Lamentations 3:58-66 says,...Bible reading week 22, day 1

Today's verses are Lamentations 3:58-66, which read,

58 - O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life.

59 - O LORD, You have seen my oppression; judge my case.

60 - You have seen all their vengeance, all their schemes against me.

61 - You have heard their reproach, O LORD, all their schemes against me.

62 - The lips of my assailants and their whispering are against me all day long.

63 - Look at their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.

64 - You will recompense them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

65 - You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them.

66 - You will pursue them in anger and destroy them for under the heavens of the LORD!

Today we finish the long chapter of Lamentations 3.  66 verses of lament and confession.  Jeremiah has poured out his heart and soul before the Lord.  He has gotten in a position of submission with his face to the ground.  He has shed many tears and also did a lot of remembering about God.  He is in exile with his brothers and sisters of Israel in the city of Babylon because Israel has consistently sinned against God and He has handed them over to their enemies just as He said and just as He warned.

Jeremiah is giving those who are listening to this prophet of God some hope.  There is a Redeemer.  There is One who will do battle with the enemy.  There is One who will judge righteously and be favorable to those who follow after Him.  There is One who will fulfill judgment just as He is One who has fulfilled their

consequences just as He said He would do to them because of their disobedience and following after foreign gods.

It is strange to look at it this way but the suffering they are going through and the consequences from their sin is an actual pointing to God that He is real and authentic.  God said this and we are experiencing it and even though it is something that is unpleasant, it points to Him as the one true God.  He is the One now to turn back to because His Word is good and true.

Some cross references to the fulfillment of the fall of Babylon would be Isaiah chapters 46 and 47, Jeremiah chapters 50 and 51, and Daniel chapter 5.  The final final judgement we find in Revelation 20:11-15 which reads,

Then I saw a great white throne and One seated on it.  Earth and heaven fled from His presence and no place was found for them.  I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.  Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in

them; each one was judged according to their works.  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

A major component of God is His fulfillment of His will.  To fulfill this plan of redemption involves a judgment of all in accordance to His provided grace through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.  There is one place you want your name and that is in the book of life.  There will be other books that account for what you have done in this life but the book of life records those who have accepted what the Lord has done on the cross and fulfilled with an empty tomb.  God will rectify all accounts of all by that book.  Is your name written there?  

Let me end today with a verse that tells you what to follow if your heart is being lured by God.  It is actually one of the last verses of the Bible.  John writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Revelation 22:17,

Both the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!"  Let anyone who hears, say, "Come!"  Let the one who is thirsty come.  Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

Come to Jesus.  It is the message of the Holy Spirit and it is also the message of the bride, the church.  May we convey that message to the world like Jeremiah was to those around him.  Let us pray.

"Lord, help us to see that even bad consequences point to You because You set the boundaries of good and evil.  You hold those boundaries and us experiencing fulfillment of going with or going against show that You are real.  May we choose today to obey and also to be people who have come to You to have our names written in the book of life because of what You did.  Amen."

Pastor Adam