epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Friday, September 26, 2008

Jonah 3

And now for round two… God had previously given Jonah the instruction to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Jonah had refused that mission, and had moved quickly in the opposite direction. That choice led to a storm, a cry to God, a vow, a prayer of praise from within the belly of a fish, and a sort of resurrection with the beginning of something of new life for the prophet. And now here we are in the middle of this brief book right where we began. Jonah is commanded to bring this message of judgment against the city of Nineveh. This time he goes in the right direction.

For a Hebrew prophet to speak a word of judgment from God in the capital city of the Assyrians, was something like traveling into the belly of the beast. Here is Jonah, a hobbit from the Shire, and he has something that must be said in the middle of Mordor. Nineveh was apparently a very large city. It took three days of walking just to get from one end of it to the other. More than this it was the seat of power for a ruthless people that had demonstrated their ability to conquer other nations, relocating captive peoples in far-off lands, and bringing a very large amount of territory under subjection.

This is where Jonah is going as a man of God. The Lord sends people throughout the earth as messengers of the good news of Christ. The fact of God’s coming judgment is a part of that gospel. It is perhaps this fact, without which the cross loses its meaning, that makes it uncomfortable still today for isolated individuals or small teams of believers to travel to far off lands where they may feel unwelcome and unwanted. In such ministry situations it is important for the Lord’s ambassadors to remember that they have been called to this task by the God who created the seas and the dry land, who knows how to rescue His servants from great danger. Jonah should have had no doubt concerning these things.

Surprisingly, Jonah shows no sign of fear concerning this mission. In fact there is no indication in this book that concern for his own safety entered into Jonah’s earlier calculus that caused him to disobey the call of God. We find out in the next chapter that Jonah’s real concern all along was that God might show mercy to the Assyrians, which Jonah feared more than whatever trouble the Assyrians might bring to him personally.

With a boldness for judgment that is hoping against God’s mercy, Jonah speaks of the impending destruction of this great city in just forty days. And then the worst happens, at least in the mind of the reluctant prophet. The people believe and repent. This is unspeakably shocking. For anyone who knows anything about the way that people resist the truth of the Almighty, the thought that this people would repent at this preaching from this prophet can only be explained by the power of Almighty God.

What did these Assyrians do? They fasted, humbling themselves before God at the preaching of Jonah. This movement which Christ calls repentance in Matthew 12:41 seems to have started among the people. News reached the king. Instead of trying to stop this zealous reaction to a foreign prophet he joined in the repenting and issued a proclamation not only for fasting, but for a true changing of their ways, a turning away from evil and violence in the hope that God would turn from his just anger.

What makes this especially shocking is that so often the kings and people of the Lord’s covenant nations have ignored the persistent call of the prophets over many centuries. How could it be that all the nobles and people of Nineveh did what that the inhabitants of Israel and Judah should have sone? This kind of shocking repentance is a powerful illustration that the deliverance of God for lost sinners really is by grace. It is events like this that are also powerful signposts to a coming mercy to the nations of the world, as millions of Gentiles would respond to the fact of a Jewish Messiah, and would by God’s mighty grace repent and believe.

The Lord heard those pagan Assyrians, and did what they requested. This was the very thing that Jonah was afraid of. God showed mercy to Nineveh.

There is a coming Day of Judgment that will be more than the Lord’s previous expressions of wrath throughout history for one group of people or another in one place or time. We do not know when it will happen, but the fact of this Day is absolutely certain. There is only one way out of this devastation, and that is through the Lord’s provision of repentance and faith in the only Redeemer of God’s elect, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It has been the Lord’s good pleasure that the message of judgment and grace would not be limited only to the descendants of Jacob. It is also His great mercy that all of the merit of Christ’s obedience and death would actually be extended to people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, as millions are granted God’s gift of saving grace. It is also apparently a fact that some who should tremble at his Word will not do so. We are told of this surprising fact by Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 12:41: “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

posted by Pastor Magee @ 12:00 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home