WARNING PREACHY…
Jonah
3:1-10
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.
Most
people know the Jonah’s story…
In chapter 1 verse 1, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and
preach to that city because its wickedness had come to His attention. In the very next sentence (verse 2) we are
told that Jonah ran away from God and went in the other direction. Jonah ran because God wanted to forgive that
city’s sins, and that’s exactly what he did – God forgave them.
Jonah 4:1
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and
he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was
still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew
that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in
love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
Nineveh was a wicked city and their cruelty is legendary. When they conquered a people, they didn’t
just kill them and leave they cruelly killed them and enslaved them. Jonah new of them and in his estimation the
world was a better place if they just didn’t exist. So when God called him to go to Nineveh, he ran
hoping that they would burn like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Who is that person or people group that you think would make
the world a better place if they were dead.
Who do you pray that God would totally destroy and wipe from the
earth? Does it surprise you to learn that
God loves even that person, or persons, and desires desperately that they will
hear the grace of Jesus Blood and turn from their sin and wicked ways? Further, does it surprise you that God is
calling you to be the person to tell them about Jesus blood and the forgiveness
of God? I know, this isn’t a popular
thought but it’s just the way the faith works.
So how about it, are you ready to go to your Nineveh or are
you happy traveling through life in the belly of a great fish?
Jonah 4:4
& 11
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be
angry?” 11 …should
I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than
a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from
their left—and also many animals?”
When we understand the cross of Jesus and truly what we were
before we were saved, we will have compassion on even our enemies. However, Jonah didn’t quite get it and
neither did the majority of the Jews when Jesus taught them.
Matthew
5:43-45
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love
your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’ 44 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.
Do you get it? Sometimes
I do but honestly, there are times that I hang out in the belly of the whale for
far too long. Let’s all spend time at
the foot of the cross that we might understand ourselves in order to love
others – even our enemies.
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