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Learning to Repent

Can we repent as a person or nation, do we know how? If we were showed how to repent, would we even listen? We are commanded by God to repent, but is it too late? This article explores repentance and how we as a nation can’t and won’t repent.

Author: Ron Harmon

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As the occupants of Jerusalem looked over the walls and down into the valleys at the approaching army of Nebuchadnezzar. It must have been terrifying to the residents within the walls to realize they were being surrounded by a hostile force; as reality set in whispers and remembrance of forecast of doom preached by a few of Gods men was now being discussed over evening meals. They began remembering the words spoken and preached, the warnings given over and over, and how they scorned and laughed at these men, Jerusalem surely would never be allowed to fall, it was the city of God.

Now judgment was standing before them in the form of men of war and siege machines. The words of the prophets must have come flooding back into their worried minds as the sunlight danced off the shields and spears that soon would become the instruments of their demise. The sick feeling in their stomachs as realization set in, they were trapped in the very city they believed wouldn’t be allowed to be destroyed.

The prophets many words of condemnation could be boiled down to just one repeated over and over; Repent, Repent, Repent. The people had gone after false Gods and turned away from the way of God and didn’t know how to return to God; they had become lost within their own beliefs and traditions which came to them from the nations surrounding them. They had denied the living and true God at every opportunity and flaunted their noses at him. They had gone so far as to sacrifice their first born children in the fires of Moloch right outside the city walls in the valley of Gehenna and call on the living God the very same day.

They saw nothing wrong in what they were doing, it was right to them, it had become tradition. When the call to repent sounded, they gathered their idols and instead of destroying them, they prayed to them. The words of repentance meant doing more of what was wrong, because they refused to see what was before them and accept the true living God.

The people of Jerusalem in the year 586 BCE met their end by sword, famine, disease. Those that didn’t die went into captivity and didn’t return for seventy years. When they did return, they began to understand how to repent and what to repent from and they were more than willing to follow God’s ways.

Fast forward to today; the clarion call has gone out by the many Ministers during the last couple of years with a message of national repentance. It is imperative we as a Nation listen to the timely message of repentance; especially when we read the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel, but especially Ezekiel. We can read in these books where God is literally feed up with Israel and Judah and has decided to turn away from them which, concludes in their destruction. We as a nation stand on the walls and we can hear the drum beat of the approaching armies coming up the valley. We are just beginning to see them and the fear is starting to creep in as a nation because we know something needs to be done.

We have disregarded God, his laws, his truth, his way in this nation too long now. We as a society don’t have a clue how to repent. We don’t know what to repent from; we have God and we have our traditions that honor God and we think if we do more of the same we are repenting and honoring God.

Let’s do more of the same stuff like go to church we tell ourselves, but are we really honoring God by going to church on Sunday or would God prefer a different time for us to worship him on and wouldn’t that be true repentance.

What about all the traditions we have borrowed from the nations around us, do we do more of them, do we add more traditions to show our repentance? Or, should we just take God out more of the places where we need him the most as some would advocate, showing our repentance.

Repentance means, to change, to stop what you were doing wrong and do it right, make a 180 degree reverse in your behavior, not too go faster in the same direction and continue on the same path.
Sadly, there are few Ministers, Preachers, and Evangelist who recognize Gods truth and are willing to tell their congregations what they need to do to repent. Sadly, there probably would be few people in those same churches; if told, would take to heart the message of repentance.

It will take the surrounding of Armies the downfall of this nation and possibly the total destruction of this nation before we will turn back to Gods ways. We don’t know how to repent; so, now we have to learn how to repent. If the people would just listen to Gods words, they could learn how to repent and possibly we could receive a reprieve from destruction just as Nineveh did.

It could happen here in this nation but I’m afraid it can’t, they are too busy laughing at my article too learn.

About Author

I have been a Minister of a Sabbath observing church for 13 years; I’m 56 years old, married and live in Texas. I own a T-shirt and sign shop I work through the week days.

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Learning to Repent