Who is he that saith, and there cometh to pass, what the Lord hath not commanded?
Lamentations 3 is the cry of a man who has watched his city fall and suffered in the ruin himself. In that grief he asks a question that steadies him: can anything happen that God has not ordered?
The verse is not an abstract statement about power. It speaks to the thing pressing on you now, and it changes where your attention goes.
Nothing can attack His people in any way without His permission... It is a simple and elementary principle, yet many take long years to understand it. Once the soul sees that God is directly concerned in every detail of life, it no longer fixes on the instruments at work. This comes out strikingly in the case of David when Shimei cursed him. He will not let the eager Abishai touch the offender, because he sees that "the Lord has said to him, 'Curse David'". So he can leave it all in His hands, trusting that He will turn the curse into a blessing.
If nothing happens unless the Lord commands it, the visible cause is never the whole story. The army, the illness, the person who wronged you — none of them acts alone. One writer draws that out from a matching question in Amos.
Others may look at the secondary instruments; but nothing happens apart from Him. According to the highest authority, the Lord Jesus Himself, not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. How much less can any judgment that swallows a whole city take place without Him? So, as He does all things, He knows all. And as He knows, He tells what He sees fit of each judgment to those who listen to His mouth and make known His mind.
The question exposes something about us. We talk about the future as though our word settled it. It does not — and when things go against us, we complain.
Next we see how completely man is ignorant of the future... God declares it all plainly. But complainers are never satisfied and never otherwise right. It would be better to complain of ourselves, yes, every man because of his sins.
People have misused verses like this to make God responsible for sin. The same writer faces this in his comments on a matching question in Amos. Older translations there read "evil"; the ESV reads "disaster". He draws a firm line and defines the word.
Not moral evil: Jehovah never does anything of the sort. God cannot be tempted with evil in that sense, and He tempts no one. But evil here and elsewhere means the carrying out of judgment. That is a tremendous thing in itself, since it is God who acts.
There is a limit on the other side. The same writer marks it in the verses just before this one.
They are acts of oppression, cruelty, and wrong: should the Lord not see this? Certainly they have no sanction from Him.
One writer states the purpose behind the stroke.
He does not discipline us for His own pleasure, but so that we may share His holiness. He is too loving to lay one unnecessary burden on us. He is too holy to leave out one needed stroke.
Knowing that God ordered the trouble is not the end. It is the start of a different response, and one writer notes how rarely we take it.
Surely it is far more fitting to say from the heart, "Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord"... It is this godly exercise that is so sadly lacking. Afflictions come, and souls faint under them. Or people make light of them and put on a hard, self-confident air that does not suit anyone under God's hand. With most of us, I fear, the first aim is to get out of the place of discipline any way we can. We skip the breaking down before God that leads us to search and test our ways.
- Command. No word of man comes true unless the Lord has commanded it. Nothing reaches His people without His permission.
- Ignorance. Man's confident talk about the future settles nothing. God alone declares plainly what will be.
- Instruments. Once that is settled, you stop staring at the agent — Shimei, the army, the person who wronged you. Not even a sparrow falls without the Father.
- Limits. Control is not approval. He never does moral evil, and oppression and injustice have no sanction from Him.
- Response. The fitting answer is not complaint but self-judgment. We search our ways and turn back, instead of scrambling out of the discipline.
Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed evil and good?
Jerusalem lies in ruins, and the prophet asks who is behind what has happened. Verse 38 gives one source for both the good and the bad — the Most High — and that answer changes how a sufferer speaks.
The verse before this one asks who can make anything happen unless the Lord has commanded it. Taken together, the two verses settle where every event in a life comes from.
Nothing can assail His people in any way apart from His permission... It is a simple and elementary principle, yet many take long years to understand it. Once the soul sees clearly that God is directly concerned in every detail of life, it is no longer taken up with the instruments at work. This comes out strikingly in the case of David when Shimei cursed him. He will not let the eager Abishai touch the offender. He knows that "the LORD has told him to curse David." So he can leave it all in God's hands, trusting Him to turn the curse into a blessing.
Another passage asks whether disaster comes to a city unless the Lord has done it. One writer explains there what such evil is, and what it is not.
Not moral evil: the Lord never does anything of the sort. It is impossible that God should be tempted with evil in that sense, and He tempts no one. But evil here, and in other places, means the carrying out of judgment — a tremendous thing in itself, of course, since it is God who acts... "Evil in a city" means plague, capture, or any other severe chastening falling on it. That is all it means here.
Another writer adds what God does with the evil He permits.
He allows evil for our chastening — even, as with Job, using Satan as an instrument to accomplish His gracious purposes.
Earlier in the chapter the prophet has said God does not afflict from His heart. That keeps verse 38 from sounding cold.
He does not chasten for His own pleasure, but so that we may share His holiness. He is too loving to lay one unnecessary burden on us; He is too holy to leave out one needed stroke... All His ways are equal. It is only man's defective vision that makes it seem otherwise. One day He will take us by the hand and go back over the whole path with us, letting the light of His own glory shine on every step. Then we shall understand, as we cannot now, how just and true all His ways were as He led us through this scene.
Both good and disaster come from one mouth. So the people and events that bring them are not the real story. Christ Himself is the pattern of receiving everything from God's hand.
We believers must take everything as coming from God. Otherwise we do not give enough value to our sufferings, and instead give value to ourselves in them. Wicked men cut our Lord down. He took it all as coming from God: "You have cast me down." Faith always looks to the great source, and not to the incidental instruments.
Verse 39 draws the conclusion the prophet is aiming at. Since God has declared what He is doing, complaint has nowhere to stand.
God has declared it all plainly. But complainers are never satisfied, nor are they ever right. It would be better to complain of ourselves — every one of us, because of our sins.
The passage moves from complaining to a call: examine our ways and turn back. That is where most of us fail.
With most of us, sadly, the first aim is to get out of the place of discipline in any way we can. We do it without that breaking down before God which leads to the searching and testing of our ways. This is where Judah failed so badly. God sent the king of Babylon against them because of their sins. They turned to the king of Egypt for help, in plain defiance of the word of the Lord.
- One source. Whatever reaches you, pleasant or painful, comes from the mouth of the Most High. Nothing can assail His people apart from His permission.
- One meaning. The "bad" here is calamity and judgment, not moral evil. God never causes sin, and He tempts no one.
- One heart. He does not chasten for His own pleasure: too loving to add an unnecessary burden, too holy to omit a needed stroke.
- One gaze. Faith looks past the instruments to the great source. Christ did so when wicked men cut Him down: He took it all from God.
- One response. Not complaint — a complainer is never satisfied. Search your ways and turn back, instead of scrambling out of the discipline.