No one is too bad for the Love of God
The word of the Lord came to Jonah. Jonah was a prophet who lived and prophesied in the reign of Jeraboam II - 2 Kings 14:25 .
Jesus himself vouches for the authenticity of the story. cf. Matt.12 39-40 and Luke 11.29 and 30.
Interestingly the name Jonah means a dove. It was a dove who in Noah’s time in Genesis 8,11 who showed Noah that the Grace of God had taken effect because the waters had receded. A sort of divine messenger.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah and told him to go to a place that was dangerous, like calling us to go to Beirut and call on the warring factions to repent.
He was given a terrible task to call the most powerful nation on earth at that time to repent. Ninevah is called by the prophet Nahum that bloody city (Nahum 3:1). Not just for the wars it started but for its cruelty to its captives . For example when Ashurnasirpal was king he regularly cut off the hands and feet and the noses and the ears of his captives and put out their eyes and raised mounds of human heads.
So what did Jonah do. Instead of going up to Ninevah he went down to Joppa to catch a ship to Tarshish in Spain, which is near modern day Gibralter. Tarshish was a prosperous city having a lot of mineral resources - silver (Jer.10.9.) and iron , tin and lead (Ez.27.12).
Joppa was a small seaport near to Jerusalem. It is known today as Jaffa. It was the same place where Peter was staying about 900 years later when the Lord called him to go to the house of Cornelius thereby bringing the Gentiles into the Church - Acts 10, 5-48. Peter had to overcome the same prejudices as Jonah had against the Gentiles also enjoying the Grace of God.
It is interesting to compare the fact that it is from Joppa that the story of Jonah starts - i.e. where Gentile Ninevah in Old Testament times receives the grace of God and it is from the same city in New Testament times that the story of the integration of the Gentiles into the the Grace of the New Covenant and acceptance in the Church begins.
Jonah, unlike Peter was disobedient in Joppa and took off in exactly the opposite direction - to the other end of the world.
In Jonah 1 v.4 we read that the Lord sent a storm to recall Jonah from his disobedience. And eventually Jonah tells the sailors to toss him into the sea and the sea ceased to rage. Actually the Grace of God came to these people too although we do not know how lasting their repentance was in Jonah 1:16.
And in Chapter 2 we see that Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale. It took Jonah three days to turn back to being obedient to God and enable God to use him to realise Ninevah’s salvation.
Jesus in Matthew 12 39 and 40 alludes to the sign of Jonah
He answered, A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of a huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth The men of Ninevah will stand up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and now one greater than Jonah is here.
I wonder how Jonah looked after he had come up out of the fish, after the vari us juices in its intestine had worked on him!! If as I expect he looked a sight, one can understand Ninevah sitting up and taking notice.
And it is this very sign - that Jesus too returned from the dead - that is the Sign that we can talk about to bring people to hear the Word of God.
Paul says in Phil. 3 :10
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.
And remember Jesus only relayed to us what the Father told Him:
In John 14: 23 and 24, Jesus says
If anyone loves me he will obey my teaching . My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him : He who does not love me will not obey my teaching . These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.
Focussing on Chapter 2 we see that Jonah’s repentance came as his life was ebbing away- verse 7.
It was similar to the thief on the Cross in Luke 23;39-43:
And Jesus said to him "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise"
It was only at the last minute that he was saved.
There are three aspects from Jonah Chapter 2 as follows:
a) When we call, God is always willing to listen -verse 2;
b) We can always repent -verse 7;
c) The Lord requires a change in our lives when He disciplines us -verse 9: See also Hebrews 12:5-13.
My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord...For the Lord disciplines him whom He loves.
The discipline of the Lord is for our own good.
It is symbolic that as these three factors were fulfilled Jonah was regurgitated-reborn you might say-passing from darkness into light as he came out of the fish.
However I would like to focus on Chapter 3 from verse 1 to chapter 4 verse 4. And the essential points are:
1. God gives us a second chance
2. When we are obedient miraculous things can happen
3. Man does not naturally have God’s Love and we need to pray that He will teach us His compassion if we are to be His faithful servants.
1. God gives us a second chance
The Scriptures are full of second chances.
Peter denied Jesus -( see John 18.15-18 and 25-27) and yet he was given a second chance -( see Acts 2 36 and Acts 4.8)
Mark the writer of the second gospel was the cause of Paul and Barnabas falling out - Acts 15,37-38 but we read in Paul’s very last letter before his death - 2 Timothy 4.11 Bring Mark with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.
Manasseh was given a second chance when he repented and was restored to his Kingdom ( 2 Chron. 33 1-17) and Josephus records that people of his day regarded him as one of the happiest people on earth.
So what was necessary for the Second chance.
REPENTANCE. Turning back to God
James 5. 20 tells us:
Whoever turns a sinner from his error will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
2. When we are obedient miraculous things can happen
When Jonah turned around and started going back up, first out of the fish and then from the coast up to Ninevah the unexpected started to occur. It is interesting that it took him three days to go through it and preach his message.
The heathen city of Ninevah repented. Ninevah was a city where there was a lot of idol worship . Recently an obelisk was found recording a king who changed from worshipping many gods to one God . Perhaps this is an archaeological support for the miracle that happened in hardened Ninevah.
When we start to be obedient God can and will work. Jonah suddenly found himself leading a revival. (Jonah 3.3-10). So often when the Lord calls us to a work we find thousands of excuses. We are overawed by it all. But God wants men and women who do not know what God cannot do. Jim Eliot said: He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
3. Man does not naturally have God’s Love and we need to pray that He will teach us His compassion if we are to be His faithful servants.
To understand Jonah’s reluctance to accept God forgiveness of Ninevah, one must understand that an Israelite thought that God was only interested in Israel, God’s chosen people and that the Gentiles would get no mercy from God.
Also he lost face in his own eyes when the people of Ninevah repented and the things he had been preaching did not occur. We must learn to subordinate our ego to God’s work. He wants Salvation and has joy over one sinner that repents trhan over 99 just people (in their own eyes).
This is why God also had to deal with Peter in Acts 10 to show the early church that salvation is for everyone and not just for a select few. If we are to preach the Word of the Lord effectively we need to learn the compassion of God. And this comes only from deep communion in prayer with God . You recall that Jesus always went away to pray before big decisions
Choosing the twelve apostles - Luke 6:12
And Jesus went out into the Hills to pray and spent the night praying to God.
Peter’s Confession of Faith Luke 9 :18-20
At His Crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane: Mark 14:32-42.
We need therefore to pray for the Lord’s compassion for souls as well as preach what we have heard. We must want to enjoy seeing a sinner becoming right with God.
In short we must learn to have the mind of God for the redemption of mankind.
