I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. Lamentations 3:1
Missionary stories are wonderful for children to read, although they often contain accounts of how the missionaries have encountered great suffering. As a lad, I read and wondered at the suffering of such greats as Adoniram Judson of Burma and others like him who valued the opportunity to spread the Gospel more highly than their own lives. And I was not yet into my teens when the accounts were told of five missionaries killed as they sought to carry the Good News to the Auca Indians of South America. It has been a matter of only a few years since we were all horrified by the descriptions of the Hindu torture of Christians in the Orissa area of India. Many of the Lord’s dear people in Moslem lands are being tortured and killed today for their faith. As are the suffering saints in the dictatorial and communist nations of North Korea and China. Yes, His people have known affliction in our day. But none have ever known the affliction of the rod of God’s wrath, except the Son who experienced it for us.
As we gather to remember, we recount and muse upon the afflictions the Lord Jesus endured at the hands of men. We recall the lash, the thorns, the buffeting, and the nails, the agony of crucifixion, and the scorn of the mockers. Man’s vile affliction of the Son of Man is surely more than we can understand. And yet, it is not of that affliction that Jeremiah writes in our text… it is the affliction of the rod of God’s wrath. Divine wrath was surely not against the Son, but against our sin. The Son became man that He might bear our load of sin, and the rod of God’s wrath fell upon Him. And the hand of God withdrew the rays of light because no other man could ever behold or comprehend the depths of that wrath during those three terrible hours.
In the bread and cup, and in our remembrance of Him, we recognize that He is the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. And to this Man we humbly offer our reverence, our worship, and our praise. -Jim MacIntosh