Turning Back the Tide

Reading: Jeremiah 4
In the years 1014-1035 there ruled over England a Danish king named Canute (Sveinsson Knute). King Canute tired of hearing his retainers flatter him with extravagant praises of his greatness, power and invincibility. He ordered his chair to be set down on the seashore, where he commanded the waves not to come in and wet him. No matter how forcefully he ordered the tide not to come in, however, his order was not obeyed. Soon the waves lapped around his chair. One historian tells us that, as a result, he never wore his crown again, but hung it on a statue of the crucified Christ.

The tides have been accurately predicted for a long time now. The experts have slowly become better at forecasting the weather too. Not infallible, but better - there is still an element of the unpredictable.

No, we can't control the tides. That is determined well outside the earth through a complex interaction of gravitational forces - mainly from the moon, but also from the sun. Then, with the surging tsunamis, underground (and under-sea) earthquake forces come into play as well.

The Tide of Evil

Sometimes we view events, circumstances and movements in the affairs of humanity as if they have the inevitability of the ocean's tide. We realise the chain of events must have begun somewhere. Yet we seem incapable of stopping it. Short of a miracle, it seems everything is set to get worse.

Step by step in recent times we have seen a dramatic increase in sexual promiscuity, pressure to accept homosexual lifestyle as normal, a rise in domestic violence and sexual abuse of children, increase in marriage breakdown, increasing problems from use and abuse of alcohol and other legal drugs, alarming increase in use of illegal drugs, increases in house break-ins, increases in crimes of violence… We live in a period when politics has been rocked with sex scandals, when election campaigns are marked by accusations of lying, when it is thought necessary to make it illegal for politicians to be dishonest… It is a time too when the authority of Scripture has been lowered to such an extent in some churches that the understanding of the person and work of Christ, and of the nature of mission and ministry are radically altered - not to mention views of morality. And when a number of high-profile Christian leaders who supposedly did believe the Bible have fallen into sin.

How are we to view it? How does God view it? Are we simply to acquiesce, regretful that "the times are changing"? Are we to retreat into our own holy ghetto where these things won't touch us? Are we to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed and depressed by the inevitability of the rising tide of evil - inside as well as outside the Church?

Listen to this description - "The women pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts. In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrongdoing. Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do. They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others. They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them" (Rom 1.26b-32).

Does that sound familiar? It is Paul's description of the tide of evil sweeping the Roman empire of his time. It is preceded by his own conviction and commitment - "I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles" (v. 16).

Or consider this description of eighteenth century England. "Not only was the sanctity of marriage widely ignored: other symptoms of decadence began to appear. Drunkeness held the nation in its grip, from the gentry to the poorest of the poor. Gambling had swelled into an obsession of such proportions that it may fairly be questioned whether the craze ever wielded such absolute sway in any country of the world. Amusements were often cruel and brutal. Cock-fighting, bull-baiting and bear-baiting were amongst the most popular contemporary sports… Crime was rampant, and the unequal criminal law, with its barbarous punishments, only made criminals more desperate. Such consequences were inevitable in an age which professed indifference to moral sanctions. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu could cynically suggest that the 'not' should be removed from the Commandments and inserted in the Creed, it is remarkable that virtue survived at all" (A. Skevington Wood, The Inextinguishable Blaze, pp. 9-10).

That was the England into which God sent revival under John Wesley - on such a scale that secular historians have recognised that horrors like those experienced in the French Revolution were averted on English soil.

Turning back to God

Jeremiah confronted the tide of evil in Judah for four decades up to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. His message was pointed and uncomfortable. The consequences of evil were not inevitable. The course of history could be changed.

"People of Israel, if you want to turn, then turn back to me. If you are faithful to me and remove the idols I hate, it will be right for you to swear by my name. Then all the nations will ask me to bless them, and they will praise me… Plough up your unploughed fields; do not sow your seeds among thorns. Keep your covenant with me, your LORD, and dedicate yourselves to me, you people of Judah and Jerusalem" (Jer. 4.1-4a).

The foreboding picture of divine judgment can seem so gloomy that we miss the call of grace. In the midst of despair that says, "We are lost! We are doomed!", the Lord is saying, "Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved" (vv. 13-14).

Australia comes to a federal election on October 3rd. It seems generally agreed that our taxation system needs reform and we have before us at least three different proposals of what might be done. But the greatest need of our nation is moral reform. The basis for moral reform is repentance and a return to God.

If my people…

Following the completion of the Temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon with a promise and a warning.

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chron. 7.13-14 NIV).

This was no casual promise. Pointedly, it was given to "my people who are called by my name." That was their whole nation. We cannot claim Australia to be "the Lord's people" in that same sense. The Lord is calling back our nation and our leadership. But we need to hear him calling us "who are called by his name", who have received his gracious salvation by faith. The Lord is calling us to humble ourselves and pray and seek his face. He is calling us to cleanse out every known sin in our own lives.

When Christians begin to come to God like that, then we will see his spiritual power released for the cleansing and healing of our nation.

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was burned at the stake in 155 AD. The proconsul was threatening to throw him to the wild beasts if he refused to "repent" - to renounce his faith in Christ. His reply, "Send for them. For repentance from better to worse is a change we may not make; but it is good to change from evil to righteousness."

As the Lord said through Jeremiah, "if you want to turn, then turn back to me." That is his call to us as a nation, and especially to those of us within the nation "who are called by his name."

Then live and speak in our society with complete confidence that the gospel of Christ is "God's power to save all who believe."


© Peter J. Blackburn, Buderim Uniting Church, 13 September 1998
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, © American Bible Society, 1992.
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