THE AFFLICTION OF GOD’S WRATH

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; He has made my paths crooked.

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, He dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver. I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.

He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

Lamentations 3:1-18

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Live long enough and you will eventually be able to say with full confidence that you know what affliction looks like because you will have endured it.

Maybe you went through illness.

Maybe you went through some kind of financial issue.

Perhaps you found yourself in a bad or broken relationship of some type, either professionally at work or personally with a family member, friend, or someone else you cared for.

Hardship and difficulty will happen to everyone. No one is immune. That’s for sure. But as will see in today’s devotion, there is being afflicted by life’s events and then there is the kind of affliction that comes with God’s judgment, the kind of affliction highlighted in the first eighteen verses of Lamentations 3. Look again at these words here:

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.

He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; He has made my paths crooked.

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, He dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver. I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.

He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” Lamentations 3:1-18

Note right away that we find the speaker as “the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.” No one is sure if this is Jeremiah speaking or a different lamenter who is either speaking on behalf of his experience or the overall collective suffering experience of the community he’s a part of. No matter whom it is, one thing is certain. They are in the midst of God’s punishment and it’s not a pretty sight.

For as we see, when you are in the affliction of God’s wrath, feeling the full brunt of His corrective rod, you can expect the following:

1. You can expect to walk in darkness and not light.

“He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has made my paths crooked.”

The Israelites were given every chance to live in the Lord’s righteousness, a lifestyle that would have kept them in the light of His love and favor. But they decided to blatantly disobey Him, worshipping false gods and idols instead. God’s people opted for sin and in doing so, they chose to walk in darkness so during His judgment, the Lord let them stay there for seventy years. That leads to the second thing one can expect.

2. You can expect the Lord to turn from you.

“Indeed, He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. Even when I call out or cry for help, He shuts out my prayer.”

The Israelites had chosen to turn away from God in favor of other gods and so they would get to experience the feeling of abandonment themselves while held captive in Babylon. They would try and cry out for help in prayer but God would not listen just as His people had ignored His commands and the subsequent warnings from the prophets He sent to try and prevent having to punish them.

3. You can expect to grow old while waiting for God’s consequences to end.

“He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.”

First of all, you can’t think about life expectancy in Old Testament times like it is today. It was significantly shorter.

Now consider being taken into captivity for seventy years. Many Israelites would never get to see the return to their homeland because they would die before it happened. In fact, a full generation might pass away before the release from Babylonian exile happened but then again, that was by God’s design as the sinful generation that prompted His judgment could be seen as not worthy to get another chance to start over. God would be better off starting fresh with a new generation of Jewish believers.

4. You can expect to be immersed in bitterness and hardship.

“He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.”

God’s discipline is not meant to be a pleasant experience. Rather, it’s intended to teach His people a lesson and in the case of the Israelites, the lesson was centered on what happens when you turn from Him to worship other gods. If you disrespect and dishonor God, you can expect that you will end up enveloped in bitterness and hardship because He is not going to bless anyone who willfully sins in His sight against His commandments.

It was true in Old Testament times and it’s still true today.

5. You can expect to be trapped under the weight of God’s consequences.

“He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. He has barred my way with blocks of stone.”

The oppression and enslavement of the Israelites by the Babylonians was totally ordained by God. The intent was to displace them from the land He had blessed them with for seventy years, not a day more or a day less. God walled His people in and made sure they paid the full penalty before release. One will always pay the price He imposes in full before given a chance for redemption.

6. You can expect to suffer damage of some kind.

“Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, He dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver. He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has trampled me in the dust.”

This particular excerpt hurts just reading it but it allegorically gives us an idea of what it must have felt like to have gone through the brutal attack in their homeland and then the long journey into captivity that followed. Anyone would feel beat down after that.

7. You can expect to experience humiliation.

“I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.”

The Israelites were God’s pride and joy at one time. They were His people and He was their God. All the enemies of Israel knew this. They also knew that if they tried to come against Israel they would also be coming against God as well and that was never going to yield victory.

But after God had removed His protection from His people, they became just as vulnerable as anyone else and those who opposed Israel, took great pleasure in seeing the holy nation go down and go down hard. The once respected and feared nation was now the laughingstock of all who laughed and mocked the Israelites for what had befallen them. It was a bitter pill of humiliation to swallow, as unpleasant as ingesting bitter herbs and chasing it with a cup of gall.

8. You can expect to lose peace and hope.

“I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

Perhaps this is the worst of all of these outcomes for losing peace and hope leaves someone in the throes of despair and heartache. Once in the splendor that came from God’s favor, the Israelites now were in the depths of misery and despondency. And they had no one to blame but themselves. For they created the circumstances they were in. They forced God’s hand of judgment to come against them through their wicked actions.

Friends, is this where we want to be in life, repeating the mistakes of the past and beckoning the affliction of God’s wrath to once again touch His people on earth? Do we want to lose our freedom that comes in and through Him? Worst yet, do we wish to trade in our peace and hope for gloom and sorrow?

The speaker in God’s word had seen the wrath of God and the afflictions it brought the Israelites. And thanks be to God that he shared his experience with us because you would have to be crazy to put yourself in a position to have to go through all that again more than 2,000 years after it happened the first time.

We don’t want that, do we?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com