A hard lesson

God sent the people of Israel into captivity to teach them a very hard lesson about his sovereignty over their lives. God had delivered the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob out of slavery in Egypt so that they could be his treasured possession (Deuteronomy 7:6). Moses explained to them, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of the peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). In spite of everything the LORD did for them, the Jews refused to give up their idolatry. God said, “Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, or turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. Therefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day” (Jeremiah 44:4-6).

While they were in exile in Babylon, the Jews were once again forced to choose between being obedient to God or following the idolatrous practices of their captors. Daniel and his companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fought against the temptation to relinquish their right to serve the living and true God by refusing to adapt to the Babylonian culture (Daniel 1:8-16). When King Nebuchadnezzar exercised his authority by making everyone in his kingdom bow down to the huge golden image that he had made, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego paid no attention (Daniel 3:12). This act of rebellion enraged the king and resulted in a confrontation between the king and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel 3:13-15 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar gave the men two choices, they could bow down and worship the image he had made or be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar taunted the men by asking, “And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

Nebuchadnezzar had the furnace heated seven times more than it usually was (Daniel 3:19). Because of this, the men who were tasked with throwing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the furnace were killed by the flame of the fire (Daniel 3:22). And yet, the fire had no power over the bodies of the three men (Daniel 3:27). After Nebuchadnezzar told Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to come out of the furnace, everyone saw that “the hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them” (Daniel 3:27).

Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that there was no other god who was able to rescue the way God had rescued Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3:29), but he was not willing to accept God’s sovereignty over everything, especially his kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar had a second dream which Daniel interpreted for him (Daniel 4:4-16). After informing Nebuchadnezzar that his mind was going to be changed from that of a man to the mind of a beast, Daniel concluded, “The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he wills and sets over it the lowliest of men” (Daniel 4:17).

A year later, Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his palace, thinking about his accomplishments, when his dream came true. Daniel 4:29-33 tells us:

At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.

After his sanity was restored, Nebuchadnezzar reflected on his experience and told Daniel, “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34).

Nebuchadnezzar learned a hard lesson during the time that he lived among the beasts of the field and ate grass like an ox (Daniel 4:32). According to the Apostle James, Nebuchadnezzar’s religion was worthless because it was merely a form of self-deception that resulted in him becoming proud and defiant toward God (James 1:9-10, 26). On the other hand, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s faith was genuine and it resulted in everyone knowing that they were “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:3).

James encouraged believers to embrace the testing of their faith (James 1:2). James didn’t see trials as something to be avoided, but opportunities for growth. James said, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). “God may allow those who belong to him to be tested, but he will never place inducements before them to lead them into temptations greater than they can bear” (note on Genesis 22:1, 2).

Paul told believers in his letter to the Corinthians, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). When King Nebuchadnezzar commanded everyone in his kingdom to fall down and worship the golden image, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could have done so to avoid being thrown into the fiery furnace and justified the fiery furnace as something that they were unable to endure, but they didn’t do that. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego instead chose to believe that God was able to and would deliver them from the fiery furnace because he did not want them to practice idolatry (Daniel 3:17).

James encouraged believers to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). The word of God is intended to change our behavior. It’s not enough for us to just agree with the Bible’s principles. We must put them into practice. James said, “For if anyone is a hearer only and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:23-25). James described the gospel as the law of liberty, something that gives us the freedom to do as we please. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren’t compelled to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image. His threat of death meant nothing to them. These three men’s courage demonstrated to everyone around them their resolve to remain unstained from the world (Daniel 1:8; James 1:27) and contributed to Nebuchadnezzar’s change of heart toward God (Daniel 4:37).

A mystery revealed

God’s promise to give Abraham the land of Canaan forever (Genesis 13:15) implied that his ownership would extend beyond this temporal sphere. God did not explain to Abraham how his promise would be fulfilled, but we are told in Hebrews 11:19 that Abraham believed God was able to raise people from the dead, implying that life after death and eternal life were a part of God’s plan for the nation of Israel.

The fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham became clearer after the people of Israel began to occupy the land of Canaan. During the reign of King David, God said he would raise up one of David’s offspring, a physical heir to David’s throne who would establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:13). Second Samuel 7:8-16 “is both an explanation and a clarification of God’s promise to Abraham. It represents an unconditional promise to David that he would be the father of an everlasting kingdom (v. 16)” (note on 2 Samuel 7:4-16), but it does not specifically state how this was going to be accomplished.

Things began to unravel for the nation of Israel when the northern kingdom was sent into exile because of idolatry. It says in 2 Kings 17:21-23, “When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin. The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Isreal out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.” The Assyrians resettled Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, with “people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim” (2 Kings 17:24).

The prophet Jeremiah warned the people of the southern kingdom about the impending disaster for Jerusalem, but no one believed him. When Jeremiah announced, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words” (Jeremiah 19:15), it says in Jeremiah 20:1-6:

Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

Jerusalem was captured just as Jeremiah predicted (2 Kings 24:10-17). The king of Judah was taken prisoner, and it says in 2 Kings 24:14 that Nebuchadnezzar “carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land.”

Among the people that were taken captive were four youths: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; who were both of the royal family and of the nobility that were “of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 1:3-4). “Scholars suggest three possible reasons for taking the youths of nobility and royal family into captivity: (1) to hold them as hostages, thereby ensuring the loyalty of their families; (2) to develop men who already had some education to serve in Nebuchadnezzar’s rapidly expanding bureaucracy; (3) and to indoctrinate them with Babylonian ideals in the hope of employing them as liaisons between Babylon and the province of Judea” (note on Daniel 1:4, 5).

Daniel 1:8 tells us that “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.” And it also says of Daniel and his companions in Daniel 1:20 that, “in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.” God used this situation to reveal mysteries about his plan for the nation of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and threatened his magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers, “if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your house shall be laid in ruins” (Daniel 2:5), Daniel went to his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah “and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2:18).

Daniel believed that God could reveal King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him and also provide him with an interpretation of the dream. The fact that Daniel and his companions were in exile in Babylon didn’t seem to affect Daniel’s faith or his reliance upon God for deliverance from King Nebuchadnezzar’s threat of death. The Aramaic word that is translated seek conveys the idea of praying to God or seeking out a person, asking a person for something (A1156). Daniel’s reliance upon God was based on his belief that God was compassionate and still had affection for his chosen people.

It says in Daniel 2:19 that the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. In other words, Daniel received a direct revelation from God, similar to the one John received and recorded in his book of Revelation. The Aramaic word that is translated vision signifies a literal sense of sight, the observation of something with the eye. Daniel 2:31 suggests that Daniel saw the same thing in his vision of the night that Nebuchadnezzar did in his dream. When Daniel interpreted the dream, he told Nebuchadnezzar, “You saw…As you looked…” (Daniel 2:31-35).

The mystery that was revealed through Nebuchadnezzar’s dream had to do with four world empires that would lead to a kingdom being set up by God that would never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44). Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom was the first of the four world empires and that the final kingdom would “break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure” (Daniel 2:44-45).

King Nebuchadnezzar’s reaction to the mystery being revealed to him showed that he recognized God was more powerful than the gods whom he worshiped in Babylon (note on Daniel 2:46, 47). Daniel 2:46-47 states, “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.’” “The king bowed before Daniel in recognition that Daniel was the servant of the true God” (note on Daniel 2:46, 47). In spite of the king’s recognition that Daniel was a servant of the true God, Nebuchadnezzar was not yet willing to submit himself to God’s authority (Daniel 3).

Restoration from a state of shame

Jeremiah’s numerous warnings about the destruction of Jerusalem were repeatedly ignored by the Jews and led to the prophet of God being tortured and imprisoned on multiple occasions. Jeremiah identified the problem as the Jews refusing to repent. Jeremiah asked, “O LORD, do your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent” (Jeremiah 5:3).

Jeremiah grieved for his people and expressed his concern about the spiritual condition of their hearts. Jeremiah admitted, “’The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.’ For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn and dismay has taken hold” (Jeremiah 8:20-21). The Hebrew word that is translated dismay, shammah (sham-mawˊ) was being used by Jeremiah to describe the extreme dismay he felt at seeing the destruction of Jerusalem, a horror that filled him with deep sorrow.

God’s intention was to consume the Jews completely using the military power of the Chaldean army (Jeremiah 9:16). God said, “I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them” (Jeremiah 9:16). The Hebrew verb that is translated consumed, kalah (kaw-lawˊ) describes the transitory reality of fallen human nature. God knew what it would take to awaken the Jews to their need for salvation and was committed to bringing them to that point.

The Jews preferred to worship the idols of the nations around them. They had forsaken the one true God, the living God “who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:12). Jeremiah acknowledged his dependence on God and asked him to make things right. Jeremiah prayed, “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O LORD, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation” (Jeremiah 10:23-25).

God’s response to Jeremiah’s request was harsh, but it reflected God’s commitment to bring his chosen people to the point where their relationship with him could be restored. Jeremiah recorded, “The LORD said to me: ‘Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence” (Jeremiah 14:11-12). The LORD was concerned because false prophets were prophesying lies to the people, making them think that they would not be overtaken by war and famine (Jeremiah 14:14). God told Jeremiah, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight and let them go!” (Jeremiah 15:1).

God prepared Jeremiah for what was coming and warned him not to try to live a normal life because the devastation of war was going to permeate every aspect of the Jews’ lives. God specifically told Jeremiah “not to marry because of the horrors that families with children would endure during the siege of Jerusalem” (note on Jeremiah 16:2-5). Jeremiah recorded, “The word of the LORD came to me. ‘You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth’” (Jeremiah 16:1-4).

Because he was a fallen human and had a sin nature like everyone else, “Jeremiah was subject to the wide range of emotions that are common to all men. He complained that God had deceived him (Jeremiah 20:7), sang praises to God (Jeremiah 20:13), then wished he had never been born (Jeremiah 20:14). Through it all, however, Jeremiah continued to preach God’s message (Jeremiah 20:8) because he was compelled by God’s call (Jeremiah 20:9; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:16)” (note on Jeremiah 20:7-18). At a point when he seemed to have lost all hope for the future, Jeremiah asked God, “Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:18).

Near the end of his ministry, Jeremiah was threatened with death. The LORD told Jeremiah, “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth. The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die!’…Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ‘This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears’” (Jeremiah 26:4-11).

Jeremiah was also accused of lying to the Jews. After he warned the people against going to Egypt (Jeremiah 42:1-22, it says in Jeremiah 43:1-3, “When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, with which the LORD their God had sent him to them, Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there,’ but Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.”

The LORD made it clear that the Jews were being punished because of their idolatry (Jeremiah 44:3). “The group of Jews who had fled to Egypt were still involved in idolatry. These people somehow thought their well-being depended upon their worship of the ‘queen of heaven’ (Jeremiah 44:17, 18). It took seventy years in exile to finally cure Israel of idolatry. The Jews had problems with legalism and Pharisaism after the exile, but never again did idolatry become prevalent” (note on Jeremiah 44:8). Jeremiah told the Jews who were dwelling in the land of Egypt, “Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the Lord GOD lives.’ Behold I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them” (Jeremiah 44:26-27).

Jeremiah wrote about the devastation that he witnessed in his book of Lamentations. Jeremiah said, “Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace the ash heaps” (Lamentations 4:5). Jeremiah went on to lament, “For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her” (Lamentations 4:6).

Jeremiah also stated, “Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 4:9-10). “The famine in the land was so severe that the people resorted to eating their own children. A similar occurrence took place during the siege of Samaria by the Assyrians (2 Kings 6:25-29).

Jeremiah’s final plea to the LORD included an acknowledgment by him that God’s people were living in a state of shame. Jeremiah prayed, “Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!” The Hebrew word that is translated disgrace, cherpah (kher-pawˊ) is “a feminine noun meaning reproach, scorn, taunt” (H2781). Despite the desperation of their situation, Jeremiah’s prayer reflected “the hope that the people of Jerusalem would return to a proper relationship with God” (note on Lamentation 5:21). Jeremiah said, “The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!” (Lamentation 5:15-16). Jeremiah then pleaded, “Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!” (Lamentations 5:21).

“The process called conversion or turning to God is in reality a re-turning or a turning back again to Him from whom sin has separated us, but whose we are by virtue of creation, preservation and redemption” (H7725). Jeremiah was referring to this process when he prayed, “Restore us to yourself, O LORD” (Lamentations 5:21) because regeneration is an act of God. Romans 3:23-25 tells us that “there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

God spoke of Jesus when he told Jeremiah, “Behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 23:5). The LORD promised to turn the Jews mourning to joy and said, “With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back…For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him” (Jeremiah 31:9, 11). God promised to “restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first” (Jeremiah 33:7). God compared the security of his promises with the constancy of day and night when he said, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them” (Jeremiah 33:25-26).

God is faithful

Knowing you are lost is an important first step in the process of salvation. Without an awareness that you are separated from God, you will not seek a remedy to the situation. “God does not want to have to bring hardships into peoples lives, but he may do so in order to teach, convict, and bring them into a right relationship with him” (note on Lamentations 3:33). It is often through suffering that our need for salvation becomes most evident to us. That is why God uses suffering to bring us to the point where we realize we need to get right with him.

Jeremiah was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem. In his book of Lamentations, “Jeremiah alternates between accounts of the horrible aftermath of the destruction of the city and the confessions of the people’s deep sins, and then to the appeals to God for mercy” (Introduction to Lamentations). Jeremiah recounted, “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, ‘Where is bread and wine?’ as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mother’s bosom” (Lamentations 2:11-12).

Jeremiah encouraged the Jews to cry out to God for help. Jeremiah urged them, “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street” (Lamentations 2:19). The phrase pour out your heart refers to a prayer that expresses dependence upon God (H8210). Jeremiah wanted the people to admit that they needed God to rescue them from their circumstances.

Jeremiah suffered along with the rest of the people of Judah. Jeremiah said, “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long” (Lamentations 3:1-3). Jeremiah knew that God was sovereign over the events that were taking place but still expressed his confusion over the fact that God had allowed the suffering (note on Jeremiah 3:1-20). Jeremiah lamented, “He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD” (Lamentations 3:16-18).

In Jeremiah’s darkest moment, when his endurance was gone and there was nothing good left for him to hope for, Jeremiah turned his attention toward God. Lamentations 3:21-27 states:

But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

Jeremiah’s statement “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” refers to a person submitting himself to God. Jeremiah linked this to receiving salvation from the LORD. Jesus was also talking about submission to God in the context of salvation when told his followers, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Jeremiah concluded that the LORD would not cast off his chosen people forever (Lamentations 3:31). God told Jeremiah, “I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them” (Jeremiah 32:37-40). The New Covenant was instituted the night before Jesus’s crucifixion during the Passover feast. It says in Matthew 26:27-28 that Jesus took a cup, and after he had given thanks he gave it to his twelve disciples, stating, “Drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

God’s compassion is “a deep kindly sympathy and sorrow felt for another who has been struck with affliction or misfortune accompanied with a desire to relieve the suffering” (H7355). Jeremiah said the LORD would not cast off forever, “but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (Lamentations 3:31-32). The abundance of God’s steadfast love means that his kindness toward us has no bounds, it is a countless amount or something that can be multiplied by the myriad, a historical unit of ten thousand (H7230/7231). Paul said in Romans 5:8 that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus explained to the religious leader Nicodemus that God’s love was so abundant that “he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and then, Jesus said to his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Jeremiah’s account of his own suffering included the solution that all of us need when we become aware of our lost state. Jeremiah said, “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost'” (Lamentations 3:52-54). The Hebrew word that is translated lost, gazar (gaw-zarˊ) has to do with separation (H1504), and in this instance refers specifically to Jeremiah’s separation from God in the sense of him not having received salvation. Jeremiah said, “I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ You came near when I called on you, you said, ‘Do not fear!’ You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3:55-58).

Complaining to God

The book of Job teaches us that trials should be expected to be a part of people’s lives who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. “The purpose of the book is to show the unfathomable wisdom of God’s providence, and the benevolence of God even in the trials brought upon his children. It also explains why God allows righteous people to suffer: to expose their frailty and sinfulness, to strengthen their faith, and to purify them. The spiritual perspective of the account and the fact that God exercised total control over Satan promotes complete trust in God. Throughout the book, Job’s friends relentlessly accused him of committing some great sin. Although he questioned God’s actions in the midst of these onslaughts, it should not be assumed that his queries were motivated by a resentful self-seeking attitude. On the contrary, they confirm his determination to hold on to his faith in God despite the circumstances that providence had brought upon him” (Introduction to Job).

Job reached a point in his suffering when he seemed to have lost all hope (Job 7:6). Job said, “Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 7:11). The Hebrew word that is translated complain, siyach (seeˊ-akh) is “a verb meaning to ponder, to converse, to utter, to complain, to meditate, to pray, to speak…In Job, the word denotes the action that Job took against the bitterness in his soul, that is, his complaints (Job 7:11)” (H7878). Job’s complaints were intended to keep him from becoming bitter toward God.

In the midst of his misery, Job asked some honest questions of God (note on Job 7:17-21). Job asked in verses 7:17-21:

“What is man, that you make so much of him,
    and that you set your heart on him,
visit him every morning
    and test him every moment?
How long will you not look away from me,
    nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
    Why have you made me your mark?
    Why have I become a burden to you?
Why do you not pardon my transgression
    and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
    you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

Job wondered why his redemption was not having the same effect as it had before. Job asked, “Why do you not pardon my transgressions and take away my iniquity?” (Job 7:21). The phrase take away my iniquity has to do with Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross (H5374). Job understood this to be the only way a person’s sins could be forgiven (Job 19:25).

Psalm 77 provides a similar glimpse into the heart of a suffering believer. The psalmist said of God, “You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak” (Psalm 77:4) and then, continued, “I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, ’Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.’ Then my spirit made a diligent search: ‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has his anger shut up his compassion?” (Psalm 77:5-9). Asaph thought about his circumstances in the context of what he knew to be true about God’s character and concluded that he needed to take his complaint to God. Asaph said, “I will appeal to this; to the years of the right hand of the Most High” (Psalm 77:10). Asaph was grieved because God wasn’t treating him the way he had in the past.

Jeremiah’s complaint in Lamentations 2 was that the Lord had destroyed without pity. Jeremiah said:

How the Lord in his anger
    has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

The Lord has swallowed up without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
    the kingdom and its rulers.

He has cut down in fierce anger
    all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around. (Lamentations 2:1-3)

Jeremiah was having a hard time seeing the point of God’s wrath being poured out against his people. “God in his providence, permitted foreign invaders to destroy his temple so that the people could no longer offer their vain sacrifices and worship false gods there” (note on Lamentations 2:4, 6).

God’s mercy involves much more than just taking pity on those who are suffering. The Hebrew word cheçed (khehˊ-sed) “is one of the most important in the vocabulary of Old Testament theology and ethics. In general, one may identify three basic meanings of the word, which always interact: ‘strength,’ ‘steadfastness,’ and ‘love.’ Any understanding of the word that fails to suggest all three inevitably loses some of its richness. ‘Love’ by itself easily becomes sentimentalized or universalized apart from the covenant. Yet ‘strength’ or ‘steadfastness’ suggests only the fulfillment of a legal or other obligation. The word refers primarily to the mutual and reciprocal rights and obligations between the parties of a relationship (especially Yahweh and Israel). But checed is not only a matter of obligation; it is also of generosity. It is not only a matter of loyalty, but also of mercy. The weaker party seeks protection and blessing of the patron and protector, but he may not lay absolute claim to it. The stronger party remains committed to his promise, but retains his freedom, especially with respect to the manner in which he will implement those promises” (H2617).

God told the people of Judah that he would bring them back to their land after being in captivity in Babylon for 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10-11) and said their mourning would be turned into joy (Jeremiah 31:8-12). God’s plan was to establish a new covenant in which he would forgive the people’s sin and remember it no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The new covenant would result in God’s chosen people not being plucked up from their land or overthrown anymore forever (Jeremiah 31:38-40), but that did not prevent God from judging the Jews for their idolatry (Jeremiah 44:1-6). “It took seventy years in exile to finally cure Israel of idolatry. The Jews had problems with legalism and Pharisaism after the exile, but never again did idolatry become prevalent” (note on Jeremiah 44:8). After Jeremiah recounted the fall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52:1-11); complaining to God, he stated, “The LORD has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has thrown down without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes” (Lamentations 2:17).

Exile

The exile of the Jews was the result of their disobedience to the voice of the LORD their God. Moses told the people of Israel, “The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away…You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity” (Deuteronomy 28:36-37, 41). The Hebrew word that is translated captivity, shᵉbîy (sheb-eeˊ) means “exiled, captured…and was normally used to describe those captured in war and taken back to the conquering country (Numbers 21:1; Ezra 3:8; Nehemiah 1:2)” (H7628). The prophet Jeremiah talked about the Jews being exiled to Babylon throughout his 50-year ministry. It says in Jeremiah 11:6-13:

And the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”

Again the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.”

Jeremiah complained to the LORD asking, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” (Jeremiah 12:1), and the LORD answered him, “I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies…Say to the king and the queen mother: ‘Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head.’ The cities of the Negeb are shut up, with none to open them; all Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile” (Jeremiah 12:1, 7, 18-19).

Jeremiah recounted the fall of Jerusalem in the final chapter of his book. Jeremiah stated, “For because of the anger of the LORD it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence” (Jeremiah 52:3). The Hebrew words that are translated came to the point, hâyâh (haw-yawˊ), which means “to exist” (H1961) and ʻad, which means “eternity” (H5703), suggest that the timing of the Jews’ exile was a part of God’s eternal plan of redemption and was being carried out according to the appointed time for Christ’s arrival on earth.

Nebuchadnezzar’s army attacked the city of Jerusalem for 539 days, but was unable to penetrate the walls surrounding it. It says in Jeremiah 52:5-8 that due to a famine, “a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled and went out from the city by night by the way of a gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.” Jeremiah had warned Zedekiah not to try to escape from the king of Babylon (Jeremiah 38:17), but Zedekiah refused to surrender. Zedekiah was captured and taken to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, in the land of Hamath (Jeremiah 39:5). “The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered the nobles of Judah. He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon” (Jeremiah 39:6-7).

In his book of Lamentations, Jeremiah painted a sad picture of Jerusalem after the city was devastated by the Chaldeans. Jeremiah stated, “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 (Lamentations 1:1). Jeremiah lamented, “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” (Lamentations 1:3). The people of Judah going into exile was comparable to the experience of a woman being raped. Jeremiah said, “Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away” (Lamentations 1:8). The phrase seen her nakedness was a common euphemism for sexual relations (H6172). Jeremiah wanted his readers to understand that going into exile was an extremely devasting experience. The people of Judah would never completely recover from it.

The vengeance of the LORD

God explained to the prophet Habakkuk that he was not letting injustice prevail when he delayed the punishment of the people of Judah. God was working out his plan of salvation according to a timetable that went beyond their present circumstances to an eternal outcome that was dependent upon the birth of Christ. God told Habakkuk, “Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Habakkuk 1:5). The statement, “I am doing a work in your days” refers to the people of Judah’s captivity in Babylon. God allowed his chosen people “to be taken into exile to purge their sin of idolatry from them” (note on Habakkuk 1:5). After his purpose was accomplished, God intended to seek vengeance on the Babylonians for their mistreatment of the Jews, but he wanted Habakkuk to see the bigger picture and pointed the prophet to Christ’s ultimate defeat of sin and death. Habakkuk 2:2-4 states:

“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

Paul used Habakkuk 2:4 in two of his letters to explain “that justification is by faith alone, not by works (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11)” (note on Habakkuk 2:4). A just person is “one who acts alike to all, who practices even-handed justice” one who is “equitable, impartial” (G1342). Therefore, justification is “doing alike to all, justice, equity, impartiality; spoken of a judge “Acts 17:31; Hebrews 11:33; Revelation 19:11)” (G1343). Revelation 19:11 depicts Christ as sitting on a white horse and says that he is “called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.” Revelation 19:19-21 goes on to say, “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds gorged on their flesh.”

Christ’s defeat of the beast and the false prophet indicated that the vengeance of the LORD had been carried out. This event marked the end of Antichrist’s reign on earth and the beginning of Jesus’ millennial kingdom. Babylon, the place where the Jews were taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar, is identified in Revelation 14:8 as the city that made “all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” Babylon is also mentioned in Revelation 16:19 where it says, “God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.”

Jeremiah’s prophecy about the judgment of Babylon refers to the Jews return from captivity. Jeremiah said:

“In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’”

“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold. All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the Lord, their habitation of righteousness, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’” (Jeremiah 50:4-7)

The use of the name Zion for Jerusalem suggests that this passage is relevant to Christ’s millennial kingdom, a precursor to the new heaven and the new earth, when there will be no sin or death and an eternal kingdom will be established.

Psalm 137 reveals that the Jews’ hope for an eternal kingdom was not only on their minds, but also on those of their captors long before Christ was born. The Jews’ expectation of the LORD taking vengeance on their enemies was likely a driving factor in their return to Jerusalem. Psalm 137:1-3 states, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’” Psalm 137 concludes with a reference to the Jews future retribution. The psalmist said, “Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, ‘Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to the foundation! O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” (Psalm 137:7-9).

The Hebrew word that is translated repays in Psalm 137:8, shalam (shaw-lamˊ) is where the word shalowm comes from. Shalowm means “peace or tranquility” (H7965). Shalam is “a verb meaning to be safe, to be completed. The primary meaning is to be safe or uninjured in mind or body (Job 8:6; 9:4). This word is normally used when God is keeping His people safe. In its simple form, this verb also means to be completed or to be finished. This could refer to something concrete such as a building (1 Kings 7:51); or to things more abstract, such as plans (Job 23:14). Other meanings of this verb include to be at peace with another person (Psalm 7:4[5]); to make a treaty of peace (Joshua 11:19; Job 5:23); to pay, to give a reward (Psalm 62:12[13]); to restore, repay, or make retribution (Exodus 21:36; Psalm 37:21)” (H7999). Because God is just, he always repays us according to what we have done. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Jeremiah said regarding the judgment of Babylon, “For this is the vengeance of the LORD; take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done” (Jeremiah 50:15), and then, went on to say, “Repay her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel” (Jeremiah 50:29). Babylon’s defiance of the LORD caused him to turn against her and to utterly destroy the city. Jeremiah prophesied, “We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake her, and let us go each to his own country, for her judgment has reached up to heaven, and has been lifted up even to the skies. The LORD has brought about vindication; come, let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God” (Jeremiah 51:9-10). Vindication describes “justice, right actions, and right attitudes, as expected from both God and people when they judge…The noun describes the justice of God or His will” (H6666). Habakkuk couldn’t understand how it could be God’s will to use such an unholy and ruthless nation to punish men who were more righteous than they were (Habakkuk 1:12-17) because he didn’t realize that the end result would be God pardoning the remnant of Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 50:20) and the land of Babylon becoming a desolation (Jeremiah 51;29).

God’s mercy

Psalm 123 is described as “A Song of Ascents.” It is one of 15 Psalms (120-134) that are thought to have been brought together as a collection by the Jews upon their return to Jerusalem after being exiled in Babylon. Ascents refers to the physical climb to Jerusalem, a high-altitude city. The songs of ascent have both a physical and spiritual significance in that the journey to Jerusalem is representative of the life of a believer who wants to live life in a way that is pleasing to God. Psalm 123 begins with a statement of commitment to serve the Lord through humble submission. The psalmist states:

To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants
    look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
    to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
    till he has mercy upon us. (Psalm 123:1-2)

Servant was “a humble way of referring to one’s self when speaking with another of equal or superior rank (Genesis 33:5). The term is also applied to those who worship God (Nehemiah 1:10), and to those who minister to serve Him (Isaiah 49:5, 6). The phrase, the servant of the Lord, is the most outstanding reference to the Messiah in the Old Testament, and its teachings are concentrated at the end of Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1, 19; 43:10; 49:3, 5-7; 52:13; 53:11), which contains four servant songs that are prophecies of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12). In that sense, a servant of God is one who wants to do God’s will above all else and seeks to please God regardless of the personal sacrifice.

The goal of the psalmist in Psalm 123 fits with that of a Jew returning from exile in Babylon. The psalmist pleads for mercy, referring to the harsh treatment he has received from “those who are at ease” (Psalm 123:4). The psalmist prays, “Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud” (Psalm 123:3-4). Contempt means that you are showing disrespect to someone (H937). The psalmist says that he has had more than enough of contempt, suggesting that disrespect has been a regular part of his daily life.

God’s mercy is characteristic of someone who feels compassion and wants to help those who are less fortunate. In the wisdom literature, including Psalms, mercy “is used primarily with human relations to denote gracious acts toward someone in need (Job 19:21; Proverbs 19:17)” (H2603). Those who were seeking Jesus’ help often asked him to have mercy on them (Matthew 15:22; 17:15; 20:30, 31). The Greek word that is translated mercy, eleeo (el-eh-ehˊ-o) means “to have compassion” and is “spoken of the mercy of God through Christ or salvation in Christ; to bestow salvation on, in the passive: to obtain salvation (Romans 11:30-32; 1 Corinthians 7:25; 2 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Peter 2:10)” (G1653).

God sent the Jews into captivity because they were unwilling to obey him. The people of Israel worshipped the gods of the nations around them and spurned the warnings of God’s prophets. God told Isaiah, “For they are a rebellious people, lying children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD, who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophecy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel…For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’ But you were unwilling, and you said ‘No! We will flee upon horses’; therefore you shall flee away; and, ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill” (Isaiah, 30:9-11, 15-17).

In spite of their rebellion against him, God promised to be gracious to the Jews. After they had forsaken the idols they once worshipped and returned to the land that God had given them, the Jews would weep no more. Isaiah prophesied:

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

God’s mercy is available to those who cry out to him because he is just and is a compassionate person by nature. Jesus told the crowds who were following him, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give your rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-29).

A Lament

There are times in life when nothing makes sense, you expect certain things to happen, and the opposite takes place. At those times, a lament is the appropriate response. This past week I was processing the death of my 43-year-old niece who was killed in a head on collision with a driver who was trying to pass another vehicle. I wonder about the driver of the car who caused the accident. Was the 15 seconds you were going to save by passing the other car worth the life of another person? Why were you able to survive the crash and my niece left dead on the side of the road? These ponderings are natural for a human being with limited cognition, who is shocked by the unexpected tragedy and who is mourning the loss of her dearly beloved niece. Taking my grief to the Lord and asking him to explain the unexplainable is the only way for me to move beyond my emotions to a place of peace and eventual acceptance. David’s lament in Psalm 13 provides a pattern for me to follow and a way for me to express myself that is consistent with God’s word.

Below is my lament based on Psalm 13:

How long, O LORD? Why do I have to deal with another family tragedy? Have you forgotten the long string of disappointments that has been the pattern of my life. I don’t think I can take anymore of this. Heaven seems like a distant dream that will never become a reality. How long do you intend to withhold relief and keep me from experiencing the blessing that I was expecting from you.

How long are these troubling thoughts going to be my constant companions. I can’t think straight anymore. I’m confused and the sorrow of my heart is continually weighing me down. I’m struggling to figure out why bad things keep happening and you are letting this world get farther and farther out of control. How long will my enemy keep getting the better of me? I don’t feel like fighting anymore.

Lord, I need you to pay attention and give me an answer to the dilemma that I’m facing. If you don’t help me, I’m ready to give up. My enemy thinks he is going to break me this time. The death of an innocent person is too much for me to comprehend. This should not have happened. It seems like evil is triumphing over good instead of the other way around. I’m in a tight place and my mind is overwhelmed with the thought that you are not really sovereign and in control of every aspect of my life.

But I have decided to trust in your loving kindness. Your mercy, goodness, and faithfulness have never let me down. They are a sure foundation, and my life has been resting on them for a very long time. I am grateful to know that my beloved niece is with you and that we will be reunited when I join her in your presence. I will rejoice and be very glad when that day comes. I will sing to you because you have made this possible through your death on the cross and resurrection which united me with you forever.

Being led astray

A key analogy that God used to describe Israel’s need for a Savior was sheep without a shepherd. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). The Hebrew word that is translated gone astray, ta’ah (taw-awˊ) means “to vacillate” (H8582). Ta’ah is used to refer to deceiving or being misled as well as to err or wandering in both a physical and spiritual sense. In his parable of the lost sheep, Jesus asked, “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of his one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray” (Matthew 18:12-13).

Israel had a history of going astray, but God didn’t blame them for it. God said through the prophet Jeremiah, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten the fold. All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their habitation of righteousness, the LORD, the hope of their fathers” (Jeremiah 50:6-7). The shepherds God was referring to were Israel’s kings and priests who were unfaithful to him. Isaiah said of Israel’s irresponsible leaders, “His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all” (Isaiah 50:9-11). Ezekiel condemned Israel’s idolatrous elders stating, “these men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces” (Ezekiel 14:3).

Jeremiah delivered a stern warning to the remnant of Judah who remained in the city after the fall of Jerusalem who were thinking about escaping to Egypt. Jeremiah said:

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’ And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to tell you. Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.” (Jeremiah 42:18-22)

The people’s unwillingness to do what God told them to was the reason no one was left in Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar’s army destroyed the capital of Judah.

Jesus warned his disciples that one of the signs of his second coming would be the deception of believers. Jesus said, “See to it that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray” (Matthew 24:4-5). Peter compared the false teachers of the last days to the false prophets who led the people of Judah astray before they were taken into captivity. Peter said, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even destroying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Revelation 12:9 indicates that Satan is behind the deception of the world. Revelation 13:14 tells us that an individual identified as the second beast will cause the inhabitants of the earth to worship the first beast and to make an image for him. Revelation 13:15 -17 states, “And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Revelation 19:20-21 tells us that after Jesus’ return, the beast was captured, “and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image.”

Jesus’ defeat of Satan will put an end to his deception and will rid the world of the evil one whose influence has caused everyone to go astray (Revelation 20:7-10). In his final letter, Paul wrote about godlessness in the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-9) and encouraged believers to remain faithful. Paul said if we endure we have the assurance of future blessing and will reign with Christ when his kingdom is established on earth (2 Timothy 2:10-13). Paul indicated the key to remaining faithful was to continue in what you have learned from the Scriptures. Paul said, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whomyou learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of Godmay be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:12-17).