ECT Interesting verse on repentance

[nikolai_42]

This may go nowhere as a thread. I'm not really posing a (single) question as pointing something out that I hadn't seen before. So all thoughts prompted by this are welcome.

The relevant verse is as follows :

I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
Jer 8:6

I can't say I remember ever reading repentance being worded this way in scripture (at least not remembering it). It seems to be a somewhat self-interpreting passage.

There is debate over the nature of repentance. Some say you have to change your ways wholesale before the Lord will even look at you. Others say it is merely a change of mind (perspective, outlook etc...). The scripture above looks like it tends to support the latter more than the former. It seems to imply a man realizing his own ways are sinful and that he needs to turn to God. Further, it would seem that this cannot be willed by an individual. If a man is sinning, it is typically not because of lack of information but rather because he is deceived or hardened in heart against God. In other words, it seems that if it were up to him to make that change of mind that he would have whereof to boast. Rather a ridiculous thought when you think that this would be required to come out of a rebellious heart...

 

[Truster]

The word repented is better understood as sighed. A sigh in this case is an emotional rather than a spiritual response. It is pointing out the fact that mankind will not even sigh over his sin let alone be able to repent.

 

[dodge]

The word repented is better understood as sighed. A sigh in this case is an emotional rather than a spiritual response. It is pointing out the fact that mankind will not even sigh over his sin let alone be able to repent.

2Co 7:10
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

I don't believe "Godly sorrow" produces sighing.

 

[nikolai_42]

2Co 7:10
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

I don't believe "Godly sorrow" produces sighing.

Actually, I would say it is a scriptural indication of mourning over sin (both spiritual and emotional in my understanding). When Ezekiel was shown the state of Israel by being given a vision throughout the temple (and all the abominations represented therein), God finally departed the temple and judged Jerusalem. In doing so, he sent angels to do various things in that judgment. Read Ezekiel 9 for the full description, but this is what was commanded concerning those who would be spared :

And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Ezekiel 9:4

These were spared because they did not in any way agree with the ways of those who were judged. They were not in the act of repenting, but if those who were spared have that attitude towards sin, wouldn't one expect someone who is turning away from sin to have that same attitude? I am put in mind of a quote attributed to George Whitefield :

If you will not weep for your sins and your crimes against a Holy God, George Whitefield will weep for you!

And even Jesus seems to imply repentance involving an emotional response to sin :

And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.
But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
Luke 23:27-31

It is true that there is a note simply of lament for judgment, but that is a fruitless weeping. Godly sorrow works repentance and those at the cross weeping for the Savior would have had 40 years to mourn their sin. Surely there was more than a note of direction to repentance in His words.

 

[Truster]

2Co 7:10
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

I don't believe "Godly sorrow" produces sighing.

I was dealing with the OP and the Hebrew not the Greek. Try and keep up...


PS if you haven't got one then get yourself a copy of Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon.

 

[jamie]

Jesus Christ does not judge sinners, we will when the time comes.