25 The Divine Relenting Series

The Divine Relenting

Jonah 3:10 – “Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”

“Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way…”

In Jonah 1:2, God had told Jonah that the wickedness of the people of Nineveh had come up before the Lord. This means that the Lord was aware of their wickedness and hence sent Jonah with the message of warning of impending judgment. Here we see a similar, yet different thing that the Lord was aware of – He saw their works, that they turned from their evil way.

Many of us have grown up with a warped or lopsided understanding of God – that He is constantly watching us to see where and when we do wrong so he can punish or chastise us for the wrong-doing. We grew up with an impression of God as being stern and angry, who was not capable of love at all. That’s so far from the truth though.

God is loving, holy, just merciful, forgiving, gracious, encouraging, motivating, and much more. Not only are these characteristics of God evident in the pages of the Bible, but His ways are very obvious to those of us who know Him – we’ve experienced what the Bible says about Him to be true. He isn’t waiting to catch us in our wrong, but rather watching over us in love to help us walk in ways that are good for us – ways that reflect His character and nature. We aren’t doing God a favour when we obey Him – we’re doing ourselves a huge favour.

The people of Nineveh must have, like many of us, gone to such an extent in their sinful rebellion against God and His ways, that God had to take action against them, and so He sent Jonah to them with the message of this impending doom, and with a timeline – 40 days.

But when they repented of their sinful ways, it was clearly evident that they acknowledged their wrong-doing, and were seeking God’s mercy on their lives. Let’s look at this logically. If God was upset with them for their sinful ways, it means He would have been pleased with them if they were not wicked, or if they ceased from their wickedness. And that’s exactly what the people of Nineveh too much have thought, for them to decide to repent. Every one of them repented of their evil way.

The world of today needs to do what the people of Nineveh did long ago. It needs to repent of a lot of things that are in total rebellion to God and His ways and His expectations. If they do, they can be sure that the Lord will take note, that they have turned from their evil way.

So it’s obvious by now that not only do we The Church need to repent of our sinful, rebellious ways that are in total contrast to God and His expectations of us, but the world too needs to repent of its ways, else the Judgement that God speaks about so much in His Word is round the bend, and we will be caught napping when it comes. The Apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 1:7, writes cautioning his readers (and us) to take heed to live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, bearing in mind that, “the end of all things is close at hand,” and later, in verse 17, writes, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” He then says, “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” This seems to be a reference to Proverbs 11:31, which says, “If the righteous will be [a]recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner.”

“…And God relented…”

This verse is perhaps the most beautiful verse and a climactic verse in the entire book of Jonah, and one that can teach us volumes, though we are separated from it by so many centuries. When the people of Nineveh repented, the God of the universe relented. Is that not astounding, that God would change His mind on account of mere mortals like us, who in comparison, are nothing before Him? Does it not speak volumes about the love of God for us His creation who were created in His image, in His likeness, so we may enjoy a relationship with Him?

This verse gives hope to both the world of today, as well as to The Church of today. We can be sure that if we repent, the Lord will relent from the disaster He has planned to bring upon those who reject His Son, Jesus. It’s both sad and shameful that we sometimes hear ourselves talking of impending judgment as if we were entirely righteous ourselves and not in danger of standing before the Judgment seat of Christ ourselves, when in actual fact, Jesus said, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment.” I think every one of us has spoken more than a million idle words in our lives, so we are not exempt ourselves.