Tag: jeremiah

  • Because the days are evil – 6 – put on the armor of light

    Because the days are evil – 6 – put on the armor of light

    The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

    Romans 13:12 NKJV

    As these days of darkness slowly impinge upon the light which brought joy to our days and shortened our nights, we despair. The enemy somehow has taken hold in the stealth during the unwatched hours before dawn’s light. In days past an armor for the battle at hand would have lain nearby, but not this evil eve of a day we dread and denied could ever dawn.

    The mist of the valleys of death’s shadows billows toward our resting place, while evil awakes nearby the tents of huddled men of flesh naked to assault without watchman or armor. Because this day of evil will soon commence, a day of the enemies choosing, not ours, we should have stayed alert with armor at hand. But the battles of darkness have wearied our flesh and the sound of the trumpet alarms the unprepared warriors bereft of their armor.

    War

    We never saw it coming. And the unseen awful creatures of the unseen darkness, even those of the light which stand with us, we never saw.

    Yet these also stand in a battle – a struggle of spirits; those of light and those of darkness, all vying for victory in the war to come.

    I heard the second living creature say, “Come! ”

    Then another horse went out, a fiery red one, and its rider was allowed to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another.

    And a large sword was given to him.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 6:3b-4 CSB

    The LORD God prepares His faithful and sends out His angels. The victory was won at the Cross, but these final battles are not yet fought.

    Even now, angels of the prince of darkness would lure your soul, captive in this failing flesh, toward the false light of the fires of darkness deep in the valley of the shadow of death.

    You don’t believe in this, you say – evil spirits and angels. Just fearful myth, you say, since the evil one has already questioned God in your ear.

    Yet the spirit of true light, the shining hope of the resurrection of the dead and judgment of death and evil tells us the truth of eternity.

    Light

    Genesis 1:

    Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

    Formless and empty – does this describe your mortal life? What shape have your battles of this frail flesh taken – defeat?

    Yes, defeat in inevitable death.

    Darkness covered the surface of the watery depths…

    As you sleep so briefly, lightly the enemy lurks in the mist of dark valleys. He plans his battle against you, helpless prey to sin and death.

    The deceiver whispers to your restless soul as he once whispered to man before our original sin, ‘Did God really say “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of an unformed universe?”

    ‘I wonder,’ you think.

    ‘My theory of life need not include a Creator of separation of light from darkness – of good from evil.’

    Then God said, “Let there be light,”

    and there was light.

    God saw that the light was good,

    and God separated the light from the darkness.

    Genesis 1:3-4 CSB

    The Light of Good News

    You worship self or you worship things and traditions of men who have died. Perhaps a false prophet or spirit of an evil age gave your fathers excuse to deny God, your reason to reject the LORD’s own love for His creation.

    Though you have heard of the Gospel, you turn away from the eternal Light of your only hope.

    The Gospel of John

    In the beginning was the Word,

    and the Word was with God,

    and the Word was God.

    He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

    In him was life,

    and that life was the light of men.

    That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. = John 1:1-5

    So much darkness and deceit in these last days… God help us.

    They have heard the Gospel of John, yet their hateful words and stopped-up ears fail to discern the darkness to come.

    This is the judgment:

    The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

    But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

    The Word after John 3:16 – John 3:19-21 CSB

    Jesus spoke to them again:

    “I am the light of the world.

    Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

    Gospel of John 8:12 CSB

    The Armor of the Redeemed

    “He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
    and I will continue to see the light.”

    Job 33:28

    You may not believe the supernatural battles spoken in scripture, the heavenly scenes of Job, Ezekiel and others. Certainly you doubt the earthly battles of God’s redeemed.

    Yet only a man or woman of foolish flesh will deny the truth of death and the good judgment of a righteous justice of the souls of man.

    Those asleep in these last days must heed the warnings of Almighty God through Scripture.

    The metaphor of God’s armor required to resist the evil one stands as preparation for all who seek the light of day.

    Warnings of the evil to come

    The LORD will destroy evil just as before, even using warriors of the enemy to purge the sin from the chosen.

    Jeremiah 46:

    3 Deploy small shields and large;
    approach for battle!
    4 Harness the horses;
    mount the steeds;
    take your positions with helmets on!
    Polish the lances;
    put on armor!

    5 Why have I seen this?
    They are terrified,
    they are retreating,
    their warriors are crushed,
    they flee headlong,
    they never look back,
    terror is on every side!
    This is the Lord’s declaration.

    Isaiah

    2 כִּ֤י אִם־עֲוֺנֹֽתֵיכֶם֙ הָי֣וּ מַבְדִּלִ֔ים בֵּינֵכֶ֕ם לְבֵ֖ין אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֑ם וְחַטֹּֽאותֵיכֶ֗ם הִסְתִּ֧ירוּ פָנִ֛ים מִכֶּ֖ם מִשְּׁמֽוֹעַ׃

    … We stumble at midday as in the twilight;
    Among those who are healthy we are like dead men.

    14 Justice is turned back,
    and righteousness stands far off.
    For truth has stumbled in the public square,
    and honesty cannot enter.
    15 Truth is missing,
    and whoever turns from evil is plundered.
    The Lord saw that there was no justice,
    and he was offended.

    17 He put on righteousness as body armor,
    and a helmet of salvation on his head;
    he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
    and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
    18 So he will repay according to their deeds:

    20 וּבָ֤א לְצִיּוֹן֙ גּוֹאֵ֔ל וּלְשָׁבֵ֥י פֶ֖שַׁע בְּיַֽעֲקֹ֑ב נְאֻ֖ם יְהוָֽה׃

    Isaiah 59: excerpts WLC, AMP, CSB

    “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord:

    “My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and forever,” says the Lord.

    Isaiah 59:21 CSB

    The Armor of Light

    Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.”

    He said this, and then he told them,

    “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”

    The Gospel of John: 9b-11 CSB

    Ephesians

    This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

    Ephesians 5:14 NIV

    The Armor of God

    Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.

    Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.

    Ephesians 6:10-12 CSB

    Darkness verses Light — that is, evil opposing good, the rebellious turned against redemption and Christ’s enemy, the prince of darkness battling against God until the very end.

    This darkness will fall upon the sleeping warriors of these last days, consuming their failing flesh and fallen world. The Lord will purify with the refining fire of His righteousness.

    Yet those dressed in His armor will live victorious. By the Cross Christ has redeemed the faithful from our sins!

    13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.

    “with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

    Ambush by the enemy

    The attacks of Satan are not the quick end which destroys instantly, but burning flames of ambush from the darkness of the unseen places.

    And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

    Ephesians 6:11 NASB

    The SWORD OF THE SPIRIT is the WORD by the HOLY SPIRIT of the Living God, sent for our salvation.

    Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

    Ephesians 6:18 CSB

    Have you dressed for this dark day?

    I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet…

    After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

    Revelation 1:10, 4:1,

    Is your armor at hand for the day of evil?

    “Therefore be alert, because you don’t know either the day or the hour.

    Matthew 25:13 CSB

    Put your armor on, because the days are evil.

    To be continued...
    
  • Jude -3- Apostates

    Jude -3- Apostates

    Why did Jude write to the churches about apostasy? What is apostasy and how do we recognize apostates?

    As we learned previously in the study of Jude’s reason for exhortation, certain intruders have joined the churches to which he writes. Jude describes them as ungodly people who pervert God’s grace. He accuses these apostates of denying our Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

    Jude

    5 [NASB] Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

    Why a reminder from the Old Testament?

    The approach of the church is different in Christ than that of the Jewish culture from which they have been redeemed by the Lord.

    A first century view of the church

    Donald Guthrie in The New Testament Approach to Social Responsibility writes:

    The New Testament assumes the validity of the Old Testament view that man was made in the image of God.1 The whole conception of sin requires that there must have been a state from which man has deviated.

    Guthrie continues with reminders of the social nature of the church of the first century to which Jude writes:

    The New Testament doctrines of redemption and reconciliation are central to the whole Christian message and involve a disarming of man’s natural enmity against God and of his self-centredness.7

    The consequence of this is that redeemed man finds himself with an entirely new set of values and yet remaining in his former alien environment. A tension must at once develop between his former way of looking at social responsibility and his new principles in Christ.

    The New Testament concentrates on the privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life, because this was the aspect which was new. The Christian faith demands new attitudes and actions which are of prior importance for those who have just turned away from a pagan background. This will explain the relative paucity of specific exhortations towards social responsibility.

    Examples from the Old Testament

    Jesus, nevertheless, teaches the validity of the Old Testament from where Jude takes examples of exhortations as contemporary reminders for our faith.

    “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

    Matthew 5:18 KJV – the words of Jesus about the Old Testament

    Jesus told numerous stories from the Old Testament as well. For an excellent of His view of Scripture you can read this article by Don Stewart.

    Apostasy

    Before we continue with the examples of Hebrew history, let’s define what Jude does not specifically name. (You already know the challenges of Hebrew, Greek and Latin translations into today’s English.)

    Apostasy – definition

    from the OXFORD dictionary

    The abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle.

    ‘the execution of their leader for apostasy brought widespread criticism’

    Origin

    Middle English from ecclesiastical Latin apostasia, from a late Greek alteration of Greek apostasis ‘defection’.

    ἀποστασία – apostasia

    Definition from the Greek: defection from truth (properly, the state) (“apostasy”):—falling away, forsake.

    מְשׁוּבָה

    Definition from the Hebrew mĕshuwbah : turning away, turning back, apostasy, backsliding

    The Bible warns of the apostasy of the Lord’s chosen people more times than the New Testament church specifically warns believers against it.

    “Your own wickedness will correct you,
    And your apostasies will reprove you;
    Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter
    For you to forsake the LORD your God,
    And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

    Jeremiah 2:19 NASB

    Jude’s Old Testament Exhortations

    Various Biblical headings for the verses to follow from Jude’s letter read:

    • Apostates: Past and Present -CSB
    • False Teachers – NTE
    • Old and New Apostates & Apostates Depraved and Doomed – KJV
    • Judgment on False Teachers – NSRV
    • Past history warns us that the unfaithful have mingled with the faithful & Be on your guard against these wicked men – PHILLIPS

    So as not to extend exposition of this twenty-five verse letter into another post, I will link the important cross-references for these Old Testament verses for your further study. I suspect the the first century readers of Jude’s exhortations warning against apostasy knew these examples much better than I can remember.

    1. Jude 1:5 – Egypt
    2. v. 6 – Angels – a multitude of examples throughout both Testaments
    3. vs. 7-8 – Sodom and Gomorrah
    4. v. 9 – Michael the Archangel, concerning Moses
    5. v. 11 – Cain, Balaam & Korah
    6. vs. 14-15 Enoch

    Egypt

    For I should like to remind you, my brothers, that our ancestors all had the experience of being guided by the cloud in the desert and of crossing the sea dry-shod. … many of them failed to please God, and left their bones in the desert. Now in these events our ancestors stand as examples to us, warning us not to crave after evil things as they did.

    1 Corinthians 10 excerpt – J.B. PHILLIPS

    Angels and Archangels

    For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

    Ephesians 6:12 NASB

    Michael, from the vision of Daniel 10 [audio]

    Sodom and Gomorrah

    “I destroyed some of your cities,
    as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
    Those of you who survived
    were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.
    But still you would not return to me,”
    says the LORD.

    Amos 4:11 NLT

    Cain, Balaam & Korah

    All apostates! And for the most part we know their sins. Yet do we recall their warnings from the Lord?

    The Lord warns Cain

    Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? 7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

    Genesis 4:6-7 CSB

    The Lord & an Angel warn Balaam

    And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”

    And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me.

    Numbers 22:12,32 NKJV

    Moses warns Korah & The Lord warns Moses & Aaron

    Moses also told Korah, “Now listen, Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to himself, to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them?

    The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this community so I may consume them instantly.”

    Numbers 16:8-9, 20-21

    Have we recognized the apostates opposed to the Lord and separated them from His church?

    The Lord requires both our faith and our loyalty. He cautions us concerning those who would turn against the faithful, loyal congregation of believers.

    Jude warns:

    These people are dangerous. They share communion of Christ with you, but only care about themselves. These men (and presumably women) are a menace to good fellowship. They are shepherds (pastors and priests) who care not for their sheep. These opinionated apostates are clouds without water, trees without fruit, twice-dead, and uprooted. Do not listen to them.

    Jude makes other comparisons of these apostates to raging waves splashing up their own shame and wandering stars ‘for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever,’ a clear reference to the eternal punishment of Satan’s apostate angels.

    Enoch Predicted an Apostasy of Israel

    The study of Jude’s source material [linked above] is complex. See Jude 1:14. Yet to simplify the apostasy of Israel which the Lord spoke to Moses at the time of his death, here is an excerpt from its scriptural background.

    Deuteronomy 31 & Intro from the Song of Moses

    The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them…

    “They have acted corruptly toward Him,
    They are not His children, because of their defect;
    But are a perverse and crooked generation.
    “Do you thus repay the Lord,
    O foolish and unwise people?

    Deuteronomy 31:16-17a,32:5:6a NASB

    A Reminder of Scoffers

    Jude reminds the church that the Apostles also warn of those who deny the power and judgment of Almighty God and turn from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions.

    Jude 1:18b-19 NRSV

    But you, beloved…

    Jude addresses the church agapētos, beloved ones, just as James in his letter had cautioned: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”

    Jude and also James knew the familial love of Jesus. Both letter writers love those saints of the church faithful to Christ, their brother, the risen Lord.

    But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

    Jude 1:21-22 CSB

    How shall we view the apostate?

    Have mercy on some who are doubting.

    Is this unexpected as our attitude toward some who temporarily turn against Christ?

    Jude shares the same teaching as Christ.

    “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

    The words of Christ, Matthew 5:7

    By our mercy and Christ’s grace some may be built up in the true faith.

    Save others

    ‘Snatching them out of the fire,’ Jude pleads, a clear reference to saving their souls from hell.

    σῴζω – sōzō – Saveto rescue from danger or destruction

    It is the same Greek word for save familiar to all from John 3:16. Jude urges the church to save those of the world who come to us.

    Have mercy with fear

    “And on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh,” Jude cautions.

    But what fear?

    φόβος – Most know the word phobos and its meaning: dread or that which strikes terror.

    What strikes terror in your heart?

    Your own death?

    Judgement? Eternal damnation?

    Or do you fear for the souls of others more than you fear them? For these are loved ones, friends and those who you know as a part of the church. Some apostate ‘christians’ have turned against the Lord Jesus Christ!

    Do you fear man or the Lord God?

    Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles,

    So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.

    Acts 9:31 NASB

    Jude’s reference to ‘hating even the garment polluted by the flesh’ clearly calls the church to hating the sin, yet not the sinner. Let us clearly identify the spotted speech of apostates among us, urging those with such worldly coverings to purify their sins in the blood of Christ.

    And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

    James 3:6 NASB

    Let us watch that we condemn the sins of the apostates among us, while not judging their souls which the Lord may choose to snatch from the fire.

    Benediction

    Jude wants to encourage the church, giving those saints faithful to the Lord praise. Yet he has chosen to exhort the church against apostates, warn us against the sins which defile us and turn our witness against Christ.

    He briefly makes his strong warning and now closes with praise to the Lord. You may have heard such comforting benedictions from a pastor of your own church congregation.

    Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

    Jude 1:24-25 CSB Benediction

    Christ Jesus can keep you from stumbling so that you may stand in His holy presence. You will know His glory, because of His mercy and grace of covering our sins by His shed blood.

    God IS our Savior, through the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Anyone who does not believe in the only One who can save us is an apostate, turned against the Lord our God!

    To Him be all glory, majesty, power and authority. As it was in the beginning, it will be now and forever. AMEN.

  • Our Lament and Weeping -4- unless You have completely rejected us

    Our Lament and Weeping -4- unless You have completely rejected us

    We began by outlining his Lament over Jerusalem and continued with Judgment on Jerusalem and Hope through God’s Mercy, where Jeremiah pleas for mercy based on his own suffering. After the four elegies he described the suffering of God’s people.


    Terrors of the Besieged City

    Judah refused to listen to God’s warnings through Jeremiah and other prophets to repent.

    Other nations battle over control of Jerusalem, which is eventually destroyed. Jeremiah then writes four acrostic elegies.

    He gives a defeated people songs crying out to the LORD.

    “Why,” they ask, has the Lord rejected his defenders of Jerusalem, his holy altar and chosen people?

    Aidan Bartos photo unsplash
    9/11/2001

    Lord, remember what has happened to us.

    Lamentations 5:1a CSB

    We should have expected it! This evil of the nations has threatened us before, but now it is too late.

    The Lord allowed it. Like our own national mournings, Jerusalem’s falls become reason for lament.


    Lamentations 5:

    Look, and see our disgrace!

    Lamentations 5:1b

    2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our houses to foreigners.

    Everything for which we have worked, all of our hopes for the future – gone.

    3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are widows.
    4 We must pay for the water we drink;
    our wood comes at a price.
    5 We are closely pursued;
    we are tired, and no one offers us rest.


    A Kurdish Syrian woman walks with her child past the ruins of the town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on March 25, 2015. (Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images)
    Kurdish mother with son in ruins of their town AD 2015

    Now I ask us: if the Lord has allowed this destruction of our hopes in past generations, why do we not remember the widows and fatherless forced from their homes in this day?

    7 Our fathers sinned; they no longer exist, but we bear their punishment.

    Woe to us

    Jeremiah continues by telling of men risking their lives to obtain food and of women raped. He laments that princes are hung by former slaves who now rule and they see that young boys are made into slaves.

    15 Joy has left our hearts;
    our dancing has turned to mourning.
    16 The crown has fallen from our head.

    Woe to us, for we have sinned.

    Lamentations 5:15b

    Woe אוֹי is a crying out, a lament.

    The prophet Isaiah had also spoken the Lord’s judgment:

    The look on their faces testifies against them,
    and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin;
    they do not conceal it.
    Woe to them,
    for they have brought disaster on themselves.

    Isaiah 3:9

    The Lord had warned these descendants of Jacob, transgressors of the Law of Moses

    Now His blessings are replaced by woe. Yet Jeremiah closes his lament with a prayer for restoration, a ray of hope for the remnant of Jacob.

    You, Lord, are enthroned forever

    21 Lord, bring us back to yourself…

    Shouldn’t this be the plea of each of us?

    5:21 הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ ונשֶׂוב

    shuwb Yĕhovah shuwb

    Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! – NASB

    … so we may return; renew our days as in former times…5:21b CSB


    Ah, here is the hope of Jeremiah for the glory and blessings of the past.

    unless You have rejected us

    Let us go back to the Jerusalem of old. Judah’s king has fallen and Jerusalem reduced to ruble. All of this defeated generation must pray for favor from a foreign land. Yet the prophet closes his lament with humble dependence upon the Lord God. Jeremiah accepts the judgment of God on this generation.

    Lord, bring us back to yourself…

    22 unless you have completely rejected us
    and are intensely angry with us.

    Lamentations 5:22 CSB

    Is God your lord or does your sin provoke His intense anger?

    Why do you cry out to God when you will not bow down to His will?


    Redemption for our sin

    “I will pour out my wrath on sin,” says the Lord. Yet what of our sin which provokes the wrath of God?

    • Jerusalem sinned greatly, Therefore she has become an unclean thing. Lamentations 1:5
    • Our fathers sinned, and are no more; It is we who have borne their iniquities. Lamentations 5:7
    • The crown has fallen from our head; Woe to us, for we have sinned! Lamentations 5:16
    • … The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron stylus. With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars… Jeremiah 17:1

    Because you people sinned against the LORD and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you.

    Jeremiah 40:3b NASB

    the Messiah Redeemer

    Just prior to a later destruction of Jerusalem, the only Son of God was hung on a Cross for our sins. There He had cried out:

    “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is:

    My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

    Matthew 27:46

    Of all laments for sin, this one only redeems.

    The Redeemer of Israel rejected and hung on a Cross. Roman soldier spears the body of Jesus on the cross.
    He was already dead

    In his earlier prophecies, Jeremiah had predicted Jesus the Messiah and Redeemer of Israel to come in a later day.

    Jeremiah 31:

    Proclaim, praise, and say,
    “Lord, save your people,
    the remnant of Israel!”

    Lament Turned to Joy
    15 This is what the Lord says:

    A voice was heard in Ramah,
    a lament with bitter weeping—
    Rachel weeping for her children,
    refusing to be comforted for her children
    because they are no more.

    16 This is what the Lord says:

    Keep your voice from weeping
    and your eyes from tears,
    for the reward for your work will come—

    Do you recall fulfillment of this scripture at the birth of Jesus when King Herod of Judah ordered the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem?

    28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I watch over them to build and to plant them”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

    The New Covenant

    31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

    Jeremiah 31:31 CSB

    “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

    This is the work of the Holy Spirit, given after Jesus’ Sacrifice and resurrection.


    Though Jeremiah laments the fall of God’s chosen because of their sin, the prophet reassures the faithful remnant that the Lord is faithful.

    51:5 כִּ֠י לֹֽא־אַלְמָ֨ן יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל וִֽיהוּדָה֙ מֵֽאֱלֹהָ֔יו מֵֽיְהוָ֖ה צְבָאֹ֑ות כִּ֤י אַרְצָם֙ מָלְאָ֣ה אָשָׁ֔ם מִקְּדֹ֖ושׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

    For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken
    By his God, the LORD of hosts,
    Although their land is full of guilt
    Be ore the Holy One of Israel.

    Jesus was innocent of sin, even unto death on a Cross for the sins of the world. The Messiah of God had been betrayed by a zealous Disciple named Judas, who would repent of his sin too late.

    Jeremiah had also spoken of this time:

    Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him whose price was set by the Israelites, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.

    Matthew 27:9-10

    The LORD has not rejected us, but sent us a pure and perfected Redeemer in Christ Jesus. Do not betray the Lord’s grace given for you on a Cross for your sin. Worship the Lord your God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For the Prophets have lamented for our sins and predicted our Savior.

    Amen.