Jonah (Part 5)
This past week I looked up the definition of what an illusion is… and this is how it is defined:
– An erroneous perception of reality. (E.g. Mirrors give the illusion of a room being more spaciousness.)
– It also can be defined as an erroneous concept or belief. (E.g. The notion that money can buy happiness is an illusion.)
– Or it can be the condition of being deceived by a false perception or belief. (E.g. Magic trick)
We can also have erroneous or false perceptions about certain people (e.g. Well you know those people are all like that). We see a number of erroneous or false perceptions in the book of Jonah as we study it. Some could assume that just because Jonah was a servant of God; supposedly a religious and holy man he’d be a man that would want to serve God, save souls, and be prompted by love. But that’s not the case as we read the book. Jonah assumed that the Ninevites did not deserve God’s forgiveness and grace. And many back then would have probably assumed that those hard Ninevites would never listen to a Jew and humble and prostrate themselves before God, but they did.
Things are hardly ever what they seem.
In our last lesson we began to look at Jonah chapter 3 and I talked about how despite the fact that we often fail Him, God is not so quick to give up on us. Even though Jonah outright refuse to do what God wanted him to do, and that was to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to them, we see how God chose to humble Jonah.
In chapter 3 we’ll see Jonah do the very thing he did not want to do, and that was go to the city of Nineveh to preach a message God gave him to preach.
Just as a side note, sometimes it’s just plain easier and less troublesome if we do what God wants or prompts us to do from the first place. Think of the time and grief Jonah could have saved himself if he just did what God wanted him to do right away.
Isn’t that always the way? Even if it’s not something we feel like doing, we’re better off doing it right away if it’s the right thing to do. You are better of telling the truth right from the start because if you don’t your life can become a mess. Or if God prompts you do such and such you are better off just doing it right away, or you just don’t feel right.
So God ‘gave the prophet a second commission. So off he goes. Nineveh was about 550 miles northeast of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. For all he knew, he could have ended up impaled on a pole or skinned alive, which is how the Assyrians often dealt with their enemies. Nevertheless, such a fate seemed preferable to suffering divine discipline again.
The text says that Nineveh was a “great” city, and it was in a number of ways. It was a leading city of one of the most powerful nations in the world at that time (the Assyrian Empire). It was also a big city which I talked about in the first lesson.
Now it was customary in the ancient Near East for an emissary from another city-state to take three days for an official visit. Some commentators suggest that He would spend the first day meeting and enjoying the hospitality of his host, the second day they would discuss the primary purpose of his visit, and the third would be given to saying his farewell.
The traditional view holds that after Jonah arrived at the edge of the city, he proceeded into it and began announcing his message during his first day there, but many commentators suggest something different.
If Jonah was an emissary, he probably first went as a divine representative to Nineveh’s king and other government officials. This explanation suggests that Jonah’s preaching may have started with the king, and then proceeded to the people, rather than the other way around. This view may better explain the king’s repentance, and his decree to all the people to repent compared to the traditional view.
Or he just may have done his first day’s preaching to the king and perhaps also to some of the people. The essence of his proclamation was that Nineveh would be overthrown in only “40 days.” Read Chapter 3
“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”
Whatever way Jonah carried out this mission you can see that as hard and as cruel as some of them were reported to be, his message moved the Ninevites to humble themselves and seek divine mercy. People aren’t always what they seem.
By them believing and repenting so quick it not only shows us the power of God’s word and the heart of these people, but also the what true repentance looks like. Fasting and wearing “sackcloth” was an act of self-affliction, which demonstrated an attitude of humility in the ancient Near East. Sackcloth was what the poor and the slaves wore. Wearing it was viewed as being needy. In this case, they were in need of God’s mercy and slaves of God.
I also read where commentators said that there were two plagues, a severe flood and a famine, which had ravaged Nineveh in 765 and 759 B.C.. There was also a total eclipse of the sun on June 15, 763, and they believed that these phenomena may have prepared the Ninevites for Jonah’s message.
As I thought about this I found it interesting how God send us signs that are warnings met to let us know that we need to look at what we are doing. How many warning signs did God give Pharaoh through thru Moses? Think of all the warnings God sent Israel and Judah by way of the prophets and famines. Maybe He does the same for us? I believe what happened on 9/11 and then the economic crisis we had a couple of years ago were warning signs, that maybe we need to look more carefully at what we are doing in our country.
The Ninevites may have viewed those events as a sign of divine displeasure, which was a common reaction in the ancient Near East. But the text here attributes the Ninevites’ repentance to Jonah’s preaching.
Even “the king” responded by repenting. The “king of Nineveh” was probably the king of Assyria itself since Nineveh was a leading city of that empire.
Based on what the text says the king assumed the impending judgment was coming because of their own evil conduct. He felt that by humbling themselves and abandoning their wickedness they possible could obtain some mercy from God; and he was right.
When you sin, how serious do you take repentance? Do you just feel bad for a little bit and maybe say a quick pray and assume you are OK?
I believe what we have here is a good model of the kind of repentance that the Lord is pleased with and accepts.
- When you realize you’ve sinned you need to take it serious, as an offense against God.
- We need to believe that there will be consequences.
- With great humility we then need to bring it before our Lord, and actually feel sorry for the offense. The Ninevite King told them to urgently bring it before God.
- And then he tells them to give up the evil practice. In other words stop doing what you are doing!
It is amazing that God brought the whole city to faith and repentance through the preaching of a man who did not particularly care about or love the people to whom he preached to. Ultimately salvation is from the Lord. It doesn’t dependent on the attitudes and actions of His servants, though our attitudes and actions affect our own condition as we carry out the will of God.
In this case we probably should not assume that their repentance was a conversion to Judaism. But God still noted the genuineness of their repentance by their actions.
The fruits of their repentance moved God to withhold the judgment that He would have sent on them had they persisted in their wicked ways. And later we even see God using the Assyrians to bring down sinful Israel because they did not heed His warnings.
I would dare to say that we may never know exactly what was said, or know everything that took place during those three days, but one thing we do know; those evil people humbles themselves before the Lord and repented.
Was Jonah going to be happy about this? No. But that didn’t really matter.
Maybe the lesson for us is the fact that no one is beyond repair. No matter what one has done, no matter how evil, how immoral, no matter how disgusting they may seem to us, or what we have been told. If given the right opportunity anyone can change. What you see with your eyes, or hear with your ears can’t always be trusted. Only God knows what’s in a man’s heart.
There are countless stories of those who turned to the Lord after living an evil life. Murderers, prostitutes, thieves, slave traders, criminals of the worst kind have turned from their ways after accepting Jesus as their Lord.
There will always be those who would rather see those evil ones destroyed rather than saved and redeemed, but we can’t see what God sees. We cannot see the future noro the things God has planned out for such a person.
I am sure there were some good Christian people that hated Saul… the one that became Paul in the New Testament because he was guilty of persecuting the early church. Family and friends may have been put in prison, beat or even killed because of him. Some may have wanted to see him dead rather than saved. But like so many others, God had a plan for Paul.
So my plea today is to be careful not to be so quick to condemn another for the evil that they have committed, rather pray for them, put them in God’s hand.
In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
For more lessons click on the following link: http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
All comments can be emailed to: bfronzek@gmail.com
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