BIG IDEA:
THE PREACHING OF GOD’S PROPHETIC MESSAGE OF IMMINENT JUDGMENT CAN CHANGE MEN’S HEARTS AND TURN AWAY THE IMPENDING WRATH OF GOD
INTRODUCTION:
Cf. a mulligan in golf; oppty to replay the shot
Jonah still doesn’t have the right attitude and heart of compassion – we will see in chapter 4. He has heart of contempt and judgment – that is the main emphasis of the book – God wants to work on the heart of His people so that our heart towards the lost reflects His heart of compassion and mercy.
I. (:1-3) THE MESSENGER – CALLED TO DELIVER THE GOODS —
SAME CALLING . . . DIFFERENT RESPONSE
A. (:1) God Calls His Prophet a Second Time – Service is a Privilege
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying”
He is the God of the Second Chance; but don’t presume upon His patience
Goins: Let me ask you: Has the discipline of God, the distress that God has brought into your life because of sin, made you more obedient or less obedient to him? In the long haul have you become more flexible or less flexible in responding to God’s heart desires? Are you more submissive to his will or less submissive? Has the stress made you bitter toward God, or better in serving him and following him? Are you more consistent in running with him and agreeing with him?
B. (:2) God Commands Faithfulness in Proclaiming His Message
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
God doesn’t always give us the entire picture up front.
C. (:3) God Casts a Big Vision of Great Challenge and Great Compassion
“So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.”
– a very significant city
– a very large city
II. (:4) THE MISSION — PROCLAIMING MESSAGE OF IMPENDING DESTRUCTION
A. Tackling the Scope of the Mission – Hardest part is actually beginning
“Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk”
B. Conveying the Urgency of the Mission
“and he cried out and said”
C. Proclaiming the Message of the Mission – Unpopular and Dangerous
“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Short sermons can be quite effective!
III. (:5-9) THE MOVEMENT – HUMBLING THEMSELVES AND PETITIONING GOD FOR HIS MERCY
Perhaps most impressive and astonishing people movement of all time – an entire city repenting and turning away from their wickedness and back to God
What inspired such a dramatic turnaround?
– God’s heart of love and compassion reaching out to them
– Circumstances of the unusual prophet
Ritchie: Well, the second thing that caused their repentance, I suggest, is that I think that Jonah looked strange. Let me explain. There is some evidence that in the late 1800’s a sailor fell overboard and was swallowed by a great fish of the shark family. Two days later the shark was caught in a net. He was brought on board, cut open, and the man was found alive. There was only one difference about him, and that was that somehow the fish’s digestive juices (which hadn’t got to him totally), had burned off his first layer of skin so that every feature of the man was white, and he stayed that way for the rest of his life.
A. (:5) Response of the People
1. Faith – The essential starting point
“Then the people of Nineveh believed in God”
Corporate movement towards repentance on the part of all the people
2. Humbling themselves before God
“and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.”
Involves confession of sin and petitioning God for mercy
No caste system when it comes to our standing before God
B. (:6-8) Response of the King
1. (:6) Personal Response – Same as that of the people
“When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes.”
Effectiveness of Jonah’s preaching – the word reached the king
King taking a leadership position
Recognizing the sovereignty of the King of the Universe
(how different from Nebuchadnezzar)
Goins: It is amazing that what the king is doing is following the lead of his people as he exchanges his own royal robes for sackcloth. To put on that scratchy burlap covering acknowledges that one deserves God’s judgment and affliction. It symbolizes grieving over one’s own sin. For the king to sit in ashes means he leaves his seat of authority and humiliates himself. He prostrates himself before God in repentance. These are powerful symbolic actions in leadership. When the king issues this royal decree, although it comes in response to the people’s initiation of mourning and fasting, it does add official sanction and impetus to what is already going on.
2. (:7-8) Public Response – Issuing Mandate
a. Invoking his Authority
“And he issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles:’”
Buy-in from his nobles
b. Instituting Extreme Corporate Fast – extending it to animals
“Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.”
c. Calling for Extreme Expression of Humility
“But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth”
d. Commanding Repentance – Petitioning God for Mercy
“and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.”
Fervency entreated
Corporate concern, but personal responsibility
Calling for radical lifestyle transformation
No movement on God’s part apart from movement on our part
We need God’s working in our hearts to enable us to repent
C. (:9) Fear of God coupled with Hope in His Mercy
“Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?”
III. (:10) THE MERCY – RESPONDING BY AVERTING EXECUTION OF WRATH
A. Awareness of Fruits of Repentance
“When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way”
B. Averting Execution of Wrath
“then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”