A nation and people in the midst of whom God has made Himself known through His Word and by His witnessing people and among whom His Church and worship have been established and the saving work of the Holy Spirit experienced—when the generality and majority of such a favoured nation turn in heart and openly away from God, His Word, law and worship, to transgression and sin of all kinds boldly and unashamedly, then we are confronted with what are called “National sins.” The Book of Jeremiah depicts the National sins of the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah in much detail, and a solemn record it is.
In the case of nations highly favoured by God with spiritual ordinances and privileges, their apostasy from God is exceedingly heinous and inevitably provokes God in His just wrath to visit them with manifest and sore judgments and afflictions. And thus did God deal with the Jews in Jeremiah’s day, first with limited afflictions and then with captivity in Babylon and all the miseries involved in this outstanding evidence of the Lord’s displeasure and power.
We find the godly in the midst of such a lamentable state of affairs deeply exercised in relation to God’s honour, the condition of their fellow-sinners and the cause of truth in the nation. In looking over the prayers of Jeremiah, Daniel and Nehemiah there is to be found in their exercise much of a similar nature when they plead with God in the behalf of their nation steeped in sin and under the rod of judgment.
In the case of Jeremiah before the captivity, there is a record of the dearth in Judah. “Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits and found no water” etc.
Then Jeremiah, not in the actual order of his prayer, (Jeremiah: xiv) acknowledges the greatness and the glory of the Lord in these words: “O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble.” And of course in his prayer to the Lord he confesses the sins of the nation saying: “O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee.” But following upon the confession, among other petitions he pleads for the manifestation of the divine mercy and favour in these words: “Leave us not.”
Then when we look at Daniel’s exercise and prayer and confession in the Book of Daniel (Chapter: ix), he is the Lord’s beloved servant in the midst of Babylon with the captive Jews there. Here he saw the Lord’s hand indeed stretched out against his nation. He refers to this before the Lord thus: “Therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God . . . as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us . . . ,” (Verses: 11, 13).
Then he, like Jeremiah, addresses the Lord in a besetting manner thus: “And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments . . .” (Verse: 4).
Then Daniel’s confession of the National sins is one which lays bare before the Lord these sins in great detail, e.g. “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.” (Verses: 5, 6).
And finally Daniel follows his confession of sins with gracious petitions for the Lord’s favour in the following manner: “O, our God hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake . . . O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God; for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name” (Verses: 17, 19).
As to Nehemiah, he was to be honoured and used by the Lord in being guided to go up to Jerusalem out of captivity to re-build the walls and to cleanse and repair the temple there. But before this took place, he obtained a grievous report of the condition of the people at Jerusalem and of the city itself.
Certain men of Judah informed him: “The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire” (The Book of Nehemiah, Chapter, i: 3).
When Nehemiah heard this report he sat down and wept as undoubtedly it brought forcibly to his mind the National sins of the Jews and God’s judgments against them. And just as Jeremiah and Daniel, he turns to the Lord in prayer.
He addresses the Lord in somewhat similar words as Daniel, as follows: “I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments; Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant . . .” (Verses: 5, 6).
Then Nehemiah proceeds to confess the sins of his nation and people to the Lord: “I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel Thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against Thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which Thou commandest Thy servant Moses” (Verses: 6, 7).
After this he, like Jeremiah and Daniel, implores the Lord to be favourable in the following part of his prayer: “Remember, I beseech Thee, the word that Thou commandest Thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations; But if ye turn unto Me, and keep My commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set My name there” (Verses: 8, 9).
These eminent servants of the Lord were of great understanding in the knowledge and fear of God, and the honour of His name was their chief concern. They were distressed and grieved over the sins and ungodly conduct of their fellow men; and earnestly sought the exercising of the divine mercy at the throne of grace for their nation. They were true patriots; and so is the remnant today in backsliding Britain, who in the fear of God, cry and sigh for the abominations done in the land. And what is needed today, is not human remedies, political conferences, social centres, etc., in order to curb and regulate vice and national disregard for the laws of God and man; but humble penitent, earnest prayer to God in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that He would have compassion and mercy upon us, and heal our backslidings and deliver us from our national sins and turn us to the Bible, the Gospel of Christ and to the ways of His commandments, from the highest to the lowest subjects in the land.