Jonah 3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God: yes, let them turn every one from his evil way… We have in these words part of the means which the king of Nineveh and his nobles judged necessary for averting the calamities which threatened their city. Fasting and prayer were only subsidiary to personal reformation. 1. The guilt and danger of conduct which is at variance with the Divine requirements, and let us feel the necessity of actual reformation. These heathen felt that amendment of life was the truest devotion. There have always been persons who have cherished the expectation of acceptance with God while they continued in sin. They divorce religion and morality. They would secure Divine favour by ritual observances, while their conduct is in other respects habitually at variance with the Divine requirements. The men of Nineveh may be their reprovers, and teach them that they must reform before they can expect to be forgiven. 2. The guilt and danger of sins of injustice and violence, and the necessity of relinquishing them. These sins are specially connected with large cities. Inadequate payment of labourers. Grinding the faces of the poor. Reckless selfishness. 3. The necessity of individually relinquishing these and other sins to which we are addicted. Men naturally shut their eyes on their own deficiencies. To turn unreservedly from sin unto God is the last thing which a sinner will do. So the words are, "Let them turn every one." The great question for each to determine is, not what are the defects of others, but what are his own, and how the demands and threatenings of revelation affect him in particular. The duty required of us is, that "every man should mend one." The principal lesson of this history is, that we should duly impress our minds with the guilt, and incompatibility with a religious profession, of all acts of injustice and dishonesty. You cannot be in friendship with God while you are at enmity with man. (Robert Brodie.) Parallel Verses KJV: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. |
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