Depending on who you ask, you might be told that crying isn’t considered manly. And sure, there are some situations where tears are not befitting the way that men ought to carry themselves, but those not withstanding, crying at certain times and for certain causes is not only manly, it is godly. The psalmist who loved God’s law (Ps. 119:97) wept streams of tears because men did not follow God’s Law (vs.36). The prophet Elisha wept because he knew what Hazael would do to the people of Israel once he assassinated Ben-Hadad and became king of Syria (2 Ki. 8:11-12). Even the one who was the perfect man, the one who represented what every man ought to be like, even He, Jesus Christ, wept at the funeral of a friend (Jn. 11:35), wept in prayer (Heb. 5:7), and wept over a city that was on a collision course with the judgment of God (Lk. 19:41-44). Jeremiah, then, stands in good company.
