THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 13 – JEREMIAH AND THE NATION ARE IN AFFLICTION; THE NATION IS EXPELLED; BODIES SUFFER; BITTERNESS - CHAPTER 3:1-5
LAMENTATIONS CHAPTER 3
Now we enter into a lot of shorter verses but each one has a definite, strong meaning. I trust you might find a delight in these as I did when examining them to gather the meanings and messages they contain. Some are disturbing and most are instructive. May the Lord bless His word to us.
[1]. A MAN OF UNWELCOMED EXPERIENCES
{{Lamentations 3:1 “I am the man who has seen affliction because of THE ROD OF HIS WRATH.”}}
Chapter 3 verse 1 is the introduction to the next section, and now we look at the 20 “He” in this chapter (“HE” used 20 times). All are descriptive of the LORD’S actions against the nation. These are laments from the nation. In some verses it is unclear if it is mostly the nation that speaks, or if it is Jeremiah, or if it is all inclusive. In any case the lamenting is there for all the horrors that have happened.
The prophet identifies himself as the man who has seen affliction, and when you read his prophecy, some of that is seen. He had a constant battle with the false prophets and priests and the king, and he was opposed and persecuted and locked up. All that was at the hand of demonic men. The expression he uses is “because of the rod of His wrath”. At face value God’s wrath executed through Babylon has caused Jeremiah affliction.
It must be said that many opinions from commentators attribute this verse and all the others following, to a generic person speaking on behalf of the nation or the people. A few say it is the nation speaking. Interestingly, Jeremiah does not use the word God or LORD in this chapter until 3:18. If the word “he” does not refer to God it can only refer to Babylon and in some of the verses that would not make any sense. Largely in this little devotional commentary of mine I have made “he” to reference the LORD. Sanely, it can be no other way unless one is being contrary. A good number of the more notable commentators consider this to be Jeremiah speaking of himself and in subsequent verses.
When some Christians have everything go wrong they wonder if it is God doing it or the devil’s agent attacking them. Is it the discipline of the Lord, or the persecution outlined here – {{2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”}} ? Quite honestly, I have been uncertain myself at times in my life. Then again, it just might be the difficulties of life that everyone experiences.
We will let this verse rest here and conclude that no one is 100% certain.
[2]. THE LORD EXPELLED THE NATION INTO DARKNESS
{{Lamentations 3:2 “HE has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light.”}}
The nation was driven into captivity in Babylon and deserved what it got. It is not callous to say that but is the natural conclusion of expulsion from God’s presence that all sin causes. All of us, even Christians sometimes, do not think seriously about the holiness of God. We can flaunt it and disregard it. Christians may respect it but the unsaved world has no regard for it. Judah despised it.
The odd person says about this verse the walking in darkness would refer to Jeremiah being cast in prison and the pit. I tend not to think that.
The first instance in scripture of God expelling/driving out was from Eden – {{Genesis 3:24 “So HE DROVE THE MAN OUT and at the east of the garden of Eden, He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”}} Sinners will never exist in the presence of God’s holiness, because they can not, and it is for this reason they end in the lake of fire that originally was prepared for the devil and his angels. The only reason I can dwell in God’s presence is because I have the righteousness of Christ and am accepted in Him.
Some of the most dire words of scripture are these – {{Matthew 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘DEPART FROM ME, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.”}} There are only two eternal destinies and it was the grace of God and the reconciliation of the Lord Jesus Christ that made the second one possible. {{Revelation 20:15 “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”}}
The image in this verse 2 is being driven out from “light” into darkness. We know of course this is not physical darkness but metaphorical darkness. God’s presence is light and removal from His presence is darkness. Darkness and sin are related but before Judah’s expulsion from the land, they were already walking in spiritual darkness, as black as possible. Now the nation is even further away, but when trauma hits, it can jolt one into realism. That happened with the captives in Babylon. It seems repentance happened and many came back to God. At various times we all need reality checks.
Light and darkness are the most common contrast in the bible. We also have good and evil, heaven and hell, sweet and bitter, righteousness and unrighteousness, saved and unsaved, sighted and blind, wise and foolish, and many more if you look for them.
In this verse, the nation was expelled into darkness but it was darkness in the light of day. The soul was dark in sin and being banished from God is to be expelled into spiritual darkness. Adam was expelled from Eden to enter a world of darkness and ever since man is walking in darkness and the world is intensifying the darkness even more.
[3]. THE HAND OF THE LORD HAS TURNED AGAINST THE NATION
{{Lamentations 3:3 “Surely against me HE has turned HIS hand REPEATEDLY all the day.”}}
In the next lot of verses the laments are without hope. They are a series of groans and complaints detailing what has proceeded from the LORD’S hand. It is difficult for busy 21st century people to sit down outside Jerusalem’s walls, and let their minds enter the situation Jeremiah was describing and listening to. It requires pathos and a certain compassion. If we can do that the verses will become more alive for us.
This passage of a lot of verses in the chapter is full of “me” and “my”, and first impressions are that Jeremiah speaks of himself but that is probably not always the case. It is the nation’s lament when objectively, it realises its downfall through it own actions. Some might think that as part of Jeremiah’s feelings then he identifies with the nation, but in context it can’t be just confined to the prophet.
The Lord would NOT be turning His hand repeated against Jeremiah all the day, or acting like a bear against Jeremiah tearing him to pieces (verse 10). It is the nation bewailing its fate. What a pity it could not have recognised over the decades its own sin and God’s hand against that, and repented from that sin, determining to serve the living God. What a pity the nation did not heed Jeremiah instead of persecuting him. The same things happened to Isaiah and they ended up sawing him in half while alive. Such is the cruelty of Satan, the arch enemy of the Lord and of His servants. It is Satan that inspires Hamas and all others who devalue human life. Satan inspires the Democrats and other godless people to murder the unborn up to 9 months gestation. It is truly demonic.
God will always turn His hand against sin and a sinful people and the world’s history shows that. The United States is a really sinful nation, and during the 2024 election we saw some of that being revealed. Now, as I revise this in April 2025, the revelations that have been coming out from investigations of unbelievable wastage and utter corruption and hatred, truly leave us speechless as to what the former Admistration was doing.
However the hand of God in judgement is staid just for the present, and I think the reason for this is that the USA is a great supporter of Israel. Those who curse Israel will be cursed (Genesis 12:3), but the USA is a friend of Israel, not really under the Biden administration, but certainly so under Trump. On the other hand, the present Australian Government curses Israel and seemingly supports Islamic terrorists who hate Israel, bringing them to the country in droves to get their votes in an election, and in many cases treating them better than Australian citizens. Great will be the hand of God against Australia if that continues.
It is one thing to recognise the wrath and judgement of God; it is another to turn to God in repentance to come into a righteous relationship with God. In this next verse, look at the world’s reaction – {{Revelation 6:16-17 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for THE GREAT DAY OF THEIR WRATH HAS COME, and who is able to stand?”}}
The setting is the Tribulation and God’s wrath against sin is on display. Surely when men see all these horrors happening, you would think they will turn to God and repent. BUT NO! This is what happens – {{Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, DID NOT REPENT OF THE WORKS OF THEIR HANDS, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk, and THEY DID NOT REPENT of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts.”}}
Have you ever been battered by problems one after another. You are attending to one and another breaks out, then another. When it happens to me it nearly always happens on Friday night or Saturday and you can’t get a tradesman until Monday. Who arranges that? I have often wondered. However in our Lamentations verse, God is blamed for the tragedy, and “REPEATEDLY” is the complaint.
[4]. MENTION OF PHYSICAL DEGRADING
{{Lamentations 3:4 “HE has caused MY FLESH AND my skin to waste away. HE has broken MY BONES.”}}
There is a link between the spiritual and the physical. Tripartite man will not separate the spiritual and the physical. The hostile man will persecute a Christian and his spiritual standing will be injured in the physical through torture, starvation, deprivation, and in many ways. However like Job, we understand the body to be the means of containing soul and spirit.
The whole body suffers when the person is subject to God’s judgement and in Judah it was horrible. Dying and death were everywhere. The survivors struggled to stay alive because of hunger and injury. Their bodies showed the sagging of skin and muscle. Those who have never been in that situation can only surmise what it is like. Flesh and skin to waste away is usually caused by illness and starvation. The residents of Judah who survived, suffered both.
I have never had a broken bone but I imagine it is very painful especially to move even the slightest. The description is that bones are broken so that would be awful.
Great suffering in the human race is constant with the most horrible conditions somewhere in the world at any point in time. This comes through war or a debased lifestyle. The physical often reflects the spiritual. In Judah the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion was misery on every hand. How can you describe misery? These verses in this chapter attempt to do that. The broken bones reference is another to describe pain and misery.
Are you looking forward to the new body? There will be no more pain or affliction but all will be perfection. Evil men will be no more and all will be joy and sinless perfection with Jesus forever.
[5]. HEMMED IN WITH NO ESCAPE
{{Lamentations 3:5 “HE has besieged and encompassed me with BITTERNESS and HARDSHIP.”}}
Imagine being in a circle and you want to leave but the walls of the circle are made of bitterness and hardship. You just can’t escape. When a town in the old days was besieged, and Jerusalem was for a long time, the residents start to starve and get desperate. This is how it felt like for all those of Judah and especially Jerusalem.
A WARNING WAS GIVEN TO ISRAEL just before it entered the promised land of what would happen to them if they departed from the LORD, but over the centuries they took no notice of the warning, turning to the most foul idolatry and the practices of the heathen including the sacrifice of infants and young children to Molech in a red hot roasting bull. That warning is what happened to Judah in reality when Babylon invaded. Here is that passage –
{{Deuteronomy 28:47-48 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart for the abundance of all things, THEREFORE YOU SHALL SERVE YOUR ENEMIES whom the LORD shall send against you, IN HUNGER, IN THIRST, IN NAKEDNESS, AND IN THE LACK OF ALL THINGS, and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.”}}
Deuteronomy 28:49-52 “THE LORD WILL BRING A NATION AGAINST YOU FROM AFAR, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who shall have NO RESPECT FOR THE OLD, NOR SHOW FAVOUR TO THE YOUNG. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. IT SHALL BESIEGE YOU IN ALL YOUR TOWNS UNTIL YOUR HIGH AND FORTIFIED WALLS IN WHICH YOU TRUSTED COME DOWN throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the LORD your God has given you.”}}
Deuteronomy 28:53-57 “YOU SHALL EAT THE OFFSPRING OF YOUR OWN BODY, THE FLESH OF YOUR SONS AND OF YOUR DAUGHTERS WHOM THE LORD YOUR GOD HAS GIVEN YOU. The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he shall eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege AND THE DISTRESS BY WHICH YOUR ENEMY SHALL OPPRESS YOU IN ALL YOUR TOWNS. The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, AND TOWARD HER AFTERBIRTH WHICH ISSUES FROM BETWEEN HER LEGS AND TOWARD HER CHILDREN WHOM SHE BEARS, FOR DURING THE SIEGE AND THE DISTRESS BY WHICH YOUR ENEMY SHALL OPPRESS YOU IN YOUR TOWNS, SHE SHALL EAT THEM SECRETLY FOR LACK OF ANYTHING ELSE.”}}
The enemy ate the food of the nation, which reduced the people to starvation. They took the herds and during the sieges there was no food. Starvation causes people to do desperate things. How severe must it have been that women ate the afterbirth, but secretly, so the husband would starve even more. Babies were eaten and Jeremiah and Lamentations document this. Sin is horrible and the results of sin are just as horrible. Jeremiah witnessed these scenes of revulsion and no wonder he is lamenting the downfall of his nation.
