Joel to Jonah (Sections 106-109)
Section 106 "Rend your heart and not your garments,
and turn unto the Lord your God."—Joel 2:13.
Explain the oriental custom of rending robes.
People were ready enough to use the outward signs of mourning when, as in the present instance, locusts appeared to devour their crops, or when any other judgment threatened them.
They failed in mourning as to the Lord, and in rendering spiritual homage to his chastising rod. Hence the language of the text.
Let us revolve in our minds,—
I. The general doctrine that true religion is more inward than outward. The expression "Rend your heart, and not your garments," casts somewhat of a slur upon the merely outward.
1. This respects forms and ceremonies of men's devising. These are numerous and vain. "Not your garments" may in their case be treated in the most emphatic manner. Will-worship is sin.
2. It bears also upon ordinances of God's own ordaining if practiced without grace, and relied upon as of themselves effectual.
Among good things which may become unprofitable we may mention— The regular frequenting of a place of worship. The practice of family prayer in one's own home. The reading of Holy Scripture. The holding of an orthodox creed. The practice of private prayer. The attendance upon sacraments.
All these good things should have their place in our lives: but they do not prove saintship: since a sinner may practice them all, after a sort. The absence of a true heart will make them all vain.
II. The further doctrine that man is more inclined to the outward observance than to inward matters.
Hence he needs no exhortation to rend his garments, though that act might in certain cases be a fit and proper expression of deep repentance, and holy horror for sin.
Man is thus partial to externals—
1. Because he is not spiritual, but carnal by nature.
2. Because the inward is more difficult than the outward, and requires thought, diligence, care, humiliation, etc.
3. Because he loves his sin. He will rend his robes, for they are not himself; but to rend off his beloved sins is like tearing out his eyes.
4. Because he cares not to submit to God. Law and gospel are both distasteful to him; he loves nothing which necessitates the obedience of his heart to God.
Many throng the outer courts of religious observance who shun the holy place of repentance, faith, and consecration.
III. The particular doctrine that heart-rending is better than any external act of piety.
1. Heart-rending should be understood. It is— To have the heart broken, contrite, tender, sensitive. To have the heart grieving over past evils. To have the heart rent away from sin, as by holy violence. To have the heart torn with holy horror and indignation in the presence of temptation. The sight of sin should rend the heart, especially when it is seen by the light of the cross.
2. Heart-rending is to be preferred to external observances, for—
These are not commanded for their own sakes.
They are good or evil as the heart may be. Their observance may co-exist with sin, even with great sin.
Outward signs may even be Antichrists keeping us from Christ.
They can never supply the place of Jesus himself.
3. Heart-rending should be practiced. "Rend your hearts." This would need a great tug. Can a man rend himself? This drives us to look to a higher power. This is met only by Jesus. Looking to him whom we have pierced, our hearts are rent.
This, when fully done, leaves us at his feet, who alone "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."
Ad Rem An old Hebrew story tells how a poor creature came one day to the Temple, from a sick bed, on tottering limbs. He was ashamed to come, for he was very poor, and he had no sacrifice to offer; but as he drew near he heard the choir chanting, "Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Other worshippers came, pressed before him, and offered their sacrifices; but he had none. At length he prostrated himself before the priest, who said, "What wilt thou, my son? Hast thou no offering?" And he replied, "No, my father, for last night a poor widow and her children came to me, and I had nothing to offer them but the two pigeons which were ready for the sacrifice." "Bring, then," said the priest, "an ephah of fine flour." "Nay, but, my father," said the old man, "this day my sickness and poverty have left only enough for my own starving children; I have not even an ephah of flour." "Why, then, art thou come to me?" said the priest. "Because I heard them singing, 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.' Will not God accept my sacrifice if I say, 'Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner?' " Then the priest lifted the old man from the ground, and he said, "Yes, thou art blessed, my son; it is the offering which is better than thousands of rivers of oil."—"The World of Proverb and Parable," by E. Paxton Hood.
If this hypocrisy, this resting in outward performances, was so odious to God under the law, a religion full of shadows and ceremonies, certainly it will be much more odious under the gospel, a religion of much more simplicity, and exacting so much the more sincerity of heart, even because it disburdens the outward man of the performances of legal rights and observances. And therefore, if we now, under the gospel, shall think to delude God Almighty, as Michael did Saul, with an idol handsomely dressed instead of the true David, we shall one day find that we have not mocked God, but ourselves; and that our portion among hypocrites shall be greater than theirs. —William Chillingworth. As garments to a body, so are ceremonies to religion. Garments on a living body preserve the natural warmth; put them on a dead body and they will never fetch life. Ceremonies help to increase devotion; but in a dead heart they cannot breed it. These garments of religion upon a holy man are like Christ's garments on his own holy body; but joined with a profane heart, they are like Christ's garments on his crucifying murderers.—Ralph Brownrig.
Rending the clothes was a common and very ancient mode of expressing grief, indignation, or concern; and as such is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. . . . It is said that the upper garment only was rent for a brother, sister, son, daughter, or wife, but all the garments for a father or mother. Maimonides says that the rents were not stitched up again till after thirty days, and were never sewed up well. There is no law which enjoins the Jews to rend their clothes; yet in general they so far think it requisite to comply with this old custom as to make a slight rent for the sake of form.—Pictorial Bible.
Section 107
"Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall
made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand."—Amos 7:7. The metaphors of Amos are very forcible, though homely and simple.
He was God-taught; or, as men say, self-taught.
Let his vision come before us, as though we saw it ourselves.
What the Lord had done was according to rule: "he stood upon a wall made by a pumbline." His past dealings are just and true. The Lord continues to use the same infallible rule: wherever he is, he has a plumbline in his hand. The plumb of lead falls in a straight line, and therefore the line is the best test as to whether a wall is truly perpendicular. The plumbline shows whether it bows outward, or inclines inward. It never flatters, but by its own certainty of truth it reveals and condemns all deviations from uprightness: such is the judgment of the Most High.
We shall treat the plumbline as the emblem of truth and right.
I. A Plumbline is used in building. In all that we build up, we must act by the sure rule of righteousness.
1. In God's building it is so.
He removes the old walls when tested by the plumbline, and found faulty. Truth requires the removal of falsehood.
He builds in truth and reality. Sincerity is his essential.
He builds in holiness and purity.
He builds to perfection according to the rule of right.
2. In our own life-building it should be so. Not haste, but truth should be our object. Not according to the eye of man, but according to fact.
We should build by the Word; in God's sight; after Christ's example; by the Spirit; unto holiness. Only thus shall we be using the plumbline.
3. In our building of the church it should be so.
Teaching the Scriptures only in all things.
Preaching nothing but the gospel.
Laying sinners low by the law, and exalting the grace of God.
Leading men to holiness and peace by the doctrines of truth.
Exercising discipline that the church may be pure.
II. A plumbline is used for testing. That which is out of the upright is detected by the plumb-line, and so are men tested by the truth.
1. We may use it— On the wall of self-righteousness, conceit, boasting, etc. On the wall of careless living. On the wall of trust in ceremonials. On the wall of reliance upon merely hearing the gospel. On the wall of every outward profession.
2. God uses it in this life. He tests the hearts of men, and tries their doings. They are often detected in the act of deception. Time also proves them, and trials test them.
3. He will use it at the last.
4. Let us use it on ourselves. Are we born again? Are we without faith, etc.? Are we without holiness? Or is the work of the Spirit to be seen in us?
III. A plumbline will be used for destroying.
Strict justice is the rule of God's dealing on the judgment-seat. The same rule will apply to all.
1. Even the saved will be saved justly through our Lord Jesus, and in their case every sin will be destroyed, and every trace of evil will be removed before they enter heaven.
2. No one will be condemned who does not deserve it. There will be a trial, with witnesses, and pleadings, and an infallible Judge. The righteous are saved by sovereignty, but the wicked are condemned by righteousness alone.
3. Not a pain will be inflicted unjustly.
Differences will be made in the cases of the condemned.
There will be the strictest justice in each award.
Every circumstance will be taken into account.
Knowledge or ignorance will increase or abate the number of stripes. Luke 12:47-48.
4. Rejectors of Christ will find their doom intolerable, because they, themselves, will be unable to deny its justice. Luke 19:27. The lost know their misery to be deserved.
5. Since every sentence will be infallible, there will be no revision. So impartial and just will be each verdict that it shall stand for ever. Matthew 25:46. Are we able to endure the test of the plumbline of perfect truth?
Suppose it to be used of God at this moment. Will it not be wisest to look to Jesus, that we may have him for a foundation, and be built up in him?
Sayings and Sentences The question, "What is truth?" was proposed at a Deaf and Dumb Institution, when one of the boys drew a straight line. "And what is falsehood?" The answer was a crooked line.— G. S. Bowes. That will be a wretched day for the church of God when she begins to think any aberration from the truth of little consequence.—J. H. Evans.
Whitefield often affirmed that he would rather have a church with ten men in it right with God, than one with five hundred at whom the world would laugh in its sleeve.—Joseph Cook.
Livingstone, as a missionary, was anxious to avoid a large church of nominal adherents. "Nothing," he wrote, "will induce me to form an impure church. 'Fifty added to the church' sounds well at home, but if only five of these are genuine, what will it profit in the Great Day?"—Blaikie.
Set thine heart upright, if thou wouldst rejoice, And please thyself in thine heart's pleasing choice: But then be sure thy plumb and level be Rightly applied to that which pleaseth me.
—Christopher Harvey.
Sinners on earth are always punished less, and in hell never more, than their iniquities deserve.—Benjamin Beddome.
It is said of the Areopagites, in Athens, that their sentence was so upright that none could ever say he was unjustly condemned of them. How much more true is this of the righteous judgment of God, who must needs therefore be justified, and every mouth stopped.—Trapp. When a building is noticed to bulge a little, our builders hasten to shore it up with timbers; and before long the surveyor bids them take it down. Should we not see great changes in our churches if all the bowing walls were removed? Yet this would be no real loss, but in the Lord's sight an actual gain to the City of God. When a man is afraid of self-examination, his fear is suspicious. He who does not dare to apply the plumbline to his wall may rest assured that it is out of perpendicular. A sincere man will pray, "Lord let me know the worst of my case." It is far better to suffer needless distress than to be at ease in Zion and then perish of the dry-rot of self-deceit.
Section 108 "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee."—Obadiah 1:3. This is true of all proud persons, for pride is self-deceit.
There may be proud persons in this congregation.
Those who are sure that they have no pride are probably the proudest of all. Those who are proud of their humility are proud indeed. The confidence that we are not deceived may only prove the completeness of the deception under which we labor. In considering the case of the Edomites, and the pride of their hearts, let us look to ourselves that we may profit withal.
I. They were deceived. The prophet mentions certain matters in which they were deceived.
1. As to the estimate formed of them by others. They thought themselves to be had in honor, but the prophet says,— "Thou art greatly despised." See verse 2.
You might not be pleased if you knew how little others think of you; but if you think little of others you need not wonder if you are yourself greatly despised, for "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again": Matthew 7:2.
2. As to their personal security. They felt safe, but were near their doom. "Who shall bring me down?" "I will bring thee down, saith the Lord" (verses 3 and 4). Dwelling in their rock-city of Petra was no real security to them: neither may any one of us think himself proof against misfortune, sickness, or sudden death.
3. As to their personal wisdom. They talked of "The wise man out of Edom" (verse 8), but the Lord said, "There is none understanding in him" (verse 7).
Those who know better than the word of God know nothing.
4. As to the value of their confidences. Edom relied on alliances, but these utterly failed. "The men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee" (verse 7). Rich relatives, influential friends, tried allies—all will fail those who trust in them.
II. Their own pride deceived them.
1. In each of the points mentioned above, pride lay at the bottom of their error.
2. In every way pride lays a man open to being deceived. His judgment is perverted by it: he cannot hold the scales. His standard is rendered inaccurate: his weights are false. His desires invite flattery, and his folly accepts it.
3. In every case a proud man is a deceived man: he is not what he thinks himself to be; and he is blind to that part of his character which should cause him to be humble.
4. In spiritual cases it is emphatically so. The self-righteous, self-sufficient, perfectionists, etc., are all deceived by the pride of their hearts.
III. This pride led them into evil ways.
1. They were full of defiance. "Who shall bring me down to the ground?" This self-asserting spirit provokes hostility, and leads to wars and fightings, and all manner of emulations and contentions.
2. They were destitute of compassion. "Thou stoodest on the other side." See verses 9-12. Those of kindred race were being slain, and they had no pity. Pride is stony-hearted.
3. They even shared in oppression. See verses 13 and 14. This is not unusual among purse-proud religionists. They are not slow to profit by the nurseries of God's poor people.
4. They showed contempt of holy things. "Ye have drunk upon my holy mountain" (verse 16). God will not have his church made into a tavern, or a play-house: yet something like this may be done even now by proud hypocrites and formalists.
IV. These evil ways secured their ruin.
1. Their defiance brought enemies upon them.
2. Their unkindness was returned into their own bosom. Verse 15 shows the lex talionis in action.
3. Their contempt of God made him say, "there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau" (verse 18).
How different the lot of despised Zion? See verses 17 and 21.
Let us seek him who in Zion is above all others "the Saviour."
Hating all pride, let us humbly rest in him.
Then we shall not be deceived, for Jesus is "the Truth."
Warnings
There is something intensely amusing, according to our notions, in the name which the Eskimo bestow upon themselves. It appears they call themselves the "Innuit,"—that is, "the people" par excellence.
If a man is a perfectionist, and thinks he is sinless, it is a proof not that he is better, but only that he is blinder, than his neighbors.—Richard Glover. When a proud man thinks best of himself, then God and man think worst of him; all his glory is but like a vapor, which climbeth as though it would go up to heaven, but when it comes to a little height, it falls down again, and never ascends more. So Adam thought that the fair apple should make him like his Maker, but God resisted his pride, and that apple made him like the serpent that tempted him with it. Absalom thought that rebellion would make him a king, but God resisted his pride, and his rebellion hanged him on a tree. —Henry Smith.
Stranger, henceforth be warned; and know that pride, Howe'er disguised in its own majesty, Is littleness; that he who feels contempt For any living thing, hath faculties Which he has never used; that thought with him Is in its infancy.
—Wordsworth. The Venetian ambassador wrote of Cardinal Wolsey:—"I do perceive that every year he groweth more and more in power." When I first came to England, he used to say, "His Majesty will do so and so"; subsequently, he said, "We shall do so and so"; but now he says, "I shall do so and so." But history records how Wolsey's pride went before destruction, and his haughty spirit before a tall.
Napoleon Bonaparte, intoxicated with success, and at the height of his power, said, "I make circumstances." Let Moscow, Elba, Waterloo, and St. Helena, that rocky isle where he was caged until he fretted his life away, testify to his utter helplessness in his humiliating downfall.—J. B. Gough. As God hath two dwelling-places, heaven and a contrite heart, so hath the devil—hell and a proud heart.—T. Watson.
Section 109
"And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and
he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."—Jonah 3:4.
"The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation,
and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of
Jonas; and, behold a greater than Jonas is here."—Matthew 12:41. Our Lord never lost patience with an audience, and never brought railing accusation against any man: his rebuke was well-deserved.
Nineveh under Jonah was indeed a reproof to the Jerusalem of our Lord's day, for the Jews, though favored by his divine ministry, did not repent, but wickedly crucified the Messenger of peace. Might not our Lord rebuke the unbelievers of our day in the same way? Is not Nineveh a reproach to England?
Let us see. The men of Nineveh repented, and turned to God, and yet—
I. Their calls to repentance were not many.
Many unbelievers have been warned and entreated times without number, and yet they remain impenitent: but—
Nineveh enjoyed no privileges: it was in heathen darkness.
Nineveh heard but one prophet; and he was none of the greatest, or most affectionate.
Nineveh heard that prophet only once; and that was an open-air sermon, very short, and very monotonous.
Nineveh had heard no word of good tidings, she heard the thunder of the law, but nothing else.
Yet the obedience to the warning was immediate, universal, practical, and acceptable, so that the city was spared.
II. The message of the prophet was not encouraging.
1. He proclaimed no promise of pardon.
2. He did not even mention repentance; and consequently he held out no hope to the penitent.
3. He foretold a crushing and final doom: "Nineveh shall be overthrown." His message began and ended with threatening.
4. He mentioned a speedy day: "yet forty days."
Yet out of this dreadful message the people made a gospel, and so acted as on it to find deliverance; while to many of us the rich, free, sure promise of the Lord has been of no force through our unbelief.
Those who heard the teaching of Jesus were, like ourselves, highly favored, for "never man spake like this Man"; and, like us they were grievously guilty in that they repented not.
III. The prophet himself was no helper to their hope.
Jonah was no loving, tender pastor, anxious to gather the lost sheep.
1. He disliked the ministry in which he was engaged, and no doubt discharged it in a hard, harsh manner.
2. He uttered no word of sympathetic love, for he had none in his heart. He was of the school of Elijah, and knew not the love which burned in the heart of Jesus.
3. He offered no prayer of loving pity.
4. He was even displeased that the city was spared.
Yet these people obeyed his voice, and obtained mercy through hearkening to his warnings. Does not this rebuke many who have been favored with tender and loving admonitions? Certainly it rebuked those who lived in our Lord's day, for no two persons could afford a more singular contrast than Jonah and our Lord.
Indeed, a "greater," better, tenderer than Jonah was there.
IV. The hope to which the Ninevites could reach was slender.
It was no more than,—"Who can tell?"
1. They had no revelation of the character of the God of Israel.
2. They knew nothing of an atoning sacrifice.
3. They had received no invitation to seek the Lord, not even a command to repent.
4. Their argument was mainly negative.
Nothing was said against repenting.
They could not be worse for repenting.
5. The positive argument was slender. The mission of the prophet was a warning: even a warning implies a degree of mercy: they ventured upon that bare hope, saying, "Who can tell?" Have we not all at least this much of hope? Have we not tar more in the gospel? Will we not venture upon it?
Monitions
I saw a cannon shot off. The men at whom it was leveled fell flat on the ground, and so escaped the bullet. Against such blows, falling is all the fencing, and prostration all the armor of proof. But that which gave them notice to fall down was their perceiving of the fire before the ordnance was discharged. Oh! the mercy of that fire, which, as it were, repenting of the mischief it had done, and the murder it might make, ran a race, and outstripped the bullet, that men (at the sight thereof) might be provided, when they could not resist to prevent it! Thus every murdering-piece is also a warning-piece against itself.
God, in like manner, warns before he wounds; frights before he fights. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Oh, let us fall down before the Lord our Maker! Then shall his anger be pleased to make in us a daily pass-over, and his bullets leveled at us must fly above us.—Thomas Fuller.
"I have heard," says Mr. Daniel Wilson, in a sermon of his, "of a certain person whose name I could mention, who was tempted to conclude his day over, and himself lost; that, therefore, it was his best course to put an end to his life, which, if continued, would but serve to increase his sin, and consequently his misery, from which there was no escape; and seeing he must be in hell, the sooner he was there the sooner he should know the worst; which was preferable to his being worn away with the tormenting expectation of what was to come. Under the influence of such suggestions as these, he went to a river, with a design to throw himself in; but as he was about to do it, he seemed to hear a voice saying to him, 'Who can tell?' as if the words had been audibly delivered. By this, therefore, he was brought to a stand; his thoughts were arrested, and thus began to work on the passage mentioned: 'Who can tell? (Jonah 3:9) viz. What God can do when he will proclaim his grace glorious. Who can tell but such an one as I may find mercy? or what will be the issue of humble prayer to heaven for it? Who can tell what purposes God will serve in my recovery?' By such thoughts as these, being so far influenced as to resolve to try, it pleased God graciously to enable him, through all his doubts and fears, to throw himself by faith on Jesus Christ, as able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, humbly desiring and expecting mercy for his sake, to his own soul. In this he was not disappointed, but afterwards became an eminent Christian and minister: and, from his own experience of the riches of grace, was greatly useful to the conversion and comfort of others."—Religious and Moral Anecdotes.