A Lamentation that Shall Be Chanted

INTRODUCTION

[ILLUS] I have a friend who once told me that he had a song stuck in his head for at least five years. It’s wasn’t the same song, but he said that there was always a song playing in his mind. He was big into music so I believed him, but I can’t really relate to that. I’ve never had much of anything stuck in my head.

Even so, we all have one of two songs stuck in our hearts; the song will either be “Glory to God” or “Glory to Me.”

Our hearts can’t play both songs at the same time so right now your heart is playing one of these two songs and so is mine.

This is important because we sing in our hearts determines the song we hear from God as he sings over us for all eternity.

[CONTEXT] The song in Pharaoh’s heart was most definitely “Glory to Me.”

Pharaoh saw himself as a god among men, a creator rather than a creature.

He arrogantly thought that he could interfere as the One True God disciplined his people, Judah.

Now, the song that God would sing over Pharaoh would be wrath - both here on earth in the form of the Babylonian army and in eternity as Pharaoh descended into Hell.

[INTER] What song is God singing over you right now? What song will he sing over you in eternity to come?

[CIT] In the verses we are studying tonight, we see two VERSES to this song of wrath; this lamentation that shall be chanted by the daughters of the nations; two VERSES that reveal the certainty of God’s wrath and its purpose.

[PROP] As we look at these verses let’s heed the warning of God’s wrath but running to Jesus who took God’s wrath on the cross in our place.

[TS] Let’s talk about the two VERSES in this song...

MAJOR IDEAS

The First Verse of this Song of Wrath: The Certainty of God’s Wrath (vv. 12b-14).

Ezekiel 32:12–14 ESV

I will cause your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them most ruthless of nations. “They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall perish. I will destroy all its beasts from beside many waters; and no foot of man shall trouble them anymore, nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them. Then I will make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, declares the Lord God.

[Illus] We know what it is to watch destruction from a distance and pray it turns away from us.

We watch hurricanes spin up in the Atlantic, draw close, and we start praying that it goes somewhere other than here.

We go to the doctor and he say that he needs to run some tests and we start praying that those tests come back negative.

Mama says, “Wait until your Dad gets home,” and the kids start praying that Dad has to work late.

As Pharoah and Egypt watched the destructive force of Babylon’s army approach, they no doubt hoped it would turn away but it’s coming was absolutely certain.

[Exp] King Nebuchadnezzar would march and conquer and as he did, his army would add to itself the most ruthless of warriors. It really was a “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” sort of affair. Egypt’s pride would be ruined and its multitude would perish by the swords of these mighty ones.

Egypt’s multitude included Egypt’s people and their livestock.

God had talked about troubled waters back in v. 2, which were a result of Pharaoh’s prideful, chaotic activity. Here in v. 13, however, the troubled waters were a sign of life as herdsmen brought their cattle to drink. As they did so, the hoofs of the animals would muddy and disturb the waters.

Once B

However, once Babylon’s army came through, the waters would clear and run smooth like oil, because God would use his sword, the Babylonian army, to wipe out Egypt’s livestock.

Pharaoh and Egypt may have hoped that this wouldn’t come to pass but it was a certainty because the Lord had declared it as we see at the end of v. 14 with the phrase, “declares the Lord God.”

[App] What God says, he does. He has never failed to keep his word. His “yes” is “yes” and his “no” is “no.” His word is his oath. God said there is going to be wrath and so there will be wrath.

A key difference between the wrath of the Babylonian army and the wrath that will come when at the return of Christ is that people aren’t praying that the wrath of God at the return of Christ will turn away. Most people don’t see things like hurricanes and conquering armies as small indications of a larger wrath still to come. Most people don’t even think about that larger wrath to come, so they don’t worry about escaping it.

Jesus talked about this very thing in ...

Matthew 24:37–39 ESV

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Those who do think about God’s wrath often mock it by asking, “Where is it?” Peter addressed this in . Listen to 2 Peter 3:3-4a.

1 Peter 3:3–4a ESV

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

God is bringing economic destruction to Egypt by destroying its livestock.

2 Peter 3:3–4a ESV

knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

And then ...

2 Peter 3:10 ESV

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

[Illus] Both Jesus and Peter referenced Noah, which we talked about in Sunday School this morning.

The earth was full of sin and the only thought in man’s heart was evil continually. God decided to flood the earth and begin again with Noah and his family. But the promise of wrath and the deliverance of wrath didn’t happen on the same day.

Noah had to build the ark and the people who watched him do it scoffed. As Jesus said, they kept on keeping on; eating, drinking, and marrying. In their minds no wrath was coming, but God’s wrath certainly came!

God decided to flood the earth and begin again with Noah and his family.

But the promise of wrath and the deliverance of wrath didn’t happen on the same day.

This is what Peter drives at in ...

2 Peter 3:5–7 ESV

For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

We must not be so foolish as to believe that, just because his wrath hasn’t come yet, it will never come.

Jesus

Jesus

Noah

It most certainly will. He has declared it.

We must pray fervently for the lost and share passionately with lost while there is still time.

1 Peter

[TS] That’s the first verse in this song of wrath: The Certainty of God’s Wrath.

Now let’s look at the second verse: The Purpose of God’s Wrath.

The Second Verse of this Song of Wrath: The Purpose of God’s Wrath (v. 15).

Ezekiel 32:15 ESV

When I make the land of Egypt desolate, and when the land is desolate of all that fills it, when I strike down all who dwell in it, then they will know that I am the Lord.

[Exp] As Babylon conquered, it not only picked up warriors from the armies it defeated, it relocated the citizens of the lands it conquered.

As refugees from Egypt were relocated to Babylon, in and around the same place that Ezekiel and other Jewish people lived, they would have told the story of Egypt’s fall.

God’s people would have known that this was the work of God because they had been told about beforehand through God’s prophet, Ezekiel. And as they told others, others would know that the fall of Egypt was the work of the Lord.

In this way, God’s people in exile in Babylon and all people would come to know that he is the Lord - that God is the One true God.

This is the purpose in God’s judgment - that his people and all people know that only he is worthy of worship; that only he is God.

This is the purpose in God’s judgment

[App] We saw this when we looked at where it says in v. 10-11 that “every knew (will) bow… and every tongue (will) confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Obviously, not every knee will bow and not every tongue will confess in faith, but every knee will bow and every tongue will confess no matter the motive.

Some, like us, will do it because they have been won over by God’s grace and others will do it because they have been conquered by God’s wrath. But, again, all will do it. All will do it because all will know that he is the Lord.

[Exp] God expected the destruction of Egypt and the fall of Pharaoh to be remembered. That’s why he put it in a song and included it in his word here in .

[Illus] When I was taking language classes in seminary, the professors warned us that there would be lots of memorization. Not only would we have to remember definitions to words, but all the stems, prefixes, and suffixes to words in order to translate them correctly.

Every one came up with their way to remember these things. Some just studied and studied until they had it down. Others used memory tricks. But one guy I heard about made up rap songs for all his Hebrew vocabulary.

They said every class he would come in rapping some bad Hebrew vocabulary. He may not have been a very good rapper, but he was a good Hebrew student.

The song of wrath that God expects the daughters of the nations to sing is not a happy one, but it’s one that he expects to remember.

And that remembering of God’s wrath leads to a few points of application as we close tonight...

CONCLUSION

First, we should point to smaller displays of God’s wrath and warn people about the larger wrath to come.

In Jesus referenced a tower in Siloam that fell on 18 people and killed them. He then asked the crowd to whom he was speaking, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?” He added in ...

Luke 13:5 ESV

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

If we believe that God’s wrath is certainly coming, we will not be afraid to warn others in the way Jesus did in Luke 13.

Second, recognizing the certainty of God’s wrath should cause us to fervently pray for the lost; that they would bow and confess because they’ve been won over by the grace of God.

Are you pleading with God to save certain lost people? Are you begging that God would save them by his grace?

[Illus] The other day Rachel texted me and asked what I used to get rid of the moles in our yard. I told her apathy.

He actually tried one service but they didn’t do anything so we got our money back and then just ignored them. I guess they eventually went away. Either that or we just don’t notice them anymore.

That’s how many us treat the lost - with apathy. We may pray every once and awhile but we don’t pray fervently because we don’t care deeply. We don’t care about the salvation of these people and we don’t care about these people bringing glory to God.

Apathy may have worked on the moles in our yard, but it won’t work on the lost. They won’t just come to Christ if we ignore them in our prayers. We must pray and pray fervently if we want to see them saved.

Third, we should share passionately with the lost while there is still time.

To share passionately is to plead convincingly. It’s not half-hearted. It’s humbly begging someone to flee the wrath of God by fleeing to Christ in faith.

[Illus] A week or two ago The Washington Post published a previously undiscovered letter writh by President Ronald Reagan in August 1982 to his atheist father-in-law who was dying.

In the letter, President Reagan pleaded with his father-in-law, Loyal Davis, to turn from doubt and place his faith in Jesus Christ.

President Reagan pleaded from his own experience, citing examples of answered prayer that could only be true because God had answered those prayer.

He pleaded from fulfilled prophecy, saying that the prophets gave 123 different prophecies that Messiah would fulfill and Jesus, of course, fulfilled them all.

He pleaded from the integrity of Christ’s life saying that either Jesus was the greatest faker or charlatan of all or he was really the Messiah. But, as President Reagan argued, why would Jesus suffer and die as he did when he could have just admitted to his lie and saved himself?

He went on to quote and called on his father-in-law, a renowned physician, a dying atheist, to recognize the reality of God, turn to the power of the gospel, and trust in Christ.

We don’t get to say this very much these days, but let’s be like our President - our former President Reagan. Let’s plead with the lost to come to Christ before its too late.

experience

prophecy fulfilled

123

greatest faker and charlatan to ever live

pressing his father-in-law, quoted John 3:16