One Year Bible - October 29

LAMENTATIONS 1:1 - 2:19                                                                                                     
THE MESSAGE: (1) Backsliders must forsake iniquity and return to the Lord. (2) All sinning will be judged by God; without repentance, the sinner will end in bondage and death. (3) God will forsake those who forsake Him. (4) Sin breaks the heart of God. (5) Delayed judgment is for the purpose of waiting for us to repent and is an expression of God's love. (6) It is foolish and vain to forsake the living waters in order to drink from broken cisterns. (7) After death and cleansing, there is resurrection. (8) Repentance means "to return" - submitting and re-connecting to God in dependence. (9) God broods over His creation and goes to the utmost to bring us back to Himself. (10) The New Covenant puts away sin once for all and provides forgiveness and holiness within to satisfy the Law. (11) Obey God or die. (12) Breaking faith with God results in judgment. (13) The mercy and compassion of the Lord is still available, even while we are still suffering as the result of our sinning.

THE SADDEST BOOK OF THE BIBLE (background) :  This represents the punishment, pain and grief Jesus bore for our sin.  It also reveals the results of sinning without repentance.  God never does anything half-way.  He warns us and warns us and then warns us again.  The Pentateuch is full of graphic warnings of what God will do if we turn away from Him. We saw in Jeremiah that the end of sin is captivity and death.  As Jeremiah watched, dumbstruck and in agony, Jerusalem was beaten down, ransacked and burned to the ground. The Temple was stripped and looted of anything valuable, then ripped down and burned also. (Lam 2:17)  “The LORD has done what He planned; He has fulfilled His word, which He decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, He has let the enemy gloat over you, He has exalted the horn of your foes.”  Nebuchadnezzar had made three invasions of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was partially destroyed in 606 BC (deportation included Daniel), devastated in 597 BC (deportation included Ezekiel), and finally destroyed by fire in 586 BC after 20 years of suffering.  2 Kings 24:14 says he carried away 10,000 captives to Babylon, plus the 4600 of Jer 52:30.   We know there were at least 50,000 who returned 70 years later. Psalm 137 is commentary on their exile. The Jews considered Nebuchadnezzar to be Evil Incarnate, and he reigned and controlled the nations with terror and executions.  It is said (by Josephus, a Jewish historian of that period) that Nebu executed over 80,000 Jews, in addition to over one million who were slaughtered in battle!  

THE PLAYERS: There are several groups represented in Lamentations and Jeremiah. We belong to any one of those groups at different times.

"THE NATIONS" (non-believers): They are shocked when we fail, but mock us and our God when we do. They ask themselves why anyone would serve a God Who did that (judged and destroyed) to His own people. They will all be judged at the same time as Jerusalem.

BABYLON (the enemy): This is our flesh, which gnashes on our Spirit and on God, and is proud and untrustworthy.  We think we are compromising with our flesh when we sin, but then our flesh destroys us at the end with bondage and death. It's leader is a cruel antichristian spirit, symbolized here by Nebuchadnezzar.

ISRAEL (God's elect who are living in sin): They have brought judgment and destruction on themselves with their neglect of God.  When God disciplined them, they rebelled.  They don't want God or His prophets telling them what to do, and when the message includes suffering, they want no part of it.  They firmly believe that grace will cover their sins of rebellion and iniquity, and God will protect them from evil.  They love their substitutes and counterfeits for God because they are comfortable with them.  Idols don't require accountability or responsibility.

JEREMIAH (God's elect and obedient): Jeremiah represents those who cling to God and are willing to go against the crowd.   He does not deserve what happened to him, but experiences the siege and the destruction with God's elect.  He is there to serve and to represent God (the influence of the Throne).  He accepts the suffering (mental, emotional, and even physical) as part of his lot as a chosen son of God.  He maintains his faithfulness to God through repentance, praise and thanksgiving.  He is changed by his circumstances, becoming outspoken and strong, just like God said he would.  Nothing will ever scare him, deter him, or overwhelm him again after this.

BOOK of LAMENTATIONS is divided into five chapters, the first four being poems or SONGS and the last one being a prayer.  In the original Hebrew, the verses (except chap 5) are acrostic, each verse starting with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters).  Lamentations makes it clear that sin and rebellion were the causes of God’s wrath being poured out (1:8-9; 4:13; 5:16).  Even though Lamentations is written from the bottom of a prison hole, with each chapter, there is HOPE AND FAITH expressed that God will restore as He promised.

MAINTAINING FAITH IN THE MIDST OF OVERWHELMING DISASTER:  The first chapter (poem) deals with the loneliness and sense of abandonment, likening us to a "widow":  Judah has no "Comforter" (Lam 1:2, 9,16,17,21).  This disaster was deserved. Suddenly in verse 18 he says, "The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandments."  Jeremiah is done "blaming" God for his troubles, for it carries the implication that God is not just.   It is impossible for God not to be right, and it is impossible for man to be more just than God, because our sense of justice comes from God in the first place! We cannot sit in judgment of God.

The second chapter (poem) deals with the brokenness of being judged and disciplined by God.  God is ruthless when it concerns holiness and cleansing. Everything is destroyed, there is nothing left.  "In the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained." But insight came again: "He has fulfilled His Word that He had commanded in the days of old..."   Deut 28 tells us the negative terms of covenant, and Jeremiah has seen the curses named, come to pass.  Delayed judgment is to give us room to repent.   And even though they are in the midst of the terrors of Divine judgment, v.19 instructs us to "cry out in the night: ...pour out your heart like water before the Lord, lift up your hands toward Him...."  It is never too late to repent and connect with God.  That probably won't erase the consequences of your foolishness, but God will still have mercy on your soul and send the "Comforter".

RESPONSE:  Job 10:21-22 rightly defined "death" as "darkness", and "lack of order" (chaos). When we refuse to repent for our sinning, that is what our lives become - dark and chaotic.  Sin can't be compartmentalized.  If we are sinning, we are sinners and reap the consequences. Our whole life will be "out of order" and disoriented from living in darkness. God will tear us up to get at our hearts!  There comes a "tearing down " before we can be restored. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Heb 12:11)

PHILEMON 1:1-25        RESTORING A BROTHER WHO REPENTS                               
We have two dynamics going here: PHILEMON: A Colossian, who was defrauded by his runaway slave, and was being asked by Paul to forgive and restore the man. ONESIMUS: Who was a runaway slave living in Rome, who was born again (thru Paul's ministry) and radically changed (godliness), being sent back to his owner, perhaps to be executed.  Oddly enough, PHILEMON means "tender love", and ONESIMUS means "useful".  1 Tim 4:8 says "godliness is profitable/useful."  No matter what Onesimus was guilty of before he was born again, now that he was "a brother beloved" (v.16) his godliness was manifested in being useful.  In fact, he was so useful to Paul (the "old prisoner") that Paul didn't want to send him back!

"FOR LOVE'S SAKE": (V.9)  Philemon's name comes from the Greek word, "phileo" which is "tender affection, brotherly love", but the word used in V.9 is "agape” - that self-sacrificing love that comes from God living in us.  What is being asked of Philemon (us) to do "for love's sake"?  When we are taken advantage of by another believer, what does love demand of us? V.12-15 "Receive him as a "brother beloved".  In other words, we must dismiss the debt (forgive) and restore this one to a better place than he occupied before!  WHY? v.19 We owe a debt we cannot repay! Yet God restored us. V.20 It refreshes the heart of other believers to see us dwell in unity. V.21 We are obeying the Lord when we restore others. V.22-25 We are accountable to the rest of the Body of Christ; we don't live in a vacuum.

RESPONSE: While there are many reasons to restore fellow-believers after they repent, here we are shown two good reasons: (1) "for love's sake" and (2) so that they can be "useful" again.

PSALM 101:1-8                                                                                                                    
IMPORTANT: Please refer back to the background information of Psalm 90-106: the "Numbers" Psalms - "Labouring" to enter in to God's Rest." HOW do we achieve "GOD'S REST" (Heb 3 and 4)? We give thanks and praise to God for His goodness, greatness and glory.  This reassures our own hearts so that they "rest". 

Psalm 101: Entering into God's Rest must be done in context of our daily lives.  Too many Christians live fractured lives. They haven't learned to revolve their lives around God in everything they do.  Because God isn't included in their daily lives, He is really irrelevant as far as they are concerned.  Saved, going to heaven, but living in Hell here on earth.  What good is that?  If that is true about us, we are no better off than the beggar on the street.

Experiencing the "rest of faith" in our daily lives produces "perfection".  Bible "perfection" does not mean "sinless", but "blameless".  Bible "perfection" means we are manifesting Jesus in us.  We are dead to SELF, submitted to God, and "abiding in the Vine".  We are not deceptive about our own lives, and are careful not to associate closely with people who are evil.  NOTE: This is all done in the context of the home.

RESPONSE: Every morning I pray (sometimes singing my prayer) for wisdom (good judgment) and compassion for that day.  I ask God to help me "remember" Him - that He stays close because I stay close (Jam 4:8).  Then I ask Him to "set a guard on my mouth" (Psa 141:3)  And, of course, I always ask Him to manifest Himself in me.  Then I tell Him I trust Him, I believe Him, I am grateful for His faithfulness and His mercy.  He is the Greatest! Psa 16:8 says "I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."

PROVERBS 26:20                                                                                                               
Strife, arguing, tension, bitterness, anger and hatred are all like fire - they consume and destroy. Backbiting and fault-finding adds fuel to the fire.