Part 8

~~ Fall of the OT, ~~

In this message I will pick back up In Lam. 3. 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

This is speaking of Jesus, as He was all alone at the time of the crucifixion. Both his friends, family and God had forsaken Him and He went there all alone. He had borne that law, that old covenant all alone. He had taken it upon himself. Now He is to pay the price of our deliverance from that law of sin and death.

29. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

This putting his mouth into the dust speaks of his being a mortal man, a frame of dust. It also speaks of his going into the grave.

30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

This of course speaks of the time of crucifixion when they smote Jesus and plucked the beard from his face. Thus at that time he was filled full with reproach. All those around him at that time reproached and mocked him.

31. For the Lord will not cast off forever:

This is Jesus’ hope; his faith that His Father God will not cast him off forever. He had faith that God would bring him out of that grave and give him eternal life.

32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

33. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

34. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.

35. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

36. To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

These verses are how Jesus comforted himself at this time. He told himself these things and shows that is how we should have faith when we are going through troubles and trials.

37. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

38. Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

39. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins?

40. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

This is the message of repentance of the NT. It is a call to those OT peoples to turn to Jesus, as He becomes our Saviour and our God.

42. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

43. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

44. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

45. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

This is the OT covenant speaking. They had rebelled against God therefore God persecuted them and slew that old covenant without pity. He will never ever pick it back up again. This is not saying God turned away from Jewish people. It is saying He turned away from that old law covenant. Almost every church and minister teaches that God turned away from Jews as individuals and cut them out of salvation. This is just not true. They were the very first ones included and brought into NT true salvation. God only cut off that old way of law keeping as the way to God.

Verse 44 tells that the prayers coming from that old covenant will not go through to God. He will not hear from that law. You must come into Grace and through Jesus to be heard by God.

46. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

This is great. It is speaking of the apostles as the enemies of that old law covenant and they, especially Paul, open wide their mouths against that way of life. See this is the old covenant speaking; not an individual.

47. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

48. Mine eye Runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission.

50. Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

51. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

These verses show Jesus as He cried and wept over the destruction of Jerusalem, that old covenant. This was when Jesus looked down on the city and wept over it.

52. Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

54. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

Verse 52 is Jesus speaking of how his enemies sought to destroy him and kill him. But it is also the old covenant speaking of the NT ministers as they preached the message of turning away from that law covenant unto Grace. They cut that way of life off and buried it.

55. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.

56. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

These verses are profound. This is Jesus when he was down in hell crying out to God for deliverance.

Want proof?

Psm. 69:18. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

19. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

20. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

21. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

22. Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

23. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

24. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

25. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

26. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

27. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

28. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

Take the time to read this whole chapter. It is mighty. It is Jesus praying to God before and during his time in hell. See how verse 19 shows it was Jesus who was reproached; he was full of heaviness and none took pity on him at the time of his death. He had no comforters, not even God. He found none.

Verse 21 proves this is Jesus. Verse 22 is his prayer against his enemies, the OT law covenant and those who held to it. The rulers of that law were the very ones who persecuted and destroyed Jesus. But He prayed for that group and covenant to be desolate and none ever dwell in their ‘tents’ [law covenant] again. You cannot ‘live’ for God THERE.

See verse 27 Jesus prayed that this group who cling to law would not come into His righteousness. You cannot come into righteousness by law. It is impossible. In verse 28, by His prayer, he blotted them out of the book of the living. This is where God sealed up that Book of Life in Revelation. Only Jesus could open it back up. And He did.

Psalms 69:1. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

2. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

This was at the time of Jesus’ death. This is His prayer to God at that time.

3. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

4. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

Here Jesus shows that he restored fallen man, whom He was not responsible for their falling.

5. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

This is as Jesus took upon himself the sins of the whole world.

6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

7. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

8. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.

9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

This shows that Jesus came unto his own and they did not know him. It is also identification that this is indeed Jesus being spoken of.

10. When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

11. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.

12. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.

This shows that the rulers of law [those sitting in the gate] were against him.

13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

14. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

15. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

This is Jesus’ prayer for God to deliver him from death, hell and the grave.

16. Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

17. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

18. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

19. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

Now back to Lam. 3.

57. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

58. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

This is showing the resurrection of Jesus.

59. O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

60. Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

61. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;

62. The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

63. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

64. Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

65. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

66. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.

Jesus prayed, “give them sorrow of heart, Thy curse unto them.”

He knew Moses had said by God that if they disobeyed the curse would come upon them.

So here Jesus is praying for this to be fulfilled; and it was. They are cursed by God.

Verse66. Amazing isn’t it? The Whole Book of God has 66 books. Isaiah, a miniature Bible, has 66 chapters. Lamentations 3, speaking of the crucifixion, resurrection of Jesus and the fall of the old law covenant, has 66 verses. 66 books; 66 chapters; 66 verses. And it ends with the cutting off of that old law covenant and the bringing in of the New Heavens and New earth = New Jerusalem of salvation through faith in Jesus.

Seems to me that the mark of the beast is somehow tied up in this. So I think it has to do with going back to law. In verse 66 Jesus is praying for God to persecute and destroy all under that old law covenant. This fits exactly what is shown in Hebrews that the one [old covenant] which waxed old and decayed is destroyed. Notice that this is Jesus himself praying for God to persecute and destroy this group of rebellions, law claiming people. Who is able to stay his hand? None.

Jonah 2

1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,

2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

7. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

Now you may not think so, but this is prophecy of Jesus being down in hell. Jesus himself used this thing with Jonah to show the death, going into hell, and the resurrection of him. As Jonah was three days and nights SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE IN THE EARTH.

So this Scripture proves that Jesus did pray to God while in hell and that God heard him and delivered him. Glory.

By: Jo Smith