IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

He Has Turned His Hand Against Me

Date: Jun. 12, 2024

Passage

Lamentations 3:1-18

Great Is Your Faithfulness

3:1   I am the man who has seen affliction
    under the rod of his wrath;
2   he has driven and brought me
    into darkness without any light;
3   surely against me he turns his hand
    again and again the whole day long.
4   He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
    he has broken my bones;
5   he has besieged and enveloped me
    with bitterness and tribulation;
6   he has made me dwell in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.
7   He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has made my chains heavy;
8   though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
9   he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
    he has made my paths crooked.
10   He is a bear lying in wait for me,
    a lion in hiding;
11   he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
    he has made me desolate;
12   he bent his bow and set me
    as a target for his arrow.
13   He drove into my kidneys
    the arrows of his quiver;
14   I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
    the object of their taunts all day long.
15   He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with wormwood.
16   He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;
17   my soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness is;
18   so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the LORD.”

Daily Bread

Key Verse: Lamentations 3:3

surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.

The laments in this chapter are personal laments. The author has grieved for his city and his nation. Now he grieves for himself because of the Lord’s judgment. He has witnessed firsthand the Lord’s wrath. Evidence of the Lord’s wrath is all around him. Here the author speaks of his own affliction. He walks in darkness. The Lord’s hand is against him all day long. He is surrounded with bitterness and hardship. Try as he might, he cannot escape the misery of God’s judgment. He is walled in like a prison.

The author was once prosperous. Not so anymore. He was once at peace. Not so anymore (17). He is a laughingstock to his people. The author admits his heart has been pierced with the Lord’s arrows. What happens when a heart is pierced? It dies. When we don’t have God, we don’t have life. This is not just the sorrowful words of a man in sin. These are the words of a man who has been abandoned by God. When the Lord removes his blessing from us (his presence), our lives are utterly devoid of worth or pleasure. The only answer is to repent and come to Jesus. Our sins will be forgiven, and we will be restored.

Prayer: Father, how can we endure without your mercy? Have mercy on us and forgive us our sin.

One Word: No hope without the Lord

Daily Bread

The Priests’ Share

Leviticus 7:22-38

Key Verse: 7:36

The LORD commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, from the day that he anointed them. It is a perpetual due throughout their generations.”

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