Summary: We are going to look at reproach and then at the rejection of Israel before restoration. Compassion is of God and even in rejection the Lord is compassionate. The LORD has caused the nation grief but His compassion will bring them through.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 20 – BEARING PERSECUTION BUT THE LORD PROVIDES MERCY AND COMPASSION - CHAPTER 3:30-32

PART [28]. HUMILITY MEANS SUBMISSION IN GOD’S WILL

{{Lamentations 3:30 “Let him give his cheek to the smiter. Let him be filled with reproach.”}}

This verse ends the 5-verse instruction given to one humbled before God, or who humbles himself before God. The application can be true for all individuals but I continue to make the two specific applications. The first is to the defeated and devastated Jews of Jeremiah’s time in the defeat of the nation, while the second application is for a follower of the Lord. We – ALL OF US - must have that same attitude, one of humbly waiting for the Lord; no pride or thoughts of self-importance.

It is akin to the attitude Paul spoke of in Philippians 2:5-11 - Philippians 2:5 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus . . . . 2:9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him . . . .”

It is not easy, even for a Christian to admit he/she is/was wrong and lay one’s self open before God. It must happen at salvation, but it also happens when we have been humbled through failure, OR, God forbid, our nation is taken over in war and we have to be submissive to our enemies. It is a cruel world and Christians experience that, so how sweet it will be when the Lord returns for His Church.

A lot of Christians in the world today are filled with reproach. Those living in Islamic nations under Satan’s Islamic law; those in Communist nations, persecuted and jailed and tortured; those in western nations dismissed from work or denied promotion, and so many other evils committed against the saints of God, these bear the reproach of Christ, but they shall shine in eternal glory one day.

{{Hebrews 10:32-33 “but remember the former days after being enlightened, when you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly, by being MADE A PUBLIC SPECTACLE THROUGH REPROACHES and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.”}} {{Hebrews 11:26 “CONSIDERING THE REPROACH OF CHRIST GREATER RICHES than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”}}

How many Christians resist the importance of being submissive to the will of God? The old nature always wants to take control and hold on to it through selfishness, power surges, and self-will. It hates the concept of submission. There is this misconception that submission means being dominated and ordered around. That comes from humanism. True submission to God is actually true freedom, because the loving Lord is the guiding Shepherd and always knows best.

How many Christians are afraid to take a stand for Christ because they don’t want rejection, or the reproach of Christ to be theirs? Consider all the heroes of faith from Hebrews 11 who stood for God through mocking and beatings. That is too much for some of us. Our lives are too pampered in western culture.

Christian, what will you answer when one day you are at the judgement seat and you stand before the Christ you counted of not much value because it would have upset your lifestyle? Here are 4 lines from a poem of mine –

But what think you of Jesus Christ?

Your values - how are they then priced?

Do you count Christ of little worth -

The One who came through virgin birth?

I know some of us struggle with being brave and standing up for our faith. I understand that very well. Those who count for Christ will know the reproaches of the world because the world hates Christians, and especially committed Christians. You are either for Christ or you are against Him.

I think it helps to have some solid meditation about the sufferings of the Lord for you and to be buoyed by those. Remember too, this verse – {{John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, BUT TAKE COURAGE. I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD.”}} Remember also that this world is passing away but the Lord’s kingdom is forever.

There is a hymn that once spoke to God’s people but has been relegated to the past by this contemporary stuff called church music. I want to quote from it because it used to speak to people of past years (Written by Grace Reese Adkins – 3 stanzas. This is the first):-

By and by when I look on His face,

Beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face;

By and by when I look on His face,

I’ll wish I had given Him more

More, so much more —

More of my love than I e’er gave before.

By and by when I look on His face,

I’ll wish I had given Him more.

{{Mark 8:38 “Whoever is ASHAMED of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”}}

Reproaches will increase rapidly in this world for Christians, because wickedness is now racing through society and government. Will you be worthy of that glorious Name you bear, or will it be too much for you?

PART [29]. IN JUDGEMENT MERCY HAS ITS TURN

{{Lamentations 3:31 “The Lord will not reject forever,”}}

God’s discipline against His people is but for a season. His great judgement against His people Israel was but for a season. The compassionate God we have written about earlier, great in mercy and forgiveness, will never utterly reject His own forever. He takes them up again at the appropriate time. It is so wonderful to know that when we fail, we may be rejected from God’s immediate plan, but He does not reject forever and the repentant saint is taken up again.

Lamentations is about the fallen people of Israel in defeat and disgrace. The same principle applied again in AD 70 under the Romans when the cruelty of the Romans was indescribable. Israel is in apparent rejection today but all is temporary. Soon comes the time when the Church is removed from the earth and the Lord takes up His own earthly people again.

Israel has stumbled but has not fallen. Honest people should be able to see Israel's preservation through the centuries. As this is being written, the miracles that are happening with the defence of Israel are remarkable. The world has never seen such skill in defending the homeland from the satanic, Islamic enemies. This is no accident for no weapon raised against Israel will prosper. Those who curse Israel will be cursed, but those who bless her will be blessed.

I am amazed, as some others are, that God has allowed the United States to continue, considering the horrible sinfulness of the nation. It leads the world in some ways in departure from God, and in the years leading up to the 2024 election, the utter evil of the Democrats is now clear for the world to see in 2025. However, the nation continues to live in its current condition because of its support for Israel.

Yes, I know Obama and Biden are against the Jews and the nation, but the United States defence and moral support for Israel has kept it from external judgement. This stay of God’s hand will continue under Trump for he is a strong supporter of God’s earthly people.

Very soon though will come God’s intervention in this world in the Tribulation period for 7 years followed by Israel's restoration, and it is a certainty. I will quote only this passage – {{Romans 11:25-29 Brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and thus ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” “And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”}}

Regarding us as Christians, I heard a careful, quite well-known preacher say if a man falls into sin in a serious way, then he is disqualified (rejected) in future ministry. This is a very big issue and outside my scope for today, but I question that thought. I always go back to David here who was a man after God’s own heart, who sinned in adultery and murder, but through repentance was restored fully and continued to serve the Lord. Psalm 51 is his prayer of repentance and a lot happened after Psalm 51. David was rejected in the service of the LORD for those 9 months or so, but “the LORD will not reject forever.”

Just today at our bible study we were looking at a restoration passage from Jeremiah. Chapters 30, 31 and 33 are among the strongest restoration passages in all of the prophets for Israel. I am selecting just one tiny part here to show the relationship with the Lamentations’ verse, “The Lord will not reject forever.”

{{Jeremiah 32:40 I will make an EVERLASTING COVENANT with them [ISRAEL] that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me,

Jeremiah 32:41 and I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land WITH ALL MY HEART AND WITH ALL MY SOUL.

Jeremiah 32:42 For thus says the LORD, “Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I AM GOING TO BRING ON THEM ALL THE GOOD THAT I AM PROMISING THEM.”}}

It is verse 42 I want to look at. The LORD brought this great disaster on Judah and it was terrible. As we are seeing in this study of chapter 3, horrible things were happening in Jerusalem. The people believed themselves to be cast away from God forever but it was not to be the case. God has not cast away His people Israel. Verse 42 says that God brought this disaster but he is going to bring about all the good He has promised and that will be when Messiah returns to Israel after the Tribulation.

Just consider these following Jeremiah verses regarding the restoration of Israel that has not yet come into effect. The LORD will make a new covenant with Israel as the New Covenant has been made with the Church. In fact the covenant with the Church and the new covenant for Israel both are anchored in the sacrifice of the cross.

{{Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH,

Jeremiah 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.

Scripture records a number of covenants. God made a covenant with Noah (the terminology is “I will establish My covenant”) and the details of that are in Genesis 9:9-17. Nothing in that covenant has been revoked including the death penalty. The next covenant was with Abram in Genesis 15:18 when God covenanted the land from the Nile to the Euphrates for his descendants forever. When Abraham was 99 years old God made a covenant with Him that promised increase of descendants, nations and the seal of circumcision. That is in Genesis 17, but one verse I wish to highlight – {{Genesis 17:19 but God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish My covenant with him FOR AN EVERLASTING COVENANT FOR HIS DESCENDANTS after him,”}}

When the LORD returns at the Second Coming, He makes this covenant with redeemed and restored Israel. HE WILL NOT REJECT HIS PEOPLE FOREVER (Lamentations 3:31). They were in misery, many dead and all suffering after what Babylon did but God will not reject forever. The future of Israel will be glorious when they are saved. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHURCH. Please study hard the two verses underneath because this is what is going to happen to Israel after the Rapture; after the Tribulation; BUT at the Second Coming.

{{Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

Jeremiah 31:34 and they shall not teach again, each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “FOR I WILL FORGIVE THEIR INIQUITY, AND THEIR SIN I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”}}

[30]. COMPASSION WILL DOMINATE

{{Lamentations 3:32 “for if He causes grief, then HE WILL HAVE COMPASSION according to His abundant loving kindness,”}}

This verse must connect with the previous one speaking about the temporary rejection by God of those who are named His people, the Jews. Let us take Judah’s case as it was the whole concern of Jeremiah. He saw the rejection of the nation, torn, dispersed with so many cruelly killed by the Babylonians, and by Moab also. He witnessed a “smashed up” people. Was there any hope for them? Had God abandoned them forever?

The wording of the AV/KJV for this verse is – {{But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.”}} The LORD did cause grief, but that will one day be such abundant blessing unlike anything the nation has ever experienced.

Jeremiah knew they were rejected by the LORD; He had expelled them from their land; but that rejection was not going to be forever. In our own day, we are seeing Israel in unbelief, actually owning its own land for the first time since the Babylonian invasion roughly 2500 years ago. How glorious will be that time when the nation turns back to God in the Tribulation.

Paul testified of that – {{Romans 11:13-16 “I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them, for if THEIR REJECTION be the reconciliation of the world, WHAT WILL THEIR ACCEPTANCE BE BUT LIFE FROM THE DEAD? If the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also, and if the root be holy, the branches are too,”}}. Israel's rejection has meant the gospel going to Gentiles, but how mighty will be Israel's salvation when it comes at the Second Coming of the Messiah.

{{Romans 11:26 “and thus all Israel will be saved just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”}}

As Jeremiah saw it, the LORD had caused national grief, and that continued for these 2500 years but in compassion, the LORD is now moving with Israel, and since 1947, what has happened in the land has been miraculous. How mighty will be Israel's restoration when it owns the land from the River Nile to the River Euphrates and the Messiah reigns as KING – {{Genesis 15:18 “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land FROM THE RIVER OF EGYPT as far as THE GREAT RIVER, THE RIVER EUPHRATES:”}}. AND IT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE LORD RETURNS TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

{{Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD will be KING OVER ALL THE EARTH; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.”}} {{Zechariah 14:16 “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year TO WORSHIP THE KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.”}}

The words Jeremiah uses to bring that about are compassion and loving kindness (NASB) or “compassion and the multitude of His mercies” (AV). The NASB always uses “loving kindness” in translation of the AV/KJV’s “mercies”.