A sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, 5 September 2010
Evan Roberts dropped out of Bible school at age 26, and started a prayer meeting with 16 young people. From this small nucleus, a revival sprang which swept through the hills and valleys of Wales. During the next nine months Evan Roberts led a whirlwind revival campaign through the coal-mining valleys of South Wales and the slate quarries of North Wales… He taught four basic points: people must confess all known sins, renounce doubtful habits, obey the Spirit's prompting, and confess Christ publicly.
Wales was completely changed, almost overnight, as the revival took effect.
· Some 100,000 people were converted in Wales alone over the next 5 years
· Drunkenness was cut by over 50%.
· The illegitimate birth rate dropped 44% in two counties within a year.
· Judges had no cases to try. No rapes, no robberies, no murders, no burglaries, no embezzlements. Nothing. The District Consuls had emergency meetings to discus what to do with the police, they were now unemployed.
· There were consistent reports that the mules who hauled rocks out of the mines were confused because their owners weren’t swearing at them anymore!
·
Five
years later J. P. Morgan wrote a book to criticize the revival. His main
criticism was that out of the 100,000 ONLY 80,000 had joined churches.
(For comparison, It appears that the retention rate of converts from Billy
Graham crusades is more like 5% instead of 80%. This is utterly amazing!)
Repentance and Revivals have happened in the past. Could God use us to bring it about again?
• Two ________ (v.1 ) times God gives command to Jonah
• Three _________ (v.3) days to travel the great city
• One ___________ (v.4) day Jonah travelled and preached
• Forty __________ (v.4) days and Nineveh is overturned
וַיַּאֲמִינוּ
אַנְשֵׁי
נִינְוֵה,
בֵּאלֹהִים;5
וַיִּקְרְאוּ-צוֹם
וַיִּלְבְּשׁוּ
שַׂקִּים,
מִגְּדוֹלָם
וְעַד-קְטַנָּם.
v. 5 Well, the men of Nineveh believed in God, so they proclaimed a fast and they dressed in sack-cloth, from their great even to their small.
The people of Nineveh provide a tremendous example of repentance. They "believed," they "called a fast," and they all "wore sack-cloth."
· First, they believed--they took God at His word and trusted that He was telling the truth.
· Then their response was to deny themselves by fasting and wearing sack-cloth.
o Fasting is a private sign to God that we prize Him over our physical sustenance.
o Wearing Sack-cloth is a public sign to show everyone that you are broken-hearted. Sack-cloth is a rough, loosely-woven cloth used in making sacks [pass around sack]. It looks very drab and is very uncomfortable. This is what people would wear when they were mourning.
Verses 6-8 are, I believe an expansion on what Jonah has told us briefly in v. 5 about fasting and putting on sackcloth. In verses 6 & 8, we see a little more detail about the sackcloth:
6 וַיִּגַּע הַדָּבָר אֶל מֶלֶך נִינְוֵה וַיָּקָם מִכִּסְאוֹ וַיַּעֲבֵר אַדַּרְתּוֹ מֵעָלָיו וַיְכַס שַׂק וַיֵּשֶׁב עַל הָאֵפֶר
6 And the word impacted the king of Nineveh, so he got up from his throne and had his robe taken off of him and put on sack-cloth, and he sat upon the ashes.
“The word came/reached/lit. impacted the king” News like this that the mightiest kingdom in the world will be overthrown in 40 days goes over like a lead balloon. Jaws drop. It has impact!
The mightiest king in the world doesn’t take off his own clothes, he has a servant do it for him. The Hiphil stem is a causative indicator which lets us know that he caused his robe to be removed from him, not necessarily that he did it himself. But that’s as far as this king’s dignity goes. His next step is to do about the least dignified thing a king could do – exchange royal attire for sack-cloth and exchange a throne for an ash-heap [Picture of a throne from an ancient Assyrian king-probably had an ornate back]. Jonah’s message had truly impacted this king, and this king truly humbled himself.
Historically, revivals begin with public confession of sin. It took real character for the king of Nineveh to humble himself like this and admit that he had done something wrong! Most leaders would have kept their dignity and shifted the blame. Most people want to be seen as important and respectable by everyone else. But what is important is to be holy before God, and that takes humility and confession of sin. And that sparks revival! (Urban. 52-53, NAW)
It’s possible that this whole verse is an explanation for why everybody in Nineveh, “from the greatest to the least of them,” put on sack-cloth: the king did it, so everybody followed suit. On the other hand, this verse could be in chronological order – the people in the town heard it, and then it reached the king, and their response happened to be the same (This is Hailey’s interpretation). I don’t know. But the point is that the greatest king on earth humbled himself at God’s word.
¨ Does this kind of behavior reflect the way we ourselves respond when we realize we need to get right with God?
¨ How do you respond to a rebuke for sin? Defensiveness? That’s prideful. Respond as the king of Nineveh did; humble yourself and confess your sin!
¨ We hear of revivals where people get excited and stay in church longer than usual, but I wonder if they would do better going home to mourn over their sins and fast... We need to be brokenhearted over our sins and make real changes in our lives rather than treat our offenses to God with offhandedness or even with temporary conviction.
7 וַיַּזְעֵק וַיֹאמֶר בְּנִינְוֵה מִטַּעַם הַמֶּלֶךְ וּגְדֹלָיו לֵאמֹר הָאָדָם וְהַבְּהֵמָה הַבָּקָר וְהַצֹאן אַל יִטְעֲמוּ מְאוּמָה אַל יִרְעוּ וּמַיִם אַל יִשְׁתּוּ.
THE COUNCIL (7a)
7 Then he called a council and then declared in Nineveh, from the decision of the king and his great men to say, “…”
· I believe that it is describing an emergency council of the king of Nineveh and his “big men” The first verb (z’q) seems to have less to do with giving a proclamation and more to do with calling people together to help in a time of need. A king would naturally call for his counselors in a crisis like this.
· “‘Fourty days and this city will be overthrown,’ the bleached Hebrew prophet says... and everybody believes it! What should we do???”
· The king and his noblemen come up with a statement, and the king told it to the pages. The king and the noblemen wouldn’t have done the proclaiming – that was the messenger’s job!
· This declaration concocted by the king and his council is actually called by the same root word that comes later on describing tasting something. It is not simply a decree, but something that they thought about and “chewed on” for a while before coming out with it. After deliberation, these leaders decided to take a stand for righteousness in their legal system.
THE PROCLAMATION (7b) The human and the animal, the herd and the flock should not taste anything. They should not eat; they should not even drink water
· It is a very poetic statement, using parallel structure in its lists, repetition in its verbs, and even emphasis in its word order.
· The gist of the decision is that it is time for a radical fast. No one should eat or even drink anything, and this fast should apply not only to the people but also to their animals.
· A distinction is made among the domesticated animals between large livestock like oxen (“herd”) and smaller animals like sheep and goats (“flock”) – none of them are even to be put out to pasture, as the next-to-last verb (#26) in this verse connotes.
· “The practice of making animals join in mourning is not unusual.
o A parallel is found in the apocryphal Book of Judith 4:10, and Herodotus reports it of the Persians.
o The reason is not that the animals, too, are in need of forgiveness, but that the withholding of food from beasts is an added grief and penance for their owners (Cohen)
o Keil suggests that the Ninevites were thinking that “just as the animals which live with man are drawn into fellowship with his sin, so their sufferings might also help to appease the wrath of God.”
· We were told in verse 5 that the people of Nineveh fasted. Now we see a little more detail about how the fast came about and how radical it was.
o You can go without food for 40 days before you die, but if you don’t drink water you won’t last much more than just a few days!
o And, hey, if nobody’s drinking milk or eating meat, there’s no point in feeding the livestock either.
o These people meant business with God. They were going to get right w/ Him or die trying!
What about US? What can we learn from the example of the Ninevite king?
¨ When you know God is trying to tell you something, call for help & get council like this king did.
¨
If
you have the power to make rules calling people to righteousness, exercise that
power!
“Revival often results in laws which are conducive to holiness... and righteous
laws make it easier for people to follow the path of righteousness [although
laws won’t actually make people right with God]” (Fernando).
¨ Respond to God’s anger by fasting.
o When you fast, be radical (i.e. not merely a fast from desserts), but realize how serious a radical fast is – you can die from it!
o Some Christians fast on Fridays as a regular pattern of denying themselves and aligning themselves with God.
o It has been my custom to fast for a day when I am burdened to pray over something important – especially when I have a big decision to make.
o I also fasted that day that our city commissioners met to consider the text of the discrimination ordinance.
o I wrestled over whether or not to tell you that, but I decided to tell you my practice because we all learn by example, and fasting is not an outward sign that you can learn about without someone telling you.
¨ Another way of looking at fasting is to see it as a necessary overreaction to sin for a temporary period of time. It’s like when you shut down the power to your whole house while you troubleshoot an electrical problem within the house. Even though you know the problem is probably with the Air Conditioner, you cut off all power to everything else – the dishwasher, the lights, and the radio – in order to deal with a known problem. Fasting can be the same way; it can be a way of shutting everything down so that you can troubleshoot for sin, understand what patterns of thought are causing the wrong behavior, and repent of it. Once the problem is addressed, click, you can turn the lights back on!
8
וְיִתְכַּסּוּ
שַׂקִּים
הָאָדָם
וְהַבְּהֵמָה
וְיִקְרְאוּ
אֶל אֱלֹהִים
בְּחָזְקָה
וְיָשֻׁבוּ
אִישׁ
מִדַּרְכּוֹ
הָרָעָה
וּמִן
הֶחָמָס
אֲשֶׁר
בְּכַפֵּיהֶם.
8 And with sack-cloths, the human and the animal should clothe themselves, and they should cry out to God with all their might, and each man should turn away from his evil way and from the violence which is in their hands.
· Here we learn a little more about the repentance of the people of Nineveh. Not only did the King put on sack-cloth, but he commanded every person and animal to also put on sackcloth!
· The animals were probably making a racket because they had not been fed!
o Rom. 8:19 says that all of creation groans to be liberated from the corruption of sin,
o Joel 1:20 shows precedent for the beasts of the field panting for God,
o so the Ninevites’ animals could well have participated with the humans in their own way of crying to God! (Keil)
APPLICATION: When was the last time you cried out to God with all your might? When was the last time you put on clothes that showed the world that you were mourning? When was the last time you fasted? These are the things that go with true, effectual repentance. Let’s do them!
¨ When we pray, let’s pray “with all [our] might!”
¨ Find ways to show outwardly that sin is a serious matter. What are modern-day equivalents of wearing sackcloth?
o Flag at half-mast (Perhaps with other symbols?)
o Wearing black (example: Abortion Blackout movement)
o Sad face – (Nehemiah 1) refusing to take part in merriment
¨ “Turn from evil ways”
o How did the Ninevites know what was evil?
1. They had a moral conscience (Rom 2:12-16 “...Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the law... their conscience bearing witness...”).
2. Perhaps told them what some of their sins were, using Mosaic law as the standard.
o For us to turn from evil, we must study the Bible to know right from wrong.
o Read Romans 6:1-2, and 12
¨ Let go of “violence” - Some people take this to mean “the wrongful gains of violence” or “robbery” (Son. 147, L.B.). The idea here is that they have been grasping and holding onto violence that was physically hurting other people, so they must let it go!
o Any ways that you are hurting other people or taking anything of value away from them?
o We can put on all the outward show of repentance and even pray a lot, but if we don’t actually turn away from doing what we know is wrong, it’s not true repentance
9 מִי יוֹדֵעַ יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם הָאֱלֹהִים וְשָׁב מֵחֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ וְלֹא נֹאבֵד.
9 Who knows? The god may turn back and be sorry and turn away from his burning anger, and we will not perish.
The verb “be sorry/ repent/ relent” has to do with a sigh of relief for yourself, or a sigh of empathic concern for someone else, or a sigh of remorse for what you’ve done.
· Here is a pagan king, trying to do the best he can to please an unknown and apparently irate deity. He reasons that if he and his nation “turn away” from what this god hates, then the god just might sigh and “turn away” from his anger towards them.
· The sad thing is that he didn’t know enough about the true and living God to know what would happen. He didn’t know if it would work, but we as Christians who have the word of God, we know how compassionate and merciful God is!
3:10
וַיַּרְא
הָאֱלֹהִים
אֶת
מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם
כִּי שָׁבוּ
מִדַּרְכָּם
הָרָעָה
וַיִּנָּחֶם
הָאֱלֹהִים
עַל הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר
דִּבֶּר
לַעֲשׂוֹת
לָהֶם וְלֹא
עָשָׂה.
10 Well, God saw their behavior, that they had turned away from their evil way. And God was made sorry over the evil which He had promised to do to them, so He did not do it.
· Just as the king and nobles of Nineveh had hoped, God did indeed “sigh” with relief and bring no judgment upon that generation.
· The Niphal stem indicates not so much that God expressed sorrow/regret, but that He was made sorry by the Ninevites’ actions. Their response moved Him.
· This same kind of blessing is available to any nation which will turn from wickedness (as defined by the laws of the Bible) and do what is right:
o Matthew 12: 41 holds up Nineveh, not as a special case, but as an example that other nations should have followed. It was a shame to God’s people in Israel who were so idolatrous that they were about to receive God’s judgment themselves, when the pagan nation of Assyria repented so thoroughly that God preserved Assyria for longer than He did the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Zodhiates).
o Is there any hope that our nation could repent like Nineveh did and escape God’s judgment? Yes, It has happened before: Word of the 1904 Welsh Revival spread to Welsh-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania, and revival spread throughout America.
· In Atlantic City, for example, out of a population of 60,000 it is said that only 50 people remained unconverted!
· In Atlanta on Nov. 2nd 1904, the entire city shut down for a day of united prayer for revival.
· In Denver, Mayor Robert Speer declared January 20, 1905 a Day of Prayer. All stores and schools were closed, and the legislature postponed. All the churches were filled, and 4 theatres were crowded with some 12,000 people for prayer. Here’s the text of the Denver Post for that day:
"For two hours at midday all Denver was held in a spell ... The marts of trade were deserted between noon and two o'clock this afternoon, and all worldly affairs were forgotten, and the entire city was given over to meditation of higher things. The Spirit of the Almighty pervaded every nook. Going to and coming from the great meetings, the thousands of men and women radiated this Spirit which filled them, and the clear Colorado sunshine was made brighter by the reflected glow of the light of God shining from happy faces. Seldom has such a remarkable sight been witnessed--an entire great city, in the middle of a busy weekday, bowing before the throne of heaven and asking and receiving the blessing of the King of the Universe."
God can do it again, but it will not happen without repentance.
God can do it again, and He can do it through YOU.
· The agent of the great Welsh revival was a most unlikely person: a copper miner who had dropped out of school, but God used Evan Roberts mightily!
· Likewise, the agent of the spectacular revival in Nineveh was a most unlikely person: Jonah – a disobedient, ethnocentric jerk.
· If God could use Jonah, and if God could use Evan Roberts, He can certainly use you! (Fernando)