Summary: This is the last message in Lamentations, and part of it looks at the survivors and part of it draws pointers for us too. God never rejects a penitent sinner or one of His children who has gone astray. May the Lord bless each one who studies this remarkable book.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 48 – RESTORATION AND REJECTION – HOW DO THEY INTERACT? Lamentations 5:20-22

In this message we end the series in Lamentations and it has been very revealing to see so much material in this neglected bible book. There have been lessons all the way through. How would you sum up this book if asked to do so in just one sentence? Maybe it would be something like this:-

“God’s standard is never abolished, and what He says are the consequences of sin, will surely come to pass, often with devastating results for the sinner, but God is compassionate and faithful, forgiving the repentant sinner.”

Here is verse 20 we covered last time - {{Lamentations 5:20 “Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long?”}}. Jeremiah, in a contemplative mood, reasons his position before a God of righteousness and justice. The dire situation for these survivors suggested the possibility that God had either forgotten His earthly people, or had abandoned them. One great verse that can apply here is this one – {{2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance”}}

In the case of Judah, all the great promises of national restoration were to happen but in God’s timing. Isaiah and Jeremiah set these out so plainly, and in Isaiah’s case that was 2 700 years ago but students of biblical prophecy can see foundations starting to come together in world events, just like the stage being prepared for a great concert. We are not at the concert, but observe the stage being set out into place in the preparations.

I will repeat this one thing from last time regarding the prophet’s question in verse 20 - Jeremiah did not doubt God and knew beyond question that all those promised blessings for Israel that he penned under inspiration, would come to pass but he speaks the frustration of the people who were giving, or had given up hope.

[1]. MORE ON VERSE 21

Verses 21 and 22 are linked but I have divided so that we can examine carefully. We began that last time, so it is advantageous to look back at PART 47.

Looking again at the verse we are considering - {{Lamentations 5:21 Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored. RENEW OUR DAYS AS OF OLD,”}}

Restoration is always renewal, but with the past foundation unaltered. We have looked at the path of restoration but the verse ends in renewal AS IT WAS! That is what restoration is. It is being restored to a personal relationship to the “days of old”. For Israel/Judah, they had a time when they walked with the LORD in obedience, upholding all his statutes and maintaining the correct sacrificial system.

Jeremiah’s prayer here is for that restoration and then the renewal will be joyous. Things had degenerated so badly that the “left over” animals were presented for sacrifice. What a disgrace to offer to the LORD what was diseased and sick – {{Malachi 1:7-8 “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is to be despised.’ “But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you or would he receive you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts.}}

Restoration in a Christian’s life is equally a joyous matter. It follows all 4 steps outlined earlier in PART 47. We fall into sin and disgrace because of many reasons but it is necessary to RETURN to the Lord. I want to take this verse from Isaiah but alter its application – {{Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the LORD, and HE WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON HIM, AND TO OUR GOD, FOR HE WILL ABUNDANTLY PARDON.”}}

This is what I would say to the Christian caught up in sin – “Forsake your way and your unrighteousness, and return to your Saviour (in repentance) for the Lord will have compassion on you and will abundantly pardon.” God is all about restoration.

When the 70 years of captivity ended some of the captives returned to Jerusalem under Ezra and Jerubabbel and later, Nehemiah. These were restored to God but it was not long before they went their own way again.

There is coming a time when Israel will be restored never again to depart from their LORD Messiah. These will be the great days of restoration for the Nation when the LORD is in their midst. All the Old Testament prophets speak of that time and there is so much in Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel and Zechariah. All those prophecies are for Israel and NOT the Church. Israel, the earthly people, are always separate from the heavenly people the Church.

I will not enter into them now but they are done thoroughly in other messages. Here are the links for The Restoration of Israel from Isaiah and Jeremiah I have already done:-

The Isaiah messages are all included in this series – https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-series/eschatology-rapture-bible-prophecy-and-current-affairs-sermon-series-from-ron-ferguson-22819?page=2

AND BEGIN with this first message - https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-future-restoration-of-israel-part-1-scriptures-in-isaiah-ron-ferguson-sermon-on-israel-268726

The Restoration of Israel in Jeremiah is this - https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-series/restoration-of-israel-in-jeremiah-sermon-series-from-ron-ferguson-24360

[2]. IN THE DAYS OF OLD

One thing I confess I do not understand is the complex subject of the emotions of God but I have written about this on and off. God is compassionate and tender-hearted but His attributes of holiness and righteousness will not allow man to continue ad infinitum in His sin. A day of reckoning will always come. Before that fateful day, ample time is given for repentance, for the love and mercy of God does not want to bring that about – {{Ezekiel 18:23-24 Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed, and his sin which he has committed - for them he will die.”}}

It was so important a subject that Ezekiel repeated it later on – {{Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’}}. That is such compassionate pleading and it is more than just Ezekiel speaking; it is the heart of God yearning for His sinful people for whom His longsuffering eventually ended with Babylon. This is touching on God’s emotions.

We briefly mentioned these emotions of God but in speaking of “the days of old” from Lamentations 5:21, we have the touch of Hosea here declaring this – {{Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.”}}

HOWEVER that did not last and the days of old were shattered (Note the tenderness and deep emotion of God portrayed here) – {{Hosea 11:2 The more they called them, the more they went from them. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them in My arms but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws, and I bent down and fed them.”}}

I must draw verse 21 to a close but we Christians must always be grateful that God loved us and continues to do so. What about when you were a youth, and I speak not of your age but your “youth” in conversion and early walk with Christ? Do you love the Lord more than when you were saved or just as much, or has your love declined like it did in the Ephesian church in A.D. 96. The decline can be because of worldliness and the harbouring of sin. Your love could be imperceptibly seeping away and you do not notice it – {{Revelation 2:4 “but I have this against you, that you have LEFT your first love.”}} Your life on earth is brief but what are you accomplishing?

[3]. THE FINAL VERSE OF THE BOOK – LAMENTATIONS 5:22

This last verse is really unusual and again it is Jeremiah who is expressing these thoughts rather than the people. He has just been writing about restoration, for his desire is that the LORD will restore His people, but then it is as if he is putting a rider in this request – {{Lamentations 5:22 “UNLESS You have utterly rejected us, and are exceedingly angry with us.”}}

The grounds for not restoring would be utter rejection and exceeding anger. The sin of Judah had been so bad, so perverse in God’s sight, that the prophet might understand if God had given His people over and that was the end of them. It seems a most unusual way for a book to end, as if it is left up in the air.

Truly, though, what did Jeremiah think/know about the restoration of God? I have already mentioned the series done on that with the link given earlier. Jeremiah’s prophetic book is just so full of the restoration of the nation of Israel in his prophecy that he had no doubt at all. Look at Chapter 31 as a case in point. It is full of restoration, so what did Jeremiah mean?

Well, he meant the application to be to his own generation. That LORD did reject His people and was very angry with them. Recall, the anger towards sinful Israel when God called them from Egypt. They became so rebellious that only two of them entered Canaan, Joshua and Caleb. That generation perished. So it was with Judah, but after 70 years the LORD brought them back from the captivity.

We come to the end of this remarkable book, so often set aside in bible study and preaching. How often have you heard messages from Lamentations? God led me to take up this book and wth His help, this is the result. I know readers brush past it with only a few reading these messages but I do ask that God will bless those who read, and meditate on what it would say to us.

[4]. WHAT IS THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS TO MEAN TO US?

There is so much here, so many awful examples of suffering but there is always a cause to suffering and a path to redemption and restoration. I will list a few lessons I think we can take from the book:-

(1). God’s warnings about judgement must not be ignored. For hundreds of years the Jews were given warnings about what would happen to them if they continued in sin. In fact it even goes back to the blessings and cursing on Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal given by Moses just before they entered the promised land. Deuteronomy 11:29. Deuteronomy 27:4. Joshua 8:30-35. The people ignored them and came to ruin. We must preach the coming judgement on a sinful, unrepentant world.

(2). The blame for sin must not fall on the world, (Babylon or circumstances) but on the individual. Nationally, “WE HAVE SINNED.” Individually, “I HAVE SINNED.” That always has to be the starting point.

(3). God is a God of judgement, but He is also a God of restoration. For the unsaved, and for the sinning Christian, repentance leads to restoration.

(4). Even in judgement, God is a compassionate God. He can not deny His character. One of the verses of highlight in the Old Testament is this one – {{Habakkuk 3:2 “LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known. IN WRATH REMEMBER MERCY.”}}

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The last words will be the best known verses in the whole of Lamentations and with those we close:-

Lamentations 3:22 The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease for His compassions never fail.

Lamentations 3:23 They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I have hope in Him.”

Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.

Lamentations 3:26 It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the LORD.

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May the Lord bless us all in understanding His word and how we ought to live. AMEN