Going God's Direction - Jonah 3: 1-10

The prophet Jonah. A runaway. A castaway. A fish snack. A repentant sinner. And now back on dry land, once again a prophet. We are now in our third week of our sermon series on the book of Jonah, exploring how we can apply it to our own faith journeys. 

Jonah finds himself spit up on the dry land. Just think of what relief he must have felt! God heard his prayer. God redeemed him. Then comes the call of God to Jonah a second time. Go to Nineveh and preach the message I will give you. Jonah must have been in shock, feeling like he was back at square one with the same choice to make - whether to obey the call or run from God. 

Its a hard message to swallow. God doesn’t give up on God’s mission. And God doesn’t give up on us. When we repent, it does not mean that we get to abandon God’s original plan or that we have a way out of what we didn’t want to do in the first place. Our God is persistent, which Jonah learned, and we will constantly have to choose whether we will be obedient or disobedient. Those are the only two choices.

This time Jonah is obedient. He heads out to the great city, and once he was about a day past its gates, nearing the city center, he cried out “Forty more days and the city will be overthrown.” Jonah probably didn’t believe that the people who heard the message would care, or could or would repent, so he did’t even include it as part of his message. Prophets almost always invite people to repent, but instead Jonah continued with his vague message - not saying who would overthrow the city or how they would do it. He just kept repeating “Forty more days and the city will be overthrown.”

But something strange happened. As nebulas as Jonah’s message was, it actually caused the people to repent! To turn from their wicked ways and mourn what they had done. The message was enough to make people focus on God, not on the missing pieces of information. The people believed God. They fasted and lamented. 

And such repentance didn’t stop with the people. It went the whole way to the King. When he heard the message Jonah had for the city he ruled and the people who were in his care, he tore his clothes, a sign of deep distress, and instituted a time of fasting and pray, telling the people to turn from what is evil. The King realized that his city was in danger and he did the only thing he could think of, cry out to God in a hopeless situation to bring hope. For maybe, just maybe, God would change this punishment. Which is exactly what happened. God changed his mind when he saw how earnestly they repented and heard their cries for mercy. The city was spared. 

Jonah traveled forth with the message of God and the fruit was greater then he could have ever imagined! An entire city believed in God and changed their ways. Jonah’s message and the people’s reaction which lead to God’s mercy is a reminder that no one is beyond hope. No place is beyond God’s grace and mercy.

But Jonah must have been startled by what took place. This is not what he expected. He didn’t even have enough faith and hope to tell the people to repent in the first place. Yet here is the King before him commanding his people to change their ways. People and animals wearing sack cloth and ashes, fasting from food and water. Jonah didn’t believe that his obedience could possibly lead to any fruit. He didn’t trust the God who had just rescued him when his cries of repentance were heard.

Perhaps that is the whole crux of the third chapter of the book of Jonah. We like it when our lives are spared, but not others. We want and expect God to change God’s mind about us and give us a second chance, but not others. We constantly compare ourselves to others thinking that we aren’t as bad or our sins are more forgivable. We ultimately become the judge of others, taking over God’s job, deciding who is even good enough to hear the message of repentance. 

What would you think at this point in the story if you were Jonah? Would you be excited for the Ninevites? Disappointed that they actually repented? Most of us would say that we want those that we love to repent and turn to God. And we pray that they come to know the love of Christ. But do we pray the same things for our enemies? Do we hope that God spares them or gives them a second chance? Do we as willingly follow the call of God when it places us in contact with those we dislike or do we run the other direction? Do we willingly follow God, but only on our terms?

Chapter three of the book of Jonah is like a mirror in front of our hearts asking the question why do we do what we do? Why do we proclaim the word of God? Why do we reach out to people with the message of repentance? Do we believe that God can work a miracle in the hearts and lives of not just the people we like, but those we dislike as well? Or do we simply want to point out to our enemies that they are evil and will suffer?

This week while on a visit with a shut in we were talking about how we are both glad that we aren’t God. Glad that we aren’t the final judge of people’s hearts. Because sometimes the people we think are the most righteous by their actions actually don’t have pure hearts and motives. And sometimes those we look at with disdain are actually closer to the heart of God. But as glad as I am that I’m not the ultimate judge, the truth is I still stumble into sin and judge others, both with my heart and actions. Sometimes we judge others subtly. Sometimes overtly. But especially when we proclaim the word of God we need to remember that we are vessels for the Holy One, not the Holy One himself. We are to proclaim the word of God because we desire people to repent, because that is what God desires. 

The Lord is quick to forgive and show mercy, but he also desires obedience. And the truth is we are all in need of forgiveness and mercy because we are all disobedient from time to time. When we are obedient like Jonah was the second time he was called, we can do amazing work for the Kingdom of God. But perhaps more noteworthy is that when we repent as soon as our disobedience is brought before us, like the King did, whole cities can fall to their knees and get to know God.

One of the books I was reading this week was about prayer. One of the statements made by the author was that revivals come to the cities and communities where the faithful pray, interceding on behalf of others that they will come to know the Lord and repent. What a contrast to Jonah who went with a half message of destruction. What a contrast to Jonah who wanted the city of Nianevah to fall for they were his enemies instead of interceding for them before God’s throne. One commentator pointed out that the Hebrew word to “overthrow” is the same as to “turn around”. But Jonah wasn’t praying for or proclaiming that the city would turn around, but that it would be destroyed. Oh friends, may we be the people who are faithful to God’s call the first time. The people who cry and plead for even our enemies. A people who bear fruit for the kingdom, not in spite of us, but through us. May we be the ones to bring a revival to this place. Amen.