Jeremiah 9:17-21: a reflection

17The LORD of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come. Send for the skillful women, that they may come. 18Let 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. 19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’” 20Yet hear the LORD’s word, you women. Let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing. Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation. 21For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.

This is a passage of raw grief. God calls for the mourning women, the skilled singers of laments, to come and raise a wailing, so that the people's eyes may run down with tears; for death, the passage says, has come up into our windows and entered our palaces, cutting off the children in the streets and the young men in the squares. It is an unflinching picture of loss, of death intruding into the very homes of the people, and of the grief that must be given voice.

Notice that Scripture here makes room for lament, for the open voicing of grief. God does not tell the people to suppress their sorrow or pretend all is well; he calls for the mourners, for wailing, for tears. There is a time to grieve, and faith does not deny sorrow or hurry past it; it gives grief its voice. When death intrudes and loss comes, the honest response is not to pretend, but to weep.

Yet even as we grieve, we do not grieve as those without hope. Scripture that makes room for lament also holds out the promise of a day when God will wipe away every tear, and death itself, which here climbs in at the window, will be swallowed up forever. So when death intrudes into your own life and grief comes, do not deny your sorrow or feel you must hide it; give it its voice, weep, lament honestly before God. But grieve in hope, looking to the God who will one day end all death and wipe away every tear. Lament is honest, and it is permitted; but for those who are God's, it is lament held within hope, sorrow that looks toward the God who will conquer death.

Lord, this passage voices raw grief, calling for mourners and tears as death climbs into the windows and enters the homes of your people; it makes room for honest lament. Thank you that you do not tell me to suppress my sorrow or pretend all is well, but allow grief its voice. There is a time to weep, and faith does not deny sorrow or hurry past it. When death intrudes and loss comes into my life, keep me from pretending; help me grieve honestly before you. Yet help me grieve in hope, not as one without hope. Thank you for the promise of a day when you will wipe away every tear, and death, which here climbs in at the window, will be swallowed up forever. Let my lament be honest, and let it be held within hope, sorrow that looks toward you, who will conquer death and end all grief. Hold me as I grieve, and turn my eyes to that day.