The Book of Lamentations: A Godly Lament

Lamenations 1:1 — How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

Introduction

2 Corinthians 7:10 — For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. - grief, grievous, + grudgingly, heaviness, sorrow. - Not sorrowing merely because it hurts, but SORROWING AFTER GOD over the contrast of HOW THINGS ARE WITH HOW GOD HAS PROMISED THEY COULD BE

The song/psalm of lament is a song or poems in which the writer cries out to God in times of deep distress and despair. In psalms of lament, the psalmist asks God for intervention to deliver him from suffering, sorrow, great loss, failures, and enemies.

Psalm 79:1-5 — O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. 2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. 3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them. 4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

2 Chronicles 35:25 — And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

Lamenations 3:48,49 — Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

Jeremiah 4:19 — My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Lamentaions 5:20 — Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

Lamentations 2:17 — The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

Jeremiah 29:11 — For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Lamentations 3:22-24 —It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Lamenations 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. 42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

Summary of the Book of Lamentations

Lamentations 3:22-24 —It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Lamenations 5:9 — Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. 20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

1. The Fall of Israel - Lamenations 1:1 (cross ref: Isaiah 30:1,2; Jeremiah 42:19-22)

Lamenations 1:1 — How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

The Fall of the Northern Kingdom

Fall of the Southern Kingdom

1. Awful Alliances (This is a 'practical problem'; An orgizational glitch; A few bad habits.)

SIDE NOTE: Do not so easily break the bond with those who share our union with God. Israel's lost herself in the world, not in what flavor of "temple worship" Now, Egppts influence can appear within sacred circles but in the genuine presence of God the proper constrasts will be made. The devil will try to show up, but where Christ is truly glorified, that old snake cannot abide!

Jeremiah 42:19-22 &mmdash; Jer 42:19 The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day. 20 For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. 21 And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. 22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

Psalms 18:2 — The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

2. Apostasy

  1. What Do I believe?

  2. Pray not just for God to be God but for the grace of FAITHFULNESS

1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

Php 2:12— Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

  1. Our Greatest allies are not those that flatter us, but those who are most loyal to WHAT IS TRUTH
  1. We need more than just good ides to be successful in spiritual matters, we need HOLY GHOST direction. This direction is breathed by the Spirit and is always found in the Word of God.
The patriort ledger ran a story a few years back stating, **Rev. Paul Haynes is watching and waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ**. And like most of them, the retired New Hampshire pastor is resisting the urge to predict the date.

“No man knows the day or hour,” he says, quoting a Gospel admonition from Jesus himself.

Over the centuries, that hasn’t stopped believers and charismatic leaders from predicting. Perhaps the most famous such attempt was made by Baptist layman William Miller of New York. He announced that Oct. 22, 1844, would be the day – to the ensuing disappointment of thousands of followers known as “Millerites.”

On the morning of Friday, September 24, 1909, about 300 members of the Free Christian Society packed the white clapboard Ashdod Chapel in Duxbury, Mass waiting for the return of Jesus. When the morning passed, the group recalculated the fateful moment to 6 p.m., then to the next day. Then they all went home. One century later, the spiritual descendants of the original society still gather every September – though not with any doomsday or year in mind.

The Rev. Haynes is one of them that gathers every September. He said the 1909 Duxbury event came up in conversations during this year’s meeting, which drew about 70 people. But he says it is “a point of history,” not a theological inspiration.

After more than 60 years of Bible study and reflection, “I’ve changed my thinking (about predicting the Second Coming),” the Rev. Haynes said. “You do the work of the Lord, and (work) until the time He appears.”

“Sometimes I’m asked, ‘Brother Haynes, have we missed something?’” he said. “And I tell them, ‘No, we haven’t missed anything at all. The Lord is setting the time.’”

Like millions of evangelical and Pentecostal American Christians, the Rev. Paul Haynes is watching and waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ. And like most of them, the retired New Hampshire pastor is resisting the urge to predict the date.

In 1909, The Patriot Ledger was there reporting on the Duxbury meeting:

  • Thursday night, September 23, 1909, In Frenzy of Excitement, Men Grovel on the Ground From Sheer Exhaustion and Call Upon Their Fellows to Join Those Who Are to Be Spared – Women and Children Unable to Control Their Emotions. That the end of the world was really coming on the morrow was the warning that this gathering tried to impress upon the minds of those who stood about the little chapel that the elect forth in at Ashdod, give miles from the center of this town, Thursday. Women held their hands high toward the heavens, calling for manifestations of the spirit to show the unbelievers

  • Friday, Sept. 24, 1909, Latter Reign Disciples Believe to Be Day of Judgment, The end of the world comes today in the minds and the teachings of 300 men, women and children, whose actions last night might lead those who observed their manifestations to hold the opinion that the day of judgment was perhaps even nearer than the hour they set.

  • Saturday morning, September 25, 1909, "MOTHER EARTH STILL WAGGING", “Holy Rollers” Are Awaiting Coming of the Messiah, Elder Has New Revelation: Judgment Day is Delayed Twenty-Four Hours

  • Saturday Afternoon, Sept. 25 1909 – Awaiting the end of the world, which they believe will come before 6 o’clock tonight, the 300 or more members of The Latter Reign of the Apostolic Church, who call themselves “Triune Immersionists” and are popularly known as Holy Rollers, held a long watch meeting last night in their bethel at Ashdod, on the main turnpike between Boston and Plymouth, while hundreds of curious people from the neighboring village lingered outside the structure to note the progress of events. The curtains at the windows of the bethel were all drawn close and little of what occurred was evident to outsiders. Apparently there was a praise service and exhortations, and occasionally a voice pitched high in prayer was heard exclaiming: “O Lord, come soon; don’t disappoint us.”

  • Tuesday Morning, Sept. 28, 1909, PREDICTIONS HAVE FAILED, Triune Immersionists Disappointed For Fifth Time, Leaving For Their Homes, Mother Earth Still Doing Business at the Same Old Stand, but Not For Long, According to Prophetess of the Sect–But Few of the Faithful Remain in Camp at Ashdod. Ashdod, the little hamlet “five miles from nowhere,” where with singing and prayer the end of the world has been awaited for the past week by the Triune Immersionists, is practically a deserted village. Four coachloads of the faithful left for their homes Monday and more went today. ... (Many in the sect), with enthusiasm somewhat abated, but still hopeful, have returned to their homes to await “the coming,” which they believe cannot be far away. Miss Eva Brown, the beauty prophetess of the sect, still asserts that the end of the world is about to come.

  • For the fifth time in sixty-five years, the Triune Immersionists have been disappointed. In 1844, 1854, 1867, 1873 and 1909 the Advent was predicted, the predictions were believed (and) hundreds of believers prepared to depart this earthly sphere, don heavenly robes and join the elect in the Golden City of Eternity.

Isaiah 30:1,2 — Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: Isa 30:2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! [100+ years before the fall of Jerusalem, as the North and South made the same error.]

Genesis 41:38 — And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

Daniel 4:8 — But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,

Chapter 1: Jerusalem as a Widow

outrage - the anger and resentment aroused by injury or insult

Was Is Reference
Full of People Sits Solitary 1:1
The Lord was as an enemy: (2:5) widow 1:1
was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces become tributary 1:1
Revision #13
Created 10 September 2023 16:23:41 by Stephen Reynolds Jr
Updated 24 September 2023 19:14:41 by Stephen Reynolds Jr