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Repentance
In Judges 10,
we find the record of the Israelites fighting against the Ammonites. Verse 6
describes Israel's spiritual condition at that time:
Judges 10:6
«Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and served the Baalims and the Astoreths, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon,
the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon and the gods of the
Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and they did not serve Him»
As they had
done many times in the past, the children of Israel abandoned the Lord, and
followed the gods of the various nations around. The Lord was not indifferent
with this behavior. Verses 7-9 tell us:
Judges 10:7-9
«So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He sold them into
the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon. From
that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for eighteen years
- all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in
the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. Moreover the people of Ammon crossed over
the Jordan, to fight against Judah also, against Benjamin, and against the house
of Ephraim, so that Israel was severally distressed»
The fruit of
Israel's behavior, was deep distress. At the end, the people whose gods they
chose to serve, became their own oppressors. Fortunately, in their distress they
turned again to the Lord. Verse 10 tell us:
Judges 10:10
«And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, «We have
sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!»
As the prodigal
son of the Luke's gospel, made the decision to return home - confessing his sin
- when the once rich land was hit by famine, so also the Israelites, during this
deep distress, turned to the Lord and confessed their sin to Him. Then verses
11-14 give us the Lord's reply:
Judges 10:11-14
«So the Lord said to the children of Israel, «Did I not deliver
you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon
and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites
oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet
you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no
more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in
your time of distress»
Israel was
God's chosen people. He had saved them time after time, again and again, only to
see them betraying Him once more. However, would He not forgive them any longer?
Had His forgiveness finished and He would reject Israel forever? Verses 15-16a
tell us what the children of Israel did after the Lord's reply:
Judges 10:15-16a
«And the children of Israel said to the Lord, «We have sinned! Do to us
whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray. So they put
away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord.»
The first time
Israel went to the Lord, THE FOREIGN GODS WERE STILL IN THEIR MIDST. They
confessed they had sinned. However, had they TRULY REPENTED when they were still
keeping their foreign gods? The confession of the sin is not necessarily
repentance for the sin. Genuine repentance has to do with the heart and it is
accompanied by a change of the heart. In verse 10, the Israelites confessed they
had sinned but the foreign gods were still there. That's why I believe God
pointed them to the idols when He said «go and cry to the gods you have chosen».
These gods were still there!! It is only in verse 16 that Israel put them away
and started serving the Lord again. Immediately after this, we read about the
Lord's reaction:
Judges 10:16
«And His soul could no longer endure the misery of the Israel»
As soon as
Israel truly repented - and this was now obvious by their respective actions -
God was there to deliver them once more. As soon as they repented, the Lord
could no longer endure their misery. Judges 11 - 12 describe us how He delivered
them from the people of Ammon. He didn't do it because of their righteousness or
because he was sure they would not turn away again. In fact, in chapter 13 we
see them turning away once more. He did it just because He loved them, and once
they had honestly returned to Him, He was there, regardless of what they had
done or what they would do in the future.
1. God's heart - the case of Ahab
I love the
historical books of the Old Testament. It is like small biographies that show
how the Lord worked with various people, evil and good. There, in I Kings, we
find among others the record of a very evil king, the king Ahab. I Kings
16:30-33 and 21:25 give us his «CV» and his …….. «achievements»:
I Kings 16:30-33
«Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, MORE THAN ALL WHO WERE
BEFORE HIM. And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him
to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel
the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and
worshipped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he
had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. AHAB DID MORE TO PROVOKE THE
LORD GOD OF ISRAEL TO ANGER THAN ALL THE KINGS OF ISRAEL WHO WERE BEFORE HIM.»
And I Kings 21:25
«But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the
sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. And he behaved
very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites
had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel»
Ahab is
described as the most evil king of Israel. No one was like him in evilness.
Elijah, confronted this king in I Kings 21. There we read:
I Kings 21:20-22
«So Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me O my enemy? And he answered, «I
have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the
Lord: Behold I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and
will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free. I will make
your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of
Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have
provoked Me to anger, and made Israel sin»
This was the
Lord's verdict against Ahab. He and his family would not have a good end. Yet,
let's not think that this pleased God. As Ezekiel 18:23 says:
Ezekiel 18:23
«Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Lord God,
and not that he should turn from his ways and live?»
God's pleasure
is not in judging the wicked but in seeing them repenting. Whoever repents is
acceptable to Him. Would however this be available even for Ahab, the most evil
king of Israel? Verses 27-29 tell us:
I Kings 21:27-29
«So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put
sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about in
mourning. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, SEE HOW
AHAB HAS HUMBLED HIMSELF BEFORE ME? BECAUSE HE HAS HUMBLED HIMSELF BEFORE ME, I
WILL NOT BRING THE CALAMITY IN HIS DAYS» in the days of his son I will bring
the calamity on his house»
The Lord's
judgment was upon the whole house of Ahab. However, his repentance and the fact
he was humbled before the Lord, were enough to postpone the judgment for the
great evil he and his family had done. Unfortunately, his family and he himself
later, continued in evilness - see for example I Kings 22 and II Kings 3:1-3 -
and the decision of the Lord that Elijah announced, was indeed carried out in
the days of Joram, Ahab's son (see II Kings 9-10)
2. God's heart: the case of Manasseh
Ahab was not the only king of
Israel that did evil. In fact, there were many others that behaved like him. One
of the them, king of Judah this time was Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, who
unfortunately is not known for the same reasons as his father. In the summary of
his kingdom given in II Chronicles 33:2, 9 we read:
II Chronicles 33:2
«he [Manasseh] did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations
of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel»
and II Chronicles 33:9
«So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil
than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel»
As it seems,
Manasseh was the counterpart of Ahab in Judah. Both of them surpassed in evil
the nations that inhabited the land before! The evilness of Manasseh and the
people was confronted by the Lord but with no result: they would not REPENT.
Verses 10-11 tell us:
II Chronicles 33:10-11
«And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore
[as a result of their response] the Lord brought upon them the captains of the
army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze
fetters, and carried him off to Babylon»
The Lord tried
to correct the king and his people. He didn't want to see Manasseh in the state
he ended up with. However, without repentance this was unavoidable. Fortunately,
as with the Israelites in Judges 10, the resulted affliction was also a turning
point for Manasseh, who started now seeking the Lord!
II Chronicles 33:12-13a
«Now when he [Manasseh] was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and
humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him»
When Manasseh
was in Jerusalem, in peace, God would speak but Manasseh would not listen. Now
that he was in chains, it was Manasseh's turn to start speaking to God, HUMBLING
HIMSELF BEFORE HIM. And let's see whether the Lord listened:
II Chronicles 33:13
«and [after Manasseh humbled himself before the Lord] He received his entreaty,
heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then
Manasseh knew that the Lord was God»
When he was in
Jerusalem, Manasseh became another champion of evilness. When however in
affliction he turned to the Lord, He didn't start calculating the evil this king
had done. Instead «He received his entreaty» and restored the repented king
back to his throne.
3. God's heart: The case of
Nineveh
This case is the topic of the
short book of Jonah. The Lord spoke to Jonah and gave him a specific assignment.
Verses 1 and 2 tell us:
Jonah 1:1-2
«Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, «Arise, go
to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has
come up before Me»
We all probably
know what Jonah initially did and how he disobeyed God - his case could very
well be one more case in this article. However, in chapter 3 we see him going
finally to Nineveh:
Jonah 3:1-4
«Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, «Arise, go to
Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you» So
Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh
was an exceedingly great city, a three day journey. And Jonah began to enter the
city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, «Yet forty days, and
Nineveh shall be overthrown»
What God wanted
through Jonah was to warn Nineveh for the coming judgment, if they didn't
repent. Verses 5-9 tell us how the people of Nineveh received the Lord's
warnings.
Jonah 3:5-9
«So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on
sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. For word came to the king of
Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself
with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and
published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
«Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them
eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry
mightily to God; yes let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence
that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn
away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?»
In contrast to
Manasseh, the people of Nineveh PAID ATTENTION TO WHAT GOD WAS SAYING, and the
king with his nobles commanded all to fast and pray. Then verse 10 tells us what
the Lord did:
Jonah 3:10
«Then God saw their works [not simply their words], that they turned from their
evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring
upon them, AND HE DID NOT DO IT»
God relented
from what He would do to Nineveh, and this because the people of Nineveh
REPENTED.
4. Conclusion
Though sin blocks the way to God,
repentance opens it widely. Even in such cases as those of Ahab and Manasseh,
this way was wide open, when they humbled themselves before the Lord. The
question therefore is not whether the Lord will forgive us. His forgiveness is
given, if there is REPENTANCE. If therefore we have sinned, have we REPENTED?
Not just in words but GENUINELY in the heart. Have we mourned and wept for the
sin or we just continue with the same hardened heart, deceiving ourselves that
… there is no problem and justifying the sin instead of repenting for it? Here
is what James suggests:
James 4:8-10
«Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you
sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up»
In all cases we have seen, the repentance was accompanied by
a change of the heart, by mourning for the sin and by humbling before the Lord.
May the Lord open our eyes and may we open our hearts to Him, making them
transparent, without hidden parts, excuses and reasonings. May those of us that
we are not in his hug, DRAW NEAR TO HIM, REPENTING, AND HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO US
AS WELL.
Tassos Kioulachoglou
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