"You will forget your misery
it will be like water flowing away."
Job 11:16
What does it look like for God to restore a life? Sometimes is looks like floodgates.
The time of God's restoration and rebuilding of Joseph's life was marked by weeping. Five times Joseph is described as weeping after God had already caused him to forget his misery and made him fruitful in a land of affliction.
And he (Joseph) turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them.
Genesis 42:42
And Joseph made haste, for his heard yearned upon his brother: and he sought where to weep: and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
Genesis 43:30
And he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept; and benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept on them.
Geneis 45:14-15
wept (BAKAH, hebrew) - to flow by drops, weeping, lamenting
In all the years of being in Egypt we don't hear Joseph weeping. But when his family is becoming restored to him, the scripture says Joseph BAKAHS, or he weeps until the tears flow like rain drops.
"Then Joseph could not restrain himself before them all that stood by him... And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and house of Pharoah heard it
wept aloud (QOWL) - 1. the voice, crying out in sorrow with a loud voice 2. sound, noise as of water, rain, a multitude
QOWL suggests a loud sound of many waters that flows from crying in sorrow, in another sense a floodgate of tears.
Sometimes we need to know it's okay to let the tears fall.
Sometimes our tears have a purpose.
A release.
A cleansing of the soul of anguish.
An emptying of the soul of pain.
If it's been a long time since you've cried, there will be floodgates.
We can sometimes tell ourselves my life is not that bad, I have it way better than most. I'll just count my blessings and not complain. But that's not biblical or scriptural. It's really just religious (denying the truth in favor of traditions). We serve a God who is acquainted with our sorrows and our griefs. A God who not only died for us, but wept for us. He experienced the range of emotions while on Earth and sinned not. Which shows us that having and expressing a range of emotions is not sinful, but it's simply human.