My Eyes Will Weep Bitterly

The prophet Jeremiah is a man filled with a deep love for Jehovah and an immense spirit of devotion to the Lord’s people. He lived in a dark hour of the history of the nation of Israel as the children of Abraham were consumed with the lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the lust of the eye. Judah would not repent and the word of the Lord was a reproach to them (Jeremiah 6:10). The prophet had been called to turn the hearts of the people back to God but he could see in their eyes no desire to serve the Lord. Their doom was to be settled in their pride as destruction would reign down upon Jerusalem. While stern in his words to cause them to change the true nature of Jeremiah is revealed in Jeremiah 13:17. “But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.”

It would be difficult to watch a dying man reject all the overtones of salvation readily available within his grasp. Jeremiah continually gave the people the hope of salvation by exhorting the nation to return to the Lord and only witnessed rejection and doom. How heartbreaking to have the cure for the illness of sin and to hear the words of laughter and ridicule from those he was trying to save. He weeps for their souls in the misery of needless ruin. “Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow” (Jeremiah 14:17).

Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that his work of preaching was drenched in tears as he warned them of the dangers of rejecting the Lord (Acts 20:31). The message of salvation is the message of joy. When the message of salvation is rejected the joy of the message is lost in light of the consequence of sin. Such sadness and hopelessness. In Matthew 19 a rich young ruler went away sorrowful but how more sorrow on the part of Jesus to see the hope of eternal life fade away as the young man rejected the will of the Father.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem. “Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation’” (Luke 19:41-44). How sad to see the people milling about in the busy work of the day and through the eye of understanding Jesus would see the fate of the city in ruins and desolation. The destruction of Jerusalem was the furthermost thought in their mind yet the Lord understood the consequence of sin.

Paul wept for his enemies (Philippians 3:18). Samuel mourned for Saul and “went no more to see Saul until the day of his death” (1 Samuel 15:35) because of Saul’s rejection of the will of God. The heart is torn asunder because of those who reject the saving grace of God. The heart of God’s people must be filled with the sadness of those who are lost in sin. “For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:11-12). The driving force in evangelism is to underscore the coming judgment and need for salvation. Acts 2 was not just an eight minute sermon but a continued plea to change their lives. “And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation’” (Acts 2:40).

Jeremiah wept bitterly for his people. As the children of God we must have a heart of compassion for those who have returned to the world rejecting the plea of God (2 Peter 2:20-22). Does it not rend the heart when one turns from the holy commandment as “a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire”? Are we so unfeeling that our friends and neighbors live daily without the grace of God in their lives and we say nothing? It may have been when the ark lifted from dry land that Noah could hear the screams of those who wanted to be saved but who waited too late to believe in God. He had preached righteousness to the darkened world and all but those seven with him turned away from saving grace. How sad.

“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” (Jeremiah 9:1)!