Monday, November 8, 2010

The Repentance of Nineveh

Jonah 3[1]

As preached at Rolling Hills Church on November 07 2010

The Jews in Jonah's day – of which the prophet is representative, to an extent – needed to know that God loved people outside of them, people they didn't love. They needed God's message. God loves people outside of us, people we don't love; they need to hear God's message. I believe I'll do this a little differently today, so we're gonna go ahead and   pray, then we'll walk through this passage a bit at a time.

3:1-4 The warning of wrath.

1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,

2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you."

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

Jonah's second commission is docilely received and obeyed; amazing what three days in a fish will do for your obedience! Some speculate that Jonah's face was bleached from the experience, and that word had spread to the city of the incredible experience of the prophet; we have no way to verify that. What we do know is that the messenger does his work for His LORD, and walk through this city. Here again we have some details about the city, enough to make us wish we could see it; it was large, and over 100,000 people lived there. Archaeology supports that Nineveh was a vastly wealthy and prominent city. Sennacherib, during his day (704-681 B.C.) built a massive palace in the southwest portion of the city. It covered 5 acre, had 71 rooms, and two great halls of massive proportions; it was said to have no equal[2]. There were other palaces, other gardens and libraries as well, but in Jonah's day, what we DO know is that it was a large, impressive city filled with godless, wicked people.

It is interesting that Jonah preached eight words (in all translations I checked). Surely he could have said more, explained things further, but we have no record of that; eight words preached throughout the city. It was a simple, unqualified warning of wrath. Matthew Henry said that God sent Jonah not to preach repentance to Nineveh, but preach Nineveh to repentance. This was done with eight words. Did he? Let's continue on.

3:5-9 The response of repentance.

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,

8 but 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.

9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

Eight words, spoken several times throughout a great city, and the entire city turns to God in humble repentance. The key phrase is written in v 5: And the people of Nineveh believed God. This is astounding. All they heard was wrath; all they did was repent, and all they saw was mercy. The warning was of wrath, but the warning was sent out of great compassion, out of mercy! The warning is part of the gospel message that we cannot leave out, church family! Let's consider something from this passage…

What does true repentance look like? I've often simplified it by walking this way, turning, and walking that way as I teach it is turning from sin to God. But Jonah's book gives us a bit more detail and I think it's very helpful for us.

Humility. This is what fasting, sackcloth, and ashes symbolized. From the least to the greatest. This humility spread throughout the city. You know God draws near to the humble (James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."). And what else?

Prayer. They prayed to God; specifically, 'call out mightily' to God, the king commanded. Turning from evil. To go on sinning while professing to seek God for mercy is foolish, it is hypocritical, and it shows a flaw in the system – one does NOT believe. So the violence, the abuse, the drunkenness, the immorality, the stealing, lying, and general crookedness of a wicked city was stopped. I bet it became a quiet city, don't you?

Hoping in God's mercy alone. This is the hope of the king: Perhaps. No promises, no grandiose political statements, just – perhaps.

Is it possible that wicked people sometimes have better theology than godly people? Here's what this evil king of Nineveh says: "Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish". Godly people (like me) can often speak confidently of what God should and should not do; this humbled king said, 'perhaps'. He knew it was over unless God, who alone had the power to destroy or relent, showed mercy.

Folks, this is how the world knows you believe God; by your actions. It is what God looks for as well; not an empty profession, but a change of action and direction.

3:10 The LORD relents when the people of Nineveh repent.

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Ah, the good mercies of the good God! Many (even among believers) have looked at this and thought, "God repented, see He isn't all-knowing!" That is foolish; that God shows mercy is our only hope as well! We should rejoice that God did this and did NOT destroy this city full of ungodly people. We should absolutely rejoice that God relents when sinners repent. After all the message of wrath is against all sinners today as well, isn't it? Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. See, we are under the same sentence as Nineveh, just not given a 40 day warning.

Our minds need to absorb this truth, and if through repetition, then so be it…

God loves people outside of us, people we don't love; they need to hear God's message.

 Question is, will we go and take it to them? Do we believe in God's wrath against sinners, enough to obey Him? Enough to warn them? Do we include warnings of wrath in the message of hope that is the gospel? God will relent of the disaster proclaimed against all who repent. The gospel is good news; and we can trust God to work through the warning as well as the promise of salvation to all who believe.



[1] All Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (via E-Sword Software) © 2001 Crossway Publishing. All Rights Reserved

[2] Holman Bible Dictionary, General Editor Trent C. Butler, PH.D. © 1991 Holman Bible Publishers

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