Lamentations 1:8-14 says,...Bible reading week 16, day 1

Today's verses are Lamentations 1:8-14, which read,

Jerusalem sinned greatly, therefore she has become an unclean thing.  All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; even she herself groans and turns away.

Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she did not consider her future.  Therefore she has fallen astonishingly; she has no comforter.  "See, O LORD, my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself!"

The adversary has stretched out his hand over all her precious things, for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, the ones whom You commanded that they should not enter into Your congregation.

All her people groan seeking bread; they have given their precious things for food to restore their lives themselves.  "See, O LORD, and look, for I am despised."

"Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?  Look and see if there is any pain like my pain which was severely dealt out to me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger."

"From on high He sent fire into my bones, and it prevailed over them.  He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me desolate, faint all day long."

"The yoke of my transgressions is bound; by His hand they are knit together.  They have come upon my neck; He has made my strength fail.  The Lord has given me into the hands of those against whom I am not able to stand."

The downfall of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel that put them in exile was their sin.  Sin is the downfall of it all.  What was once clean has now become unclean because of sin.  Sin makes us naked before God and others and brings distress so we groan and are left to stand alone in our sin.  

One aspect of sin is that it clouds us from considering the future.  It makes us think they we have a lot of time to confess it or repent of it.  We keep on in unrepentant sin because the effects haven't hit us yet or we think they may never.  But underneath our skirts we are bleeding with sin and eventually it will get to the bottom of our dress and start making a trial that others can see.  They will be able to track that trail of the blood of sin right to us.  

Sin has a leader and his name is Satan.  He is the adversary of God and his main task is to get you and I to doubt what God has said.  He wants us to go contrary to what our loving God has laid out for us to follow.  God had said to the Israelites to not mix with the pagan nations but they listened to God's adversary, Satan, and allowed into the sanctuary the other gods of those pagan nations.  

Now we see the error of our ways and we cry out to the God who created us and ask for mercy.  The One who gave us loving commands to follow, we now came back to like the Prodigal Son, and seek some type of reprieve.  We have given up so much when we go the route of following sin rather than following the Savior.  We give away what is precious from God to receive nothing lasting in return.  

We will also cry out to others for help.  Jerusalem, the once great city, was calling out to anyone for help but none came.  We will want others to solve our problem of sin.  We will want others to comfort us in our sin.  We will want them to agree with us that this sin is okay.  We are surprised at the consequences of our sin even though it has been told of us previously and we paint God to be dealing with us unfairly or unjustly because He is showing His holiness.

God starts pointing out our sin like Jesus did with Simon the Pharisee.  He starts judging us justly and saying, "Strike one, strike two, and strike three!"  Why does He do this?  Does He do this discipline to destroy us?   No, He does this out of love also so that we would turn back.  God gives us the opportunity of repentance.  In our fallen state, we come to our senses like the Prodigal Son and realizing that we are eating pig's food of sin far from God when we could be eating the King's food of obedience at His table with Him.

A yoke is put on an animal to control the animal, to direct the animal in which direction it should go.  That yoke also was a tool to harness the power of the animal to pull and carry what it could not without it.  God puts a yoke on us.  He takes that yoke of sin and transforms it.  He uses it for His glory.  What was once there to take us down and it will, can be fashioned by God through repentance, confession, and obedience to strengthen us in our dependance on Him and Him alone.  The yoke of sin that Jerusalem carried got them taken over by the Babylonians and carried away into exile.  Can God do something with this disobedient people who are crying out to Him now?

We are all Jerusalem at times.  We know the loving commands of God but we follow the directions of His enemy, Satan.  We set aside what is right to do a little wrong because we aren't thinking of the future.  We are having a little fun and it won't really hurt anyone anyways, we say.  But really we are bleeding.  We have suffered a wound in our relationship with God.  If not attended to it will make itself known to ourselves and to others.  We will be in places that we wouldn't have been if we had followed God.  We will experience pain and suffering because of the sin we have committed and stand there with no Comforter.  The pain and suffering of life that we all experience because of the sin of this world is faced by the Christian with a Comforter.

Who are you calling out to in your sin?  Are you looking for some validation or some excuse that it is okay and everyone is doing it?  Are you to the point of calling out to God?  Are you seeing that where you are at is because sin has done its job perfectly and what you are receiving is what is due to you?  Know this, that God loves sinners, and can do wonders to a repentant sinner who comes to obey Him.  Let us pray.

"Lord, may we see our sin as You see it.  May we come to our senses like the Prodigal Son and return to You.  May our hearts be broken by what we have done but also mended by Your hands.  May we seek and call out to You today.  Amen."

Pastor Adam