Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching)

by Philip Quenby

  Comfort.

  The “restore[d] splendour of Jacob” (Nahum 2:2) means that, as a result of God’s provision, the entire nation of Israel is to be reunited and brought back. Given that the northern Israelite kingdom was at this time under the Assyrian yoke and that Judah herself would in due course face a similar fate at the hands of the Babylonians, this is an extraordinary prophecy. The contrast between such eventual restoration and the complete obliteration of Nineveh could not be starker. For all that the Israelites had fallen short of the splendour that God wished to see in their individual lives and in the life of the nation as a whole, still he would not desert them. Nor will he desert us. The promise of restoration holds good for us just the same.

  To sustain his people through dark years to come, the Lord sent words of comfort[56] about the future destruction of Nineveh and eventual reinstatement of “the splendour of Jacob” (Nahum 2:2). For us too, these words should be a source of support and assistance in time of weakness and waiting. To comfort involves giving cheer, succour, encouragement, consolation, ease, strengthening and freedom from anxiety and Nahum’s prophecy works these things on several levels: destruction of a corrupt and evil regime shows God’s justice; fulfilment of prophecy confirms the reliability of God and his promises; breaking the stranglehold of an oppressor makes freedom possible; reversing the oppressor’s policies of deportation and exile allows homecoming; return to the Promised Land involves inheriting God’s covenant blessings; whilst restoration brings unity with God and amongst those who love him.

  For Israel and for us, the ultimate comfort is God’s assurance of eventual redemption, both physical and spiritual.

  Chastisement.

  The Assyrians have no such comfort, for they neither know nor acknowledge the one true God and hence are exposed to the full force of his judgment. They reap as they have sown, with death, violence and the sword: “The metal on the chariots flashes on the day they are made ready; the spears of pine are brandished. The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning.” (Nahum 2:3-4).

  In the face of attack, the military might on which the Assyrians have always relied proves pitifully inadequate: “He [the Assyrian leader] summons his picked troops, yet they stumble on their way” (Nahum 2:5). Human agency is shown to be fallible. So are the defences that we throw up to keep God out: “They dash to the city wall; the protective shield is put in place.” (Nahum 2:5). It is all in vain, for the Lord works out his purposes regardless of the barriers and objections put in place by man. This should give us pause: since resistance to God is impossible, how much more sensible it would be to line up on the side of the Almighty and to seek splendour in the things that he values rather than in the illusory riches of the world. It is a proposition so easy to state, but which sinful human beings find so difficult to implement.

  For reasons that are difficult to fathom, we have trouble recognising that setting ourselves against God can only bring destruction. The prophet describes the troops besieging Nineveh thus: “The shields of his soldiers are red; the warriors are clad in scarlet.” (Nahum 2:3).[57] They are avengers and chastisers, the ones who carry out God’s judgment against an unrighteous nation. It is an intriguing coincidence that since the days of Oliver Cromwell English soldiers wore red uniforms. The tradition was continued by the British army, which adopted bright scarlet in part to disguise bloodstains. These same redcoats were the ones who were instrumental in checking French designs in Europe and further afield.

  Conclusion.

  The nation which did so much to frustrate the plans of Louis XIV was a new creation.[58] Right from the start, maintaining the continental balance of power was a primary aim of her foreign policy. She was largely content to stay aloof from European affairs so long as no one Power threatened to dominate the mainland, preferring to be left alone to pursue her commercial interests and the concerns of Empire. Such was the danger posed by Louis XIV, however, that isolation was neither feasible nor desirable. With perfect timing and to the dismay of their enemies, England and Scotland, which had passed large parts of the seventeenth century in self-absorption and civil war, were able to take the field at the start of the eighteenth united as never before.

  The Sun King was arrayed in pride and splendour, the focal point and the very embodiment of the nation: he it was who said, “I am the state.” The sun is the centre of our solar system, the object around which the planets orbit. It is undoubtedly splendid, but it is a created thing. The pride was misplaced, the splendour illusory. In due course, it all came crashing down.

  Our pride is similarly misplaced and our splendour just as illusory. Instead of giving room to things of such little worth, we should rather “ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness.” (1 Chronicles 16:29). If we do not, then all that we set such store by will come crashing down, too.

  26. Revival

  Zephaniah 3:9-17.

  Key word: purity.

  For all her success on the battlefield, for all her grandiose Palladian mansions, for all the exquisite music of Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759), behind an elegant facade England in the early years of the eighteenth century was in a sorry state. Painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764) chronicled widespread moral and spiritual decay in works such as the Rake’s Progress, the Harlot’s Progress, Gin Lane and Marriage à la Mode. The themes of these and others of Hogarth’s works are all too familiar: untimely death, drunkenness, violence, addiction, child abuse, sexual immorality, crime, materialism and corruption of all kinds. What is portrayed is the very opposite of purity. The nation was become a sink and a cesspool. Many abandoned themselves to wickedness. Justice and mercy seemed in short supply.

  Yet though people abandoned themselves and abandoned God, the Almighty did not abandon them. He sent men to preach his word and he sent the power of his Spirit. Two in particular were channels of the Great Awakening that resulted: John Wesley and George Whitefield.

  Wesley began his lifetime habit of hard work and early rising whilst still an Oxford undergraduate. He and the group that gathered around him and his younger brother Charles prayed incessantly, took communion weekly instead of the three times a year which then was usual at that university, fasted, preached in gaols, helped the poor and lived austerely. They were mockingly called ‘The Holy Club’ or, in revival of a term applied to earlier Puritans, the ‘Methodists’ (because they strove to live by a certain method or rule of life). Wesley in the end adopted the nickname and gave it a simple definition: “A Methodist is one who lives according to the method laid down in the Bible.”

  In 1739, at the age of thirty-five, Wesley began the campaign of preaching that he pursued until his death. Over the next fifty-two years he travelled nigh on 5,000 miles a year, by foot and on horseback, preaching all over the country. He covered a total of almost a quarter of a million miles and delivered over forty thousand sermons, an average of more than fifteen each week. After the first year he spoke almost always in the open air, for the church establishment disapproved of the emotional scenes at his meetings and consequently churches were usually shut against him. Indeed, gatherings were sometimes broken up by violent mobs and Wesley himself was at times in danger of his life. Nevertheless, his audience often ran into thousands.

  If anything, George Whitefield was an even more inspired preacher. He had been with the earliest Methodists at Oxford and continued to work alongside Wesley for many years. Eventually he split from mainstream Methodism, though he remained an active participant in the religious revival that was by then sweeping the country. By the time he and Wesley ceased their work, the spiritual landscape of the country had changed almost beyond recognition.

  Deceit.

  At a time when our nation has sunk low, it is encouraging to be reminded that there have been similar periods in our history and that the Lord,
ever loving and faithful despite our weakness and wrongdoing, has time and again sent his Spirit amongst us to cleanse, renew and purify. This should not be cause for complacency, however. Great men of God need to be nurtured and need to be heeded. Revival requires that we turn our ears and turn our hearts. It needs us to recognise the deceitful lives we lead and to see the blandishments of the world for the worthless toys they are.

  The prophet Zephaniah was a contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum and (perhaps) Habbakuk. He was sent to the Israelite kingdom of Judah when that nation, too, had wandered far from God. He prophesied early in the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC), when the Israelites were still reaping what had been sown during the rule of two apostates, King Manasseh and King Amon. The deliverance that God promises for the future points up the shortcomings of the present by way of contrast: the Lord “will remove from this city those who rejoice in their pride. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill ... The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will speak no lies, nor will deceit be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no-one will make them afraid.” (Zephaniah 3:11 and 13). The picture is of a nation mired in pride, wrongdoing, deceit, fear and blasphemy.

  Like them, we live at a time of great deceit. All around us are lies: about God and our relationship to him, about the means to our salvation, about the meaning of our lives and the way in which we should live. The consequences are just as they were in Zephaniah’s day. We are surrounded by “those who rejoice in their pride” (Zephaniah 3:11) and are “haughty” (Zephaniah 3:11). There is rebellion against God, wrongdoing, fear and blasphemy. The Lord would be entitled to punish us severely for “all the wrongs you have done to me” (Zephaniah 3:11).

  Deceit can take the form of telling a lie or of suppressing the truth. Both are prevalent in modern Britain. In addition to outright lies, we have suppressed the truth of God’s Word in the Bible by allowing it to be forgotten. The Israelites did the same. It was only “in the eighteenth year of [King Josiah’s] reign” (2 Kings 22:3 and 2 Chronicles 34:8) that “the Book of the Law [was rediscovered] in the temple of the LORD.” (2 Kings 22:8 and 2 Chronicles 34:15). Whether this comprised the entire five books of Moses or Deuteronomy alone in unclear, but at all events the effect was electrifying. The king instituted religious reforms to do away with pagan worship and to turn the people back to the Lord. The reforms and their results are described in 2 Kings 23:1-25 and in 2 Chronicles 34:1-13 and 35:1-19.

  In the same way, we need to rediscover God’s Word and to reform our land on the basis of it. If we will only do this, God will bring deliverance.

  Deliverance.

  Through the prophet Zephaniah the Lord tells us what his deliverance will look like: “The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, ‘Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp.’” (Zephaniah 3:15-16). Deliverance will bring purification, gathering, cleansing, rebuilding and revival:

  • The nation will be purified so as to allow relationship and fellowship with God to be restored: “Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD.” (Zephaniah 3:9).

  • There will be a gathering of believers, who will come to faith even from the most physically and spiritually distant places to join in true worship: “From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshippers, my scattered people, will bring me offerings.” (Zephaniah 3:10).

  • There will be cleansing from sin: “On that day you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me.” (Zephaniah 3:11).

  • Those who remain in opposition to God, who do not acknowledge him or give him the glory that is his due, will be marginalised: “I will remove from this city those who rejoice in their pride.” (Zephaniah 3:11).

  • God’s people will be restored and rebuilt so that they are characterised by their faith and by proper attitudes: “But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD.” (Zephaniah 3:12).

  • Right action will flow from right attitude: “The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will speak no lies, nor will deceit be found in their mouths.” (Zephaniah 3:13).

  • In consequence of right attitude and right action, society will be harmonious: “They will eat and lie down and no-one will make them afraid” (Zephaniah 3:13).

  This deliverance will not occur without our involvement, nor will it be either right or possible for us to be inactive in the face of it. We are to “call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder.” (Zephaniah 3:9). We are to work alongside God, joining in his activity and being available for use as his instruments.

  Similarly, we are told: “do not let your hands hang limp.” (Zephaniah 3:16). On one level this is simply a way of telling people not to be discouraged, but more is at work in this image. It brings to mind Moses at the battle between Israel and the Amalekites: “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but when he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they [Aaron and Hur] took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.” (Exodus 17:11-13).

  Raising our hands is a symbol of praise, prayer and worship. It reminds us that we need to come before God and be available to be used by him. It warns us also that this can be tiring work and that we often need the help of others to see it through to completion. When we play our part to the full, the result is that the enemy is overcome and we are delivered.

  Delight.

  Our deliverance will bring delight: delight to us and delight to God.

  Our delight is described first: “Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem!” (Zephaniah 3:14). The deliverance that God brings is not something that we are to keep to ourselves. We are to share our joy and give expression to our delight in praise and thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour.

  More extraordinary still is the delight of God and what will come in its wake: “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17). Our society is disquieted and discomforted. It desperately needs to know that there is the chance of being quieted with God’s love and that the Lord holds out a wonderful promise of peace, wholeness and wellbeing amongst all our brokenness. In hearing that God will “rejoice over [us] with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17) we are reminded that “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7).

  Turning back to God is not a weary road of grovelling apology, hair-shirt misery and endless reminders of all that we have done wrong. It is the path of delight. It is the highway to purity.

  Conclusion.

  More than two hundred years ago our forefathers turned back to God. They repented of wrongdoing and changed their ways. One of the most momentous results was seen in changing attitudes towards slavery. The British, who previously had shown few qualms about treating other humans as chattels, suddenly started granting slaves their freedom. Many were shipped back to Africa to form a new colony of freedmen in Sierra Leone, whose capital is still called Freetown. Eventually the slave trade itself was outlawed and suppressed.[59] It is now generally acknowledged that slavery was not abolished because it had ceased to be profitable. Both slave trading and slave ownership remained lucrative, and for precisely that reason the British government paid compensation to slave owners who suffered financial loss from slavery’s abolition. Human bondage was done away with for no other reason than because it was unethical. This was a national change of heart so dramatic, a moment of collective recognition so startling and so diff
erent from what went before that many have been at a loss to account for it.

  The facts certainly defy prosaic explanation, but there is in truth no mystery. The Word of God and the Spirit of God worked in the lives of individuals and of a whole nation. The High King of Heaven, who “is mighty to save” (Zephaniah 3:17) stretched forth his arm and did these things. He it was who “[purified] the lips of the peoples” (Zephaniah 3:9) of these islands, who caused them to “call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder.” (Zephaniah 3:9). From the depths of squalor, the nation was lifted to new heights by the activity of God.

  If we truly wish to see an end to the troubles that currently plague us, there is only one way. There is only one thing that will go to the root and address the underlying cause rather than the myriad symptoms. It is no secret what this is. It can be read as plain as day in our history. Not until we turn back to God, worship him in spirit and truth, “keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him” (Deuteronomy 13:4) will we have rest.

  God longs to bring revival. The issue is whether we will turn our hearts and make ourselves receptive to being purified by his Spirit. At things stand, we are still fiddling whilst Rome burns. If we delay much longer, we will have nothing but cinders and ashes left.