Jonah 3:7-8 - Homiletics

Ceremonial and moral repentance.

It must have been a striking and picturesque spectacle that was presented by Nineveh when the decree of the king and nobles was carried out, when a general fast was observed, when sackcloth and ashes were worn by man and beast, and when general prayer ascended in a mighty cry to Heaven. But to the reflective mind it must have been still more interesting to observe the population turning from their evil ways and refraining from acts of violence.

I. THE OUTWARD SIGNS OF PENITENCE AND CONTRITION ARE GOOD WHEN , AND ONLY WHEN , THEY ARE THE EXPRESSION OF GENUINE FEELING AND PURPOSE . We feel this to be the case with reference to ordinary human sorrow. The mere garb and semblance of mourning, being but conventional, is of little value. It is felt to be appropriate when the mourner can say—

"I have that within which passes show,

These but the trappings and the signs of woe."

How much more do the religious interest and value of "sackcloth and ashes," "fasting and prayers," depend upon the sincerity of the emotions thus expressed!

II. RESOLUTIONS TO REFORM AND AMEND ARE THE BEST EVIDENCE OF THE GENUINENESS AND ACCEPTABLENESS OF REPENTANCE . It is very much to the credit Alike of the prophet and of those to whom he preached, that the Ninevites should have felt and expressed the absolute necessity of moral amendment in order to the enjoyment of forgiveness, favour, and acceptance with God. There must have been something searching in Jonah's preaching, and something very responsive in the heart and conscience of the Ninevites, to have produced such a state of mind as that here indicated. It is especially observable that the citizens turned "every one from his evil way." The ways of sin are devious, numerous, and varied; sinners have turned every one to his own way; true repentance shows itself in a resolve on the part of each individual offender to forsake his own sins. "Violence," whether proneness to national schemes for attacking other peoples, or assaults upon peaceful citizens, seems to have been the prevailing sin; for of this, it is said, the people chiefly repented.

APPLICATION . The whole nature, body and soul, is implicated in sin; and the whole nature accordingly should concur in repentance.