Sad For The Wrong Things

Sad for the Wrong Things

Women Weeping For Tammuz

Read: Ezekiel 8:13-14

Lakisha reached for another tissue. She couldn’t imagine how one woman could stand so much grief and pain. Her heart went out to Alana each afternoon during the hour between one and two. Maybe I should just stop watching the soaps, Lakisha thought. Her tears had always come easily, but lately they seemed to be getting out of hand. Last night she had trouble going to sleep after crying over Steel Magnolias, even though she had already seen it eight times.

The women in today’s passage also sat crying for the wrong reason. When God wanted to show Ezekiel the extent of the people’s idolatry and wickedness, he showed the prophet a series of scenes in a vision. At one point, Ezekiel saw a group of women at the north gate of the Temple crying for Tammuz. When vegetation died during the hot, dry summer months, worshipers of this pagan god believed that it was because he had died and descended to the underworld. His followers wept and mourned his death, then celebrated his return in the spring with fertility rites. Instead of crying over their nation’s rejection of God, some Israelite women were shedding tears over a false god.

We shouldn’t be ashamed of having a tender heart that moves us easily to tears. I remember hearing a pastor say, “When your eyes leak, your head can’t swell.” God wants us to be empathetic and cry when it’s appropriate, even during sad movies. But he doesn’t want us to waste our tears on trivial matters while remaining unmoved by significant causes for grief. If we allow our hearts to become hardened to the sin in our lives, we may cry over everything except our need for repentance and change. Anything that grieves God is worth shedding tears over.

Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief.

James 4:9