Why wear sackcloth and ashes

All the people of the city had hoped that if they showed God an outward sign of their humility and repentance God would have mercy on them. The story of Job is one of the most significant stories in the Bible about sackcloth and ashes in terms of mourning, repentance, and humility. Job was a wealthy man who was richly blessed with an abundance of wealth and children.

He was a man who deeply respected God. But when he lost everything, he ripped his clothes, put on sackcloth, and dumped ashes on his body. Later, his friends join him, they wept, tore their robes, and sprinkled dust on their heads Job This moment was marked with mourning. But later his friends assume Job must have sinned for God to smite him but Job denies any wrongdoing Jon Other examples of mourning in the Bible include King Ezra as he mourned over the sins of his people Ezra after they had married foreigners who served pagan gods.

God had set apart the Israelites to be holy people. In mourning for their sins, he turned to fasting , prayer, and put on sackcloth and ashes. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. Other mentions wearing sackcloth in the Bible include King Hezekiah Isaiah , King Ahab 1 Kings , Eliakim 2 Kings , the priests in Joel , the elders of Jerusalem, Lamentations , and the two witnesses in Revelation This includes when doing something that grieves his heart.

Proverbs says plainly, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. One almost HAS to humiliate oneself.

It was an outward expression of what was going on inside of a person. Specifically with regard to repentance for egregious sins, King David is a well-known example. David was a study in extremes, with many great successes and celebrations, and also with big, big failures. Nathan declared that the child would die.

He became physically ill. He put on sackcloth and refused to eat for seven days until the child passed away. His actions seem to be both repentant as well as mourning rituals, only done before the child died, out of hope that God would reverse the judgment. While we are left to speculate exactly why this act was so egregious, David knew that he had sinned greatly 2 Sam , A plague took many lives in the kingdom, and David made the requisite sacrifices to please the Lord and end the plague.

I would strongly encourage you to read through both accounts closely, because there are a few lessons about repentance from David in each. First, David repented of his entire sin. David tended to allow his sin to chain-reaction into a huge problem. Everything kept snowballing until Nathan paid David a visit. David did not deny any of the narrative. Later that night, that same black-and-red banner would be seen again—in the column of marchers chanting for dead cops.

She also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching. He thrust the Cardinal's mantle into it, and stood over the smouldering cloth, till the whole was consumed to ashes. No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty.

The Seneschal stood with blanched face and gaping mouth, his fire all turned to ashes before the passion of this gaunt man. His conviction against honoring a sworn enemy of the Lord and the Jews was permanent. He just grieved over the death letter that his people would be slaughtered. After researching, I found that sackcloth and ashes were used as a symbol of disgrace, mourning, and repentance.

It also was for to show the heartfelt sorrow for the loss of a person when they died. Mordecai was not the only one who would perform this act of distress. In 1 Samuel demonstrated the humility from an action. It seems that this is the popular act to tear your clothes when you are mad, mourning, or repentance. If we used this act today to show our distress and mourning from our situations, this world would be pretty ugly and not a good sight to see.