WHEN a person truly believes God, then there is an evident effect shown in the mind and life. If we believe God as the Ninevites did. then there is a reaction which follows. This is what we see here. The Ninevites believed the message they heard from Jonah, and they were profoundly effected by it. In fact they were terrified. However that terror was not simply expressed in vain complaining, but in seeing something of what God saw in their city and in their lives, and being ashamed and fearful because they saw how much they deserved such treatment from God. The message did not make them angry, but ashamed and repentant. The message exposed the depth of corruption in their heart and caused them to abhor what they saw revealed in the condition of their hearts.

This reaction is expressed in their action. The people called a fast, and they put on sackcloth. Let us see if we can understand what these two actions are showing us.

DECLARED A FAST.

This expressed drastic action. A fast was to put aside all normal expressions of life. It is giving up eating. It is laying aside the normal occupations of life. It is certainly laying aside normal human activity in work and play. The fast was to give all their time and attention to seek God. It showed how earnest they were concerning their soul. A fast was not a work by which the Ninevites sought to bribe God by penance. Nor was it a measure to pay for their sins. It was an expression of their desperation deep in their heart.

The fast was because they felt the danger their souls were in. It was a reaction to give all their attention and determination to seek God; to show God genuine sorrow for their way of life. Fasting was an expression of a desire to seek God if by any means they may gain his ear, and move him to mercy. This fasting showed genuine repentance. It was not an expression of remorse, but a genuine repentance, which seeing their sins, and seeing something of how they appeared to a Holy God, they hated what they saw, appreciated the offence their sins were to God, and desired to draw near to God and sue for mercy.

PUT ON SACKCLOTH.

The action of clothing the body with sackcloth has a special significance in the Old Testament, and in the culture of the time. We come across it in a general way in 1 Kings 20:31-32. God had delivered the Syrian army under Ben-Hadad into the hands of the Israelite army under Ahab. This was not because Ahab was godly for he was one of the most evil kings of Israel. It was so that God could make clear to the Arameans that the Lord was not simply another deity like their deities as they supposed, but the LORD. In the battle God inflicted on the Arameans 100,000 casualties in one day. Then when they fled to the city of Aphek, a wall collapsed on the army and another 27000 of them were killed and injured. Because of this Ben-Hadad's officials advised him to sue for mercy, and the expression of this seeking mercy was to appear before Ahab clothed in sackcloth with ropes around their heads.

In Job 16:15 we see Job clothing himself in sackcloth as a demonstration of his submission to God. In Jeremiah 4:8 the putting on of sackcloth was and expression of response to God for his anger poured out against sin. It was a sign of sorrow for sin and repentance, and a cry for mercy. In Ezekiel 7:18 we see the wearing of sackcloth was a reaction of fear before the wrath of God against sin, and a demonstration of the shame which sin brought upon people. In Daniel 9:3 we see Daniel praying and pleading with God for Israel in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. Daniel appreciated the word of the Lord by Jeremiah that the people of Israel were in exile for 70 years because of their sin and neglect of God. Daniel was acknowledging the justness of God in such judgement and punishment. Daniel prays in penitence and sorrow for this sin and pleads with God to remember his covenant and be merciful. Jeremiah had declared the word of the Lord concerning this judgement of 70 years, and had gone on to speak of God telling Israel that mercy would be shown when Israel sought God with all their heart – Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” This meant to seek God with true and deep sorrow for their sin, and with a heart which was submitting to God in total obedience.

All this shows that something had happened to the hearts and minds of the people of Nineveh which went deep into their soul. The wearing of sackcloth showed their deep understanding of how they had offended God, and their understanding that God was the God of heaven and earth, and that their gift of life came from him. They acknowledged by this that God had rights over them, and they accepted that right and the justness of the threat of punishment and annihilation. The wearing of sackcloth showed their sincerity in seeking God, and the desperate desire that they may be saved from his just wrath against them.

APPLICATION.

Now what does this teach us for our Christian living? If we don't ask this question and take to heart the answer to it we shall have missed the whole purpose of this Scripture.

If we read the account of God's work in a powerful saving way in times past one thing will strike us. In these accounts we will hear how suddenly in the preaching of the Word of God men and women were struck down with a tremendous sense of their sin and sinfulness, and the just judgement of God that they were under. Under this conviction these people saw the horror of their sin, and the offense this sin was to God. They saw the wrath of God poised to cast them into hell. In terror of soul and horror of the evil of sin, they commenced to pray to God for mercy in a way that they had never done before. Some cried out audibly in the deep emotion which filled their minds and hearts. They would continue in this state for hours, not stopping to eat or drink or anything else until God by his Spirit gave them a conscious sense of his mercy, and they were able to see Jesus as their sin bearer, and were able to trust in him and know their sins were forgiven and God counted them righteous in his sight.

This experience in the lives of the Ninevites shows what is lacking in the church today. We need not suppose that such deep experiences of the holiness of God and consequences of sin must always be experienced and that without such a manifestation of the Spirit's power there is no real work of God expressed; however, unless there is genuine and deep understanding of sin and our sinfulness, and judgement of God upon sin because God is holy, then there is no real saving work in the soul. Isaiah, as a young man, concerned about the godlessness of Israel which offended his righteous soul and gave him concern that the glory of God was being tarnished by the nations sin, went into the temple. He was given a vision of God. He saw the Lord in all his holy majesty, and although he had gone into the temple to pray concerning the evil state of Israel, all he saw was his own sinfulness and how the holiness of God was poised to judge that sin. In his terror at what he now understood, he fell down on his face and said “woe to me! I am ruined...”.

One thing that characterizes the church today is that Jesus Christ is valued very little. In the multitude of sermons he is hardly mentioned. Even if he is the subject of the sermon, everything will be talked about except his cross. Even in gospel bible believing fellowships where Jesus is confessed and Lord and Saviour, yet here again the cross of Jesus is not held high to the attention of the people. Why is this? The reason is that there is little sense of sin, of the holiness of God, of the wrath of God against sin, the terrible offense sin is to God.

Much is spoken about the love of God. Much is made of the fact that God loves us all and values us all, and that we only have to come to him and seek his love and we shall dwell in his love, and all is well. All this is good but the true nature of our sin and sinfulness is not made known. There is much made of some sin and condemning of it, and judgement is expressed against such who offend in this way, but the true nature of sin is not felt or made known. People do not see that the greatest sin of all is not to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and that if we do not love our neighbour as ourselves we fall short of God's glory. People give to the relief of the suffering of others in the world, and campaign against poverty, but have no concept of how unloving is the way they live with others and treat others. Pride and selfishness, worldliness and prayerlessness, are hardly felt to be sins at all. People join in worship for what they can get out of it, and react angrily when the sermon may convict them a little.

The result of all this is that Christ and his death for sinners is little valued. Unlike Cowper people see no value or preciousness in the blood of Jesus shed to cleanse away sin, and rubbish his hymn which speaks of a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, into which sinners may plunge and wash away all their guilty stains.

The grand doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement, which declares that Christ gave himself for us, taking responsibility for our sins, and bearing the punishment of them by his suffering the death and hell we deserve, is now declared in reputable evangelical circles as an awful doctrine, and that God could not allow such an awful thing for his Son to be punished instead of the sinner. Why is this when this glorious gospel is so plain in the Bible? The reason is that there is no understanding of sin and its offense before God, and that God in justice can't forgive or blot out sin unless satisfaction is made to his holy law. People do not see that sin must be punished and that punishment is death in hell, and that there is no way anyone of us can be saved unless this punishment is met by Jesus our substitute before God. Because there is no sense of sin as the Ninevites had, Jesus is little valued, and his death valued hardly at all.

CONCLUSION.