Learning to Lament
Keith Kneeshaw
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--- Title Slide
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.
Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.
The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.
As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.
The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?
---
--- Title Slide
Pray...
Intro:
Intro:
“The Rescue”
On Disney+
The story of the effort to rescue a boys soccer team Thailand.
12 boys and their coach were exploring a cave system,
but were trapped when water levels in the cave rose rapidly
due to intense rains.
The cave system completely filled with water,
making ordinary search operations impossible.
The Thai government called in help from all sorts of countries in order to help.
Since most military divers were not trained for cave diving,
a group of guys who did cave diving for a hobby were the main search team.
9 days after being trapped.
The boys and their coach were found on an elevated shelf...
2 miles into the cave.
It took the divers 6 hours to go that far on the initial dive.
They found the boys,
but how would they ever get those boys out.
I won’t ruin the rest of movie of the heroic rescue.
Except that all 12 boys and the coach were brought out of the cave alive.
In watching that story unfold,
it was obvious that the boys could not save themselves.
They were completely trapped...
utterly hopeless...
in their own strength.
FCF - In salvation,
we all know that we are completely dependent.
We didn’t save ourselves.
But salvation doesn’t free us from dependency...
in order to bring us to independence,
where we can take care of ourselves now that we are saved.
NO!!!
God’s salvation RESTORES us to a life of dependence.
More often that not,
after salvation, God’s people drift back into doing life independently.
Think about the prophets… specifically Joel.
They were sent to speak to a people who were living life independently from God.
They endured a locust swarm...
and the destruction of all of their livelihood.
And yet....
they needed to be COMMANDED to cry out to God.
You talk about living life independently.
Their lives were shattered...
Yet, they were not moved to come back to God.
The prophets are speaking to an absolutely self-reliant people...
who learned to do life WITHOUT God.
So God moves against their way of life.
You would think that total destruction would get their attention,
But it didn’t.
Chastisement and Restoration
Chastisement and Restoration
Chastise - to correct by suffering (discipline)
to prune something of excess, pretense, or falsity (to refine)
to cause to be more humble or restrained (to subdue)
Covenant Love
Joel 2:13 (ESV)
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
LORD (all caps) - “Yahweh”
The covenant name of God.
This is the same quote as in Jonah.
This is the covenant faithfulness of God declared to his people.
Loving Father would never leave his children to destroy themselves...
He would gently speak to them.
Correct them.
Warn them.
Warn them again.
Send his messengers (prophets).
Send Difficulty.
Why?
To restore them to their rightful place...
In relationship with him.
Living all of life dependent upon him.
Sends Difficulty...
Locust Swarm.
What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.
It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
Now, what is Joel talking about?
Is it an actual swarm of locusts?
Or are locusts used as a metaphor of enemy armies?
Then, later in chapter 2,
there is another attack.
Is it an army of men or another swarm of locusts?
Solid commentators are on both sides of locusts or a metaphor using locusts.
Wording in the text can take you in both directions.
My take:
Chapter 1 - actual locust swarm
chapter 2 - an army of men
All pointing to the greater Day of the Lord...
when the judgment of God will come.
Locusts:
Swarms
Swarms 2
Eat Everything
Tree (before) - 1915 locust invasion in Israel
Tree (after)
Total devastation.
So how is this expressing God’s covenant love for his people?
Chaism
Suffering - Locust Plague
Suffering - Northern Army
Repentance
Restoration - Northern Army Destroyed
Restoration - Locust-Ravaged Land Restored
Suffering - Restoration
Covenant Discipline
Not to destroy us.
Meant to restore us.
Chastisement - A Divine Wake Up Call
Chastisement - A Divine Wake Up Call
(v. 2-3)
Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
(v. 5)
Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
(2:1)
Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
Day of the Lord
Mentioned 5 times in Joel (1:15, 2:1, 2:11, 2:31, 3:14)
This ought to be shocking.
App. Don’t waster you pain
Don’t waste you cancer (John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life)
Don’t waste your job loss
Don’t waste your break up of a relationship
Don’t waste a natural disaster
Don’t waste the season of your rebellious son/daughter
Don’t waste that D or F in a class.
Divine Wake Up Call
What a gift!!
God is helping you see that your way is not working.
That you would see life for what it is.
Response? When you “see”...
“Clean yourself up”
“Get your act together”
“Make amends and set a new direction.”
NO!!!!
“Cry out to God”
Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
(1:19) “To you, O Lord, I call...”
Cry out to him...
let God do the restoration.
let God clean things up.
First step....
In your mess… “cry out to God”
App. God will clean things up.
You will find yourself turning from things to God.
You will be active in the process of reorienting your life,
but God gets the first word as we humble ourselves before him.
God directs the restoration.
What needs to be restored?
Where do you need to cry out to God?
Are you aimless in life? Without purpose or direction?
Cry out to God.
Are you in turmoil?
Cry out to God.
If not, what kind of restoration happens?
Determined.
Self-reliant.
You cleaned up your own life.
But guess what...
You missed the overarching issue...
“Doing life on your own.”
Chastisement - A Call to Lament
Chastisement - A Call to Lament
(v. 5) “weep and wail”
(v. 8) “lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.”
(v. 11) “Be ashamed… wail”
(v. 13) “Put on sackcloth and lament…
wail...
pass the night in sackcloth”
Deep grieving and mourning.
Lament
From the Praying Life Seminar...
Over 30% of the Psalms are laments.
It’s where God teaches us how to live in the desert.
“Lament/weep/wail/be ashamed/put on sackcloth”
Lament - to grieve over the state of things in your life.
to express grief verbally.
In the Psalms:
David lamented as he was being chased by Saul
David lamented as he was being chased by Absalom
David lamented as he was being chased by Saul again and again and again.
I’m seeing a trend...
The man after God’s own heart is filled with lament (mourning)
In Joel, Locusts...
Driving you back to God.
But they didn’t lament.
And they didn’t return to the Lord.
A Praying Life Seminar-
“If you don’t do lament well you are going to get sick (become cynical).”
But the essence of Joel,
Lament over their OWN SIN.
They got themselves into this mess.
They have walked away from the Lord.
They are living on their own.
Grieve over their own sin.
And we are called to do the same.
ILL. Sabbatical - Linda
Not being fully present
Not letting her in
Not sharing my heart with her
I’m sorry and I need your forgiveness.
But what became clear again this weekend,
I’m back in the same spot.
App. Lament over sin
Unforgivenness
Apathy
Self-medicating (drinking, substances, etc.)
Lust / sexual fantasies
Dishonesty (financial dealings,
with your spouse,
to your parents,
to your friends)
When we don’t lament over our sin...
it is a sure-fire sign that you are doing life on your own.
“Oh, it’s just a bad choice or two.” (just a mistake)
You are so deceived.
I am so deceived.
The only way this will happen.... Gospel.
“Man of Sorrows”
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Despised/rejected
Man of sorrows/ familiar with grief
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
He bore our griefs
He carried our sorrows
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
We can face our sin,
and grieve over our sin...
b/c Jesus has already carried our grief.
He has already been crushed for our iniquities.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
By him we are healed!!
Lament is not the end.
It doesn’t hold the last word.
It does not get that final chapter.
(Isaiah 53:12) “He makes intercession for the transgressors.”
---
Pray
Closing Song:
“Lord I Need You”
Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more
So teach my song To rise to You,
When temptation Comes my way
Benediction:
Extra Stuff:
Extra Stuff: