Introduction: This study brings us to Jeremiah's third lamentation. Chapter 3 contains 22 verses, each verse having three lines, each line beginning with the same letter, and so on through the end of the Hebrew alphabet. Because of its length, we'll spend some extra time here over the next couple of studies. Jeremiah recalls his personal sufferings but expresses his hope in the Lord.
1. The afflictions of Jeremiah.
A. From the Lord.
- The Lord brings him into the depths of darkness, "He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day." (Lamentations 3:2,3)
- The Lord makes him old and breaks his bones, "My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones." (Lamentations 3:4) In a literal sense, this whole ordeal had weakened Jeremiah and had taken away his strength.
- The Lord walls him in a dark place and chains him down, "He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy." (Lamentations 3:5-7)
- The Lord ignores his prayers, "Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer." (Lamentations 3:8)
- The Lord blocks his path, "He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked." (Lamentations 3:9)
- The Lord attacks him like a bear, "He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate." (Lamentations 3:10,11)
- The Lord pierces his heart with arrows, "He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins." (Lamentations 3:12,13)
- The Lord makes him the object of ridicule, "I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day." (Lamentations 3:14)
- The Lord fills him with bitterness, "He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood." (Lamentations 3:15)
- The Lord takes away his peace and prosperity, "He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me." (Lamentations 3:16-20)B. From the people. - Lamentations 3:52-66
"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. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me. Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me; The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD."
- Jeremiah was mistreated and imprisoned by his own people for preaching against their sins.
- Jeremiah calls upon the Lord to pay them back.
2. The afflictions of Jerusalem.
A. From the Lord. Jeremiah is saddened that the Lord has treated them in the following ways:
- He has chased them down and slaughtered them without mercy, "Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied." (Lamentations 3:43)
- He refuses to hear their prayers, "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through." (Lamentations 3:44)
- He has discarded them like garbage, "Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people." (Lamentations 3:45)B. From their enemies, "All our enemies have opened their mouths against us." (Lamentations 3:46)
- They speak out against Jerusalem.
Conclusion: Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3:1, "I am the man..." Here, Jeremiah represents the nation of Israel and speaks in the name of the whole nation. In this instant, Jeremiah is a type of Christ who took upon himself our sins and bore the iniquity of many.
Jesus is represented throughout the Bible in many places, especially in the Old Testament prophetical writings. I'm not entirely sure that Jeremiah knew he was representing Jesus, but he was. There are three Psalms in particular that show us this correlation between Jeremiah and Jesus.
- Psalm 22:1 is the beginning of a Psalm concerning the suffering of the Saviour, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?"
- Psalm 69:8-9 is only a small portion of a prophecy concerning Jesus as He suffered for our sins, "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me."
- Psalm 88:6-7 speak of Christ's rejection, "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah."
In this way, Jeremiah was like the Lord. Godliness should be a part of our lives where we act as God would act toward those in need. Let's remember to be compassionate toward those who need compassion, to weep with those who weep, and to mourn with those who mourn.