Some Of The Other Great Lessons Of The Book Of ...

Some of the other great lessons of the book of Jonah are:

• "God’s judgments, even when declared in prophecy, can be averted by genuine repentance." This is a "crucial theological truth relating human repentance to escaping from anticipated judgment" (New Layman’s Bible Commentary).

o "Jeremiah 18:7-8 --- "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it."

• National sin demands national repentance! Just as this principle applied to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, so also does it apply to the nations of today!

• In Jonah one sees "the forerunner of the universal gospel message" and messenger (Hailey).

• Also, we see the principle that "the most unpromising mission fields are often the most responsive" (The Ryrie Study Bible).