Turning Point
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
As we have been traveling through the book of Jonah we have seen him not exactly follow through with what God tells him to do. So far this has not worked out for him either. It is crazy in my mind to see a prophet go so far in disobedience to the Lord, especially one like Jonah. Jonah was kind of like a national hero for the nation of Israel because he prophesied good things for the nation and they came true. We see this in 2 Kings 14:25–27 which says “He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.” All of this happened just as Jonah had prophesied.
Because of all of this you would imagine that Jonah being sent to Nineveh, which was one of Israels enemies, would be a good thing. But instead, as we have seen, he runs in the opposite direction. This did not work out well for him. All of this though is building to a major event, a turning point. This is what we will see in Chapter 3 right now in this sermon.
In all of our lives we have turning points, times where we shift the direction we are going in life. Turning points can be good and they can be bad, I would argue that there are several turning points for Jonah throughout this book and some are good while others are bad. For you now a turning point may be moving schools of becoming part of a new friend group or if you are a senior it is what you are going to do after you graduate. The directions that you go will influence what happens next, each turning point is a choice that you have to make. Jonah’s first turning point happens in Jonah 1:2 ““Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”” Here Jonah has a choice obey God or not, we see the choice that he makes in Jonah 1:3 “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah ran. This is not the example that we want to follow when it comes to turning points in our lives, rather we want our turning points to look more like what we see in chapter 3.
As we go through this passage now I want you to think about the different turning points that you face. As you think about them think about the directions that you went and their impact on your life. Let’s not go ahead and read Jonah 3 and see the biggest turning point in the story of Jonah.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
The word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time much in the same way that it did the first and calls him to go to Nineveh and to proclaim the message that the Lord gives him. The difference between this time and the first is that this time instead of running in the opposite direction Jonah goes to Nineveh. Jonah gives a simple 8 word proclamation, that’s only 5 in the Hebrew. This goes all of the way to the king who we would expect to kill Jonah for this but rather he repents and calls for national repentance, can you imagine if we had a national repentance like this today! Because they repented, because they turned away from their evil way, God relented and did not destroy them.
As you can probably tell this message is about turning points, from Jonah finally going to Nineveh to the even bigger turning point of the people of Nineveh repenting. Both sides hold truths for actions that we often need to take. There are times that we need to turn to something good that God calls us to and there are times that we need to turn away from something bad like the people of Nineveh did.
Let’s now turn our attention to the first turning point of Jonah’s obedience and then we can turn to the second turning point of Nineveh’s repentance. First though let’s pray.
Pray
Jonah Obeys (finally)
Jonah Obeys (finally)
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”
After Jonah throws his tantrum in the beginning of the book we see that God still hasn’t changed his mind. He still wants Jonah to go the this people and call out against their evil. We see that God tells him a second time now much like the first time. The only difference is that last little part, it went from “their evil has come before me” to “give them the message that I tell you”. God is done messing around with Jonah, he is going to give the message that God tells him just the way that he tells him to give it.
Nonetheless though this is a second chance for Jonah. This reminds us that we have a merciful God that is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Just like a parent that patiently watches their child throw a tantrum then gives them a second chance to do what they are told, I’m sure none of you needed to be told more than once though and you all never threw tantrums. It would have been so easy for the big fish to just be the way that Jonah dies but God is a merciful God and he gives him a second chance.
Let’s look now at verses 3-5 to see just what Jonah does with this second chance that he has been given.
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
As we all already knew Jonah used this second chance that God gave him wisely by obeying the command. Nineveh was a city that was very large and the reason that he is going in the first place is that there is a lot of evil in it. On top of all of this they were historically enemies of Israel. This second time though Jonah ignores all of these detail and enter the city with his 5 word sermon. This could be a summary of the sermon but we know the power of God and he very well could have used a 5 word sermon to change the hearts of everyone in this city.
What area of obedience might God be calling you to turn to today? What part of life might be your second chance at obedience? We will see in chapter 4 that Jonah regrets his obedience because of the response that came that was a good response. I can assure you now though that Jonah looked upon all of this as he gave an account for it and wishes so desperately that he would have followed in obedience the first time and never grumbled afterward.
Nineveh Repents
Nineveh Repents
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”