The God of mercy

Today's Bible study is on Jonah chapter 3, and I want to remind us why we come here and why we study the Bible, why we take a book of the Bible and go straight through it. That is because, well, I said in the beginning, the book of Jonah is not about Jonah, it's about God, but every book of the Bible is about God. But the reason we study is because we need to be informed as to who God is and what he is like. If we don't see the revelation of him from his word, we will begin to make up our own, and we will say, I think this is what God is like and we will act upon that. So it is good for us to continue to go straight through scriptures and inform ourselves what do we see about God in this scripture, and we will see that in this chapter. Now, one thing I think I forgot to mention in the opening, when we talked about Jonah being a minor prophet, there's 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament. As you go through your table of contents, the book of Jonah is the fifth minor prophet in our Old Testament. However, it is the first in chronological order. It is the first in history order, which I think is fascinating as we say, what do we learn about God? What did he want us to know as we go through this? The book of Jonah, this narrative is the first that we get to. So we're going to start in chapter 3 verse 1, which sounds shockingly like chapter 1 verse 1. It goes like this.

Then we'll stop there. The reason that it sounds like a do-over is it is a do-over. This is a second chance for Jonah. We often use that phrase, the God of second chances, and it's a good phrase. It's something we learn about God from here. So we learn that he gives second chances. When first chances come to a close, God often will give a second chance. What earned Jonah the opportunity for a second chance? We studied that last week. He called out to the Lord. Prayer gave him an opportunity. He chose to reconnect with the Lord. That is the key for a second chance. It is not the guarantee. God does things in his time and in his way, but certainly without that key to unlock the opportunity, it wouldn't be there. So Jonah followed along and unlocked that. In our lives, everyone can relate to some first chance that came to an end, something that closed for us. We often consider them a failure. Something didn't happen the way it was supposed to. Jonah may have considered his call as a prophet a failure at that point. It's like, I've been a prophet of God, now I ran away, I have failed. He may have labeled himself a failure. When we have an opportunity that comes to a close, we know it's over. Sometimes we label ourselves as a failure because we have failed. Now, the truth is we all fail, but we are not failures. But we have an enemy that wants to come in and label us as a failure and remind us of that past failure over and over and over again. And so we need to remember from this lesson, learn from this lesson, that failure does not disqualify us from our potential in the Lord. And we see this, well, we see it in Jonah, but we see this in other characters in the Bible as well. The best advice for Jonah in this moment that God told him were the two words that we just read. They are the words, arise, go. Arise and go. God was saying to him, get up and move forward, right? This is how the Apostle Paul said that when he wrote to the Philippians. This is Philippians, I'll put it on the screen, Philippians 3.13. He said, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on, I arise and I go. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And some of us need those two words at certain points in our life. Maybe somebody listening to this needs that spoken to them. Arise and go. Forget what is behind if you have used the key and you have called out to the Lord and you have connected with the Lord through prayer and reestablished that relationship. All right, so verse three says, Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey and breath. But I want to cover, I want to still finish up with Jonah here. Jonah arose and went to Nineveh. Let's think about this man for a moment. Physically, he must have looked ghastly. He had been swimming in stomach juices, acid, for three days. He must have been bleached and wrinkly and looked like someone who came up out of the grave. I wonder what it was like in that moment. Were there eyewitnesses? Did people see him and maybe follow him into Nineveh? I don't know. But probably that was, it was probably an advantage to him to look like that. Do you think the Ninevites would have listened to someone who looked completely normal, three-piece suit? I'm just coming in and telling you how the world works. No, they may have needed. And you know, that is a truth sometimes about the second chance that God gives us, is that sometimes things have changed. We might think they have changed for the worse, but God has a way of using this change for his purposes. Now, emotionally and spiritually, he had reconnected with the Lord. He must have felt rejuvenated on the inside. You know that feeling sometimes we go to retreat or something and we reconnect with the Lord, we just like surrender things. And we come back, it's like, all right, let's go. I am good, you know? So inside, he must have had a new resolve. Like, I don't care what happens, I'm serving the Lord. One thing we haven't talked about is the fish experience itself. And some people, you know, this is a miraculous thing that a guy was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Some people struggle with the miraculous and they want to find a natural explanation. Is there a natural explanation? Is there a sea creature that could possibly swallow up an animal the size of a human being and spit it out later? Well, maybe. Has this ever happened? There are anecdotal stories of this type of thing happening, but the point is, it's supposed to be miraculous. Just like Lazarus, four days in the tomb, and then Jesus comes and says, come out. You know, just like the man who was born blind and Jesus heals him, it was miraculous. Just like the Nile River that turns into blood. It's supposed to be miraculous. We're not supposed to find a natural event for this to happen. It should be something extraordinary. And that's what Jesus said, I think, somewhere in our lesson. We looked at Matthew 12, 38 to 41, when Jesus was talking about Jonah's experience. And it goes like this.

So the experience of Jonah was supposed to be special, something extraordinary. It was supposed to be a sign that pointed to God's compassion. So that kind of closes the experience of Jonah. And now we're gonna turn for the rest of this week to the experience of Nineveh. Okay, so let's keep reading. The end of verse three, I'll read it again. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city. Three days journey and breath, verse four. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And I wanna stop right there. I love to bring some little history nuggets. And of course you have resources too, but I wanna read a little something from Hallie's Bible handbook. This has been a. for years and years, it's a good little resource, but this gives us a little understanding on Nineveh itself. It says, the term Nineveh refers to the whole complex of associated villages served by one great irrigation system and protected by a network of fortifications. The city proper is also called Nineveh. So we have a situation, like we do that, right? New York, New York. We have a city and then a greater area called by the same thing. That's what it was. There was a Nineveh and then there was a Nineveh inside. Okay? So greater Nineveh was about 30 miles long, 10 miles wide. It was protected by five walls and three moats built by the forced labor of unnumbered thousands of foreign captives. Its population may have neared a million. The inner city of Nineveh proper, about three miles long and one and a half miles wide, built at the junction of the Tigris and Kosher rivers, was protected by walls 100 feet high. Now, an average two-story house is 25 feet. So you have to take four houses and stack them up on top of each other to see how high these walls were. That's enormous. And it said they were broad enough to hold four chariots driven abreast. So maybe as wide as this stage. Four chariots around. This is the fortification. So when the Bible says it was an exceedingly great city, you can see the level of like architecture and what was put into this. And how imposing do you think that was for Jonah to go in? And you can also see why it was a day's journey for him to get into the middle of that city. And so at the end of verse four, it says, and he called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown, this great city with all this fortification. 40 days and this will all be overthrown, he says. Now, I wanna talk again about what he, why he resisted in the first place. Why did he resist going and doing it? It sounds to me like it'd be kind of fun. Like a sibling saying, when mom gets home, you are going to get it. Like, why resist that? Why not just go in and say, yeah, y'all, you're gonna burn. But it's not like he was instructed to go set up a tent and hold evangelistic meetings. He was called to pronounce judgment, to call out against it. But just a little peek into next week into chapter four, we know why he resisted. He resisted because he knew God. Verse two in the next chapter says, that's why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I knew you were a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. See Jonah, he connected all the dots and he thought, if I go do this, they might repent. And if they repent, God will probably relent. And then they're not going to get what I think they deserve, which is judgment. And they're probably gonna get what I think they don't deserve, which is God's mercy. Do you have anyone in your life who you really would just as soon not see God's mercy? Someone who has hurt you, maybe. And in your mind, you have just like written them off. Like, I don't really even wanna pray for them. Much less go and connect in any kind of a way to draw them closer to the Lord. Like I really kind of want them to get what they deserve. I think at seasons of our life at different times, there are people that cause us great harm that we want to see judgment served rather than mercy. So we can understand. We can understand his feelings at that time. But yet Romans nine tells us, God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. That is the character of God. Now, Jonah was called to call out. You're right. Call wrong. He was called to go and accost them. Remember call means to accost a person and make contact with them. You go to the DMV, they call 67. You go up to the counter and they say, what can I do for you today? They're dealing only with you, not with all the other people in the room. This is the time to talk one-on-one. That was Jonah was called to do, to talk to the Ninevites. And he was faithful to do it. What was his message? His underlying message was judgment. He was called to talk about judgment. Now, Americans, American Christians, think that if you go into a situation like that, the proper thing to do would be to tell them that God loves them. He has a wonderful plan for their lives. And they will respond to that and want to be on God's team. And it's going to be awesome. But we bristle at this. We bristle because we don't like judgment. We don't even think judgment is proper because we have been conditioned a little bit by our culture that has taught us there's really no right and wrong. So how can you judge and say you're living against God's laws, God's way, God's honor? And so we should look at this because we want to know what God is like. So fascinating. Judgment and therefore repentance, because that should be the proper response to judgment. They are the effective tools of revival. They always have been. As we open the New Testament, which is a book of revival, first thing we come to is John the Baptist. What are the first words out of his mouth? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Now, then Jesus comes on the scene and he's baptized by John and he goes into the wilderness for 40 days. You know, in our Bibles, if you have a red letter Bible, you know, you can see the exact words of Jesus. You can follow along and it's kind of interesting to say, what are the first red letter words in our New Testament? So in the book of Matthew, what comes first in red? Well, after Jesus talks to Satan a little bit in the wilderness and those red letter words, and he comes out of that experience and begins his public ministry, do you want to know the very first red letter word out of Jesus's mouth? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. That is the message of revival. And repentance means turning. They're synonymous, you can interchange them, but repentance by nature means you have to turn away from something. There's something that you're doing that you need to turn from. And of course, after Jesus is crucified and resurrected and the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples and we move into Acts chapter two, then Peter, his first sermon with the power of the Holy Spirit, he says, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And it goes on from there. The next chapter, Acts chapter three, after the healing of the lame man with Peter and John, repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. So we learn from these passages that God is always seeking people on whom he can lavish his mercy and waiting for their response to see if they will turn toward him. And his actions are based on that response. It's fascinating. It's like second Chronicles, the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro across the earth looking for those who, looking to give strong support to those who are blameless. So let's look at what happened in verse five. It says, the people of Nineveh believed God. Wow. Now here's another fun little history note for us. History tells us that Jonah's message may have been helped along a little bit by the first of two plagues in that area. There were pandemics in 765 and 959 BC, as well as a solar eclipse in 763 BC. So that kind of stuff really works, right? So you have a pandemic, you have a solar eclipse, throw in an earthquake and you have the trifecta of God getting people's attention, right? We're no different than the ancients. You throw those things into our world and what is the response? Suddenly people are interested in spiritual things. I've shared this with you before. You know, in March, we started getting flurries of emails and communication from people that were affected by what was going on in their world because suddenly they realized, I'm not in control as much as I thought I was. There are things in this world, in my life, that control me and I am out of control. Therefore, I better make my way. right with God. And just people that would say, you know, I need I need to connect with God. I need to know him better. And in their own words they were saying, I need to turn from my independent way. See that's what God is looking for. He's looking for people upon whom he can lavish his mercy. Those that are blameless toward him. Doesn't mean we're sinless. That means we turn toward him and say, I'm out of control. You control all things. Therefore I want to be on your team. I am going to turn and and connect with you. So look at the response of Nineveh. They called for a fast and they 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 and he removed his robe and he covered himself with sackcloth and he sat in ashes and he issued a proclamation because that is what governors do in a time like this. They issue executive orders, don't they? And let's look at what his executive order was. By 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 hand. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. This is unprecedented. This is miraculous. I was going for a walk with Paul and I said, is this any place else in Scripture, any place else that a pagan king listened to the words of the prophet of Jehovah and said, you're right and I'm wrong and we need to align, I need to, we need to call out to your God. We couldn't think of anything. Maybe you can think of something, but it's unprecedented. I think it really is unprecedented and that's why Jesus said in that Matthew passage, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented. Wow. How did they know their way was evil? How did they know that violence was in their hands? They didn't have the law. The Hebrews had the law of God. God had revealed to them at Mount Sinai, here's who I am, here's what I am like, here is how you line up with what I am like. The Assyrians didn't have God's laws, so how did they know that their ways were evil? Well, you went in your study guide to Romans. Let's throw it up on the screen. Romans 119, for what can be known about God is plain to them, or we can say plain to mankind, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. And we turn to the next chapter, Romans 2, for when Gentiles, and this certainly describes the Ninevites, when they do not have the law but by nature do what the law requires, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness. And so we find out that God's way, because we are made in the image of God, is imprinted on our hearts. It gets covered over a lot in the sinful world, but it's there. And if someone will turn, then they begin to see, listen, my way has been evil. I have had violence in my hands, and it becomes obvious to them. Now, by contrast, I've been sharing with you little tidbits because I've been reading through Jeremiah, and just this week I finished up Jeremiah, and I just want to share this contrast. So the king of Nineveh, he arose, tore his robe, and he listened to God. Now, Jeremiah was what we call a major prophet because he wrote much, it's a major work, or more volume of work. But he was sent to the kingdom of Judah, and he, over a long period of time, spoke what God had him speak about judgment coming. Judgment coming, God said, I don't want to do this, but judgment is coming because you have evil in your hands. Your evil has come up before me. At one point, God said to Jeremiah, everything that you've been saying, go get Barak and write it all down. He'll write this all down for you. And Barak did, wrote down everything Jeremiah had said, and it made its way to the king of Judah. You can read about this in Jeremiah 38. And a guy named Jehudai read everything that Jeremiah had been saying. And the king of Judah, God's king, he sat, he didn't arise from his throne, he sat there, and Jehudai would read a few lines, and the king took out his knife, cut off the scroll, he threw it into the fire. And he'd read a few lines, cut it off, throw it into the fire. So we have a contrast to two kings, a pagan king, who listened to the prophet of God, arose, tore his robe, and said, you are right, I am wrong, we need to cry out to God mightily, perhaps he will turn. God's king of Judah listened to those words, threw it in the fire, sat down, and said, I'm good, we're all good. And destruction came. Isn't that fascinating? God's judgments are based on the responses of the people. God is a long suffering. He gives this long line of time to warn, and warn, and warn. But then the line of judgment comes. I just thought that was an interesting contrast. Back to Nineveh. So does this mean then, because we'll find out next week, destruction did not come upon the city, are God's words undependable? Is what he says yes and no? Was he lying? Did he change his mind? And that's what we just talked about. God's judgments are conditional. They are conditional upon our response. It's this way. It's like there's this neat place, you know, up at Ponderosa State Park, you overlook Payette, you go way up to that cliff. You guys ever been up there? It's awesome. It's like 300 feet down. And so you've got little kids. And the mom says, we are going home. We are leaving this if you cross that line. I'm putting that rock right there. If you go past that rock, we are going home. But the response of the kids is that they obey, so you don't go home. Was she lying? No, it was a conditional thing. And that's one thing that we learn from this, okay? We also learn that God is long-suffering. And sometimes when we do see judgment come, it is the culmination of a long time, a long time of long-suffering. It is just this long thread that God has. In the days of Noah, it said that the evil came up into his presence, but he was long-suffering with them until the flood finally came. I've mentioned before the Amorites. For the iniquity, the Amorites has not yet met its full measure. God was long-suffering to give them an opportunity. And I think Sodom and Gomorrah, even though we don't see, we are not told that God gave them an opportunity. Just because we are not told, we know the character of God. And so we can say, he didn't just show up one day and say, I don't like what y'all are doing. And no, they had an opportunity. God bore with it for a long time. So when we do see judgment, it is the end of a long season. But God's dealings with Nineveh are brought to a satisfactory close right here. Oh, I guess I didn't read the last verse. Verse 10, when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster that he had said he would do to them. And he did not do it, at least not at that moment. They would live to spurn God another day. But in this moment, God relented from his judgment. So a couple of thoughts in summary. In our lives, like I said, there are people that we can be quick to write off, assuming that God could never reach them, that, you know, they would never change their evil ways. But this book should inform us that that is not true and give us hope for people. In this book that we're studying, God knew that they had hearts that could be touched. He used his kid, his kid was obedient to do it in the second chance. And then a great city was spared. A great city was saved. I wish we could close Jonah right here. That's all. We're done with our summer Bible study. Isn't it lovely? But we have to come back next week for Chapter 4 because we got to deal with Jonah's heart again. We'll learn more. We'll see more about our own hearts. Father, thank you. I just want to thank you for the assurance that calling out to you is a key that gives us an opportunity for another chance. And Lord, I pray for anyone who desperately desires a second chance, or maybe they feel like they're on the seventh or eighth chance. Lord, I pray that you would just need this through their heart to give them the hope to call out. Lord, we also learn by looking at Nineveh that no one is past hope. It's just all a matter of response. So would you soften our hearts, Lord, to respond to you in whatever way we need to respond to you, whatever way we need to repent, whatever way we need to turn from the evil that is in our hands, and to repent and to align ourselves with you, Lord. And we can be assured that you will gladly receive those who respond to you. And we thank you for that, Lord. And I pray that you would just enliven our discussions here. In Jesus' name, amen. ---