Scripture Daily

Context No. 4204 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 9:1-6: in context

1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 3“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says the LORD. 4“Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer. 5Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity. 6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah, called to announce judgment on his people, does not do so with cold detachment or grim satisfaction. Instead he weeps. Oh that my head were waters, he cries, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of my people. His heart breaks over the sin and coming ruin of the very people he must warn. He grieves at the deceit and treachery he sees all around, a society where no one speaks truth and brother supplants brother.

What stands out is the prophet's grief. Jeremiah loved the people whose sin he had to condemn, and their waywardness caused him deep sorrow, not indignant superiority. He wept over them. Even as he named their deceit and betrayal honestly, his heart was moved with compassion and grief rather than contempt.

It is easy to respond to the wrongdoing of others with condemnation, contempt, or a sense of our own superiority. Jeremiah shows a different way: to grieve over sin, to weep for those caught in it, to let our hearts be broken rather than hardened by the evil we see. To name sin honestly, yet with tears rather than contempt, is the mark of a heart like the prophet's, and like Christ's, who wept over Jerusalem.

When I see sin and brokenness around me, do I respond with contempt and a sense of my own superiority, or do I grieve over it with tears as Jeremiah wept for his people, naming evil honestly yet with a broken rather than a hardened heart?

Sources