In the middle of the book of
Lamentations, Jeremiah has this to say at the beginning of chapter
3. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me he is turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day. My flesh and my skin have he
made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath
builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He
hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He
hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain
heavy. Also when I cry and shout, He
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying
in wait and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside
my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He have also broken
my teeth with gravel stones. He have covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul
far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. And I said,
my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering my
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance
and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. I am the man. Jeremiah was a prophet who knew
affliction. He knew the depths of suffering. He knew what it was to stand
alone. He knew what it was to suffer. He knew what it was to be persecuted. He knew what it was to have enemies
who raged against him. He knew what it was to live in
fear of his life. And he knew what it was to feel
the anger of his God against both him and his people because
of their rebellion. He was a man who knew suffering
and sorrow. And we see this set forth both
in his prophecy of Jeremiah and in this short book of the Lamentations. A book of lamentations, a book
of sorrows, of weeping. Here he takes upon himself the
iniquity of his people, of Judah, and he owns them as his own.
He feels the guilt and the weight of them before his God. And he
feels the anger, the wrath, the judgment of his God against those
sins. I am the man that have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath, he says. I am the man. But Jeremiah's
experience, the reason why God put him through these things,
and the reason why God, through Jeremiah, records these things
in the scriptures, is not simply that we might read of these things
and empathize with Jeremiah in the times of suffering. It's
not only that when we are brought into such straits, and such travail
of soul, when we feel our sin, when we feel the suffering and
the sorrow, when we feel the persecution of others, that we
may see that there is one who has experienced these things,
that this is something which others experience. But Jeremiah's
experience here, the reason the Lord brought him through these
things was so that in type and figure he might set forth Christ
and the Gospel unto us. This book is not a book about
Jeremiah. It's a book about Christ. The sufferings of Christ. the death of Christ. First and foremost lamentation
sets before us the sorrows, the sufferings, the travail and the
very death of Christ who took upon himself the sins of his
people and whom God slew in their place
It is about the travail of His soul, His sufferings, His sorrows
unto death. Specifically it centres upon
His travail in death, especially here in chapter 3. The hours
of darkness upon the cross as the substitute hung upon the
tree, bearing the sins of his people. It is about when he was made
to be sinned that they should be made the righteousness of
God in him. When he bore their sins in his
own body upon the tree. When God poured out the cup of
his wrath upon his own son. about Him. What did Christ suffer? Truly
what did He suffer? What was it for Him to bear the
sins of His people, to be made sin? What was it like? What did He experience? How may
we know something of what Christ knew, of what Christ suffered,
of what Christ felt, of what Christ fought? How may we have
even but a glimpse of our Saviour in His suffering? Well here in
this book, we have this set forth before us. It's set forth, here
it is. laid bare, spread out before
us. When Christ, as it were, through
his prophet cries out from eternity into time, I am the man that
have seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. I am the man that have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. Or if we take the italics out
that the translators have put in to make it read more clearly.
I, the man, have seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. I, the man, have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. Yes, this is not a book about
Jeremiah. but a book about Christ, his
sufferings, and his death. As such, this really is a wonderful
book, small as it is for us to look into a wonderful book. The
title of the book, The Lamentations, and the subject of the book could
lead some to feel that this is a mournful book, they may be inclined to go to
those passages in the scripture which seem more immediately uplifting. But in reality, this with its
centering upon the sufferings of Christ for his people, ultimately
could not be more uplifting. Here is a display of the love
of Christ for his church. this is what he suffered for
that people whom he loved in order that he should save them
this is the depths he went to in seeing the depths and the
loneliness and the sorrow the burden he bore the iniquity he took upon himself
in seeing these depths you see something of the measure, the
length, the depth, the height of the love of Christ for sinners. And if by faith you're seen to
see something of Christ suffering for you, if by faith you're brought
to believe and to know that his blood was shed not just for sinners,
but for you, and that his sufferings was not just for others but for
you and because of your sins. Then you will see in these accounts
the great depth and the great love that Christ had for you
in particular. Yes we see Christ's sorrow here
but we see his love for his people. How he laments over his people. How he looks to his nation with
sorrow that they have turned from God. With sorrow that they
have rebelled against their maker. With sorrow that they have plunged
themselves into iniquity and into rebellion. but how he takes all that they
have done and all that they are upon himself to deliver them
from it. Oh the love and the mercy of
God for his people. How then Jeremiah here can look
beyond the suffering to the glory of God in his gospel and cry
out it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because
his compassions fail not they are new every morning great is
thy faithfulness because God loves his own and
God sent a saviour to die for his own that they are not consumed Oh what a death, what a suffering, what a saviour. This is what Jeremiah in personal
experience had some knowledge of. Because in his pathway, in
his sufferings, in the persecution which he bore, in the rejection,
in the loneliness, he could see by faith something
of that which his saviour would experience for him and his people. He knew what it was like Paul
to be able to cry out I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but done that I may win Christ. And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. That's what Paul could write
in Philippians and that's what Jeremiah knew. He counted all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. He
suffered the loss of all things that he might win Christ. That
he might know him, the power of his resurrection, that he
might know life in Christ, deliverance from sin, deliverance from condemnation. and that in knowing this that
he might have fellowship with the sufferings of his Savior. Now if you know something of
what Jeremiah knew here, if you know what it is to feel the wrath
of God against sin, if you know the conviction of the Spirit
of God against the sins which are within and if you know the
sorrow of being brought to stand alone
as one who would seek after a saviour as one who would long to know
the grace of God and as a consequence being rejected and despised by
all others if you know the travail, the sorrow of being persecuted
by all men, cast out, laughed at, scorned, considered a fool
to believe in Jesus Christ, considered simple to reject the wisdom of
this age, considered blind to have turned
your back upon science and the atheistic arguments of this generation. If you know the persecution of
others against you because you look and you trust in Jesus Christ
alone for salvation, And if you know the opposition of religious
men and women against you, because you stand firm... in the knowledge
that your salvation is by grace and grace alone because you know
that you have nothing in yourself to merit salvation you know that
you are nothing but sin through and through you know that God
would justly send you to hell and you know that nothing you
have done purposed or willed has ever brought you to God but
that you're in this place because God sought you and found you
and you know it's grace and you stand upon grace and everyone
else who professes Christ's name seems to despise you because
they say no we must do this and we must do that and you're cast
out not just by the world but by religion itself if you know
what it is to be this isolated this persecuted to be truly alone, then you know something of what
Jeremiah experienced and something of the fellowship of the sufferings
of Christ. Because you're not alone here. Christ went here. and he went
to this place in an experience and a depth which we only but
glimpse at or taste of in measure. The greatest suffering and sorrow
which we may be brought to experience is but a glimpse of what he took
upon himself for his own. Believer for you and for your
salvation. i am the man that have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath the savior cries out i am the man i am i am in chapter one and in other places
in this book we hear other cries In the same sense, is it nothing
to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. You
pass by, look at me, look at the Lord's fury and affliction
upon me. Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing
to you that I suffer in this way? You come, you hear the gospel,
you go, you pass by. You hear of the death of Christ
and of his suffering for sinners and you go away unmoved. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by, do you pass by? Do you hear of Christ and His
sorrow and does it leave you unmoved, uncaring? Do you come full of sin into
this place? Hear of a Saviour who died for
sinners and go off the next day back to your sin, to wallow in
it, unmoved. Is it nothing to you or ye that
pass by? Or has God by His Spirit in the
Gospel arrested you and caused you to stand and to look and
to behold the man? Behold the man! Behold the Lamb
of God, see the one upon the tree, see the man who's crucified
for sinners. See and look by faith has he
brought you to stand and to behold and to consider who it is there
and why he's there and what he suffers there and to hear his
cries. i am the man that have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath i the man who is this i am the man this is christ and there's no man like jesus
christ There's no man. There was, there is and there
never shall be a man like this man. I am the man. This man, the son
of God, came into this world. God was made man. God perfect, righteous, holy,
the creator of heaven and earth, the one who put man in Adam upon
this world, the one who watched as sin entered into his creation
and all mankind took up his fist and shaked it at his maker. the
one who watched wickedness multiply upon the face of the earth and
who watched kingdoms and empires form full of sinners, full of
rebellion, full of those who despise God and who despise his
gospel. full of people like you and me
who live for ourself on our own glory hating God and loving self
it's this God who looked upon a dark and an evil world full
of people like you and I who could have destroyed it with
fire in a moment yet it's this God who said no, I will send
my son into that world and he shall be made a man without sin
and he shall live the perfect man, the sinless man, pure, beyond
reproach, not a blemish in him. my servant my son shall go before
me he shall walk amongst men and he shall go to take the sins
of a multitude upon his back to be made sin to bear their
sins and to die in their place that he should deliver them from
their sins that they should be made righteous. He didn't destroy
this world. He didn't destroy everyone. He purposed to save a multitude
and he sent his son who came as God made man to suffer and
to die for sinners. There's no man like this man.
I, the man, have seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. Have
you seen the man? Has God given you eyes of faith? Has He opened your eyes to see
the man? When God made man upon this earth,
when He made Adam formed of the dust on the sixth day of creation,
made in His image, Adam was but a figure of the second man, the
last Adam to come, Christ. He was but a picture, a faint
figure, a shadow of the man. Adam though made innocent would
fall into sin and bring all his children and posterity into sin
with him. By him sin entered and death
by sin and death passed upon all men even unto you. That is
why you die. That is why you are dead in sin. That is why one day you will
die and stand before a holy God to give account of what you have
done. and to answer for your sin because
Adam in innocence fell and you fell in him and you've fallen
every day of your life. Such is the grip of sin upon
us. But there is a man who would
follow of which Adam was but a picture, who would not fall,
who would stand, who would be perfect, righteous, who when
tested as Adam was tested, would not fail, because he was God
made man. He was the man. And yet though
he himself would not fall, there came a day when through no fault of his
own, he would see affliction by the rod of God's wrath. He would suffer what that people
who died, that people who sinned, that people who rebelled should
suffer. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. Why was he in this state? Why
did this man see affliction by the rod of God's wrath? Why had
God led him and brought him into darkness and not into light?
Why was God turned against him? Why was his hand turned against
this man all the day? Why does this man cry out, my
flesh and my skin hath he made old? He hath broken my bones,
he hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places
as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. And when I cry and shout he shutteth
out my prayer. Why does this man, the man, cry
out these things? Why is he in this place? What had he done? What had he
done to deserve this? Nothing. He knew no sin. In him there was no sin. no wickedness, no crime, no guilt,
no cause of God's wrath, no cause for judgment, only cause for
God's love, only cause for God to cry out of the sun, this is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. I'm well pleased with
my son. I'm well pleased in him. He is
perfect. He has always done my will. He
has always served me. He has always obeyed. He has
always loved. There's no fault in him. When
brought before a mock trial, when Christ was brought to the
Romans by the Jews who sought his death, Pontius Pilate, having
examined Christ, having questioned him, had to say, I find no fault
in him. Behold the man. And yet they
cried out, away with this man. Crucify him. Crucify him. I am the man that have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. Why? Not because of anything
he had done, but because he assumes his people's guilt as Jeremiah
did. He takes the guilt and the crimes
of his people upon his own back. He says what they have done I
will pay the price of, I will pay the price of their sin and
not only will I pay the price but I will take their sins to
be mine as though I had committed them, as though I am guilty,
as though I am they. And he stood there not just to
pay the price, but he stood there as them, as one who was guilty. He writes in the Psalms, in Psalm
40, Psalm 22, in this sort of language. He writes not just
that he's paying the price because of what they've done, but as
he is them. Their guilt is his. though he
did not do it. I am the man that have seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. I'm the one. I was a derision to all my people
and their song all the day. God have bent his bow and set
me as a mark for the arrow. I'm the one. Slay me, not them, he says. Oh Lord God, punish them, not
I love them. I will save them, judge me, not
them. Make me to be guilty, not them. And slay me as a consequence.
He's a substitute. a substitute and when he died,
when he suffered, he suffered to the uttermost. He did everything
necessary to accomplish their salvation, to take their sins
away, to block them out to the uttermost. Which is why in chapter
4 we read of this accomplishment. Chapter 4, 11. The Lord have
accomplished his fury. He have poured out his fierce
anger and have kindled a fire in Zion and it have devoured
the foundations thereof. This fury and this fire fell
not upon Zion and its inhabitants but upon Christ their Saviour. upon the man. Verse 13, For the sins of her
prophets and the iniquities of her priests that have shed the
blood of the just in the midst of her. This people shed the
blood of the just one in the midst of Jerusalem. You and I
with our natural heart crucified Christ the Saviour. Whether we're
His or not His, it's us that crucified Him, we've all slain
Him. And if He died for our sins,
if He died as our Saviour, it's our sins which He bore, which
shed His blood, the just in the midst of Zion. The just. Verse 20 chapter 4 says the breath
of our nostrils the anointed of the Lord was taken in their
pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the
heathen. The anointed of the Lord took
our sin was crucified, thrown as it were like Joseph into a
pit, taken the wrath of God in hell as it were that we will
take if we love not Christ, if we come not to him. But for his
own he took what we would suffer and took it upon himself. I am
the man. Oh the guilt that he assumes,
the guilt that he bears, the guilt of our sin if we're his. Believer, do you feel the guilt
of your sin? Well if you do, if you have done,
know that Christ took it all. and that it's no longer there
for you to feel and for you to bear because he's taken it, he's
taken it off you in its entirety and he's taken it unto himself
and he's paid the price for it to the uttermost to the uttermost he says I am
the man you may say but no I feel I am
the man I know what I've done. I know how heinous my crime was. I know it. Consider David, that
great king, that great man of God, yet a man who fell greatly,
who desired Bathsheba and had her husband slain in battle. And the Prophet comes unto David
and recounts unto him of how one man had a lamb and that lamb
was slain and David is angry about how it's taken and slain. And the Prophet says unto David,
you're the one that's done this thing. You're the one who lived
in great wealth. You're the one who could have
had all that you wanted and you took this one man and took his
life and took his wife. You're the guilty party. Thou art the man. And when the
prophet laid this before David, David knew he was right. He knew this was true. He owned
and confessed his sin. He said, I have sinned against
the Lord. thou art the man but here we
read of another man one who died in David's place one who looked
upon David and said yes thou art the man but I've taken what
you have done David and I've taken it upon myself and now
I am the man I am the one. Not you David. You're forgiven. You're washed. You're washed
in my blood. I've taken that crime upon myself. I am the man. And this man does
not have to wait for an accuser to come under him and to show
him his sin. but he owns it, he stands up
and cries out to this world in the midst of his suffering I
am the man, I the man that have seen affliction by the rod of
God's wrath I've taken this guilt, I've taken this sin it's mine
that I should take it away that you should be saved that you
should be saved With what consequence did he take this sin? He was
cast out by all. Bearing the iniquities of his
people, he was cast out by man, by that people who rejected him. Even though he came to save them,
he was cast out by that people, and he was cast out by God. He stood alone. alone with a loneliness that
no one in this world has ever experienced. How lonely do you
feel at times? How lonely? What do you know
of loneliness? What do you know of longing to
be loved and just feeling the disapproval or the hatred of
others? What do you know of standing
alone? What do you know of being isolated? persecuted, without
friends, without those with whom you can walk and be of one mind. Many know loneliness in some
measure, greater or lesser, but none know this loneliness. All
men turned against him. And when he stood as the sin
bearer of his people, even his father, turned his hand against
him and bruised him and judged him and poured out the fires
of his wrath upon his own son because of what he was made to
be, because of what he bore, because he looked on him as the
guilty. I am the man, a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief Isaiah tells us, a man of sorrows. Oh the depths which are described
here, the depths of sorrow, the depths of loneliness. What he bore in order to save
his people. the dungeon he went into. Verse 55, I called upon thy name
O Lord out of the low dungeon. He was trapped, he was hedged
in, he was boxed in, there was no escape, he must suffer. And yet he would suffer. because
he loved that people and though they hated him and though God
judged him and poured out his bitterness and wrath upon him
he loved that people and he would drink that cup to the dregs no
matter what Yes, he was innocent. Yes, he was the just, suffering
for the unjust. He had not done these crimes,
but he took them all as though he had. And though they had sinned,
he suffered. And he would not turn from it. In Gethsemane, he wrestled in
prayer with his father. He knew that this faced him.
he knew the depths to which he must go he knew the awfulness
of having in the midst of that suffering to cry out I am the
man I am guilty slay me oh the depths but he suffered because of their
sin. It was they who brought about
his death. Believer it was you who brought
about his death. And it's your sins for which
he suffered. And ultimately because he died
you in Adam died that you might live with him. His death has
a purpose. He died to save us. He died to deliver us. He died
to bring us from death unto life. He died to blot out our sin and
make us to be righteous. Paul could say of the death of
Christ, he could rejoice in Galatians 2 verse 20, I am crucified with
Christ. When he died, when he bore my
sin, when he was made sin it was because I, I as I am in Adam,
I in my natural state, I as a sinner was crucified with him. i was mysteriously united with
him in death that's what died when christ died there was nothing
in christ himself to die but because i was crucified with
him because Christ took me upon himself, because I was taken
by God and laid upon the Son, because I, with all my sin and
iniquity, was united with Christ in death. It was I that was crucified. He felt the pain, not I. I knew nothing of it. It wasn't
something that I felt. He felt the pain. He felt the
judgment. He felt the loneliness, the wrath,
the burnings of fire. He felt the isolation. He felt
the death. And yet, it's because I was crucified
with him. and the result is that I am crucified
with Him. All that I was is gone and I
live again with a newness of life in Him. I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me. I'm done, I'm gone, I'm slain,
but I'm alive in Him. He suffered with this end and
I live, I've risen alive with Him. We're one, united by faith. united. Oh a great evil brought about
this death yes but a great good came from it. As with Joseph
thrown into a pit by his brothers cast off as dead and in the end
exalted to a position of authority in Egypt and by which his brothers
were saved. Joseph could say unto them in
Genesis 50 that they meant it for evil, they meant to slay
him. And yet God behind the scenes
brought all these things to pass for good. God meant it for good. and all our sin and all our iniquity
which we have done all meant for evil all sins against God
for it's against him whom we have sinned as David said I've
sinned against thee all that evil which we have done which
we've meant for evil God has used for good because he laid
it on his son and his son took it away and he blotted it out
to deliver us from it. Why is there evil at all? Because
God takes the evil of his people and takes it away through his
son to magnify his grace in delivering them from it. to bring about
their eternal salvation. Nothing else would bring this
about except for Christ to suffer in this way. Did he suffer in
this way for you? Do you know something of Christ suffering for you?
Have your eyes been opened to glimpse into the darkness upon
the cross, out of which the light sprang forth in the gospel? Have you had some sense of what
Christ went through to deliver you from your sins? Did he deliver
you from your sins? Was his blood shed for you? Can you look upon him? and when
you hear his voice say I the man that have seen affliction
do you know that that man the man saw affliction for you oh
what do you know of it what do you know of it we sang that hymn
of hearts at the beginning heart could speak of these sufferings
this depth and he says of this Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
but how little is understood. Of his suffering so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. Who can rightly comprehend their
beginning or their end? Tis to God and God alone that
their weight is fully known. Dearly we are bought for God,
Bought us with His own heart's blood, Boundless depths of love
divine, Jesus, what a love was Thine! Though the wonders Thou
hast done Are as yet so little known, Here we fix and comfort
take, Jesus died for sinners' sake. Jesus died for sinners'
sake. Did he die for you? Amen.