I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
The middle chapter of Lamentations turns from the ruined city to a single voice: one man, one rod, one wrath. Who is this man? Why does he call the blow God's and not his enemies'? And why does such a personal cry stand at the centre of a nation's funeral song?
The first two chapters mourn Zion. Here the mourner steps forward and speaks for himself.
This song differs from the others. Its lines run in threes, and its sadness is more personal. The prophet expresses his own sense of sorrow. He no longer represents Zion; he speaks for himself. At the same time his grief is bound up with the people — no less so because they mocked and hated him for his love to them in faithfulness to Jehovah. God may have spared other prophets for special purposes of His own. But none tasted the bitterness of Israel's portion as Jeremiah did.
His own countrymen had beaten, imprisoned and mocked him. Yet in this verse he names none of them.
The prophet does not blame the people and their leaders for all the persecution he suffered. Rather, he receives them from the hand of God, saying: "I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath." He recalls the years in the darkness of prison (v. 2, 6) and the loss of freedom (v. 7, 9). He remembers the torture that broke his bones (v. 4). He calls to mind the mockery he suffered.
But had Jeremiah earned this blow?
The prophet speaks of himself as one struck by the rod of God's wrath, the man who has seen affliction. He had not deserved that wrath. The wrath and affliction have come upon a sinful people. But he identifies himself with them.
Why did the blow land hardest on the man who knew God best?
The prophet speaks as one who has carried in his own heart the deep grief of what Jehovah had brought upon Jerusalem. But he feels it as one who knew God to be his God. So he could experience what it was to be the object of the wrath of God. He suffered with Jerusalem, and he suffered for Jerusalem. This relationship with Jehovah was real. That made him feel the affliction more deeply, and it also held him up.
Commentators differ on how far the man of verse 1 points beyond Jeremiah. Some read the chapter as Jeremiah's own experience. The Spirit of Christ leads him, but Christ is not the speaker:
It is not Christ, but it is surely the Spirit of Christ leading an afflicted and broken heart forward. Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Others look through the same lines to a greater sufferer:
What must the suffering and affliction of our Lord have been! At the close of His blessed life He suffered and died the death of the cross. The rod of righteousness fell on Him. More than Jeremiah did, He tasted that wrath, when He who knew no sin was made sin for us.
Jerusalem had mistreated the prophet God sent her.
God, against whom Jerusalem had sinned, had provided for this: the man she had treated so badly as God's messenger is the one whose experience gives her comfort and hope. Little could Jeremiah have guessed what use God would make of his trials. Now one of God's purposes in it all comes out. The prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recounts what his condition had been, so like his nation's. He had seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath... But there was one difference between him and his people. God had brought him out of his affliction; they were still in theirs... So one man had been through affliction like theirs, and God had delivered him. This gives hope, and this is how the book holds them up.
- Man — the voice turns from mourning Zion to one man speaking for himself. No prophet tasted Israel's bitterness as he did.
- Wrath — the anger fell on a guilty people, not on the prophet. He had not earned it, yet he stood with those who had.
- Rod — the blows came through men. Jeremiah calls them God's rod and blames no persecutor.
- With and for — he knew God as his own God. That made the sorrow deeper and held him up. He suffered with Jerusalem and for Jerusalem.
- Hope — this cry sits at the book's centre because the man who spoke it came out the other side. Some read it further, as a picture of Christ, who bore wrath He had not earned.
Me hath he led, and brought into darkness, and not into light.
Chapter 3 turns from the ruined city to one man's voice. His first words about his own life are that God Himself led him into the dark. So the verse raises a hard question. What do you do when the hand that leads you leads you away from the light?
The earlier chapters spoke for Zion. Here the speaker steps forward alone, yet he is still tied to the nation's ruin. William Kelly traces both the shift and the source of the darkness.
The prophet expresses his own sorrow. He no longer represents Zion; he speaks for himself. At the same time his grief is bound up with the people... He owns it to be from Jehovah's hand and rod. Indignation had gone out from God against Israel, and a true-hearted prophet was the last one to shield himself or want to. There was affliction. It came in darkness, not light. And God's hand visited him again and again.
Jeremiah had real enemies and a real prison cell. What is striking is where he files the blame.
The prophet does not accuse the people and their leaders of having inflicted on him all the persecutions he endured. Instead, he receives them from the hand of God. He says: "I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath." He recalls the years spent in the darkness of prison (v. 2, 6) and the loss of freedom (v. 7, 9). He remembers the torture that broke his bones (v. 4).
Some readers treat these opening verses as words a godly man should never have said — grief talking, not faith. William Kelly rejects that reading.
This is certainly not what Calvin and most commentators before and since make of it. They read it as God's hand pressing on suffering Christians whose minds were confused, so that their lips said much that went too far. Such a reading does little honour to God, let alone to Jeremiah. It makes the Spirit a reporter — and not of a few words or deeds that show up the weakness of the human vessel. On that view He would be reporting long and detailed outpourings that are little more than complaints spoken by the judgment of the flesh.
His pain has a cause outside himself. He carried a message his people refused. Then he shared the results of that refusal with them.
In chapter 3 the prophet speaks in his own person, by the Spirit of Christ. He expresses all that he felt as he shared the affliction of Israel. At the same time he was the object of their hostility — a position much like that of Christ. What suffering can be like his? He shares the suffering of God's people, and he cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message.
Kelly draws the line carefully. Of these verses he says it is "not Christ, but assuredly the Spirit of Christ leading on an afflicted and broken heart" (William Kelly).
Job used almost the same words. The two men part company over what comes next.
Job adds to this the first of his charges against God. He calls himself "the man whom God has hedged in." Jeremiah's Lamentations uses similar language: "He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light... He has hedged me about that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy." But Jeremiah goes on: "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not... It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD." We fail to find anything like this in Job's words.
This book records the darkness for a reason. The man who walked through it came out, and the ruined city needed to hear that.
There was one difference between him and his people. God had brought him out of his affliction; they were still in theirs. He suffered with them as one of them. But his own sufferings as God's faithful servant in Israel were over. So one person had been in affliction like theirs, and God had delivered him. That gives hope, and that is how this book supports them.
- Rod — Jeremiah traces the affliction to God's own hand and rod, not to his enemies or to his own hostile people. He refuses to shield himself from it.
- Real — These are not the confused words of a mind that lost its footing. Reading them that way dishonours God and the prophet alike.
- Shared — The darkness came from standing with a people who would not hear the message. Writers see that position as much like Christ's.
- Turn — Job used almost the same words. He never arrived where Jeremiah arrives: mercies that do not fail, and hope that waits quietly.
- Testimony — God led this man into the dark, then led him out again. His deliverance is the hope held out to everyone still in the dark.
Surely against me hath he turned again and again his hand all the day.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.