The prophets in the Bible often wrote their messages through tears. God usually raised up outstanding men to speak to the nation in times of crisis. These men could understand what was happening and could foresee the outcome that would bring disaster upon the nation. Their messages calling for repentance and change of direction were usually wrung from them with great emotion. The eighth century BC prophets, Amos, Isaiah, Hosea and Micah all prophesied in a relatively short period of 40 years, between 750 and 710 BC. It was the most turbulent period in the history of Israel that included the destruction of Samaria and most of the nation of Israel. It followed a long period of relative peace and prosperity during which the gap between rich and poor grew massively, together with bribery, corruption, oppression, idolatry and turning away from the God of Israel.
Prophets weeping in anguish
All four prophets blew a powerful trumpet of warning that the two nations of Israel and Judah had put themselves outside the protection of God due to their spiritual and social sins, and therefore they faced disaster. Their message was always wrung from their heart with tears. Micah went through the streets of Jerusalem weeping and wailing. He went about barefoot and naked, howling like a jackal (Mic 1:8). He was trying to get the people to recognise the danger they were in by not repenting and turning to the Lord.
Isaiah wept bitterly at what he foresaw coming upon Jerusalem, “Let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people” (Isa 22:4). The message they were hearing often tore the prophet apart: “at this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labour; I am staggered by what I hear” (Isa 21:3).
The message they were hearing often tore the prophet apart.
A century later Jeremiah suffered greatly for his ministry in Jerusalem. Who can read chapter 20 of Jeremiah without feeling a deep compassion for this man of God who endured so much because of the message he had to convey? He was beaten and put into the stocks, pelted and shut up in prison, put into a filthy dungeon and even at one time dropped down a well and left to die. When he wrote the message and sent it to the King, it was torn up and burnt.
Listen to Jeremiah opening his heart: “I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in, indeed, I cannot” (Jer 20:7-9). In a moment of despair Jeremiah even cried out to God regretting that he was ever born (Jer 20:18). But, however much suffering it brought, he could not run away from his mission.
Sharing Christ’s suffering
This is why you cannot read the message of the prophets in the Bible until you read their words with tears. The biblical word of God has to be understood in the context in which it was written and delivered. The prophetic word of God can only be heard and understood in the lives of one who reads with tears in their eyes. This is what Paul calls entering into the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. Those who would stand in the Council of the Lord to hear and receive the word of God must be prepared for sharing in God’s suffering for lost men and women. There is no other way.
Those who would stand in the Council of the Lord to hear and receive the word of God must be prepared for sharing in God’s suffering for lost men and women.
I stumbled upon this mighty truth almost by accident, although I believe it was planned within the purposes of God for my life.
We were ministering to a church in a tough inner-city part of London, but we lived right opposite a little park – a small oasis of green in the urban concrete jungle. I used to like to push the pram with our firstborn child along its paths, and when she was old enough, to take her there for a walk. She was born with defective eyesight, which we did not discover until she was three. But from then she had to wear glasses, which she hated. On one occasion when running in the park she tripped and fell, grazing her knees and hands. I enfolded her in my arms, dusting her down and comforting her, wiping away her tears. Then I tried to put her glasses back on her face but she protested, saying, “Daddy, when I cry I do not need my glasses, I can see your face quite clearly.”
This was a heart-rending statement from my precious little daughter, but for me it conveyed a mighty spiritual truth. The tears somehow corrected her sight in the same way as contact lenses did later when she was a teenager. She could see her father’s face clearly through tears – this reinforced my biblical studies of the prophets of Israel such as Jeremiah, who learned the same lesson on how to stand in the counsel of the Lord.
Anyone who approaches the throne of God without tears in their eyes will be blinded by the light of his glory. But those who approach with tears in their eyes – tears of joy, tears of love, tears of repentance – will see the Face of God and behold the beauty of holiness, the source of measureless love.
Shaking the nations
Surely God is breaking his heart over the suffering of the nations, currently being ravaged by plague, by war, by famine, by hunger and starvation. And especially over his people of Israel and their Semitic brothers – all sons of Abraham: sons of Jacob and Esau – as they slaughter each other in ungodly hatred. So much of the suffering is brought about by the wickedness of human nature – by violence, hatred selfishness, pride, and ambition.
God has been warning us since the word given at the Jerusalem Convention in 1986, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations” (Haggai 2:6-7). God sent a warning that a time of great shaking would come unless there were repentance and turning. The great shaking is now upon us which includes the vast upheavals in the world of nature such as we have seen in the hurricanes that have swept across the USA and the great flood that has caused so much devastation in Spain and other parts of Europe. This great shaking of the world of nature and wars among the nations will become even more intense in the days to come as God shakes all the ungodly things of humanity including our misuse of nature. But there is still time for repentance and change if we come weeping before God.
The word of the Lord is still pleading with his rebellious children – which includes you and me, and our nation – “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other” (Isa 45:22). Repentance has to start with those who know God as Father and Jesus as Saviour. There is no other way of salvation other than through Jesus. Jesus himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
When the people of God – the true believers – come weeping before the Lord, all those around them will get wet. This is the only hope for humanity in these days of judgement.
Endnotes
1 This article is based upon an article with the same title published in the first edition of the old printed magazine, Prophecy Today, Vol 1, No 1, March 1985, written by the editor, Dr Clifford Hill.
2 This truth is also picked up in the beautiful gospel song, ‘He Washed my Eyes with Tears’. Listen here, or see lyrics here.
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Sharing thoughts
Once again, the thoughts in this second article in the series ‘Why seek the living among the dead?’ are expressed to encourage thinking on theological themes and we intend sharing more in the coming weeks. Jesus would have been inwardly weeping when he gave his famous Seven Woes on the Pharisees and the temple priesthood in Matthew 23. He would be weeping today over those who see a speck in the eyes of others but fail to see the plank in their own.
Please contribute comments on this article in Prophecy Today below, but if you would also like to contribute to a creative theological discussion on this and other challenging subjects that will be first directly by e-mail, but eventually on a website that will not be open to the public, please send an email response with Why Seek 2 in the title to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to enter into further discussion on this issue with Dr Hill and others.