End of Crying

“For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.” (Isa 30:19 AV)

 

There is so much in this verse.  This verse comes in a chapter that appears amid rebuke.  The LORD is rebuking Judah for their eventual failures.  He warns them they will suffer for their wickedness.  At the hands of their neighbors, Judah will go into captivity.  They will return after seventy years to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.  Then, there would follow four-hundred silent years of no new revelation from the LORD.  After these four-hundred silent years, the Messiah arrives only to have Israel reject the promises made to their forefathers.  They would choose the peace and control of Rome over the promise of a kingdom by Jesus Christ.  This would thrust the nation into two-thousand years of irrelevancy.  In 1948, the nation would begin their in-gathering only to have them go after the AntiChrist for the seven years of tribulation.  But after all this, a remnant is brought out who will follow the LORD.  This small remnant will be the germ of a seed needed to realize the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and David.  When all this comes to pass, then the promise above became a permanent reality.  As New Testament believers, we don’t have to wait so long.

One of my sons, who will remain nameless, had a hard time processing the anxiety and stress he felt.  Trying to pry it out of him was a major chore.  There were several times when dad knew there was something major bothering him and would find dad sitting by this son’s side, refusing to leave until his son opened up.  Sometimes, these events included tears of anxiety, frustration, or fear.  On one such occasion, this episode took over four hours.  In those hours, dad would continue to ask of the nature of what was tormenting his son.  His son wanted to be left alone and expressed as such.  But dad would not leave.  He kept telling his son that he wasn’t going to leave until he knew of the horrible thing that was tormenting him so much.  There were words of anger as this son tried to push his father away.  Dad wouldn’t budge.  There were even tear laden shoves off the bed or chair and towards the door.  At times, dad would hug his son and state the determination he had to help his boy.  After four hours of this, the son finally told his father what it was that was bothering him so much.  They worked through it and the torment was over.  As the father who helped his son, I can say it was one of the greatest privileges I would ever share with him.  All of my sons are close to me in different ways.  In his case, our natures are similar in that we bottle things up and don’t let others help us through hard times.

Our Father does the same.  Unlike Israel, we don’t have to wait.  In this life, there will be sorrow.  This sorrow does not have to be permanent.  We can go to the Father, but the blood of Christ and the intercession of the Spirit, and pour out our hearts to the LORD.  We don’t have to wait for Zion.  We don’t have to wait for the city of our God resting on the mount of God.  Our Father is ever-present.  Yes, we will have hard times.  Expressing a temporary good-bye to my mother was not a joyful experience.  But this lasted but for a brief time.  All the others whom I have loved who are not here were difficult.  There was much weeping.  Saying goodbye to my son and his family as they went off to the foreign mission field was not fun.  There was much weeping.  Saying goodbye to a church I had fallen in love with was not fun.  There were many tears all around.  Although we can apply the promise above to eternity, which is a sound application, we can also trust those same words for today.  God is ever-present.  He is not leaving.  Through our most difficult times, He can wipe away all tears.  He can encourage through all sorrow.  He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.