When God Afflicts Us
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Lamentations 3:31-33
Lamentations 3:31-33
For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
Why this text?
Why this text?
We read these words:
though he cause grief: there is no denial of troubles
he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love
he does not afflict from his heart: this is the key, He tells us His heart.
We tend to struggle with discipline
We tend to struggle with discipline
We struggle believing God is not “mad” at us.
We struggle trusting that God is truly after our good.
We struggle with how Christ can have paid for our sin but we still have discipline when we "dally” with it.
We tend to struggle with understanding the heart of God
We tend to struggle with understanding the heart of God
I have often marvelled at Matthew 7:9-11, what a contrast of our Father to us!
Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Do you understand that our God, including our Heavenly Father, doesn’t struggle with our sin nature and our tendency to respond wrongly?
Do you understand that our God, including our Heavenly Father, actually deals with us out of a covenant love that exceeds anything we have ever felt for another?
Do we understand that what we see in the New Testament was true of God at all times, even though the Old Testament is more difficult to grasp?
As Calvin put it, the Old Testament is the shadowy revelation of God—true but dim. The New Testament is the substance.
The context of this passage
The context of this passage
The Babylonians have invaded Israel, God is judging Israel for her rebellion; starvation, death and hopelessness are all around.
Though chapters and verses were added later, historically, these were done with thoughtfulness for the content.
Lamentations has 5 chapters - this is the middle chapter of the 5
Lamentations three has 66 verses - this is the middle of chapter 3
Let us say, this is the heart, the center of the book of Lamentations - everything in this book flows into and from this section.
God has good cause for His judgement, but He is not judging because He hates, or He wants to afflict. He is judging because He loves them.
Do we understand what compassion is?
Do we understand what compassion is?
This word for compassion means to be soft or gentle; It means to be inclined towards and affectionate.
This Hebrew tense carries this meaning: have compassion on, show mercy, take pity on, show love, i.e., have feelings and actions of kindness and concern for one in difficulty, regardless of one’s state of guilt for an offense, usually based in a relationship or association.
I was struck by the comment, regardless of one’s state of guilt.
I was also struck by the basis of a relationship, this leads to my next question.
Do we understand what steadfast love is?
Do we understand what steadfast love is?
This is the Hebrew word for chesed.
This word is best understood as covenant love or covenant faithfulness when referring to God.
It is an unfailing kindness, devotion, i.e., a love or affection that is steadfast based on a prior relationship.
What is the key that holds this passage together?
What is the key that holds this passage together?
Divine Sovereignty
Ortlund states,
First, then, we remember the beauty of utter divine sovereignty over all things, good and bad. The stubbed toe, the poison ivy, the backstabbing friend, the chronic neck pain, the people-pleasing boss who won’t stand up for us, the wayward child, the vomiting at 2:00 a.m., the unrelenting darkness of depression.
The Belgic Confession beautifully articulates God’s governance of all things in its teaching on divine providence, part of which reads:
This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance but only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly Father, who watches over us with fatherly care,
sustaining all creatures under his lordship, so that not one of the hairs on our heads (for they are all numbered) nor even a little bird can fall to the ground without the will of our Father. (Art. 13)
Ortlund says,
Here in Lamentations, the Bible is taking us deep into God himself. The one who rules and ordains all things brings affliction into our lives with a certain divine reluctance. He is not reluctant about the ultimate good that is going to be brought about through that pain; that indeed is why he is doing it. But something recoils within him in sending that affliction. The pain itself does not reflect his heart. He is not a platonic force pulling heaven’s levers and pulleys in a way that is detached from the real pain and anguish we feel at his hand.
Goodwin says,
My brethren, though God is just, yet his mercy may in some respect said to be more natural to him than all acts of justice itself that God does show, I mean vindictive justice.
In these acts of justice there is a satisfaction to an attribute, in that he meets and is even with sinners. Yet there is a kind of violence done to himself in it, the Scripture so expresses it; there is something in it that is contrary to him.
“I desire not the death of a sinner”—that is, I delight not simply in it, for pleasure’s sake. . . . When he exercises acts of justice, it is for a higher end, it is not simply for the thing itself. There is always something in his heart against it.
What is the real problem here?
What is the real problem here?
We think God is like us: - in His anger, in His judgement, in His displeasure
Contrast Lamentations 3:33
for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
With Jeremiah 32:41
I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
Do you see a difference here? Do you see a heart different towards those who are His?
But you and I read Scripture and we see these different sides of God:
And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
In Genesis 6:6 God grieves and decides to annihilate all mankind except Noah and His family.
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Then in Genesis 8:21 we read God says He will never destroy the Earth again.
We struggle to see how God can be both but He is, and He is not changing nor is He fickle - He is love and holiness personified.
What I want us to see is God is not like us - He is different in His love and even in His wrath.
In Hosea 11:1-4 we see another of these contrasts
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
Jonathon Edwards said this about Hosea 11:8
How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.
“God has no pleasure in the destruction or calamity of persons or people,” writes Edwards. “He had rather they should turn and continue in peace. He is well-pleased if they forsake their evil ways, that he may not have occasion to execute his wrath upon them. He is a God that delights in mercy, and judgment is his strange work.”
Neither Goodwin nor Edwards are diluting the wrath and justice of God; both of these men affirmed divine wrath and an eternal Hell.
What these men knew was that when God deigns to lavish goodness on his people, he does it with a certain naturalness reflective of the depths of who he is.
For God to be merciful is for God to be God.
We need to believe that God delights in mercy to all those who are fleeing sin and finding refuge in Christ. This is not a one-time event, this is characterizing their life.
Ortlund says,
Left to our own natural intuitions about God, we will conclude that mercy is his strange work and judgment his natural work. Rewiring our vision of God as we study the Scripture, we see, helped by the great teachers of the past, that judgment is his strange work and mercy his natural work. He does afflict and grieve the children of men. But not from his heart.