Repentance Means Turning to God 2 Kings 11:4-21

The Bible and Christianity has a number of words that have somehow lost their meaning through their frequency of use. They have become somewhat archaic over time and they are not words that find a whole lot of use in every day language—words like faint, holy, propitiation, justification, words that have significance within Scripture but they are not always understood by Christians, not to mention those who are outside of the church. It can become very confusing when as Christians we talk about spiritual things and we are not sensitive to the fact that there are words that we use that really don’t have any meaning to unbelievers, and if we are honest for a lot of believers they have lost their meaning, although the words are so embedded in everyday spiritual language that we don’t really know what those words mean.

One of those words that we frequently get confused over, and there is a lot of confusion about, is the word “repent.” We will hear people say things like “Repent and be baptized” from Acts chapter two in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, thinking that this is what is behind the gospel. We may also see people at times walking around with the sign, “Repent for the end is near.” What exactly does that mean, to repent? This is one of those words that we often have trouble with and then when people start defining it they get into even worse trouble. If we are in a cross-cultural or a language translation situation where we have to take the Biblical term “repent” and translate it into another language often the word groups that are chosen to translate “repent” don’t do a very good job, and words are used associated with feeling sorry, feeling guilty, repentance is often associated with feelings of remorse and contrition. That is true even in English. If we look at some of the dictionaries that we have and their definitions of repent we can see why there is such confusion. The Oxford English Dictionary defines repent as to feel or express sincere regret or remorse. Webster’s 11^th Collegiate Dictionary has two groups of meanings listed. The first two meanings are to turn from sin, which may be close in some contexts, but the idea of turning from sin and dedicating one’s self to amendment of one’s life is certainly not what the Bible means by the use of the terms that are translated “repent.” The second meaning given in Webster’s is to feel regret or contrition, and then only when we get to the secondary meaning of the second idea there of changing one’s mind does it get somewhat close to the Biblical meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek words. Another set of meanings given in Webster’s was to cause to feel regret or contrition, or to feel sorrow, regret or contrition for something. This, again, just leads to tremendous confusion if you are a Christian and you see this word “repent” and you think you can go to the dictionary and find out what the meaning is. You really can’t, you will just be more confused. In the Collins English Dictionary the same kind of confusion continues. It says the English word “repent” means to feel remorse or to be contrite about something, to show penitence, which is even greater confusion and distance from the Biblical concept. Then, for defining the word “repentance” the Collins Dictionary says it is remorse or contrition for one’s past actions or sins, an act or the process of being repentant, or penitence.

By looking at these English dictionaries it is hoped to have created a sense of realization that this is a word that comes loaded with a certain amount of verbal and etymological baggage that means it is just not understood by the average person who hears the word. In fact, it is not even understood by many theologians. So we see that the whole concept of repentance is one that we must investigate clearly in the Word, and to do that wee need to turn to Deuteronomy chapter thirty which gives us a starting point for understanding what this word actually means. This passage is within the final section of Moses’ last message to the Israelites before he dies. In the book of Deuteronomy there is a rehearsal of the basic provisions and mandates in the Mosaic Law and Moses concluded his message by reminding them that embedded within the Law were promises of blessing and promises of judgment to the Israelites, depending on whether they were obedient or disobedient. If they were obedient God would richly bless them; if they were disobedient to the Law God would judge them. At the end of Deuteronomy there is that promise that though they will seriously defect from the Mosaic Law, will apostasize and be disciplined in a severe way by God, be removed from the land and be scattered throughout the world, that there would come a time when as a group the nation would turn back to God, at which time God would restore them to the land. This promises is given in the first six verses of Deuteronomy chapter thirty.

Deuteronomy 30:1 ^NASB “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call {them} to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you.” While they are scattered throughout the earth there would come a recognition among the surviving Jews at that time of what God had said and they will corporately turn to Him. [2] “and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons” Returning to the Lord your God is connected inseparably from obedience, it is not just a turning back to God but a turning back to God has a consequent change in behavior. It is not to just turn mentally, which is sometimes the idea that we get when we study the word “repent” in terms of the Greek meaning of metanoeo [metanoew], meaning to change the mind, it was a mental activity that led to a change in behavior. Verse 2 indicates what this repentance is and it is the Hebrew word shub, the primary word that was used in the Old Testament to indicate repentance. The core meaning of the word is to turn or to return, and as such it is an indication that a person is going in one direction with their thinking in their life and they are now going to turn and go in another direction—“and obey Him.” So the turning also produces a change in behavior. It is not external, it is internal; it is a change of thinking but it is a change of orientation of the soul and in the context it is one that is going to be related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The result is then given: [3] “then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. [4] If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. [5] The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.”

Verse 3 sets the foundation for what repentance is. Everything else that we read in the rest of the Bible, whether we are talking about Joshua, Judges, or later in Samuel of the Kings, the period of the return from the exile in the last part of the Old Testament, or whether we are talking about the gospel message—John the Baptist’s message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus gave the same message and He sent His disciples out with the same message. What we are saying is that we can’t understand anything that the New Testament says about repentance if we don’t understand what the Old Testament context is, and the Old Testament context is set by Deuteronomy chapter 30:2. The editors of The Theological Word Book of the Old Testament wrote this in relationship to explaining shub:

The Bible is rich in idioms describing man’s responsibility in the process of repentance. Such phrases would include the following: Incline your heart unto the Lord your God, Joshua 24:23; circumcise yourself to the Lord, Jeremiah 4:4; wash your heart from wickedness, Jeremiah 4:14; break up your fallow ground, Hosea 10:12, etc. All of these expressions of man’s penitential activity, however, are subsumed and summarized by this one verb shub, for better than any other verb it combines in itself the two requisites of repentance: the turn from evil and the turn to the good.

What they are saying is that in the Scripture it doesn’t always state it in the straight manner of return to the Lord but there were various other idioms and circumlocutions that were used to express the same idea of turning to the Lord and away from idols. That is the foundational meaning of the passage as seen in the context of Deuteronomy chapter thirty. Shub is used over 1000 times. In fact, it is the sixth most often used word in the Old Testament, and in 164 of its uses it is in the context of a turning back to a renewal of the covenant relationship that God had established between Himself and His people, and that is certainly the idea in Deuteronomy 30:2. Looking at Deuteronomy chapter 30 what we realize is that in the next few verses by the time that they return and the time that they are restored to the land God does something to them that is described in verse 6: “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” This verse and the ideas there of the circumcision of the heart and the heart of the descendants is reminiscent of the language that is used to describe the new covenant ion Jeremiah chapters 31ff. It was in the context that the Jews would turn to the Lord in obedience that God would then restore them to the land, at which time He would establish a new covenant that replaced the old covenant with Moses. In that new covenant relationship God would richly bless them.

This is what gives us the idea of what repentance is, especially in the Old Testament context. Nowhere in the Old Testament do the writers of the Old Testament give us a developed doctrine of repentance but what they do give us is various pictures of times in the history of Israel when they did repent, i.e. they did turn back to restore that covenant relationship with God, and that is what is at the core of the events in 2 Kings chapter eleven.

This is the period that is at the end of the Omri dynasty and God has been bringing the nation into discipline because of the evil brought into the nation through the descendants of Omri, especially through Ahab and Jezebel. The evil that Jehoshaphat introduced into the southern kingdom was that he married off his son Jehoram to the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel by the name of Athaliah. So now the evil of Baal worship, the evil of the fertility worship that had gone on in the northern kingdom and brought the people to tremendous temptation and wiped out their spirituality was now in the south, and Athaliah has been brought within the very womb of the house of David. This was a satanic assault on the Davidic covenant because God had promised David that through his descendants there would be a king who would come and would reign forever and ever upon the throne of Israel. Of course this was a reference to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, through Athaliah and through Jehoram as well there has been an assault on the descendants of David in that generation. 2 Kings 11:1 ^NASB “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring.” If she had been completely successful she would have wiped out the Davidic line, but God extended His grace and rescued one.

Athaliah had usurped the throne. Only a descendant of David had the right to rule over Judah, and not a woman from the house of Omri. By this time Omri has been dead for a number of years. Ahab is dead, Jezebel is dead, and under the cleansing role of Jehu who God had anointed to be the next king of Israel the northern kingdom had been cleansed of the house of Omri and Athaliah is the only left alive. She is seeking her vengeance and her attack on God and on His provision by wiping out all of the heirs to David.

In verse 4 we see Jehoiada the priest organizing the defense of the king so that Athaliah cannot send her troops or those who support her to attack and destroy Joash. This becomes an important turning point in the history of Israel. What happens here is that in verse 4 down through verse 10 is the organization and the plan to protect the king as laid out by Jehoiada.

2 Kings 11:4-8 ^NASB “Now in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him in the house of the LORD. Then he made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the LORD, and showed them the king’s son. [5] He commanded them, saying, ‘This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, who come in on the sabbath and keep watch over the king’s house [6] (one third also {shall be} at the gate Sur, and one third at the gate behind the guards), shall keep watch over the house for defense. [7] Two parts of you, {even} all who go out on the sabbath, shall also keep watch over the house of the LORD for the king. [8] Then you shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes within the ranks shall be put to death. And be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.’” So there is a strict order given that if anybody breeches the security line they are to be immediately killed in order to protect the king.

There is times in history and in certain events that are so crucial and important that we have to realize that important people’s lives are at stake and it is necessary to take the life of those who might bring danger in those situations, and that includes the execution of any particular enemy lest they do extreme damage to a nation. Verse 9 tells us what they actually did. “So the captains of hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each one of them took his men who were to come in on the sabbath, with those who were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. [10] The priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears and shields that {had been} King David’s, which {were} in the house of the LORD.” This is showing again the connection with the house of David and how because of David and the way God had blessed David they are showing the continuity with Joash and that the armament of David is being used to protect him.

Then they have the ceremony, described in verse 12, of crowning him as the new king. 2 Kings 11:12 ^NASB “Then he brought the king’s son out and put the crown on him and {gave him} the testimony; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, ‘{Long} live the king!’” This is a tremendous ceremony. The people who heard about this were brought into the temple. In the precincts there were thousands of people. It wasn’t quiet, they were making a tremendous amount of noise, and they take Joash through a very specific ceremony. First, they are going to put the crown upon his head. They indicate that he is now the king and assuming the authority of the king. The second thing they did was to give him the testimony, which takes us back to Deuteronomy chapter seventeen where the requirements for a king of Israel are laid out. In that chapter there are various stipulations given to the king and how he should reign—things that were prohibited to the king and things that were provided for the king.

Deuteronomy 17:14 ^NASB “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ [15] you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, {one} from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.” First of all, the king is not someone that the people chose but someone that the Lord chose. He would be a Jew who was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [16] “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’” He is not to use his office as an opportunity to make himself rich at the expense of the people. He is not to cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. In other words, to seek their wealth from other nations rather than looking to the Lord for their sustenance and their wealth. [17] “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.” We have seen how Solomon violated this and a number of the other kings. [18] “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.” In other words, he is given a copy of the testimony that has the approval of the priesthood as being an accurate copy of the Law. Then he is to write out his own copy so that as he writes it out he will be paying attention to the specifics that are in the Law. Then, [19] “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, [20] that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”

The king is to be constantly going back to the Word of God as the authority in his life and that will inform him as to who the nation Israel is, what God has provided for them, how God is going to use the nation and what his responsibilities are as the leader of God’s people. He was to read the Word of God on a daily basis for the purpose, #1, that he would fear the Lord. This is authority orientation, to realize who he was as the king, that he wasn’t the ultimate authority in Israel; the ultimate authority in Israel was the Word of God, God who had redeemed them from slavery, the God who had given the land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by virtue of the Abrahamic covenant. He is to learn the fear of the Lord and then to observe all the words of the Law and its statutes. He is to apply the Law. As the king he is the head of the nation, he is the head of the judiciary, so he is to see that all the laws are implemented and applied in the life of the nation. Last, it was to teach him humility; to drive arrogance out of his soul, verse 20.

Then they anointed him with oil as a sign that God had designated him to be the king. The idea of anointing is expressed through the Hebrew verb related to “messiah” or the anointed one. Then the people shout and make a noise and Athaliah hears what is going on. 2 Kin 11:13-15 ^NASB “When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard {and of} the people, she came to the people in the house of the LORD. She looked and behold, the king was standing by the pillar, according to the custom, with the captains and the trumpeters beside the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, ‘Treason! Treason!’ And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were appointed over the army and said to them, ‘Bring her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her put to death with the sword.’ For the priest said, ‘Let her not be put to death in the house of the LORD.’”

Athaliah is the one who has committed treason but she is going to accuse the one who is righteous of committing treason. How often do we see this from our political leaders of all kinds down through history where they are the ones who are guilty of something and they constantly accuse those who oppose them for doing exactly what they do.

The first twenty-five years of Joash’s reign are going to be very positive, but once Jehoiada dies then he is going to be influenced by bad counselors and is going to be turned away from the Lord, and he is going to become so rebellious that when Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah a prophet, challenges Joash because of his arrogance and his disobedience to the Lord, Joash is going to have Zechariah assassinated on the temple grounds. This shows how by the time he reached the end of his life he has completely reversed himself in obedience to the Word of God and no longer cares or honors the Word to the point that he is going to have a true prophet executed on the temple ground. But that is at the end of his life. We see here that Athaliah is not to be killed on the temple grounds of the house of the Lord. 2 Kings 11:16 ^NASB “So they seized her, and when she arrived at the horses’ entrance of the king’s house, she was put to death there.”

Then we come to verse 17, and this is where we see the true meaning of repentance take place. It means a turning. The word is not used here but this depicts for us what turning or repenting actually means. 2 Kings 11:17 ^NASB “Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they would be the LORD’S people, also between the king and the people.” This is a covenant renewal ceremony where the people are corporately turning back to God. What do we learn from this? We learn that it involves not just a mental shift, it involves action. This whole concept of turning back to the Lord involves more than just a mental act of turning. That mental act of turning necessarily involves consequent overt action that is consistent with that. So the best word for it is just “change,” not just changing the mind but there is a shift in behavior as a result of that turning. How does the behavior change here? [18] All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD.” Because they turn back to God now they are going to implement all the provisions of the Mosaic Law. All of this execution is completely consistent with what the Word of God teaches. In the first part of Deuteronomy 17 there is a description of the fact that those who introduce idolatry into the land of Israel are to be executed and removed from the land completely through death. Exodus 21:12 ^NASB “Ex 21:12   “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.” Athaliah had murdered all of the royal heirs, so she was doubly worthy of the death penalty. Also all the priests of Baal were worthy of death according to the Mosaic Law, and so all of this was done legally, it is not some sort of vindictiveness on the part of Joash and Jehoiada; they are returning the nation to obedience to the covenant that God had established with them.

So there is a cleansing of the nation. That is part of what occurs when we turn back to God: there is a cleansing of sin. The result was that all the people of the land rejoiced. 2 Kings 11:20 ^NASB “So all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet. For they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king’s house. [21] Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.”

When we understand what turning to the Lord means as repentance then other things become clear as we go through the Scriptures. When Nehemiah is praying with regard to his return to Israel and confessing the sins of the people corporately, he says Nehemiah 1:8, 9 ^NASB “Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; but {if} you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’” In his prayer he is quoting Scripture back to God; he is making a case to God as to why God should act in response to his prayer. He is saying that it is because the Lord had made this prediction and promise in Deuteronomy 30—“If we return to you [shub].” He is quoting Deuteronomy 30 as a sign of a national repentance or turning back to God.

When we then think about what happened subsequently in the history of Israel we go to the last book on the Old Testament where in Malachi there is again a call to the nation from a prophet to turn back to God in covenant obedience. But there they only had a superficial turning to God, as seen in Malachi 1:6-14; it wasn’t a true turning back to God and Malachi predicts that eventually a time would come, preceded by the coming of the prophet Elijah, when the people would indeed turn back to a covenant relationship with God. That set the context for the New Testament, and in the New Testament what happens is that in the opening John the Baptist comes on to the scene with his message: “Repent”—turn back, restore the covenant relationship with God. Then do what? Be baptized for the repentance of sin. The physical act of water baptism was a associated with the spiritual act of washing, spiritual cleansing that was associated with the new covenant of Jeremiah chapter 31. So the message was to turn back to God and restore that covenant message and the sign that they had turned internally to be restored to that covenant relationship with God was to be through water baptism, which pictured that internal cleansing of the heart. That is John’s message; that, then, is the message of Jesus. But that message was rejected by the leaders of Israel because they thought, through their legalistic obedience that they were actually in covenant relationship with God. So they reject Jesus and the message of John the Baptist. John ends up being executed by Herod, Jesus is eventually executed by the Romans as well as with the duplicity of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and then when Jesus rose from the dead the kingdom that they have proclaimed was going to be postponed. But that is not clear immediately. In fact, in God’s grace because the nation was still in the land there is still the continuing gracious offer to Israel to turn back to God.

They still had the opportunity to turn and accept that Jesus was the Messiah, and that is the context of Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter two. At the end of that message Peter says something that is continuously misunderstood. He says, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That verse has to be understood in light of this whole history of repentance commands, and it is a relationship of that promise in Deuteronomy 30 that when you turn back to God, God says “I will circumcise your hearts,” the new covenant language that is tied to Jeremiah 31 is going to bring with it the forgiveness, the remission of sins. Peter is talking to Jews here. He is saying the same thing that John the Baptist said and that Jesus said, and he is saying the same thing to those Jews: Repent; turn back to a covenant relationship with God, and as a sign each one of you be baptized. He is basically offering the same baptism command here that John the Baptist was offering as a sign that internally they were in right spiritual relationship with God and cleansed of their sin. It would be evidenced by this external act of baptism. So Peter is still offering the kingdom to Israel. In Acts chapter three he says the same thing: Turn to God and the times of refreshing will come. The times of refreshing refers to the Millennium; there was still a legitimate offer of the kingdom to Israel at that stage before they were taken out under the fifth cycle of discipline.

The point is that when we understand the word “repent” as turning back to God—as it is used from Deuteronomy 30 all the way through the Old Testament and into the New Testament—it includes the idea of turning or shifting your loyalty to God with the consequent action of obedience to Him. In other words, it means change. It is primarily a mental attitude change, but then it results in consequential behavioral change. This is the idea that we see in Revelation in those seven letters to the seven churches. Each of those letters ends with the command to repent. It is not a command to be remorseful; it is not a command for contrition; it is a command that is in the context of saying, You were doing this and this and this in disobedience to God, you need to change or else something drastic will happen in terms of divine discipline. Two of the seven letters in Revelation did not have a repentance command because those churches were in complete obedience. But of the five that were engaged in disobedient actions the command was to repent, not just to have a mental attitude change or to change of mind, but a true change that would change their behavior.

We come to understand that repentance, then, isn’t related to the command of justification because we can’t do that. Repentance isn’t part of the gospel message for salvation. That’s why we don’t find the word “repent” anywhere in the Gospel of John. Repent is addressed to God’s people who are living in disobedience and need to be restored. For the Jews it was a restoration as a nation to a right covenant relationship with God, and in the church age it is addressed to individual believers who are living in carnality who need to confess their sins and turn back in obedience to God and living the spiritual life. In a church age context turning to God would be a recognition that you are still a child of God, you haven’t lost your salvation because of your sin; you confess your sin to Him and then take any necessary steps to try to avoid falling back into those same traps of temptation where you so easily yield to sin. That means you have to start learning some doctrine in order to govern your life and thinking to stay away from those traps.

Illustrations