THE REFUGE
“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 NASBS
During some of Judah’s darkest hours, God raised up a young prophet named Jeremiah to proclaim His approaching judgment upon a nation hardened in rebellion. The southern kingdom had become so blinded by sin that it turned away from the living God to the lifeless idols of the nations. They mingled with the surrounding peoples, imitating their corrupt customs and bowing before their false gods. In their depravity, they even sacrificed their own sons and daughters to Baal—spilling innocent blood until the very land groaned under the weight of its pollution.
Let us take note: sin always takes a person further than they ever imagined. What begins with compromise ends with corruption. In this moral ruin, Jeremiah was called to preach repentance to a hardened people. The Lord declared to him: “Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land— to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests, and to the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.”
To speak for God, Jeremiah first had to be given the heart of God—a heart of holy sorrow and divine compassion. The Sovereign King of Heaven transformed the prophet’s heart of stone into a heart of flesh, that he might feel what God feels toward His covenant people. Jeremiah’s tears were not the weakness of emotion but the strength of grace—a visible overflow of divine love from a heart regenerated by God’s Spirit. Thus he cried: “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!”
The same heart of sorrow is seen again in Lamentations: “My eyes run down with streams of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes pour down unceasingly, without stopping, Until the LORD looks down and sees from heaven.”
All who bear the cross of Christ know that the true Christian life is one of daily death and faithful service. We are called to crucify the flesh, to live by faith, and to walk in humble obedience. It is a life of rigorous study and earnest prayer—pleading with God to open our hearts that we might understand His Word. It is a life marked by repentance, submission, and renewal of the mind, proving what is “good and acceptable and perfect” in the will of God.
But here is the searching question: Is our heart moved with compassion for the lost? Do we weep for those in our community who will one day stand before the eternal Judge without Christ? Are our cheeks stained with tears for the youth being sacrificed to modern idols—pornography, lust, drunkenness, and pride? Are our hearts broken for the widows, the orphans, and the spiritually dying around us?
How easily we rest on our couches of comfort while hell enlarges its mouth and multitudes descend into its abyss. The believer who knows the terror of the Lord should never grow indifferent to the fate of the lost.
I tremble when I consider the cold formality of religion that pervades so many churches today. Outward beauty and refined worship often mask the inward decay of the heart. The Lord’s rebuke through Amos thunders against our generation: “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
And again, through the prophet Isaiah, God said to the King, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears.” Nothing escapes the all-seeing eye of God. Do you have a heart that weeps for your city, your neighbors, your nation?
As tears of conviction well up within me, I cry, “God, have mercy upon my soul, for I have sinned against You and You alone. My heart has grown calloused, and I have not wept for the sons and daughters of this land as I ought. O God, soften my heart once more.”
I appeal not only to myself, but to every professing Christian: AWAKE, AWAKE, AWAKE, O sleeper! Rise from your slumber, and call upon God! Let the tears of divine love flow from your eyes. Let every beat of your heart proclaim, “Hell shall not prevail today—not on my watch. I will raise up a standard against it by casting myself before Jesus Christ in holy prayer, clothed with tears of compassion and love.”
May God move upon our hearts as He once moved upon Jeremiah’s— that we too might repent, weep, intercede, and boldly proclaim the truth of God in the midst of a society given over to sinful passions.