When reading how the King of Judah in the previous post released the teachers to go to the people and train them in the ways of God, it made me think of Hans Nielsen Hauge. He was a key part of the Norwegian miracle.
The Norwegian miracle is that Norway went from one of the most poor nations of the earth to being one of the wealthiest and most prosperous in the course of 100 years. While oil played a factor, oil discovery has often corrupted a nation and the few get wealthy whie the many don’t. So how did Norway become a nation that corporately changed?
The miraculous turn around came when in April 5, 1796, a simple farmer working his fields had a moment with God. He knew he was saved by God, forgiven of his sins, and needed to preach the gospel to all of Norway.
So he left the fields, donned his skies, his walking boots and went from village to village preaching and teaching the people. He was arrested for his activities as they weren’t sponsored by the official state church. But he reasoned that all were called to build one another up.
In the course of three decades of ministry, he was able to plant more than 1000 home churches in a nation that at the time was only 800,000. The people began to meet and encourage each other in the Lord, and that began to affect whole communities. Norway was experiencing revival based out of the homes.
This was alarming to the establishment and he was imprisoned again and again. He would be arrest eleven times in the course of seven year. Whether in prison or out, he never stopped preaching the gospel.
To reach even more people, he began writing books and distributing literature. He taught the people how the Bible could be used to teach righteousness in business, how to raise families, how to have strong marriages, and more. He additionally began business his himself to model how Godliness could be a part of the work place.
The revival began to transform Norway as the Word of God became practical for all areas of life and society. He also multiplied himself through peasant preachers to get the Word out more broadly.
Again in 1804 he was arrested for bucking the establishment who felt threatened by his activities. He was to spend 10 long years in prison. It was a difficult time, feeling forgotten and alone.
In 1814 he was released from prison. The years of preaching and the hardness of prison had an effect on him. He returned home, spending his later years working his farm, teaching and writing instead of traveling.
But it was this very act of bringing the Word to the people and teaching them how to implement it in their work, their play, their family and their lives that changed Norway. Norway turned around as a whole and as the people prospered in their own souls, the nation prospered as well.
