WILL YOU BE A WAILING WOMAN?

August 18, 2021

Jeremiah 9:1 “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”

Sometimes I think my eyes have water fountains inside them because they spew like a water fountain whenever my heart is moved. I cry so easily. Almost every Sunday Church service I leave with puffy eyes. The fountains will flow from sorrow, yet other times they will flow with gratitude and great joy. I do prefer the joyful fountains, but recently with all the devastation happening in the world, I’ve wept in great sorrow.

There is a well-known crier we read about in the Bible. His name is Jeremiah, he is known as the “weeping” prophet. Jeremiah wept over the condition of God’s people. God called Jeremiah to prophecy over Judah and the nations. (Jeremiah 1:4) To call out their sins and abominations. Jerusalem had turned away from God. They forsook the Lord and walked after vanities. (Jeremiah 2:5) The prophets who God had sent to warn and instruct were rejected and destroyed by His people. (Jeremiah 2:30) Jerusalem had forgotten their God. (Jeremiah 2:32) They had polluted the land with their whoredoms and wickedness. (Jeremiah 3:2) The Lord called for them to return unto Him. They did not. (Jeremiah 3:7)

God divorced Israel, (the northern kingdom) because they had backslidden and committed adultery with other gods. God caused them to be defeated and captured by the Assyrians. Judah, (the southern kingdom) played the harlot also. The Lord sent His prophets to bid God’s people to return. He gave them pastors to warn and guide them back. Still, they walked after the imaginations of their evil hearts. They perverted their ways and had forgotten the Lord their God. (Jeremiah 3:6-21)

God called for His children to repent and break up their fallow ground. (Jeremiah 4:3) The soil of their hearts was hardened. The weeds had grownup and overtaken the fruit. God was angered and His judgment was being laid out. Even in God’s warnings and judgment, they did not grieve. They refused God’s correction. (Jeremiah 5:3) Their pride had made them harder than a rock. God raised a nation up to go against His treacherous children. (Jeremiah 5:15,19) They were made to serve and live under the rule of another nation in which they did not even understand their language.

Judah was foolish. (Jeremiah 5:20) They were rebellious and did not fear God. (Jeremiah 5:23-24) They listened to and believed the false prophets. (Jeremiah 5:21) These prophets were covetous, lining their own pockets, promising peace, when there was no peace. (Jeremiah 6:13) But God’s prophets advised them to see and ask for the old paths. God had paved the way of rest for their souls, but they did not walk therein. (Jeremiah 6:15) God continued using Jeremiah to warn them and to call His people back. Yet they were deceived and did not worship God according to the ways which God commanded. (Jeremiah 7:2-4, 8-11) God sent prophet after prophet, yet they hearkened not unto the Word of God. Instead, they hardened their necks and continued their abominations. (Jeremiah 7:25-30) The men who were esteemed to be wise, deceived the people. Continuing to claim peace and there was no peace. The people were so wicked that they no longer had any shame in their abominable acts. They did not blush. (Jeremiah 8:7-12) God’s anger was kindled more and more against them. Time ran out. (Jeremiah 8:19-21) Jeremiah wept. God’s people no longer knew God. They were from evil, to evil. They were utterly deceived and refused to know God. (Jeremiah 9:1-6) God’s judgment was imminent. (Jeremiah 9:10-11, 15-16)

Does any of what happened in Jeremiah’s day, sound familiar today?

• Vanities such as entertainment, sports, politics, etc… are worshipped and held in higher regard than God and His Church.
• The commandments and principles of God are ignored by most of the society.
• The Bible is not the standard for politicians and even churches have drifted from Biblical principles and commands.
• The state has been made our god and savior.
• The news media is believed and followed more than the Holy Bible.
• Science has become a god.
• People have opened their ears to false teachers who will help them feel good about who they are.
• God’s design for sex and marriage have been perverted.
• The family has turned into a comedy sitcom.
• Politicians and world leaders are turning into evil tyrants.
• Social divisions of race and human ideologies are dominating the culture.
• Public education has become an indoctrination tool for humanism.
• Greed and power dominate governments and businesses.
• People are selfish and self-centered. Never satisfied.
• People want privilege without duty.
• Protests and riots are becoming common because people feel they’re being oppressed.
• Crimes, violence, and murders are increasing exponentially.
• Depression and suicide are continuously increasing.
• Addictions to drugs, alcohol, food, etc.… are commonplace.
• Human life is treated as a commodity that is easily disposed through abortion and euthanasia.
• A person’s identity is determined by how they feel instead of biological facts.
• Folks wanting to erase history instead of learning from history.
• People blaming others for their circumstances rather than taking responsibility for their actions.
• Environmentalists trying to save the planet while ignoring the One who made the planet.
• A plague induces fear and panic, causing a polarization among people.
• Fires, earthquakes, and storms are destroying houses and lands.
• Truth has become a subjective concept which means nothing is trustworthy.
• Church buildings closed and not assembling, yet restaurants, grocery stores, and shopping centers are frequented.

Most people know more about all the subjects listed above than they know about the Word of God.

What is going on?! The answer is simple – there is no fear of God. (Psalm 36:1-4, Romans 3:10-18) Yet even with the simple answer, just as in Jeremiah’s day, most do not want to hear this answer.

We read here in Jeremiah that in the midst of God’s judgment being laid out. God instructs him to call for the mourning women.

Jeremiah 9:17-21

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come: And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.”

Who are these mourning women? In old eastern customs, they had what they called “professional mourners”. They were women paid to mourn at funerals. That may seem odd, but it was a cultural practice in that time. God seeing the lack of remorse among His people, told Jeremiah to call on the professionals. Those who would take this matter seriously. They were cunning and wise women. God told them to make haste! Listen and obey God’s Word! Hurry, time is short, teach your daughters to wail. Death and destruction is coming.

As a woman of God, that passage of scripture gets my attention. Does it you? Do you think God is trying to get our attention today? Jeremiah poured out his heart for the wayward people of God. The evil, the deception, the depravity and wickedness was more than he could bear. God’s people were in great danger. Are we in great danger today? God called Jeremiah and the wailing women to cry out. To pray for people to wake-up from their complacency and have great concern. The time called for intensity and desperation. Urgency. The comforts and securities had lulled them to sleep. They were in trouble, yet they did not know or even care.

We ladies, today, are in trouble. Our land, our churches, our schools, our homes, our communities, We are in trouble! What are we doing about it? Normal is no more. The time of ease is ending. Do you see what’s happening?

Death is everywhere. Wars, pestilence, murders, abortions, accidents, natural disasters, they continue in greater volumes and frequencies. (Matthew 24:4-8, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) We see death everywhere today. We even celebrate death as a holiday on Halloween. We use the symbol of death, the skull, as a fashion trend on clothing, purses, and bumper stickers. What is happening to us?! Death is real. Death is final. It is not a fashion trend!

God called the mourning women to wail over the spiritual death of His nation. Have we become so numb to the things of God that we don’t see His warnings being played out today? Do we not see that God is trying to get our attention? If we see what is happening, what are we doing about it?

• How much did you pray today?
• How much did you read the Bible today?
• How many people did you share the Gospel with today?
• Are you begging God for His mercy?
• Are you interceding on behalf of lost loved ones?
• Are you interceding on behalf of world leaders? 
• Are you praying for our Church leaders?
• Are you interceding on behalf of the Body of Christ?
• Are you interceding on behalf of missionaries and persecuted Christians around the world?
• Does God have your attention?

In Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 it reads, “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

Oh how we need to be careful not to get too comfortable with this world. Life is a vapor. (James 4:14) This world is perishing and souls are perishing with it. (1 John 2:15-17) Just as God sent prophets to warn His people in Jeremiah’s day, through His written Word He continues to warn us today. I also venture to say that His warnings are evident as we look at the world’s current condition. We have forgotten God. We are living in a world that is dying. Spiritual death and darkness are everywhere. Is God calling for wailing women today? Is God calling you to be a wailing woman? Crying out to Him in humble contrition, knowing that nothing will get better unless His Holy Hand moves? I urge the women of God to cry, to weep, and to wail! Desperate times call for desperate measures. Cry out to Him today for we know not what tomorrow will bring.

Scripture For Further Study

2 Chronicles 7:14-15, Ezra 10:1, Nehemiah 1:4-11, Isaiah 62:6-7, Jeremiah 29:7, Ezekiel 22:30, Daniel 9:16-19, Matthew 5:44, Acts 1:14, Acts 12:5, Romans 8:26-28, 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, Ephesians 6:18, Philippians 1:19, Colossians 1:9, Colossians 4:1-3, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Hebrews 4:14-16, James 5:16