I don’t know about you, but I love to find references to Jesus in the Old Testament. Like a kid in candy store or a miner panning for gold, when I uncover and discover passages that reveal our Savior; it is a real treasure to me. I don’t know how I missed this passage in Lamentations 3, all these years. Maybe I was rushing to get to verses 22-23, one of favorite passages. But there, jumping off the page in in verse 1, Jesus appears.
Let’s take a look.
- “I am the man (3:1a) “I am?” Remember all the I am statements in John’s gospel?
- “the man” (3:1a) Not only was the title, “Son of Man” most used by Jesus to refer to himself, but at the crucifixion, notice what Pilate calls Jesus, 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
- “who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath” (3:1b). Surely He has turned His hand against me… 5 He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and [a]woe. (3:2-5) That’s what happened to Jesus on the cross – he bore the divine wrath for us. Much like Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53, Can you hear these words in the mouth of Jesus?
- “He has set me in dark places” (3:6) On the cross, what happened? It got very dark,45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. Matthew 27:45
- Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer (3:8). That was the experience of Jesus when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At the cross, God brings grief and loss to Jesus, and he brings compassion through Jesus.
- “Like a lion in [b]ambush. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. 12 He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.” (3: 10-12) The lion comment and being torn to pieces are more references to Psalm 22:13-17
- He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood (or gall) 16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And [e]covered me with ashes. (3:15-16) A sponge of bitter drink was what Jesus was given on the cross. The reference to “covered me with ashes” refers to being buried.
- I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long (3:14). You hear the mocking crowd as Jesus hangs on the cross. This is what happened to him.
- Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes (3:30). That’s what Jesus did.
When we look at all that Jesus did for us, we cannot help but see God’s great mercy to us!
Christ suffered humiliation and darkness so that God’s mercy should reach us and God’s love should hold us, even in our greatest loss. In Christ we have the hope of God’s ultimate purpose, and the hope of God’s immediate presence.
In the previous posts, we saw that tears are a gift from God; God gave you tear ducts for a reason. The entire book of Lamentations puts sorrow into words. We have a Savior, the Man of Sorrows, to whom we can come in our sorrow.
The third poem in Lamentations is the pinnacle of the mountain of this book. You will notice that there are 66 verses instead of the 22 verses that the other poems in this book have. This third poem is still an acrostic, but there are three lines that begin with each successive letter of the alphabet, rather than one line like the previous two poems.
Life Application from Lamentations 3
19 Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. 20 My soul still remembers And sinks within me.21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Lamentations 3:19-21(NKJV)
Look at verse 21 because what Jeremiah does here is very important for handling our times of deep despair and grief. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.” Notice Jeremiah commits to an act of the will, rather than acting on his emotions and feelings. He does not say that all is hopeless and therefore he will give up in his hopeless despair. Not at all! He says that he will put something in his mind while he is in this state of pain and grief. He is going to put hope in his heart because he is going to put his mind on something in particular.
Verses 22-24 record what he is going to think about. Essentially, the author is going to preach to himself in his time of despair. Here is what he preaches to himself:
1. The LORD is Faithful and Offers Mercy
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV)
The first thing he preaches to himself is that the steadfast love of the Lord never ends. God’s faithful, covenant love never stops. His compassion and his mercies never come to an end. They never fail. The author recalls the multiple proofs of God’s faithful love. He calls to mind how God’s love never ends. Think about how God has been faithful to you. Think about how God has done good for you repeatedly in the past. His love never fails toward you. This is the knowledge we have to help us in our time of grief and despair.
Second, Jeremiah preaches to himself that the steadfast love and mercies of the Lord are renewed every morning. Every day presents a new opportunity to experience a fresh outpouring of God’s great love and compassion! Each day offers new hope for the compassion of God to be on display in your life. While the future looks dark and all seems hopeless, each day is another day to see the steadfast love of the Lord. Jeremiah is calling upon himself to live one day at a time. Just see the mercy of God for today. Do not worry about tomorrow’s difficulties and issues. Live in the compassion and mercy of God today. Great is the faithfulness of God! He will get you through today. God is faithful toward us each and every day.
- The LORD Good to those who Hope in Him
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:24–25 (NKJV)
Next, you will notice that Jeremiah speaks to himself again in verse 24. His soul says, “The Lord is my portion.” A portion relates to the land allotted by God to each Israelite. Notice that Jeremiah says the Lord is his portion. He declares his dependence on the Lord for his provisions and his survival. God will take care of me is what he is preaching to himself; his conclusion is: “Therefore I will hope in him.” We have a saying in our culture: “Hope springs eternal.” If you have been in sorrow and grief then you will know that this is not the case. What is true is this, if we can modify the saying: Hope springs eternal only when hope is focused on the Lord. This is how we give ourselves the hope and courage we need in times of pain and grief.
Parents discipline children to produce right behavior. God disciplined Judah to produce right living and genuine worship. We must not complain about corrective or instructive discipline in our lives but learn from it, trusting God and being willing to change. We must allow God’s correction to bring about the kind of behavior in our life that pleases him
- The LORD is worthy of our Worship
39Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? 40Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; 41Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven. Lamentations 3:39-41 (NKJV)
Who are we to complain against God? We are the ones who are full of sins! God is in the right. God is always just. God is pure and holy. We are only getting what we rightfully deserve. In fact, we are not receiving what we should for our sins because of the steadfast love of the Lord toward us. This keeps our minds in the right frame of mind. This keeps us in humility when we see that we deserve nothing and everything we have in life is a grace poured out from God.
Lastly, Jeremiah reminds us that we need examine our ways, pray and worship the Lord. Any time we examine ourselves and look at our lives honestly, it should cause us to pray because we know that we have woefully fallen short of God’s glory. So we turn to the Lord, tearing our hearts before our God (Joel 2:13).
As God’s people, we recognize that our lives are not determined by some cold, impersonal fate or destiny. Our lives are in the hands of the living God, who is good, who hears our cries, and will act for his people. Our praise and hope are motivated by the knowledge of this truth: the Lord is good and the Lord is faithful. God’s goodness is intrinsic to his glory (cf. Exodus 34:6-7; Mark 10:18). This is Jeremiah’s hope, and ours Even though he feels that all hope is lost, he is able to tell himself and others that God’s faithfulness is great and his mercies are new every day.
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Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)
Sources:
Albert N. Martin, Grieving, Hope and Solace: When a Loved One Died in Christ, Cruciform Press, 2011.
Brent Kercheville, Great is Your Faithfulness, Lamentations 3
Christopher Wright, The Message of Lamentations, IVP Academic, 2015.
Life Application Bible Notes (Tyndale, 2007), 1301.
Openthebible.org Hope and Healing
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