each your daughters a lament and one another a dirge. —Jeremiah 9:20
In Jeremiah 9, God’s call to the prophet catches my attention: “Summon the women who mourn” (v. 17).
The leaders of Judah hadn’t learned anything from the destruction in Israel. God told Jeremiah to look for women who were professional wailers to cry out in order to encourage Jerusalem to cry for itself.
These women were not only to weep but also to teach their daughters to weep—to cry for their city. Death and destruction were all around them. Verse 22 paints a vivid picture of what was going on in that they couldn’t even bury all the bodies.
This passage serves as an invitation for us today to come to God with repentant hearts, burdened by the pain of our nations, and to cry out to Him for mercy.
God has created us with emotions to empathize with those who suffer. Let us ask the One who can heal our land to bring healing and freedom to the many captives who are close to us and who need to find salvation. Let the mourning women come.
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Cry Out! Challenge (ReviveOurHearts.com, 2020)
Scripture taken from The CSB
Make it Personal
Pray for women to have courage to cry out and for them to teach their children to grieve over sin.