Repent, A Simple Message

Recap From Last Week

Jonah is thrown overboard and that is the last we see or hear from the sailors. The last thing we know is that we left the scene with them worshipping Yahweh

Jonah begins is descend down into the deep. We only know that Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the great fish but we do not know how long he spent at the bottom of the ocean.

We do know Jonah died at sea based on his prayers, Jonah reached the ocean floor as he used words like “weeds were wrapped around my head and I descended to the roos of the mountains.” He also used like “you brought up my life from the pit,” and “while I was fainting away I remembered the Lord” which sounds like the last thoughts of a dying/drowning man.

But the biggest reason why I am convinced that Jonah died is because Jesus refers to Jonah’s experience as a way to illustrate his own experience in the grave Matt 12:40. Three days and nights, he said, in the heart of the earth. Jesus was not chilling in the grave he was dead and at some point on the third day he was alive and proceeded to get out of the grave.

Likewise, Jonah was dead in the belly of the fish, God brought him back to life and after he had prayed his prayer the beast vomited him unto dry land.

Jonah hit rock bottom. A question was posted, does God bring about our rock bottoms? I will answer that question with a NT answer and then with an OT answer.

John 1:3 (NASB95)

3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In other words, if you can see it, touch it, conceptualize it, it exists, and if it exists it was created by God.

The problem is that is infinitely bigger than we can conceive and much more in control than we give Him credit for.

We have our own concepts of what God is and how He should be. That his sense of morality should mimic ours while the opposite is what is true.

so that calamity, that disaster came from God for his own purposes.

When Job’s wife attempted to tell Job that he had a right to me angry with God for doing this to him and should just cussing out. Job said, “shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?”(Job 2:10) … thou he yet will I trust him (Job 13:15).

But, let me give you something a little more precise, more direct

Isaiah 45:5–7 (NIV)

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, 6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.

What you would deem as rock bottoms that would most likely be disasters, calamities, or unwanted undesired damaging events come from God

Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 45:7)

We ought therefore to hold this doctrine, that God alone is the author of all events; that is, that adverse and prosperous events are sent by him, even though he makes use of the agency of men, that none may attribute it to fortune, or to any other cause

If you belong to Christ, there is purpose for your rock bottoms. They may be a rebuke, they may be discipline, they may be God using you to save others…

Romans 8:28 (NASB95)

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

This message is only for those of you who have accepted the Lordship of Jesus Christ and so therefore members of His Church. For the rest of you all I can tell you is:

Acts 2:38 (NASB95)

38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Continuing The Narrative

Jonah 3:1–3 NASB95

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” 3 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.

God speaks to Jonah a second time. This second chance shows God’s persistent call and his patient love. Jonah wanted to escape from God through death. God showed him that not even death can separate him from the God who loves him enough to give him yet another chance.

He was told again to go to Nineveh and to speak a word that God will give him, presumably when he gets there. This time, Jonah obeys the mandate and goes to the great or big city