1. In the Old Testament Age
James Buchanan
The greatest work going on in the world is of the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints. Sometimes this work proceeds slowly and silently under the stated ministry of the Word as one after another is secretly impressed with the power of divine truth, brought under the teaching of God’s Spirit, and built up in faith, holiness and comfort unto eternal life. At other times, it is accomplished in a more extraordinary and remarkable way, vast numbers being brought suddenly under the power of divine truth and exhibiting the effects of divine grace in a striking manner.
We have been so much accustomed to look to the more slow, quiet and gradual method of maintaining and extending the kingdom of Christ that we are apt to be startled, and even to listen with some degree of incredulous surprise, when we hear of any sudden and general work of the Spirit of God. Indeed we cease even to expect and to pray for any more remarkable, or more rapid, change in the state of the Church and world than what usually takes place under a regular ministry.
5James Baine (1710-1790) was minister of the High Kirk from 1756 to 1766. He was widely regarded as being one of the ablest preachers of his day.
6Baine was succeeded by George Muir (1723-1771), whose writings testify to his zealous Evangelicalism. He was attracted out of curiosity to visit Cambuslang during the revival of 1742. As a result of his visit, Muir was converted and decided to study for the ministry. Principal Macleod says of him that he was part of a band of “worthy men who did good work in the dark days of Moderate ascendancy in holding the faith and furthering the cause of the gospel” (Scottish Theology, p 220).
1Taken, with editing, from the “Illustrative Cases of Conversion” in The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit. It is based on Acts 2:17,18.
But God’s ways are not as our ways, neither are His thoughts as our thoughts. Often in the history of His Church He has been pleased, for wise reasons, to manifest His grace and power in an extraordinary manner – partly to arouse a slumbering Church and partly to alarm and convince those who oppose Him; and, most of all, to teach them the sovereignty and also the power of that grace which they are too prone to despise.
When any real revival of the power of true religion takes place in any country – however local and temporary, provided only that some immortal souls are savingly converted – such an event, however it may be ridiculed by the world, is the occasion of joy to the angels in heaven and also of unmixed satisfaction to the Redeemer Himself. If we have anything of the same spirit, such an event will be an occasion of joy to us, and is fitted in many ways to confirm our wavering faith, to animate our flagging zeal, to add energy to our lukewarm prayers and strength to our languid hopes. Wherever God’s power and glory are remarkably displayed, it is both the duty and the privilege of His Church to behold and adore it.
The Bible speaks of “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19) – times of remarkable revival which would occur long after the days of the Apostles. It records several memorable examples which occurred both under the Old and the New Testament dispensations. We may briefly refer to them with a view to showing that such revivals are expressly recognised in the Word of God.
When it is said of those who lived in the days of Seth: “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26), there is probably an allusion to some general revival of religion which occurred before the flood. But we have a more particular account of a very general revival in the times of Joshua. We read of the whole generation which entered with him into the promised land: “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that He did for Israel” (Judg 2:7). But when “all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel: and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord” (Judg 2:10,11).
Several circumstances are recorded here which show that under the ministry of Joshua there was a very deep spirit of earnest religion among the people and that it exerted an extensive influence. The nation acted as one man, and in a spirit of devoted piety, when “the whole congregation of the Children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there; and the land was subdued before them” (Josh 18:1). They did so again, when “all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood
on this side the ark and on that side,” while Joshua “read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law; there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them” (Josh 8:33-35).
This was also so when “all Israel stoned [Achan] with stones, and burned him with fire,” for his “trespass in the accursed thing” (Josh 7:25), and when “the whole congregation of the Children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh” (Josh 22:12), to go up to war against the two and a half tribes, on the first suspicion of their falling into idolatry. Such a lively zeal on behalf of God’s service indicates a deep, prevailing sense of religion; and it is interesting to reflect on the means by which this had been produced.
We are told that the Israelites who came out of Egypt with Moses were a stiff-necked and rebellious people; but none of them, except Joshua and Caleb, entered into the promised land; they all died in the wilderness. It was their children – children born and bred in the wilderness – who afterwards exhibited so much of the power of religion on their hearts. Their religious earnestness and zeal may be ascribed to three things: first, they had seen the wonderful works of the Lord, the miracles which He wrought in the wilderness, and the remarkable fulfilment of His word; second, from their earliest years they had received a wilderness education – being trained from their childhood in hardships and trials – which taught them their entire dependence on God and the duty of absolute submission to His sovereign will; third, they had heard the reading of God’s law, and were acquainted with its glorious truths. These were appropriate means, but the experience of their fathers shows that, of themselves, neither the hardships nor the miracles of the wilderness would have produced true religion. That depends on the blessing of the Spirit of God.
Another remarkable time of revival of true religion occurs in the history of the Kings. When Shaphan read the book of the law before Josiah, “it came to pass, when the King had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes” (2 Ki 22:11). And the king commanded the priests and scribes, and other officers: “Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us” (2 Ki 22:13). The King’s concern for his people was now remarkably displayed: he knew that they were exposed to God’s wrath, and he dreaded the judgements with which they were threatened.
Forthwith he “sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and of
Jerusalem. And the King went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant” (2 Ki 23:1-3).
Then followed a great national reformation: the vessels that had been made for Baal and the host of heaven were burnt; idolatrous priests were suppressed; the houses of the Sodomites were broken down; Tophet, in which children were made to pass through the fire to Molech, was defiled; the horses and chariots which had been given to the service of the sun were taken away or destroyed; the idolatrous altars of the kings of Judah were overthrown; the high places which Solomon had built were not spared; the images were broken in pieces and the groves cut down; Jeroboam’s altar at Bethel was overturned; the offending priests were cut off, according to the national law.
Then there followed a great, solemn general assembly to keep the Passover, of which it is said: “Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah” (2 Ki 23:22). And of Josiah himself it is said: “Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him” (2 Ki 23:25).
Some other similar instances of a revival of the power of religion among the people of Israel might be mentioned: such as those that took place under King Asa and under King Hezekiah; and the remarkable change which was wrought on the hearts of the captives at Babylon, and by which they were prepared for their restoration to their own land. This change occurred chiefly amongst the younger Jews who were left, since their fathers had died in captivity – just as formerly the young generation were impressed in the wilderness. Of it Ezra says, “Now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in His holy place; that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage” (Ezra 9:8). And there are many passages in the Old Testament (Ps 85, 102:13-22) which beautifully describe the spiritual revivals which occurred from time to time under the Jewish dispensation.
In many other passages of the Old Testament (Is 52:7, 54:1-5; Ezek 36:25; Hos 14:4; Joel 2:28) we find predictions of great, general revivals of religion which should occur under the new and better dispensation to which
the faith of the Jewish Church looked forward. Accordingly, in the New Testament, we read the authentic account of the most remarkable revival of true religion that has ever occurred in the history of the world. It was, as it were, “life from the dead”. A new impulse was then given to the world, the force of which is felt and its effects witnessed even in the present day. It was not a new religion that was then introduced, but a completion of what had been revealed from the beginning – the visible fulfilment of God’s word of promise and a clearer manifestation of His grace and truth.