Jonah--The Wicked Repent

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, we continue our study of Jonah and here consider the reaction of the Ninevites to Jonah’s Word of the Lord. Last week, we noted how wicked and evil Nineveh was. They had no regard for the sanctity of life, they pursued their own pleasure and gain, and those with the most power exploited those with less power and position. There was so much evil and wickedness, that the cries of the people went up to God. He saw the wickedness, such as was in the days of Noah, the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, that He determined to destroy the city in 40 days.

Nineveh was an ancient city, founded by Nimrod, the son of Cush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. Located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, it was the capital city of Assyria and was, at one time, the residence of King Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:36; Isaiah 37:37). The king in our passage is identified by Douglas Stuart as Assur-dan III, who was a contemporary of Jereboam II of Israel, Jonah’s king.

The influence of Nineveh on Israel is apparent from the many references to the city. In addition to the founding of the city in Genesis, there are references in 2 Kings and Isaiah. Also, the book of Nahum is mostly made up of prophetic messages describing the coming destruction of Nineveh. Writing some 100 years after Jonah’s visit to that great city, Nahum’s prophecies serve as a warning to everyone, that apart from daily dying to oneself, daily affirming faith in God, daily reflecting on God’s good news in Jesus Christ, there will be a drifting away and falling into wickedness.

Thanks be to God, for He sends us preachers and teachers to remind us and hold us to the faith handed down, once and for all to believers. Let us continually put our hearts and our minds to the Word of God, as the people of Nineveh did in Jonah’s day.

We return to our study of Jonah in verse five, after the people had heard Jonah cry out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Just a couple of things to add to what we considered last week. Jonah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and in the power of God, he preached. Let us not look too closely at the man Jonah, and marvel at him. Let us keep in mind that he tried to avoid God and God’s message for Nineveh. Let us keep in mind that God had to send a storm, a hurricane, to get his attention, and put him in the belly of a whale for three days and nights to get him to obey. Those things happened so that our attention, our focus is on God and His plans for Nineveh.

Belief

The first thing we see from the Ninevites is belief. They believed Jonah’s message. Jonah’s message, reduced in our text to its essential form, conveyed that the city would be destroyed, but it also welcomed an invitation to repent. There’s a double meaning conveyed in the word ‘overthrown’. It can mean destroy, it can also call to repentance, literally, a destroying of one’s former way of living.

But if Nineveh refused to hear the Word of the Lord, if they refused to allow the Holy Spirit to work in them, to transform their hearts, if they, like Pharaoh, gave lip service, but stubbornly refused to listen and obey, they would be destroyed. The city would be wiped out. The Lord Himself would destroy the city for their evil and wicked ways, their horrific treatment of people. He would either raise up an invading army to destroy the city, or he would destroy it through some other physical means, such as the manner in which He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

But praise the Lord, the people believed the Lord. They believed God. They believed that the Lord, who indicated His reality by the 40 days of warning—40 days being of religious significance not only for Israel, but for other nations as well. This is a divinely appointed waiting period. The Lord God has given them 40 days to take action.

They believed that Jonah’s Lord God, was real. Jonah was a credible witness to the Lord God (particularly if he still smelled like fish). Jonah was clear in his communication. He didn’t care how the people received it. He wasn’t interested in the city or the people at all. He didn’t care what they thought of him or his message. He simply delivered it, and trusted God to work, or as he hoped, not work in the hearts of those wicked people.

I have had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home, and have been involved in church life for as long as I can remember. I remember the heady days of debate, conflict and divisiveness over the culturally appropriated women in office decision in the church. The foundations of that ill-fated decision were laid earlier in a report on Biblical inerrancy, which led to the proclamation that two opposing views/interpretations of scripture could be held simultaneously. The body of Christ is continually facing tremendous cultural influence and pressure to conform, now at this time with regard to human sexuality, gender and identity.

Brothers and sisters, let us not be so naive to think that it is just a pressure, or is something out there—from culture. This is a reality in my own family. It is a reality in other families in this congregation. This makes it real and difficult, for we love our families, we love our friends and neighbours. And the most dangerous, no deadly thing we can do is compromise on the truth in the hopes of being loving.

Jonah wasn’t loving. He wasn’t at all concerned for the people of Nineveh in giving God’s Word to them. Honestly, he was a hypocrite. He could readily pray for himself from the belly of hell—in the whale, but he didn’t want to pray for the people living in the hell that was Nineveh.

But God is loving. God stirred the hearts of the Ninevites. God opened their hearts to hear His Word and believe it. God enabled them to believe in Him. Nineveh was a city of about 120,000 people, just a bit larger than Lethbridge is today. Let us love our city by telling God’s Word, God’s truth. In Him is life. In Him is identity. In Him is freedom from sin, shame, and destruction. Let us tell people the honest truth. So that they may respond to God in humility.

Humility

After hearing the Word of the Lord from Jonah, the Ninevites humbled themselves before the Lord. What does this humility look like?

Humility is taking oneself off the pedestal. Humility is being totally realistic about oneself, acknowledging one’s God given gifts and abilities, as well as one’s shortcomings. It is not so much thinking less about oneself, as it is thinking about oneself less often. It is thinking more often of God and those He’s placed around you, spouse, child, parent, sibling, neice, nephew, aunt, uncle, grand child, grand parent, schoolmate, teacher, student, employer, employee, homeless person, neighbour, server, attendant, whomever.

Humility is putting God in His rightful place in your life. Jonah exhibited the sinfulness of sin by putting himself in God’s place. The Word of the Lord came to Jonah and He did the very opposite, he followed his own plan, his own will. God brought him low, very low, into the depths of the sea, to the very foundation of the earth. Until Jonah repented.

For the Ninevites, they only had to hear of the impending destruction from the Lord, and they humbled themselves. They proclaimed a fast—a willful denial of one’s self, even to the basic needs of food and water. They put on sackcloth—they exchanged their comforts for discomfort. They put on, if you will, the evidence of their deceitful, wicked, terrible lives. Evil and wickedness rips at the heart and soul of a person. If you can imagine the gradual painful feeling of having sandpaper rubbing on your skin, sackcloth is almost as bad.

We’re familiar with the notion of putting on Christ, clothing ourselves with Christ. But when people participate in evil, rather than bringing good, joy and delight into one’s heart and life, it brings pain, sorrow, grief and death. It is like putting on spiritual sackcloth, or spiritual clothing made out of sandpaper—it rips apart the heart and soul.

So this outward expression of sackcloth mirrored an inward repentance and acknowledgement of sin. From the least to the greatest—the greatest among them was the king, consider what he did.

When the Word of the Lord came to the king, he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. He dethroned himself, and in so doing, he enthroned the Lord God Almighty. He abdicated his place and position of power, effectively giving it over to the Lord God. He joined all his people in humbling himself, donning the clothing and the position of humble repentance. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust—the king declared his rightful position before the Lord—he was nothing, and he deserved nothing.

Still having authority from the Lord, he acknowledged it now, “And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?”

Have you been round a barn when the lazy farmhand forgot to feed the animals even one meal? The bellowing, the mooing, the groaning, is amazing. From the beast to the last man, woman, and child, the cries of repentance went up to the Lord, in the desperate hope He would show them His favour.

Repentance

The people, all the people, from the least to the greatest, from the king to the lowest servant and slave repented before the Lord. What is repentance? How do we see it in our text?

Repentance is not to be confused with remorse. Remorse can look like repentance. Remorse goes like this: “Yeah, I was that lazy farmhand that forgot to feed the animals. I feel really bad about it.” Repentance goes like this, “Hey boss, I’m sure you know this already, but I didn’t feed the animals yesterday. Please forgive me. Take out of my wages whatever loss of production came as a result of my sin. I will not be so lazy again. I am here and ready to work hard for you and for this farm.”

That’s what the king indicated in his decree isn’t it? Don’t for a minute think that because he got off his throne and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes that that was repentance. If that’s all he did, that would just be remorse. Repentance is in what he decreed, “Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”

They turned from their wicked ways. Brothers and sisters, it is not enough to feel bad about sin. We must turn from our wicked and evil ways, and we must turn instead to righteous and loving ways. We must change our attitude toward one another, from using to serving, from under-appreciating, to appreciating and loving. We must stop thinking, “What can I get out of this?” and instead think, “What can I give to the Lord? What is the Lord calling me to do for my spouse, my family, my neighbours, my city? What is the Lord calling you away from, as far as wickedness and evil goes, and what is the Lord calling you to, as far as righteousness and good deeds go?

Grace

The king hoped that by repenting from their evil ways, God would show them grace, and would “turn, relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that they would not perish.”

Brothers and sisters, we all know, perhaps we have memorised or are familiar with John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

God looks into the hearts of all people. 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” God saw that the Ninevites were full of Godly sorrow for their sin, which led to them being saved, by God’s grace.

God has already extended His grace in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what we witnessed in Walker’s baptism. God’s grace is given to him, right now, as young as he is, as unable as he is to understand it. God has given it. And God gives it to you!

But His grace isn’t limited to us in this church, His grace is extended to all of Lethbridge and all the surrounding communities! All we need to do, is heed the Lord’s call to bless and encourage others to put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.