Jonah 3:1-5, 10
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…
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 reading from last week and the reading from this week, both kind of deal with the same subjects. They give us almost a mini sermon series on God's message of judgment. They also both have Sunday School stories that mess up our understanding of the text. Last week, we looked at Samuel, and we have a Sunday School message that said, the call of Samuel was to this little boy who had this marvel experience of hearing God. But the real story was this grown man, probably about a teenager hears the voice of God who tells him to bring a message of judgment to Eli, who was basically his surrogate father. A very different story. We asked the question, do I tell the whole story? Samuels question when he didn't want to tell Eli what God had said. And we realized that we Christians to have to speak the whole word of God to the world. Because the cross of Jesus Christ does not make sense. Without a message of judgment for sin. You need to know what you're being saved from, to reach out to a savior. That's what we talked about them. Today we have a story about Jonah. A message of judgment for the city of Nineveh. Jonah's message is yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. God sent him to this city of Nineveh. Now, if you remember from your Sunday school days, there is a story that goes behind it. It begins with God coming to Jonah and saying, go to Nineveh and tell them the message. You had 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And Josh Jonah says, No, thank you. He goes the opposite direction. He heads to Tarshish hops on a boat and out in the middle of the water a storm comes up on the boat, they figure out that the problem is Jonah. And Jonah says, Yep, it's me. Throw me over the boat and the storm will stop and the storm stopped. I'm glad they didn't try to do that when I worked on a boat. Jonah splashing around in the water and a huge fish comes in eats him. And he prays a prayer of repentance inside the animal before it spits him up on the shoreline. Then we get then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. And he follows through. Jonah goes to Nineveh one of the enemy's cities, a violent city full of evil men and proclaims yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So he goes, Nineveh, enemy of God's people conquering city. And he proclaims this message of judgment. And the people respond they all gather together and they kill him. No, that's that's pastor. You're not supposed to lie about the Bible. Okay, so maybe I'll get it right this time. They ignore him. No, that's not it. They laugh at him. No. They do. What did they do? They repent, or that's weird. Right. Jonah goes and he says you're all gonna die in 40 days. And they repent. Not only do they believe him, but they respond to the judgments with repentance. It says 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. And then you get three dots. Because for some reason, our lectionary pulls out of few verses that are really important in the story. It goes, the word reads the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation 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 in 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. Wow. What a response. And this is from the people who do not know God, who are enemies of God's kingdom and will eventually fight and attack them. Wow. Someone came up, maybe in Main Street, alcohol and that nice big paved area where they have all the events, put on one of those old school signboards back in front, the end is near and shouted. 40 days and alcohol will be destroyed. What would you do? Would we send the police after him? Probably not. You can say whatever crazy things you want on the streets, can't you? We laugh? Probably. Would we ignore him? Probably. Would you gather together all the people maybe get the mayor, he would come out and say, nobody can eat anything for three whole days, put on a potato sack and dump ashes on top of your head? I doubt it. Right? That would be kind of crazy. But Nineveh they believe that? What would you do? If someone came up to you when you were assured that they were right, you have 40 days left to live? Would you pull out the bucket list. Now we don't remember this maybe. But the phrase bucket list comes from a movie. Things you want to do before you kick the bucket. Right? The list of all the experiences you want before you die. And if you've got 40 days that you quit your job, pull out that list and get it done. Look at your bank account and think, hey, I can spend this many dollars every day until I die or the credit card and say once I die, this is gone. Some people would probably take that time and use it for their family. Would you dig in your firepit? Lay it out on the floor, put on the potato sack and rub it in your hair and say I repent. I doubt it. But that's what the people of Nineveh did. It's kind of crazy, right? Why? There was no message of grace or forgiveness No, or else it was just 40 days, and none of it will be overthrown. But what we're missing is some of the context from the ancient world. And what Jonah himself says about God's message. In the next chapter. Jonah says, oh, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country. That is why I made haste to flee. Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Jonah says that God relents from disaster, merciful, full of steadfast love. Which is why when he says yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown and the people repent. God does not destroy the city. Because when God sends a message of judgment, He always follows it with the option of repentance
is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and unrelenting from disaster. And this is where our Sunday School Story messes up the story of Jonah. I bet many of you when you were told this story heard it like this. God calls Jonah. And he's scared. He doesn't want to go to Nineveh because they'll be mean to him. They might laugh at him or hurt him or kill him. So he runs away. That's not the story. What does Jonah say? Oh, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country. That is why I made haste to flee. Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love unrelenting from disaster. Jonah didn't want Nineveh to repent. He wanted them to be destroyed. That's why he ran away. God's message of judgment was not a message of judgment. It was an offer for repentance. And when the people heard, they believed, and they turned to God and they asked for mercy. And God gave it that is the kind of God we have. When he sends a message of law, a message of judgment, whether to Nineveh to us or to the world. It always comes with the option of grace. I think this is why our lectionary pairs it with the story of Jesus, who goes out to the world and says The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. The message of repentance comes with the message of forgiveness. God always sends it that way. Jonah's day and the days of ancient Israel, the story of Jonah was a lesson for the kings. The question was, if God so loves the enemy, Nineveh, not the promised people of God. What would he do if his people put on sackcloth and ashes and commanded a feast and returned to him and turned aside from their evil way and worshipped the true God. Of course, you would forgive them. He would remember His covenant He would turn from them and give them peace. But the Kings over and over and over again, they had prophets come to them and say, turn to God or be destroyed, turn to God or be destroyed. He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And they refuse to over and over again. And so this important section where it talks about what the king ordered everyone. That's what the kings of Israel were supposed to do, is put on sackcloth and ashes and repent. Because every time that message of judgment goes out, every time someone hears about their sin, God follows it up with an offer for forgiveness. Repent, and believe in the gospel. Same for us. We all know this. We Christians, we hear this message of judgment knowing that God is a forgiving God. We know that God condemns sin, which is why He sent His Son Jesus to take that condemnation on himself. We know that every time we hear that God brings judgments on all of us or for the evil that we do. We just need to turn to a savior and ask for His love and His mercy. Because we know like Jonah, we know that God is a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. he relents from sending us to disaster because he sent that disaster on Jesus himself when he died on a cross When we hear the message of God's law, it is always calling us to turn from our sin and trust in our Savior, to repent and believe it. God always gives you life. He always follows it up with his promises, because that's who God is. Someone who loves you enough to send His Son to die for you, and give you His salvation. And it's the same when the message goes out into the world. When we send out this message of judgment, God's law on sin, it always comes with the gift of repentance, and offer of forgiveness. Because the purpose of God's law is not judgment. The purpose is to turn people to the Gospel. And that's what happened when John the Baptist was out on the Jordan River, right? He goes out and he preaches repentance, and everybody comes out confessing their sins and being baptized for forgiveness. They hear the words and they repent. And the same thing happens when Jesus preaches it, repent and believe. The world sees Jesus, not as a judge, but as someone who calls them out for their sin, and offers forgiveness when sinners turn to Him. For the purpose is to drive people to the Gospel. And that's where the difference is between the church's proclamation of judgment and the world's. Because when the world proclaims a message of judgment, they just want to strike people, cut them down, punish them, cast them out, divide the world between good and evil, between powerful and oppressed between the horrible and the good. And we see it more and more every day. Judge judgment is just there to punish the wicked and establish the righteous. And I think many people when they hear this when they hear the word, that is all they know. They're trying to make me cut me down make me feel like a bad person cast me out. We always have to remember that our message for sin comes with forgiveness. Repent and believe. Join Jesus receive His forgiveness, whether it comes to us or it goes out into the world because our message is always an invitation. Turn from your evil ways and receive received the gift of life that Jesus offers because it's always there. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai