Repentance
and Revival
Jonah 3:5-10
Introduction: As we have been going through this little book of Jonah, we
have been seeing some big lessons about human rebellion and divine sovereignty.
I think about the opening lines from the second psalm,
Why do the
nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take
counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, 3 "Let us burst their bonds
apart and cast away their cords from us."
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in
derision. 5 Then he will speak
to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury… (Psalm 2:1-5).
Yahweh, the God the Bible, Creator and Sustainer of the
universe, is LORD. Even so, humans, since the fall of Adam, resist His rule! We
know that is true of the Ninevites, as the second verse of the book tells us
that the stench of their evil had come up before God. We know it is true of
Jonah, since initially at least when God said “Go!” Jonah said, “No!”
and went in the opposite direction! And we know it can be true too often and
too easily in our own lives – when we choose our will instead of submitting to
what we know to be the will of God. Most are seemingly oblivious to the
seriousness of sin…
The “Good News”
of the Gospel is seen most clearly in the light of some very bad news for those
who are unsaved… It is the position described by Paul in Ephesians 2:3, “…we
all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest
of mankind.” The wrath referred to is God’s wrath against sin. We
were indeed, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God…” (to borrow the title of
Jonathan Edward’s famous sermon). Thank God for the truth expressed in the next
verse of Ephesians, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His
great love with which he loved us…” Thank you Jesus! By the way, it seems
that Jonah understood that aspect of God’s character. We’ll see in Jonah 4:2 the
prophet says, “…I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” He
understood that in God’s announcement of impending judgment there was an
implicit call to repentance – and, though Jonah was grateful for God’s mercy in
his own life, at least with respect to the Ninevites, Jonah wasn’t happy
about it! We’ll get to that next week.
“Faith” and “repentance”
are best understood as two sides of the same coin… I think this is a fitting
passage to study on the first Sunday of a new year, as we prepare to celebrate
the Lord’s Table together. The principles related in God’s promise to Israel
are reflected in his dealings with humans:
…if my people who are called by my
name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their
land… (2 Chron
7:14).
The Maine* Idea: If we believe God, and trust in His mercy and grace, we
will turn from the idolatrous and sinful ways of our past life. 3
attitudes follow…
I. Humility: Genuine faith and repentance will break our pride, and be
accompanied by genuine sorrow for our sin (5,6).
5 And the people of Nineveh believed
God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to
the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he
arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and
sat in ashes.
Let’s back up to
v.5 and reflect on that statement again, “And the people of Nineveh believed
God…” This is the language that is normally used for a faithful Israelite,
the Ninevites, “believed in God.” Their faith is demonstrated by their
actions. They together call for a fast, indicating serious reflection and
prayer. Putting on sackcloth indicated sorrow for sin and repentance. The
merism in v.5, “from the greatest to the least” is meant to indicate everyone
responded. V.6 confirms that, “the word reached the king.” The message
of Jonah, the word of the Lord, was shared among the people, and the king
himself heard it, believed it, and responded to it.
Notice that
genuine faith always results in action. The king took God at His word. His
action of getting off the throne, removing his royal robe and putting on
sackcloth seems to indicate humble recognition that he is not the ultimate Sovereign.
By the way, in talking about the voluntary self-humiliation of Christ, Paul
told the Philippians what would one day happen:
9 Therefore God has highly
exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father... (Phil
2:9-11).
Sitting in ashes was an indication of mourning and repentance. The King of Nineveh is confessing the God of
Jonah, Yahweh, as the true sovereign, King of kings, the one to whom all authorities,
even the mighty king of the superpower of the day, must bow. For the believer
in Jesus, humility is seeing ourselves rightly, in relation to majesty of God.
It is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. I like Andrew
Murray’s definition:
“Humility
is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing
that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when
nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed
home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father
in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and
above is trouble.”
God is God, we are his creatures. Enough said? After all, as
Paul told the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive? If
then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (I
Cor 4:7). Genuine faith and repentance will expose our hearts, break our pride,
and be accompanied by genuine sorrow for our sin. We see that here. And we will
see that If we believe God, and trust in His mercy and grace, we will turn from
the idolatrous and sinful ways of our past life.
II. Heart Change: Genuine faith and repentance will be accompanied by a
changed heart, as individuals confess and turn from their sins (7,8).
7 And he issued a proclamation and
published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let
neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or
drink water, 8 but let man
and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.
Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his
hands.
The call to the people is to repent, and to do the things
that demonstrate repentance. The Assyrians, and Nineveh was the capital, were
an idolatrous, corrupt, and violent people. They would humiliate and mutilate
their defeated enemies. Allegedly there were piles of human skulls at the gates
of the city, a warning to any foreigner or would be invader. Foreigners, like Jonah,
were at risk, but inter-personal violence was also rampant among the Ninevites
themselves – it was survival of the fittest. It was to these people that Jonah
went and preached the impending judgment of God.
Then the word
reached the king, and he believed it. He sent out a proclamation, a call to “turn
from their evil ways.” And the people got the message! That recalls
the word of the Lord to Jonah in 1:2, “their evil has come up before
me.” The wickedness of the people and the nation was such that as far as we
know, Jonah never even mentioned it, he didn’t need to. The king called the
people to “turn” from evil and “the violence in their hands.”
That word “turn” is the Hebrew word used to express the idea of
repentance. By specifically mention their “hands,” the indication is that a
change in heart must lead to a change in actions. The Ninevites knew what
they were doing, and it seems along with the word of the Lord came a deep conviction
for their sin, and a desire to turn from their evil ways.
Note that the
people were to express their repentance by dressing in sackcloth, along with their
animals, and they were to fast, and to “call out mightily to God.” Remember
what the captain on the boat had said in the midst of the storm? He, though a
pagan idolater, confronted the sleeping Jonah and said in 1:6, "What do
you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god!” A pagan captain
had called on Jonah to pray, and he didn’t, at least not immediately. Here, a pagan
king calls on the people to fast and pray, and to put on sack cloth and ashes
as a sign of repentance and mourning, and they do it! The king, like the captain,
seems to have more spiritual sensitivity than the prodigal prophet, Jonah.
Someone made the comment that our brother Richard C. was an example of one who
consistently spoke of his faith, he “talked the talk,” and he also “walked the
walk,” that is, he lived out his faith. I remember someone asking, “If you were
arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence for a
conviction?” I hope so! That’s the Maine* Idea: If we believe God, and
trust in His mercy and grace, we will turn from the idolatrous and sinful ways
of our past life.
III. Hope: Genuine faith and repentance recognizes our only hope is in
the mercy and grace of God (9-10).
9 Who knows? God may turn and
relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." 10 When God saw what they did, how
they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he
had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
The king expresses the same hope that the captain on the ship
had shown in 1:6 when he had called on Jonah to pray, “…Perhaps the god will
give a thought to us, that we may not perish." The language is not
just wishful thinking, a shot in the dark when there is nothing else to try or do.
It is actually an expression of hope, looking to the Great God for mercy. In
Jonah 1:14, in the face of the worsening storm and the word from the prophet
that casting him into the see would bring deliverance for them, the sailors
pray to the God of Jonah, "O LORD, let us not perish for this man's
life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it
pleased you."
Seeing
our desperate need, we look to God for mercy (9). The only way to escape God’s
wrath against sin is to run to Him, not away from Him! We need to see
our desperate need, and realize, as Jonah expresses in the next chapter, that
He is “…a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love, and relenting from disaster…” (Jonah 4:2). The fact that
God does not immediately judge us in our sin indicates, as Peter wrote, that
God “…is patient toward
you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance…
(2 Pet 3:9).
God had
demonstrated His mercy toward Jonah in sparing Him from certain death in the
storm and the sea. Miraculously He kept Him alive as His “Uber-fish” brought
him to land, giving him time to think and pray. And now, we see again in his
dealing with the Ninevites, that He is rich in mercy toward those who trust
Him: Genuine faith and repentance will lead to being saved from the wrath of
God (10).
By the way, we
need to be reminded here of the need for ongoing teaching of the Bible, and the
need to be diligent about teaching our children. Have you noticed how often the
Bible exhorts the people of God to teach the next generation, and to raise them
up in the way of the Lord? The message of grace is always only one
generation away from extinction. We have the example of Israel to show us
that “revival” can be fleeting. Certainly, the time of the judges shows us
that. It begins by saying that in those days there was no king in Israel, and “every
man did that which was right in his own eyes.” As the people fell into sin
and idolatry, God allowed pagan nations to oppress them. Then the people
looked up and cried out to God. God raised up a judge and deliverer, he rescued
them, and for awhile they walked with God, until they didn’t. Rinse and
repeat! Here, Nineveh repents, and it has the markings of a spiritual
awakening. But a generation later the God-fearers seemingly die off, and with them
the fear of the Lord. They failed to teach their children about the true God,
the God of Israel. And they attack and decimate the northern kingdom, and
surround Jerusalem in the south, and would have destroyed it had God not intervened.
Every generation
is responsible to teach the truth about God to the next generation, and to live
in such a way that they will see that this is real, and understand that God has
spoken. Remember, God has no grandchildren, only children! Let’s be diligent to
teach the Gospel of God’s grace, by word and example, to the next generation.
Parents this is your mission, and church, we are responsible to come
alongside of them, with our diversity of gifts, to assist them in that mission!
What is God saying to me in this passage? Have you recognized your need, turned
from your sin, and trusted Christ as your only hope of forgiveness and life?
Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me…”
If we believe God, and trust in His mercy and grace, we will turn from the sinful
ways of our past life. Has God changed you?
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage? Just as “faith”
is something that is ongoing in the life of a believer (the just shall live
by faith), “repentance” is not something that is done only once, at the
beginning of the Christian life. Are you reading through the Bible this year? As
the Word of God exposes areas of our life that are contrary to God’s will, we should mourn our
sin, because it grieves God, and we should confess it and turn from it. As we
do, the promise of Scripture is that “…as we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9). That is amazing grace, and incredibly good
news! A new year is before us, and a new opportunity to examine our walk, and
to determine to live for Him. As we prepare for the Lord’s Table, let’s take a
few minutes to pray, and seek His face, confessing our sin… AMEN.
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