Thrones and Ashes

Introduction

Isn’t it amazing how God, the creator of all things, works with a severe mercy! He’s always willing and able to give to us a mercy that we do not deserve, and I’m thankful for that each and every day.

Last week we discovered the severe mercy of God when he dealt with Jonah. Despite Jonah running from God, despite him being less than afraid of God, despite him putting the lives of others in danger, God still rescued him. God still made sure that His will was going to be done.

This week, as we continue our journey in the book of Jonah, we’re going to discover that Jonah falls into the same trap that the people of Israel did. They disobeyed God, they were found in exile, God showed mercy and they returned, and then they disobeyed again.

Let’s see what Jonah does this week after God showed him that severe mercy..

Jonah 3 NRSV

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Jonah’s story picks up in this 3rd chapter after Jonah’s 3 days in the big fish. He spent time in this fish who eventually vomited Jonah up on the shore. This is where chapter 3 picks up, after this less than pleasant delivery to land.

Jonah is told by God, again, to get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you. Immediately we have to wonder what that message is exactly. What does God want him to say? Why does he want him to say it?

Well, if we look back to Chapter 1 we may recall what that word was. Chapter 1, verses 1-2 says,

Jonah 1:1–2 NRSV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”

Jonah is to preach against Nineveh. To tell them that they have been wicked and going against God. Without much information regarding Nineveh we may not understand just how big of a deal this is. So, let’s learn more about Nineveh.

Nineveh was the capital at one of point of Assyria. This was the biggest and badest empire around. They were brilliant military strategists and were incredibly brutal. In fact, they were the most brutal empire that the world had yet seen.

Archeological digs have found ancient palaces and halls where magnificent carvings and sculptures have been found. In one particular hallway they found depictions of battles between the Assyrians, and guess what other nation…right, the Israelites!

The Israelites and the Assyrians did NOT get along. For Jonah, a Hebrew, to go into the Assyrian capitol and preach repentance was certainly dangerous. But, that’s not necessarily why Jonah ran. We’ll touch on that later.

The Ninevites were brilliant, yet brutal. Some of the carvings and drawings depicted Israelites being tied down and tortured, even being skinned alive. They would sharpen the tips of trees and display Israelites on them outside of the city. Now, imagine walking up and seeing that, knowing you’re about to say “hey, you guys should quit being so mean...”

But, this desire from God to have Jonah confront the Ninevites would have felt like a victory to the Israelites and ancient Jews. Finally, someone was going to bring justice and judgment to the evil Ninevites! God is, through this message, confronting human corruption. It was something the Israelites had longed for. Yet, Jonah knew what God was going to do, show mercy.

Now, to help you see the magnificence of this city I found a description in the Archeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. And it says, “ The remains of Nineveh are hidden in two mounds on either bank of the Hawsar River. One is Kouyunjik Tepe, where the palaces of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal were discovered, and the other, on the south bank, is Nebi Younis (the Prophet Jonah), where the palace of Sennacherib stood. These palaces were unusually large, built upon raised platforms about 75 feet high. At the gates of the palaces stood winged lions with human faces.

[lion face picture]

The walls were lined with alabaster and other beautiful stones. On the walls were reliefs depicting the military campaigns of the kings of Assyria and their hunting expeditions, plus mythological and other scenes. Sennacherib’s palace occupied the southeastern quarter of the city. It was here that the relief portraying the siege and conquest of Lachish was discovered. The city wall was more than 3 miles long and according to the king’s description it had no less than 15 gates. Sennacherib encircled the inner wall with an outer one which, in his words, ‘was high like a mountain’. The whole city was surrounded by gardens full of scented plants and irrigated by channels that drew water from the neighboring rivers. The great library of Ashurbanipal, containing 25,000 clay tablets dealing with historical, literary and religious matters, was found in Kouyunjik.

This was, as I said before, a brilliant yet vicious city.

Despite this, in vv 3-4 we see Jonah actually listening to God…kind of.

He makes his way to the large city. It was 7 miles around and held incredible cultural significance. It took 3 whole days to get through the entire city in a straight line. It was crowded, brilliant, vicious, and corrupt. And Jonah, knowing this, walks in about a day’s journey. He listened by going to Nineveh, and even going in a little bit, but did Jonah proclaim a message of repentance to the Ninevites?

Let’s look. Here are the 5 words he said to them in Hebrew...

ע֚וֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת

It says, ‘ō·wḏ ’ar·bā·‘îm yō·wm, və·nî·nə·vêh neh·pā·ḵeṯ. What he said, as literally as I can make it, is “Another forty days and Nineveh will be demolished.” Does this really sound like a frantic message of repentance? No! There’s quite a bit missing here in this message:

Who’s going to demolish Nineveh? (No mention of the Lord)

Why are they going to be destroyed? (Wickedness)

What can they do? (Prophets always give a way out)

By who’s authority does Jonah speak? (Pagan nation. Which god?)

It’s strange that Jonah speaks this way and doesn’t include important aspects in this message. He’s breaking away from the prophet stereotype, and seems to be doing some prophetic sabotage. But, why? Well, he doesn’t want God to show them mercy. He hates the Ninevites. Hey’s physically obeying, sure, but he’s sabotaging the message. Which, from what we know about Jonah, isn’t surprising.

Moving into v.5 we can see the effect that this message has. Really, we’d expect it to fail. We’d expect the Ninevites to shrug this message off and move on, but that’s not the case. We’re told that they believed God, proclaimed a fast, and everyone put on sackcloth.

First, Jonah never mentioned this message being from God! The Ninevites pick up on who the message is from, which is pretty spectacular despite Jonah’s sabotage.

They decide that as an act of showing their devotion they do a symbolic act of fasting. Then, then strip themselves of their clothes, their distractions, and put on this itchy and uncomfortable burlap sack. These acts were a ridding of distractions. They were showing God that they were serious about this.

These actions from the Ninevites are acts of expressing their belief. That’s one of the problems we find ourselves facing in the 21st century Western world. When we hear the words “belief” or “faith” we primarily think of something mental, something inside of us. But, as Scripture shows us time and time again that belief, that faith, it MUST be matched with action.

The Ninevites believe that God is confronting them with judgment. What they thought was good and fine is being challenged. They can either keep living in those ways, or accept this judgment. The interesting thing is that Jonah never mentions what they are doing wrong, yet they pick up on it. They know that how they were living, how they were treating others, was wrong.

So, they act upon this judgment. Their belief is met by a response of life change. Which seems to be counter to what most people think today. Belief requires active response to what we say we believe.

Today we see it as “oh do you believe in Jesus?” “Well, of course I do.” “Okay, great.” I said a magic prayer one time when I was a kid and now I’m good. I can keep living the way I want, doing the things I want, and judging what is good and what is wrong, why? Well, I said my nice little neat prayer.

But, Scripture shows us something different. It shows us that belief requires life change. There may be areas in our lives today where we think something is right, but in reality it contradicts what we say we believe. There are many people who think they are Christians because they go to church, they were raised going to church, their mom’s uncle’s brother was a Christian so they must be good…yet their lives show not one shred of evidence of faith and believe in Jesus Christ. That, my brothers and sisters, is frightening. No one does us or anyone else favors by letting someone believe that they are Christians when, in reality, they aren’t.

This belief that we as Christians say we have must be matched by how we live our lives. By what we say, by what we do. Belief in Jesus Christ is a holistic life change. And that’s what the Ninevites show.

The king, who never even heard Jonah speak, hears the message that Jonah shared. We’re told in v.6 that the message reaches the king and he stands from the throne. The most powerful and violent man in the city, in the country, stands and we think “oh man, here it comes. This won’t end well for Jonah.”

Yet, that’s not what happens. He doesn’t strike out against Jonah. He doesn’t demand his capture, torture, or death. Instead, he does something no one expected, especially Jonah. He rises, takes off his royal robes, covers himself with sackcloth and he identifies himself with the sins of his people, and he even goes one step further. He seats himself on the floor, in the dirt and dust. This final act was one of remorse, regret, and repentance.

Then, in vv 7-8 this newly dethroned king makes a decree. The leader forces not just humans into repentance, but even the very animals in the city. He says “let everyone be in sackcloth, fast from food and drink, cry out mightily to God. The king is hoping, praying, that God will relent.

One of the most important things that happens is in v.8. Remember that message of repentance that Jonah was supposed to give? Well, it wasn’t Jonah that called the Ninevites to repent, but the king himself.

In v.8, in the NIV it says that the king told them to “give up their evil ways.” In the ESV it says “turn from their evil ways.” The Hebrew word used here is...

שׁוּב

Shoov. This word is connected to an image of walking. Right, you’re walking along to a destination and you realize that your going the wrong direction, so you shoov and go towards the right direction. The prophets often took this common word and used it when talking about our lives with God. Life is like a journey where we travel down a path and the prophet’s job was to tell the people “Hey, that’s the wrong way. That way doesn’t lead to life, and it will bring you ruin. You need to shoov.”

The right response to this is, of course, “Oh, okay.” *turns around*

We know now that the Ninevites believe in the God of Abraham. Well, how do we know this? Because, their actions show it! They shoov! Their actions shows a change of living. They turned away from their wickedness and toward the right direction, being, God.

Now, the King says something in v9 that many of us wrestle with. He says that maybe God will relent and change his mind. Maybe, just maybe, God will turn away from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.

We don’t like to think about God and his fierce anger. Our culture struggles ith this idea of God’s wrath and anger. We’re like “Oh, I don’t know about that verse. I need to read something light hearted and kind in the New Testament.”

This verse, this passage, is all about God’s judgment on human behavior. Declaring that it’s wrong and that people need to shoov, to turn around.

What we struggle with is how to connect and balance God’s character and attributes. There are many parts of Scripture that show God to be a God of judgment. We hold this conviction from Jesus and other parts of Scripture that speak of a God of love and kindness. Peace and mercy. Right, “God is love.” God loves the world. We tend to either pick the God of love, or the God of judgment. We pick one and screen out the other. And, it’s probably a safe bet that we pick the God of mercy and love.

One usually trumps the other. This, my friends, is the biggest trap. The trap is that we think love and judgment from God are opposites of one another. But, we’ve gotta think this through.

What am I really saying when I say that a loving God wouldn’t judge and condemn human behavior?

What’s underneath that statement is this assumption that God looks out on our wicked, broken, perishing world and would do nothing. He looks out at it and sees how it’s seriously messed up, because we are seriously messed up. If God exists and He looks out on the world onto all of the horrible things we say and do to one another and his response is “Oh, those humans. God love ‘em. They’re certainly a misguided bunch. But, I love them, so I’ll overlook this.”

Is that a loving thing to do? Is it a loving God who overlooks the mess that we’ve made of the world, and the way we vandalize others who are made in His image?

No, it’s not loving. In fact, the opposite of judgment is apathy, not caring and just walking by.

Say you’re walking by a playground and you see this group of 6th graders surrounding and bullying a small 3rd grader. If you walk by this and say, “Oh, kids will be kids. They’ll work it out.” If you say this and keep going, is this a loving and caring thing to do? Absolutely not! It’s apathetic.

The loving thing to do is render a judgment on that behavior. To hold them accountable. Rightful judgment is absolutely an expression of love, not the opposite of it.

You love the 3rd grader by protecting them. You love the neighborhood by not allowing this sort of behavior to continue and grow into something bigger. You love the 6th graders by making a statement that this behavior is not okay and it will eventually ruin their lives.

Brothers and sister, this world is not okay. It’s not okay because we are not okay. For God to love His people and to protect this world, but not to render judgment, is not love. He’s not worthy of worship if that’s the case.

You and I want a world where there is justice. A world where God holds us accountable for our decisions. If there isn’t a God of judgment there is no hope for our world. it wouldn’t matter how you behaved because there would be no accountability. You yourself and the culture would decide what is good and evil. And, as we see today, that’s never a good thing. If you cherish the hop of Scripture that this world will one day be made right, then you cherish the hope of judgment from God.

But, the problem is that if there is a God of judgment, there is no hope for you and me. Because, we are notoriously two-faced. We want others to be judged, but we ourselves HATE IT when we get the same treatment. When the spotlight of judgment is on others we rally, but when it’s on us how do we get? Defensive and angry.

If there is a God of judgment, then guess what, I’m not it. If there is a God of judgment then I don’t get to make decisions about what is right and wrong. We see this when we say that we think it’s good to be generous and forgive, yet we spend all of our money on ourselves and have 3 relational bridges that we’ve burned and refuse to rebuild.

When we, and when the Ninevites, say that they have real faith, we choose to trust that God’s judgment and rulings are superior to our own. We are not the judges, He is.

So, what does God do with His judgment? Well, in the final verse of Chapter 3 we see that God he relents. God renders a judgment on the people, the people repent and shoov, and then God extends his mercy. The goal of God’s judgment isn’t punishment, but grace. He’s not out to destroy us, but to show us that we are going the wrong way so that we can shoov and start going towards the direction of His grace.

I want to return briefly to v.6 because here we see the beautiful image of God’s judgment and the goal of it.

The king, wicked, broken, evil…he hears God’s judgment, rises off of his throne, takes off the symbols of his authority and autonomy, he lays them aside. He intentionally removes that which signifies his authority. He lowers himself. He shoovs by lowering himself and going down, sitting in the dirt.

Brothers and sisters, as Christians we find ourselves being like the king. We find ourselves standing up from our thrones, humbling ourselves, and shooving. Yet, we quickly find ourselves standing up, putting on those garments again, and sitting back on our own little thrones. It’s a cycle that we go through over and over and over again.

Think about how many times in your life that you’ve repented, gone back to God, and then found yourselves in the midst of your sins again.

In seeing that this cycle is endless is there anything that we can do? Is there good news for people who can’t even repent correctly?

Of course there is.

The Good News, the gospel, is at the heart of this. It’s the story about a King who oversees the world and sees that his people are ruining one another. Out of love he renders a judgment, saying it’s not right. It has to be dealt with. The good news is that this king makes this judgment, then gets up off of his throng, takes off his robes, calls for his people to repent, and in the language of Philippians 2 he “humbled himself, becoming human, taking on the status of a slave.” Our king, our judge, not only made the judgment, but he came down from his throne and sat in the ashes and in the dust among His people.

This king wallowed in the ashes of human existence. On the cross he absorbs the judgment that he rendered onto himself, on our behalf. He absorbs our selfishness, our brokenness, our pain, the tragedies of who we are, and it kills him. But, because His love is stronger than death, than evil, than sin, Jesus’ resurrection makes possible this new way that those who will grab onto him and accept his judgment on us will find grace.

The cross is where all of God’s attributes come together in perfect harmony. It’s a statement of God’s love, his judgment, and it creates an opportunity of grace.

We, as broken and hurting people, will be crawling on and off of those thrones for the rest of our lives. Lord willing we’ll be able to make some progress, but only by his grace alone.

We’ve been doing this since day 1 of being a Christian.

Day 1 of being a Christian - hearing of God’s judgment on me, shooving and responding to his grace made possible by his love shown on the cross.

Day 2 of being a Christian - repeat of day 1

Day 3 of being a Christian - repeat of day 1...

God’s judgment, believe it our not, grants us life. It’s about restoration, not smashing us against the rocks.

I don’t know your thrones. I don’t know all of the ways in which you climb back on there and define good and evil in your lives. But you do crawl back up there and redefine good and evil in ways that excuse things that you know Jesus and the Scriptures say are not the way to life, and what are you going to do with that judgment?

I urge you, brothers and sisters, for either the very first time in your lives, or the hundredth, or thousandth time, to rise up off of the throne that you sit on and shoov, turn away from the wrong way and turn towards the grace of God. Come to his altar. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you this morning, telling you that you’ve been on the throne, listen to that and shoov.

When we are asked by people “when were you saved” our response should be “well, this morning.” Each every day is one where we need to dethrone ourselves as the judge of our lives and recognize that it is indeed Christ who judges and saves.

If the evil and wicked, self righteous and malicious Ninevites can repent from a 5 word Hebrew statement, then we should be able to after seeing and hearing about the life and sacrifice fo Christ.

Come forward?