Prophetic Tears
Bill Somers
June 2007
Shalom Aleichem
Several Years back, I had an experience with Prophetic Tears. As it turned out, it was not to be my last. We happened to be listening to a recording of Shalom Aleichem done as an instrumental by David Grisman and Andy Statman. The tune is a slow and very melancholy traditional Jewish song. All of a sudden I had an overwhelming urge to cry. The experience was much like the burden some people get during intercessory prayer. It would come back on me, for a season, every time I heard this recording. I knew in my spirit that I was sharing the tears of our Father in Heaven for the sufferings of the Jewish people throughout the ages. Much of this suffering has been at the hands of the church.
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav -
About a year and a half ago, just before the Hezbollah war
broke out, I found myself weeping over
This site conveys background information, lyrics and links
to recordings and midi files of the music. This song was especially composed
for a 1967 Israel Song Festival, Forty years ago, just before the 6 Day War. I
found that merely reading the story behind this song caused me to weep. This
was prophetic, intercessory weeping over
Weeping For
I have also had the same burden to weep for
Realizing this, I then had a great desire to study the History of the American Revolution, seeing that the situation would be similar. In 2000, a movie called The Patriot was released. When I viewed it at our local movie house, I made sure to take a good handful of tissues with me, as I knew I would be crying at some point during the film. What I found interesting was the parts that moved me to tears. It was not when the enemy committed atrocities against the civilian population, nor when they murdered prisoners of war, nor when major characters in the story were killed. What made me weep was when the Americans were urged or expressed a desire to stand up for what they believed in, and resist the enemy. One character, a pastor of a church, said God had called him to shepherd the flock and that sometimes that meant you had to drive off the wolves! It was sentiments like that which had me breaking out in tears.
More recently, I find my self weeping when I hear American patriotic music. This was especially strong when I heard a barbershop quartet do a rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever. This is a famous march by John Philip Sousa. [I never knew there were lyrics to it!]
Another song that brings on the tears is Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The USA. One of the lines goes: Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away. When I hear this line, I find my self saying, Oh Yes they can! If these prophecies come to pass, they will take away our freedom and the Stars and Stripes won’t be here forever.
All this shows me, if nothing else would, the seriousness of
the hour for