Jeremiah 22:10 – Sowing Well-Timed Tears
Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him;
Weep bitterly for him who goes away,
For he shall return no more,
Nor see his native country. Jeremiah 22:10, New King James Version
Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe write in Square Meal of the short memories housewives needed to feed families during the Depression, "Yesterday's worries are cleared away to make room for fresh ones."
In Jeremiah 22:10, God is preparing Jeremiah with something like that perspective on his emotions which will well up in his country's crisis. He knows the intensity with which His weeping prophet feels. He heard Jeremiah on the brink of total despair in Jeremiah 9:1 when he said of his people's impending doom, "Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!"
Thus, He knows that training Jeremiah in His likeness is largely a matter of training his tears, guiding him so that his strong feelings prompt him toward godly action that can be taken in the moment.
For the second time, God cautions Jeremiah not to get caught up in rituals of grief. He can't bring back the dead. Their judgment is final. Jesus Who will weep perfect tears for the departed Lazarus, His friend, will also teach His own to let the dead bury their dead.
The Godhead balances grief in perspective. The death of the saints is precious in Their sight. Yet They know that for us grief can overflow from a sincere and timely catharsis to an excuse for inaction where our passion and energy CAN make a difference.
Perhaps this is why in advance God tells Jeremiah that he will need to move through his desire to grieve for the dead. Perhaps there is a place and a time when his tears and entreaties will make more of a difference. Rather than focusing him entirely on the dead who won't come back, Jeremiah's tears are better spent, God says, on the exiles who are soon to be uprooted. There is a place, it seems, for the testimony of timely tears.
Why triage tears this way? To do so seems to defy what moves the human heart. Doesn't death prompt more pathos than exile? If emotional expressions solely serve the one expressing them, then perhaps this reasoning could defy the Divine dictate.
Yet, for the redeemed, like Jeremiah and his Christian descendents, our emotions and the timing and fashion of their expression have been bought along with the rest of us by Christ. He Who lived out the righteousness of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to weep and a time not to weep presages His disciplined intensity to Jeremiah here.
Tears spent on and before those who know they are in a transition may do some good from a Kingdom perspective. According to the process of Psalm 125:5-6, he who sows in such tears, may reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. Those who are being uprooted from their assumptions, from the sense of self-sufficiency their home culture reinforces, these are the people most ready to hear the Gospel from someone consumed with a passion for it.
Those whose current life experience is showing them that what they previously trusted will not protect them may really listen to someone who is weeping as they weep. As this happens, they can begin to hear the hope on the other side of repentance.
If our tears are continually spent where we can effect no change, if they are lacrimal outrage questioning the goodness of God, we will not have them to soften our hearts and the hearts of those who hear us at crucial times. Thus, the words of Ambrose that, "The duty of the priesthood demands a sober and elevated calmness," make some sense.
They, and the Ecclesiastes reminder that there is a time not to weep help us to submit our emotions to a greater purpose than their instantaneous, indulgent expression. The One Who gave them to us, the One Who keeps our tears in a bottle, likewise disciples us to a wider vantage point of His purposes.
Weep bitterly for him who goes away,
For he shall return no more,
Nor see his native country. Jeremiah 22:10, New King James Version
Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe write in Square Meal of the short memories housewives needed to feed families during the Depression, "Yesterday's worries are cleared away to make room for fresh ones."
In Jeremiah 22:10, God is preparing Jeremiah with something like that perspective on his emotions which will well up in his country's crisis. He knows the intensity with which His weeping prophet feels. He heard Jeremiah on the brink of total despair in Jeremiah 9:1 when he said of his people's impending doom, "Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!"
Thus, He knows that training Jeremiah in His likeness is largely a matter of training his tears, guiding him so that his strong feelings prompt him toward godly action that can be taken in the moment.
For the second time, God cautions Jeremiah not to get caught up in rituals of grief. He can't bring back the dead. Their judgment is final. Jesus Who will weep perfect tears for the departed Lazarus, His friend, will also teach His own to let the dead bury their dead.
The Godhead balances grief in perspective. The death of the saints is precious in Their sight. Yet They know that for us grief can overflow from a sincere and timely catharsis to an excuse for inaction where our passion and energy CAN make a difference.
Perhaps this is why in advance God tells Jeremiah that he will need to move through his desire to grieve for the dead. Perhaps there is a place and a time when his tears and entreaties will make more of a difference. Rather than focusing him entirely on the dead who won't come back, Jeremiah's tears are better spent, God says, on the exiles who are soon to be uprooted. There is a place, it seems, for the testimony of timely tears.
Why triage tears this way? To do so seems to defy what moves the human heart. Doesn't death prompt more pathos than exile? If emotional expressions solely serve the one expressing them, then perhaps this reasoning could defy the Divine dictate.
Yet, for the redeemed, like Jeremiah and his Christian descendents, our emotions and the timing and fashion of their expression have been bought along with the rest of us by Christ. He Who lived out the righteousness of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to weep and a time not to weep presages His disciplined intensity to Jeremiah here.
Tears spent on and before those who know they are in a transition may do some good from a Kingdom perspective. According to the process of Psalm 125:5-6, he who sows in such tears, may reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. Those who are being uprooted from their assumptions, from the sense of self-sufficiency their home culture reinforces, these are the people most ready to hear the Gospel from someone consumed with a passion for it.
Those whose current life experience is showing them that what they previously trusted will not protect them may really listen to someone who is weeping as they weep. As this happens, they can begin to hear the hope on the other side of repentance.
If our tears are continually spent where we can effect no change, if they are lacrimal outrage questioning the goodness of God, we will not have them to soften our hearts and the hearts of those who hear us at crucial times. Thus, the words of Ambrose that, "The duty of the priesthood demands a sober and elevated calmness," make some sense.
They, and the Ecclesiastes reminder that there is a time not to weep help us to submit our emotions to a greater purpose than their instantaneous, indulgent expression. The One Who gave them to us, the One Who keeps our tears in a bottle, likewise disciples us to a wider vantage point of His purposes.
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