God has a way of bringing us great hope, no matter how things appear. God and His promises have and will prevail because He reigns as the One True and Living Sovereign God. Therefore, our hope, which is a certain expectation based upon Him, Who cannot lie and Who does not change, which hope we express means it’s as certain as God Himself. One such promise of hope that is repeated is the promise that God will wipe away all tears of His people. Notice how it is repeated three times.
Isaiah 25:8 (ESV) — 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Revelation 7:17 (ESV) — 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:3–4 (ESV) — 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
What a day that will be when God wipes away all tears, meaning not only the tears but the cause of tears. In the meantime, even before that glorious day God does wipe away the tears of His people in this life as we all face times of difficulty that causes weeping. It may be the frustration of longing for God but finding the occasion to be a season of dryness. It may be a time in which we’ve experienced such disappointment or sorrow that it’s been a valley of weeping. It may be a time where things seem to go against us. It may be a time when we’ve felt tossed around by the circumstances of life or the times when we have sensed His anger or disappointment. It may even be a time for which we would just label it, “great grief.” In all circumstances we hold to the promise that God will one day wipe away all tears, but what we have in the future is also seen in life as God takes note of our tears and brings us through the situation with a sense of His care and love which gives us a wiping of the tears as He changes our hearts.
Consider the experience of the psalmist in Psalm 42 as we sense the longing for God within, the torment from without, and the endurance of the pause. Thankfully, as we continue in the psalm, we see the solution as God wipes his tears with the truth about God.
Psalm 42:1–5 (ESV) — 1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
As we are told in Romans 15:4, we gain much in considering what has been written in the former days because we get instruction, encouragement, and hope from seeing what God has done for His people, even the wiping of their tears.
Romans 15:4 (ESV) — 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
One such lesson is found in Psalm 84, where the people are made to travel through the valley of tears, but God brings refreshment and strength, or if please, He wipes away their tears.
Psalm 84:5–7 (ESV) — 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
We may not think our tears our precious to God, but that is what is implied in Psalm 56:8. The very thought that God takes note of all our tears, even the cause of those tears, as He captures each precious drop and preserves them in a bottle. Yes, He wipes away our tears with His magnificent compassion but His actions are not to devalue the tears or our feelings behind the tears as He has taken special consideration of everything about our tears.
Psalm 56:8 (ESV) — 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
If ever we sense His anger or disappointment when we have grieved Him through our rebellion and our doing exactly the opposite of what He commands, we can be consoled in the fact that His anger is but for moment in comparison to His favor is for a lifetime. Notice how the psalmist describes the wiping of our tears as we sense His anger, but He wipes those tears with the truth of His unending compassion.
Psalm 30:5 (ESV) — 5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
Peter’s experience in denying the Lord Jesus Christ is a great example of this principle. Peter was very self-confident in telling Jesus that he was ready to die for Him, to which Jesus responded with the warning that Peter would deny Him three times before the morning. After Peter denied Jesus for the third time, Peter made eye contact with Jesus, to which we are told that Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Luke 22:62 (ESV) — 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
Thankfully, the rest of the story is in John 21, where Jesus restores Peter, wipes his tears, and then He asked Peter three times if he loved Jesus. Peter’s tears would be wiped away as are ours whenever Jesus restores us after we have messed up.
We cannot leave this subject of God wiping our tears without considering the shortest verse in the Bible.
John 11:35 (ESV) — 35 Jesus wept.
Jesus, the man of sorrows Who was acquainted with grief, is the One Who bore our sorrows. In this case He wept at the tomb of Lazarus, just before He raised him from the dead. Isn’t it precious to take note of how Jesus took on Himself the sorrow of Mary and Martha, sensing their grief. Of course, He wiped away their tears as He raised Lazarus, but His weeping gave cause for many to take note of His compassion and love. It reminds us of God’s word to Moses regarding the children of Israel in Egypt which is a great summary of how God sees, hears, and knows our grief and sorrow which is cause for us to know “He will wipe away all tears.”
Exodus 3:7 (ESV) — 7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker, Pastor
Christ Community Presbyterian Church
Clearwater, FL
