God Did This
Lamentations 1:1-12
August 23, 2020
Abraham Hong
Sermon Script
The fall and the exile of the city of Jerusalem is one of the most important events in the unfolding history of God’s salvation. It was very significant for the saints of old. It is very meaningful for us today. And it is the main subject matter of the book of Lamentations.
This is what happened. The city of Jerusalem was first taken over by Egypt. And then it was attacked by the Chaldeans and the Syrians and the Moabites and the Ammonites. And then finally it was conquered by the kingdom of Babylon.
The king of Jerusalem and his administration were taken away as prisoners. The army was deported. All the treasures of the king’s house and all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord were plundered. A substitute king was installed for the city, one who would serve Babylon, but that substitute king rebelled against the king of Babylon.
So Babylon laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and absolutely destroyed it. There was a famine so severe that there was no food left in the city. Most of the people were killed. Many of the rest of the people were captured and carried off into exile. The house of the king and the house of the Lord and all the houses of the people were burned to the ground. All the silver and the bronze were plundered. The walls around the city were broken and reduced to rubble. The poorest of the poor were left behind to fend for themselves. And the city of Jerusalem was no more. This was Jerusalem’s fall. This was Jerusalem’s exile.
The author of Lamentations describes the aftermath of this important event. And he does so with great sadness and sorrow. The city was now lonely and empty of living people. All the gates were now desolate - there was no more economy and no more festivals to look forward to. The people of Israel were humiliated. She who was great among the nations was like a widow, hopeless and good as dead. She who was a princess has become a slave, stripped of her honor as all her majesty has departed. And everyone around her mocked her. Her foes gloated over her; they mocked at her downfall. The people of Israel were beat by their enemy. Babylon entered her sanctuary and stretched out his hands over all her precious things. And there is no one to help her or comfort her. All her lovers and friends betrayed her and became her enemies. The people of Israel hungered for food on the table. They groan because they cannot even find or made bread. The city of Jerusalem has no rest. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks. She has no future as her children have all gone away. The city of Jerusalem has gone into exile. There is no more people. There is no more land. There is no more king.
Highland, it doesn’t get much worse than this. Look at what happened to Jerusalem. Is there any sorrow like Jerusalem’s sorrow? Imagine a scenario in which your city was destroyed. Imagine empty streets and a depression-level economy. Imagine humiliation and the mockery of enemies. Imagine everything precious taken away from you. Imagine there being no one to help you or even comfort you. Imagine hungering for food on the table and not being able to eat bread. Imagine your children gone away. Imagine losing your home and going into exile. It doesn’t get much worse than this. It is utter hopelessness. It is a suffering that feels like hell on earth. You would lament too.
But why? Why did this happen? Why did Jerusalem fall and go into exile? The author of Lamentations reveals why. Jerusalem sinned. And God afflicted her. Jerusalem was guilty of a multitude of transgressions against the Lord. And the Lord did what he did on the day of his fierce anger. This is the reason why Jerusalem fell and went into exile.
Jerusalem sinned grievously. Her prophets spoke erroneously against the word of the Lord. Her priests worshipped false gods and erected false idols. Her kings did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The end of the book of 2 Kings records how there were mediums and necromancers in the land, how innocent blood was shed among the people of God, and how people burned their sons and their daughters as offerings to false gods. In light of the Ten Commandments, every commandment was broken. The Sabbath day was disgraced. There was coveting and sexual immorality. People bore false witness against their neighbors. And in light of Genesis 3:15, Jerusalem loved the world and forgot about the promises of God’s salvation. She stopped believing in the Lord and listening to him and became stubborn and despised God’s covenant. This was Jerusalem’s sin against God.
Brothers and sisters, let us remember once again how terrible sin is. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is rebellion and treason against God. Sin is prideful arrogance against God. The consequences of sin is unlike anything else. Sin results in suffering and misery and death. Sin requires rejection and abandonment and exile from God. Dear brother, dear sister, are you struggling to fight and grow and be holy? If so, then take a good look at what happened to Jerusalem. Look at her nakedness and uncleanness and filthiness. Hear her groaning and bitter weeping. Highland, is it nothing to you, all you who want to just pass this by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like the sorrow of Jerusalem. It’s real. Consider carefully your ways right now. God is holy. God is without sin. And God is not to be taken lightly. God hates sin. People die because of sin. There is divine anger and holy wrath because of sin. Jesus suffered and died because of your sin. Do not continue to be okay with your sinfulness right now. Wake up and realize how serious your sin issues are today. Draw near to Christ Jesus today. Confess your sins. Get help. Talk with and pray with others. Yes, if you are child of God, then your sins are forgiven and there is no more condemnation for you. But God is not stupid. You can’t just do whatever you want now. And God will not let you just do whatever you want. Because God loves you. And God disciplines those whom he loves.
And so therefore God dealt with them. If I could put it to you in the plainest English, then I would say this: God did this. The Lord afflicted Jerusalem (verse 5). God did this. The Lord inflicted all of this upon Jerusalem on the day of his fierce anger (verse 12). There is no getting around or avoiding this fact. It was not actually Babylon who destroyed Jerusalem. It was actually God who destroyed Jerusalem. The fall and the exile of the city of Jerusalem was an act of God.
This leaves us with very hard questions. How is this possible? How could God do such a thing? Isn’t God supposed to be loving and forgiving and gracious and merciful? Where is the good news in all of this? How is this event a part of God’s salvation? And what does this have to do with Jesus?
To understand the book of Lamentations and answer all of these questions, you have to understand the big picture. Here is the big picture. Two things.
First, the fall and exile of Jerusalem was meant to show our need for Jesus. The entire story of Israel shows our need for Jesus because the entire story of Israel - Israel being created as a nation, Israel being like a son of God, Israel receiving the law from Moses, Israel dwelling with God in a holy land, and Israel having prophets, priests and kings - is a grand redramatization of the story of Adam. Jerusalem’s fall and Jerusalem’s exile is a painful historical echo and a profound theological reflection of Adam’s fall and Adam’s exile. And therefore, it is a heartbreaking teaching moment of our need for Jesus. In the literal words of Galatians 3:24, it is pedagogical. And in the spirit of Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, it is discipline and warning. The fall and exile of Jerusalem was a direct result of disobedience against God’s law that was given through Moses in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus. But the law of God in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus was gloriously given to do one thing and one thing only: teach the Israelites the greatness of their sin and misery and drive them to Christ. Because the law of God in Deuteronomy and Leviticus came after God’s awesome promises to Abraham. The entire story of Israel, which ends with the discipline of the fall and exile of Jerusalem, is actually underneath the greater umbrella story of the covenant of grace. The book of Lamentations, as crazy as this might sound, actually falls under the bigger picture context of God’s majestic promise of the one who will crush the head of the serpent. The fall and exile of Jerusalem was not meant to show the saints of old that everything was over. No, the fall and exile of Jerusalem was meant to show the saints of old that us that God loved them so much that he would rather take away their city and their land and put them through devastating suffering and pain so that they would wake up and draw near to Christ than keep their city and their land intact and never repent of their sins. The fall and exile of Jerusalem was not a random historical event. It was a pastoral moment of discipline and love that our eternal Lord Jesus Christ administered to the saints of old so that they would truly understand that their ultimate need, and their only comfort in life and in death, was him and him alone. Jerusalem was totally depraved and totally dead and totally hopeless on her own. There was nothing she could do to make things right again. Her heart was a heart of stone. Her book, her record, her account was filled with sin and devoid of true and perfect righteousness. Jerusalem’s only hope was to repent and believe in Jesus. The the fall and exile of Jerusalem was meant to show our need for Jesus.
Second, the fall and exile of Jerusalem was meant to remind us of what is eternal and true. The entire story of Israel was a symbolic earthly picture of a glorious heavenly reality. The city of Jerusalem was ultimately a symbolic picture or a type of the heavenly New Jerusalem. The land of Canaan was ultimately a symbolic picture or a type of the new heavens and the new earth. Unfortunately, Jerusalem forgot about this. She fell in love with the geopolitics of the world. She cared about the physical beauty of the city. She walked by sight and cared about the here and the now. She reduced God’s promises to Abraham into a worldly gospel. The reality of eternal life was substituted with the sub-reality of just life. But when God destroyed the city of Jerusalem, he was not being cruel. He was being loving. God gave Israel special earthly blessings that were specifically designed to point forward to even more special heavenly blessings. And when Israel stopped seeing what he wanted them to see, God took away Israel’s special earthly blessings so that Israel would cling tightly once again to her more special heavenly blessings. By destroying Jerusalem and denying the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and dreams, God broke and then reassembled her heart and renewed the fulfillment of what Israel should hope for and should dream about. And what is eternal and true is Christ himself. For Christ, as we will learn in the weeks to come, is actually the eternal and true Israel. He is the eternal and true Jerusalem that the fallen and exiled Jerusalem points forward to. Jesus is the eternal and true Promised Land. Jesus is the eternal and true Prophet, Priest and King. Jesus is the eternal and true Son of God.
Dear Highland, let us first and foremost be in awe of God and worship him. God did this. God’s destruction of Jerusalem was an important part of his covenant of grace. It was one of the most important events in the unfolding history of God’s salvation. You might think, “Why would I praise God for something so terrible as the fall and exile of Jerusalem?” Let me respond with a similar question. “Why would you praise God for something so terrible as the suffering and death of Jesus Christ?” We can be in awe of God in the book of Lamentations. We can worship him as we read these words. And the reason why is because just as there is no salvation with lamentation, there is no salvation without humiliation. You are not just saved from judgment. You are saved because of judgment. Because the suffering and death that you deserve was administered upon the True Israel - Jesus Christ. Jesus fell on the cross and died for your sins. The Son was exiled from the Father for your sins. How lonely was your Savior as he hung on the cross on that day of fierce anger. The one who was the Lion of Judah became the Lamb that was slain. He who was a Prince of Peace became a Suffering Servant. He wept for Mary and for Lazarus. He had no comfort and he found no resting place; Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man had no place to lay his head. He was afflicted, for the multitude of our transgressions. He was mocked by the soldiers and despised by the Jews. For as it is written in Isaiah 53, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” And he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And why did he do all of this? He did all of this, the Son of God did this, so that the Father’s children would never go away as captives before the foe. He did this, he allowed his majesty to be departed, in order that his majesty would only increase and abound more than ever. He did this so that you would never ever have to search again for bread. He did this so that you would have the treasures and the strength of heaven. He did this so that all the roads to Zion would rejoice, because there will soon be a festival like no other. He did this and he took no thought of your future. Highland, is it nothing to you, all you behind the gas station and at home today, it is nothing to you, all you who see our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Look and see… if there is any sorrow like Jesus’ sorrow. Look and see… if there is any suffering and death like Jesus’ suffering and death. Look and see… if there is any hope and truth like Jesus’ hope and truth. Look and see… if there is any discipline like Jesus’ discipline. Look and see… if there is any love like Jesus’ love.
Jesus did this. He did this in the book of Lamentations. He did this in your book and your life. Praise be to our God.
Soli Deo Gloria