I) IMPORTANCE?
A) AVOID ETERNAL DESTRUCTION
READ (LUKE 13.1-5)
B) THE FIRST STEP OUT OF SIN
READ (ROMANS 2.12-16)
POINTS TO CONSIDER:
THE GREEKS IN ACTS KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THE BIBLE OR THE GOD OF THE BIBLE.
EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD NO UNDERSTANDING OF GOD, THEY WERE STILL COMMANDED TO REPENT OF THEIR SINS.
THIS WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THE ROMANS TEXT SAYS WE ALL HAVE A CONSCIENCE THAT CONVICTS US OF RIGHT VERSUS WRONG.
MANY OF THE GREEKS MOCKED AND OTHERS PROCRASTINATED, BUT SOME BELIEVED AND REPENTED.
II) MEANING OF REPENTANCE?
THE WORD MEANS TO "THINK DIFFERENTLY", "HAVE A CHANGE OF MIND", "RECONSIDER".
WE MUST COME TO A POINT IN OUR LIVES WHERE WE DECIDE TO TURN AWAY FROM OUR FORMER WAYS -----DESIRE TO DO IT GOD'S WAY EVEN THOUGH WE MAY NOT BE KNOWN EXACTLY WHAT THAT MEANS.
WE MUST HAVE A GENUINE SORROW FOR OUR PERSONAL GUILT, ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY FOR PAST DECISIONS MADE, THUS EXPERIENCING A CHANGE OF HEART.
WE MUST BE WILLING TO GET BEYOND CIRCUMSTANCES AND WHAT PEOPLE HAVE DONE TO US, TO TAKE A SERIOUS AND OBJECTIVE LOOK AT OURSELVES.
III) EXAMPLES
A) "FALSE REPENTANCE"
The story of Jacob and Esau is the story of twin brothers who couldn't have been more different if they had tried. They were the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, the grandsons of Abraham, so were born into a very special family. Abraham had been a Gentile from Ur of the Chaldees, but when he was 75 years had been given some marvelous promises by God (Genesis 12.1-3). These included a Promised Land, a great Nation to inhabit that Land, and a very special Descendant who would bless all the families of the earth.
We might call Esau a "man's man". He was a skilled hunter and a person who liked the outdoors. Jacob was totally different; he was mild-mannered and quite satisfied to remain near his family continuing to depend a great deal on his mother well into his adulthood.
Now before the twins were born, Rebekah had received word from the Lord that Esau would end up serving Jacob (Genesis 25.23). This might explain some of her actions later in dealing with the two boys. Still, she must have been shocked by what Esau did. On an occasion after Esau had been out in the field, he came home bone-tired. Jacob as usual had stayed at home doing household chores including the cooking. When Esau asked for some stew that Jacob had fixed, the "younger" twin offered a surprising exchange for the stew.
"Sell me your birthright as of this day" (Genesis 25.31).
Of course it was a preposterous deal, for Esau was not really dying of hunger; after all he had been able to walk home under his own power. Nevertheless, Esau amazingly accepted the offer. He countered, probably in half-jest, that the birthright would do him no good if he were to starve to death. Thus in such a trite way did Esau squander his birthright, but the Bible describes it in all seriousness when it says,
"Thus Esau despised his birthright" (Genesis 25.34).
Years later when Isaac was old and feeble, Jacob finally pulled the coup de grāce against his brother Esau. Isaac favored Esau and desired to bless him, so he asked his son to prepare a tasty meal from a hunt in preparation for his father's blessing.
The act of giving a "blessing" was a traditional thing, but with the patriarchs in the Bible, their "blessings" were not only the good effect of words but also the assurance that God would bring them to pass. Consequently, the act of the blessing was like a prophecy of God's future dealings with the recipient, and so was a very important matter. It was often spoken by the father near death and was never taken back.
The Hebrew word, "Jacob", means "deceiver or supplanter", and Jacob certainly lived up to his name on this occasion. Before Esau was able to return from his hunt, Rebekah had Jacob dress up in Esau's clothes and put the skins of goats on his arms to masquerade as the more virile Esau. Isaac's sight was almost gone so that he proceeded to bless Jacob instead of Esau, even though he apparently had some misgivings about his identity.
Scarcely had Jacob left that Esau returned with the game, expecting the most important approval his father could award. When both of them realized what had happened, it was too late. Isaac was unable to take back the blessing he had given to Jacob, and Esau cried out in anguish over the trickery that had been carried out against him.
He was so enraged that he plotted to kill Jacob, forcing him to flee from home to a foreign land, never to see his beloved mother alive again. Then in an apparent effort to obtain approval from his father, Esau married Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael. He probably reasoned that since Ishmael was related through Abraham, this marriage would please him (Genesis 28.6-9). His intentions may well have been good, but he did not really improve his position regarding the inheritance because God had already said that Ishmael and his descendants would not inherit the promise (Genesis 17.17-21).
/Question%20man.jpg){kind=small}
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
Based on these descriptions of Esau and Jacob, which one would you have liked better? Why?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Which one would you say was more at fault for the way things turned out?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Which one would you say was more deserving of the "blessing"?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOD'S DEALING WITH ESAU AND JACOB:
READ (GENESIS 28.10-17)
READ (HEBREWS 12.12-17)
ROMANS MAKES IT CLEAR THAT GOD "LIKED" JACOB MORE THAN ESAU, HOWEVER THE WORD "HATE" USED HERE COULD ALSO BE INTERPRETED AS "LOVED LESS".
WHATEVER ELSE MAY BE SAID ABOUT JACOB'S CONDUCT, GOD SURELY ASSIGNED THE CHIEF BLAME FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO ESAU, BECAUSE GENESIS INDICATES THAT JACOB ENDED UP WITH THE FINAL BLESSING.
IT IS ALSO CLEAR FROM THE HEBREWS TEXT THAT ESAU'S ATTEMPTS AT REPENTANCE, THOUGH THEY WERE GIVEN DILIGENTLY AND WITH GREAT SORROW, WERE NEVER ACCEPTED BY GOD.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
Did your views about Esau and Jacob differ in any respects from those of God? Yes _____ No _____
What could it have been about Esau's character that caused God to deal with him so harshly? (Read Hebrews 12.16 again carefully)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Based on this example, what would you say was missing in Esau's REPENTANCE?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B) "TRUE REPENTANCE"
The subject of Jonah usually gets hung up on the issue of whether or not he could have really been swallowed by a "whale". Actually the Bible says it was a "great fish" specifically prepared by God, so if God is God He surely could have managed that. However, the story of the prophet Jonah is especially informative with respect to this business of REPENTANCE, and it is for this purpose that we want to review it.
The story tells of a prophet of Israel by the name of Jonah who was commanded by God to go to a city by the name of "Nineveh", to cry out against it because of it's great wickedness. Although there is nothing in the story itself to date the event, the Bible does indicate that a portion of Jonah's prophecy was fulfilled during the time of a king by the name of Jeroboam II who reigned over the Northern kingdom of Israel during the years 793-753 BC (II kings14.25). Therefore, the event had to occur prior to this time.
Although there is some doubt about the date, there is no question at all about Nineveh. This city was the capital of the great Assyrian empire, and had been originally founded by a man named Nimrod (Genesis 10.8-11). At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was a very large city for that day and time. Archaeologists have discovered a wall around the ancient remains eight miles in extent, long enough to have contained a population of at least 120,000 people as indicated in (Jonah 4.11).
The Assyrians themselves were feared for their cruelty. Their favorite pastimes were war and hunting. Because of their savagery, the Assyrian army was both ruthless and effective. They routinely destroyed the cities of their victims, transported whole populations of conquered peoples from their own homelands to other regions within the empire, burnt children alive, impaled their captives on stakes, beheaded some, and mutilated others by chopping off their hands. As a special form of humiliation, those they defeated often had their eyes poked out, then with their jaws impaled by hooks, forced to suffer on a "death march" to some distant land, many dying on the way.
These were the people who God told Jonah to cry out against. Moreover, Jonah had a reason for special concern because his home and family were located in "Gath Hepher". This was a small town located in the North-Central part of Israel in the Jezreel Valley. This valley happened to be the main international route through Israel between North and South. At the time of Jonah, Assyria was already a powerful empire to the North and had designs on the little nation of Israel, and guess where the attack would come----right through the Jezreel Valley and the home of Jonah!
With this understanding of the situation, it may be a little easier to see why Jonah chose not to obey God, instead taking off in the opposite direction. His ill-famed adventure with the "great fish" took place after he embarked from Joppa on a ship sailing to "Tarshish" across the Mediterranean Sea, and directly away from Nineveh whose ruins have been discovered just North of the modern city of Baghdad, Iraq.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
If you had been Jonah, which way would you have gone?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What about those Assyrians? Was there anything they could have done that could have redeemed them in your eyes and caused you to forgive them for the heinous evils they had already committed against innocent people?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOD'S DEALING WITH THE ASSYRIANS:
After the "fish" incident, Jonah changed his mind, and forthwith proceeded to Nineveh. At this point in the story, it appeared that the Assyrians were about to receive their comeuppance. God had told Jonah earlier to cry out against Nineveh and now He gave him a specific message to condemn the city.
"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3.4)
But an incredible thing happened; the Assyrians repented, and their repentance started from the top down (Jonah 3.5-9)! As a result of this unexpected response, God relented from the disaster that He had said He would do to them and did not do it (Jonah 3.10).
Now Jonah was exceedingly angry at the outcome of the whole affair. He complained to the Lord saying,
"Ah Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, One who relents from doing harm." (Jonah 4.2)
Paraphrased, Jonah opined, "I was afraid this is exactly what would happen, that they would repent and that You would forgive them, rather than destroying them." Nor was Jonah easily swayed from that conflicting view for he went out of the city and continued to pout over the unexpected grace that had been extended to Nineveh until the end of the book.
By the way, in case one might think that God's mercy for the Ninevites of that generation was only short term, read (Matthew 12.41). In that text, Jesus cites this event and declares that those Assyrians who repented had done something that would have positive eternal consequences for them in the sight of God.
Unfortunately, the epilogue to the story of the Assyrian empire in general is not so good. History records that this act of repentance apparently staved off further attacks by the Assyrians against Israel for at least a generation, but subsequent generations resumed their predatory ways and eventually destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel many years later in 723 BC.
THE ASSYRIANS, LIKE THE GREEKS IN ATHENS TO WHOM PAUL SPOKE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THE BIBLE OR THE GOD OF THE BIBLE.
MOREOVER, THESE ASSYRIANS DISPLAYED A BENT FOR EVIL ABOUT AS BAD AS ANY PEOPLE IN RECORDED HISTORY AND WELL BEYOND ANYTHING THAT MOST OF US HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED.
THE MESSAGE THAT GOD GAVE FOR JONAH TO PROCLAIM HAD NO REDEEMING THEME WHATEVER; IT WAS TOTALLY NEGATIVE AND ONE ONLY OF IMPENDING JUDGEMENT.
EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NO APPARENT HOPE OF A REPRIEVE, GOD ACCEPTED THE "REPENTANCE" OF THESE CRUEL PEOPLE OF THAT GENERATION.
JONAH ALREADY UNDERSTOOD THIS UNIQUE NATURE OF GOD, YET HE WAS VERY DISPLEASED WHEN IT OCCURRED WITH RESPECT TO THESE ASSYRIANS.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
Why do you think God was not willing to accept Esau's REPENTANCE, but was willing to accept the REPENTANCE of these people of Nineveh who had done things to other human beings much worse than Esau had ever done?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If God was willing to accept the REPENTANCE of these Ninevites, can you think of any person or group of persons to whom God would be unwilling to extend His grace if they repented as the Assyrians did?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV)"GOOD PEOPLE" REPENT?
READ (PSALMS 143.1-2)
THESE TEXTS INDICATE THAT THE WHOLE WORLD, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, IS UNRIGHTEOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
THERE IS NO MENTION OF "GOOD PEOPLE" WHEN SPEAKING OF MANKIND'S ABILITY TO MEASURE UP TO THE STANDARDS OF GOD'S LAW.
REMEMBER WHAT JESUS SAID: "I TELL YOU, NO; BUT UNLESS YOU REPENT YOU WILL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH" (LUKE 13.3).
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
When we talk about "good or righteous people", with whom are we comparing them?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When God talks about "righteous people", what is His standard and with whom does He compare them? (Read Romans 3.19-20 carefully)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V) YOUR CONCLUSIONS
What is your personal situation with respect to the issue of REPENTANCE?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have REPENTED, has God begun to extend His grace to you as He did to the Ninevites? Yes ___ No ___ Don't know ___
Questions and/or Comments
/Sad%20Person.jpg)