Tag: lent 2025

  • The Sun and the Moon Stood Still – Why won’t we?

    The Sun and the Moon Stood Still – Why won’t we?

    The sun and moon stood still in their habitation:

    Habakkuk 3:11 KJV

    Sun and moon stood still before God

    What’s the picture?


    Habakkuk – a Prophet burdened for a people humbled

    1:2 עַד־אָנָה יְהוָה שִׁוַּעְתִּי וְלֹא תִשְׁמָע אֶזְעַק אֵלֶיךָ חָמָס וְלֹא תוֹשִׁיעַ׃


    The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

    IF you have not already felt the full weight of a Prophet painting a picture for men without eyes to see

    a sun and a moon which had stood still, — then you have sensed a low and quiet place where the Lord has prepared an unseeing Common Era people by a BLINDING LIGHT in the darkness of these last days…


    O LORD, how long shall I cry,
    And You will not hear?
    Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
    And You will not save.

    Habakkuk 1:2 NKJV


    Sound familiar?

    (Even from your own arrogant lips?)


    Why do You show me iniquity,
    And cause me to see trouble?
    For plundering and violence are before me;
    There is strife, and contention arises.

    Therefore the law is powerless,
    And justice never goes forth.
    For the wicked surround the righteous;
    Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

    Habakkuk 1:2-3

    The LAW of which the Prophet speaks 
    -- the Commandments of the LORD
    -- NO LAW = No Justice!

    Do we blindly suppose that the righteous are US?
    AND therefore WE the named and claimed PEOPLE of God suffer by His Almighty Hand!
    COULD THAT BE JUST?

    WHY does this sound so familiar to a Common Era people who rarely read or hear the oracles of WARNING by the Prophets of God?

    And what does Habakkuk ask early-on in his plea to the LORD?

    Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
    And hold Your tongue
    when the wicked devours
    A person more righteous than he?
    14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
    Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

    Habakkuk 13b-14 NKJV


    IS THIS any way to PLEA to the Lord our God of Whom WE are commanded to 'love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’ even confirmed by the Messiah and Lord Jesus? 

    More Writing on the wall

    Jesus writing in the sand with his finger
    (for those casting a first stone at Habakkuk) 

    Then the Lord answered me and said:

    “Write the vision
    And make it plain on tablets,
    That he may run who reads it.

    For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
    But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

    Though it tarries, wait for it;
    Because it will surely come,
    It will not tarry.

    “Behold the proud,
    His soul is not upright in him;
    But the just shall live by his faith.

    Habakkuk 2:2-4 NKJV


    Again, what is the picture? 

    The SOUL of the proud is fallen.
    AND the soul of the Lord's faithful remains bowed down in the witness of our lives.

    Therefore, for the hope of the faithful know that the LORD pronounces many woes (and NOT blessings) on the proud who seem to be in charge of our mortal lives. And to name just a few:

    THEN the LORD closes his response to the Prophet with an authoritatively THUNDERING VOICE to humble worshipers bowed down in faithfulness:

    “But the Lord is in His holy temple.
    Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

    Habakkuk 2:20

    What would happen IF Common Era worshipers would put down our devices and our coffees and entered into WORSHIP like this? 

    Let thos whw with eyes to see Christ's writing in the sand see God's zeal for faithful worshipers.

    and now:

    This prayer sung by the prophet Habakkuk:

    O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
    O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
    In the midst of the years make it known;
    In wrath remember mercy.

    Habakkuk 3:2 NKJV

    And the earth was full of His praise.

    4 His brightness was like the light;
    He had rays flashing from His hand,
    And there His power was hidden...

    He looked and startled the nations.
    And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
    The perpetual hills bowed.

    from the prayer of Habakkuk


    GET THE IDEA?

    all bowed down before the Lord – in HIS Presence everything else stood still or was swept away by the hidden power of HIS GLORY!

    The sun and the moon stood still


    Now returning to the context of our opening picture and illustration: 
    red moon of an eclipse The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. Habakkuk 3:11

    You divided the earth with rivers.
    10 The mountains saw You and trembled;
    The overflowing of the water passed by.
    The deep uttered its voice,
    And lifted its hands on high.
    11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation;
    At the light of Your arrows they went,
    At the shining of Your glittering spear.

    12 You marched through the land in indignation;
    You trampled the nations in anger.
    13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
    For salvation with Your Anointed.
    You struck the head from the house of the wicked,
    By laying bare from foundation to neck.

    Selah

    When I heard, my body trembled;
    My lips quivered at the voice;
    Rottenness entered my bones;
    And I trembled in myself,
    That I might rest in the day of trouble.

    Habakkuk 3:16a NKJV

    Is THIS your reaction -- contemporary christian worshiper? 

    A Hymn of Faith

    NO hymns for OUR praise band! 
    NO Old Testament Prophets and their drama that could SILENCE the applause and bring the CROWD to its knees.

    Who remembers Jesus cursing the fig tree as the Lord entered Jerusalem?

    The unfamiliar picture and significant symbolism Jesus drew is the same as that of Habakkuk’s hymn of faith.

    We examined this great symbolism in an earlier series.


    Even if you choose not to read the prologue above you will find these references from Habakkuk below -with which we will conclude.

    AND consider our 2025 CE Lenten theme of contrition replanted in the hearts of 21st century worshipers:

    We stood there and did nothing

    • Habakkuk and other Prophets of the Lord have warned us to WORSHIP the Lord our God.
    • The Messiah JESUS — Son of the Living God — enters Jerusalem cursing a tree that bore no fruit (though thousands applaud Him).
    • Crowds of worshipers enter a Common Era gathering little noticing a cursed fig tree as they bring their coffees and distracting devices toward the gate of the grand stage.
    • LENT?
      • WE don’t do that anymore…

    O, faithless fig tree, dear dried up vine;

    do you believe that you alone have cried out to the Lord for mercy?

    Habakkuk 3:

    O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
    O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
    In the midst of the years make it known;
    In wrath remember mercy.

    for it was not the season for figs – 7 – July 9, 2017 TalkofJESUS.com

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  • Psalms of a Contrite Heart Before Christ

    Psalms of a Contrite Heart Before Christ

    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

    Psalm 51:17 LSB

    Contrition: Bowed down before Almighty God

    Last time on Ash Wednesday, we noted from the weeping Prophet, Jeremiah, our great sorrow in being CRUSHED by the enemy – in fact by the hand of GOD on the pestle of Jerusalem’s destruction.

    mortar and pestle with hand of chef

    Like Jeremiah we do NOT want to be CRUSHED by any — either the LORD or our enemy.

    WE are unaccustomed to the pouring out of our spirit into a mortar of refinement.

    YET it is the Lord’s will to refine those whom He will.

    Be contrite or be crushed

    humble .. or humbled.


    Sad Psalms of Lament

    Lamentations, if sung, would be sorrowful elegies similar to some Psalms we would rather not sing. Regardless of the “how” – and we generally know our sin – contrition and humility often escape our notice on the stage of our praise.

    Yet even in the Psalms we must observe the same words which the Lord has written for our worship.

    Strong’s H1794 – dāḵâ – דָּכָה

    to collapse (phys. or mentally):—break (sore), contrite, crouch.

    We’ve all seen it — most have experienced it. And the Psalms remind us as the Lord refines us.

    O Yahweh, reprove me not in Your wrath,

    And discipline me not in Your burning anger.

    I am faint and badly crushed;

    I groan because of the agitation of my heart.

    Psalm 38:1,8 LSB


    Psalm 51:

    51:17 (WLC 51:19) זִבְחֵי אֱלֹהִים רוּחַ נִשְׁבָּרָה לֵב־נִשְׁבָּר וְנִדְכֶּה אֱלֹהִים לֹא תִבְזֶה׃

    • šāḇar rûaḥ
      • broken spirit
    • šāḇar dāḵâ lēḇ
      • a broken and contrite heart

    Psalm 51:17 from MASORETIC Text

    IS that any way to open a post such as this or especially a WORSHIP service?

    IN FACT, the contrition of it's context pleads to Elohim for mercy. So was it ordered for corporate worship by the King.

    [[To the chief Musician,

    A Psalm of David,

    when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.]]

    Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

    Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,

    and cleanse me from my sin.

    For I acknowledge my transgressions:

    and my sin is ever before me.


    Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken [crushed] may rejoice.

    Psalm 51:1-3, 8 KJV

    We have heard the whole story — confessed in a Psalm of worship!

    And the King – David of Israel and Judah – before we reach v. 17 of our opening CALL to Worship today — continues with a more hopeful and familiar plea:

    Create in me a clean heart, O God;
    and renew a right spirit within me.

    Psalm 51:10

    Create in me a clean heart, O God – Psalm 51 stands as an enduring testament to the power of confession, the boundless mercy of God, and the potential for spiritual renewal and transformation.

    It reminds us that even in our deepest frailty, God’s love is unfailing.

    Psalm 51 commentary

    a Plea of the Crushed – Psalm 143

    A Psalm of David

    YET in our distress of being humbled (OPPRESSED, an adjective found in other Psalms) — crushed by the Lord we have hope — as nearly every Psalm ends.

    Teach me to do thy will;

    for thou art my God:

    thy spirit is good;

    lead me into the land of uprightness.

    Quicken [revive] me, O LORD,

    for thy name’s sake:

    for thy righteousness’ sake

    bring my soul out of trouble.

    Psalm 143:9–10 KJV

    Praying the Psalms in Gethsemane

    Picture our Lord, having walked all the paths among evil men toward Gethsemane, full well knowing the charge of His Father in heaven to go forth into the valley of death…

    a humble mortal, a crushed man, a prisoner to be betrayed and bound as a spectacle for evil men…

    humiliated, struck on the cheek, beaten on the back and hung ignominiously on a tree by the rulers of this world and city.

    .. “Sit here while I pray.” ,, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” ..

    Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping.

    excerpt from the Gospel of Mark 14

    Psalm 10

    11 He says to himself, “God will never notice;

    Psalm 10:12-11 NIV

     The Hebrew word for "crushed" can also imply being broken in spirit, indicating the deep emotional and psychological impact of such suffering. 

    This aligns with the broader biblical narrative where God is portrayed as a defender of the oppressed (Psalm 9:9).

    The imagery here can also be seen as a type of Christ, who was "crushed" for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5), highlighting the ultimate sacrifice for the redemption of humanity.

    BibleHub.com Study Bible commentary


    JESUS, the Son of Man, Son of David and Son of God sang and prayed such Psalms in worship in the presence of God the Father.

    Do YOU?

    Talk of JESUS .com

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  • Lamentations of our past in a Lenten path forward

    Lamentations of our past in a Lenten path forward

    Jeremiah tells us [in Lamentations 3,4 & 5]:

    I am the man who has seen affliction
    Because of the rod of His wrath..

    Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

    Source: TalkofJesus.com category Old Testament History

    Kinoth-Ecah How? :אֵיכָה

    How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!

    how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces,

    how is she become tributary!

    Lamentations 1:1 KJV – the sorrows of Zion

    stone wall "city of David" in Hebrew and English in Jerusalem
    Zion צִיּוֹן
    Gaza Israel war damage
    Gaza, Israel July 2018 CE

    The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts:

    all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

    Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions:

    her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

    the Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:4-5 KJV


    Get the picture? Jerusalem completely destroyed and its people led captive into Babylon – 605-597 B.C.

    In A.D.70 it would be ROME that would again destroy a Jerusalem built under the Caesars by its Herodian kings who again rejected God. 

    Commentary on Lamentations

    timeline of prophets after David

    As noted in my introduction and outline to this SERIES for Lent 2025 CE, although JEREMIAH belongs to the timeline as a PROPHET predicting the destruction of Jerusalem by the LORD, Lamentations – written AFTER its fall — (like the Psalms) belongs with the Scriptures.


    Matthew Henry

    An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
    The Lamentations of Jeremiah

    Since what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that sorrow is better than laughter, and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,

    we should come to the reading and consideration of the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation to edify ourselves by them;

    and, that we may do this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet.

    stone carving of the prophet Jeremiah reading Bible - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel are major Prophets of the Old Testament
    Jeremiah by Michelangelo
    • from the first word Ecah-How
    • Jewish commentators call it, as the Greeks do, and we from them, Kinoth-Lamentations.

    As we have sacred odes or songs of joy, so have we sacred elegies or songs of lamentation;

    such variety of methods has Infinite Wisdom taken to work upon us and move our affections, and so soften our hearts and make them susceptible of the impressions of divine truths, as the wax of the seal.

    We have not only piped unto you, but have mourned likewise, Mt. 11:17.

    Reverend Matthew Henry, minister of the Gospel in Chester, England,

    About Reverend Matthew Henry:

    Born 1662 the year that the Act of Uniformity was enacted, which saw over 2,000 Anglican clergymen ejected from their pulpits.

    In 1686, Matthew Henry was invited by a local Nonconformist minister to establish an assembly in Chester, England, While in Chester, Matthew Henry founded the Presbyterian Chapel on Trinity Street.

    June 22nd 1714, he went to be with God.


    The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

    ESV HEADING – Lamentations 2

    The elders of the daughter of Zion
    sit upon the ground, and keep silence:
    they have cast up dust upon their heads;
    they have girded themselves with sackcloth:
    the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

    Lamentations 2:10
    Authorized (King James) Version


    “I am the man:” – Before and After

    I'll remind us again of my discovery that the Hebrew Bible [Tanakh] includes Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) Nevi'im (Prophets) and in a later section Eichah in Ketuvim (Scriptures).

    HERE we must see the Prophet in both his earlier identification with a chosen people turned against the LORD and later as a man suffering along with them after the prophesies had come true.

    You have persuaded me, O YHWH, and I am persuaded;

    You have hardened me, and prevail, “

    ” I have been for a laughter all the day,”” Everyone is mocking at me,

    Jeremiah 20:7 LSV

    Yet now the Prophet identifies with them as he surveys God’s people under the wrath and punishment of the LORD.

    Lam 3:1 – I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

    2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light …

    17 -18 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said,

    My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

    What HOPELESSNESS! What travail! 

    And HERE we find the thread connected to ASH WEDNESDAY and LENT — a dark and narrow inescapable path out of a dark garden toward a Cross overlooking Jerusalem’s refuse.


    Crushed – dāḵā‘ : דָּכָא

    Before we proceed and also show where Jeremiah uses this word both here and earlier in his prophesy, let's consider its DEFINITION: 

    Strong’s H1792 – dāḵā’ –

    dakā'- 
    ----------------
    * Lexicon numbers of Hebrew parts of speech in  Strong's H???? will help you apply these to English, Greek (G????) and other translations.

    verb – A primitive root (compare דָּכָה (H1794)) another verb (same pronunciation) [A primitive root (compare דַּךְ (H1790)-adjective, and דָּכָא (H1792))-another verb]


    To crush, be crushed, be contrite, be broken

    – be shattered, to be made contrite, (Hithpael) to allow oneself to be crushed

    • Have you found this most appropriate thread for the contrition of Lent?

    They are not humbled [H1792 – the same Hebrew word] even unto this day,

    neither have they feared,

    nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

    From the Prophesy of Jeremiah 44:10 KJV (Hebrew visible in the link)

    Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.

    Jeremiah 44:11 KJV

    Humble your-SELVES or be CRUSHED!

    Jeremiah, who served as both a priest and a prophet for decades even before 568 B.C. 

    The warning of the LORD is clear, yet still ignored. The Nation claimed for G_d already DIVIDED (captive Israel and soon to be captive Judah) — in spite of Jeremiah’s strong rebukes continues to reject the will of the LORD.

    Therefore, when Jeremiah wrote or dictated Lamentations during or soon after Jerusalem’s fall in 586 B.C. we observe that it is too late, for the LORD has crushed His own disobedient Nation.


    Lamentations 3:31-35 BSB


    To crush underfoot

    This phrase evokes imagery of oppression and domination, often used in the context of military conquest or tyrannical rule. In biblical times, crushing underfoot symbolized complete subjugation and defeat.

    .. as a metaphor for the spiritual and emotional oppression experienced by the people.

    In a broader biblical context, it reflects the consequences of sin and rebellion against God, as seen in other scriptures..

    Commentary ‘ Doth not the Lord look on this? 

    (34-36) To crush . . .—The triplet of verses forms one sentence dependent upon the final clause, “The Lord approveth not,” literally, doth not look on. ..The three forms of evil specified are (1) the cruel treatment of prisoners of war, such as Jeremiah had witnessed daily at the hands of the Chaldeans; (2) the perversion of justice in a public tribunal acting in the name of God (Exodus 23:6); (3) every form even of private injustice.

    Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers


    HOW has Christ been sent to the CROSS?


    garden in darkness

    Consider Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane :

    as prophesied by Isaiah


    But he was pierced because of our rebellion,

    crushed because of our iniquities;

    punishment for our peace was on him,

    and we are healed by his wounds.

    We all went astray like sheep;

    we all have turned to our own way;

    and the LORD has punished him

    for the iniquity of us all.

    Isaiah 53:5-6 CSB


    Talk of JESUS .com

    a crushed worker

    Are you a CRUSHED worker for the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS, who was crushed for us?

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