Responding to Wrath
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Intro
Intro
Grace is amazing because Judgement is real...
22 Verses… Continuation of 1
Lam / Cross intersect?
Message
Message
2 Chron 36…
The Wrath of God
The Wrath of God
Lamentations 2:1–17 (ESV)
1 How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2 The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers. 3 He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy; he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around. 4 He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe; and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his fury like fire. 5 The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 6 He has laid waste his booth like a garden, laid in ruins his meeting place; the Lord has made Zion forget festival and Sabbath, and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest. 7 The Lord has scorned his altar, disowned his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord as on the day of festival. 8 The Lord determined to lay in ruins the wall of the daughter of Zion; he stretched out the measuring line; he did not restrain his hand from destroying; he caused rampart and wall to lament; they languished together. 9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more, and her prophets find no vision from the Lord. 10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. 11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. 12 They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom. 13 What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you? 14 Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.
14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.” 15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.” 16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’ ” 18 For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? 19 Behold, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. 21 “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds. 23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart,
15 All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” 16 All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth, they cry: “We have swallowed her! Ah, this is the day we longed for; now we have it; we see it!” 17 The Lord has done what he purposed; he has carried out his word, which he commanded long ago; he has thrown down without pity; he has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes.
Lamentations: Living in the Ruins (3) Destruction of the Temple (2:6–7)
The belief was prevalent that, because the LORD had been pleased to presence himself in the Temple, both it and the city in which it lay were perpetually inviolate. They confessed that the LORD was stronger than any enemy, and so were assured that his presence guaranteed that Zion would never fall. Yet it had: not because of divine powerlessness, but by divine leave.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”
38 But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed. 39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust. 40 You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins. 41 All who pass by plunder him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. 42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. 43 You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not made him stand in battle. 44 You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground. 45 You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame. Selah
9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
The Silence of Surrender
The Silence of Surrender
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth; the young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
13 What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you?
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a sermon written by the American theologian Jonathan Edwards, preached to his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts, to profound effect,[1] and again on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. The preaching of this sermon was the catalyst for the First Great Awakening.[2] Like Edwards' other works, it combines vivid imagery of Hell with observations of the world and citations of Biblical scripture. It is Edwards' most famous written work, is a fitting representation of his preaching style,[3] and is widely studied by Christians and historians, providing a glimpse into the theology of the First Great Awakening of c. 1730–1755.
This highly influential sermon of the Great Awakening, emphasized God's wrath upon unbelievers after death to a very real, horrific, and fiery Hell.[4] The underlying point is that God has given humans a chance to confess their sins. It is the mere will of God, according to Edwards, that keeps wicked men from being overtaken by the devil and his demons and cast into the furnace of hell – "like greedy hungry lions, that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back [by God's hand]." Mankind's own attempts to avoid falling into the "bottomless gulf" due to the overwhelming "weight and pressure towards hell" are as insufficient as "a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock". This act of grace from God has given humans a chance to believe and trust in Christ.[5] Edwards provides much varied and vivid imagery to illustrate this main theme throughout.
Most of the sermon's text consists of ten "considerations":
God may cast wicked men into Hell at any given moment.
The wicked deserve to be cast into Hell. Divine justice does not prevent God from destroying the wicked at any moment.
The wicked, at this moment, suffer under God's condemnation to Hell.
The wicked, on earth—at this very moment—suffer a sample of the torments of Hell. The wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, that God (in whose hand the wicked now reside) is not—at this very moment—as angry with them as he is with those he is now tormenting in Hell, and who—at this very moment—feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath.
At any moment God shall permit him, Satan stands ready to fall upon the wicked and seize them as his own.
If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
Simply because there are not visible means of death before them at any given moment, the wicked should not feel secure.
Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God's wrath.
All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
God has never promised to save mankind from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.
The Response of the Repentant
The Response of the Repentant
Lamentations 2:18–22 (ESV)
18 Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! 19 “Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.” 20 Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21 In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity. 22 You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, and on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.
6 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.
God’s Holiness is Seen Most Clearly Here...
On the cross his wrath is seen most vividly
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 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.
Close
Close
Group Questions
Group Questions
Do you more easily remember “good times” or “bad times”?
How would you summarize the main idea of Lamentations 2 in a couple of
sentences?
What is the reason God became like an enemy to Israel and Judah (see also Deut. 28:45-57)? How is God just in His action? How is God faithful to His Word in His action?
God’s affliction of the city of Jerusalem shows that God does not take sin lightly and He will not let His people continue in it. How should this cause you to take your sin seriously and to take God’s holiness seriously? What would that look like on a day-to-day basis?
This lament mentions a number of “hopes” that God removes from Israel: Israel’s religious hopes (v. 7), Israel’s military hopes (vv. 8–9), and Israel’s political hopes (v. 9). What is God’s purpose in removing these hopes from the nation? How does this actually serve His people? Can you remember when God stripped you of the “hopes” in your life and how that worked for your good?
It is really important to see that, even though God was the one afflicting Israel (v.17), they still cry out to him (vv. 18–20). Why is it important to keep going to God in prayer even in the midst of affliction? Is there anything you’re experiencing in life now where this reminder is helpful?
Have you ever felt like God was an adversary against you?Have you ever felt like God was completely absent from your life? What are some ways that you responded? Do you think that you responded correctly or not?
Why is it important to have a theology of suffering before we suffer?Why do we need a “long view” of things and God’s promises when suffering?
What are some ways that your Life Group can help each other in the midst of our lamenting?