At the dedication of the temple in Solomon’s time, the Lord gave an encouraging promise to Solomon in connection with the people humbling themselves before God. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.” How suitable is this promise to us as a nation and people at this present time when, as a nation and as individuals, we have so grievously departed from our God.
Because of threatened calamities in the prophet Joel’s time we find him delivering a message to the elders and people in the land. “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” He called for a solemn assembly and for the priests, the ministers of the altar to weep between the porch and the altar.
Daniel spoke in a similar vein when, conscious of the solemn straits into which the nation had been brought for their sins, he cried to the Lord for them, humbling himself before God. “I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession.” In that confession he acknowledged the righteousness of God in His dealings with them, yet he sought mercies of the God of heaven.
We know that God has no delight in the sacrifice of fools. Feigned worship and service is hateful in His sight. Joel understood this when he spoke in the Word of the Lord to the people. “Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.” As it is better not to vow, than to vow and not pay, so must men lay to heart the danger of appearing to worship the Lord with their lips while their heart is far from Him.
When we are called year by year, on a day set apart for this specific purpose to humble ourselves before the Lord, it is a work we must engage in with all our heart, if we are to derive any spiritual benefit from it. We are not to regard it as merely a yearly recurring event that must be attended to, but as a solemn and weighty duty for which we need rich supplies of grace if we are not to misuse the occasion. Some may say, ‘Why have a day of humiliation and prayer seeing that there are so many difficulties in the way? Let us not be discouraged by such talk but let us be encouraged to engage in a duty from which multitudes have derived great benefit. To come before God to confess our sins, individually and nationally, and to humble ourselves before God, is not a vain work. Joel encouraged the people to humble themselves before God on the grounds that “he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.”
Isaiah could say, “O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.” As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.” He is faithful that promised and He will send an answer in peace. “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.” Only let a backsliding people humble themselves in the dust before the Lord their God and confess their sins to Him and they will find Him to be as good as His Word. Has He said it, and shall He not do it? “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” In this assurance then, let us engage in the duties of a day of humiliation and prayer, looking to the Lord that He will show mercy towards us.
O God of hosts, we thee beseech,
return now unto thine;
Look down from heav’n in love, behold,
and visit this thy vine.
This vineyard, which thine own right hand
hath planted us among;
And that same branch, which for thyself
thou hast made to be strong.