Jonah 3:1-10

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

June 28, 2009

 

Jonah 3:1-10 (New International Version)
 
Jonah Goes to Nineveh

 1 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 important city—a visit required three days. 4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

 6 When the news 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 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let man and beast 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 had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

 

 

 

The kids have been out of school for a couple weeks.  They’re starting to bicker and it gets on your nerves.  The days of high humidity and heat make you irritable.  You stop at the store to grab a couple items for supper, rush to the express lane, and in front of you is somebody with well over the stated limit of items.  Then they write a check, but don’t start making it out until the cashier has completed ringing up all the items, and it looks like they’re balancing their entire checkbook before they finally hand over the check and get out of the way.  Your computer runs slowly and freezes up.  How do you react to these stressors?  With a smile on your face?  I doubt it.

 

It’s a good thing God is not like us.  In this third chapter of Jonah we


THANK GOD HE’S PATIENT

I.  With a reluctant Prophet v1-2

II. With a sinful city v3-9

III. With repentant Sinners v10

 

God had sent Jonah to Nineveh before, but he wouldn’t go.  Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a Gentile power with a great culture.  The city had massive walls, said to be one hundred feet high and wide enough for three chariots to drive on top.  There were impressive parks and gardens inside.  But the nation was also known for its violence.

 

I’m sure you recall Jonah’s action.  He fled in the opposite direction, boarding a ship sailing across the Mediterranean Sea.  When a storm threatened to destroy them all, Jonah admitted he was the cause of the trouble.  He must have had a guilty conscience.  He was thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish.  Inside the fish Jonah repented and prayed to God.  He survived for three days there before being spit out alive on dry land.  God had spared the reluctant prophet.

 

So the Lord sent Jonah once more.  He hadn’t let him perish.  He didn’t banish Jonah from His presence or from ever serving Him again.  In fact, he gave the same commission.  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”  Jonah was to speak God’s plans and message.  That’s what a prophet or spokesman for the Lord does.  The message is not original with him but comes from God.

 

Have you ever been hesitant to do God’s work?  Maybe it was talking to a neighbor about Jesus or admonishing a wayward relative.  It might have been accepting nomination to an office or helping with a service project at church.  Or it could have been taking part in a class or organization.  But you were timid, had other priorities, or were just plain lazy.  So you didn’t follow God’s call.  Thank God He is patient and keeps coming to you.  He gives more opportunities.  Don’t wait for whale time.  Follow Him in service.

II.

You and Jonah aren’t the only objects of God’s patience.  He also showed it with a sinful city.  Jonah brought God’s message to Nineveh.  “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”  The city deserved destruction.  I mentioned before that the Assyrians had a violent and cruel reputation.  Hear the description of another prophet:  “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!  The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!  Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears!  Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses.”  There was a king who made a mound of heads after winning a victory.  The city was also idolatrous, with temples to several false gods.  The world would applaud their destruction.  It was about time.  We can see why Jonah was reluctant to go there.  What would be in store for anybody who dared to challenge their actions?

 

Jonah’s proclamation from God gave the citizens of Nineveh forty days before the threatened action.  God was showing His patience as He did not send an immediate calamity.  He provided a time of grace, an opportunity for them to repent and turn to Him for mercy.

 

That’s exactly what happened.  “The Ninevites believed God.  They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”  The sword of God’s law cut to their hearts.  They realized their wrongdoing.  And they showed it as they fasted or did not eat while they focused on their spiritual poverty.  They donned sackcloth, a coarse material made of goat’s hair, worn as a sign of mourning.  The king agreed.  He followed the same actions and issued a decree for the whole nation, even the animals, to do likewise.  He urged them, “Let everyone call urgently on God.  Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.”  He hoped that God would then take away His threat hanging over them.

 

That was an amazing turnaround!  It demonstrated the power of the Word.  The response came after just one day of preaching by Jonah.  The Holy Spirit makes such things happen.  It was a miracle, as is every conversion from unbelief to faith.

 

Our cities and towns need God’s patience in dealing with their sin.  An interesting action happened when I was typing out the sermon parts to be listed in the bulletin.  As I entered part 2, “with a sinful city”, my computer automatically added “of Lake Mills.”  I know why it happened—certain phrases stay in a computer’s memory and I had written some official letters to our city government during the course of our building program, but it was a remarkable insertion, and a true one.  We are all guilty and need a call to repentance.  Deeds deserving God’s anger and punitive action don’t just come from enemy foreign countries, different political parties, or bad elements of society.  Our hearts and homes need a call to repentance.  You and I may not have committed vicious crimes but we are polluted with impurity, selfishness, pride that we are not like others, or indifference toward God and His Word, or toward lost souls.  God is patient with sinful us.  He sends His law to identify and condemn our sin and to warn us of the danger it poses to our soul and the consequences of sin eternally.  He also gives us time to repent.  Our lifetime is our time of grace. 

 

God shows patience, yet our time is not unlimited.  Your life could end shortly, even this very day.  Use wisely the time God gives you and come to Him in repentance for your sins.  Fasting and wearing a burlap bag are not mandatory.  “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” advised another prophet.  Have genuine sorrow over your sins and a desire to change.  Fall before the Lord begging for mercy.

III.

That’s when God’s patience especially stands out.  He shows it with repentant sinners as He accepted the confession of the Ninevites.  “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”  Their actions didn’t make up for their sin.  You can’t undo what you have done wrong.  The law’s requirement of perfection will not be altered.  You can’t pay for or make up for your sin.  And yet the destruction did not occur.  The cause was God’s compassion.  He has mercy on sinners.  He forgives sin in His grace or undeserved love.  So He did not destroy the city.  The nation continued.

 

It was not a unique occurrence.  God has spared us in Jesus.  His justice, which demands eternal suffering for our sins, was satisfied when Christ paid for our sins.  That debt which was impossible for us to pay was paid by the blood of God’s beloved Son.  He suffered the pains of hell that we deserved. 

 

Not only are we spared from endless suffering, but we are saved.  We will have heaven as our home for eternity instead of hell’s fires.  We will bask in glory and joy instead of the opposite.  It is a gift of your Savior.  The patience and goodness of God is magnificent.

 

There’s a noteworthy footnote to this episode:  150 years later Assyria was destroyed.  It didn’t happen because God is capricious or changed His mind.  Later generations did not continue in the repentant faith of Jonah’s hearers.  They turned away, and finally doom came.  That sad history points out that we cannot rely on the past, on the faith of our ancestors.  You must personally have faith in Jesus.

 

Daily contrition and repentance are needed in the lives of Christians.  We sin daily.  So confess your sins and come to the Lord Jesus for mercy every day.  He freely grants it, even though it is totally undeserved and we repeatedly fail, often committing the same sins over and over again.  God is patient and more.  He supplies full and free forgiveness. He blesses us with eternal salvation.

 

We are thankful God is not like us.  He is patient.  May His goodness touch our temperament and lead us to greater patience and kindness as we deal with one another.  May it also move us to share His greatest love, the gospel.  Seek opportunities to tell others about the Savior and what He means to you, rather than shirk from those openings.  Knowing how good He has been to you, proclaim the patient, loving God to all.  See His message grow as more believe and turn to God in repentant faith.  May His name be honored among us!