Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Lamentations of Jeremiah chapter
3, and we're going to read verses 7, 8 and 9. Lamentations chapter
3 and verses 7, 8 and 9. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. Lamentations. Chapter 3, verses
7, 8 and 9. Hedged in by God. Jeremiah, he lived to see the
prophecies that he was called to make concerning the Lord's
wrath upon Israel because of their sin. He lived to see them
come to pass. Many false prophets had prophesied
peace, but God had said while his people were not repenting,
and they were continuing to walk in a way of idolatry and contrary
to the Lord, that he would visit their transgressions. He would
send them into Babylon for 70 years, and there they would be,
and then he would bring them back again. Many never thought
that the Lord would caused that the temple be destroyed, Jerusalem
laid bare, and his ancient people brought into captivity in that
way. But the Lord did bring it to
pass. And Jeremiah, who had prophesied
these things, he lived to see it. He lived to see these things
happen. And it was a grief, a sorrow
to him. You know, wherever the Lord's
servants may be a means of admonishing a people, a flock, correcting
them, warning them. It is no pleasure when they actually
see a people that do not heed, keep on their way, and those
things come, of which they warned would come, is no consolation
than to say, well, I told you so, my prophecy came to pass. It's a grief, it is a sorrow,
and that's what it was to Jeremiah. When he saw what had happened,
when he saw Jerusalem sacked, when he saw those that were slain
and those carried away, it was a grief, it was a sorrow to him. And these lamentations, they
show this forth so well. Now these chapters, they're done
in an acrostic, each one of them apart from the chapter where
we are, 22 verses, the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In this
chapter, we have every three verses. The first three is the
first letter of the alphabet, and then so forth right through
the lamentation. It is designed to help a remembrance
of this lament over what had happened to Jerusalem. It is a reminder to the people
of God, to end of time, to the church of God, to those for whom
the Lord sends warnings, to those to whom the Lord speaks and causes
that they might hear his word, hearken to his word. And here
we have a path that dear Jeremiah viewed in his own case as an
aspect of it in the words of our text. that his way had been
a way hedged up. Some of you may have been to
a maze that has got hedges, and
you try to find your way out of this maze, and you've got
a hedge on each side. You can't see over it. You can't
see around the next bend. You don't know where it is going.
You're trying to find your way out. Like he says here, that
the Lord hath enclosed his ways with hewn stone. And you think
of, again, a pathway with hewn stone, a wall on each side. And we cannot turn from it to
the left hand, to the right, but must go on. We cannot get
out of this providence. We cannot get out of this chain
of events. He can't stop it and say, I'd
like to get off. I'd like to change this course
of providence. I'd like to go back. No. And
so Jeremiah, he'd been in this path and he knew it was going
to come to pass. Now he is walking in and the
Lord is so hedged up his path. He must stay in his office. He
must preach the word. He must warn them. He must see
what is coming. He must follow through with all
what the Lord had appointed for him and he could not get out.
This is the picture and this is what Jeremiah is speaking
of in the words of our text. And dear friends, it's not just
Jeremiah. Many of the Lord's people know
this and it may be that you this evening know it as well. know
something of what it is when the Lord hedges up the way and
you cannot go back, you cannot hasten things, you cannot turn
to the right hand, you cannot turn to the left, you're in a
way, you're in a way the Lord's appointing and you have no alternative
but to keep going in it. Dear Jeremiah, Not only was he
in this position, but he describes the pain of it, especially the
Lord shutting out his prayer. Well, it is in this that I want
to open up a bit this evening, but surely we can just, at the
very start, just think that there are some points we can glean
immediately God will follow through his warnings, won't he? He will
bring to pass what he has said he will do. And yet with Israel,
how long-suffering he was. He didn't suddenly bring this
judgment. It was years, not just Jeremiah, but the prophets before
him. The Lord is a long-suffering
God. Another thing that we can learn
is that nothing will prevent God's will. And maybe it is a
seasonable reminder this evening, thinking of all that is happening
in the world. The Lord is in control. He is
doing according to the counsel of his own will, and none can
stay his hand and say unto him, what doest thou? He is before
me, he is above, above the leaders of this world, the nations of
this world. They also are walking in his
will. They also, providence is unfolding
his book of divine counsels and is coming to pass. And we need
to watch, watch and pray. Watch the Lord's hand, watch
what is happening in providence. And above all, that we might
desire that we ourselves Lord. We think of dear Jeremiah
who was the Lord's messenger here and who gave these warnings
and predictions. He was a godly man, an upright
man in the midst of all of this. We think of Daniel, we think
of his friends, we think of others, the Ethiopian who had lifted
up Jeremiah out of the dungeon There were the Lord's dear people
there, the same as in Ahab's day, those that overdie hid in
a cave so that Jezebel didn't destroy them. However dark, and
Elijah thought he was the only one left in his day, but however
dark it may be, the Lord still does have his dear people. And
may we be careful in this, that we be amongst those that fear
his name, that do heed his warnings, and walk in his ways. What is
that to thee? Follow thou me. May that be our
word, to follow the Lord. We're the only one that appears
to be doing so. And so we have not only these
things to observe, but the Lord gives Israel a light at the end
of the tunnel. And you know, in this chapter,
Jeremiah speaks of those lights, isn't it? It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning, great
is thy faithfulness. Jeremiah had been caused to buy
a field. Why would you ever buy a field
in a land that was going to be overrun by an enemy? But it was
so that he could prophesy. that there should be again fields,
lands, be bought and sold in that land. The Lord would bring
them back from captivity into that very land. And he gave Jeremiah
to be as a sign, and the land that he brought to be as a sign,
that that would indeed come to pass, which it did. There was
a great blessing, however the dark the way is for us. If there is a little gleam of
light, we are able to discern that. At the end of the path
we can see the light and see the path. There is an end. Surely there is an end. And thine
expectation shall not be cut off. I want to, with the Lord's
help, confine my thoughts to three headings this evening.
Firstly, being in a way. and position we cannot escape
from, hedged about and enclosed with hewn stone. Then secondly,
the difficulty of the path. It's not just being hedged in
in a smooth, nice, beautiful, easy path, but it is a difficult
path, heavy, crooked, and with prayer shut out. And then I want to look lastly,
the blessings of the path. He hath, it is a path in God's
hand. Well let us look firstly then,
being in a way, in a way and position we cannot escape from. Really this is the condition,
whether we feel it or not. But there are those times that
we are made, and God's people are made to especially feel,
that they cannot change or get out at the place that they're
in. When we think of Israel in Egypt,
before that Moses appeared to them, yes, they had a hard task,
the taskmasters were hard on them, and they groaned under
their burdens. But they might have thought,
well, it's not such a hard thing to get out of this path if we
really wanted to. But when God sent Moses and it
was the beginning of them to be able to be brought out of
that path, then as those nine signs progressed, they must have
been left without any doubt that they were hedged in, they were
captives in Egypt. Pharaoh was not going to let
them go even though his whole country was destroyed. And they
must have wondered what, where the scene will end. How could
they get out of it? How could they turn the clock
back? Make Moses disappear back into the wilderness? Go back
to what they were, being left alone? Sometimes they gave utterance
to that, even when they're in the wilderness. But here they
were in this path, they couldn't get out of it, they couldn't
shorten it, they couldn't change it. They knew what it was like
to be in that path. Then when they were brought out
of Egypt, when they came to the Red Sea, here's the Red Sea in
front of them, the mountains each side, You have the Egyptians
coming behind them. They were literally hedged in
by mountains, by the Red Sea. They thought death was staring
them in the face. They knew what it was to be kept
in that very position, and God brought them into that position.
And they couldn't change it. They couldn't get out of it. wait for the Lord to appear,
they had to look to the Lord. We think of the case of Jacob,
of no doubt he felt so when he left home, when he went to Laban,
when he was hedged in, as it were, for the first seven years,
then deceived in the matter of Rachel, and then to serve for
another seven years, And then to have nothing, two wives, but
no flocks, no substance of his own. You know, in a lot of ways
he was held in until that appointed time. And then God appeared and
God brought him out from Laban and back to his own land again.
We think of dear Joseph. How could Joseph have got out
of that path? You know, Right from the time
he had his dreams, he knew there was something appointed by God. But then, as the time came near
to be fulfilled, there he is mistreated by his brothers, cast
into a pit, sold, and in each step, he didn't have to make
any decisions. That way was hedged in for him. He was just ushered along on
this path of providence, until there he's found in the prison
and forgotten. Hewn stone, thick walls of a
prison, hedged up, and there he is. And he just waits, waits
in that prison. What about dear Job? Life had
been going very well, smooth, easy, very prosperous. And then suddenly, there comes
a day and he loses everything. Then he loses his health. Then
he has his friends. Miserable comforters are you
all. You know, Job, he wished that
he'd never been born. He wished that his mother's womb
had been his grave. You know, he couldn't get out
of that path. He couldn't change it. He was
in it for as long as the Lord had appointed him. He knew what it was. Oh, that I knew where I might
find him. Job knew that path. You might
say, so did the three Hebrew children with the image of Nebuchadnezzar
before them. So did Daniel with the decree
made that none should call upon any except the king for 30 days. Many of the Lord's dear people
have viewed themselves in a path or a path before them that they
cannot get off. They cannot stop the movement
of that providence. They are in it. They cannot change
it. They cannot start their lives
again. They cannot change that course. This, what Jeremiah speaks of
in the Lamentations, is the experience of many of the Lord's dear people. He hath hedged me about, that
I cannot get out. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stones. the journey of life, hedged in. So that then is the first point,
looked at from the experience of those in scripture. But what about us as we are,
fallen creatures under the law. Can we get out from under the
law? Whatsoever the law saith, it
saith to them that are under the law, all have wrought in
guilty, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We
are born into this world, we're passing through this world, under
the sentence of death, under the law, eternity is before us,
Death is before us. The Judgment Throne is before
us. We cannot get out. We cannot
stop. We cannot say, well, I wish I
wasn't born, or I'd like to get out some other way. I don't want
to go through death. I don't want to stand before
God's Judgment Throne. We cannot change it, dear friends. We're as much hedged in and held
in that path. What about the path of affliction?
Many of the Lord's dear people, and many that are not too, have
paths of affliction that they will never be rid of this side
of the grave. Those things that they're born
with, those things that are their lot, they can't suddenly say,
I don't like that portion. What a solemn thing that some
think They can escape and break through these hedges by taking
their own life. What a solemn thing. There is
no way out that way. Never think that. Our soul is
immortal. It is eternal. And we must, after
death, meet God before his judgment throne. There we must give an
account. And there it must be either heaven
or hell. And for those who have destroyed
their own body, and destroy their own soul, it can only be one
destination. Never take that line thinking
it is a way of escape. No. Dear Job, in his affliction,
he says, all the appointed days of my life will I wait till my
change come. He would not put his hand to
it or to change it himself. But what about providences as
well? Providences that you and I are
in. And we might think, well, we
want a fresh start. We're going to change things.
We're going to renew things. Is that your path? Is that mine? This work, Jeremiah, experiencing
you, is going to be known by many people, and especially be
known by the people of God. There is reasons for it, and
we hope to come later on to look at some of those that may be
encouragement to us. But under this first point, just
to notice the feeling of being held and in captivity, and in
a place and a course that we cannot escape from. Dear Job, he says that he performeth
the thing that is appointed for me and many such things are with
him. I want to notice then secondly
that not only is this a hedged in path But it is also a path
that is not a pleasant path. It is a path where we can really
understand those wanting to get out of it and escape from it. We have three things specifically
that are mentioned here. The first one is that he hath
made my chain heavy. In verse 7, a heavy chain, a
heavy burden, something that we are, as we're proceeding,
we're dragging it along. It almost has a picture of a
prisoner trying to work, trying to do what he's bidden to do,
but all the time he's got this chain around his ankle, and a
ball attached to it, and a heavy weight attached to it. And there's
resistance to everything that he does. He hath made my chain
heavy. Another picture of it is not
only hedged about, but chained to this path of providence. Chained
to this appointed way. There's that which is unpleasant
in it. And then we have the picture
as well of his prayer being shut out. When I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. The Lord doesn't want to hear.
He's not listening. What is he praying for? What
are you praying for? What are I praying for? Sometimes
we can pray for wrong things. But here is this description,
one of the Lord's dear people, a faithful prophet, a true prophet,
and his prayer, he says, is shut out. Can you come in with him
there? Can you feel for him? Do you
know what that's like? To have your prayer shut out
as if God is not listening. God is not hearkening. He's not
changing anything. He's not doing anything. He's still just going on and
on as if you weren't praying at all. As if nothing is being
said. This is what Jeremiah is feeling. And then there's another thing.
He hath made my paths crooked. Crooked paths. Now if something's
a straight path, you can anticipate what's coming next. You can see
what's round the corner, because there's no corner. There are
not many straight roads in Kent. Sometimes there are, you can
see right into the distance. But most of them are twists and
turns, they're crooked paths. And yet you can't see far ahead
at all. Jeremiah, he is picturing his
powers are like this, they're crooked. Another aspect of that
crookedness, they don't seem to lie straight with God's promises,
with his word, with his faithfulness, with his kindness, with what
we expected, we trusted, it should have been he that should have
delivered Israel. You know, there are many, are things that don't seem to
lie straight, don't seem to add up. Are they that in your life,
doesn't seem to add up, doesn't seem to lie straight? In this path of a hewed-up way,
hedged-up way, is a way that is not pleasant, not easy, and
made all the more difficult, the prayer itself, that communion,
fellowship with God, and that only way that a poor child of
God knows to take his troubles and his sorrows is actually blocked
up. These things are written, are
written for our learning, Paul tells us. that we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. These things
are written because the Lord has said, Jeremiah, you won't
be the last one in this position. You won't be the last one that
walks in the unpleasant hedged up way. Well, I want to look then thirdly
at the blessings of the path. You say, what? How can there
ever be blessings on such a path as this? How can this work for
good? How can it truly be any good
at all? Well, the first clue we might
say to that is that right through these three verses We have these
two words, he hath. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. Jeremiah is saying, this is not
Satan, this is not man, this is God's hand. He hath. And you know when it comes in
later, when you come to verse 22, he's speaking of Him who
hath done these things. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed Because his compassions fail not, they are
new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my
portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord
is good unto them that wait for him, the soul that seeketh him.
Dear friend, in your trouble and in your trial, my trial,
do you discern it is the Lord's hand? The Lord hath done these
things. So how do I know? What's the
timing of it? What specific things? You know,
with Isaac, Abraham's servant, when he went to get a wife for
Isaac, the things that were done there, Laban and Bethuel, they
said the thing proceeded from the Lord. Others have said this
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. God is
known by the judgment that he executeth, his handiwork. You know, if we went down past
a building site, we didn't see any builders, but we saw foundations,
we saw a frame going up. And if we knew a particular builder,
we knew his style, we knew his manner, we knew his method. then
we'd recognise this is his work. He's working on this site, I
can't see his van, I can't see him, I can't see a notice board,
but there's only one worker that works like that. And Jeremiah,
there's not a doubt he might have hedged me about, he has.
The Lord's done it. You say, yeah, but the devil
is saying it's because I'm not one of his people, because I'm
cast down, He's rejected me, he's just used me as scaffolding,
and I'm not one of his people at all. That's why, was that
why Jeremiah walked in this path? Why do you think it's just you?
And so, when we see it's the Lord's hand. Remember when David
numbered Israel, And he fell under it, I've sinned. And the
Lord gave him three things. Choose thou three things. You
can't get out of it, David. You've got to choose three. You
can't imagine you didn't do it. No wonder dear David says, I
am in a great strait. Possible situation. What did
he say? What was his resolve? Let me
now fall into the hand of the Lord. and not fall into the hand
of man, for his mercies are great." That's what he desires. And Jeremiah,
he can see it is the Lord that has made his way what it is. So there's a first thing of a
blessing, an encouragement, and a help. Another thing is, It is so a
blessing can be kept for the end without our hand being put
to it and marring it. Sometimes you might wonder, why
did not God tell Jacob that Joseph, his son, was still alive? Why
did he let him go those many years, over 20 years, thinking
he was dead? Now Jacob, he could have put
his hand to it. He could have sent a party to
Egypt and to rescue his son. You know, we like to interfere. We like to put our hand to things. But God makes us that that doesn't
happen. by bringing into a path like
this. The Lord's dear people had to
go into Babylon because they were then to be brought out and
established and blessed in their own land. Job, he had to go through
this path at the end of it. The latter end of Job was better
than the beginning. The three Hebrew children, the
great deliverance of them being brought out of the burning fiery
furnace would not have happened otherwise than they'd be hedged
into it. And Daniel as well, with the
lion's den. When the Lord would have his
people walk in a path, he'll make it that they cannot escape
out of it. Remember with the children of
Israel, when they came out of Egypt, The Lord directed them
by the way of the Red Sea, not by the way of the Philistines,
which was near, lest they see war and turn back to Egypt. The Lord made sure that they
were brought into the wilderness, they were kept in the wilderness,
they were brought in that way to the promised land. And so there is a blessing in
that hedging up. Sometimes we have seen our way
hedged up because things have been lost, a passport lost. So we couldn't travel. We couldn't
go when we wanted to go or thought we should go. But when the time
came, then that passport was found and we could go and we
did go. And we're looking back, bless
the Lord, that the way was hedged up and stopped and we didn't
move or go. before the time. And the Lord
uses these things to hedge us up. Years ago, in Australia,
before we married, I bought a block of land, and immediately the
market fell, that land, it could not be given away. And there
it was as an anchor in Australia, because we had to go back there
and have six years there, and me called into the ministry there,
start my ministry there before coming back here. And that block
of land was used as a way to hedge up, an anchor to keep me
there until a set time. Then it was sold. Only when we
could then have another land holding in Australia until time
to come here. We should know, and if we look
back in our lives and we can see times when our way has been
hedged up, And we've discerned the Lord has done it, he's stopped
it. When we try to turn back, we
try to turn away, we think of that word, thou shalt hear a
word behind thee. When thou turnest to the right
hand or when thou turnest to the left, it's in a way it's
the same idea. Here is a path set before you,
let thine eyes look right on, thy footsteps right before thee.
And there it is, you start to turn to one side, And there you
get a word. No, not that way. Not that way. Straight on. Do it in that way. There's another blessing. Here
is guidance in which we don't have to make the decision. We
made that note with Joseph. How many times did he make a
decision in his life? Once sold into Egypt, he didn't.
His way was hedged up. Sometimes we have thought that
we would have to make a decision whether an operation should go
ahead or not. And that decision was taken out
of our hands, not even given the opportunity. We rebelled
against it at first, but it was one of these hewn stones, one
of these things you can't get past, couldn't change until the
appointed time of the Lord's and time's way. Sometimes we
think, well, Lord guide me, direct me, teach me what to do. And
all the time it's a decision I've got to make and the Lord
will show me what decision to make. And there are many things
in life that that is the case. But there are other times, and
sometimes it is in the major course of one's life, and the
Lord says, poor soul, my dear child, you, are not going to
make decisions in this. I am going to make them for you
and I'm going to head you up and I'm going to keep you in
that path and keep you as my servant and in my way until I've
done my will and achieved my purposes and work and then I
will change your path. The children of Israel that have
stayed a long while at Mount Sinai and at last the Lord said
to you, you have tarried long enough. in this mount and they
were to move on. But until the Lord's time, that
is not the time to go and to move. And so there is a way that
is hedged up. But there's another blessing. I like to think that the Lord
will lead his dear people into paths that bring them to have
fellowship with himself in his sufferings. Later on in this
chapter, we read some words and you can read them and surely
you can see the Saviour here. In verse 53, or verse 52, Mine
enemies chased me sore, like a bird without cause, They have
cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me. We know our Lord Jesus Christ
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Right from the
beginning of the world, when the Lord was given by his Father
a people to redeem, then this path was appointed for him. In
the Word of God, God warns his people not to be shorty for a
stranger. That is, to make an agreement
that if that person cannot pay their bills and meet their debts,
then you will pay in their stead. He says, don't do that. If you
bind yourself with an oath and agreement in that way, you're
hedged in, you cannot get out of that. If he can't pay, you're
gonna pay. You're gonna lose all your substance.
Well, that stranger might never need to have a surety. But you know, when the Lord became
a surety for his people, he knew they would need a surety. He knew they had nothing to pay. He knew they would be under the
sentence of death. He knew that as soon as man fell,
then there was to be the seed of the woman that should bruise
Satan's head and that Satan would bruise his heel. The Son of Man,
our Lord said, goeth as it was determined. But woe is he by
whom he is betrayed. But it was a path. Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, that thy will be done. However much we might feel, our
path is hedged up. Never take our eyes off the Lord
Jesus Christ. His path, says the hymn writer,
was much darker, much rougher than mine. Shall my Lord suffer,
and shall I repine? It does us good to see that. You might say, well, Couldn't
he just escape out of it? What? A faithful God? A God that promises? A holy God, a God that could never
go back on his word, have he said and shall he not do it? God forbid that he should, and
he never did. It's hard for us who would long
to get out sometimes of a path that is hedged in, to really
enter into the path of our dear Lord. You know, he willingly,
he lovingly stayed the course and stayed in it and endured
that suffering. You say, but his prayer wasn't
shut out, wasn't it? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Yes, it was. They all forsook him and fled,
betrayed by his disciple, denied by another, forsaken by them
all. He had laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And why did he do it? For love's
sake. the love of his dear people,
love to their souls, love to his father. And why do we continue? Why do
we keep going? And why do we walk in a path
headstuck? For the Lord's sake. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. that path our Lord walked. We can really only enter into
it when the Lord brings us into a similar path. And I pray that
this evening the Lord would shine, shine upon these verses, shine
upon my path and cause us to know something our souls from hell, to deliver
us from eternal damnation. He must suffer. He must put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. He must work out a righteousness
for his people, to give his people. He must save his people from
their sins. His name is Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And that path he never swerved
from, he never changed course from, he fulfilled it in every
jot and tittle. Salvation is of the Lord. And so if you, if I am in this
path here, hedged about, shut in, a hard path, a heavy path,
a path where prayer is not heard, May we be able to look at the
benefits and blessings and fall into those dear hands once nailed
to the accursed tree. Our dear God, who hath done all
these things, and may the time yet come that we be able to say
he hath done all things well. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.