This is a monthly column that presents recaps or excerpts from Iverna’s books, taped messages, or current teachings. They are timeless insights and divine revelation that add up to Truth.

For now, we will be offering the actual text from an out-of-print book, "Depending on Grace: Lessons from Lamentations" by Iverna Tompkins, 1987.

We strongly encourage you to stick with the reading of this revelation presented this year - even though at times the text may not seem to be so uplifting because it deals with the judgments of God.

There is much to be gleaned, however, from the Book of Lamentations for the Church today, in the 21st century, and Iverna brings that to us. May our hearts be enlightened as we read and meditate. - jv, ed.

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"Deserved Devastation
Depending on Grace:
Lessons from Lamentations"
Part 5
By Iverna Tompkins
Edited text by Jane Vaughn

Lamentations 2:1-22

Continued

1 How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of his anger! He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor. 3 In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. 4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. 5 The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah. 6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The Lord has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest. 7 The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord as on the day of an appointed feast. 8 The Lord determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away. 9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the Lord. 10 The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. 11 My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. 12 They say to their mothers, "Where is bread and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in their mothers' arms. 13 What can I say for you? With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? 14 The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. 15 All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" 16 All your enemies open their mouths wide against you; they scoff and gnash their teeth and say, "We have swallowed her up. This is the day we have waited for; we have lived to see it." 17 The Lord has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes. 18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest. 19 Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street. 20 "Look, O Lord, and consider: Whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cared for? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21 "Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered them without pity. 22 "As you summon to a feast day, so you summoned against me terrors on every side. In the day of the Lord's anger no one escaped or survived; those I cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed."

Lesson we can learn
Continued

Last month, we ended here:

What happens to a covenant when it is broken on one side – our side?  It means He no longer has to keep covenant with us.  How glad I am that Father knows we could never keep our end of the bargain, so He provided that perfect spotless Lamb who will not only keep our responsibilities but God’s as well.  He will satisfy God completely and His blood seals us into an everlasting relationship with Father. 

What does that have to do with punishment? 

Iverna continues:

Do we really believe God has put us in some kind of “hothouse” as a protection from Satan or anguish or pain?

Do we really believe that because we are Christians we have been set apart from ever having negative experiences? 

Was it really lack of faith that caused Jesus Christ to go through what He did? 

Was it lack of faith that caused Paul to go through the negative experiences of his life?

Imagine Paul with some of our theology today.  They stoned him and left him for dead outside the city (Ac.14:19).  We would accuse him of not having faith.  We would somehow get him back together and send him on to Rome. 

When the ship fell apart someone would say he went out of the will of God.  And when a viper grabbed hold of him while he was building a fire (Ac.28:3ff), there would be one to say, “This man is really not of faith.” 

And when he was placed in prison, we would say, Peter had enough faith to be led out by an angel (Ac.12:7ff), but this man just sits chained to a Roman guard for years.  He surely can’t be the man of God he claims to be (cf.2Cor.11:23ff).

No, we are not immune to problems while only the Christians who don’t obey God go through some things.  Thousands of godly men and women have been beaten and imprisoned and burned, who with their last breath have sung, “All hail the power of Jesus’ name,” while the crowd scoffed and said that if they really believed in Jesus’ name, they wouldn’t die.

Dear church, we dare not be lulled into the lethargic position of the Laodicean church saying, “We’ve been good.  We’ve got the blood of Jesus and everything is going to be fine.”

This is the day when the Lord is once more going to shake everything that can be shaken.

God is shaking our doctrine.  He’s doing it so we will know our true doctrine.  There has never been more mixture in teaching in the church than there is today.  Why?  That He may do us good!  It’s not the devil.  The Lord may let him growl, but he is only a tool in God’s hand. 

The mixture doesn’t mean that God has forgotten His covenant or that we are no longer filled with His glory.  It does mean we need to be sure of what we believe and why we believe it so we can stand firm; so that if the written Word is removed, the Truth will remain in our hearts.

When the cloud of His anger comes, we lose the cloud of His glory and His presence.  He swallows us up and tears us down so we also lose His tender compassion. 

When God swallows us up in His love, that kind of consumption is a joy and delight to believers and causes us to be totally yielded to whatever is His desire. 

But when God throws us down, consumes us, and swallows us in that way, it is the fire of destruction that destroys and brings to dishonor.  He has cut off every horn, which almost always speaks of authoritative power and strength. 

Every strength in Zion was destroyed.  God’s displeasure causes us to lose our power and authority in Him.

This message doesn’t come forth to cause fear but rather to admonish us so that we can understand before-time and position ourselves in the Word of the Lord to be strong and put on the whole armor of God. 

But another fear is coming to men and women even in the body of Christ.  Leaders are trembling in fear of famine and lack of finances and situations that man has created.  There is a fear of the prophetic word and it is part of the judgment that is coming to the house of God. 

Christians are in fear because they don’t continue to grow and they are ministering on a level beyond their living.

“He has withdrawn His right hand” (vs.3).  The hand of the Lord is many things to us, such as provision, protection, and chastening.  In this particular place it speaks of the protection of the Lord being withdrawn (Ezr.8:22). 

How often we minimize or take for granted God’s protection. Sometimes we feel as though we have earned a right to have God as a bodyguard because we asked Jesus to be merciful and save us.  It is as though we hired Him since that day to take good care of us and He had better do it.

In the revelation of the Father, it is quite the opposite.  The Word says, “If you keep your eyes on Me, if you will put your hope and trust in Me, I will never let go of you.  I will never let circumstances prevail against you.  Doors will open before you that no man can shut (cf.Is.22:22; Rev.3:7).  But if you don’t keep your eyes on Me, if you put your eyes on other things, other nations or other gods, My hand will be heavy upon you.”

When anyone is my enemy, I have lost a friend.  Think what it would mean if we lost His friendship.  What a joy and privilege is ours right now to step boldly into His presence and commune with Him as friend-with-friend. 

As this becomes reality to us, we can understand that old hymn of the church, “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”  It can become to us, not merely a sweet hour, but days, nights and weeks of prayer: communion so rapturous that we can see ourselves as the hymn says, rising to new realms and looking back saying, “Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.”  Not that communion is over but it becomes endless and time is no more.  What a loss is ours when God is angry and withdraws.

Verse 5 says there is destruction of the stronghold and an increase of mourning, meaning a loss of strength and a loss of joy.  The call to the church is one of difficulty and responsibility as we stand before the rest of the body, saying, “This is the way it’s done and the strength He is in me, He will be in you.” 

When our heavenly bridegroom speaks in the Song of Solomon to His beloved, He says, “Your breasts are beautiful.”  He is telling the church she is able to nurse, to reach out to the babies and say, “Here, let us teach you the ways of the Lord,” so they are nurtured and enabled to grow.

In that same wonderful book the bride says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” (S/S1:2 KJV).  That means we must be face-to-face with Him so that He may impart His Word to us.  What close communion!

Calling the church His garden, His spouse, He speaks of the vast difference in each one.  There’s a variety of color and fragrance.  From time to time, He blows on that garden and the fragrance wafts up to Him and delights Him.  But in Lamentations 2:6, He has laid waste His garden and destroyed the place of His meeting. 

How do you lay waste a garden?  You plow it under.  We lose our fruitfulness and fellowship with Him. 

All that He planted, cultivated and watered to bring forth praise, honor and reverence to Himself is destroyed because we wouldn’t respond to Him.  His intention was that every wind, the breath of the Holy Spirit breathing upon us, whether of adversity or of His blessing, would bring forth from our lives a fragrance, sweet incense to His nostrils. 

But we griped and complained and became angry.  We rebelled and turned to other gods and other places and watered down every word of God until He declared it necessary to plow us under.

This is culminated in verse 7 by even a forgetting of an appointed feast, a losing of worship.  God has taken away her power and protection, and taken away His laws and His message, removing all purpose and direction for living, all spiritual vision.

Today we have the highest suicide rate that has ever taken place in this country reaching even to young children.  Not just the poor and ignorant, but also the educated and prosperous have cried out, “What is there to live for?” 

It seems like everyone is going their own way.  Schools can’t agree on their curriculum; churches can’t agree; nobody likes each other; and everyone teaches a different thing.  There is no one you can trust.  So, self-destruct has set in.  It always will when we depart from God’s truth.

“There is a silence of the elders and the young women” (vs.10).  There’s a lack of wisdom.  Young ministers are not elders.  We have put such a premium on youth; we have lost the wisdom that can only be imparted through time. 

Wisdom doesn’t just come through revelation but through living experience.  It seems that just when a man becomes useful, we set him on a shelf and say, “Thanks a lot for your sixty-five years,” when really it’s time we need him to feed us. 

About the time we need the older women to share valuable things they have learned, we shut our ears to them and say, “It’s a new day.  What worked for you won’t work for us.”  How tragic it is when God silences the elderly.

Young women in the Bible usually represent song and beauty and enthusiasm.  We see how quickly there can come a lack in godly beauty, enthusiasm, and the song of the Lord in exchange for demonstration and flaunting; a mimicry of what once was beautiful and real and precious. 

Because we see this, we tend to shut the door on the real.  But we must not let the counterfeit panic us. 

There is the genuine Spirit of God who has been outpoured upon the church that is making crybabies stand up and be strong.  “The righteous are as bold as a lion” (Pr.28:1). 

The true anointing is beautiful and touches lives, but when it is faked it becomes obnoxious and we don’t want any part of it.  When that happens, we often go back to something that’s less than God wants for us.  This is devastating to the church and it calls for lamentation.

There must also come a lamenting for the body of Christ at large.  How long has it been since you prayed for other countries of the world?

The young people are crying for bread and wine (vs.12).  They need something stronger than they’re getting. 

What if there were no parents in the church to care for and nurture them?  Is that perhaps the situation we see today?  Could this be why new religions and cults have been so successful in the United States?  They have given the youth a cause; something to commit to. 

Because the church hasn’t, we lost almost a whole generation of young people who tramped the streets looking for something to give to only to find the futility of such a war.  So they turned to drugs and whatever other escape was available.

Church, we must wake up! 

It’s time to stop watering down the Word of the Lord.  Instead of compromise, we must say, “If you are going to be a part of Jesus Christ, this is what it’s going to cost you.”  It won’t drive people away; it will draw them.  It’s what they are crying for – a real cause.

Jeremiah weeps for the people because they are in a condition of unrevealed sin.  And who didn’t reveal it?  The priests, the elders, the teachers, the fathers and the mothers. 

We are frightened of the very word sin.  We water it down by saying something like, “That probably wouldn’t be pleasing to the Lord.”

What is sin?  What are young people hearing in their churches?  Today’s church may say, “Nothing is sin unless it is sin to you.”  That’s heading for a fall! 

We must awaken to God’s Word.  We must let them know that there are some things that absolutely defile mankind.  There are things God says are enmity against Him and have no part with Him. 

Some things are just plain sin and iniquity.  Carelessness becomes lawlessness and lawlessness is rebellion and “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1Sam.13:23 KJV).

When things are going well, we become proud.  And the enemy triumphs because of our failures and scoffs that God has done this.  It is fair.  And there will be a completeness in His punishment, a fulfillment of His wrath.

We must cry out to God because of our individual sins as well as our corporate sins (vvs.18-22).  We must begin to deal with God earnestly and repent with tears.  We need to cry out continually without rest during the trial when everything seems hopeless. 

There’s nothing wrong with crying; repenting from our innermost beings until all the filth is out of our lives and we have been made right with God. 

Let the Holy Spirit reveal each sin.  Name them to God and bring them, each one, to the cross. 

Don’t leave until they are covered by the blood of Jesus and then you can lift up your hands, not only in surrender, but in praise and adoration and thanksgiving to a God who is holy.

 

Father God, thank You for the greatness of Your love which speaks to me in this way.  Thank You for Your Word and Your Spirit that gives me understanding.  I bless You for the Spirit of conviction that has not been withdrawn and I ask for courage to respond so that I may stand pure and undefiled in your sight and be unwavering in that certainty so that I will not be pushed into false guilt and condemnation by the words of people.  I praise You for the shaking of all that I believe so I may know what is truly of You.  I am not asking You to separate me from all these things but rather strengthen me so be able to stand in the midst of them for the glory of God. Amen.

 

To be Continued. . .

Prayer Directives