Hi sisters!
I recently posted about my quiet times through Job, which speaks to the lived experience of someone in trauma. The book of Job is rich in emotional wisdom and calls God’s people into deeper places of the soul. Then, over the past few months, God has shown me ways in which women were involved in lament in the Scriptures.
Laments of Loss
For some background, in II Chronicles 34-35, Josiah was king of Judah. During his reign, the Book of the Law of the Lord was found in the Temple. When Josiah sent men to inquire of the Lord, who did they encounter? The prophetess Huldah! Huldah confirmed the Scriptures and she spoke “Thus says the LORD…” Josiah and the others didn’t seem to have a problem that a woman was operating in this way!
As a result of the Book of the Law and God’s words spoken through Huldah, Josiah led the people in renewing their covenant with God. Josiah and the people served God and were faithful to God’s covenant all the days of Josiah’s kingship. Josiah was a beloved leader. Also in the picture was Jeremiah, who started his prophetic ministry in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign (Jeremiah 1:1-2). When Josiah died, after 31 years of reigning,
“All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah;
AND” (here it comes)…..
“All the singing men and singing women have spoken in their laments to this day. . . behold they are written in the Laments” II Chronicles 35:25).
What?! Women wrote laments alongside their male counterparts? YEAH!
I began thinking: there are more Psalms of lament than there are praise/thanksgiving. There are many Psalms that have no attributable author. The following is purely conjecture, but, is it unreasonable to infer that women could be some of the unknown authors? Clearly, they were authors of lament so, I’m just saying, maybe?!
One last note, these laments were a laments of loss. The people didn’t gloss over death but took time to truly lament with men and women leading the people in processing the loss.
Laments of Repentance
After that quiet time, I was stoked, but I forgot about it. Then, God hit me again! This time, I was reading in Jeremiah 9. This prophesy of Jeremiah is intense. Then Jeremiah says,
“Thus says the Lord of hosts:
‘Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
send for the skillful women to come;
let them make haste and raise a wailing over us,
that our eyes may run down with tears
and our eyelids flow with water. . . ‘
Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a lament,
and each to her neighbor a dirge (Jeremiah 9:17-18, 20)
There it was again! Women were directly involved in lament. They were known as “skillful women”. Women were called to:
- Hear God’s Word
- Internalize God’s Word
- Create/author laments from #1 and #2
- Teach these laments to others
Why?
To participate in calling God’s people to collective repentance! The words God was speaking were not for the faint of heart. Women were active in hearing, knowing, and understanding God’s Word. Then, they were active in authoring laments to teach God’s people. In fact, God directly called for these skillful women!
These two passages provide insight into how women participated in lament. But also, Huldah’s story showed yet another way women operated. The king of Judah and his officials had no problem going to a prophetess. Men had no problem authoring laments alongside women for the book of Laments. Jeremiah had no problem enlisting the “skillful women” to speak the God’s words through lament.
Therefore, God has given us permission, no, He has called women to participate in these ways. Both laments of loss and laments of repentance require deeper emotional wisdom. Let us widen our hearts to the skillful art of lament, whether as authors or those who join in the lament of others.
By the River Together 