The third lament of Jeremiah is 66
verses long. Like his first lament is also an acrostic poem but to be more
exactly this is what is termed a triple-acrostic poem. What do we mean by that?
In the first lament in chapter 1, every verse began with a letter in the Hebrews
alphabets. The very first verse started with the alphabet “Aleph,” the very first
letter and ended with “Tav,” the last of the 22 Hebrew alphabets. But in this
third lament in chapter 3, an alphabet would a start off every third verse. This
lament starts off with the alphabet “Aleph” in verses 1, the next alphabet “Beth”
starts the fourth verse and so on and so forth until the last alphabet “Tav.” So,
every third verse begins with a Hebrew alphabet. Hence this third lament is
three times the length of the first. That’s why we call this a triple-alphabet-acrostic
poem. This third Lament is a personal rather than a communal lament hence, it
begins with the pronoun “I.” Here Jeremiah began with a cry of despair and
ended up with a prayer for liberation. This is a long lament so we will break it
up and meditate on it, part by part.
We begin with the first eighteen verses.
Here we see the description of Jeremiah’s cry of deep anguish. He was suffering
along with all his fellow Israelites and saw the intensity of his suffering as the
outpour of divine wrath. The repetition of the Pronoun “He” tells us that it
was God who had put him through all these. What he went through did not come in
a few trickles; they came pouring upon him like a mighty torrent. He vividly painted the despair of his spirit, the
anguish of his soul and the affliction of his physique. The came upon him like
a triple whammy.
Jeremiah was a man at the receiving end
of divine wrath. Using many figurative speeches, he portrayed the intensity of the
suffering that he went through. He was driven and made to walk in darkness (verse
2). Repeatedly he was smitten (verse 3). He described himself as a man experiencing the
fragilities of an aged person and his g fragile bones were broken (verse 4). Like
a city under siege, he was made bitter by the hardship (verse 5). He was thrown
and imprisoned in a broken cistern because he refused to back away from his
call to the people to accept God’s will. Verse 6-7 allude to that imprisonment.
God seemed to have shut His ear and the prophet’s cry for prayer went unheeded
(verse 8). Like a traveller He was made to make detours because stones were
thrown on his way to force the route change (verse 9). Jeremiah saw himself attacked
by ferocious beasts lying in wait to pound on him (verse 10). He was the target
of the divine Archer (verse 12). The
prophet also became the laughing stock to everyone and was the butt of their
jokes (verse 14). He was filled with bitterness and made to feel like a worm
(verse 15). He felt that like a guest, God had invited him to a banquet, only
to serve him stones and gravel till his teeth were shattered (verse 16). Disasters
upon disaster overtook him that peace just fled from him. So devoid of peace
and he couldn’t even recall what it meant to be happy (verse 17). He was at the
lowest point of despair and his hope in God was fading.
We need to understand that suffering
is always a personal experience. While it was the nation of Israel that God was
dealing with, the citizens are the one affected. Hence, while it was the nation
as a whole going through the intense tragedy and hardship, the suffering always
takes place at a personal level of each individual of the nation. The same with
the church, when God deals with us as corporate, the effect of his dealing is
always felt at the individual level. We shall see how Jeremiah came through
from pessimism to optimism further down the chapter. Meanwhile, suffice to say
that should hardship come calling in our life, we must bring them to God. Even
when nothing seems to be moving, we remain steadfast. God is faithful, He who
began His good work in us will complete His work in us when we stay trusting.
Faithfulness is God’s nature, don’t forget it!
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