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Chapter 3

1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

  • Jeremiah
    • Even though the Jews tormented him, his family tormented him, the kings wronged him, he was beaten, he was humiliated, he was imprisoned, in the end he says "affliction came upon me with the rod of God's wrath."
    • He doesn't blame the affliction on anyone, doesn't get upset... I am seeing what God permitted to happen to me for my sake - for my good, for my growth, for my adjustment.
  • Christ
    • "Surely He has borne our griefs
      And carried our sorrows;
      Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
      Smitten by God, and afflicted.
      But He was wounded for our transgressions,
      He was bruised for our iniquities;
      The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
      And by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)
    • It is an affliction of love - an affliction of the gladness of salvation
  • Me
    • To accept something from God's hand, there is surrender involved - surrendering my heart that wants to hate, into the hand of the Lord with the knowledge that this is all part of His plan for me

2 He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.

  • Jeremiah
    • Jeremiah had a dark life prophesying to Judah... Mud, prison, tears, broken stones
  • Christ
    • Christ - the Light of the World - entered into the darkness of Hades to plunder it of the righteous
  • Me

3 Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.

  • Jeremiah
    • Usually when someone goes through something difficult, they are waiting for it to pass... but with Jeremiah, time and time again throughout the day, problem after problem; hardship after hardship; affliction after affliction; pain after pain.
  • Christ
    • This statement of course applies to the Lord Christ - the entire week of Holy Week and especially the last 24 hours are just suffering, pain, the Cross, etc. until the last breath.
    • It would seem to the outsider looking in that Christ was forsaken by God

4 He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.

  • This is symbolic because Jeremiah's bones were not broken neither was his flesh or skin peeled 
  • This is what Christ felt on the cross and this is what Jeremiah felt

5 He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

  • Christ
    • He accepted bitterness

6 He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.

  • Jeremiah
    • Hades was known that before the Cross, anyone who died would go there - Paradise was not open yet; it is a dark place
    • And the righteous were there doing what? Waiting for the Lord to come and save them; having the Promise of forgiveness and the promise of eternal life, they were waiting in hope.
    • Jeremiah because of the overwhelming sadness, he feels as if he is in Hades - because he is still on earth but he is just waiting on the Promise of life; waiting in hope for the Lord.
  • Christ
    • His body in the tomb now - like the dead
    • His soul is in Hades now - like the dead - except His soul is in Hades to conquer death; to free the righteous from it and take them to Paradise

7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.

  • Jeremiah
  • Christ
    • He is in a tomb! With a large stone sealing the door of the tomb! 
    • The chain is the binding to Hades - the devil assumes that the Lord is bound like the rest of mankind, but he could not perceive that the Lord was going there of His own will to liberate us

8 Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.

  • Jeremiah
  • Christ
    • On the Cross, when He cried out in prayer to the Father, He was scoffed by the crucifiers... they said "He is calling to Elijah... let Him save Him now"
  • Me
    • We feel this sometimes... here is a prophet - a man of God - who feels this!

9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

  • Christ
    • Again, the evil one assumes that now the path to salvation is thwarted! All the paths are without escape

10 He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.

  • Christ
  • Me
    • As if God has become an enemy to me

11 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.

13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.
14 I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”

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.

22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
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.
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
36 Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.

37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?
39 Why should a living man complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
41 Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
42 We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.

43 You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.
45 You have made us an offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

46 All our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare have come upon us,
Desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 My eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,
50 Till the Lord from heaven
Looks down and sees.
51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird.
53 They silenced my life in the pit
And threw stones at me.
54 The waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”

55 I called on Your name, O Lord,
From the lowest pit.
56 You have heard my voice:
“Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
57 You drew near on the day I called on You,
And said, “Do not fear!”

58 O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul;
You have redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged;
Judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me,
62 The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.
63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.

64 Repay them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
65 Give them a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!
66 In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
From under the heavens of the Lord.

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