Obedience - Walking With God
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Introduction
Introduction
It is a difficult thing to obey. Obedience requires us to put aside what we want to fulfill the request of another. Obedience comes however with reward.
As we have been going through this study with Jonah we have seen him start off with disobedience. Disobedience of God at its very definition is sin. “To him who knows to do good but does not do it, to him it is sin.” - James the Apostle - found in James 4:17. Jonah in the belly of the fish relented, repented and promised to fulfill and obey his calling. He ran from God and ran to God, but when it comes to obeying we will see that obedience is a walk - not a run and not even a jog. Obedience is walking with God - and when we walk, we walk by faith. Spurgeon said “Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He who obeys God, trusts God; and he who trusts God obeys God.”
When we walk in faith with God, we are being obedient to God. In our obedience to God is when we will see the power of God! We must submit to doing it God’s way to see God’s miraculous power and results. Faithful obedience is the secret of spiritual power.
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” 3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk.
4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water.
8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.
10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
New Beginning
New Beginning
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” 3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a SECOND time. This shows amazing love of God towards His wayward people. Jonah was adamantly opposed to following God’s first call. God brought Jonah to a place of surrender and repentance and we see that God calls him again. He got a second chance - a catchy tune I love from Stellar Kart - 2nd Chances — “there will always be second chances and you’ll always be on your first try...”. God graciously gives second chances not out of obligation but from mercy and grace.
The Lord repeats almost verbatim the first call and what get is the idea that Jonah is being given a chance to start again, a do over - a chance of a new beginning. When you are ready to quit running and start obeying God has a second chance waiting. God graciously gives second chances and new beginnings not out of obligation but from His mercy and grace. This is important because of the fact that we all are like Jonah or have been like Jonah.
Isaiah 53:6 (CSB)
6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way;
Even as believers we are capable of operating according to our flesh. Jonah man of God and prophet of God yet refused the call of God and ran off from God. We are all capable of this - just like Abraham (who inspite of the promise of God to have a child with Sarah - he fathered a child through his wife’s servant - yet became a father of many nations), David (committed adultery and murder - still known as a man after God’s own heart) and even the Apostle Peter (denying our Lord and Savior in the presence of many people became one of the greatest preachers full of boldness and faith for Christ).
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying again GET UP and GO to the city of Nineveh. This time however the call wasn’t to cry out against it, but to preach to it. Another chance to fulfill God’s call for him, but notice the Lord makes a change. Jonah will go and preach to Nineveh but the message Jonah preaches is not to be his own. The Lord says preach the message that I tell you. Jonah doesnt have the message at this point he must simply go and await the Lord for the next step. God often works in similar fashion with us and we get irritated in our flesh, but Jonah is an example for us as to why God does it this way.
God told Jonah what he would say in Nineveh and Jonah rejected it and fled. Like with Jonah God will often only reveals to us ONLY what we can handle and obey at that time.
Jonah upon receiving the word of the LORD this time responded in obedience. Responding according to the Lord’s command.
Daily and even multiple times per day you will face the choice of obeying or not. You may choose to not obey and then later have another chance and choose to obey. Perhaps you ignore the Holy Spirit telling you to share about Jesus, or to help, or give. Maybe reading in your Bible you come across something you dont like or want to obey. You may even hear something the Lord speaks through me and think no way! - not doing that! Perhaps God calling you to pick something up or even to put something down and you initially resist - consider Jonah’s call to Nineveh and before you choose to disobey - consider the truth that disobedience always brings more burdens and consequences while obedience results in blessings. This doesn’t make obedience any easier!
Power In Obedience
Power In Obedience
4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water.
8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.
Jonah set out on the first day of his 3 day walk of the great city of Nineveh. Not that Jonah walked a whole day first, but that on the first day he walked Jonah proclaimed the message the Lord told him. What was that message? “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”
Seems a short message but the Lord told Jonah to speak the message He gives him. He was not to speak his own message as I am sure he may have wanted to. Sometimes we have our own choice words we would like to share and to speak, but in order to be obedient to the Lord we must speak His message and His word.
What was the result of this simple and short message upon the Ninevites? The people of Nineveh BELIEVED. They exercised faith and trust, but in what or who? They exercised trust in the word proclaimed, and that the word proclaimed was from God. They didnt trust in Jonah necessarily - but in the message He spoke. They recognized that message as coming from God and true.
It moved fast from the preaching to the believing and we may be tempted to think that maybe Jonah was imposing and fiery speaking eloquent words that challenged and made people ponder and think. This however was not the case and it is never the case when it comes to proclaiming God’s word. It was not Jonah’s rhetoric or oratory skill that persuaded them. It was God - Yahweh working through his obedience to proclaim the message of the Lord.
This is great encouragement for me and for anyone who proclaims God’s word, we are not responsible for the response, we are responsible to faithfully and obediently proclaim His message. The response to the word is the work of the Holy Spirit applying His word in us. God does remarkable things when we are obedient to Him and leave the results to Him. Its our job to obey and God’s job to take care of the results. There is power in obedience! Faith never rests in the messenger but in the God who gives the message.
How do we know that they truly believed the message? They acted upon the hearing of the word of God. They dressed in sackcloth and proclaimed a fast. From the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word of the Lord changed their actions and they reacted to the word instead of ignoring the word.
True faith is always demonstrated in actions of obedience.
The word even reached the king of Nineveh. Reached not finally got to him audibly but that upon hearing the word it reached into his heart and struck him. It caused even the king to rise and come off the throne and dress in sackcloth and sit upon the ash heap. Demonstrated faith in God’s word of coming doom caused them all to be in state of humility and sorrow. The king issued a decree proclaiming a fast of people and animals and that they also must be clothed in sackcloth. They also must call out earnestly to God, while turning away from evil and wrongdoing.
Repentance isnt found in this passage but we know they repented, because repentance isnt something you say it is something you do. If repentance is anything, it is for sure not business as usual, it brings with it a change of direction a difference in choice and action. Nineveh took off their normal clothes and put on sackcloth. They turned away from evil and wrongdoing.
Repentance is not something you must do TO turn to God; it is the very process of turning to God. When we truly turn to Him we turn away from things that displease Him.
They did all this because who knows - God may relent. No guarantee but they repented with hopes of God’s grace and mercy and that’s where the hope of repentance lies, in God’s mercy and love.
The greatest success in history. It is estimated about 600,000 people in the city came to faith in God under the obedience of Jonah and the power of God. Our obedience with God’s power produces miraculous results - but all credit is the Lord’s for the results.
Prior to Jonah’s arrival the Assyrians had experienced a solar eclipse, followed by a famine both of which were omens of bad things to come. The city had just become aware of 3 major tribes coming together against them in alliance to attack. Also 5 years prior 2 plagues had hit killing 1,000’s. God had been preparing behind the scenes for them to hear His message. He even used Jonah’s disobedience to His work. The bleached white skin of Jonah made him look ill.
God is at work long before He calls us to go.
God Responds to Obedience
God Responds to Obedience
10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
God saw their actions. God saw their actions before in Jonah 1 and God is seeing their actions now. Before their wickedness had come up before His eyes, and now He saw their actions - they had turned from their evil ways. God saw it all and God sees it all. We were told earlier that they cried out to God earnestly, so God more than likely heard their cries - but recorded for us here is that He saw their actions. The truth is words without actions are meaningless.
Jesus asked the question of which son obeyed the father.
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go work in the vineyard today.’ 29 “He answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he changed his mind and went.
30 Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, but he didn’t go. 31 Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.
You see the actions of Nineveh demonstrated the truth of their crying out. How deep was their spiritual experience? Repentance and faith are the basic conditions of salvation - According to Acts 20:21 then we have reason to believe that they were accepted by God. Jesus used the Ninevites to shame the unbelieving Jews and this provides further evidence that the response of Nineveh was genuine.
Because they repented God RELENTED. God ceased from doing, and the sense of the word used here is that the relenting is a gracious act. God relented from bringing the promised disaster - He didnt do it. Some translations put repented here instead - but relented is a better word to use for God changing course. God was simply responding to man’s change of heart.
Seeing their repentant actions God relented on the destruction. He spared Jonah in chapter 2 and now chapter 3 He spares Nineveh. God mercies are always unmerited and His grace can never be earned. Repentance is never a work to be rewarded but that does not mean that God does not act in response to repentance.
Nineveh’s repentance postponed the destruction of their city for another 150 years - that generation at least was spared. God’s threatened punishment provides a backdrop to etch His forgiveness and mercy. His readiness to forgive and relent on a wicked and reluctant people and to withhold destruction showed Israel that her coming judgment at God’s hand was not from an unwillingness to forgive but because she would remain unrepentant.
Conclusion
Conclusion
One test for our relationship with God is if God speaks to us as we read His word and meditate upon it. If we dont hear God speaking to our heart, perhaps we need to turn back and to obey His word. The Christian life is a victorious life lived through a series of new beginnings. Dont believe the lie that when we fall we have fallen completely and our ministry is done and there is no hope. Our God is a God of second chances, and you’re always on your first try.
Through Jonah’s second chance Nineveh was also given a second chance. The bible is clear that God gives second chances by restoration, but not for us to make excuse for sin that God will just forgive us. God in His grace forgives but in His sovereignty also determines that we shall reap what we sow and many times it is very costly. It is far better to obey than to sacrifice.
Repentance begins with believing God. When we believe Him and His word, we have power to transform our lives as He wills. You cannot believe God apart from the Word of God - real revival and repentance begins with God’s word.
The Ninevites took the message of Jonah seriously and responded whole heartedly - why?
Jonah’s message was simple - dont get hung up on apologetics, theologies, etc
Jonah’s message was real - we as believers do not need to be impress the world or be perfect, its our failures and mistakes and God grace and mercy in and through them - the scarring, the bleaching, the pain that says we have been in the pit but I am alive because God is merciful and gracious. He can still use me and He can still use you
Repentance comes without excuse, for excuses only seek to justify our sin - but when we come to God in repentance we are crying for mercy - not justice!