not so blissful ignorance

Jonah 3:5-10

5  And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6  The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7  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, 8  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. 9  Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 

From Thomas Watson’s, “The Doctrine of Repentance”:

The first part of Christ's physic is eye-salve (Acts 26.18). It is the great thing noted in the prodigal's repentance: `he came to himself' (Luke 15.17). He saw himself a sinner and nothing but a sinner. Before a man can come to Christ he must first come to himself. Solomon, in his description of repentance, considers this as the first ingredient: `if they shall bethink themselves' (1 Kings 8.47). A man must first recognize and consider what his sin is, and know the plague of his heart before he can be duly humbled for it. The first creature God made was light. So the first thing in a penitent is illumination: `Now ye are light in the Lord' (Eph. 5.8). The eye is made both for seeing and weeping. Sin must first be seen before it can be wept for.

God chose to have Nineveh see His perfect and righteous justice by exposing their sins.  He did this by His power, through a reluctant prophet, in a few simple words: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”   They came to themselves and found they were wanting.  

I’ve avoided the doctor for years.  Seeing many dear friends diagnosed with many and varied cancers and illnesses, I would rather live in blissful ignorance than risk being found out.  We can often do the same as Christians.  Just as Nineveh lived in sin that grew deeper and more heinous, so we can go without check in sin and misery and miss the diagnosis.  The problem is, we also miss out on health, vitality, mercy, and grace.  We lose out on seeing the many demonstrations of Christ’s love for us.

The life of the Christian ought to be desire to have God’s Word constantly applied to his or her life so that sin would be exposed, grace administered, and the joy of salvation grown up into maturity.  Yet often what we find is that we are lazy Christians.  We long to know Christ and to be known by Him, but we find every excuse to not be confronted by His Word by opening His Word or putting ourselves in places where the Word is administered.  

Lord, I pray that you would reveal ways in which I have avoided having a thorough examination by Your Word and lead me, not only to see my sin, but Christ as the salve for my sin.