Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Another message-very different from the former--came now to Jonah. It was to be delivered to a strange people, -not to Israel. It related to punishment, not to deliverance. 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."

66

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. It was every way “a great city;" great as to extent, population, splendour, and influence. The inhabitants were idolaters, and exceedingly corrupt. Their wealth would tend to corruption of manners; and this is always connected with great ferocity and violence. Their idolatry proposed no higher objects, laid down no rules of purity, placed the conscience under no restraints. Wickedness thus continually increased, and at length approached the limits beyond which the divine forbearance does not go: "Their wickedness is come up before me.”

Several most important truths are here presented to us. It is a fact that Nineveh belonged not to the Jewish theocracy: the Ninevites had never "avouched Jehovah to be their God." No mutual compact existed, as in the case of the Jews. Yet we find them capable of sinning and repenting: we find God to be observant of their conduct. In a word, Nineveh was under the moral government of God. And so is every people: and so will every people be to the end of the world. The subject may have its mysteries, but it has its plain facts. We leave the mysteries of it by quoting two texts:-" Secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

But the things that are revealed are not to be overlooked. And the words before us teach,—

That the government of God, considered as a moral government, as relating to good and evil, and as implying rewards and punishments,-is universal, extending to all people; and constant, enduring through all times: all nations, all the inhabitants of the earth, are actually under the moral government of God. Whether they consent to it or not, so it is. The Jewish theocracy extended moral obligation, but did not originate it. The Ninevites were as truly the subjects of God as were the Jews. In all our investigations as to human affairs, this must be taken as the foundation of the whole,

that there exists a constant, universal moral government, under which all nations and all people are placed. This government is a government of mercy. Sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed. We, under the Gospel, know the reason. God has pitied man, provided for him a Saviour, and placed him under a direct constitution of mercy. In consequence of this, the forbearance and longsuffering of God are exercised, and that in perfect consistency with his holiness and justice. The Lamb of God, manifested in the latter days, was, in the purpose of the divine love, slain from the foundation of the world.

But forbearance has its limits. There are periods when the wickedness of individuals, the wickedness of nations, comes up before God. We know not the rules by which these limits are marked. Practically, we ought to recollect that all sin is opposed to the will of God, and is always injurious to man. Repentance can never be safely delayed. Our only safety is in turning to God, securing his favour, living in his fear, and in all things submitting to his will. The mercy of God is never to be confounded with regardlessness of sin. It is a fact, that beyond certain limits, judgments come upon nations: and the exhortation to individuals is, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found;" implying that a period comes when God will not be found of us.

Humanly speaking, the wickedness of Nineveh had attracted the special attention of the moral Ruler of the world. But, even in judgment, mercy is remembered. Before punishment is inflicted, an invitation to repentance is vouchsafed: "The word of the Lord came to Jonah." The Jews would thus be shown that the government of God, in its obligation, its mercy, its visitations, extended beyond themselves and the Gentiles would see that the light which warned them came not from their own sages, but from those to whom had been vouchsafed a direct revelation from God. Jonah, under the character of a prophet of the true God, was to go to Nineveh, and to "cry against it." He was to show them their sins, and to warn them of the consequence of continuing to transgress. And there are the warnings of the

prophets of God, extraordinary or ordinary, in all ages. They invite to repentance; they show the consequences of impenitence. They point to the wickedness which comes up before God, and calls for the execution of the sentence which the law has pronounced; but they point to God, seated on the throne of grace, establishing a constitution of mercy in Christ, and governing men accordingly. They say, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish;" but they likewise say, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

JONAH.

SERMON II.

"But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."-JONAH i. 3.

WE have already seen the message with which Jonah was charged, and which it was his duty to deliver. God gave him the command; and what God commands us to do, it is at once our duty to do. A distinction has been often pointed out between what have been called moral and positive commandments. It is not useless, if we use it to guide us in obtaining a clearer and more extensive knowledge of the will of God; but it may be hurtful, if we suppose that there are cases in which we are less obliged to obey God than in others. That we should love, worship, serve God, are moral commands: that Adam and Eve should not eat of the fruit of a certain tree, was a positive injunction. But being commanded, the obligation to obedience was the same as in the other instances. When we do not perceive the reasons on which the injunction rests, it does not follow that there are no reasons at all. Besides, obedience is the submission of the

will, leading to submission in the act. As the obligation to obedience, therefore, proceeds from the divine will, so the rule of obedience is found in the divine command. Jonah was God's servant, in reference to the prophetic office: it was his duty to go where his Master and Lord should choose to send him.

Such was his duty; but what was his actual conduct? He resolved to flee to Tarshish. Whether Tarsus in Cilicia, or some place on the African or Spanish coast, it does not, for our present object, concern us to decide. It was to some place very distant from Palestine, where God was known, and where his special presence was vouchsafed. In order to this longer voyage, he went to Joppa, a port on the coast, nearly opposite to Jerusalem; a place of much trade, where such a vessel as he wanted he would be likely to find. Finding one, (a sort of regular trader,) he agreed for his fare, paid it, and embarked.

This was, that he might "flee from the presence of the Lord." In Palestine the omnipresent Jehovah manifested his presence as the God of Israel. Jonah seems to have · supposed that in another country his fault would be overlooked; perhaps that another person would be appointed to the duty.

Perhaps the feeling to which Jonah yielded, and which issued in this act of rebellion, was, a sense of the difficulty and danger of the task. He had to declare to a proud people their sin and guilt, and to proclaim to them the wrath of God. If they rose up against him in anger, though their offence might be followed by the judgment of God, yet he himself might have fallen a victim. And if, on the other hand, they received his message in humility and penitence, then the threatened judgment would pass away; the clouds would disperse, and the clear sky bear no testimony to the veracity. of the prophet. He subsequently referred to this, showing that, whether he had any fears for his safety or not, he had many for his character as a prophet before man. If Nineveh were not destroyed, Jonan might be regarded as an impostor, or as a brain-sick dreamer.

Here was a thorough preference of himself to the honour

of God, and the salvation of men. Let not God's mercy be g'rified, lest Jonah be not sufficiently honoured. Here are hundreds of thousands; but their well-being is as nothing in the scale. Better that Nineveh perish, than that Jonah's reputation should be at all endangered.

Here, therefore, was plainly the want of that decided and total submission which the creature owes to the Creator. To God not only must all be offered, but, if obedience requires it, all must be sacrificed. We are to be satisfied with the approval and favour of God, and to be willing to wait till the judgment of the great day. If by our own deeper obscurity God's honour shines more brightly; and especially, if thus greater good comes to perishing man, to obscurity we must be content to go. We may always have the light of the divine countenance; always the satisfying approbation of the great Lord of all.

All this Jonah overlooked. Nor was his sin a trifling one. You see in it want of due submission to the divine will; want of a supreme regard of the honour of God; want of compassion for the guilty; want of love for his neighbour. Jonah, in fact, broke the first command, and the second, which is like unto it. True love to God and man was evidently, however unaccountably, absent.

See in Jonah's conduct the blinding power of sin. He would "flee from the presence of the Lord." Did he not know that God was present in every place? at Tarshish? on shipboard? Had he never heard it read, "If ye do so, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out?" or, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or flee from thy presence?" Did he not know that the presence of God could have comforted him, had he been reproached? protected him, had he been in danger? All seems to have been forgotten. A prophet of the true God fancies that he can flee from the presence of the Lord!"

66

Nothing is more awfully true, than that sin weakens the judgment, and obscures the understanding. It not only hardens the heart, but makes the soul dark and foolish. What seems more impossible than hiding ourself from the presence of God? Yet Adam and Eve sought to do this. And Jonah

« AnteriorContinuar »