The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

 

Lamentations 4:1-22

 

August 5, 2025

 

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed!  The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street.  The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands!  Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.  The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.  Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

 

 For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.   Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.   Now their face is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their bones;  it has become as dry as wood.  Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field.

 

The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.  The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.  The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem. This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.   They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.

 

“Away! Unclean!” people cried at them.  “Away! Away! Do not touch!”  So, they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, “They shall stay with us no longer.”  The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.  Our eyes failed, ever watching
 vainly for help; in our watching, we watched for a nation which could not save.  They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.   Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

 

The breath of our nostrils, the Lord's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.” Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz; but to you also the cup shall pass; you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare. The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer. 
But your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins.

 

Often, when I read accounts of the Babylonians coming into Jerusalem and carrying off the one they desire, like Daniel and his three friends, we do not get the devastating destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.  Is the despair of the people who were not killed?  Many were left in the ruins, with no leadership, and their food source was destroyed.  The gate and the walls of Jerusalem are destroyed, and none of their neighbor show anything but contempt, and make fun of their situation.  Also, understanding that God allowed this to happen because they rebelled against his commandments. 

 

As followers of Jesus Christ, this book of Lamentations should serve as a warning for our nations not to take the grace and mercy and forget about God’s justice.  We, as a Church, have become complacent.

 

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Israel broke the Vow to God

 

 

 

Lamentations 3:43-66

 

August 4, 2025

 

 

 

“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;  you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.  You have made us scum and garbage among the people.   “All our enemies open their mouths against us; panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.  “My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.  “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’ 

 

“I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit, you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’  You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. “You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.  The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.  Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. “You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.  You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.”^[

 

Why was God so angry with the chosen people?  They had listened to all that God had said to Moses and agreed that of all the people in the world, God had chosen them, so they vowed to obey all that He had spoken to Moses.  You will find those promises in Exodus 19:8: After God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He established a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. The people responded, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do."  Once more in Exodus 24:3, 7: “Moses relayed all the Lord's rules and regulations to the people. They responded again, "All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do."  And they did till they got wealth and comfort, and then they rebelled and became like the pagans living around them.

 

Man wanting to run the show, to be the captain of his life, and look what that got Israel, and it sure looks like our nation has rejected God and the Church; we need to awaken to its calling.

 

We should recall this Scripture in John 15:18-20, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.  Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they would also obey yours.”

 

In that Jesus is the Truth, not some truth, He is the Truth, and the world does not like truth.  So, when you confront the darkness of people's hearts, they will hate you, because they do not want to be exposed.

 

From our Back Porch, 

 

Bob Rice

Waiting on The Lord

 

 

 

Lamentations 3: 25-42

 

July 3, 2025

 

 

 

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.   It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.   It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;  let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.  For the Lord will not cast off forever, for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.  To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,  to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?   Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?   Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the Lord!   Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: “We have transgressed and rebelled,  and you have not forgiven.  

 

We live in the time of instant gratification. It has been my experience that God, being all-knowing, is not willing to participate in that.  He's not going to be like your cell phone or Google, with the answer you desire.  I believe that is why so many feel that God has not answered their prayers. So, will you ponder on verse 25? It has been my experience that I need to cut out the noise, get into a quiet place, and listen for my answer.  I also found that often the Holy Spirit will lead me to a Scripture or thought that is the answer.

 

The night my cousin came to our house in Odem, Texas, and I was home with our little girl, Jan was at a Bible Study, and we only had one car.  They said we will stay with Natalie, take our car, and go to the hospital.  The speed limit was 70, and I had a habit of driving a little too fast.  That night, I was only going 50 miles an hour.  My Dad had never been sick, and when I noticed the speed I was going, I said Father, why am I going so slow, it was and instance answer, " Your dad is with me, just pray for your mother.  But there have been many times that I prayed and prayed for days, and God was waiting for me to act on what I was praying for.  One was when a woman wanted to destroy my marriage, and when I could not seem to remove her from my thoughts, I had begged God to do so, and then one day she tracked me to a store by my office, and asked me to go for a ride in her new car, which her husband had bought for her.  She drove to the shoreline, in an area overlooking the water, and tried to reach out for my hand. I say we're not going to do that, and I need to go back to my car.  At that moment, I had my pray answer.  God knew what I would do in that He is all-knowing, but I need to be free, and I was.

 

From the Back Porch, 

 

Bob Rice

Great Is Your Faithfulness

                                                           Lamentations 3:1-24

 

August 2, 2025

 

Great Is Your Faithfulness

 

 

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.  

 

He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.  He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.  

 

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.  Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.  He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.  

 

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

 

He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.  I became the laughingstock of all my people;   they mock me in song all day long.
He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.

 

He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.”

 

The Writer, who many think is Jeremiah the weeping prophet, is in deep sorrow and distress for the people of Israel, and himself.  He is in a time of deep hurt; he knows this is from God, and for the first time, maybe in his lifetime, God is not responding to his prayers.

 

Have you found yourself in a place where it seems God has withdrawn from you, maybe someone you love deeply, a wife, child, or close friend, has been sick, and you cried out to the Lord, and no response.  Did you get angry with God? Did you stop believing in His love for you? If so, that is not the model we have from the writer of Lamentations 3:1-24.

 

This was his response: Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

 

 Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.”

 

If you find yourself angry at God, or have forgotten all the blessings and love He has shown, it's time to get alone in a quiet place and let Him remind you of His love for you.

 

We can learn from another Job, whom God said, “And the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Job 1:8,  We have this from Job after his children had been killed and his wealth taken from him. “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 

 

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

 

Lamination 2:1-22

 

April 13, 2024

 

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

 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.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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.​  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. 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 mother's bosom.   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?  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.

 

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?”  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!  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.  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!  “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.”

 

 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 priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?   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 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.

 

If you can read only the highlighted area of what Jeremiah was witnessing and still have no fear of a Holy God, then read no more. Be warned: these were His chosen people, and they also forsake the God of their fathers.  Jeremiah tells us God’s wrath was without mercy.  Jeremiah is very clear that it is the Lord. Do you recall God calling a pagan king his servant?  And it was Nebuchadnezzar’s army that did all of this; they took great joy in the destruction of Jerusalem and its people.

 

I have no doubt our nation is under judgment, “Truth what is Truth.” People have no fear of God, the marketplace is full of lies, the schools are teaching lies, and the government has become the chief of liars.  Where is Truth? It is only found in Jesus.  He has told us in John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  If you are going to look for Truth, it is best to have the source of Truth to begin your search.

 

Do you recall the story Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19-31?  He dies and goes to hell, and Lazarus goes to heaven, and he asks God to send Lazarus or anyone back to tell his brothers.  And he was told that even if a person who had died came back and warned them, they would not pay any attention.  That is what Jesus did: He paid in full for your sin, and He has risen indeed.  The Scripture tells us, “Today is the day of Salvation.” My prayer is that you will do so.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

The day God spoke to me while cleaning my grill

 

The day God spoke to me while cleaning my grill

 

 

While cleaning the Barbecue grill, these thoughts came into my mind, and because I do not think like this, I believe God was speaking to me about “Sin.”  It went something like this: Have you ever given thought to how a barbecue grill and sin have a lot in common?  Wow, where did that thought come from?  Now that got my attention, and as I looked at that decayed matter we left on the grill, it seemed as if it was embedded into the stainless-steel bars of the grill.  It seemed as if the author of that thought was watching and had observed that I was spending a considerable amount of time with steel pads and soap, and a good amount of effort, and that decayed matter still has a hold in those hard-to-get areas.

 

Over the years, we have been careful to put aluminum grill covers on the grills to keep the grease from dropping on the grill, and yet, like sin, it was getting below the surface, out of sight, but today it was no longer acceptable; it had been discovered and must be removed, and it has been a long and difficult task.  I have noticed that sin in my life begins with just a small deception; it might be in a business deal with a customer.   I observed the following: in a marriage, it may be the flirtation with a young woman, it’s just a game, and the benefit comes from the man’s self-esteem; he feels as if he still has what it takes.  The wife feels the need to have a couple of glasses of wine during the day just to take the edge off while she watches “The Days of Our Lives” or some other soap opera to fill her mind with doubt and disappointment about her place in life.  It’s a lot like your grill, at first it looks ok, but like the decayed matter on your grill, if not dealt with, it gets ugly.

 

You see, what begins with a flirtation will often end in adultery; it never begins there, but at the root is a man who is willing to put his desires before the vow he made before God and witnesses.   At first, he fantasizes, but after that, he wants to conquer, and the result is broken promises, broken lives, and often divorce.  What about the stay-at-home mom, those glasses of wine increase, and before she has any understanding, she is an alcoholic.  Like my grill, it did not happen overnight; it took a while, and sin, no matter what sin, has a way of building decay into the lives of people.  We need to pay attention to our grill, and we also need to pay attention to our mind, for it is the mind that is the door to our heart.  Embedded sin will dig deep into the heart and mind of a person, and it establishes roots that will leave blemishes and scars.  It has taken hours to clean your grill, but it will take your acknowledgment and confession for God’s grace to remove your sin.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

My blog; http://fromourbackporch.blogspot.com/

How Lonely Sits the City Part 2

  

 

Lamentations 1:11-22

 

July 31, 2025

How Lonely Sits the City Part 2

 

All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength.  “Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised.” “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?  Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.“  From on high, he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.  “The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.

 

“For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.”   Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.  “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity.“

 

I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength.   “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious.
In the street, the sword bereaves; in the house, it is like death.  “They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me.  All my enemies have heard of my trouble; They are glad that you have done it.  You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am.  “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”

 

You see the value of good stuff when you are hungry; they traded their treasure for food.  The writer is acknowledging that God has inflicted shame and sorrow on His chosen, in that they were not willing to obey his commands.

 

When judgment day comes, that is when we want comfort, but then and now, we run to God in times of distress.  Do you recall after 9-11 how the places of worship were full, but a month later, those folks were not to be found.  They were back to the little gods they trusted in.  But the people of Israel were displaced all over the known world, and their cries for mercy were falling on deaf ears; no one had compassion on them. 

 

Let me leave you with this thought:  What would God's judgment look like if He turned His back on the USA?

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice