Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.
The prophet has just asked why a living man should complain when he is being punished for his own sins. Here is the answer: a whole people stops, checks its own ways, and turns back to God.
One writer sets two kinds of complaint side by side.
The complete ignorance of the future on man's part is next set before us. "Who is it that speaks and it happens, when the Lord has not commanded it? Do not both evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" All is plainly declared by God. But complainers are never satisfied nor otherwise right. It would be better to complain of ourselves, yes, every man because of his sins.
One writer treats this searching as the proof that God's discipline is doing its work, and admits how rare it is.
Surely it is far more fitting to say from the heart, "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord" (v.39-40). This indicates that the discipline is having its desired effect... It is this godly exercise that is so sadly lacking. Troubles come, and some people faint under them. Others make light of them and put on a hard, self-confident air. That air badly suits anyone under God's hand. With most of us, I am afraid, 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 try our ways.
Ironside points to Judah as the example. God sent the king of Babylon against them for their sins, and they turned to the king of Egypt for help, in plain defiance of the word of the Lord.
The verse does not stand alone. It opens a sequence, and commentators note that each step follows the one before in a fixed order.
Beginning with verse 40, a real return is described. There is self-examination: "Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the LORD." Then prayer: "Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven." Then confession: "We have transgressed and rebelled, and You have not forgiven." It pictures in advance the repentance of a remnant of the Jewish people at the close of this present age, when the Lord is about to appear in visible glory.
Kelly calls these verses a call to self-judgment, and marks how severe the moment was: "It was just, but overwhelming, to find no sign of pardon in His ways."
What if prayer gets no answer? One writer reads that silence as a message about the person praying.
There is an important lesson here. It is useless to pray while persisting in sin. The man who does not seek to walk with God has no right to expect anything from Him... Obedience gives confidence. You cannot ask in faith while you cling to something that grieves the Holy Spirit and dishonours the Lord Jesus Christ. Is prayer unanswered? Does heaven seem shut? That is a solemn sign of a wrong state of soul. It should lead to self-judgment and to giving up every evil way.
Older translations read "search and try" where the ESV has "test and examine." Either way, this goes deeper than a quick admission of fault. One writer marks the difference, and what each one brings.
There is a great difference between confession and self-judgment. Self-judgment is by far the deeper work. Forgiveness follows at once when we confess, as 1 John 1:9 says. But we are not restored to communion until the root of the sin is exposed and judged in the presence of God.
The verse also gets applied to us. One writer looks at a Levite — a man set apart for God's service — whose unholy alliance nobody in Israel questioned, and then asks about the company we keep.
What shall we say of this indifferent state of the people? Can it be that such an example was pleasing to them? And what shall we say about the questionable alliances of our own day? They may not be with gross, low forms of evil. They are with what the world finds respectable enough. Yet they compromise holiness. They show a heart not fully faithful to "one husband" — our own faithful Lord and Saviour. "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord" (Lam. 3:40).
- Complain — grumbling under deserved trouble never satisfies. Better to complain of ourselves, because of our sins.
- Search — searching our own ways proves that God's discipline has done its work in us.
- Turn — a real return has an order: first search yourself, then pray, then confess.
- Root — confession brings forgiveness at once. Communion returns only when we judge the root of the sin before God.
- Result — unanswered prayer is a signal, not an accident. Obedience gives confidence; clinging to sin shuts heaven.
Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto God in the heavens.
Jerusalem lies in ruins, and the prophet turns from the disaster itself to what the survivors must do. Should people under God's hand look for a way out of the trouble, or a way back to God?
The verse is the middle step of a sequence that begins in verse 40:
Verse 40 begins the description of a real return. First comes self-examination: "Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!" Next comes prayer: "Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven." Then comes confession: "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven." It is a prophetic picture of the repentance of a Jewish remnant at the close of this present age, just before the Lord appears in visible glory.
Most of us want the trouble to stop. Fewer want to look at ourselves.
It is far more fitting to say from the heart, "Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!" This shows that the discipline is having its desired effect... It is this godly exercise that is so sadly lacking. Troubles come, and some people faint under them. Others make light of them and put on a hard, self-confident air, which does not suit anyone under God's hand. With most of us, I fear, the first aim is to escape the place of discipline any way we can. We miss the breaking down before God that leads us to search and test our ways.
Some translations read "let us lift up our heart with our hands." One writer ties the lifted hands to the life behind them:
There is an important lesson here. It is useless to pray while persisting in sin. The man who does not seek to walk with God has no right to expect anything from Him... This is the key to answered prayer. Obedience gives confidence. You cannot ask in faith while you cling to something that grieves the Holy Spirit and dishonours the Lord Jesus Christ. Suppose prayer is not answered and the heavens seem like brass. That is a solemn sign of a wrong state of soul. It should lead to self-judgment and to giving up every evil way.
Paul uses the same gesture, and one writer says what the lifted hands carry:
Paul uses the term in 1 Timothy 2:8, "Lifting up holy hands." As we come into the presence of God, we know we are speaking to Him, and we know He is listening. When we bless God we offer something to Him: our hands are full of the excellence of Christ.
The prayer goes up to "God in heaven." The word for God here is 'El.
'El' itself means The Mighty... It is the name used, in contrast with man, for a God someone personally owns, whether the true God or a false one.
The prayer does not ask for relief. It moves straight into an admission, and no word of pardon follows.
In verses 40-42 the call is to self-judgment... "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven." It was just, but overwhelming, to find no sign of pardon in His ways.
This confession is not despair. Their trouble came from their own sin, so owning it before God is the way back:
The enemy brought Jerusalem's afflictions, but those afflictions were the result of her sins against the LORD. So the people must own those sins before Him. The prophet urges them to do it. As he does, he waits in confidence for the Lord to step in for them, just as he himself had cried out and the Lord had delivered him.
- Search — verse 40 comes first for a reason: testing our ways, not escaping the trouble, is the sign that God's discipline is working.
- Lift — lift the hands in prayer, but lift the heart with them; hands alone are hollow.
- Let go — praying while you hold on to known sin is useless. Unanswered prayer should send you to self-judgment, not to complaint.
- Own it — the prayer moves straight into confession: they name their transgression and rebellion before any sign of pardon comes.
- Wait — after confession comes confidence: the prophet cried out to God, and God delivered him.
We have transgressed and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned.
Here the mourning turns into confession. The speakers name their own sin, and in the same breath say that God has not forgiven. That raises a hard question. Why would a people who confess still find no pardon?
Verses 40–42 form one movement. Confession comes at the end of it.
Verse 40 begins the description of a real return. First comes self-examination: "Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!" Next comes prayer: "Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven." Then comes confession: "We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven." It is a prophetic picture of the repentance of a Jewish remnant at the end of this present age, when the Lord is about to appear in visible glory.
So the verse is not the start of repentance but its honest end point.
One writer puts the word into the first person. This is what transgression sounds like from the inside:
Transgression is revolt, rebellion. God says "You shall not," I say, "I will." God says, "You shall," I say, "I won't." In pity He lays His hand on my shoulder and says, "Don't." I pull my shoulder away and treat His pity with contempt. That is transgression.
The hardest words in the verse are the last ones. They are not an accusation against God. They accept a fact about His ways.
Then in verses 40-42 the call is to self-judgment... It was just, but overwhelming, to find no sign of pardon in His ways.
Note the two words held together: just, and overwhelming. The speakers do not argue that God is unfair. They feel the full weight of what their own sin has produced.
Two verses later, the same speakers say their prayer cannot get through. One writer draws the lesson for anyone whose praying feels blocked.
In brokenness of spirit they cry, "You have wrapped Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through" (v. 44). There is an important lesson here. It is useless to pray while persisting in sin. The man who does not seek to walk with God has no right to expect anything from Him... Obedience gives confidence. It is impossible to ask in faith while clinging to something that is grieving the Holy Spirit and dishonouring the Lord Jesus Christ. If prayer is not answered, if the heavens seem like brass, it is a solemn sign of a wrong state of soul. It should lead to self-judgment and to giving up every evil way.
Under God's discipline, the first instinct runs the other way.
With most of us, it is to be feared, the first aim is to get out of the place of discipline in any way we can. We want escape without that breaking down before God which leads to the searching and trying of our ways. It was here that Judah so badly failed. When God sent the king of Babylon against them because of their sins, they turned to the king of Egypt for help, and that in plain defiance of the word of the Lord. But they had to learn in a practical way the bitterness of departure from God.
"You have not forgiven" is not the end of the story. One writer explains the order God keeps.
Before God can righteously remember their sins no more, He must be reminded of them. In other words, Israel must fully confess their sins before God can justify... Israel must confess their sin in this way and justify God in His dealings with them. Then God will justify Israel, blot out their transgressions and remember their sin no more.
- Search — the verse belongs to a sequence: examine your ways, then lift the heart to God, then confess. Skipping to the last step alone is not the return described here.
- Own it — the words admit revolt, not weakness: God says "you shall not," and the sinner says "I will."
- Justify God — to say "You have not forgiven" is to accept that the verdict is just, even while it crushes. It is overwhelming, but it is not unfair.
- Silence explained — prayer that goes nowhere while sin is kept is not a mystery; it is a signal. Obedience is what gives confidence in asking.
- Then pardon — the fullest confession is the very thing God waits for. Where a people justify God, God moves to justify them and remember their sin no more.