[review: Trail of Tears - part 1]
[author’s note: Based on an article by Wayne Jackson, Christian Courier: Penpoints, Monday, February 24, 2003]
     Good morning and welcome to the Berean Break.  My name is George Sinkie and I am so glad that you have joined me this morning.  I encourage you to have your Bible handy and to check out what is said here this morning.  As we begin let’s go to God in prayer.

Almighty God in heaven, we thank You for this day in our lives, may we use it to bring You glory and honor.  We pray for the nations of this world and their leaders, may they all realize that they are only in power because of Your will.  We thank You now for Your Word, that reveals Your complete will to us.  We thank You also for Jesus, who is the Savior of all who obey Him, may we be obedient to Him.  And it is in His name we pray! AMEN !!

     This week’s program is a continuation from last week.  We are going to look further at the idea of human tears.  As always I want you to know that these programs are available free of charge on cassette tapes.  There is no obligation to request these and you will receive six biblically sound lessons.  Again this week, I would like to thank Wayne Jackson at www.christiancourier.com for his article entitled “The Trail of Tears.”  The basic idea of this program comes from that article.
Last week we looked at the fact that there are physical causes for tears to come to our eyes.  These tears can be caused by wind, dirt, chemicals and odors.  Tears caused by these physical stimuli produce tears to cleanse and protect the eyes.  But in these lessons we are looking at tears caused by emotional stimuli.  We mentioned also that humans are unique in shedding these emotional tears.  Evolutionists cannot adequately explain these tears because they show intellectual design rather than random chance.

As I mentioned before there are a number of emotions that cause us, as humans, to shed tears.  Last week we looked at several of these - grief, joy, gratitude, compassion, and concern.  And we also mentioned that sometimes one than one of these are present at the same time.  Let’s take some time this morning to consider several other emotions that can cause tears.  As we look at these consider how you have perhaps shed these types of tears.

     Let’s start today with Tears of Parting.  When we must part from dear friends or loved ones, for many it is a time of tears.  If it is going to be a long time before we will see them again we will often cry at that parting.  If by chance there is a get possibility we will never see each other in this realm, then the tears will even flow more freely.  As Paul was headed to Jerusalem and he spoke with the Ephesian elders at Miletus, as they prepared to part there were tears shed because they would never see Paul again.  Read with me Acts 20:36-38

  36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
  37 And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him,
  38 grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more.  And they were accompanying him to the ship.

Timothy a young man that Paul had worked with and had eventually left to work in Ephesus as an evangelist, also gives us an example of this.  Paul write to him in 2 Timothy 1:4

  4 longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.

A student of the Old Testament will also recall these types of tears being shed by David and Jonathan as they parted.  Let’s read that in 1 Samuel 20:41-42

  41 When the lad was gone, David rose from the south side and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times.  And they kissed each other and wept together, but David more.
  42 And Jonathan said to David, “Go in safety, inasmuch as we have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’”  Then he rose and departed, while Jonathan went into the city.

Tears of parting flow today as we bid good-bye to the soldiers going to war.

     Another emotion that will sometimes manifest itself in tears is Fear. Consider what it says of Jesus in Hebrews 5:7-9 from the NKJV it reads,

  7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,
  8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
  9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,

This would almost certainly fit in with the time that Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane.  While Jesus would have a certain amount of fear of physical death, the fear that probably caused Him even more tears dealt with the separation from God that the sins of the world was going to bring.  Never in the history of all mankind has there been a burden this large borne by just one person.  This fear not only brought about these tears but also caused Him to obey God’s will.

     Have you ever tried to do something and because you just couldn’t get it accomplished, you felt like sitting down and bawling?  Emotional tears sometimes are shed because of futility.  In Genesis 25, we read about Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of stew.  Rather than looking at the big picture, at the long term plan for his life, Esau was concerned only for the moment - he was hungry and say no value in the birthright to satisfy his hunger.  Later on as his father was about to die, Jacob, Esau’s brother “collected” on their bargain and tricked their father into giving him Esau’s blessing.  Esau viewed his birthright of far greater value now, but it was too late.  We read of his anguish in Genesis 27:34

  34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”

The Hebrews writer speaks of this in Hebrews 12:17

  17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Esau shed tears of futility, because he had sold his birthright and there was no way to get it back.  As the writer of Hebrews notes, not even Esau’s tears could erase the consequence of his rash decision.  A lesson to be learned is this:  While we may obtain forgiveness for foolish choices, nonetheless we may have to suffer the consequences that come in their wake.

     The next cause of tears is contrition, that sincere remorse and sorrow for sin.  Contrition always leads to repentance, because it is godly sorrow.  Paul wrote of this in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11

  10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
  11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

As the sincere person considers the great sacrifice that God made to pay the price for their sins, and they then consider their own sinfulness, they will realize their own guilt.  David spoke of this in Psalm 6:6-10

  6 I am weary with my sighing;  Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears.
  7 My eye has wasted away with grief;  It has become old because of all my adversaries.
  8 Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
  9 The Lord has heard my supplication, The Lord receives my prayer.
  10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly dismayed;  They shall turn back, they shall suddenly be ashamed.

If we do not have the mourning for sin that brings repentance then we cannot have the joy that salvation brings.  Luke 6:21 speaks of this when Jesus says,

  21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

     The final emotional cause of tears that we are going to have time to look at is punishment.  Punishment for wrongdoing, or as it is sometimes called, discipline, is not a joyous thing to go through.  The Hebrews writer speaks of this in Hebrews 12:11

  11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

If we are wise we will allow the discipline and teaching of the Lord to guide us in this life.  But if we are stubborn and rebellious to the will of God to the very end of our lives then there awaits us an eternal punishment.  Now there are some religions that deny the existence of this place of eternal punishment, which we often call hell.  But it is an interesting note that of all the people recorded in the inspired Word of God, Jesus speaks more about hell than anyone.  One of the ways that He describes this place is with the phrase, “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  We read of this in Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; and 25:30, He also uses it in Luke 13:28, where He says,

  28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out.

Truly if we must shed tears of punishment, let us shed them in this realm so we can be trained by them, rather than in eternity separated from God.  These tears in eternity can never ease the pain nor right the relationship with God.

     There are numerous other examples that could be used, but we are almost out of time.  I would like to make one last comment.  It is interesting to note that tears are associated only with this realm and the eternal realm of punishment.  Heaven is mentioned as being a place that has no tears awaiting us.  Revelation 7:17 says,

  17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.

And also in Revelation 21:4

  4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

What a joy that will be.

[review: Trail of Tears - part 1]