Purpose and Providence Part 1 "Responsibility" (Sermon)
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39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
Introduction
Thank Bro. Ben for allowing us to come.
Bro. Darrell
The name Jonah has become a bad word to the modern age, but Jesus identified his life as a sign.
God never changes. He always does it in the same way. The coming of a prophet is a sign that God is ready to speak. 64-0214 - The Voice Of The Sign
Jonah’s ministry teaches us about Purpose and Providence. Perfect Will and Permissive Will. It reassures us that our understanding of the purpose of our life and God’s understanding of it may be completely different.
Even the greatest prophets did not fully understand their own life and impact.
Israel was God’s elect people.
6 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
Israel knew this. They were very aware that they were God’s chosen.
14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
15 Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
They were chosen to be different.
1 Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing.
David put it this way:
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Being chosen by God, you would think that things would have gone easier for the Jews.
The Jews have always understood being chosen as a blessing and a burden.
Responsibility
Some Civilizations lasted for hundreds of years with no judgment for worshipping false gods.
Nineveh.
Nineveh, as Jonah knew, was predestinated and prepared, and prophesied of God to be the fast-coming scourge and the cruel prison-house of the conquered and captive Israel. And, such was the power and the policy of Nineveh, and such was the sin and the weakness of Israel, that Jonah could look for not one atom of hope for his country unless it was in the great and insufferable wickedness of Nineveh, and in the swift and sure judgment of God against Nineveh. Bible Characters Vol 3
Jonah was happy with the wickedness of Nineveh, because it meant eventually they would be judged. they were his enemy, and rightfully so. He lacked the perspective of Isaiah, who came on the scene after Jonah died.
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work Upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, And the glory of his high looks.
24 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, Be not afraid of the Assyrian: He shall smite thee with a rod, And shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.