Hello everyone and welcome to episode 17 of Struggling Well. And actually, Jimmy, it's our third second on Jonah. Third on Jonah.
On Jonah.
And this morning, we're going to or this afternoon or could be tonight for you. I don't know. We're going to be looking at chapter 3 of Jonah. And since I did not pay attention when Jimmy was telling us where we were going to go this morning, it's morning for us. I'm gonna let him do a lot of talking.
Well, we'll do it together. I know we will. so Jonah Jonah's an interesting little book is four chapters long. We've said this already there. There's not much in terms of prophecy that Jonah gives. He's a prophet. He's a spokesperson for God, but this book really focuses on Jonah the prophet. And we talked about his rebelliousness towards God and the message God sent him to deliver. But chapters 1 and three kind of are parallel in this sense. It's Jonah interacting with pagans. Jonah interacting with people who needed to hear the good news that God had to give to them. And in chapter one, he delivered that to the sailors who in at the end of the chapter are worshiping God. Jonah, not so much, but sailors are worshiping God. And now we get to chapter three when he's going to finally make it to Nineveh. What's fascinating to me is the word of the Lord came to Jonah, we're told a second time, arise and go to Nineveh. So, it's like when he gets spit up out of the great fish on the dry land, and Jonah may be wondering, well, is that it? Am I done? God reminds him again, what I want you to do is go to Nineveh and declare what I have my message which is yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And that's Jonah's task. And he finally gets to Nineveh and he does it and what he feared what Jonah feared happened. Nineveh repented. the Assyrian nation was a brutal nation and you can understand why Jonah didn't want to bring them the good news that God had to share with them. They we're told if you read history that the Assyrian nation, Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, they would cut off people's hands and feet just for fun, just a sport. So, this was a brutal nation. And if I look at it from a horizontal perspective, an earthly perspective, I can understand, and I could probably agree with Jonah, why would you want to go there? But God had a different plan.
And also what comes into play is Jonah, you know, being a chosen by God person, looking at the Ninevites as they were detestable, like you're saying. And so there's that pride in being a part of the chosen nation and to think, you know, they're following the law and being very meticulous about that. And then there's this nation that is totally out of control and doing horrible, heinous things. And God tells him to go bring the truth of who he is to them so they could repent. It reminds me also of Hosea and Goomer
of, you know, God kept telling Hosea, "Go get her. bring her back and she was doing all these detestable things. it's a very very interesting story and we have to also find the application for us in it.
Yeah. And I think that's the thing we raised last week. Are we okay with God loving our enemies? Now you know that's one way to phrase it. But are we okay with God loving people who live very different than we do? People who whose lifestyle we don't agree with. Jonah certainly didn't agree with the Ninevites. in their lifestyle. And yet that's who God has called him to go to because it's the reminder that God loves all people who are made in his image and all people are made in his image.
And I remember years ago, and I still do it to this day, but years ago, I just felt like God had laid someone on my heart that I found completely abhorrent. And I don't need to mention the name. It was somebody in the Hollywood, you know,
Yeah.
stage. And I it was the weirdest thing because it's not like I followed this person or I was interested in what they were doing but I just felt this burden that I was to be praying for them and then I felt like he laid on another and that's you know I feel what did God say you know we get quirky with that but so I began to pray for both of these young women now I can't tell you where they are today or what they're doing but I know that I had to praying was hard because I just thought they were so impulsive in the way that they were living their life. And I separated myself from them because, you know, I was a Christian and I read the Bible and they were delving in things that were evil and all sorts of how could I pray for them? And then I also recalled u remember when the terrorists were cutting off the heads of the journalists and the people they had in captivity there.
I remember someone challenged us and it might have been you babe from the pulpit, I don't know, to pray for those men that were decapitating American journalists and journalists from around the world. And I struggled with that, but I prayed. I don't again, I don't know where these people are or what's happened, but it's hard to pray and hard to bring the truth to someone that you feel such repulsion for.
Yeah. And you know, you get a sense of the scope and the size of Nineveh that we're told that a it was a three-day walk across town to get it from one side of the city to the other side was a three-day walk. Jonah Jonah's in one day and he makes his proclamation and we're told in verse 5 of chapter 3 and the people of Nineveh believed God and they called for a fast and put on sackcloth greatest to the least. And then in verse 6 it says the word reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloths and ashes and repents. We're not even clear that Jonah actually was in the presence of the king. The word reached the king. And so the powerfulness of a compassionate God who extends his compassion to people who we would deem unworthy of that compassion and Jonah's not even one day into his mission and Nineveh is repenting. It's an amazing thing to me of the power of God in moving the hearts of people even from a servant. His servant didn't like this and we'll see this when we get to our podcast next week that Jonah don't like the results and this is exactly what he was afraid of happening that God's power the power of a powerfulness of a loving God could reach into the hearts of people even those who were guilty of many things.
I have a question for you. So when The king is putting out this proclamation and it says let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Verse 9 is fascinating. Who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. What was their context for that? How did they know? Had they heard of other nations being
Yeah, I mean I think there is a sense in which it's a battle between the gods. So mo most nations although they didn't have the true and living God at the center of their worship, they worshiped something. And so for example, when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, the plagues were direct attacks on the gods of Egypt.
And so it was this battle with whose god was greater. When Elijah's on the top of Mount Carmel, is it your god, the god of the bales, or is it the true and living God that's the most powerful? And so I think the word had probably spread around the world the that the God of Israel was a powerful God. And so the Ninevites, although they didn't worship him, but we are told in that verse that follows when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them and he did not do it.
now we know later on in history God does put an end to the Assyrian nation, but in this particular case, it's the heart of God being moved by the heart of man in response to who he is. And that was the thing that we don't get any of that sense of Jonah for example, worshiping and celebrating God because he did this wonderful thing for the Ninevites.
Am I reaching if I look at that passage u because I don't want to take something way out of context, but I'm thinking, okay, how can we apply that to us? And so often you hear people say, well, you know, I've I God can't love me because I've been so horrible and I've done all these horrible things. Is it a reach to apply there to our lives that there's that it takes repentance?
No, it's not a reach. I think we have, you know, further revelation from what they did at that time because I when I look at the scripture, all everything in the Old Testament is moving pointing towards Jesus. Now, it's not always as clear as you and I see it today because we look back on history, but everything in this story is moving towards the ultimate answer that God provides for the human heart, which is Christ. And so, in Jonah's day with the Ninevites, it was believing what who God was and what he said and repenting. for you and me, for others, it is a repentance of the things that I have done. I'm born a sinner, but I commit sin. And the only answer that God has is his son, Jesus.
And so that's the gospel and that's the good news that we're supposed to carry. And in a veiled way, that was the good news that Jonah was carrying, that God is a God to be feared and God is a God to be honored. And so they believe God and they repent. well, nothing's changed. And so, What do you mean by that?
Well, it's the same thing. I if we're all old Testament, New Testament, we're saved by faith.
We're saved by faith and believing God and who he is. And again, it's veiled throughout the Old Testament,
right?
But now it's clearly revealed in Jesus. And that's where the person who says, "I haven't I don't deserve it. I haven't done I've done things I don't deserve the Well, you're right. You don't deserve it." But it's extended because of the grace of God and because of what his son Jesus did for us. And it would be hard for some people today, for example, take anybody who you think has done horrible, horrific things and before they die, they come to faith in Christ.
people struggle with that.
Yeah.
People struggle with now how can that how can he do all these things and still be accepted by God? Well, it's not because of the things he does or he doesn't do, she does or she doesn't do. It's because of what Christ did for us. us
and that's the message. So the repentance is the same thing only now I have a person that I'm putting my faith in because of what he's accomplished for me.
Sounds good to me.
Okay. And the odd man out in this whole story is this prophet Jonah. And when we get together next week, we will talk about Jonah and his response to all this, but more importantly Jonah and his response to God.
Thanks for joining us. To learn more about the Struggling Well podcast, visit tandemspirituality. com.