Lamentations part 1

[00:00:15]Lord, we're so thankful for you and uh we come before you today and ask for you to be with us. We know that you are um with us every time that we gather together in your name.

[00:00:29]Uh we continue to pray for Jacob and his health and that you would uphold him.

[00:00:35]Also, we're thankful that you've been helping John and pray that you would continue to do do so. Heal him, Lord.

[00:00:42]And others who have some problems as well.

[00:00:46]But we come together today and we're so happy to be able to study your word.

[00:00:51]And so we ask that you be with us today and we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:57]>> Amen.

[00:01:00]Oh.

[00:01:04]Well, blessings in Jesus, dear friends.

[00:01:06]We're going to continue looking at the writings of Jeremiah.

[00:01:12]Now, the author of Lamentations is attributed The authorship is attributed popularly to Jeremiah. That is so. However, it is not directly stated in the book.

[00:01:28]Some theorize it may be somebody who knew Jeremiah or who had some kind of an association with with with Jeremiah, but it was not necessarily Jeremiah himself.

[00:01:40]Um but in Judaism, it's popularly seen as the second book of Jeremiah.

[00:01:49]We'll come to that in a moment. But first of all, Sandy Miller had a question that was not related to our subject tonight, but it was something I could I didn't really understand the question that she sent me.

[00:02:01]So, if you would give me a few minutes, Sandy, can you restate your question very briefly?

[00:02:07]Levirate marriage is one of the ways that we reconcile the apparent discrepancies between the genealogy of Jesus in Luke and the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew.

[00:02:26]Luke is more biological.

[00:02:29]Matthew is levirate.

[00:02:33]Levirate.

[00:02:35]Where it's the legal line, the legal descent.

[00:02:40]This goes back to something called the curse on Jeconiah.

[00:02:45]He could not have a descendant on the throne of David, so he had to be circumvented. So, therefore, it was circumvented by means of levirate marriage, okay?

[00:02:57]Also, Luke's genealogy is more of a universal one, back to Adam, while Matthew's genealogy is a Jewish one. Again, the levirate concerns the Jews, and also, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was of a Levitical family that intermarried into the tribe of Judah. The bride would take the tribal identity of the husband, but the priestly line of Jesus would have went through Luke, while the royal line of Jesus from David would have went through Matthew. Of course, Jesus was a high priest by the order of Melchizedek. He was going a different high priesthood, but for legal purposes and so forth, um the Messiahship of Jesus as king was seen in Matthew and was seen in Luke.

[00:03:53]Um Luke was being the more priestly, Matthew the the the royal one or the regal one.

[00:03:58]Now, there are different ways we explain these differences, one of which is levirate marriage.

[00:04:06]Levirate marriage had two primary functions.

[00:04:11]One was called yerusha, yerusha, inheritance.

[00:04:19]The apportionment of the land in the book of Joshua to clans, the families, tribes, families, clans, and and so on.

[00:04:31]It was God's land and he apportioned it in the days of of of Joshua, rather, in the days of Joshua, okay?

[00:04:39]A family, if it lost its land through debt, it could only lose it temporarily to the year of Jubilee.

[00:04:46]The land was the Lord's and it had to stay in the family. You couldn't lose the family land permanently.

[00:04:52]You lost it through debt, the person you owe the money to could have the land, use it for agricultural purposes to regain their losses, but then it would have to revert to the family. It was the Lord's land and he gave it apportioned it to whom he wanted, okay?

[00:05:08]This is part of yerusha.

[00:05:11]The other idea of yerusha, which has to do with inheritance, inheritance, was to identify the king and identify the high priest. It was particularly important for the tribes of Levi and for the tribe of Judah, okay? You had to have that lineage preserved to know who the king was and know who the priest high priest was and ultimately to know who the Messiah was. The Messiah had to meet certain criteria in terms of his genealogy. This depended on the yerusha.

[00:05:47]The Yerusha of the Messiah goes back to the book of Ruth.

[00:05:52]The book of Ruth, okay? Particularly the fourth chapter.

[00:05:58]Now, honor thy father and mother.

[00:06:03]The Hebrew term for honor is kavod, but it [snorts] comes from the word kaved, to be heavy. You don't take it lightly. In Hebrew, the opposite of to bless is to not to curse, that's different, but to take lightly. When you honor something, it's heavy for you. When you dishonor, it's something you take lightly. You understand?

[00:06:30]Honor and taking lightly, that that cursing is Cursing is the opposite of blessing.

[00:06:39]Honor, the opposite of honor, something being heavy for you, is taking it lightly, okay?

[00:06:47]The same as your parents were responsible for you in your pediatric years, you were responsible for them should the need arise in their geriatric years.

[00:06:58]And if you don't, don't expect much longevity yourself. It's a commandment with a promise, and it's repeated even in the New Testament.

[00:07:06]Yerusha was important, okay?

[00:07:09]However, there was no social security system or national pension or anything like that.

[00:07:15]Your retirement was your children taking care of you in old age.

[00:07:20]So, to be sure a widow had someone to take care of her in her old age, she had to have a son.

[00:07:30]The firstborn son would get a double portion of the family inheritance.

[00:07:37]The reason for that was the oldest son would be the first one in line to take care of the mother. So, he would get a double portion. Not that he was higher or richer than the others, but he had a responsibility that the others didn't have. So, therefore, he had a double portion. One would be for him and one be be to look after his aged mother, okay? Now, there was an honor in it, but that's that was what it was, this honor, okay? This was also yerusha, to take care of a widow.

[00:08:18]The only form of birth control they had in the ancient world, of course, was coitus interruptus. I'm not trying to be vulgar, but that was the only form of birth control they had. And it was the only um it it was forbidden >> [clears throat] >> in the case of levirate marriage.

[00:08:39]If you were to procreate a child on behalf of your deceased brother, you could not use his widow as a sex object or a concubine. It had to be for the specific purpose of levirate marriage, of having a son to take care of her in her old age, and to perpetuate the inheritance going back to the apportionment of Joshua. You understand?

[00:09:08]Particularly important for the tribes of Levi and the tribe of Judah.

[00:09:14]You're with me so far?

[00:09:16]Now, that was one reason the yerusha, the retirement of the looking after the widow, perpetuating the apportionment of the land according to the tribe, clan, family, etc. Okay. Now, the other was this, when you procreated a relative, I procreated a child on behalf of a deceased relative.

[00:09:43]It was called redeeming the name, redeeming the name.

[00:09:51]This deals with the subject of Messianic typology.

[00:09:57]A Jew who died in the Old Testament, faithful to God under the law of Moses, a Jew who died faithful to God by the standards of the Torah.

[00:10:10]The law could not save us, only the Messiah could save us. The blood, death and resurrection of the Messiah only can save us.

[00:10:20]A Jew who died needed another Jew to come after him to redeem [clears throat] his name. You understand?

[00:10:30]The Old Testament saints who died, who gave up the ghost, were in the bosom of Abraham waiting for the Messiah to come and redeem their name.

[00:10:40]The only way their name could be in the book of life is the same way our name is in the book of life because of the Messiah.

[00:10:48]Another person had to come after they gave up the ghost to redeem their name.

[00:10:54]Okay? You understand so far? They were in the bosom of Abraham.

[00:10:59]Now, this was the second, the Messianic typology.

[00:11:04]It was always the next of kin, the closest living relative to the one who gave up the ghost leaving no son. It was always that one.

[00:11:19]Normally it would be the brother, but it didn't have to be. It depends on the family and their circumstances.

[00:11:27]Look with me to the book of Ruth.

[00:11:38]We are told in Deuteronomy if somebody uh would not redeem the name of the dead relative by procreating a son on their behalf, that they would be called of the one whose sandal was removed.

[00:11:57]There would be a legal process where he would be summoned to the gate of the city where the elders congregated, and they would judge the situation.

[00:12:08]Why won't you do this? Why won't you procreate a child, redeem the name of your dead relative?

[00:12:16]Okay?

[00:12:17]If he wouldn't do it, they would take his sandal off and then spit in his face. It was a dishonor to refuse to do it.

[00:12:26]But now let's look at Ruth chapter 4 verse 1.

[00:12:30]Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the close relative, the close relative, that is the kinsman redeemer. He's called the kinsman redeemer, of whom Boaz spoke was passing by.

[00:12:46]Okay?

[00:12:50]So he said, "Turn aside, friend. Sit down here." And he turned aside and took a seat and he's took 10 men of the elders of the city. There was a minyan. That's 10 men for a religious purpose. Here it was a legal and religious purpose. "Sit down here." So they sat down. Okay?

[00:13:13]Then he said to the closest relative, that is to the redeemer, the kinsman redeemer, "Naomi, who's come back from the land of Moab, has to sell the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech." Notice, our brother.

[00:13:29]So, I thought to inform you saying, "Buy it before those who are sitting here and before the elders of my people.

[00:13:37]If you will redeem it, redeem it, but if not, tell me that I may know. For there is no one but you to redeem it and I am the one after you." And he said, "I will redeem it."

[00:13:49]So, the was the kinsman redeemer was the closest living relative to the one who gave up the ghost.

[00:13:58]Then, the second one, it would revert to the second closest relative, which was, in this case, Boaz.

[00:14:08]Okay?

[00:14:11]So, Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field, you have the right of a purchase from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased of his inheritance."

[00:14:28]To this day, it is the custom of Jewish people to name a newborn baby after the name of a deceased relative.

[00:14:39]Okay? You're trying to perpetuate the name of a deceased relative is practiced to this day.

[00:14:46]Okay?

[00:14:47]For instance, my son's grandparents were Holocaust survivors and most of the family was killed in the Holocaust. And he went to the place where they were murdered in Europe and he took the name of the family who was murdered because there was nobody after him to perpetuate the name. It's just the thing that Jews do to this day.

[00:15:11]Okay?

[00:15:13]So, Boaz said, "On the day you buy it, you got to take the widow, the levirate marriage." And the relative said, "I can't redeem it for myself. I'll jeopardize my own inheritance.

[00:15:25]Redeem it for yourself. You may have my right of redemption, for I cannot redeem it." Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning the redemption and the exchange of land to confirm any matter.

[00:15:40]A man removed his sandal and gave it to another, and this was the matter matter matter of attestation.

[00:15:48]This comes from the Torah, from Deuteronomy chapter 25. You remove the sandal and spit in his face, okay, because you wouldn't redeem the name of this deceased relative.

[00:16:04]You could be a brother. You could be a first cousin. You could be a uncle.

[00:16:10]It went by who was the closest biologically, beginning with the oldest brother of the deceased. Then it would go to another relative and another relative. It was a ranking system, okay, a ranking system.

[00:16:26]So, who would engage in a levirate marriage, it depended on who was the closest and who was willing to do it.

[00:16:38]Now, in Deuteronomy 25, we see this provision in the Torah.

[00:16:52]Deuteronomy chapter 25, uh verse verse five. When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. It had to be kept in the family.

[00:17:18]The Yadu Shah had to be kept in the family because the land was apportioned by tribe and family going back to Joshua.

[00:17:27]Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband to her.

[00:17:34]Okay?

[00:17:36]This was the only time where birth control was disallowed. Some people, even some very naive Christians, have tried to make this a polemic against birth control, which is nonsense. Birth control was not forbidden except in the case of levirate marriage. The only reason for having conjugal relationship with the widow was to take care of her in her old age and to perpetuate the Yadu Shah. You could not use her just for sexual entertainment or something like that.

[00:18:09]And it shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother.

[00:18:14]That his name may not be blotted out from Israel. Again, we are dealing with Messianic typology. Jews had to wait for one of their own people when they died to come after them to be sure their name would not be blotted out of the book of life.

[00:18:32]But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, "My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel. He's not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me."

[00:18:49]The elders of the city shall summon him, speak to him, and if he persists and says, "I don't desire to take her," then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face.

[00:19:05]And she shall declare, "Thus it is the one done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. And in Israel, his name shall be called the house of him whose sandal was removed. It was a social stigma.

[00:19:21]The first one would be the brother, the oldest brother of but then it would go down a rank.

[00:19:30]The second brother, first cousin, whatever it was.

[00:19:34]It went by biological genetic within no biological stand but biological genetic relationship to the deceased. That is how it would go.

[00:19:46]Now, that could could have been the brother, could have been the second one, it could have been an uncle, in some cases it could have been a cousin, it could have been anything. It would be a ranking. It would go by how close of a relative you were to the one who who who who gave up the ghost and also your own age. Were you the firstborn, the secondborn, or the thirdborn? And it had those two main reasons. The Yibbum Shah and the the pres and taking care of the widow.

[00:20:17]And the other, of course, is the Messianic typology. Now, that is in a nutshell levirate marriage. Do you understand what I said?

[00:20:28]All right, everyone. Sorry for the delay. Maybe you've found it interesting or maybe you didn't, but let's get on with the Bible study.

[00:20:36]The Book of Lamentations. Lament.

[00:20:41]Lamentations in the Hebrew liturgy to this day, going back to the time of the temple that was destroyed and its aftermath is one of five scrolls, scrolls, called [snorts] Megillot.

[00:20:59]Megillot.

[00:21:00]And these five scrolls are read at certain points in the history of Israel that had a prophetic impact of major consequence on the future in some way.

[00:21:22]The five scrolls are as follows.

[00:21:27]At Passover time, that Saturday of Passover week, okay, the Shabbat of Passover to this day is read HaMegillah HaShirim, the Song of Solomon.

[00:21:46]Okay?

[00:21:48]At the feast of Purim, the Jews survived the attempt to exterminate them, which again has a prophetic meaning for the future with Haman, with Esther and Mordecai, the Megillah Ruth is read.

[00:22:06]It's actually read at a children's party called a >> [laughter] >> a Purim spiel, where the kids put on a play and they read read it and they have noisemakers because it says Haman's name will be blotted out and so it's it's like a Halloween for kids only the Jewish version. They get dressed in the costumes of the people and things from from the book of and the kids put on a play.

[00:22:30]Okay, so that's the Megillah of Esther, okay?

[00:22:36]On the day of Pentecost, Hag Shavuot, the feast of weeks, the Megillah Ruth is read, the book of Ruth, the Megillah of Ruth is read, which we know is the Jewish man taking a Gentile bride, the birthday of the church, okay?

[00:22:57]So, you have one for Passover, you have one for Esther.

[00:23:03]You have one for the Feast of Booths.

[00:23:06]You also have one for the Feast of Tabernacles.

[00:23:10]At the Feast of Tabernacles, Hag Sukkot, the Megillah, the scroll that is ritually read, is Kohelet. Kohelet, known to us in English as the Book of Ecclesiastes.

[00:23:29]Again, it has to have a future prophetic implication.

[00:23:33]It has to Something has to happen on that day when the scroll is read that influences future prophetic events. And we know Zechariah 14, the millennial reign of Christ, will be the Feast of Booths.

[00:23:48]>> Okay.

[00:23:49]>> That leaves the fifth one.

[00:23:51]The fifth one is read on Tisha B'Av.

[00:23:55]That is the ninth of the the month of Av.

[00:24:01]Okay, at the end of the summer.

[00:24:04]That is the day as we looked at last week, both the first and second temple were destroyed.

[00:24:12]They read this Book of Lamentations, or the Megillah, the scroll known as the Megillah Eichah. Eichah. Lamentations is Eichah.

[00:24:26]So, it is read ritually in the temple and to this day in the synagogues on a day [clears throat] that has some important future meaning.

[00:24:38]What is the future meaning?

[00:24:41]Well, the future meaning, obviously the first temple was destroyed, the second temple was destroyed, but it points to events with Babylon the Great at the close of the age, okay, and the onslaught of Antichrist.

[00:24:55]Now, that is a ha.

[00:24:59]As we will see in a moment, it has a certain literary structure.

[00:25:05]But, let's get the background right.

[00:25:10]Today, last week I was in Israel.

[00:25:14]There are a lot of differences between Jews in Israel and Jews in the diaspora.

[00:25:26]American Jews, Canadian Jews, Australian Jews, you know, British Jews, they are quite different culturally.

[00:25:36]Culturally, they are quite different than the Jews in Israel.

[00:25:41]And they have a very different perspective of things.

[00:25:45]And this affects a lot of things, including >> [clears throat] >> their political orientation.

[00:25:51]1/3 of the Jews in New York, I would say very stupidly and self-destructively, voted for the Islamo-Nazi Mondani.

[00:26:05]An anti-Zionist, and I would say, you know, he's an Islamo-Nazi. Nazis were socialists, he's a socialist, and he's a you know, pro-Islamist.

[00:26:16]He's an evil man.

[00:26:18]Why would 1/3 of the Jews vote for him?

[00:26:21]Well, that is the kind of situation that happened in the diaspora in the days of Jeremiah and afterwards.

[00:26:30]Later on, it would be replayed in the Seleucid period under Antiochus Epiphanes.

[00:26:38]You had Jews who collaborated with the Seleucids.

[00:26:42]So, the Jews who were already in Babylon and their children who were born there and began to grow up there, had one perspective of Israel and of their identity and of their faith.

[00:26:59]Well, the Jews who were in the land had a different one.

[00:27:03]It is very much like what you see today, okay? No Israeli would vote for Momdan- Momdani. They'd shoot him or something if you know, if if they could. They wouldn't do it.

[00:27:15]Okay.

[00:27:16]>> [clears throat] >> I I'd give them the bullets, but anyway, let's look at this.

[00:27:23]You had two kinds of Jews, the diasporic Jews and the Jews [snorts] who were still left in the land.

[00:27:30]And they fought differently. They were culturally different. Not only that, but the Jews who were in the diaspora, their main language quickly became Aramaic, Chaldee, okay? Chaldee.

[00:27:46]They had a Jewish dialect of it, but it was Chaldee. They spoke the language of Babylon, of the Chaldeans, okay?

[00:27:55]Some of them, Levites and some others, knew Hebrew, but the main language was Chaldee.

[00:28:03]Like today, the main language of Jews in France is French. The main language of Jews in Great Britain is English. The main language of Jews in the United States is English, etc. The main language of the Jews in Israel is Hebrew. So, you had linguistic differences as well as cultural ones, okay?

[00:28:28]They began to gravitate away from each other.

[00:28:35]Okay.

[00:28:37]We had diasporic prophets, important ones. Their ministry was primarily not to the Jews of the land, but to the Jews of the diaspora.

[00:28:52]The primary ones are Ezequiel, then Esther and Mordecai, and then Daniel.

[00:29:05]They were primarily diasporic.

[00:29:09]They prophesied to the Jews in the diaspora, even though they said things concerning Israel, their message was to the diaspora.

[00:29:22]Okay?

[00:29:23]Jeremiah, his message and Baruch and so forth, and his predecessors like Isaiah, their message was to the Jews in Israel, Judea, okay?

[00:29:38]So, you had prophets for the diasporic Jews, and you had prophets for the Jews in the land.

[00:29:45]The Jews in the land were going to Babylon.

[00:29:49]As we looked at, some would go to Egypt.

[00:29:52]Others to Babylon. Only a small number of poor people would remain in the land at all.

[00:29:59]Okay?

[00:30:02]Well, they're going to Babylon.

[00:30:10]So, to understand the background of Lamentations, we have to understand the perspective of of of of where they were going. This identity they were going to get in the diaspora.

[00:30:23]I'm looking at 2 Kings 25.

[00:30:28]Now, it came about in the ninth year of the reign of the tenth day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came.

[00:30:38]He and his army against Jerusalem camped against it and built [clears throat] a siege wall around it.

[00:30:45]So, the city was under siege until the 11th year of Zedekiah.

[00:30:51]On the 9th day of the 4th month, the famine was so critical, so severe in the city.

[00:30:58]There was no food for the people of the land.

[00:31:02]The same thing happened with the fall of Samaria in 720, the famine and the siege with the Assyrians. And what later happened again with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 [clears throat] AD, Josephus would record the same kind of things in Wars of the Jews in 70 AD with the famine and the starvation.

[00:31:25]On the 9th day of the 4th month, the famine was so critical, so severe in the city, there was no food for the people of the land, the Am Ha'aretz.

[00:31:34]Then the city was broken into and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls.

[00:31:42]Next to the king's garden.

[00:31:44]Though the Chaldeans were all around the city.

[00:31:47]And they went up by the way of the Araba, that's the Jordan.

[00:31:51]I think we looked at this. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king of Jericho, overtook him in the plains of Jericho. They captured the king, they brought him to Babylon, and they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah. There would be no heir. Easy heir. Before his eyes, and then they they killed the sons.

[00:32:13]And they put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon as we looked at.

[00:32:20]Okay. Now, let's go to Ezekiel. Ezekiel.

[00:32:25]What is happening to where they are going? Ezekiel chapter 12.

[00:32:37]>> [clears throat] >> Verse 10.

[00:32:42]Say to them, "Thus saith the Lord, this burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem, as well as the house of Israel were in it. Say, 'I am a sign to you. As I've done, so it will be done to them.

[00:32:57]They'll go into exile and into the captivity.

[00:33:02]And the prince who was among them will load his luggage on his shoulder in the dark and go out. They will dig a hole through the wall to bring it out.

[00:33:12]He will cover his face so that he can not see the land with his eyes.

[00:33:18]I shall spread my net over him and he will be caught in my snare. And I'll bring him to Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans.

[00:33:27]Yet he will not see it, though he will die.

[00:33:32]And I shall scatter to to the every winds all the people around them.

[00:33:38]His helpers, his troops, I shall draw out a sword after them.

[00:33:43]So they will know that I am the Lord when I scatter them among the nations and spread them out among the countries.

[00:33:51]But I shall spare a few of them from the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, that they may tell all the inhabitants among the nations where they go and may know that I am the Lord. God left a small number in the land to tell the others other people, "See what happened to us because of our sin?"

[00:34:16]Now, this is something that happened throughout history. When Rambam, when Maimonides came to Jerusalem, this is the kind of thing he he found. Just a handful of Jews testifying to what happened during the time of the Crusades and so forth.

[00:34:31]Uh in [clears throat] the times of the Turks and it was nothing.

[00:34:36]It was a testimony to their sin.

[00:34:39]Once this happened at Tisha B'Av, when the book of Lamentations is read, once this happened at Tisha B'Av in this year, 587 BC, once it happened, the focus of scripture shifts from Israel to the diaspora.

[00:35:01]Now Ezekiel becomes the main prophet, okay? [snorts] Then it becomes Daniel and of course Esther and Mordecai.

[00:35:12]Things shift away from Israel to the prophets of the diaspora at this time after Tisha B'Av.

[00:35:23]It remains that way until the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah.

[00:35:32]Until Haggai the prophet, then Ezra, Nehemiah, and of course Zechariah, it the post-exilic prophets. Now the focus is entirely on the diaspora.

[00:35:46]Israel is barren.

[00:35:50]The religious and cultural epicenters of the Jews became other places.

[00:35:59]In Europe, it became Warsaw, Poland. Warsaw, Poland.

[00:36:07]About 10% of the population of Warsaw were Jews.

[00:36:13]The worst shtetl and the ghetto uprising took place in Warsaw because that was the European capital of the Jews in terms of demography, culture, yeshivas, learning.

[00:36:29]Yeah.

[00:36:31]Then it became New York. Yeshiva University. And they became New York.

[00:36:38]It was always some other alternative to Jerusalem.

[00:36:42]Reform Jews called their synagogues temples.

[00:36:47]Meaning there's no temple in Jerusalem and there's not going to be. Our temple is going to be in Los Angeles or Miami or New York.

[00:36:55]The first one was actually in Charleston, South Carolina.

[00:36:59]The focus of the Jews became diasporic until the rebirth of Israel in 1947-48.

[00:37:09]What happens here is played out throughout Jewish history, okay?

[00:37:16]Now we shift gears. We stop thinking about the Old Testament at this period in terms of Israel geographically.

[00:37:27]We think about it from the perspective of Babylon.

[00:37:32]And then after Babylon, Persia.

[00:37:36]Persia.

[00:37:38]The city became Susa. Susa where the Jews were.

[00:37:47]Located in modern Iraq.

[00:37:49]Um now let's look.

[00:37:55]To understand Jewish history, you have to understand what happens here. Okay?

[00:38:00]And why they read Eicha, this book of Lamentations.

[00:38:05]Let's continue.

[00:38:07]Ezequiel chapter 17 verse 11.

[00:38:15]Zedekiah's rebellion.

[00:38:18]Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, "See Say now to the rebellious house, do you not know what these things mean?

[00:38:27]Say, 'Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, TOOK ITS PRINCES, AND BROUGHT THEM TO BABYLON.' NOTICE BROUGHT THEM, IT'S a done deal.

[00:38:38]And he took one of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. He also took away the mighty of the land, the leadership.

[00:38:47]That the kingdom might be in subjection, not exalting itself, but keeping his covenant that it might continue.

[00:38:56]They had this delusion that the Lord would never allow Jerusalem to be conquered because that's where the ark of the covenant and the temple were.

[00:39:08]But he rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt. Again, he goes to Egypt for help.

[00:39:16]That they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed?

[00:39:21]Will he who does such things escape?

[00:39:24]Can he indeed break the covenant that escape? No. This is Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28. The Hebrews failed to keep the covenant. So, the curses that were in the law for breaking the covenant came upon them.

[00:39:44]If you remember when Joshua conquered the land, there was the city of Shechem, today called Nablus, in a valley.

[00:39:53]On the south side is Mount Gerizim, which is the mountain of the Samaritans to this day.

[00:40:01]There's a still a community of the Samaritans up there.

[00:40:04]On the north side was Mount Ebal, Har Eval and Har Gerizim.

[00:40:11]You have the mountain of blessing and the mountain of curse, remember?

[00:40:17]And they would read the blessings from one mountain and the curses from the other, the book of Joshua.

[00:40:23]This is what's going to happen if you don't keep the law. If you do keep the Torah, these are the blessings.

[00:40:31]If you don't keep it, these are the curses. It goes back to when Joshua split the tribes six and six on either side of Shechem, of Nablus, on the mount of blessing and the mount of curse, on Har Gerizim and Har Ebal, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Okay?

[00:40:56]God covenanted a part of the deal. God was obliged to do it because they broke it.

[00:41:08]Now, let's continue.

[00:41:11]The people couldn't believe what has happened.

[00:41:14]In chapter 21 of Ezekiel, [clears throat] verses 25 to 27, and you, O slain wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose Zedekiah, whose day is come, and the time of the punishment of the end.

[00:41:42]Thus says the Lord, remove the turban and take off the crown.

[00:41:46]This will be no more the same. Exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.

[00:41:53]A ruin, a ruin, a ruin. I shall make it.

[00:41:57]This also will be no more until he comes whose right it is.

[00:42:03]It is, and I shall give it to him.

[00:42:07]Oh, boy.

[00:42:10]Now, this is has a deep prophetic meaning. I don't want to go into it right now.

[00:42:16]But that was it.

[00:42:18]These terrible things were happening.

[00:42:21]In the meantime, in verse 29, while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you, to place you in the necks of the wicked who are the slain. They were false prophets giving them false hope.

[00:42:39]False prophets were giving them false hope. And Ezekiel WAS SAYING, "FORGET ABOUT IT. IT'S GONE. It's destitute. It is finished."

[00:42:53]Forget about it.

[00:42:55]Now, God did say it would last 70 years.

[00:42:58]He promised to restore them, but not during your lifetime.

[00:43:04]Maybe your children's or grandchildren's lifetime, not during yours.

[00:43:09]It's over. FORGET ABOUT IT.

[00:43:13]The Jews went in 70 AD, their center became Yavneh after Jerusalem.

[00:43:20]At different times it was different places where they were.

[00:43:24]The final one was then Warsaw, New York, whatever it was.

[00:43:29]That's how it happened.

[00:43:31]Well, then they went back.

[00:43:36]But in the meantime, forget it.

[00:43:39]People were telling them all kinds of things who were false prophets trying to assure them this was going to happen. God was going to restore this and that. And Ezekiel was saying, "No, no, no, no, no."

[00:43:52]Contemporary with Ezekiel is Jeremiah.

[00:44:00]Their ministries coincided from 587 BC from from to the time of 593, they coincided. Okay?

[00:44:16]They coincided from 597 um What am I saying? 587 to 593.

[00:44:27]So, now it is a diasporic perspective.

[00:44:35]Jeremiah was the weeping prophet.

[00:44:38]He saw what was going to come over Jerusalem.

[00:44:42]And he lamented and he wept.

[00:44:45]He is a type of Jesus in Matthew 23.

[00:44:50]As Jeremiah saw what the Babylonians were going to do to Jerusalem unto Shavuot, Jesus saw what the Romans, who Peter the Apostle identifies with Babylon, were going to do unto Shavuot. Jeremiah foreshadows Jesus.

[00:45:12]Jeremiah is the weeping prophet. Jesus is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.

[00:45:19]Okay?

[00:45:23]Now, what is this place Jeremiah?

[00:45:30]He was going to be abducted and taken to Egypt.

[00:45:34]He would not be a prophet in Babylon.

[00:45:39]That was Ezekiel's job.

[00:45:43]He writes Lamentations after this happens.

[00:45:50]This is his lament.

[00:45:54]Now, let's understand certain things.

[00:45:58]It is the saddest, most depressing book >> [clears throat] >> in scripture.

[00:46:03]The saddest, most depressing book in scripture.

[00:46:09]It recounts the horrifying >> [clears throat] >> events that took place in judgement because of the people's sin.

[00:46:17]It is sad. It's melancholic at best, but it's very sad.

[00:46:21]It's depressing. It's gloomy.

[00:46:26]And [clears throat] it uses literary devices that have a theological meaning, which I will explain.

[00:46:36]Lamentations is basically five poems. Five poems.

[00:46:45]Now, you don't see a lot of poetry per se in the book of Jeremiah.

[00:46:51]You don't see him being a poet.

[00:46:54]A poet and a songwriter, a composer in biblical Hebrew is the same word.

[00:47:00]Meshorer.

[00:47:01]Meshorer.

[00:47:03]>> [clears throat] >> King David was a meshorer. He composed Psalms.

[00:47:08]Although this is attributed popularly to Jeremiah, there is a literary question, did he write it?

[00:47:15]Because you only see semi-poetic passages in the book of Jeremiah, and it's a big book.

[00:47:26]Okay.

[00:47:27]However, plainly, the person who wrote it, if it wasn't him, was influenced by his prophecies and writings.

[00:47:42]There are these five poems.

[00:47:46]The chapters, as we have them now, basically break down each of the poems.

[00:47:52]One poem per chapter.

[00:47:55]The first four of these chapters in Hebrew, not in English, are acrostic. Acrostic.

[00:48:07]Acrostic means they follow an alphabetical chronology.

[00:48:14]As in A is for apple, B is for boy, C is in cat, D is for dog, etc. You can only see this, of course, in the Hebrew canon, in the Hebrew text.

[00:48:30]Why is it like that?

[00:48:34]Well, to begin with, when these events happened, and people who did not believe God would allow the temple to be obliterated, were in a state of utter confusion.

[00:48:47]Everything was in a state of chaos.

[00:48:51]There were false prophets all over the place.

[00:48:55]Jeremiah was proved right, the others were proved false, but there was nothing but chaos and confusion, uncertainty.

[00:49:06]The Book of Lamentations, from a literary perspective, is formulated, authored, organized acrostically.

[00:49:16]It shows a clear sense of order in the chaos. A clear sense of order in the chaos because of its literary structure.

[00:49:33]It was not something that the reprobates could understand.

[00:49:40]It was not something that the false prophets and those who believed those deceivers could understand.

[00:49:48]But the lamenters, the faithful people of God who heartbroken THAT THIS HAPPENED.

[00:49:54]UNDERSTANDING THAT IT DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN. God was pleading with them to repent.

[00:50:01]IN THAT CHAOS, God gives a clear sense of order in the chaos.

[00:50:10]A clear sense of organization and structure amidst the calamity, uncertainty, and confusion.

[00:50:23]Now, the word of Babylon, some linguists that different linguists have different views, but the Hebrew term to confuse to confuse is lay babel.

[00:50:39]Lay babel.

[00:50:41]To say for Babylon, it's confusion.

[00:50:46]The scripture tells us ours is not a god of confusion.

[00:50:53]Remember all false religion ontogenetically originated in Babylon with the Tower of Babel, etc., in the days of Nimrod, Semiramis, and so forth.

[00:51:06]But it's a confused mess.

[00:51:10]Every false religion, including those professing to be Jewish or Judeo-Christian, are a confused mess.

[00:51:23]They have a belief system that is confusing.

[00:51:28]That is inherently self-contradicting.

[00:51:33]MORMONISM IS SELF-CONTRADICTING.

[00:51:38]ROMAN Catholicism is self-contradicting.

[00:51:43]How can you be Roman and Catholic? Roman is local, Catholic is universal.

[00:51:52]Talmudic Judaism This rabbi said this, that rabbi said that, and they're TRYING TO RECONCILE CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS.

[00:52:02]OH, Rabbi Hillel said, "You No Messiah will come. He came in the days of Hezekiah." And his grandson says, "May God forgive my grandfather."

[00:52:11]You know how they do Talmudic Judaism is a confused mess.

[00:52:21]Mormonism is a confused mess. Jehovah's Witnesses a confused mess.

[00:52:28]If you know anything that you watch David Wood or or or Jay Smith or Hatun Tash or the or late brother who's now with the Lord, Nabeel Qureshi they can tie even educated Muslims up in knots.

[00:52:46]Because Islam, when you look at the Hadith and the Quran, it's a confused mess.

[00:52:54]You say to a Muslim, "Wait a minute.

[00:52:57]Muhammad forced his son, his stepson, to divorce his wife so he could take his son's wife."

[00:53:05]And Allah, his God, didn't like it.

[00:53:09]Your God, Allah, didn't approve, apparently. Allah told Muhammad not to take any more wives after that.

[00:53:19]But Muhammad did take more wives.

[00:53:23]If Allah IS YOUR GOD AND MUHAMMAD IS YOUR PERFECT PROPHET, AND HE'S GREATER than Jesus why did he go against Why did he defy the commandments of his God, Allah?

[00:53:37]They They They They It throws them into confusion.

[00:53:43]THEY TRY TO CONSTRUCT all these ridiculous arguments WHICH JUST MAKES MORE CONFUSION AND MORE CONTRADICTION.

[00:53:51]IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT IS rabbinism or Roman Catholicism. It doesn't matter if it's Islam or one of the cults and Christadelphians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses. It doesn't matter.

[00:54:06]They're all a confused mess because the confusion has its origin in Babylon.

[00:54:14]At the close of the age with the emergence of Babylon the Great the world will be in a state of confusion.

[00:54:26]There will be fear and anxiety among the nations.

[00:54:32]None of them knowing the way out.

[00:54:37]A confused, chaotic mess unprecedented in human history.

[00:54:45]Beyond anything the human race has ever witnessed and it's coming.

[00:54:52]YET IN THIS ALL THINGS ARE STRAIGHT TO HIM who understands.

[00:54:59]Notice how the Book of Revelation from a literary perspective is structurally organized.

[00:55:12]It sets of sevens.

[00:55:15]Seven churches.

[00:55:17]Seven peals of thunder.

[00:55:20]Seven seals.

[00:55:22]Seven trumpets.

[00:55:25]Seven vials.

[00:55:27]Seven seven seven seven seven angels.

[00:55:32]It has a literary structure to it.

[00:55:38]In chaos.

[00:55:42]THE CHAOS IS NOT FROM GOD.

[00:55:46]Ours is not a God of confusion.

[00:55:50]One of the reasons we know that these counterfeit revivals, the laughing drunken trash that came from Toronto and Pensacola 20 years ago whenever it was.

[00:56:02]IT WAS CONFUSION.

[00:56:05]IT WAS PEOPLE SAYING CRAZY AS ALL NUTS.

[00:56:09]OURS IS NOT A GOD OF CONFUSION.

[00:56:13]He's a God of order.

[00:56:16]A God of order.

[00:56:20]We talk about war and order.

[00:56:23]Where there is no order, things break down.

[00:56:29]And it negatively affects everybody.

[00:56:33]Everybody is hurt by confusion.

[00:56:37]You can read what happened when Berlin fell under Hitler.

[00:56:42]You can read about anything like that.

[00:56:48]Pure pandemonium takes place.

[00:56:52]But a pandemonium is coming that will replay what happened with the fall of Babylon in the days of Jeremiah and his contemporary Ezekiel.

[00:57:06]But in it there was an order.

[00:57:09]WHEN YOU LOOKED AT THIS, IT WAS TERRIBLE. IT WAS DESPERATE. IT WAS A MESS. It was just absolutely It WAS PANDEMONIUM. IT WAS CRAZY.

[00:57:21]NOBODY KNEW WHICH WAY WAS UP, WHICH WAY WAS DOWN, WHICH WAY WAS FORWARD, WHICH WAY WAS BACKWARD. NOBODY KNEW ANYTHING ANYMORE.

[00:57:32]But in the book of Lamentations, it is written in such A WAY AS THERE IS a sense of order even in chaos.

[00:57:46]God creates order for those who are his.

[00:57:52]We as believers may be in chaotic circumstances in our personal lives.

[00:58:01]All kinds of things.

[00:58:03]Ministry, family, business, finance, the way the WORLD IS GOING. ALL KINDS OF CONFUSION may surround us.

[00:58:14]But with the Lord, there is a sense of order in which a direction will become clear that others will not have.

[00:58:26]That is a first the first purpose of this book.

[00:58:31]Yes, it laments what has happened. Yes, it testifies to the sin of THE PEOPLE, BUT JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL HAD ALREADY BEEN SAYING THAT STUFF FOR YEARS.

[00:58:43]YES, IT EXAMINES THE aftermath and it proves that Jeremiah was right and the false PROPHETS WERE WRONG. THAT'S ALSO TRUE, BUT YOU GOT THE SAME thing in Jeremiah 28 etc. Those things that we highlight about Lamentations are valid.

[00:59:01]The question is what is its purpose for us now?

[00:59:06]And we have to understand its purpose for those then.

[00:59:13]It gives order in confusion.

[00:59:17]The literary structure, the acrostic poetry, it's clear that this is ordered.

[00:59:27]A way to make order out of chaos.

[00:59:33]And it takes place through these five poems.

[00:59:37]The first four of which are all in acrostic poetry.

[00:59:45]Okay?

[00:59:46]First four of what? And they follow the alphabet perfectly. They follow the alphabet perfectly.

[00:59:54]The book of Revelation, the fifth seal, it follows the fourth, the fourth follows it. There's always this order.

[01:00:02]Okay? It's an order and So, everything is now shut together. And uh now the focus is on Babylon, no longer on Jerusalem or or Judea or or Israel.

[01:00:19]And he laments.

[01:00:21]He laments.

[01:00:25]How the lonely sits the city that was filled with people.

[01:00:34]She's become like a widow who was once great among the nations.

[01:00:41]She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer.

[01:00:48]She weeps bitterly in the night and her tears are on her cheeks.

[01:00:55]She has none to comfort her among all her lovers.

[01:01:00]All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.

[01:01:05]They have become her enemies.

[01:01:10]Notice it refers to Jerusalem as a woman.

[01:01:17]As a woman.

[01:01:20]The church is the bride of Christ.

[01:01:23]Israel was the wife of Jehovah.

[01:01:27]It speaks of her as an abandoned and devastated woman.

[01:01:37]She's become like a widow.

[01:01:40]She was once great among the nations under David and Solomon.

[01:01:45]Now she's enslaved.

[01:01:49]She can cry ALL SHE WANTS. ALL HER LOVERS HAVE DEALT treacherously with treacherously with them.

[01:01:56]When those who are the children of God are enticed by the world and are taken in by the world, the people of the world, AND THIS IS SOMETHING WE see in the modern age in the culture of celebrity.

[01:02:24]YOU'VE GOT PEOPLE IN THE culture of celebrity who had no biomedical background do we commercials for the COVID VAX.

[01:02:36]BUT THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MEDICAL SCIENCE OR MICROBIOLOGY OR OR THE VIROLOGY AND THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING.

[01:02:45]BUT THEY DID IT TO LOVE OF THEM PEOPLE THOUGH. I just love watching Whoopi Goldberg do this.

[01:02:52]We we've stupidly.

[01:02:54]You've got pop stars, mostly left-wing ones, making stupid stupid statements.

[01:03:03]If they were socialist, they wouldn't be making that much money to begin with.

[01:03:07]Tell that to Bruce Springsteen, you know.

[01:03:11]I remember when he began at Max's Kansas City when he was nothing as far as I'm concerned. Well, I don't begrudge him his success. He's still nothing.

[01:03:18]But they they listen to people like this.

[01:03:22]That That's WHAT HE DOES.

[01:03:26]THAT'S WHAT WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO THEM FOR?

[01:03:31]They even follow them for religious direction.

[01:03:38]These become their lovers.

[01:03:41]They look to celebrities. They look to political figures. They look to pop stars or film stars or whatever the world is into.

[01:03:51]They get enticed by it the way the Jews got enticed by Babylon.

[01:03:59]They will always turn against you in the end.

[01:04:04]They will always turn against you.

[01:04:07]They're of the world.

[01:04:11]They're of the world.

[01:04:14]I have dear friends who are significant figures in the pop music industry who now walk with Jesus.

[01:04:24]One is a Helen Shapiro.

[01:04:28]A major pop star in the 1960s in Britain, Australia, New Zealand.

[01:04:32]The Beatles were her opening act in their first national tour of England.

[01:04:37]They were her opening act.

[01:04:39]She was the biggest thing.

[01:04:41]And now she's a saint, but she's Jewish and she's a saint believer in Jesus.

[01:04:45]She'll tell you how phony the world is.

[01:04:48]I have a dear friend that the assistant was married to one of the Rolling Stones who now walks with Jesus. She's a dear friend. I love her.

[01:04:57]And she She's great.

[01:05:00]She'll She She She and I know a lot of the same people. But tell you how phony it all is.

[01:05:06]But the world will always look to that stuff.

[01:05:11]When you reject truth, you watch Oprah.

[01:05:17]And you get the latest new age author or whatever it is she's pushing.

[01:05:24]The only reason people would read that junk is because they're not reading the word of God.

[01:05:31]The only reason they're following people like that.

[01:05:35]Now, these deceivers who lure the people can come in the name of the Lord.

[01:05:43]Oprah Winfrey's favorite pastor. This is what she was billed as. She had him on her TV show.

[01:05:51]Was that Carl Lent, pastor of Hillsong New York?

[01:05:57]He ended in a sex scandal, as did his mentor in Sydney, Australia, Brian Houston. And Frank Houston, I knew I knew Frank Houston was no good 30 years ago. I knew what he was, that he was a pedophile. I knew that 30 years ago, 35 years ago. I knew pastors in New Zealand or Australia who who knew him and said what he was, but they couldn't prove it.

[01:06:22]Then it came out later on.

[01:06:24]Well, this Carl Lent was Oprah Winfrey's favorite pastor, AND SHE'S PUSHING HIM.

[01:06:31]AND HE SAYS, "WE HAVE A WHAT ABOUT homosexuality and abortion?" That we have a We have a policy on love and a conversation about everything else.

[01:06:41]>> [laughter] >> HE WOULDN'T SAY THAT. SAY WHAT THE LORD HAS SAID IN THE BIBLE about homosexuality, same-sex, abortion, huh?

[01:06:51]Then they found out he was embezzling [clears throat] money from the ministry, and that he was sexually immoral.

[01:06:57]How could he be anything other? He came from Hillsong. What do you expect from Hillsong?

[01:07:03]They had the Hillsong women's conference in New York. I'm not making this up.

[01:07:08]For their worship session, their grand finale worship session in New York now.

[01:07:14]They had all these pyrotechnics and all these thing that women coming from all over to New York to the great Hillsong women's conference.

[01:07:22]And they bought out the naked cowboy.

[01:07:26]This guy wearing a pair of cowboy boots, a 10-gallon cowboy hat and a guitar.

[01:07:32]That's it.

[01:07:35]And he was leading the worship.

[01:07:37]THIS GUY THE NAKED COWBOY. THIS WAS HILLSONG.

[01:07:44]HOW SICK CAN YOU GET?

[01:07:48]THEY WERE FOLLOWING PEOPLE LIKE THAT.

[01:07:51]THAT'S JUST ONE EXAMPLE.

[01:07:57]THIS KIND OF LUNACY precipitated the captivity of Babylon.

[01:08:07]And this kind of lunacy will precipitate Babylon the great.

[01:08:17]The wife of Jehovah what should be the bride of Christ behaves like a bimbo captivated by all these alien lovers.

[01:08:28]They deal treacherously with her.

[01:08:29]They're really there to make money or whatever they can get out of you. It's They become her enemies.

[01:08:36]Verse three, Judah's gone into exile under affliction and under harsh servitude, she dwells among the nations.

[01:08:46]But she's found no rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of distress. Now again in the Hebrew, aleph, beth, gimel, daleth, he, vav, it's acrostic. You You And in Hebrew, the letters are also numbers.

[01:09:05]You It's very difficult to appreciate the literary structure of this unless you read it in the original language.

[01:09:12]You'll have to take my word for it.

[01:09:17]The roads of Zion are in mourning. No one comes to the appointed feast. ALL HER GATES ARE DESOLATE. HER PRIESTS ARE GROANING. HER VIRGINS ARE AFFLICTED. AND SHE herself is bitter.

[01:09:30]Yeah. [clears throat] Her adversaries, the Babylonians, have become her masters.

[01:09:37]Her enemies prosper, for the Lord has caused her grief because of the multitude of her transgressions.

[01:09:45]Her little ones have gone away as captives before the adversary.

[01:09:51]All her majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.

[01:09:56]Her princes have become like bucks.

[01:09:59]They found no pasture.

[01:10:01]And they fled without strength before the pursuer.

[01:10:06]In the days of her affliction and homelessness, Jerusalem remembers all her precious things that's all they've got is memories that were from the days of old when her people fell into the hand of the adversary.

[01:10:24]Now, the adversary ultimately is of course the devil.

[01:10:27]And no one helped her.

[01:10:29]The adversary saw her.

[01:10:32]They mocked at her ruin.

[01:10:40]This first chapter is a response to the author surveying the devastation that's happened to Jerusalem and the nation and the people.

[01:10:55]He's surveying the devastation.

[01:10:59]And the realization it didn't have to happen.

[01:11:03]And in the realization there's nothing they can do about it.

[01:11:09]We will continue next week.

[01:11:13]We will resume next week.

[01:11:16]In verse 8.

[01:11:19]Looking at the first chapter, the first poem.

[01:11:25]Next week. Remember, there are five poems. The first four are acrostic.

[01:11:31]We'll continue next week.

[01:11:34]Let's leave it there for the moment. Are there any questions about tonight only?

[01:11:41]>> [snorts] >> Okay, thank you, Jacob.