Lamentations Chapter 5

Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

• Lamentations 5:1  Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. 
• 2  Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. 

This is what happens when one nation is invaded by another. Anything can happen. It depends on the will of the invaders. Power mad people can be cruel and ruthless.

• Lamentations 5:3  We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. 
• 4  We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. 
• 5  Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. 
• 6  We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 
• 7  Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. 

They were sold into slavery because of departing from God. When a nation rejects God, His hand of protection is eventually removed and is not there as before. He still remains with those that are faithful to Him, still the judgment falls upon the ones that forsook Him. Sadly that is usually the majority. Why should He stay where He is not wanted? They wanted to worship idols that were built by human hands. Idols that had no power to do good or evil. Here is what Paul says about idols.

• 1Corinthians 10:19  What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? 
• 20  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. 
• 21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 

People that worship idols open the door to devils. That leads to evil. When people get so deceived that they think it is okay to sacrifice their own children to an idol, it is easy to figure out who is behind it. The idol itself has no power. It's just an object. To worship it is no different than if we worshipped the chair we sit in. It's the demonic spirits that accompany idol worship that is dangerous. It leads to all kinds of deception and misery. People get so evil they don't know what they are doing. Similar to taking drugs. It leads to eternity in hell. Yet people get so deceived they depart from the real God and worship those evil things.

Stay with God. He loves us, not that other dude. God sent Jesus to bring us a way out of the mess we as humans have gotten ourselves into. We do not have to go to hell and remain there for eternity. Our sins can be removed, cleansed, forgiven and when we depart from this life we enter eternity with God. At the resurrection, we receive a new body that can never die or suffer pain.

• Lamentations 5:8  Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. 
• 9  We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. 
• 10  Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. 

Starvation and slavery was a result of departing from the protection of God our creator. A servant is not use to ruling over people and if put in power, they sometimes abuse their power. It goes to their head in other words.

• Lamentaions 5:11  They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. 

This is happening today all over the world. Women are no longer safe from this. Evil men do not care who they hurt. They steal, kill and destroy. Evil begets more evil. We need God back into our countries.

• Lamentations 5:12  Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. 
• 13  They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. 

Harsh child labor was even done in early American times until laws were passed against it. In pagan history though, slaves were reguarded as property and rarely were there laws to protect them against abuse.

• Lamentations 5:14  The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. 
• 15  The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. 
• 16  The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! 

The best way to come out of bondage is to start by acknowledging the sin that caused God to remove His protection from them.

• Lamentations 5:17  For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. 
• 18  Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. 

Wild beasts are free to roam at their own will when the land becomes desolate. Before 1948 according to Mark Twain, that land of Israel was very barren and desolate.

• Lamentation 5:19  Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. 
• 20  Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? 
• 21  Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. 
• 22  But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us. 

Jeremiah pleads with God to turn back to them and renew what they once had. In His day though it seems like God has rejected them forever. Yet when we study the whole bible in context, we see there is a day coming when Israel will return to God. They will be restored. God did hear Jeremiah's prayer.

Zechariah chapter 14 is one that tells us of all nations gathering together to battle against Jerusalem. It will seem like all hope is lost but in verse 3 we read:

• Zecchariah 14:3  Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. 
• 4  And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 
• 5  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. 
• 6  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: 
• 7  But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. 
• 8  And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. 
• 9  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. 

That is not the only place where it is prophesied that Israel will be restored in the latter days. The book of Daniel, Revelation written by John the apostle and many others predict the fall and the restoration of Israel. The book of Romans written by Paul the apostle is another place. So many prophecies offer hope to the nation of Israel.

Jesus came the first time to die for the sins of the whole world but it only counts for those that believe and receive Him. He is coming a second time to rescue Israel from their enemies. Woe to those that are part of the army that surrounds Israel. They will be wiped out according to the word of God. Evil nations may have temporary victory but it will not last. The thing Israel has to watch for though is the one who comes and makes a seven year treaty with Israel. Some believe this will be a false Messiah, others say he is just a person speaking peace but turns on them in the middle of the seven years. Some say this man of sin is from Europe, others say he is among the Islamic countries. The real Messiah who is Jesus, will come from Heaven with an army of those that Jesus took to Heaven before the great tribulation begins and they will return with Him according to the prophecy of Enoch mentioned in the book of Jude. So they must avoid believing in a peacemaker before the return of Jesus with His saints.

• Jude 1:14  And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 
• 15  To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 
• 16  These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. 
• 17  But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
• 18  How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 
• 19  These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 
• 20  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 
• 21  Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 

Once we come to Jesus by faith, stay with Him, do not depart from the faith. Be faithful. He will be faithful to all those that believe in Him. DC

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