The Prophen Details His Afflictions

Lamentations 3:1–24
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Jeremiah pours out his heart in behalf of his erring, prostrate nation. Her crimes have brought her to the brink of extinction. She lies crushed and bleeding beneath a merciless invader. Her temple is in ruins; her walls are demolished; her people are either dead, dazed, scattered, or captive.

So as we turn to Lamentations 3, what are the Biblical afflictions God uses, manages, allows and most of all - hurts that HE can handle:

1. The hurts of broken and physical health (v.4), “He has aged my flesh and my skin, and broken my bones.”
2. The hurts of deep emotional strain (v. 5). “He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.”
3. The hurts of periods of hard depression (v. 6). “He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.”
4. The hurts of desperation and burden of being trapped (v. 7) “He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.”
5. The hurts of feeling out of touch, distant from God and left behind in life (v. 8). “Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.”
6. The hurts of frustration and confusion (v. 9) “He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.”
7. The hurts of anxiety and sadness (v. 17). You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.
8. The hurts of physical weakness and hopelessness (v. 18). And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.”
9. The hurts of bitter affliction and aimlessness (v. 19). “Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.”

Application

Jeremiah saw one ray of hope in all the sin and sorrow that surrounded him. It is comforting to know that God’s steadfast love is greater than my sin and He promises forgiveness.