Why Don’t We Weep?

“And they said unto me…, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” (Neh 1: 3 – 4).

If you know the story of Nehemiah, you know that he was a man with a vision. He was a focused and prayerful man.  He was the king’s cupbearer. He was a leader and a warrior, but he was also, the man who wept before the Lord.  His journey to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem didn’t begin with the king who supplied the resources; it began with tears. Nehemiah says, “when I heard these words, that I sat down, wept, mourned and fasted.” He didn’t just cry, he went through stages of tears; weeping first, mourning for certain days next, then anguish…fasting.

It is obvious that in this Christian world, the walls of Jerusalem are broken down. Not the Jerusalem in the land of Israel, but Jerusalem, the spiritual and holy state of mind (Isaiah 4:3, Joel 3:17), Jerusalem the truth (Zech 8:3) with walls or salvation (Isa 26:1; 60:18) and Jerusalem, the body temple, are all broken down.

So, when was the last time you wept before the Lord for Jerusalem?

I mean not just shedding a little bit of tears about your personal hurts and pain, but crying with Nehemiah’s kind of weeping, Daniel’s kind of mourning, Jeremiah’s lamentation and Jesus’ sobbing over Jerusalem.  When was the last time you wept for Jerusalem?

Do we sigh with sorrow over Jerusalem and say, “O god, the heathen come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.” (Psalm 79:1)

We know it was not the weeping that made God answer Nehemiah, but we know that God does respond to our tears, because David tells us in Psalm 56:8 that he puts our tears in a bottle.  The old song also says, “Tears are a language, God understands,” therefore, tears are prayers themselves. So, why don’t we weep when our spiritual walls of salvation, the truth, our Christian holiness, our minds and bodies are broken down? Why are we not weeping and mourning for certain days and seeking God’s help to rebuild the walls and revive Biblical truth in our minds and holiness in our temples.

By weeping before the Lord, Nehemiah proves many things to us. Here are a few:

Weeping for the church must begin with men. When it comes to work of God, men, as representatives of Christ must begin the weeping. Jesus as the head, representing the priest wept. Ezra also wept bitterly because the priests intermarried the heathen women. Paul wept from the prison cell for the waywardness of the church. Men, husbands, fathers, uncles, grandfathers, single men, it is time to weep.

Weeping is not for wusses; weeping is for people of character. Nehemiah was no wuss, he faced Sanballat and Tobiah when they tried to discourage, kill and dissuade him from doing God’s work. Jesus was no wuss; he faced the cross. Daniel was no wuss; he faced the lion’s den. In the beginning of the book, we find Nehemiah weeping and mourning first. By the middle we see him stand in defense of right doing and in the end he stood for the principles of God.

Weeping is evidence of passion for the cause of Christ and compassion for other. Nehemiah, was overwhelmed with grief, impassioned for God’s work, and was hurting deeply for his people. Is it because we have lost passion for the cause of Christ and compassion for our lost brothers and sisters why we are not weeping?

Weeping often precedes restoration. Search the scriptures and you will see many people who wept before the Lord. People wept for different reasons, but there are those who wept because God’s house was broken down, because God’s work was hampered and because God’s church was compromised. And when they wept, God stepped in. Therefore, if we want to see the walls restored, we must sit down, begin to weep, mourn certain days and fast.

God gave us eyes not only so that we can see, but he put ducts in them so that tears can wash them spiritually clean to see the spiritual realities around us. Crying is cleansing. It is healing. It brings insight and foresight. It opens the windows of heaven. It doesn’t get God to work, because He is working whether we cry or not, but it draws God’s ear right next to our genuine heart.

We often weep because of our problems. Hannah wept. Job wept. Hezekiah wept. However, like poor Jeremiah who wept all the way through his ministry, we must also weep for the cause of God. John 11:35 tells us that Jesus wept. He not only wept once or twice, but Hebrews 5:7 tells us that Jesus “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears…” “He was a man of sorrows.” (Isaiah 53).

God devoted Lamentations, a whole book about the sorrow and tears of one man, because He knows that weeping is important, it’s relevant and it’s well needed. Heed the counsel of James, “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness (James 4: 9).

Why aren’t we weeping before the Lord when we see so much desolation in us, in our families, in our world around us? Nehemiah didn’t even see it, like we have the evidence blatantly before us. Nehemiah heard from his brethren who came to visit him, and what he heard was enough to make him weep.  

We are sitting right in the middle of our broken down and battered Jerusalem, we see that the walls of morality, truth, holiness, reverence, worship and loyalty are broken down, and some of us sit wide eyed, unconcerned and tearless.

Tears are sentiments from our hearts sent up to God, where words are unsuitable. Just before Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, John 11: 35 says, “Jesus wept.”  When the Jews saw that Jesus was crying, they said, “behold, how he loved him.” Genuine love will always bring genuine tears. If you are wondering, “why am I not weeping?” It could be that you are not weeping, because you are not genuinely loving God or loving the people in our lost world. Tears spring from the outflow of the heart to the eyes.

Why should we weep? Over 2000 years ago, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He wept for you and me. Jesus died of a broken heart because he loved you and me.

Friends, it’s time to weep before the Lord, because the walls are broken down.  They will remain broken until we begin to weep.