But anyway, so they put on sackcloth and it says in verse 6, "For word came unto the king
of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid his robe from."
I mean, this guy's got the fancy royal garment, you know, you picture the purple robe with
the white and black fur collar around it, you know, and he's got the fancy things.
I mean, he gets, when he hears this preaching, when he hears the word of God, he takes off
his robe, he covers him with sackcloth, and he's sat in ashes.
I mean, this is the king.
He's sitting in some gold throne.
He's got all his fancy garments, the scepter, the rings on his fingers, you know, the big
gold necklace and everything.
I mean, this guy gets up and just takes all that off, puts on sackcloth, goes and sits
in the dirt.
He's putting dirt on his head, like, woe unto us.
Now, you wonder, like, how could this sermon just reach the whole nation?
Because when that, when the leadership gets right, I mean, that's going to, you know,
people are going to see that.
That's going to be shocking.
Can you imagine if the president of the United States, you know, whether it was Obama or
Trump or Bush or, you know, whichever the president from recent history, just imagine
any of these guys just saying like, you know what?
I've heard the preaching from Faithful Word Baptist Church or, you know, somehow I heard
the preaching from, you know, Pastor Roger Jimenez or I heard Brother Corbin Russell's
sermon on Sunday morning, you know, down in Tucson.
You know, somehow it would get to the president.
And what if the president would literally just say, "Our nation is so wicked and we need
to get right with God and he's putting dirt on his head and he's ripping off his power
tie and everything and basically, you know, he's begging God for mercy and we need to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we need the Word of God, you know, we've got to stop
the sodomites."
And he just, all of a sudden he's just like, just does a complete 180, I mean that would
really impact a lot of people, especially if he was a popular president.
You know, obviously our country is extremely divided, there's like a hardcore polarization
where no matter who's president, half the people love him and half the people hate him,
right?
All the conservatives hate Obama, all the liberals hate Trump, you know, but imagine
a place, there are a lot of countries in the world though where the leader, everybody kind
of likes him or he's just kind of popular, you know, you think about popular presidents
in the past that had a really high approval rating.
Imagine if a guy like that just got right with God and started preaching the Bible and
just started doing fireside chats with the nation where he's just like ripping face and
preaching the Bible and talking about how we need to repent of all this wickedness.
That's what's happening.
And you know, it's not every day that a king puts off his royal garments and goes and sits
in ashes, sits in the dirt.
I mean, look, ashes are something that gets you dirtier than anything.
I mean, you can go roll around in the dirt.
You know, it's even roll around the ashes, you're going to need more of a shower.
I mean, ashes stain you.
Am I right?
I mean, this guy is rolling around in soot and ashes and just getting dirty and putting
on sackcloth and saying, hey, everybody needs to put on sackcloth.
We are wicked.
Our nation is wicked.
We need to get right with God.
God's going to destroy us.
Let's pray for mercy.
Okay, and so when he does this, he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything.
Let them not feed nor drink.
He's like, no, we're going to fast.
Our pets are going to fast.
Animals are going to fast.
We're not even going to feed the dog.
We're not even going to feed our cattle.
We're going to take away the cat's water dish.
We need to get right with God here.
Okay.
Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth.
He's like, put sackcloth on the animals.
Now, this is unprecedented in the Bible.
Nowhere did God command this.
Nowhere did God say, hey, your animals need to fast.
Your animals better be in sackcloth.
Your animals need to get right with God.
That's foreign description.
But remember, this guy, he doesn't know the Bible.
I mean, is this guy a Bible-believing Christian?
No, he doesn't know the Bible.
He's a heathen.
But when he hears the preaching of God's word, God does a work in his heart, and he ends up
through the power of God's word, through the power of the Spirit of God, he ends up just
saying, "We need to get right," and he's just like, "What do I do?"
You know, look, okay, everybody's in sackcloth.
Now what?
Put it on the animals, you know?
I mean, what do we do here?
Right?
Now you can see why God backs off from his threat.