He Does Afflict From His Heart

Lamentations 3:31-33 ESV

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32 for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Most of us, if we have lived long enough, have learned that life does not move in a straight line. It bends. It breaks. It carries joys we never expected and losses we never planned. Time teaches us that suffering is not an exception in this world — it is a companion along the road.

The book of Lamentations was written in the ruins. Jerusalem had fallen. God’s people were not pretending everything was fine. They were learning how to speak to God when life hurt.

Yet in the middle of that grief comes a quiet and astonishing confession — not that pain is small, but that God’s heart is kind. Not that sorrow is unreal, but that compassion is greater.

Our passage today does not explain every sorrow. It does something better. It tells us what kind of God we have in our sorrow. And for those who have walked long roads, that truth may be the most precious comfort of all.

The book of Lamentations was indeed a lament, it was an expression of grief and sorrow. The cause for the lament? The recent Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. This lament was recorded immediately after Jerusalem had been destroyed.

The city that Judah thought was untouchable due to the connection which God shared with it was now reduced to rubble. This clearly showed that God had judged the city and the people within it.

But even in Jerusalem’s bleakest hour, for the faithful, there was hope. There was hope that because of God’s character, because of Who He is, and His own faithfulness, it wouldn’t be like this forever. I repeat, not because the Jews started behaving themselves, not because they got lucky, not even because they repented would it not be like this forever; but because of the faithfulness of God, because of His very nature and character would it not be like this forever.

We see this, looking to our text, where we read;

Lamentations 3:31 ESV

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever,

For those of us who are parents, we know that whenever we would discipline our children, we did so with a clear objective in mind. Usually that objective was to keep them from doing whatever it was that caused us to determine that they needed to be disciplined in the first place.

And the motivating factor in that discipline was love. We didn’t discipline our children simply because they made us angry and we wanted to take our anger and frustration out on them, in fact, that is the complete opposite of what it means to discipline. To discipline means to correct, and if we want to correct our children, that means that we want them to do what is right, which in turn means that we want good for them. And if we want what is truly good for them, that means that we truly love them.

In the same way, the discipline that God administers to His people is always a corrective measure, it is always meant to steer His children back on track. And the reason why God does this, again, is not because we deserve it, not because He owes it to us, no, He does it because it is in His very character to do it.

He does not cast off forever, but His casting off is ever for the good of His people.

We see this as we move to our next verse, which says:

Lamentations 3:32 ESV

32 for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

We see something interesting here when we read that God causes grief. Grief is defined in the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible as “emotional suffering brought on by bereavement, mishap, or disaster”. And yet, we see in our text that God causes it.

Now, from an uninformed perspective of the Bible, this may sound like the author is saying that God is the direct cause of grief, as if He designed it and set it into motion. But that’s not what is being said. Rather, to say that God has caused grief means that He ordains it. And that God ordains it means that He allowed it to come to pass. And so, while it was Babylon itself that directly caused grief, that God ordained it signifies that He providentially caused it.

But though God is the One Who causes this grief, Who allows this grief to come to pass in the lives of His people, still, we read, “He will have compassion”.

Compassion is the quality of showing kindness or favor, of being gracious, or of having pity or mercy. And when it is said that God will have compassion it is not merely stating that God possesses a compassionate nature, but it means that He will actively demonstrate compassion.

So, in this we see that though the people have sinned and needed to be disciplined, though they had merited nothing but the wrath of God, He nevertheless intends to show compassion to those very people.

And we ask, why does God do this? Why does He intend to show compassion to people who deserve only His wrath? The end of this verse tells us why when it says that He will show compassion, “according to the abundance of His steadfast love”.

Again, in this we see the merciful, loving, gracious character of God. The compassion that He has for people who otherwise deserve His wrath proceeds not from the worthiness of the innate holiness of such people, but instead, it originates in, it flows from love that is steadfast, that is consistent, that is everlasting.

And looking to the last verse in our text, we read:

Lamentations 3:33 ESV

33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

In this closing verse, we are brought face to face with a profound truth about God’s nature. When we read that God does not afflict from His heart, what it means is that affliction — though ordained by God — is not rooted in His deepest delight, but in His holy commitment to justice.

What is being taught, then, is that God will not cast His people off forever — because it is not His nature to abandon, but to restore. Rather, it is in His nature to restore His people after He has sufficiently disciplined them. And so, in this, we receive blessed confidence that because it is in God’s nature to restore His people, so will we who are truly of Him be preserved in Him, by Him.

Beloved, this passage does not tell us that grief will never come, but it tells us that it will never have the final word. The Lord may discipline His people, but He will not cast them off forever. He may allow sorrow, but He does not afflict from His heart. And every act of His discipline is carried out according to the abundance of His steadfast love. For those who belong to Him, even our tears are held in the hands of a faithful God who will surely restore what He has lovingly preserved.