A couple of days ago a mini truck selling gas tanks stopped by the house to deliver a new gas tank to replace an empty one. My wife was downstairs dealing with the gas man, while I was upstairs busy doing some work. After putting the new tank in place, he fixed the valve (that round metal thingy) on top of the tank, and proceeded to test the stove but there was no fire.
He then told Lee Fun that the valve was faulty, and suggested that it be replaced. He took out a new valve and offered to sell it at RM150. Lee Fun was not very convinced, so she summoned me to come down. I took out the valve, fixed it again, and lighted the stove. It worked fine. So I told him politely, this valve is okay, no need to change. He looked very disappointed that his dishonest scheme to cheat my wife of RM150 didn’t work. Who knows how many housewives, alone at home, he had cheated.
As I was going upstairs a thought crossed my mind. Hypothetically speaking, if I were in his shoes, if I had his set of circumstances, if I had lived his life, would I do the same? Would I be able to resist the temptation of cheating my customer RM150? I teased myself with that question for a minute or two, before getting back to my work.
If I pose that same question to you, how would you answer? I think I can roughly guess the general answer. “Of course, I wouldn’t think of cheating gullible housewives! That’s wrong!” Well, I think my answer would be similar to yours. Because we are good people, or at least we think we are good people. I know many of you, you are all good people! To underscore this point, I once had a chat with a worshipper after our Sunday Service. This took place at the Garden Café over a cup of coffee, in the days before the MCO. She’s in her sixties, a non-believer, and she attends our Sunday worship once in a while probably out of a desire to know more. I can’t remember who the preacher was, but the sermon touched a bit on the gospel, how we are all sinners and how Jesus died for our sins.
So I asked her what she thought of the sermon. She said, ”Hmm, I don’t think I’m a sinner. I don’t think I’m such a bad person. I try my best to be a good person, so I don’t understand why I need salvation.” Let me add that I think she is really a good, moral person.
Earlier in June, Brother Arnold Lim delivered two thought-provoking sermons on Lamentations, followed by a kind of round-table discussion on Lamentations. Very briefly, Jeremiah was lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem, as the place was laid to waste. Actually his lamentation is two-fold. Not only was he lamenting over God’s judgment on the Israelites, he was also lamenting over the sins of his people.
This we can read especially in Lamentations 1. In verse 5, “The LORD has brought her grief because of her many sins.” 1:8, “Jerusalem has sinned greatly…” In verse 14, “My sins have been bound into a yoke…” Verse 18, “The LORD is righteous, yet I rebelled against His command…” And verse 22, “…You have dealt with me because of all my sins.”
Perhaps here lies the greatest challenge when it comes to reading Lamentations. Many of us tend to read this book with a kind of detached attitude. We don’t think we are as bad as them. They sinned greatly, they rebelled against God’s laws, as we saw in Lamentations 1, whereas we think we are good people, good Christians. That’s why it’s hard for us to grasp the depth of the lamenting throughout the five chapters of Lamentations. It’s hard for us to identify with Jeremiah in his deep anguish and sorrow.
If we think we are good, Scripture tells us that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;” from Isaiah 64:6. This is hard for many people to accept. What do you mean? How can you say, all the good that I do, they are like filthy rags? The truth of the matter is that the lower the view we have of God, the higher the view we have of ourselves. We end up thinking we are good. Oh, we won’t cheat people of RM150.
Conversely, it’s when we see God in His holiness and righteousness, it’s when the Holy Spirit convicts us on these things, then we will begin to realize the depths of our sins. When we see God increased, we see ourselves decreased! We will stop thinking how good we are. Many of you are familiar with Isaiah 6, when the prophet Isaiah had an encounter with God, and his reaction was that of desperation and panic, because of his sin.
Brother Arnold Lim explained in his sermon how lamentation is that space between sorrow and joy. If we want to truly taste the full joy of salvation, if we want to really experience the full release that comes with salvation, the right place to start is by lamenting over our sins and transgressions, by focusing on the holiness of God. By understanding what it really means when we say, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! That’s the place to start.
Besides joy and release, the other great dividend of lamentations is hope. The more we lament, the more we can appreciate the vast measure of hope that we have in Christ. Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3:19, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.” Then in verse 21 he adds, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.”
Those who genuinely grieve over their sins before our Holy God, are led into a place where they can truly delight in the hope that Christ offers, the hope of deliverance and salvation. A hope that is founded on the great love and unfailing compassion of God, the love and compassion of God that are new every morning, which Jeremiah elaborates in Lamentations 3:22~23.
The writer of Lamentations also exhorts us to wait upon the Lord. In 3:24, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” Again in verse 26, “…it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” Hence the title of this piece: Waiting on Our Holy God.
Whenever we pray, each time we approach the throne of God in prayer, let our minds be guided by these thoughts – that is, to lament over our sins by gazing upon the holiness of God. And also adopting a position of waiting and hoping, because our God is also a God of love and compassion. There is sorrow in lamenting, but there is also joy in the living hope we have in Christ.
Lastly, to help us come before our Holy God in humility and contrition, I wish to share with you this beautiful song that someone sent to me, during the early days of the MCO. It was composed and sung by a Mandarin speaking pastor from Kuching, Sarawak, by the name of GT Lim. The title of the song is ‘让平安降临人间’, meaning, ‘Let Peace Descend on Earth.’ You can detect a little of the language of Lamentations in the lyrics.
To hear this lovely song please follow this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmmZMJTtoCI