The Seed of Hope in a Pain-Filled Heart

Father, once again, we come to you acknowledging that sometimes your word is shocking and confuses us very deeply.

And sometimes, Father, if we're honest, when we come to your word, we actually find it not something that gives us hope, but something that we almost find repulsive.

And, Father, we're going to be looking at a text like this today.

And so we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with gentle power in each of us, that we might walk towards these fears at the center of our heart as we walk towards you.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I have to give you a bit of a almost like a trigger alert or a spoiler alert at the beginning.

We're going to be looking at Lamentations chapter 4.

Lamentations 4 · chapter mention

Those of you who don't have Bibles or aren't familiar with this, the words to the text are going to show up on the screen underneath.

But you know what? It's really good to have your own Bibles as well.

So you can just sort of check things out and maybe make marks or notes in them if you're that type of a person.

And I should let you know that the text is going to talk about a mother who kills her.

Okay. Sorry.

There's no sort of way to just sort of bring this up in polite conversation or something like this.

This text, once again, talks about some very dark issues, some very, very hard issues, which are issues that happen in the world all of the time but seem to be in the Bible.

And not seem to be in the Bible, are in the Bible and are in the Bible in a way which we find very, very hard to understand.

The text is going to make reference to a woman who kills her child and then cooks it to eat it.

There's no way that I can sort of sugarcoat that.

And the text is also going to talk about Sodom.

And it's going to talk about the Lord causing pain amongst other things.

And so this is what I – when I said this is not the type of text that Christians or non-Christians, I mean, would normally look at.

Non-Christians, I guess, probably wouldn't even know that it's there.

But it's a very, very hard text.

And just a couple of other things before we look at it because we're going to look at the text.

We're going to read it from the beginning to the end.

And the first thing is, and I hope there's an image here that can go on the screen at this particular time, just to help to understand the context of the text, that the Book of Lamentations are five linked poems.

And each poem, in a sense, is separate, but the poems are all linked.

And they're linked in a very sort of very clever way and an important way.

For instance, each poem has separate subpoems, but because the poem is an acrostic, you know that the poems have to be held together.

It's exploring a sets of ideas together.

And then the way the whole five poems are sort of structured, there's other significance, and I'll mention something about that at the end.

But these five poems are written after the destruction of Jerusalem.

And the destruction of Jerusalem was, we would now call it, close to ethnic cleansing.

Many, many, many people were killed by the Babylonians.

Most of those who weren't killed were carried away into exile.

The city is in rubbles.

And so when you read this text, really the image, which I think is still up on the screen, that should, in a sense, be in the background of your mind.

You might want to, you know, if you're doing this on your own, find some type of image of such ruins and understand the poet is pouring out his pain to God in the context of sitting amongst the rubble, sitting amongst the ruins.

And so that's one of the things that you have to understand about this text as you're going through it.

And the second thing is, and maybe here we just want to jump ahead to chapter 4, verse 11.

This I wanted to be especially helpful for those of you who might be looking at this for the very first time and aren't that familiar with some of the things that I've been wrestling with and we've been talking about in the previous three weeks.

And if you see here in verse 11, the Lord gave full vent to his wrath.

He poured out his hot anger and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.

And Zion sort of is, anyway, it's talking about the rubble.

And as we'll see it in verse 17, I think it is as well, or 16.

And it's been something that's been in the previous three chapters.

It's very, very clear that the destruction was something that the Lord brought about.

And so you need to be aware of that as part of the struggling of the text as we read it.

And we're going to go back to the beginning.

We're going to go to verse 1.

We're going to look at all the text and I'll comment about it a bit as we go along.

And then a few things at the end as well.

And I just want to say something to those of you who might be watching this who definitely wouldn't call yourself Christians or maybe you're ex-Christians or post-Christians.

But you consider yourself somebody who's a bit of a seeker, trying to get a better handle on the meaning of life and the meaning of what it means to be human.

And one of the things, by the way, you're going to get in this text, and I think it's one of the things which makes it hard for us when we read the book of Lamentations,

is a lot of us don't realize that the Bible actually reveals that to understand God we need to also understand ourselves.

And that as we understand ourselves, it also is a way to help us understand the mystery of the triune God.

And that's one of the things which is going to happen as we look at this text, is it's going to actually show a bit of a searchlight into what it means to be human.

But what I want to say is, some of you might be wondering, in fact, one of the things we're going to look at,

this book of Lamentations looks more like something that's written by one of God's enemies rather than his friends.

It looks more like a chapter that's written by a deconversion blog, or a I gave up religion blog, or why I am an atheist blog.

And it looks as if it's evidence against the Christian faith.

And so you might wonder why we're even looking at, like, first of all, it's a bit of a shock that it's in the Bible, and why are we even looking at it?

One of the things we do at Church of the Messiah is, we want to address the important questions, both emotional, existential, and intellectual, that human beings face.

And we don't ever want to try to present Jesus as Lord in a way where, I don't know, God has this wonderful plan for your life,

and we say all this, and there's all this glittery stuff, and we sort of hide and cover up the stuff which seems to go against it,

or the stuff which is going to be very difficult.

That's one of the reasons why we preach through whole books of the Bible, as a general rule.

There's no fine print. There's nothing hidden.

And if you are at all involved in a bit of a spiritual quest, we'd love it if you connected with us.

We'd love to have conversations with you to see what we can do to help you with that, to be challenged by your questions.

If you have questions about the sermon, I can't promise to answer all of them, but feel free to email the Church,

and I will take that into account as I preach.

We don't want to walk away from problems or questions.

We want to listen to good questions.

We want to look at good problems.

We want to walk towards them.

And so if you're at all a seeker, please feel free to connect with us.

But let's get into the text.

Cannibalism, Sodom, God-causing pain.

Let's look.

Chapter 4, verse 1.

And here's how it begins.

And we'll just sort of pause there for a second.

And the text begins, the word how is part of this whole thing of lament, like how could this happen,

usually said in the context of a terrible catastrophe.

And that's how this poem is introduced with this word.

In fact, actually to show how important it is, it actually says it three times.

If you'll notice in the first two verses, this will be the last one of the five poems where this is worded,

but it's sort of highlighted how, how, how.

And the image of the gold and the pure gold and the holy stones or the precious stones being scattered everywhere,

that's just talking about the fact that human beings are very precious.

It's an imagery to try to communicate that human beings have a great worth.

And yet, even though that human beings have a great worth, they're being treated as if, you know,

if you just took the cheap type of pottery, maybe you're going to get your kid or your grandkid or your best friend,

excuse me, a bit of a frog in my throat, and you're going to maybe get them into pottery.

And you get the cheapest clay and you get them their pottery thing and they try their little experiment

and then it's, you know, it dries, but it's a complete and utter disaster,

and a disaster in a way that isn't even cute.

You know, if it's a kid and you want to keep it, and it just gets shattered and the shards.

And so what's being talked about here at the very, very beginning is how, how, how,

that human beings who are of very, very precious should be understood as if they're gold,

as if they're precious and holy stones are being treated the same way that you would treat the shards

of the cheapest pottery clay after it's been broken.

That's the imagery here, which launches this first section, which is the first 10 verses.

And it's going to culminate with this terrible image of a mom having killed her child,

cooking the child to eat it.

The first 10 verses are one literary unit in the original language.

Let's look at verse 3.

And when it says here, the daughter of my people, it's not just saying as if women have become cruel.

One of the things all the way through this is that God's people are always,

there's feminine imagery to refer to God's people, to the human race.

And so when it says the daughter of my people, it's not saying, oh, I like how evil women are.

It's not like that at all.

It's, in fact, the way, the, the way to picture humanity is feminine.

And the way to picture, in a sense, redeemed humanity is, is feminine.

So that's what's going on here.

But notice that the part of it is that the people have become cruel.

Verse 4, the tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst.

The children beg for food, but no one gives to them.

In fact, part of the way that you see the deep cruelty of the people and the self-centeredness of the people

is the way they handle the most weak and the most vulnerable, the way they handle children.

Verse 5, those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the street.

Those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

And the significance of purple is in the ancient world when this was written,

only the very rich could afford things which were dyed in the color purple.

And so it's, that's the sign, it's just one of those little type of images that archaeologists and anthropologists,

et cetera, now know.

So that's the imagery there of those who were brought up in very, very, very poor places are now also,

I mean, rich places are now reduced to great poverty.

Verse 6, and here there's a bit of a, if you have a good Bible,

you'll notice a little note with two of the words, and I'll explain the significance of it for you.

The chest, for this 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.

And the word chastisement, it's one of just things in the original language,

the word chastisement can also mean evil or sin or iniquity.

And the word punishment can also mean evil or sin or iniquity.

And so what the thing is that the author is doing, it's a very, very clever thing.

Just as in English, we have ways, usually it's used with sexual things and jokes,

double entendres where they're making a comment on one level and others understand

that it's probably making a reference to another level.

Often in children's movies, not that they'll have these sexual entendres,

but there'll be some joke that kids will laugh at.

But there's another sense of the words that the adults will get, and they'll also laugh at that.

And that's what's going on here, but not in a way to make a joke,

is that there's this connection between both the punishment, the sin or the evil that the people have done,

and the punishment that the people have received.

And for the writers, Sodom is the example of the worst possible city.

Not just in sexual matters, which I'm not going to get into in this sermon.

You can look at some of my other sermons on that.

In fact, I think one of my sermons in Colossians, I dealt with it just recently.

But it's also in terms of how the bloodthirtiness, if you look at other texts,

it's also to do with the cruelty of the people, the way they treated the weak and the helpless,

the sheer lust for power and conquest, which was of such an evil matter that the city was destroyed by God.

And so we see here, look at verse 6 again.

By the way, this isn't an anti-Semitic text, because it's a part of our Jewish friends call this the Torah or the Tanakh,

and we Christians call it the Old Testament, and the poet is Jewish.

And so it's part of the Jewish scriptures.

So this isn't an anti-Semitic text, if you're sort of puzzled by it.

Verse 7 again.

Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk.

Their bodies were more ruddy than coral.

The beauty of their form was like sapphire.

Now their face is blacker than soot.

If you've ever been to Israel and you've been there in the sunny weather,

it's picturing people who have no shade.

And because they're reduced to living under the elements,

their skin has just become unbelievably darkened and blackened from the sun.

And of course, with the starvation and the lack of being able to wash, that's befallen them.

Now their face is blacker than soot.

They are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones.

It has become as dry as wood.

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.

Now that's just a horrific image.

And it's a horrific image which could come from the news.

Although I think even news outlets, if that happens in different places of the world,

they probably wouldn't show it.

It would be too horrific for the news.

It might even be too horrific for YouTube and social media.

And you can see how reading these first 10 verses,

it sounds more like something that's been written to provide evidence against the Lord's existence.

But you have to think about this most horrific detail is also the most telling.

Because you have to ask yourself,

who or what caused that woman to kill her own child to eat it?

It's very clear within the text that the Lord didn't do that.

In fact, as we're going to see as the text goes on,

one of the things which actually makes it very, very hard for post-modern and modern

or post-truth people like us to get our minds around the Bible,

is the Bible is actually,

even when it talks about the sovereignty of God,

which the Book of Lamentations does,

there is no system of thought,

no spirituality,

no religion

that so maintains the importance

and the centrality of human freedom

as the scriptures.

And while it's clear

that the destruction of the nation

is part of God's judgment,

which we're going to look at in the next few verses,

God doesn't

sort of just overwhelm

random women

and while they kick and struggle

and resist against God

forces them to do something horrific and evil.

These women chose that.

And earlier,

the cruelty towards children

were chosen by the people.

I can tell you this right now,

and I'm not going to use myself as an example

because that would be self-righteous.

I can tell you this right now about my wife, Louise.

There is absolutely no way

in a gazillion, billion, hundred million years,

even at the threat of the greatest torture,

that she would do something like this.

Like, absolutely no way.

She would give every last bit of water,

every last bit of food

to care for her child

or her grandchild

or other people's children.

You see,

the judgment of God

also reveals.

And that becomes scary

because all of a sudden,

you see,

we've been looking at this text

as an indictment of God.

But if you understand

that this is talking about

what human beings do,

the cruelty

that we human beings can do,

you realize that all of a sudden,

it's inviting us

to have a searchlight look

at our own hearts

and the hearts of the human condition.

This woman's selfishness

and callousness

and evil,

these women,

and not just the women,

but the whole city.

Nobody,

no man,

nobody stepped in

to intervene.

And we all know

that human beings

are possible

of such great evil.

And some of us

might say,

well,

I would never do that.

And as I said,

my wife would never do that.

That's why we have to look

at this text and say,

whoa, whoa, whoa,

what's going on?

See,

the judgment of God

always reveals.

And when it reveals,

it reveals

to our great surprise

the wisdom of God.

and his mercy.

Because we're going to talk

at the end about hope

and how this text

all points

towards our need

for a very great deliverance.

But the Lord's judgment

reveals.

And if we look at our own hearts

and our own minds,

if we look at what we do

in our minds,

how we talk about

other people

at different times,

what we would do

to other people

in our own minds,

how maybe

if you're in a social group

at work

or curling club

or the golf club

or something like that

and how you deal

with the person

who's definitely

not cool,

not hip,

how you deal with that.

Maybe if you're

a whole pile of Canadians,

you find out

that somebody

would have voted

for Trump

and how you would

deal with them.

Or if you're a whole pile

of Trump supporters

and you found out

somebody who wanted

the tattoo

I love Hillary Clinton

on their bicep

and how you would

deal with them,

how we deal

with the weak

and the vulnerable,

what we do

in our own mind,

we have to acknowledge

the truth of the Bible

for all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God.

We have to acknowledge

that there's something

profoundly mysterious

about human beings

that at the beginning

of this,

when I say the text

compares human beings

as being like

precious gold

and precious

and holy stones

and we can all nod

and acknowledge

that there's something

true about that

but we also have

to acknowledge

that when we look

at it

that there's something

about human beings

that makes great

horrific evil

also equally possible

and how can we square

those two things?

Is a human being

like trying to,

is having a true,

good,

redeemed human being

like trying to have

a square circle?

How do we put

these two truths

together

and put these two truths

together in a way

that causes

and brings about

and is consistent

with hope

and not despair?

Well, the text

is going to go

deeper into this

whole thing.

In fact,

once again,

it's going to be

something that at first

it looks like an

indictment of the Lord

but actually reveals

something about

human beings.

Look at verse 11.

The next little

literary unit

in the text

and this is in

the original language

is verses 11 to 16

and because it's

an acrostic

the 22 verses

you realize

that this series

of examinations

of mysteries

and riddles

and paradoxes

and horrors

and glories

are all held

together at a

literary level

by being an

acrostic poem.

But look at

verses 11 to 16.

The Lord gave

full vent

to his wrath.

He poured out

his hot anger

and he kindled

the fire in Zion

that consumed

its foundations.

The kings of the earth

did not believe

nor any of the

inhabitants of the world

that foe or enemy

could enter the gates

of Jerusalem.

This was for the sins

of her prophets

and the iniquities

of her priests

who shed in the midst

of her

the blood

of the righteous.

They wandered blind.

This is now talking

about the prophets

and the priests.

They wandered blind

through the streets.

They were so defiled

with blood

that no one was able

to touch their garments.

Away, unclean,

people cried at them.

Away, away,

do not touch.

So they became

fugitives and wanderers.

People said

among the peoples

they shall no longer

with,

they shall stay

with us no longer.

The Lord himself

has scattered them.

He will regard

them no more.

No honor was shown

to the priests,

no favor

to the elders.

Now,

once again,

it's making it clear

that the judgment

upon the people

was something

that God does.

And here we have

to just,

I've mentioned this

before,

I'm just going to

mention it again

very briefly.

One of the things

that we don't realize

when we look

at the Christian God,

the triune God,

and when we look

at the scriptures,

is that often

people have

two different types

of complaints

about the triune God,

about Christianity.

And people rarely

stop to ask themselves

how they can hold

both criticisms

at the same time

because they can't.

They have to choose

and there's problems

with even choosing one.

On one hand,

one of the reasons

that the most common reason

for the last several

hundred years

why people wouldn't believe

in the God

described by Jesus,

the Trinity,

is that he doesn't,

he allows evil

to happen.

At the same time,

and I can tell you this

with very,

very great certainty

that two of the main reasons

why many people today

will also not believe

in the God of the Bible

is one that's teaching

on sexuality,

which we're not going

to look at today,

but also,

of course,

it's teaching in hell,

which is actually

the teaching of God's judgment.

So which one is it?

You don't believe in God

because he doesn't judge evil

or you don't believe in God

because he does judge evil?

You can't have both.

Like the incoherence

isn't in the Bible.

I don't mean to insult you,

but the incoherence

isn't in the Bible.

And you see,

here's this great mystery

the Bible would say

that the God that does exist

is perfectly good

and perfectly just

and perfectly merciful

and perfectly true.

And both justice

and evil hurts.

There's no way around it.

Both justice

and evil

causes hurt.

If I robbed a bank,

a series of banks,

or I was able to figure out

some way to embezzle

lots of money

or to do something else

which was quite wrong,

and the police capture me

and put me in handcuffs,

that would hurt.

They throw me in jail

and that would cause me

lots of hurt.

Do you think

I should be put in jail

because I've caused damage?

Because maybe I've beat somebody up

or killed somebody

or robbed a bank

or threatened people with guns?

Of course you would.

justice causes hurt.

Evil causes hurt.

The difference is,

and that's what we're going to see

as the poem continues,

is that in true justice,

and that's what we long for,

isn't it?

We might feel sometimes

very cynical

about the possibility of justice,

and it's actually

a very Christian idea.

If you go back,

one of the great profound works

which have shaped

how basically

the whole world,

almost the whole world thinks,

was a profound meditation

called The City of God

by St. Augustine,

Augustine,

1600 some odd years ago,

where he contrasts

the city of human beings

and the city of God,

and he makes very clear

that on this side of the grave

there's imperfect,

at best,

justice in the world,

and our deep longing

for something

where there is perfect justice

that's only going to actually

be satisfied ultimately

in the gospel,

the biblical gospel.

But what we see here

is if you understand

the profound difference

is that if there is true justice,

true justice will cause hurt

as part of punishment

for that which is truly evil.

But in true justice,

there is the mixture there

of mercy,

the hope that after the punishment

is inflicted,

that there will be

an amendment of life

and a restoration

and a mending of things,

and that the justice

and the hurt,

that there's something

ordered about it,

that it's the right amount,

not enough to dehumanize you

or to make it

that there can be

no mending or restoration,

but evil just loves to hurt.

Evil hurts until it's bored.

Evil hurts until it's bored.

And what we see here

is justice.

This is going to become

a little bit more clear

even with the next bit,

which on one hand

just seems to be,

especially if you understand

what's going on,

is something which is

profoundly anti,

seems to be very,

very anti-Canadian

with our love of,

you know,

in a sense of pluralism

and boutique spiritualities.

I'm not saying that

as a put-down.

I'm not saying that

as a put-down.

I'm just trying to point out

that once you understand

the next bit,

it might be,

George,

you've made matters worse,

but it actually makes matters

clearer and better.

The next literary unit

is verses 17 to 20.

And it goes like this.

Now just sort of pause

because it's going to be

very, very important.

Our eyes failed

ever watching

vainly for help.

They were completely

and utterly committed.

They were coming

under the judgment of God.

They had been warned.

I talked about this

in other things,

is that it's not as if

one day God just sort of,

you know,

thought,

you know,

I'm in a bad mood.

I'm going to punish

these people.

In fact,

at a literary level,

one of the things

which is very fascinating

about this book

at a literary level

is the constant allusions

to what our Jewish friends

call the Torah Torah,

the first five books

of Moses.

But Leviticus

and Deuteronomy,

the constant literary references

and allusions

to the book of Jeremiah,

the book of Isaiah,

the book of Ezekiel,

and other parts

of the scripture,

the Psalms as well.

Constant allusions

to this,

and they're all allusions

to this warning

that the Lord has made,

that there is a day

of the Lord,

a day of judgment,

a warning of what God desires

and how God desires us

to live

in his offer

of covenant and mercy

and warning the people

that if they turn away

from this offer

of a covenant,

of a love relationship,

because that's in fact

what the constant warning is.

It's,

you see,

the book of Lamentations,

we're going to look at it again

in a moment,

I hope I remember to do it,

is that it's part

of a larger story.

And in this part

of a larger story,

the only way to understand

this larger story

is that it's a love story.

It's a love story

where the desire is

that at the end

that evil and injustice

and all

has been really dealt with.

Freedom has been respected,

but justice has been dealt with.

And there's a marriage,

and there's a party,

and there's a celebration.

And the marriage is between

human beings and God.

That's the end

of this overarching story

of which Lamentations

is just part

of this overarching story.

If you think of the Bible

like the way a lot of,

think of a very,

very good novel

called World War Z,

where you have

all these different

literary genres

all knit together

in one book.

It's regular now

for me to read books

where you have

in the same novel

both the narrative

which is going on,

but you might have

newspaper reports,

you might have interviews,

you might have

email correspondence,

all woven into

one overarching story.

And if you understand

that the book of Genesis

to the book of Revelation,

that from a Christian

understanding,

which we learn

from Jesus,

by the way,

we didn't make this up,

we learned it from Jesus.

He was the one

who told us

that there's this

overarching story

that God has written,

caused to be written,

that uses myth,

uses law,

uses poetry,

uses proverbs,

uses irony,

paradox,

history,

prophecy,

historical narrative,

philosophical argument,

and he's woven this,

all these different

literary genres together

into one overarching story

and at the heart of this,

it's a love story.

Like it's a true love story.

The overarching narrative

of the world

is a love story

that desires

to have you included in it.

And so if you go back here

to verse 17,

which I have to read

the 17 to 20,

our eyes failed

ever watching vainly

for help.

Vain,

the image of vain

is a perfect image

right now

in the original language.

It's actually vapor.

So actually,

if you go outside

and you can see your breath

and you can only see your breath

for the briefest of moment,

that's in a sense

the image

which is being used here.

They're looking for help

but it's,

what they get

is just,

it has the substance,

the solidity,

the helpfulness

of the breath

that you see

on a cold winter's day

which is no help at all.

That's not,

you can't build a house on that,

you can't build your life on it.

It lasts the briefest of seconds.

And they were completely

and utterly,

notice in our watching

we watched

in the original language

it just,

it's an intensification

of this,

it's showing that

no matter what starts

to happen to them,

no matter how the warnings

that God has given

for generations and generations

through all sorts

of different means,

through law

and through prophets

and through miracles,

through story,

through all of these things

that no matter

how strong they've been,

no matter how present

they've been,

what is their response

is not to go back

to the Lord

but to in fact

to be completely

and utterly committed

to looking everywhere else.

and the thing,

and here's the anti-Canadian,

not anti-Canadian,

it's just a challenge,

is it's not just

that they're looking,

you know,

it's not like in our days

we're trying to get

the United States

to come in and save us

or maybe Britain

to come in and save us

or Australia

or Belgium

or something like that

or Nigeria.

It's the nations,

in the ancient world

there's no distinction

between the gods

and the nation.

It's not just the people,

it's their gods.

They are looking

to every other

God-created nation.

God ruled,

God suffused,

God infested,

God grounded,

God permeated,

God and goddess

permeated people group.

They've been completely

and utterly committed

to finding it there

somewhere else.

And here's where,

before I read the rest

of the other verses,

here's the big question.

You see,

if you understand

that the living God

is actually inviting you

into a love relationship

with himself

that will go into

all eternity.

Well,

here's maybe a way

to get what the significance

of it is here.

This would be a question

for George.

I'm George,

if you've forgotten my name.

George,

would you rather

have Louise

and be poor

or lose Louise

and be rich?

maybe you're

in a troubled marriage

or in no marriage

and you can't relate

to that.

You have a little baby.

Would you rather

have that baby

and be poor

or lose the baby

and be rich?

Now,

if you even think

about that,

that says something

very,

very,

very,

very,

if you even pause

for an instant

to question it

or wonder about it,

that shows

something

about your heart.

And what's going

to happen

throughout these laments?

You see,

lament is a way

of expressing pain

and incoherence

and sorrow

and questions

to the living God

in a way

that ends up

restoring relationship.

And that's what's happening

in the book

of Lamentations.

It's going to happen

at the end.

Imagine,

you know,

a couple

and you're on the couch

and one of you

gets this question

and you think yourself,

you know,

Bob is on the couch

and Sue's beside him

and Bob thinks,

well,

you know,

maybe I would choose

riches

if I had to,

you know,

if there's a choice

between Sue

and riches,

I would choose riches.

And Sue's thinking,

oh,

I would never choose riches.

I would choose Bob.

And afterwards,

you get talking

and Bob says,

well,

actually,

I think I would choose riches.

Do you think Bob

would come under judgment

from Sue?

Not just for a moment,

but for a long time?

And whose side

would you be on?

Nobody is going to be

on Bob's side.

You're all going to be

on Sue's side.

Listen to this.

Our eyes failed,

ever watching vainly

for help.

In our watching,

we watch for a nation,

and a God who could not save.

That's why it's vapor.

In fact,

the nations dogged our steps

so that we could not walk

in our streets.

Our end drew near.

Our days were numbered

for our end had come.

Our pursuers were swifter

than the eagles

in the heavens.

They chased us

on the mountains.

They laid in wait

for us in the wildernesses.

The breath of our nostrils,

the Lord's anointed,

was captured in their pits

of whom we said,

under his shadow,

we shall live among the nations.

And he was pursuing

other gods.

See,

you begin with this poem

of great horror,

and it takes us

into unexpected places,

doesn't it?

That if you don't just

read it shallowly

and dismiss it,

thinking,

yeah, yeah,

check off a box,

more reasons to dislike

the triune God,

but actually start to realize

it's saying something

very profound

about what it means

to be a human being

and the nature of reality.

And this comes out

at the end

with the final literary unit,

which is verses 21 and 22.

And the first part

of verse 21,

it's not as obvious

in English,

but it's irony.

Okay,

it's irony.

You know,

it's as if you say

to your best friend

who thinks

that it's a really smart way

of dealing with

their problems

to drink a 2-4

and go driving

or drink a 2-4

and play with a loaded gun.

And you give up on them.

Say,

yeah,

yeah,

sure,

go ahead.

That's going to work

real well.

Okay,

you have to understand

that's what's going on here

with the first little part of it.

Rejoice and be glad,

O daughter of Edom,

who dwell,

and you who dwell

in the land of Uz,

but to you also

the cup shall pass.

Now it's not irony.

And by the way,

Edom is a,

it's a,

see,

one of the things

that God,

I believe that God

designed the Bible

to,

it's God's word written,

but it's designed

to be read in company

with others,

where there are people

who are called

by the congregation,

recognized as being called

by God to study.

So one of the things

about Edom is,

Edom is in a sense,

a symbol all the way

through the Old Testament,

what our Jewish friends

call the Tanakh.

It's those who hate

those who belong to God,

who want to belong to God.

The Edom is like a symbol.

It's like one of those

50s westerns

where you have the black hats

and the white hats.

You know,

the black hats are the bad guys.

We see Edom generally

in the Old Testament.

It's a,

not just describing

a people group,

it's a symbolic word as well.

It's a black hat.

It's,

it's in a sense,

like if we say Wall Street,

and Wall Street

isn't just mean a street.

We know that it means

capitalism,

it means big business,

it means finance,

it means all these other things,

and that's the same thing here

captured by Edom.

Okay,

the nations.

Now,

this is the end.

This is,

this is where we actually see

something like hope

emerging at the end

of these reflections.

It's not the full hope

that it,

anyway,

let's read it again.

Rejoice and be glad,

O daughter of Edom,

you who dwell in the land of Uz.

Now the irony ends.

But to you also

the cup shall pass.

You shall become drunk

and strip yourself bare.

The cup is an image

of God's judgment.

You know,

I've shared this before

in other contexts.

Those of you who really

love fantasy movies,

this is,

you have the type of image.

And you,

you know,

if you watch fantasy movies,

you might see

somebody trying to capture

all of the power of demons

or all of the power of evil

in it.

And,

and the,

the magician or whatever,

the evil magician

has this power

that all of the evil,

all the demons,

it becomes usually

something black

and terrible

and they're able

to put it in,

into some cup

that can be drunk.

And that,

that's the image

which is coming here.

By the way,

it's,

it's an image

and this is going to be

really important

in a moment

because it's the image

if you go to the Gospels

and read

that one of the images

that Jesus uses

just before his death

is whether he will

drink the cup.

It's a case

where Jesus' prayer,

God says no

to Jesus' prayer.

Jesus says,

Father,

if it is possible,

take this cup

far from me.

And we know

that that does not happen.

God does not say yes

to Jesus' prayer.

God says no

to Jesus' prayer.

And how you understand

the crucifixion

is that in Jesus' death

upon the cross,

he is drinking

this cup

of the evil

of the world.

He is consuming it

and being consumed

by it,

the innocent one.

None of the substance

of that cup

comes from him.

It all comes

from you

and me.

And it is

that cup

that he drinks

because for you

and me

to drink that cup,

the punishment

that befalls

Israel

depicted in this book

would not be

it's too light.

Rejoice

and be glad.

Verse 21,

O daughter of Edom,

you who dwell

in the land of Uz,

but you also

the cup shall pass.

You shall become drunk

and strip yourself bare.

In other words,

completely ashamed,

unmade.

The punishment

of your iniquity,

O daughter of Zion,

is accomplished.

He will keep you

in exile no longer,

but your iniquity,

O daughter of Edom,

he will punish,

he will uncover

your sins.

It's the dawn of hope

to understand

they're making

this historical claim

that part of the punishment

that God is visiting

upon them,

remember I said

just punishment

has an end

with the hope

of amendment,

that that's coming

to the end,

but it's a recognition

that the people

who have destroyed

Israel,

have destroyed the people,

have caused that thing,

they did that

of their own free will.

It was both something

that God,

in a sense,

did,

but they did it

of their own free will.

We might talk about

this a little bit

in the next talk,

but it's of their own

free will,

and that punishment

will fall upon them.

But there's two or three

final things here,

I know my time,

and I need to draw

it to a close.

The first thing here

is this line,

in verse 22,

the punishment

of your iniquity,

O daughter of Zion,

is accomplished.

What does Jesus say

on the cross?

It's either the last

or the second last

very words that he speaks.

It is,

it is finished.

In Greek,

it is,

also can be translated

as,

it is accomplished.

You see,

this story

is preparing you

for this

great,

true and greater

judgment,

and true

and greater

punishment,

and true

and greater

salvation

for punishment

that is going

to come.

You see,

the book

sets before you

riddles.

It's depicted

how on earth

is it,

how deeply evil

that human beings

can be.

It's pointed an image

to how deeply evil

we can be,

yet at the same time

it points to this fact

that there's something

deeply precious

about us,

and it points to the fact

that justice means

that harm has to be done.

But how can,

how can this happen?

How can God

do justice

at the same time

rescuing people

who are precious

and yet properly

dealing with evil?

And how can he do that

when there are still

people doing this

to their children

and are still doing

things which are evil?

Because you see,

the fact of the matter

is,

it could have been,

this isn't,

Christians aren't ones,

at least not a well-instructed

Christian,

never say that we sort

of have arrived,

that we're the elite,

that we don't do those

things,

that we're better than others.

No!

Mel Gibson,

I'm sure,

is a very,

very,

very bad man,

but he did one thing

which was very,

very deeply Christian,

is that when he filmed

that movie,

The Passion of the Christ,

there's only one time

he appears in the movie

and it's not known

unless you read

some of the other notes

about it.

And the one place

he appears

is that when you see

in that movie,

The Passion of the Christ,

Jesus being nailed

to the cross,

those are Mel Gibson's hands

nailing Jesus

to the cross

and every Christian

should say,

it could have been

my hands

that nailed Jesus

to the cross.

But God does not

weigh my merits,

he pardons my offenses.

And this is pointing

to a true and greater thing

and a true and just as this

judgment happens in history,

this mighty thing

that God does

happens in history,

it happens in real life,

that's why what Jesus

does on the cross,

he who is blameless

and perfect,

he who contributes

nothing to the cup

of God's wrath,

he drinks this cup

of God's wrath

and while he's,

just as before he dies,

he says it is accomplished,

the judgment

that you deserve

falls on him,

the judgment

that I deserve

falls on him

and the relationship

with God

that I don't,

that he deserved

but I don't

is offered to me

because he dies

in my place

as my substitute,

as my sacrifice.

You see,

it's pointing

to a true

and greater sacrifice,

a true

and greater grace,

a true

and greater justice,

a true

and greater mercy,

that as you begin

to understand it,

you recognize

that it's true

as true

as the deepest beauty,

true as the truth

of the best music,

true as the best math,

true as the best history,

true as the best thing

that happened

in the real world,

true as happens

in the best emotional truth,

that it's true

in the deepest way

that satisfies

our longings

and our yearnings

and it points

to that great end.

There's one other thing

just really in closing

for those of us

who are in Christ

that I hope you get

from watching all of this,

from reading this book.

Some of you,

lovers of Jesus,

are in the midst

of ruins

and one of the things

which is so powerful

about this book

is you have this

high point

of the steadfast love

of the Lord

never faileth,

his mercies

never come to an end,

they are new

every morning.

Like,

it comes in the middle

but afterwards

you're sort of

expecting that

there won't be any pain

or anything like that

but we all know

that pain just doesn't

go away quickly

and this whole thing

of lamentations

is there's this

in the heart-filled pain

has this seed of hope

that somehow

God will accomplish

this dealing

with iniquity

and they could only

hope that it would happen.

We now know

that it happened

but we get this

profound invitation

that when you understand

that Jesus has died

for you,

that he has dealt

with all that separates

from you,

from God,

that when you put

your faith in him

you become his child

by adoption of grace

you have the freedom

and permission

when in the midst

of your ruins

in the midst

of your pain

to express your pain

to him,

to point out

the ruins of your life,

to pour out

your heart to him.

You don't have to wait

until you've accomplished

some type of

dealing with your emotions

or some type

of spiritual breakthrough

or some type

of great peace.

You can pour out

your heart,

pour out your incoherence.

He's not waiting

for you to be coherent,

he's just waiting

for you to talk

to him.

That his grace

will start

to shape your pain.

You see,

one of the things

about the text,

if the acrostic

in chapter 1

and chapter 2,

acrostic on steroids

in chapter 3,

in chapter 4

the acrostics

are one-third less

and by the end,

which is a final prayer,

the acrostic structure

is broken down.

Pain doesn't just

go away right away.

You can pour out

your heart

to Jesus.

Friends,

if we're going

to close in prayer,

I just want to put

out an invitation.

If you're curious

to know more

about the way of Jesus,

give us a call.

We'd love to connect you

with them by email.

We'd love to connect you

with somebody

who'd like to talk about it.

There's Bible study groups

where you can ask

your honest questions.

We're going to be

actually organizing

something very soon

called Christianity Explored,

hopefully within

the next couple of weeks

where once again

you can bring

your honest questions

and meet with others.

And if this has

touched your heart,

there's no better time now

than to call out

to Jesus and say,

Jesus,

I need someone

who understands

the mystery

and the paradox

of what it means

to be human

and that in the truth

of history

and the truth

of poetry

and the truth

of beauty

has actually solved

the longings

and the answers

and the puzzles

and the inescapable things

about my life

and heart

to make me right

with you.

No better time now

than just to call out

to him

and ask him

to be your Savior

and your Lord.

Tell somebody

you've done it as well.

Let's just close

this time with prayer.

Father,

we ask that the Holy Spirit

would bring this word

of yours

deep into our heart,

these truths

deep into our heart,

that you would both

humble us

but create within us

a deep longing

and yearning

to know more of Jesus,

to know more of you,

Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit,

three persons,

one God,

forever and ever.

And all God's people said,

Amen.