GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 3:10-12
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10 He is like a bear lying in wait for me;
like a lion in hiding.
11 He dragged me from the path and tore me apart.
He left me without help.
12 He strung his bow
and made me the target for his arrow.
These verses tell the story of the first cross, the grief of the exiles in Babylon, with two or three different comparisons. First: “I am the victim of an animal attack– I’ve been mangled by a bear or a lion!” If the second example (verse 11) is different, then it’s the story of being assaulted by a bandit or a robber. But it seems very much like a continuation of the bear attack, where the savage creature dragged him off the road in order to tear him limb from limb. The last example is of the Jew in Babylon feeling like the target of an archer’s arrow. Job said: “O Watcher of men, why have you made me your target?” (Job 7:20), and also, “He shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He had made me his target” (Job 16:12). This second quote from Job almost sounds like it was the basis for the words of our three verses, expressing the same lament in slightly different language. Ezekiel, in exile with these very people on a riverbank in Babylon far away, made this grim assessment of the government there: “The king of Babylon… will cast lots with arrows. Into his right hand will come the lot for Jerusalem, where he set up battering rams, to give the command to slaughter, to sound the battle cry” (Ezekiel 21:21-22).
Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan about a man who got beaten up and robbed (Luke 10:30) in order to teach about being a good neighbor. But then Jesus himself became the victim of something very similar, only much worse, done in public and with more savagery, with ridicule and mockery, and with the sole intention of murdering him. “The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to kill him” (Mark 11:18; Luke 19:47). It didn’t really matter what the charges were. Once they got him into custody, they came up with something. Even though Pilate the Governor didn’t agree with their judgment and declared Jesus to be innocent, it just turned into a shouting match. To keep the peace in the city, Pilate let him be crucified. The second cross, the cross of Jesus that he carried through the streets and then was killed upon, was a cross of nothing but cruelty and malice. They hated him with a hatred that came straight from the wicked heart of the devil. Satan prowls like a lion looking for someone to eat (1 Peter 5:8).
Our blessing under the third cross, the cross that is held by faith and with love for Jesus, is that these verses do not have the same subject as they do under the first and second crosses. It is not God’s wrath and anger, punishing us for unrepentant unbelief, that stalks us like a bear and that strings the bow, as it was for the Jews of the exile. It is not God’s fury over all the sins of mankind that is aimed at us as it made a single target in the chest of the Son of God, condemned, tortured, and executed for our sins. It is rather the rage of Satan that so often assails us, the bitterness of the world’s unbelief that does indeed plan to tear us limb from limb. And yes, God allows these things to happen, but for our eternal good. He allows such torments to come as a third cross to us to test our faith, to lead us to repentance, and to strengthen our faith and toughen us up for bigger tests to come.
And he has not left us without help. The Holy Spirit lives in each Christian in the temple of the heart, guiding us, stretching out our hands to grasp the hem of Jesus’ cloak in faith, speaking our hearts into the darkness of the night in prayer for guidance, for strength, for the Lord to bless our loved ones, our grieving friends, those in our families who are straying on distant hilltops. He teaches us to pray for them that they will be given faith, friendship, love, and joy in life. He points us to that offering of the humble and the poor: the holy Son of God, the “Dove on distant oaks,” who gave his life on the branches of such a grim tree to atone for us and to make us his own.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 3:10-12 A dove on distant oaks