Hey friends! Let's dive into Jonah chapter three!
Last week we were let in on one of Jonah's intimate dialogues with the Lord. Crying out to God in thankfulness for what he knew God would do. Then after Jonah's long heartfelt prayer full of hidden meaning and three days in the fish, God commands it to vomit him out. Now by this point, we know Jonah too well to believe that he has any sudden change of heart, any humbling of himself, any fire to do God's will, but I am curious about how God will work despite Jonah's shortcomings.
In this chapter of Jonah, we are given a concise retelling of Jonah's mission work in Nineveh. In fact, it is only ten verses long. Still, Jonah definitely did not encourage the narrative by his unwillingness to follow God.
His pride and his stubbornness hinder the transformation of his heart through God's works. Still, nothing can hinder the Lord's work, He can use even an unwilling servant for His glory.
So here we find Jonah, who having just been saved from his watery tomb, was told again to go to Nineveh and preach. Grudgingly obliging God's command, he set off toward the distant city, and off he goes on his way to obey God. We learn from the text it takes him three days to go through the town with his message, for it was a massive city. If you remember from last week, three is the number of perfection and completion.
God declared His appeal for repentance, through Jonah, in perfection and completion, and it did not fall on deaf ears.
Jonah's sermon is simple, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." In Hebrew, his proclamation is only five words! Five words, people! What? Not only does Jonah altogether leave out any mention of why Nineveh would be overturned, who was to defeat them, and how the people were to respond, he leaves out all mention of God, the One who sent him! How are the people of Nineveh to react to this? They don't know what force rages against them (God), the Ninevites don't understand why this punishment would be inflicted (for their countless sins and evil actions), and they have no idea what they should do to reverse it (repent). Jonah gives them the least amount of information possible, and it seems he is aiming to subvert his own message. What does he have against these people that he would try, by lack of information, to ensure their eradication
Then we read verse five, and it astounds us with the statement, "The Ninevites believed God." Wow. They believed God. God, in His power, related His message through Jonah and his stubborn, prideful, half-hearted way, who He was, what He was threatening, and how the people should respond. When the prophecy reached the King, he rose from his thrown, dawned sackcloth, and sat in the dust. He then declared a fast for all people and beasts of the field, commanding that all wear sackcloth, and repent of their numerous trespasses. Not knowing whether or not God would hear, he called urgently for the people to surrender their evil ways and turn to God in hopes that He would have compassion on them.
As the story goes, we find that because of the Ninevites' repentance, the Lord is merciful, and the city is preserved. It is prevented from being overturned, or is it? Jonah warned destruction would be Ninevah's end if the people continued in their behaviors. However, because of the people's repentance, from their former life, they were spared, and God relented the destruction He had threatened. When you think of something being overturned, you think of something being destroyed, but when you look up the definition of the word, you will find it holds a beautiful double meaning.
Overturned literally means "turned over." Turned over can indicate something being destroyed or something being transformed. God threatened to overturn the city, and he did, but not in the way that Jonah and the people thought. He overturned it, he transformed it, he flipped it and molded it into its opposite. God reshaped the city into something better and more beautiful.
Once again, we see the Gentiles repent and turn away from their evil ways. Once again, we are confronted with Jonah's stubbornness and unwillingness to do God's work. We have faced the Gentiles and the prophet's response to God and are forced to recognize the Gentiles as better examples of faith and repentance than God's servant, Jonah.
I am in awe of the way God works. Even when some seem determined to sabotage His glorious plans, He works through their obstinacy. When Jonah stubbornly and incompletely hastened in his calling, God worked through Him. God used Jonah to unfold His decrees before His people's eyes so that they may understand and be saved. He had compassion on the people He loved, and He gifted them insight into Jonah's five-word prophecy so that they may see Him in it and believe.
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