The Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes. Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them. The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word. But hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering. My young women and my young men have gone into captivity. I called to my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they sought food to revive their strength. Look, O Lord, for I am in distress. My stomach churns, my heart is wrung within me because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves, in the house it is like death. They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day, you announced. Now let them be as I am. Let all their evil doing come before you and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions for my groans are many and my heart is faint. So far the reading of the Holy Word of God. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is so much in the scriptures about suffering Jesus Christ himself is who he is, the man of sorrows from Isaiah 53. There are many individual passages, many individual Psalms that deal primarily with suffering and crying out in the midst of suffering. There are two entire books that deal with suffering from start to end. One is the book of Job, one is the book of Lamentations. And while these books both have definitely agreement, certainly they both speak about the sovereignty of God, which is the very climax of the book of Job. Certainly they both speak about the faithfulness of God, which is the very center of the book of Lamentations. But they also have at least two significant differences. Two significant differences between Job and Lamentations. The first one is this, Job is more individually focused. It is one individual who stands at the center, one suffering individual, Job himself. While Lamentations is more a group and nation focused. There are words certainly about individuals. There is even very personal language within this, but those are individuals who suffer as part of a community, and at times the voice of the community can't be distinguished from the voice of the individual in lamentations. Indeed, one of the voices, as we have already read, and we'll spend some time looking at it and looking at how this works, one of the voices in Lamentations is the city of Jerusalem itself, personified as a woman who speaks out in suffering. There is very much a community, a nation, a group, a city together focused in Lamentations. So that's one difference, the individual versus the group. Another difference is this, Job is one who suffers innocently. And then time and time again, his friends come and they tell him, aren't you suffering because of your sin? And they do it in different ways. They do it with different false ideas. And again and again, Job says, no, no, I am innocent. I haven't suffered because of my sins. And then, of course, God speaks in the end and says, Job has spoken rightly, his friends have not. Whereas lamentations, the suffering is a nation which has rebelled against God. There is suffering because of sins. There is judgment for sin. And so we come to this book, which is focused on a community, a community of faith, God's chosen people, which has rebelled against God. And we see, especially in this first chapter, that we must not look past real troubles. And so we'll look first at see the suffering and then see the sin. Well, what is the suffering here? What are the images of suffering? Lamentations does not give us author or date. It is very clearly written, though, shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem. There can be no doubt. The clues given throughout the text leave no doubt. It is the exile. It is a recent pain. It is the nation which has prolonged past the life of that northern kingdom, which was destroyed by Samaria more than a hundred years earlier. But now the southern kingdom also is destroyed. The southern kingdom also, the kingdom of Judah, the kingdom with kings in the line of David has fallen. The city of David, the city of the temple, the city of the Lord's presence, the temple itself is destroyed. It is a song in this setting. It is now a lonely city. How lonely sits the city that was full of people lonely because those people are in captivity and so verse five speaks of that. Verse five, we see her children have gone away captives before the foe. There's also language about where are the elders, where are the leaders? And if we turn back to 2 Kings, to 2 Chronicles, to Jeremiah, we see that it was the strong of the land, so the young persons, it was also the leaders of the land that were taken away. So the poor of the land remained. So there are still a few persons here left in Jerusalem, in Judea, but all their strength, all their leaders have been taken into exile. And so the loneliness is seen in empty streets, streets that were once busy, full of activity. You know, I saw recently one of these old historical videos and it was this old black-and-white video of Germany before World War I and you know so there's no cars but the streets were still very busy, there was people walking everywhere, walking in this direction, that direction, they're walking across, they're walking diagonally, they're walking straight, this way, that. It's very busy, it's bustling, right? We think of bustling streets, busy with cars, but certainly streets and cities could be very busy even before there were cars. There was activity, but now, now there is nothing. The roads themselves mourn. The roads themselves have become a picture in verse 4 of sadness, of desertion, of loneliness. And her gates, her gates, what are her gates? The gates were were part of the very center of the activity of the city. That's where transactions were made. That's where council was held. That was really the center of economic and even some, not just economic decisions, but also civil decisions could be made at the city gates. But what's going on at the city gates now? Well, there's no one there. There's no one in this street. There's no one at the gates. How lonely is the city? Lonely and lowly. Lonely and lowly. She who was great among the nations, now she is like a widow. She is both alone and lowly. She was great. She was a princess. She was royalty. Now she is a widow. She has even become a slave. End of verse one. Personification is kind of a big word. If my memory is correct, it's always hard to remember something from childhood, isn't it? The first time I learned the word personification or personify was when I was little and I was watching that little lamp that jumps in at the beginning of a Pixar movie. And my siblings, who are older than me, said something about personified. I'm like, what's that? What does that mean? Well, it means that the lamp is being personified. It's being pictured, in that case, like a little child, a little child who's playing with a ball and then jumps on a letter like it's a trampoline. Personification, it gives something, it makes something relatable, understandable. Well, there's heavy personification in Lamentations. The city is personified as a person. especially with female images. And so the city is in verse one, a widow. The city is a widow. A city is a widow who has what? Lost her children. Who has gone into captivity? Verse five, the end of verse five, her children. And these are images used throughout all of Lamentations. Is the city personified as a person, as a suffering widow, to make it more understandable, more relatable, more real? And then there's the highest level of personification. The city will even be given a voice to speak about her suffering. When there's quotes in Lamentations, it's the city speaking. the translators have helped us with that. And so we see the city speaks, you see the quotations at the end of verse 11, and then the quotation marks basically through the end of the chapter, except for verse 17. That's because it's no longer the narrator speaking, it's now the voice of the city. The city is personified as a woman, as a woman who speaks about her suffering, Oh, if this city could speak, now the city is given a voice to help us understand the depths of the sorrow of the suffering. The city itself says, see my suffering. Verse 18, my young men, my young women, they've gone into captivity. Look for, I am in distress. Verse 20, my very stomach churns. lonely, lowly, suffering from hunger, verse 19, suffering from real physical difficulties, in this case, starvation, hunger, which if we go to the historical accounts, we see that's what really happened to the people of Judah. They were under a prolonged siege. There was hunger, there was starvation. And then now this is something which is ongoing because what happens after a siege, what happens after the warfare, what happens after the mighty armies leave? Well, now they're left and they're still hungry because all the fields are destroyed and all the young men and all the young women who are required to to build back up the agricultural infrastructure, to rebuild the fields, to bring food back into the city. Well, they're all gone. All the strong persons who can do that labor, they were the first ones taken into captivity because Babylon wanted strong slaves. So the hunger had been ongoing and now Babylon's gone and they're still hungry. They're still hungry. They've got these external difficulties. Verse 19, they have internal, emotional difficulties. My stomach churns. We might think as we might think as Western English readers, oh, that's just the imagery of hunger continued, but in the Hebrew, speaking of a stomach churning is language of emotional turmoil, and we see that in the next line in verse 20, my heart is wrung within me. The city is lonely, the city is lowly, and this is a fullness of sorrow which is expressed in every way. And so, when it's not the city itself speaking, giving a voice, the description of seeing the city's sorrow in verse two is one of absolute full sorrow. She weeps bitterly when in the night. In other words, when you think she might be sleeping, what is she doing? She's crying. Even in the night, when we would wish for the gift of sleep, that is when she cries. It's an image of continually crying, day and night, because usually you would cry in the day. She cries with tears. Where? On her cheeks. She can't wipe her tears away before they get to her cheeks. They're just streaming down. The tears are everywhere. Her crying is at every time. Heavy language. Again, it is The city itself pictured as a woman, but it's a very real picture because there were those who really were individual widows in the city going through these things. This was a time of great suffering. And in this time, all her friends have turned away. So what is the city crying out for? The city's crying out that someone would see this suffering. Look. See. Do not turn away. Know what I am going through. I need comfort. And that's the dominant image I see it, you see it, Lord God, see. The end of verse 11, look, oh Lord, and see. Now the application of lamentations, it is such a particular time in history It is a time for which the rest of the Old Testament gives us so many details. You know, how do we then bring it to today? Well, when we remember to see the sin, as we'll come to our second point, that gives us some boundaries. But this need to see suffering, it actually applies broadly, doesn't it? That would apply whether it's just suffering or unjust suffering. The one who suffers needs comfort, needs an ear that will hear. And that's the main thing right now. that the city is crying out for, that the suffering is crying out for. We think of this expression, give a helping hand. What does Jerusalem need right now? What does the sufferer need? The sufferer isn't asking for a helping hand. The suffering is too great. That won't do anything anyway, in a sense. The sufferer's not asking for a helping hand. The sufferer's asking for a listening ear. People of God, that's not easy, is it? To have a listening ear for the sufferer? It's easy to check a box and do something. But what about when you can't do something to fix it? When you're called to Be a listener who is showing real concern as they listen, who is asking the right questions to let the sufferer speak. That's actually a very difficult task, isn't it? It requires a lot of wisdom and grace and love and action. In many ways, the sufferer needs not a helping hand, but a listening ear. And don't think that because it doesn't require physical strength to accomplish something that a listening ear is easy. No, no, no, that's very difficult. That's very difficult. But it's something that we're called to do. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. And that mourning means being a good listener, first and foremost, to see the suffering and to hear the cries of the one suffering. Certainly the city sees it and feels it. My very emotions are churning. My heart is wrong. I feel undone. See me, notice me, hear my cry. Do not leave me alone. Do not leave me alone. The cry for help is a good cry because it is directed to God. Yes, it is good to have a comforter who will come alongside, but that comforter must be the Lord. And so when the city begins to speak, the first words of the city at the end of verse 11 are to the Lord, look, oh Lord, and see. and the faithfulness of the Lord is at the very center of lamentations. Where does the saying, great is thy faithfulness, come from? It comes from the middle of this book. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. The steadfast love, 3 verse 22, of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Coming to the Lord's faithfulness, looking to Him to have the ultimate ear of comfort and understanding, that is the first place to turn. and that is the one upon whom this book is centered. You know, we talked about the climax, right, of Mark, as we're marching through Mark. Well, for this very detailed, structured book with these poems, the center can very much be where the main idea is, and that's what we have going on in Lamentations. Everything's building up to that center and going out from it. Lord God, see my suffering. Give me comfort, make me to know that your faithfulness is good every morning. The good mornings and the bad mornings, your faithfulness is always good. Hear me, see my suffering. But people of God, the most important suffering to see is the suffering of the Savior himself. The most important suffering to see is the suffering of the one who was completely right, completely just, who died on a cross for sins. And while suffering comes and goes, sin is always there. Even the one who suffers innocently to use that word to think of Job perhaps. There's still sin all around and there's still a sinful nature that needs to be saved and so sin is present throughout Lamentations and it is our second point this morning. See the sin. See the sin. Now let's think about the movement of the speakers here in this first chapter. We've kind of worked through the themes, so we've taken from one verse to another verse. Now we're going to look at all 22 verses together. It is the poet, the narrator, we might say, mostly all through verse 11. And then the city begins to speak at the end of verse 11. And the city speaks kind of with these weeping and with these tears, with increasing groaning, speaking about desolation to the end of verse 16. And then the narrator speaks again in verse 17. The narrator speaks again in verse 17, Zion stretches out her hands, right? So that's no longer the city speaking, that's now talking about the city, which is stretching out her hands. It's basically an image of the poor widow sitting on the street begging for help. Zion stretches out her hands, and now we return to the voice of the city again. And this is important, from verses 18 to 22, the tone of the city has changed. It's now essentially a tone of confession. And that's how this first poem will come to the end. And so beginning this final section of the chapter, the city speaks and the city acknowledges first, verse 18, that the Lord is right. And then immediately after that, confesses her sins for I have rebelled against his word now when we read the law this morning you remember that big word I use propositional that just means word related word related Now, there's very much in Lamentations that speaks about relationships, speaks about the people of God together, speaks about the city as a widow, as a mother with children. There's all this language of relationship. There's language of, as we'll see, broken relationships of the unfaithful wife, the unfaithful people of God, rebelling against God who is the faithful husband. There's all these relationship images, but it's never just images of relationship. Scripture always has a word which defines what the relationship should be. We can never think only about relationships. We have to think about the word, the law, the covenant which was broken, the covenant which came in words. And so it's no accident that this language of confession with this changed tone which comes at the end of this chapter begins with, first, the Lord is right, and then second, I have rebelled against his word. And so now when we step back and we think about what does it mean to see suffering, to see sin, what can we never forget as we're doing that? What is actually suffering? What is actually sin? And God's word will define that, right? So when someone says, I'm suffering, but there's no truth to that, we actually need to call that out as a lie, as folly, right? When someone would say, well, I'm suffering, but I'm completely innocent. And so I just need complete compassion and no confession. Well, then we would have to call that out and say, no, these are the right words of the city, the city that's being judged for rebellion, to call out in confession and to say, Lord, I have rebelled against his word. And so if we think about cities, if we think about people who are suffering and you're crying out about suffering, well, there's all kinds of cries going on just 100 miles away from us, aren't there? But what's going on there? Does that mean that we just have to go along with whatever's being said by whoever's saying whatever? No, no, no. We have to see suffering that's really suffering. We have to keep all things in the context of God's word, which tells us what is going on, which lays out the rules, the parameters to define things. And so sometimes that rebelling is rebelling against authority. Did you know that rebelling against foreign authority was part of the reason that the people of God were judged and destroyed by Babylon? Pastor, what are you talking about? There's lots of layers in Old Testament history, right? Did you know that Jeremiah spoke out in Jeremiah chapter 27 against the kings of Judah who were rebelling against Babylon? Why? Because God had told Judah, the kingdom of Judah, that Babylon would be their sovereign and that this was a punishment for the rebellion that they had made. Jeremiah chapter 27 lays this out. And they were actually to obey Babylon or they would be completely destroyed by Babylon. And so there's a period of time, about 11 years or so, where Jeremiah is actually standing up and saying, listen to the authority of Babylon. because Babylon had come in and Judah was supposed to submit to that as part of their punishment. But now they rebel against Babylon, and now they're completely destroyed. So where am I getting at with this? Well, if someone stands up and says, Lamentations 1, look at all this suffering, Oh, look at Kenosha. It's exactly like Jerusalem. We need to see the suffering and just speak with them and say the word peace and things like that, just like they're being said in that city. Well, hold on a second. Wasn't Jerusalem judged for not only rebelling against God's authority, but even for rebelling against the foreign authority that for a time of cleansing they were supposed to obey? Are you totally forgetting Jeremiah 27? Are you totally forgetting the Word of God which would say, listen to me and listen also to my prophet and even stands up and says, no, you have to obey Babylon or they're going to completely destroy you. In other words, You can only make that direct application if you're pretending there are parallels that don't actually exist. If we start to apply lamentations to the situations of our day, we have to make sure that we're doing it in accordance with his word. we have to make sure that we're doing it with all of the details. And sometimes, you know, maybe there are things in this world, there's so much that goes on in world news, we just won't have enough details, we won't be able to speak directly, so maybe we don't know all of what's going on, but the point is this, they have sinned because they rebelled against His word. They rebelled against God's authority first, and they even rebelled against the foreign authorities which had been placed over them for a time. See the sin. See the sin. We can never, when one is suffering because of sin, there must be a confession of those sins. The sins of rebelling against God's authority and the authorities which God puts in place. And the sins, there's great imagery then of these sins, keeping mostly with female imagery because the city is pictured as a woman. She's a woman who is ceremonially unclean, verse eight. She's a woman who is maritally unfaithful. Verse two, verse nine, verse 19. I called to my lovers, but they deceived me. And so when Jerusalem was supposed to be obeying Babylon, they ran to Egypt. When Jerusalem was supposed to be worshiping God, they worship the false gods of all the nations around them. And that was always wrong. Sins are multiplied on top of sins. There was great sin in Judah. Jerusalem, verse eight, has sinned grievously. The word there for grievously is actually the word sin repeated. So in the Hebrew, if we try to give a literal translation, Jerusalem has sinned a sin or sinned on top of sins. And that's how sin works, doesn't it? That's how sin works. Think about this for a younger person. How do you sin on top of sin? Maybe you get upset at your brother or your sister for doing something that you think they shouldn't. And then you're confronted with fighting with your brother and sister. And what do you tell your parent? Well, it was all my sister's fault or it was all my brother's fault. So there's sin on top of sin. So in this case, you're putting the sin of lying on top of the sin of anger. Or what if you're a little bit older and you struggle with diligence and laziness and so you neglect your tasks. And then either at work or perhaps even in the home, you are confronted about this. And then when confronted about it, you simply become angry. And so now the sin of anger is heaped on top of the sin of laziness. Or maybe you're someone who is elderly and you are discontent with the situation which the Lord has put you in. You are ashamed that you need so much care. And so you become ungrateful and unloving and rude to those who care for you. And so now the sin of rudeness, of unloving rudeness is heaped on top of the sin of discontentment. This is the way sin works. Sin almost never happens in isolation. One sin leads to another, leads to another. Sin on top of sin. And certainly this is what has happened in Jerusalem. She has sinned grievously. She has sinned on top of sin. So she has become filthy. There's the language of ceremonially. of being ceremonially unclean. Her uncleanness was in her skirts, which speaks both to the ceremonial uncleanness and is an image of this unfaithful wife who pursues lovers who are not God. She has sinned and sinned on top of sin. We must If there is suffering, if there is sin at the root of the suffering, address the sin. Now again, Job tells us that great suffering is not always essentially tied with sins, but it can be on a personal, on a national level. And when that is the case, The sins can never be ignored. They must be called out. They must be rooted out. They must be confessed. And verses 18 to 22 are, again, essentially, especially in the beginning of verse 18, there's an element of confession here. The right way for the city to call out. And that will be, we'll see that again as we go through the book. The Lord is right. My own sins entrapped me. My own sins are the reason why I am in this situation. That's what Jerusalem says. You see the image of that in verse 14? My own sins have become a yoke that are clasped around my neck. And so because of this, the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand." We must see all real troubles. If suffering is not real suffering, but merely some cry of victimhood, well, that needs to be addressed in a different manner. If suffering is suffering, though, we must see it. If sin is present, it must be seen and addressed. And certainly sin is a real problem. It is the greatest problem. It is the problem we all have in our very nature. It is the problem for which only the Savior Jesus Christ gives the remedy. Maybe there is suffering in your life, or maybe the Lord will bring suffering into your life because of sin. But whether you're suffering or not, we are all sinners in need of our Savior. We are all sinners in need of Jesus Christ, who's able to wipe the guilt away, who will bring just judgment against sin, images of this, including the trodden winepress in verse 15. An image returned to with the rider of the white horse in Revelation 19. He is the one who will strike down the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress in the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. What is the only way to be saved from the wrath of God the Almighty? Whether you're the people of God or the evil nations, that's the final cry. Verses 21, the end of 21 and 22, Aren't you going to judge the nations too? Aren't they also evil? How have you allowed them to walk into your temple? Aren't they those who are rebellious against you in every way? They're not even your people by name. How have you allowed this to happen? Other prophets certainly answer this, Jeremiah, Habakkuk. They tell us, yes, the nations will be judged, but first the people of God are judged. And the problem in every case is that we are under the wrath of God unless we trust in the one who took the wrath of God for us, Jesus Christ, our Savior. People of God, let us pray in his name. Lord, our Lord, there are many real troubles in this world. Even as there are also confusing circumstances, Lord, there are real troubles, real suffering. Be with those who suffer. Give them those who would come alongside and you yourself certainly be where they would turn. Lord, bring us to you in suffering and Lord in the real trouble of sin, the real trouble of sin, sometimes tied to suffering, sometimes not Lord, Wipe those troubles away. Wash sins away by directing our eyes and our hearts to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us, people of God, stand, sing together number 452. Number 452, let's stand and sing.