Groanings which cannot be uttered
He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, that refused to receive Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness, and sorrow so deep that it broke His heart. Every soul was precious in His eyes. DA p. 353.
Jesus gazes upon the scene, and the vast multitude hush their shouts, spellbound by the sudden vision of beauty. All eyes turn upon the Saviour, expecting to see in His countenance the admiration they themselves feel. But instead of this they behold a cloud of sorrow. They are surprised and disappointed to see His eyes fill with tears, and His body rock to and fro like a tree before the tempest, while a wail of anguish bursts from His quivering lips, as if from the depths of a broken heart. What a sight was this for angels to behold! Their loved Commander in an agony of tears! What a sight was this for the glad throng that with shouts of triumph and the waving of palm branches were escorting Him to the glorious city, where they fondly hoped He was about to reign! Jesus had wept at the grave of Lazarus, but it was in a godlike grief in sympathy with human woe. But this sudden sorrow was like a note of wailing in a grand triumphal chorus. In the midst of a scene of rejoicing, where all were paying Him homage, Israel's King was in tears; not silent tears of gladness, but tears and groans of insuppressible agony. DA p. 575.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He felt the rejection from those who lived in the city. They had held their walled capital up as if it were heaven itself, and yet refused Him in whose presence it is heaven, and the fullness of joy. They refused Him whom David their king had found to be the source of pleasure for evermore; they turned away from Him just as their fathers had all through their history. And now this was the time of their final visitation. Soon the grace of God which had overshadowed that city set on a hill would be taken away and God’s judgments would fall in the place of His favor.
This wasn’t the first time Jesus wept. He had wept every night as He prayed to His Father. In behalf of His disciples and of the larger circle of follower/disciples, for the weak and largely ignorant multitudes, and for the religious leaders, He had wept in deep groanings and tears. They turned down what He came to bring them, and many who did accept Him were so dull of comprehending His mission.
When they tried to make Him king after He had fed the thousands, He forced His disciples into their boat with a voice of authority and then “departed again into a mountain Himself alone.” (Jn. 6:15). There He unloaded His burden upon His Father. “Oh, Father, when will they understand the beauty of holiness I want to give them, and the blessedness of spiritual things? Oh, Father, when will they learn? Oh Father,... Oh Father...” With divine groanings, which His humanity could not utter He offered up strong cries and tears for His beloved twelve, even for the one who was almost a devil.
It wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning that He was consoled and then walked out to the boat with its precious human cargo battling for their lives in the blackness on the angry waters of the Sea of Galilee. It was the comfort and encouragement which He received from His Father that made His body shine.
Moses showed us Jesus when he wept and prayed to the Lord his God, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” (Ex. 32:31,32).
With Paul we how see our Lord travailed in birth until His Father was formed in the early Christians. (Gal. 4:19). And, like Moses and Paul, Christ’s heart grieved for Israel. “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Rom. 9:2,3).
David, inspired by the testimony of Jesus, had written, “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me…. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance…. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:3-5,8).
An account of Mrs. White indicates the same deep care and burden for God’s people which she laid at His feet with a breaking heart.
She has gotten up to write, Mrs. McKibbin thought. But then a voice crossed the quiet darkness between the two houses. Mrs. White was praying.
"Such a prayer I never heard," Mrs. McKibbin wrote years afterward. "She was praying first of all for the people of God; she was praying for everyone that knows this truth, that we might be true and that we might realize our responsibility to give it to others. Then she prayed for herself. Angel Over Her Tent, p. 136.
Jeremiah had said, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer. 9:1). Couldn’t Jesus say the same of His weeping for His people? Certainly, the Light that lightens every man is motivated by the same principles of loving-kindness and care for the people, with an intensity that even the prophets never knew.
Our High Priest knows the depths of our sorrows. “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15). “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25).
Let’s seek Him with our whole heart who has wept for us in Gethsemane and on the cross and every day of His ministry, both on Earth and in heaven.
Jesus gazes upon the scene, and the vast multitude hush their shouts, spellbound by the sudden vision of beauty. All eyes turn upon the Saviour, expecting to see in His countenance the admiration they themselves feel. But instead of this they behold a cloud of sorrow. They are surprised and disappointed to see His eyes fill with tears, and His body rock to and fro like a tree before the tempest, while a wail of anguish bursts from His quivering lips, as if from the depths of a broken heart. What a sight was this for angels to behold! Their loved Commander in an agony of tears! What a sight was this for the glad throng that with shouts of triumph and the waving of palm branches were escorting Him to the glorious city, where they fondly hoped He was about to reign! Jesus had wept at the grave of Lazarus, but it was in a godlike grief in sympathy with human woe. But this sudden sorrow was like a note of wailing in a grand triumphal chorus. In the midst of a scene of rejoicing, where all were paying Him homage, Israel's King was in tears; not silent tears of gladness, but tears and groans of insuppressible agony. DA p. 575.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He felt the rejection from those who lived in the city. They had held their walled capital up as if it were heaven itself, and yet refused Him in whose presence it is heaven, and the fullness of joy. They refused Him whom David their king had found to be the source of pleasure for evermore; they turned away from Him just as their fathers had all through their history. And now this was the time of their final visitation. Soon the grace of God which had overshadowed that city set on a hill would be taken away and God’s judgments would fall in the place of His favor.
This wasn’t the first time Jesus wept. He had wept every night as He prayed to His Father. In behalf of His disciples and of the larger circle of follower/disciples, for the weak and largely ignorant multitudes, and for the religious leaders, He had wept in deep groanings and tears. They turned down what He came to bring them, and many who did accept Him were so dull of comprehending His mission.
When they tried to make Him king after He had fed the thousands, He forced His disciples into their boat with a voice of authority and then “departed again into a mountain Himself alone.” (Jn. 6:15). There He unloaded His burden upon His Father. “Oh, Father, when will they understand the beauty of holiness I want to give them, and the blessedness of spiritual things? Oh, Father, when will they learn? Oh Father,... Oh Father...” With divine groanings, which His humanity could not utter He offered up strong cries and tears for His beloved twelve, even for the one who was almost a devil.
It wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning that He was consoled and then walked out to the boat with its precious human cargo battling for their lives in the blackness on the angry waters of the Sea of Galilee. It was the comfort and encouragement which He received from His Father that made His body shine.
Moses showed us Jesus when he wept and prayed to the Lord his God, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” (Ex. 32:31,32).
With Paul we how see our Lord travailed in birth until His Father was formed in the early Christians. (Gal. 4:19). And, like Moses and Paul, Christ’s heart grieved for Israel. “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Rom. 9:2,3).
David, inspired by the testimony of Jesus, had written, “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me…. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance…. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:3-5,8).
An account of Mrs. White indicates the same deep care and burden for God’s people which she laid at His feet with a breaking heart.
She has gotten up to write, Mrs. McKibbin thought. But then a voice crossed the quiet darkness between the two houses. Mrs. White was praying.
"Such a prayer I never heard," Mrs. McKibbin wrote years afterward. "She was praying first of all for the people of God; she was praying for everyone that knows this truth, that we might be true and that we might realize our responsibility to give it to others. Then she prayed for herself. Angel Over Her Tent, p. 136.
Jeremiah had said, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer. 9:1). Couldn’t Jesus say the same of His weeping for His people? Certainly, the Light that lightens every man is motivated by the same principles of loving-kindness and care for the people, with an intensity that even the prophets never knew.
Our High Priest knows the depths of our sorrows. “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15). “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25).
Let’s seek Him with our whole heart who has wept for us in Gethsemane and on the cross and every day of His ministry, both on Earth and in heaven.
posted by David | 6:32 AM
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