Crying Uncle

“Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.” (Ne 9:32 AV)

At first glance, the underline portion above may seem as Nehemiah’s statement of the overwhelming nature of God’s correct being a manifestation of a God who didn’t care how overwhelming it might have been.  It may seem as though Nehemiah is insinuating God is so infinitely larger that He cannot empathize with the trouble from which Israel suffers.  It could be seen as the intercessor informing an otherwise incapable God that His hand is so large upon them and God cannot appreciate the depth of correction to which they were subjected.  However, if we were to read the next verse, we understand Nehemiah is not insinuating any of this.  He admits that problems to which they were no subject were less than they deserved.  Because of their idolatry, immorality, and abuse of others, they deserved to be eradicated from the planet and the covenants made with their forefathers voided.  So, if Nehemiah admitted they deserved much worse than then got, what does the above underlined statement mean?  What I think Nehemiah, and by extension Israel, are doing is crying uncle.  They got to the point of brokenness.  They had had enough.  Whatever it was that God wanted from them, they would do it.

In a cursory search of the origins of the phrase, ‘cry uncle’, the suggestions are almost unanimous.  No one can definitively state where the phrase comes from.  Some suggest it is from an old Irish word that sounds similar to uncle and meant to seek quarter or protection.  Another suggests it came from an old Roman phrase that was uttered when a bully got the better of another.  The victim would cry out that the bully was not his uncle and was the equivalence in authority to his father.  However, most writers agree that because crying uncle is a uniquely western phrase and American in particular, it harkens back to a joke that first appeared over one hundred years ago.  It involved a stubborn parrot who would not cry uncle.  Its owner threatened his life but could not get the bird to say the word.  The bird was thrown in the chicken coop with all the other common foul.  After a bit, the gentlemen went to check on the parrot only to find the parrot’s talons upon the last living chicken as yelling the words, ‘cry uncle’.  The moral of the story is those stubborn enough to refuse submission to a greater authority often require the same from the lesser.  My brothers and I used the phrase all the time.  If a younger sibling needed to be put in his place, he would be pressed beyond his strength and tells to ‘cry uncle’ to the affliction would cease.  The phrase has come to mean a full surrender to a force greater than oneself.

I think that is what Nehemiah and Israel are doing above.  They are ‘crying uncle’.  Nehemiah is not asking the LORD to be sensitive to the degree of correction He brought as to accuse Him of bringing too much.  What Nehemiah and Israel are saying is they had suffered from the correction of God to the degree that complete and total repentance was the product.  “You did it!  You brought us to the end of ourselves and we are now willing to welcome the change You desire.”  “Your hand was not a light thing.  It did the trick!  You knew what You were doing.  We didn’t think we would survive the loss of everything.  But You knew better.  To all that You are, it might have seemed like a little thing.  But to us, it was everything.  UNCLE!”  This phrase was a statement of surrender and gratitude.  They ‘cried uncle’ and praised God for it.  There was no resentment.  There was no accusation.  A simple statement that God had gotten His way, and they were much better off for it!  What humility!  What reality!  What contriteness!  What possibility!  They now have a future they didn’t have before.  They ‘cried uncle’ and God gave them more grace than they could ever imagine.  It is too bad the LORD has to bring us to our breaking point before we learn to trust Him.  But praise be to God that He knows exactly where that point is and how to get us there!