repentance

Restoration from a state of shame

Jeremiah’s numerous warnings about the destruction of Jerusalem were repeatedly ignored by the Jews and led to the prophet of God being tortured and imprisoned on multiple occasions. Jeremiah identified the problem as the Jews refusing to repent. Jeremiah asked, “O LORD, do your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent” (Jeremiah 5:3).

Jeremiah grieved for his people and expressed his concern about the spiritual condition of their hearts. Jeremiah admitted, “’The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.’ For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn and dismay has taken hold” (Jeremiah 8:20-21). The Hebrew word that is translated dismay, shammah (sham-mawˊ) was being used by Jeremiah to describe the extreme dismay he felt at seeing the destruction of Jerusalem, a horror that filled him with deep sorrow.

God’s intention was to consume the Jews completely using the military power of the Chaldean army (Jeremiah 9:16). God said, “I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them” (Jeremiah 9:16). The Hebrew verb that is translated consumed, kalah (kaw-lawˊ) describes the transitory reality of fallen human nature. God knew what it would take to awaken the Jews to their need for salvation and was committed to bringing them to that point.

The Jews preferred to worship the idols of the nations around them. They had forsaken the one true God, the living God “who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:12). Jeremiah acknowledged his dependence on God and asked him to make things right. Jeremiah prayed, “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O LORD, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation” (Jeremiah 10:23-25).

God’s response to Jeremiah’s request was harsh, but it reflected God’s commitment to bring his chosen people to the point where their relationship with him could be restored. Jeremiah recorded, “The LORD said to me: ‘Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence” (Jeremiah 14:11-12). The LORD was concerned because false prophets were prophesying lies to the people, making them think that they would not be overtaken by war and famine (Jeremiah 14:14). God told Jeremiah, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight and let them go!” (Jeremiah 15:1).

God prepared Jeremiah for what was coming and warned him not to try to live a normal life because the devastation of war was going to permeate every aspect of the Jews’ lives. God specifically told Jeremiah “not to marry because of the horrors that families with children would endure during the siege of Jerusalem” (note on Jeremiah 16:2-5). Jeremiah recorded, “The word of the LORD came to me. ‘You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth’” (Jeremiah 16:1-4).

Because he was a fallen human and had a sin nature like everyone else, “Jeremiah was subject to the wide range of emotions that are common to all men. He complained that God had deceived him (Jeremiah 20:7), sang praises to God (Jeremiah 20:13), then wished he had never been born (Jeremiah 20:14). Through it all, however, Jeremiah continued to preach God’s message (Jeremiah 20:8) because he was compelled by God’s call (Jeremiah 20:9; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:16)” (note on Jeremiah 20:7-18). At a point when he seemed to have lost all hope for the future, Jeremiah asked God, “Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:18).

Near the end of his ministry, Jeremiah was threatened with death. The LORD told Jeremiah, “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth. The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die!’…Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, ‘This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears’” (Jeremiah 26:4-11).

Jeremiah was also accused of lying to the Jews. After he warned the people against going to Egypt (Jeremiah 42:1-22, it says in Jeremiah 43:1-3, “When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, with which the LORD their God had sent him to them, Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there,’ but Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.”

The LORD made it clear that the Jews were being punished because of their idolatry (Jeremiah 44:3). “The group of Jews who had fled to Egypt were still involved in idolatry. These people somehow thought their well-being depended upon their worship of the ‘queen of heaven’ (Jeremiah 44:17, 18). It took seventy years in exile to finally cure Israel of idolatry. The Jews had problems with legalism and Pharisaism after the exile, but never again did idolatry become prevalent” (note on Jeremiah 44:8). Jeremiah told the Jews who were dwelling in the land of Egypt, “Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the Lord GOD lives.’ Behold I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them” (Jeremiah 44:26-27).

Jeremiah wrote about the devastation that he witnessed in his book of Lamentations. Jeremiah said, “Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace the ash heaps” (Lamentations 4:5). Jeremiah went on to lament, “For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her” (Lamentations 4:6).

Jeremiah also stated, “Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 4:9-10). “The famine in the land was so severe that the people resorted to eating their own children. A similar occurrence took place during the siege of Samaria by the Assyrians (2 Kings 6:25-29).

Jeremiah’s final plea to the LORD included an acknowledgment by him that God’s people were living in a state of shame. Jeremiah prayed, “Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!” The Hebrew word that is translated disgrace, cherpah (kher-pawˊ) is “a feminine noun meaning reproach, scorn, taunt” (H2781). Despite the desperation of their situation, Jeremiah’s prayer reflected “the hope that the people of Jerusalem would return to a proper relationship with God” (note on Lamentation 5:21). Jeremiah said, “The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!” (Lamentation 5:15-16). Jeremiah then pleaded, “Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!” (Lamentations 5:21).

“The process called conversion or turning to God is in reality a re-turning or a turning back again to Him from whom sin has separated us, but whose we are by virtue of creation, preservation and redemption” (H7725). Jeremiah was referring to this process when he prayed, “Restore us to yourself, O LORD” (Lamentations 5:21) because regeneration is an act of God. Romans 3:23-25 tells us that “there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

God spoke of Jesus when he told Jeremiah, “Behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 23:5). The LORD promised to turn the Jews mourning to joy and said, “With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back…For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him” (Jeremiah 31:9, 11). God promised to “restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first” (Jeremiah 33:7). God compared the security of his promises with the constancy of day and night when he said, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them” (Jeremiah 33:25-26).

An ungodly lifestyle

Paul’s ministry to the Thessalonians was focused on grounding these Gentile believers in the gospel and giving them the appropriate doctrine to live in a manner that was worthy of God (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Paul told the Thessalonians that the word of God was at work in them (1 Thessalonians 2:13) enabling them to live a life that is pleasing to God. Paul said, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8). Paul differentiated the born again Thessalonians from their Gentile past and indicated that God had not called them for impurity, but in holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7). The Greek word that is translated holiness, hagiasmos (hag-ee-as-mosˊ) is also translated as sanctification in verse 3 of this passage. Holiness is the resultant state produced by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Hagiasmos refers not only to the activity of the Holy Spirit in setting man apart unto salvation and transferring him into the ranks of the redeemed, but also enabling him to be holy even as God is holy (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

The Israelites, who were delivered from slavery in Egypt and given possession of the land that God promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:7), were sanctified or made holy by being set apart to God. The Israelites devotion to God was the basis of this sanctification. When Jeremiah began his ministry, he brought God’s charges against the Israelites. Though they had enjoyed a special relationship with God, the people failed to acknowledge what he had done in the past and had turned instead to idols (note on Jeremiah 2:1-19). Jeremiah 2:1-3 states, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD and the firstfruits of his harvest.”’” The Israelites were devoted to God initially, but as time went on, they became more and more corrupt like the people around them and eventually, forsook the LORD altogether. The extreme sinfulness of God’s people is emphasized in Jeremiah 3:1-4:4 as “both Israel and Judah are characterized as unfaithful wives (Jeremiah 3:1-13) and are urged to return to the Lord (Jeremiah 3:14-4:4)” (note on Jeremiah 3:1-4:4). Jeremiah 3:6-10 states:

The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

Israel’s ungodly lifestyle was a result of their unbelief. Paul explained in his letter to the Romans that Israel was broken off because of their unbelief and said, if they do not continue in their unbelief they will be grafted in, “for God has the power to graft them in again” (Romans 11:23). It was also explained in the letter to the Hebrews that the people of Israel had become hardened in their sin (Hebrews 3:13). Hebrews 3:12-19 states, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

Unbelief leads to an ungodly lifestyle because the unbeliever’s heart is attracted to evil rather than that which is pleasing to God. Paul associated sanctification with abstaining from sexual immorality and knowing how to control your own body in holiness and honor (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4). Paul elaborated on the process of sanctification in his letter to the Colossians and described it in terms of putting off the old self and putting on the new self. Paul said believers are to, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:5-15).

God encouraged the unbelieving Israelites to return to him, stating, “Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 3:12-13). Josiah, the king of Judah, who was reigning at the time that this message was delivered to Israel, did turn back to the LORD with all his heart, soul, and strength (2 Kings 23:25; Jeremiah 34:15), but God’s judgment against the Israelites had already been set in motion and shortly after Josiah’s death, Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar and the people of Judah taken into captivity (2 Kings 24-25). Jeremiah prophesied about this disaster, stating, “Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles—woe to us, for we are ruined! O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you? For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim. Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. Like keepers of a field are they against her all around, because she rebelled against me, declares the LORD. Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart’” (Jeremiah 4:13-18).

An ungodly lifestyle originates in the individual’s heart. Jesus explained to his disciples that it was not what they ate that defiled them, “but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person” (Matthew 15:11). When Peter asked him to explain the meaning of the parable he was using to illustrate his point, Jesus asked, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone” (Matthew 15:16-20).

“The word repent means to ‘turn or to change.’ It is best illustrated by the picture of someone who is walking one way (towards sin) and out of conviction turns 180 degrees in their spiritual heart attitude and heads in the opposite direction of that sinful thought, word, or deed” (Fundamentals, Guilt and Repentance, p. 78). When God encouraged the people of Israel to return to him, he was expecting them to repent or turn from their sin and head in the opposite direction toward him. God said he would not look on them with anger because he is merciful (Jeremiah 3:12). God’s mercy makes it possible for a person to change their ungodly lifestyle into a godly one because it provides a pattern, model, and the strength for the godly person’s life to be directed toward God (H2623). Many of the people that Jesus encountered during his ministry on earth cried out to him for mercy (Matthew 9:27, 15:22, 17:15, 20:30). In his parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus illustrated the difference between an ungodly lifestyle and a godly one. Jesus said:

 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14)

Jesus said the tax collector went down to his house justified. The Greek word that is translated justified, dikaioo (dik-ah-yoˊ-o) is spoken of character and means “to declare to be just as one should be, to pronounce right” and is “spoken especially of the justification bestowed by God on men through Christ, in which he is said to regard and treat them as righteous, i.e. to absolve from the consequences of sin and admit to the enjoyment of the divine favor (Romans 3:26, 30; 4:5; 8:30, 33; Galatians 3:8). The tax collector’s statement, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13), is what the LORD was referring to when he told the Israelites, “Only acknowledge your guilt” (Jeremiah 3:13), and then promised, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding…At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart” (Jeremiah 3:17).

Lights in the world

Jesus used the contradictory example of light and darkness to convey how God intended his Son coming into the world to affect people. After stating that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16), Jesus went on to say, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true, comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (John 3:19-21). Jesus later told his disciples, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Paul explained what it means to have the light of life in his letter to the Philippians. Paul began by using Christ’s example of humility to illustrate what draws people to the light and said that believers are to be of the same mind, “being in full accord and of one mind” (Philippians 2:2). The Greek word sumpsuchos (soomˊ-psoo-khos), which is translated in full accord, is derived from the words sun (soon), “together” (G4862), and psushe (psoo-khayˊ), “soul” (G5590). Sumpsuchos means “of one mind, joined together, at peace or harmony. Found only in Philippians 2:2, where it is used to encourage believers to unity and love. In the context of Philippians 2, sumpsuchos seems to imply a harmony of feeling as well as thought” (G4861). Paul stated that believers are to:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8)

Paul said the mind believers are to have among themselves is one of humble obedience. Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Paul connected obedience with working out your own salvation, and said, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Paul then stated that believers are to “do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14-15).

The people of Israel were originally God’s lights in the world, but they did not carry out the task God had given them in the way that was expected (Isaiah 43:10-12; 44). Israel became a negative example because of their rejection of God and tendency toward idolatry (Jeremiah 3:6-10). Jonah, the Old Testament prophet who was sent to Niniveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, with a message of repentance, chose to flee to Tarshish instead of obeying the command of the LORD (Jonah 1:3). In spite of Jonah’s disobedience, God’s plan was carried out. Jesus referred to Jonah as a sign and said, “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41).

Jonah thought he could flee from the presence of the LORD (Jonah 1:3), but a hurricane that threatened to break up the ship he was traveling on made Jonah realize that nothing that happened to him was outside of God’s awareness. “Jonah intended to go as far as he could in the opposite direction from the place to which God had sent him. The phrase ‘rose to flee…from the presence of the LORD’ also refers to Jonah’s attempt to escape from the will of God. This does not mean that Jonah thought God could not find him in Tarshish; he may have felt that leaving the place where God had called him, God would no longer desire to have him go to Nineveh. It is often a misconception of God’s people that there are some places where God is more evident than others. They feel that if they go far enough away from these places of God’s ‘presence,’ he will no longer seek to use them” (note on Jonah 1:3). Jonah 1:5-14 states:

Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” (Jonah 1:5-14)

Jonah thought the purpose of the storm was to punish him for not doing what God wanted him to. Jonah instructed the sailors to throw him overboard because he would rather die than carry out the mission that God had given to him. Jonah’s resistance to doing God’s will resulted in the sailors believing in the LORD. The sailors’ prayer demonstrated the sincerity of their belief and their understanding of God’s sovereignty. “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you” (Jonah 1:14).

Paul said that believers are to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). God’s people are witnesses to him regardless of their desire to do so. God can work in and through believers to accomplish his will even through their disobedience, but what Paul was saying was that it is better for us to work out our own salvation or rather, to willingly offer ourselves up to be used by God no matter how undesirable the task is to us. Jesus asked the question, “’Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, not is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away’” (Mark 4:21-25).

Paul indicated that the way believers shine as lights in the world is by holding fast to the word of life (Philippians 2:16). The word of life is described in Hebrews 4:12 as being sharper than any two-edged sword, something that is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Jonah’s word to the Ninevites was, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” In response to this message, it says in Jonah 3:5, “And the people of Nineveh believed God.” Jonah 3:6-9 goes on to say:

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

The people of Nineveh, including the king, took God’s word seriously and repented of their sin with the hope that he might show them mercy. The book of Jonah “was written after Jonah returned from his mission and had time to reflect on its significance. Some have called the book of Jonah the ‘Acts of the Old Testament,’ because it graphically demonstrates that God is willing to have mercy on all who seek him in humility and sincerity. The repentance of the people of Nineveh postponed the destruction of their city for roughly 150 years (until 612 BC)” (Introduction to Jonah).

“Many critics dismiss the story of Jonah as a ‘myth’ or ‘fable’ because they reject the miraculous element of the great fish. This simply shows their inability to comprehend the supernatural nature of the God of the Bible. For one who can stay the sun or divide the Red Sea, controlling one fish is not a great problem. Jesus treated the book as a historical fact, comparing Jonah’s time in the belly of the fish to his own time in the tomb (Matthew 12:40). Moreover, he affirmed that the repentance of the Ninevites was genuine and contrasted their reaction to the indifference of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32)” (Introduction to Jonah).

Getting back up again after a fall

The people of Judah’s seventy-year captivity in Babylon was the result of them ignoring the warnings of several prophets who repeatedly told them they needed to repent and turn back to God. Jeremiah said to them, “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD had given to you and your fathers from of old and forever…Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting devastation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years ” (Jeremiah 25:3-5, 8-11).

In spite of the devastation that was predicted, God’s plan for the people of Judah was that they would return to the land he had given them after their seventy-year captivity was completed. The LORD said concerning Israel and Judah, “And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him. But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I shall raise up for them…Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together; a great company, they shall return here” (Jeremiah 30:8-9).

A proclamation by Cyrus king of Persia enabled the people of Judah to return to Jerusalem. Cyrus’ proclamation is recorded at the end of the book of 2 Chronicles. It states, “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up’” (2 Chronicles 36:23). “While there may have been many groups of exiles that returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, Scripture speaks only of three. The first group returned in 536 BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the second in 457 BC under Ezra, and the third in 444 BC under Nehemiah” (Introduction to Ezra). Haggai is the first of the prophets who spoke to the exiles after they had returned to Palestine. Because of the precise dates given for each prophetic message, the events of Haggai’s book may be dated more accurately than perhaps any other book in the whole Bible (Introduction to Haggai). “The ministry of Zechariah, which began in 520 BC, overlapped with that of Haggai (Zech. 1:1, cf. Hag. 1:1; 2:20) but continued long after Haggai ceased to prophesy…Haggai focused primarily on God’s immediate presence and the blessings that were at hand. Zechariah, on the other hand, focused on the ultimate glorification of Israel through the coming of the Messiah” (Introduction to Zechariah).

Zechariah’s prophetic ministry began with a call to return to the LORD. Zechariah 1:1-6 states:

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,“The Lord was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”

The Hebrew word that is translated return in verses 3 and 4 of this passage is also translated as repented in Zechariah 1:6. The LORD said he would return to the people if they returned to him, indicating that restoration of Judah’s relationship with God required a turning on both parts.

Repentance is not always associated with an admission of guilt but is rather a change in attitude toward something or someone that involves an act of the individual’s will. The Hebrew word shuwb (shoob), which is translated return and repented in Zechariah 1:1-6, in the simple stem, “is used to describe divine and human reactions, attitudes, and feelings,” but it also refers to a person changing his mind (H7725). The primary thing that God wanted the people of Judah to change their minds about was that his prophetic word was true. God was angry because the people of Judah did not hear or pay attention to him when he said he was going to destroy Jerusalem. He asked them, “my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?” The people of Judah didn’t believe that God was going to remove them from the land, but after it happened, they couldn’t deny that the prophets’ messages had been true. God reminded them, “So they repented and said, ‘As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us” (Zechariah 1:6).

It was important that God established his prophetic words were true because his plan to save the world was dependent on the prophecies about Israel’s Messiah being recognized and understood. When Jesus was born, there were many who were looking for and anticipating his arrival, including the wise men who traveled to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). It also says in Luke 2:25-26 that there was a man named Simeon who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel,” and it was revealed to him, “that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” After Andrew met Jesus and spent the day with him, he told his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (Luke 1:41).

One of the things that God did to make it easier for the people of Judah to get back up again after their fall was to assure them that their efforts would be successful. God told them, “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be rebuilt in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem” (Zechariah 1:16-17). God didn’t wait for the people of Judah to return to him; he took the first step in restoring their broken relationship. God said he had returned to Jerusalem with mercy. The Hebrew word that is used for mercy, racham (rakhˊ-am) means “compassion” (H7356). God’s love for his chosen people was depicted by the prophet Hosea as a husband who was willing to redeem his wife from slavery even though she was an adulteress (Hosea 3:1-5). God said of his love for Israel, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hosea 11:8-9).

Zechariah’s vision of Joshua the High Priest, who represented the work that God was going to do through his Messiah, depicted the outcome of Jesus’ death on the cross, his righteousness being imputed to an individual believer. Zechariah 3:1-5 states:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.

The removal of Joshua’s filthy garments represented him being cleansed from his sin and was “symbolic of the national cleansing from sin that is coming to Israel (cf. Ezek. 36:24-32)” (note on Zechariah 3:1-10). When Joshua was clothed with pure vestments, he was given the righteousness of Christ symbolically in the form of clothing. Paul described the process of sanctification in terms of putting off the old self and putting on the new self; a born-again believer is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

The people of Judah struggled to get back up again after they fell because they didn’t have the benefit of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit did not indwell believers prior to Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Spirit was involved in the work that God was doing through the nation of Israel prior to Christ’s birth. Zechariah tells us, “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). “This verse describes the source of Zerubbabel’s sufficiency; it is God’s ‘Spirit’ who sustains him even though he is the governor of this seemingly insignificant province of the larger Persian Empire” (note on Zechariah 4:6). Zerubbabel was unaware of the significance of the work he was doing to rebuild the lives of the people of Judah after they had fallen into sin. The temple was not only a critical part of the people of Judah’s worship of God, it was a physical representation of God’s presence in their midst, and a reminder to them that their Messiah was coming.

No excuse

Paul introduced his gospel message to the Romans with a declaration that was intended to get their attention and to motivate them to pay close attention to what he was about to explain to them. Paul declared:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,  in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:18-23)

Paul said unbelievers have no excuse for not believing in God because his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world (Romans 1:20). Paul went on to say that unbelievers knew God, but they did not honor his as God or give thanks to him  (Romans 1:21). The Greek word that is translated knew in Romans 1:21, ginosko (ghin-oceˊ-ko) means “to know, in a beginning sense: that is, to come to know, to gain or receive a knowledge of” (G1097).

The Greek word ginosko is sometimes translated as perceived (Matthew 16:8; 21:45: 22:18), as well as, aware of (Matthew 24:50). Jesus used the word ginosko in his response to Philip’s request, “Lord, show us the Father” (John 14:8). Jesus asked, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?” Jesus was surprised that Philip hadn’t been able to figure out who he was. Jesus’ explanation suggests that ginosko may refer to spiritual perception. Jesus told Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:9-10), but Jesus also made it clear that the works he was taking about were associated with results that were obvious to the senses (John 14:12-14). Paul indicated that unbelievers know the truth about God, but choose to suppress it, “For what is known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:18-19). “Romans 1:18 is probably to be understood as possessing a knowledge of the truth, but living in unrighteousness” (G2722). In other words, unbelievers know some of the things they do are right and other things are wrong and choose to do those things that they know are wrong.

Paul linked God’s invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, with the creation of the world (Romans 1:20). The Greek word that is translated Creator in Romans 1:25, ktizo (ktidˊ-zo) means “to bring under tillage and settlement. In the New Testament: to establish, to create, produce from nothing” (G2936). “God called the universe into being of his own free will and by his absolute power, creating everything out of nothing…There are many concepts (such as creation) that the finite mind cannot completely grasp, and man must accept them by faith (Hebrews 11:3, 6)” (note on Genesis 1:1).

Paul told the Romans that the “righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Romans 1:17). The Greek word that is translated revealed, apokalupto (ap-ok-al-oopˊ-to) means “to take off the cover…in the passive, of things which become known by their effects” (G601). Paul stated in his greeting to the Romans that the gospel message he was going to share with them had been promised beforehand by the prophets (Romans 1:2). Jesus coming into the world was not an unexpected event. It was the fulfillment of prophecies that the people of Israel were aware of for hundreds of years. Pagan priests came from Persia to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). When King Herod asked the chief priests where the Christ was to be born, “They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet’” (Matthew 2:5).

It says in Hebrews 11:1 that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Conviction has to do with the certainty of something. The Greek word elegcho (el-engˊ-kho) means “to prove one in the wrong and thus to shame him” (G1651). After Job made his final appeal to his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, another man named Elihu joined the conversation. It says in Job 32:1-3, “So these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.” Elihu later asserted God’s justice, stating, “Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice” (Job 34:12). The Hebrew word that is translated justice, mishpat (mish-pawtˊ) refers to “a legal decision”  (H4941). “God stands in absolute, essential opposition to sin, so he must judge and punish sin.” [1]

Justification is the sovereign declaration of God that the righteousness of Jesus Christ has been imputed to those who have trusted in his sinless obedience and his substitutionary atonement on the cross for their salvation. When God justifies a person, he no longer treats him as a sinner but reckons him to possess that righteousness which Jesus Christ earned on his behalf. The declaration of justification does not come through any past, present, or future merit in the sinner. Justification is based exclusively on the merits of Jesus Christ and is received through faith alone. [2]

Paul used the example of Abraham’s justification to explain that righteousness is a gift and that it is counted to us or imputed by believing that God’s Word is true (Romans 4:1-12). God’s accounting system is based on imputation, which means “to take an inventory, i.e. estimate” (G3049). Imputation is a thinking process that results in God reaching a conclusion about an individual’s sin (Romans 14:12). God only imputes righteousness to people who believe that Jesus died on their behalf to pay the penalty for their sin.

Paul argued that unbelievers have no excuse because they judge others for things they do themselves (Romans 2:1-2). Paul asked, “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” (Romans 2:3). The judgment that Paul was talking about was “the act of judging in reference to the final judgment, as the day of judgment (Matthew 10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:36; Mark 6:11; 2 Peter 2:9; 3:7; 1 John 4:17)” (G2920). It says in Romans 14:12 that “every one of us shall give account of himself to God. The Greek word that is translated account, logos (logˊ-os) means “something said” (G3056). John used the word logos to refer to Jesus. John said, “In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word (logos) was with God, and the Word (logos) was God” (John 1:1). John went on to say:

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10-13)

Paul explained in his letter to the Romans that we must publicly confess or openly acknowledge that we believe in Jesus in order to be saved. Paul said, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus confirmed this requirement when he said, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).

Paul concluded his argument about there being no excuse for rejecting Christ with a statement that summarized God’s intent when he sent his Son Jesus to us to die for the sin of the world. Paul asked, “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Repentance is necessary for justification to take place. A person that has not truly repented is not considered to be free from guilt and is at risk of being excluded from God’s kingdom, even if he has been born again. In his illustration of the final judgment, Jesus said all the nations will be gathered before him, “and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32). To those who had not demonstrated the characteristics of sanctification, or holiness, in their daily life (Matthew 25:42-44), Jesus said, “these will go away into eternal punishment,” but the ones who were justified, or made righteous by placing their faith in Christ, entered “into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

[1] John Macarthur and Richard Mayhue, Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth, p. 184.

[2][2] Statements and Affirmations – Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, Doctrine of Justification

Miserable comforters

Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, came to show him sympathy and comfort him (Job 2:11), but they thought Job’s suffering was punishment for sin (note on Job 11:1). The things that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar said to Job caused him to lash out against his friends (Job 16:11-17) and to declare, “miserable comforters are you all” (Job 16:2). The Hebrew word that is translated comforters, nacham (naw-khamˊ) is properly translated as “to sigh, i.e. breathe strongly; by implication to be sorry, i.e. (in a favorable sense) to pity, console” (H 5162). Nacham is also translated as to repent. “To repent means to make a strong turning to a new course of action. The emphasis is on turning to a positive course of action, not turning from a less desirable course. Comfort is derived from ‘com’ (with) and ‘fort’ (strength). Hence, when one repents, he exerts strength to change, to re-grasp the situation, and exert effort for the situation to take a different course of purpose and action. The stress is not upon new information or new facts which cause the change as it is upon the visible action taken.” The reason why Job said his friends were miserable comforters was because they were telling him things he already knew (Job 12:3; 13:2). Job’s friends weren’t helping him turn to a new course of action but were increasing his emotional grief and the brokenness in his heart (Job 9:28).

David wrote about a similar situation in his life in Psalm 69. David began this psalm by crying out to God for relief from his suffering. David cried, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink deep into the mire, where there is no foothold; I have come to the deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (Psalm 69:1-3). David went on to say:

You know my reproach,
    and my shame and my dishonor;
    my foes are all known to you.
Reproaches have broken my heart,
    so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none,
    and for comforters, but I found none. (Psalm 69:19-20)

The verse that follows these, “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink” (Psalm 69:21) pertains to Jesus Christ. All four of the gospels state that Jesus was given sour wine to drink while he was hanging on the cross (Matthew 27:48; Luke 23:36; John 19:29), although Mark refers to it as “wine mixed with myrrh” (Mark 15:23). John tells us that this was done to fulfill Scripture and occurred just before Jesus said, “’It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).

It says in Hebrews 4:15 that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus knew that his disciples would struggle at times to make sense of what they were going through in their lives and would need help fulfilling the assignment of spreading his gospel throughout the world (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus told his disciples that they would be given “another Comforter” (John 14:16, KJV) that would dwell within them and would be in them (John 14:17). Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:25-26, KJV).

Jesus implied that he was his disciples’ Comforter when he told them he would give them another Comforter (John 14:16, KJV). Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach his disciples all things and would bring to their remembrance all that he said to them (John 14:26). Jesus spoke words of comfort to his followers throughout his three-year ministry. Jesus’ words were comfort to the disciples because they helped them to re-grasp the situation, and to exert effort for the situation to take a different course of purpose and action (H5162), which was to turn the world upside down with the message of the gospel (Acts 17:6). The Greek word that is translated gospel in Matthew 4:23, 9:35, 24:14 and 26:13, euaggelion (yoo-ang-ghelˊ-ee-on) means “a good message” (G2098). When the disciples preached the gospel in the book of Acts, it was identified as euaggelizo (yoo-ang-ghel-idˊ-zo) or “to announce good news” (Acts 8:12, 35; 10:36; 13:32; 14:15). It says in Hebrews 4:3 that the works of the gospel “were finished from the foundation of the world, but “those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:6). Disobedience means to disbelieve or “not to allow oneself to be persuaded or believe” (G544).

Job tried to convince his friends that they were wrong about his situation, but they would not be persuaded. These miserable comforters continued to berate Job until the LORD stepped in and “answered Job out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1). Chapters 38-42 of Job “record more than seventy questions that God asked Job. These questions were not given to answer the mystery of Job’s suffering or to vindicate God himself. They were intended to help Job realize that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways and that he is worthy of complete trust even in the most desperate of circumstances” (note on Job 38:1-42:6). Following the LORD’s discourse, Job concluded, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). The Hebrew word nacham, which was translated comforters in Job 16:2, is translated here as repent, indicating that the LORD was successful in his effort to comfort Job.

God’s discipline

Satan’s attack on Job left him with nothing but his wife to go on with. After his health was destroyed, Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). The sight of Job’s physical condition pushed his wife to despair (note on Job 2:9, 10). Afterward, Job was visited by three friends. Job 2:11-13 tells us:

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

“Job’s sores may have disfigured him so badly that he could barely be recognized by his friends. They shared in his sorrow (vv. 12, 13) but did not understand that affliction does not always signify punishment (see John 9:3). Much of what they said in their conversations with Job (chs. 4-37) was true but was misapplied to Job’s situation. They did not recognize that God was testing Job and instead assumed that Job’s suffering was proportionate to some sin he had committed. It may even be that they were unknowingly used by Satan in his attempt to cause Job to sin” (note on Job 2:11-13).

Job’s friend Eliphaz was the first to speak to him. Eliphaz told Job, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves: therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal. He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you” (Job 5:17-19). Eliphaz thought that God was trying to teach Job a lesson. The Hebrew word that is translated discipline, muwsar (moo-sawrˊ) is properly translated as “chastisement” and is used in a figurative sense to refer to “reproof, warning, or, instruction” (H4148). “The discipline of the Lord is not to be despised, for it is a demonstration of His love for His children (Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:11; cf. Hebrews 12:5, 6). The supreme demonstration of God’s love came when Jesus Christ bore the ‘chastisement of our peace’ (Isaiah 53:5).” Isaiah 53:5-6 states, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The main point of this passage is that Jesus suffered for the sins of others and that we all deserve the punishment that he received.

A word that is derived from muwsar that has a similar meaning is yasar (yaw-sarˊ). Yasar appears in the opening verse of Psalm 38, which was written by King David. David said:

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath!
For your arrows have sunk into me,
    and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh
    because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
    because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head;
    like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

My wounds stink and fester
    because of my foolishness,
I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
    all the day I go about mourning.
For my sides are filled with burning,
    and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and crushed;
    I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

O Lord, all my longing is before you;
    my sighing is not hidden from you.
My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
    and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,
    and my nearest kin stand far off. (Psalm 38:1-11)

David’s depiction of God’s discipline is very similar to what Job experienced. David was aware of his sin and later on said in his psalm that he had confessed his sin and was sorry for it (Psalm 38:18) and was waiting for the God of his salvation to come to his rescue (Psalm 38:22). Hebrews 12:5-11 explains the reason why God not only disciplines us, but also allows our suffering to go on for much longer than we would like it to. It says:

And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (NIV)

Even though God’s discipline is painful, it is intended to change our character and make us more like Jesus. Holiness, the result of God’s discipline, is “spoken of those who are purified and sanctified by the influences of the Spirit, a saint. This is assumed of all who profess the Christian name” (G40). It says in Hebrews 12:7 that God is treating us as children when he disciplines us and that it is a sign that we are true sons and daughters.

God referred to Job as his servant and told Satan there was none like him on the earth (Job 1:8). The Hebrew word that is translated servant, ʿebed (ehˊ-bed) is a term that is “applied to those who worship God (Nehemiah 1:10); and to those who minister or serve Him (Isaiah 49:5, 6). The phrase, the servant of the Lord, is the most outstanding reference to the Messiah in the Old Testament” (H5650). The Apostle Paul referred to himself as “a servant of Jesus Christ” in his letter to the Romans (Romans 1:1). ʿEbed is also used to refer to people under the authority of a king. After seeing a Roman centurion demonstrate great faith (Matthew 8:5-9), Jesus told his disciples, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:10-11).  

God indicated that Job was “a blameless and upright man” (Job 1:8). That meant that Job was a mature believer, one who understood what sin was and had learned to avoid it. It says in Job 1:22 after he lost everything, “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong,” and after he lost his health, “Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10); but Job did curse the day of his birth (3:1), and because of his suffering, “long for death” (3:21). In response to Eliphaz’s argument against him, Job replied:

“Oh that my vexation were weighed,
    and all my calamity laid in the balances!
For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
    therefore my words have been rash.
For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
    my spirit drinks their poison;
    the terrors of God are arrayed against me.” (Job 6:2-4)

Job admitted that his words had been rash. Job was on the defensive because it felt like God was attacking him.

“Job pled with his friends to realize that their accusations were false and that he had committed no sin worthy of the affliction he was experiencing” (note on Job 6:28-30), but later, after God had confronted him, Job changed his position. “At the end of God’s discourse, Job acknowledged that he had experienced the Lord in a new light (Job 42:5) and had gained an increased awareness of the sovereignty of God (Job 42:3). He repented of his complaints against God (Job 42:6) and submitted himself to God’s will, even if it included suffering that was seemingly underserved” (note on Job 42:1-6). Job told the LORD, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust in ashes” (Job 42:5-6). It seems at this point that Job realized his redeemer (Job 19:25) was not a distant figure, but was an actual person that was involved in what was happening to him. This realization caused Job to despise himself, and to repent in dust in ashes (Job 42:6).

Evil in the sight of the LORD

Many of the kings of Israel and those who ruled in Judah near the time when the people were taken into captivity were described as doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD. One king in particular, Manasseh, king of Judah was called out for his evil practices. It says in 2 Chronicles 33:2 that Manasseh “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” An abomination defines “something or someone as essentially unique in the sense of being dangerous, sinister, and repulsive to another individual (Genesis 43:32; 46:34; Proverbs 29:27). When used with reference to God, this word describes people, things, acts, relationships, and characteristics that are detestable to Him because they are contrary to His nature, such as things related to death and idolatry (Deuteronomy 14:3); people with loathsome habits are themselves detestable to Him (Deuteronomy 22:5)” (H8441). Manasseh “rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them…And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers…Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:3-9). The Hebrew word that is translated astray in 2 Chronicles 33:9, taʿah (taw-awˊ) was used by the prophet Isaiah in reference to mankind’s universal need for salvation. Isaiah said about Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

According to the prophet Jeremiah, Manasseh was responsible for the kingdom of Judah being destroyed by God. God told Jeremiah, “I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 15:3-4). God’s denouncement of Manasseh’s idolatry included a judgment against Judah for doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD. God said:

Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.” (2 Kings 21:12-15)

God indicated that his chosen people had been provoking him to anger, “since the day their fathers came out of Egypt” (2 Kings 21:15). While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments from God, it says in Exodus 32:1, “The people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

It says in 2 Chronicles 33:10-11, “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to the people, but they paid no attention. Therefore, the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.” God warned Manasseh that he was going in the wrong direction, but he ignored God’s message. The Hebrew word that is translated paid no attention, qashab (kaw-shabˊ) “denoted obedience that was expected after the hearing” (H7181). John the Baptist preached to crowds of people prior to Jesus’ ministry. John’s message was simple, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). It says in Matthew 4:17, after Jesus’ ministry began, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The Greek word that is translated repent, metanoeo (met-an-o-ehˊ-o) means “to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider” (G3340). Repentance has to do with changing one’s mind. Manasseh did not repent of his sin, therefore, the LORD brought upon him the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, “who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon” (2 Chronicles 33:11).

Second Chronicles 33:12-13 tells us about Manasseh:

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

Manasseh learned from his experience of being taken into captivity that the LORD was God. Afterward, he changed his mind, and decided to humble himself greatly before the God of his fathers (2 Chronicles 33:12).

Manasseh’s repentance resulted in him being restored to his position as king of Judah. Afterward, Manasseh “took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:15-16). The actions that Manasseh took demonstrated that his repentance was genuine and that he was willing to do what God expected of him. Manasseh started doing the opposite of what he had been doing before, making it clear to everyone that he had changed his mind during his captivity in Babylon.

If

Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the house of God revealed his “great familiarity with and reverence for the warnings of God, which were given to all Israel through Moses (see Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28)” (note on 2 Chronicles 6:14-42). Solomon’s primary petition in this prayer was that God would listen and forgive them when his people cried out to him for help. Solomon mentioned specific circumstances that would require God’s forgiveness: if a man sins against his neighbor (2 Chronicles 6:22); if the people were defeated by their enemy (2 Chronicles 6:24); if there was famine in the land (2 Chronicles 6:26); if they sinned against God (2 Chronicles 6:36). Each time, Solomon asked that God would hear from heaven and forgive his people who had sinned against him (2 Chronicles 6:39). Afterward, “the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven so that there is no rain, or command locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:12-14). “This is a key Old Testament passage that presents the conditions of true repentance: humbling oneself, praying, seeking God’s face, and turning from evil” (note on 2 Chronicles 7:12-14). God said if his people truly repented, then he would hear from heaven and forgive their sin.

Humbling ourselves means that we are bringing ourselves into subjection to God. This has to do with being submitted to God’s will, allowing God to have control of our situation and circumstances. An example of humbling oneself is shown in 1 Kings 21:27 where the wicked king Ahab repented of his sin after being confronted by Elijah the prophet. It says in 1 Kings 21:17-29:

 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”

Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel the Lord also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’ Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.”

(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.)

And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house.”

It says that “there was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab” (1 Kings 21:25), and yet, because he had humbled himself, God said he would not bring disaster in Ahab’s days (1 Kings 21:29). The Hebrew words that are translated dejectedly in 1 Kings 21:27 are translated went softly in the King James Version of the Bible. Another way of describing Ahab’s response to God’s condemnation of his behavior might be that Ahab treaded lightly or exhibited a gentle spirit toward God as a result of God holding him accountable for his sin.

Even though Ahab humbled himself before God, he did not truly repent of his sin. Ahab stopped short of asking God for forgiveness. The second condition of true repentance is praying, or more specifically, asking God to intervene in your situation so that your sin can be forgiven. Psalm 51 is a prayer that King David prayed when Nathan the prophet confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba. David began by asking God to have mercy on him. David prayed, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:1-2). David asked that God would blot out his transgressions and wash him thoroughly from his iniquity. The Hebrew word that is translated wash, kabas (kaw-basˊ) “refers to God’s internal cleansing of the heart, making it white as snow. Jeremiah 4:14, however, showed that God’s people must work to cleanse their hearts and avoid temporal destruction” (H3526). David’s genuine sorrow wasn’t all that was needed for true repentance, David needed his relationship with the LORD to be restored.

Another condition of true repentance is seeking God’s face. This aspect of true repentance has to do with restoring intimacy with God. Moses’ relationship with God is one of the best examples of what it means to have intimacy with God in the Bible. It says in Exodus 33:11, “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” The place where Moses went to speak to the LORD was called the tent of meeting. “Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door” (Exodus 33:7-10). It says in Exodus 33:7 that everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Seeking the LORD requires us to get away from other people and to focus our attention only on God. All the people watched Moses go into the tent of meeting and worshipped God from afar, but only Moses experienced intimacy with God.

The final condition for true repentance may be why so few people actually do it. God told Solomon that he would hear from heaven and forgive the people’s sin if they humbled themselves and prayed, and sought his face, and turned from their wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14). The Hebrew word that is translated turned, shuwb (shoob) “is used to describe divine and human reactions, attitudes, and feelings” (H7725). Jeremiah described this kind of turning as washing your heart from evil. Jeremiah stated, “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?” (Jeremiah 4:14). Jeremiah indicated that wicked thoughts can lodge within us, but we are able to dislodge them through an intentional effort of washing our hearts from evil. The Apostle Paul described this process as putting off your old self and putting on the new self. Paul told the Ephesians:

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24)

Paul said our old self belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires (Ephesians 4:22). In order to get rid of the old self, we must put on the new self, which Paul indicated was “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). The key to being able to do this is what Paul referred to as being “renewed in the spirit of your minds” (Ephesians 4:23). This means that we are under the controlling power of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is directing our energies toward the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Spiritual regeneration involves more than the free act of God’s mercy and power by which he removes the sinner from the kingdom of darkness and places him in the kingdom of light, it is “the gradual conforming of the person to the new spiritual world in which he now lives, the restoration of the divine image. In this process the person is not passive but is a fellow worker with God” (G3824).

God told Solomon that he would hear from heaven and would forgive their sin, if his people would humble themselves, and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways. God contrasted this promise with an alternative that actually did take place. God said, “’But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, “Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?” Then they will say, “Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.”’” The prophet Jeremiah foretold that Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Jerusalem would result in God fighting against his own people (Jeremiah 21:5) and in his message to the house of David, Jeremiah gave the people a final opportunity to repent of their sin against God. Jeremiah concluded his message to the house of David by stating, “’”And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshipped other gods and served them.”’” Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land’” (Jeremiah 22:8-10).

Upside down

God’s intention in delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt was for them to become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). “God made a conditional promise to the Israelites that if they would obey him and keep his covenant, he would regard and treat them in a special way. The people chose instead to make a golden calf and forsake the God who rescued them from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 32:1-24). That event, as well as persistent infidelity throughout most of their history, greatly limited the extent to which the Israelites could realize these promises” (note on Exodus 19:5, 6). Near the end of King David’s dynasty, God intervened in Israel’s circumstances in order to correct the nation’s course so that his plan of salvation for the world would not be disrupted. It says in 2 Kings 21:10-13:

And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

The phrase “wiping it and turning it upside down” was intended to express the process God would use to transform the situation that Manasseh had gotten himself and his kingdom into. The Hebrew words mâchâh (maw-khawˊ), hâphak (haw-vakˊ), and pânîym (paw-neemˊ) have to do with changing a person’s countenance or the look on one’s face (H4229/2015/6440). In English, we might tell a person who is smiling about breaking a rule or law to “wipe that look off your face,” meaning that the person’s expression is inappropriate for a person who has done something wrong. Manasseh showed no remorse for the atrocities he had committed (2 Kings 21:16) and so, God was going to do something about it.

It says in 2 Chronicles 33:10-13:

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

Manasseh’s repentance was rewarded by him being returned to Jerusalem. It says that Manasseh humbled himself greatly before God and prayed to him (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). In other words, Manasseh was converted, he became a believer.

Manasseh’s distressful situation caused him to turn away from his sin and toward God. When God said that he was going to “wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 Kings 21:13), he was talking about emptying the city and its king of their pride. The Hebrew word pânîym, which is translated upside down, is derived from the word pânâh (paw-nawˊ). Pânâh means “to turn; by implication to face, i.e. appear, look etc…Most occurrences of this verb carry the sense ‘to turn in another direction’; this is a verb of either physical or mental motion…Used of intellectual and spiritual turning, this verb signifies attaching oneself to something…In an even stronger use this verb represents dependence on someone” (H6437). The Hebrew word hâphak, which is translated turning in 2 Kings 21:13, is used in 1 Samuel 10:6 to describe Saul’s conversion. “The meaning of ‘transformation’ or ‘change’ is vividly illustrated in the story of Saul’s encounter with the Spirit of God. Samuel promised that Saul ‘shalt be turned into another man’ (1 Samuel 10:6), and when the Spirit came on him, ‘God gave him another heart’ (1 Samuel 10:9).

The term upside down is also used in the New Testament in reference to the effect of the Apostle Paul preaching the gospel. Acts 17:1-7 tells us:

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

The Jews who were jealous of Paul said that he and Silas had “turned the world upside down.” In this instance, upside down was intended to refer to being disturbed or unsettled, but the Greek word anastatoo (an-as-tat-oˊ-o) carries with it the connotation of a spiritual uprising or a spiritual awakening. Anastatoo is derived from the word anistemi (an-isˊ-tay-mee), which means “to stand up” (G450). Jesus used anastatoo to refer to his resurrection. Jesus told his disciples, “The Son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise (anastatoo)” (Mark 9:31).

Manasseh’s conclusion “that the LORD was God” (2 Chronicles 33:13) was the result of him being returned to Jerusalem after having been captured with hooks and bound with chains and brought to Babylon (2 Chronicles 33:11). Manasseh’s world had literally been turned upside down. The fact that Manasseh was restored to his former position and served the LORD faithfully afterward (2 Chronicles 33:14-17) shows that God’s intended purpose was accomplished, even though the process was painful and Manasseh’s circumstances were severe. Following a brief reign by Amon, Manasseh’s son who abandoned the LORD (2 Kings 21:22); Josiah, Manasseh’s grandson, who was only eight years old when he began to reign, led Judah through a period of great revival. It is said of Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25, “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.