Thursday, October 07 2010
Lamentations 2
Verse of the Week: V5 “The Lord was as an enemy: He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces: He hath destroyed His strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.”
1. The Lord Corrects (V1-10)
V5 “The Lord was as an enemy: He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces: He hath destroyed His strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.”
The Lord was like an enemy to His people when they sinned against Him. In order to correct His people, God sent the Babylonians to attack and destroy them including His own sanctuary. The Lord would not hesitate to correct His people in order for them to repent and return to Him. Let us repent our sins before the Lord is like an enemy to us.
V7 “The Lord hath cast off His altar, He hath abhorred His sanctuary, He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.”
2. The Enemy Celebrates (V11-16)
V11 “Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.”
Jeremiah wept as he saw the destruction of his people and the sanctuary of God while the enemy of Israel, the Babylonians, celebrated the fall of Israel. When Christians commit sins, the world and the unbelievers will laugh and mock at our poor testimony for God. “Why do Christians cheat, lie and commit immorality? Where is your perfect Christian testimony? Where is your perfect and true God?”
V15 “All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city of that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?”
3. The Lord Controls (V17-22)
V17 “The LORD hath done that which He had devised; He hath fulfilled His word that He had commanded in the days of old: He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and He hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, He hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.”
The Lord controls everything and allows our enemies to celebrate and mock at our poor testimony so that we can learn from our mistakes and do what is right before Him.
Prayer of the Week
Dearest God, please help me to flee from sins and keep a godly testimony before You.
