Find Hope When You Are Crushed

Lamentations 3:19-33 NIV 

[19] I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. [20] I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. [21] Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: [22] Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. [23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. [24] I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” [25] The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; [26] it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. [27] It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. [28] Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. [29] Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope. [30] Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. [31] For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. [32] Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. [33] For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.19-33.NIV)

In 1998, I saw suffering on a level I had never seen before. I felt pain and heartache like nothing I had known before. And yet, in a situation where even tall, strong, muscly men were reduced to a quivering heap of tears, I was asked to participate in the hardest presentation of the Gospel I have ever presented. 

I was working with a team in St Thomas’ Hospital, Cernavodă, Romania. 

What makes this hospital so unique is that they care exclusively for young children born with HIV who have been abandoned by their parents. Some also had other physical disabilities: one was blind, at least one more was crippled. Some also bore terrible scars caused by their depleted immune systems not being able to fight back against disease. One had that appeared to be the single worse case of herpes sores I have ever seen in my life, yet she was so bright and full of joy. 

What hit so hard is that these children had done nothing at all to deserve their condition.

They had become infected because the previous communist government had given them inoculations using recycled dirty needles. A few had also become infected because of parental misbehaviour.  

They were suffering, and would most likely not see through to their twenties, because of the negligent actions of others. 

We had gone to that hospital with all the vigour and strength of a young mission team. 

We left in dumbfounded silence. 

There are some sufferings that hit us with such force that we are simply struck dumb and freeze in horror. 

Jeremiah experienced something akin to that level of suffering when the Babylonians took Jerusalem, decimated the population, snatched the very best of the ruling class among them and left them with nothing but the dirt poor, before utterly destroying the Temple with heartless ruthlessness. 

This was the single worst moment in Jewish history, until the Holocaust. 

Lamentations, with all its misery and pain, is his recording of his raw emotions at the destruction he saw around him as an old man. 

It is not an easy read. 

Yet in the middle of a ridiculously bad situation, which Jeremiah knew to be entirely self-inflicted (Lamentations 4:12-15), we see such stunning verses as these.  

If we are suffering – whether or not it is self-inflicted – we must reflect on these verses. They point to the One in whom we must trust to get ourselves through our situation. 

That someone is God. 

Now, anyone who has read Lamentations – and I doubt that many have – might be surprised by this, because it contains verses like these: 

Lamentations 3:1-16 NIV 

[1] I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. [2] He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; [3] indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. [4] He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. [5] He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. [6] He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. [7] He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. [8] Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. [9] He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. [10] Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, [11] he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. [12] He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. [13] He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. [14] I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. [15] He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. [16] He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.1-16.NIV)

Who did Jeremiah say is afflicting the Lord’s people? 

The Lord! 

Yet Jeremiah also said that they should entrust themselves to the Lord to get back out of their situation. 

Why? 

These verses explain it: 

Lamentations 4:12-13 NIV 

[12] The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the peoples of the world, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem. [13] But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.4.12-13.NIV)

God brought on this punishment for their gross and unrelenting sins. He had given them plenty of warnings, even in their law (Deuteronomy 28:49-68). He had sent them prophets repeatedly to get their attention and call them to repent, but they did not listen. 

And so the punishment being meted out to them at the Exile, which Jeremiah lamented, was tough, but just.  

But where else could they turn to for help? There were – and are – no other gods. There is only One True God. 

So Jeremiah’s lament sent them right back to the God who was justly punishing them for their sin. He was calling them to confess their many years of sin and to repent. 

When we are in a storm, we need somewhere to shelter and some thing to hold on to. It doesn’t matter if the storm is deserved or undeserved. Jeremiah describes in these verses three aspects of God’s character that we must remember because it is to them we cling when life turns against us and deals us severe blows. Without these aspects of God, we simply have no hope. 

The first of these is that God Is Love. 

God Is Love 

Lamentations 3:19-23 NIV 

[19] I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. [20] I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. [21] Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: [22] Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. [23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.19-23.NIV)

I will never forget the look on my daughter’s face after her first inoculation. She cried a little and then looked at us with that look of ‘Why are you doing this to me? I thought you loved me!’ 

She later got so used to inoculations that she actually enjoyed them a little. 

That, though, is how Christians often react when hard times happen. ‘You are supposed to love me, God. Why is this happening to me?’ 

Jeremiah was different. He knew full well why the people of his generation were suffering as severely was they were. It just didn’t make it any easier. 

Yet in the middle of this ancient attempt to wipe them off the map and destroy their very existence as a people, Jeremiah clings to God’s love. 

In the middle of so much pain, look at what he said: 

Lamentations 3:22 NIV 

[22] Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.22.NIV)

The reality was that they fully deserved to be consumed, but the fact that they were not consumed was a sign of God’s love for them. 

Look at what he said about the Lord’s compassions: 

Lamentations 3:23 NIV 

[23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.23.NIV)

This is a deliberate echo of what happened when the Israelites received manna from heaven. It too was new every morning: 

Exodus 16:21 NIV 

[21] Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.16.21.NIV)

Except on the Sabbath, of course. But God gave them a double portion on the day before the Sabbath so that they had enough to eat. 

So the Sabbath, so also our troubles, as Jesus taught: 

Matthew 6:34 NIV 

[34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.6.34.NIV)

The point is simple but profound. Each day we have troubles. Each day we will have the resources we need to meet those troubles. This is a sign of God’s love for us. 

We should not complain if we don’t have the resources now to cope with tomorrow’s troubles. We should instead be grateful for the resources we have to meet today’s troubles and the loving God who gave them to us. 

Realising that God really is love removes from us any stress about the future, because we know that whatever comes our way, God will always provide us with the resources we need to face it.  

Knowing that the heart that beats for all creation beats with love changes our entire perspective on all our troubles, just as it did for Jeremiah.  

This belief is absolutely necessary. Without it, the world is a cold, hostile place that requires cold, hostile behaviour to survive. 

That is not a world in which any of us should seek to live. 

Apart from this glorious, perspective-shifting belief that God is love, we go on to see that God Is Our Portion. 

God Is Our Portion 

Lamentations 3:24 NIV 

[24] I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.24.NIV)

In several countries of the world, equitable land inheritance rights, coupled with high birth rates, have led to a situation with implications for the entire nation. In these countries, when someone dies, the land they own must be equally split among all inheritors. So if someone has four children, like my parents did, any land they own has to be split four ways, and so on and so forth. 

This has led to inherited land being so small that it can’t be farmed properly using modern methods, which in turn leads to smaller food yields, which in turn increases vulnerability to drought and famine. 

What seems right and fair becomes something that reduces portions of land and therefore food production. 

Jeremiah and the people of Judah were facing an entirely different land related issue: 

They were losing it to the Babylonians. 

What’s more, those who owned it and knew how to get the best put of it had been exiled: 

2 Kings 25:8-12 NIV 

[8] On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. [9] He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. [10] The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. [11] Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. [12] But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/2ki.25.8-12.NIV)

Now, let’s not think for one second that these poor people had been given the land for their own benefit. Not for one second. This land was being farmed and the proceeds used for King Nebuchadnezzar’s benefit. They were producing so that the Babylonian king would profit. 

They had absolutely lost everything. 

Now, right at the height of the siege, a very interesting thing took place: God commanded Jeremiah to buy a field (Jeremiah 32). On the surface, this was the most profoundly illogical thing to do. There was no way that Jeremiah would profit from owning this field. The Babylonians were about to take everything.  

Worse, Jeremiah would not live to see any profit from this piece of land. He was already an old man. God told him that the exile in Babylon would last seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11). Even if Jeremiah had somehow lived that long, Jewish jubilee laws would mean that the land would revert to its original owner (Leviticus 25:13-17). 

This made the whole purchase look like a total waste of money. 

It just did not make any sense at all. 

Except that profoundly illogical act had a reason: 

Jeremiah 32:42-44 NIV 

[42] “This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them. [43] Once more fields will be bought in this land of which you say, ‘It is a desolate waste, without people or animals, for it has been given into the hands of the Babylonians.’ [44] Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.32.42-44.NIV)

That land purchase was about providing God’s people with assurance that one day this horrible scenario would be over. One day they would be back in their land. One day their country would be restored. 

But Jeremiah would not live to see it.  

That is why, in our verses in Lamentations, it is profoundly moving to see the Lord as Jeremiah’s portion – his parcel of land, his inheritance. Jeremiah had lost what he had owned. He would never get it back. But God, for him, was more important than any of it. 

This is where we often increase our suffering. Often our reasons for following God are not right. We follow Him to gain a blessing from Him. We want wealth, recognition, standing, a future, a career, a family. We want the blessings, not the ‘blesser’. So when trials come and these blessings are under threat, we get angry at God because we could lose His blessings. 

We give no thought to Him. 

That could be a reason why Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19).  

Perhaps our suffering is there for us to loosen our grip on the blessings and cling on ever tighter to the ‘blesser’. 

Jeremiah had lost everything. He had seen suffering at a level few of us ever will. Yet he was sustained by the thought that God was his portion, not the things he had lost. 

Can we honestly say the same? 

Apart from the Lord being love and our portion, the last surprising pillar on which Jeremiah leaned to survive is that God Is Good. 

God is Good 

Lamentations 3:25-33 NIV 

[25] The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; [26] it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. [27] It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. [28] Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. [29] Let him bury his face in the dust— there may yet be hope. [30] Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. [31] For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. [32] Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. [33] For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.25-33.NIV)

One bad flight put my wife off a certain type of plane for life. 

We had heard such good things about it. We had altered our itinerary and paid extra money to fly it. 

But what ruined it was the awful way the airline had set it up. Not to mention a passenger who reclined his seat almost onto her lap for the entire journey and took her special meal.

Not to mention the poor quality of the toilets, which looked like they had been in a cheap student apartment from the 1980s. 

It was just an awful flight. It put us off flying with that airline on the world famous A380 ever again. 

Experiences are so important. They frame our opinions on so many things. 

But a bad Transatlantic flight has nothing at all on what Jeremiah and his contemporaries were experiencing. They saw and heard crimes that are simply unimaginable. They lived through a nightmare that had become reality. They knew this nightmare had come from God. 

Yet Jeremiah still clung to his belief that God is good. 

But this was way more than just a refrain from the Psalms (Psalm 100:5, 107:1). It is a basic, fundamental belief, more important than gravity or entropy  or even the offside rule, because without it there is no love, there is no holiness, there is no righteousness, there is no justice. 

And not one thing in life makes any sense. 

Instead of being a journey that ends in heaven, life becomes a narcissistic, nihilistic scrap to the death with nothing beyond it. All bets are off. All rules are forgotten. 

There is only anarchy.

Might is the only right. 

And no-one is accountable. 

That is precisely how things would have seemed to Jeremiah, as the heartless, ruthless, Godless Babylonians tore through the city and destroyed everything and everyone in their wake. 

But Jeremiah refused to succumb to the temptation to believe that God either no longer existed, or was bad, or was powerless to change anything. He believed that even in the pitiless chaos, God was still in control. 

In the middle of a situation none of us would say was remotely good, Jeremiah not only said that God was good, but that wait for Him to come to their aid was good, and that bearing the yoke of suffering was good. Those are surprising things to say, until you see this: 

Lamentations 3:31-33 NIV 

[31] For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. [32] Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. [33] For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.31-33.NIV)

In other words, Jeremiah knew that God would not have inflicted a punishment like this on His people if there was any other way. It was happening because it needed to happen. But one day, God would come to their aid, He would lift the burden of subjugation from their shoulders and would set them free. 

Their situation was not permanent. He would come to their aid. Not now. Later. But He would come. 

That is how Jeremiah perceived their suffering. It was not random chance. It was not bad luck. Behind it all was a good, Sovereign God working out His good purposes in His time.  

Jeremiah was suffering, but he also knew that one day there would be justice. His suffering would end.

I wonder, are we strong enough in our faith in God to believe the same? 

Conclusion 

Lamentations 3:19-27, 31-33 NIV 

[19] I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. [20] I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. [21] Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: [22] Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. [23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. [24] I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” [25] The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; [26] it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. [27] It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. 

[31] For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. [32] Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. [33] For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/lam.3.19-33.NIV)

In 2014, my family and I headed north out of my wife’s village for a brief vacation in the north of her island and the south of a neighbouring island. It was a really cool adventure. Our visit to the caves of Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park remains as an incredible memory. 

But the journey there and back will never be forgotten for a different reason. The previous year Typhoon Haiyan and wreaked havoc and disaster on the islands of Leyte and Samar, where we were travelling, causing the deaths of at least 6,300 people. Disasters like that don’t get cleaned up quickly anywhere, and even more so in a country with less financial resources. Our route took us past buildings where only a single wall remained, or where devastated families still wept as their properties were destroyed. Even one of the hotels we had planned to stay in was gone. 

We actually passed the place where a ship had been lifted from the waters of the San Juanico Strait and slammed into a poor neighbourhood. 

It was shocking to see. 

When you see a huge disaster like that, it can shake your faith – even more when you are directly affected by it. When that typhoon hit, we lost contact with our family for a week. All we saw on social media was pictures of neighbouring villages that had been flooded and laid waste. It was a real blessing to hear from them that their homes were only lightly damaged. 

For Jeremiah there was no such blessing. He lived through a famine so brutal that it drove some to cannibalism. He witness the utter devastation and ruthless destruction of the beloved capital of his country and the decimation of its Temple. He would have felt the heat and smelled the smoke of the flames as the Babylonians scorched it to the ground. He would have felt the intense pain of seeing it’s brightest and best taken into exile while only the poor remained. 

This was utterly horrific. 

Yet in the midst of such intense, relentless suffering, Jeremiah did not lose faith in his God. Despite the calamity all around him, Jeremiah still believed firmly that God was still in control. 

We saw three key aspects of that faith: that Jeremiah believed God was love despite the hated, his portion despite the deprivation and good despite the evil all around him. 

That might sound like a profoundly illogical faith. 

It was not. 

Too many nowadays have a vending machine faith. They insert their prayers and expect God to give then what they want. If He doesn’t, then He doesn’t exist. 

Or an online shopping faith. They fire off their orders in prayer and expect God to deliver the goods. If He doesn’t, then they will give Him a negative review and destroy His reputation on social media. 

Jeremiah is not like that. Not at all. God for him is more than a means to an end. 

He is God. And there is no other. 

Having family in the Philippine archipelago, I'm well used to ferries. There is one fact about travelling by ferry of which I am well aware. You can’t board or disembark a ferry that isn’t moored tightly to the dock. If you do, there is every possibility that the vessel could move and you could find yourself in serious danger of drowning, or worse. 

It’s precisely the same when one of these vicious storms of life hits. Your life must be moored to something strong, something fixed, something unchanging. 

If not, then disaster awaits. 

Jeremiah moored his life to God. In the face of an overwhelming disaster, he held fast to what he knew about God. That gave him a framework to endure the disaster and a right perspective on what was happening. 

Will you do the same? 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, You know what I am enduring right now. You know my pain. You know my struggles. I don’t always understand what is going on, but I trust You and I believe that You are good. Help me, I pray. Make me strong enough to endure it all. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation  

• What was Jeremiah enduring? How does this compare to your situation? 

• What did He believe about God? How did this help him? 

• What have you learned from these verses that will help you?