May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust-- there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.

For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.

(Lamentations 3:21-33)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends:
Jeremiah the prophet begins this chapter I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. The rod of the Lord on his children-this is our focus today. The rod is different than the cross. The Bible uses the word cross for when we suffer for doing good. If we speak up about our need for Jesus and worship and people ridicule us-that's the cross. The rod is when we suffer as a consequence of our sin. And in the inspired, sad poems of Lamentations we learn a great deal about living under the Lord's rod. Let us listen carefully. For just as the cross, suffering for doing good, will certainly be for every Christian, so also the rod of the Lord certainly is on every Christian. This is so for we daily sin and suffer sin's consequences in this life. So let us listen to Jeremiah speak of LIFE UNDER THE ROD OF GOD.

The mercy of it. Jeremiah and the people of Judah found themselves ravaged by war and defeat at the hands of Babylon. And the Lord had let them know before, during and after the war so that there was no mistaking it-this trouble is because they had sinned greatly, forsaken the Lord, a consequence of their persistent sin of open idolatry. This was the rod of Lord. Jeremiah knew it. So did every God-fearing person in Judah. Yet right there, under the Lord's rod, the first thing to remember is that the Lord's mercy is still present. Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord's mercy is great, large, and vast. It is never the case that a person would go to the Lord looking for mercy and find that mercy has run out. The Lord's mercy is new every day. It is never the case that a person would go to the Lord looking for mercy and be told that there is none for today. The Lord does not lay his rod on his children instead of mercy. The Lord lays his rod on his children along with his mercy.

Why? That is seen in the next stanza.

The good of it. Jeremiah says, It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD...for the LORD has laid it on him. The Lord has good in mind when he lays the rod on his children. There is a blessing under the rod of God. The rod comes from the Lord, from the God who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4) and who says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?' (Ezekiel 33:11) The Lord sends the rod to work repentance. His aim is always to save. So Jeremiah says, It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. It is a good thing when the Lord lays his rod on us from little on, and soon after we are in need of repentance. For if he would not catch us and pull us back from sin, we would continue our reckless and dangerous ways. The rod is proof of the Lord's good intentions for us. In the rod the Lord is saying, I want you in heaven; I will not let you go on until you are in hell.

Of course, just knowing that the rod of God is good for us does not make it easy. It helps us bear up under it, yet it still hurts. This too Jeremiah speaks of.

The pain of it. Let him sit alone in silence. Jeremiah describes being under the rod of God as a lonely place. It often is. People may say, I know how you feel, but every circumstance is unique; each rod a creation of God tailor made for a specific reason, and no one else can truly know it. The rod is often a humble place--Let him bury his face in the dust...Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. We would like to escape the consequence of sin so the rod of God is forced upon us and we find ourselves defeated before God, face in the dust, unable to say a word to get out from what is upon us. This could never be pleasant to us, even when conscious of the good in it. The Lord may even use our enemies in laying the rod on us as he did when Babylon crushed Judah. Repentance involves crushing the sinful nature and old Adam. David wrote: a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

And yet, waiting quietly under God's rod does not mean that we do not pray, or cry out to God. Call upon me in the day of trouble, says our Lord. And that goes also when we know and realize that our troubles of our own making. And one of the arms of comfort he places under, over and beside us it this truth-the rod will not last forever.

The end of it. Jeremiah says, For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. The Lord who lays the rod on us promises an end to it. He promises compassion along with the rod and compassion that lasts long after the rod is put away. And his heart is not in the laying on of the rod. The Lord wants the rod to end as soon as possible, so the moment his saving plan is accomplished the rod is lifted.

Living under God's rod. The words are clear enough that little more needs to be said. I offer only these encouragements:

• Listen to what the Lord says, to God's Word, about the rod. If you listen only to your feelings or the advice of the world, you will never hear the truth that the rod comes from a merciful God, is good for us, and will end.
• Thank God for the rod. Make a conscious effort to do so. Do so because by faith you know his good purpose in the rod and see his mercy even under his rod.
• Don't dwell on the question "why?"...why am I so afflicted? There is no answer that will satisfy the mind in every circumstance. Just as children often don't understand why parents act as they do, so, as children of God seek to be satisfied in knowing God is good, loves me and knows what he is doing.
• Don't look for a specific sin when the rod comes. Job's friends made that mistake. Jesus shows us in John 9 when healing a blind man that there is not always a specific, individual sin about which the rod is laid on to work repentance. Let every difficulty remind us that I am sin and must ever be confessing so before my Lord.
• Finally, let us never think that the rod the Lord lays on us in some way makes up for our sin. It is every true that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. (Galatians 3:13) Here is the sinner's hope of going to heaven where only sinless ones live forever-Jesus Christ's atoning blood. Under the rod let us turn to Christ.

     Amen.