The ‘wailing women,’ of Jeremiah 9:17 have an interesting role. In a world that prizes not being ‘manipulated’ by other’s emotions, the exhortation to call for them, to do just that, seems to resort to fleshly and carnal means. We’d never do such a thing as that.
But, let’s look closer. There may be some wisdom here.
Catastrophe is at hand. The LORD has pronounced judgment in verse 16, that righteousness demands and this appeal, may be the last pathway enabling his Hesed-Mercy to take the foreground of the divine equation mentioned in verse twenty-four.
How God practices Mercy, Judgment, and Righteousness- all held in tension to each other- is after all, THE formula required for us today to know and understand him. This is our glory and what we are to glory in.
Paul later brings this truth out, in two places, in his letters to the Corinthians. The passage itself must therefore still have New Testament currency.
Verse 16 sets the stage for 17’s exhortation while carrying a seemingly hopeless prediction, that promises a relentless, scattering, aloneness that only ends in a life and death level of persecution.
It’s in that light that women, who are obviously accustomed to a great depth of feeling are to be called upon. But why?
Jeremiah’s prophetic words to his people, of an accountable future have gone largely unheeded. The more he speaks, the more alienated he becomes and the harder and more resistive, the hearers become. They are moving apart.
The women are called upon precisely for that reason. When hearts and minds resist the word itself, the e-MOTIONS of others are able to MOVE us as well. Someone’s in-SPIRed life can touch our SPIRIT also.
In short, it’s always best to hear and heed the Word ourselves. But when we are wilfully blinded and hardened, God is still able to find those who were previously broken (perhaps this is why he is close to those with a broken and contrite heart) those, who in their own suffered pain, made the right choice and embraced the Word that they may now pour their emotions upon us and give one more chance to be tendered, repent and receive his Mercy.
In the world I grew up in, emotions felt and expressed were a sign of immaturity. They were intended to be controlled and used sparingly, but it may be that the Feeling God is today using every means available to reawaken the planet to his presence.
If that’s true, let us not be so quick to curb those things that have deeply moved us. By his grace, let us all go to a new level of pouring our hearts out to him and to others.