Text: Jonah 3:5-10, 1 Timothy 1:15-16
Nineveh was the worst.
A chief city in the already brutal and wicked Assyrian empire, Nineveh removed the noses and ears of their prisoners to mark and maim them for life. And like most of Mesopotamian civilizations, their culture was immoral and generally terrifying–temple prostitution, child sacrifice and infanticide.
I love my ears and nose, and I understand why Jonah didn’t want to go.
These are the people who heard God’s call to repentance. These brutal eye-gougers! They listened to Jonah and to God. And they repented. They stopped, stripped off their clothes, rubbed their faces in the fireplace, and gave up eating. They were desperate to get God’s attention.
And God had mercy on even these most wicked people. They didn’t know they were that wicked until God arrested them in their sin. This is a story only marginally about about the repentant Ninevite hearts, but centrally about God’s mercy and forgiveness.
God calls them to repent. And they respond by fasting.
Fasting hurts. It’s tangible and practical repentance, and repentance must change how we live our lives. We turn from the things that give us false comfort, and only have God.
For the Ninevites, fasting meant giving up their means of power and energy, and depending only on God for power in a very real way. They humbled themselves publicly and didn’t hold back for pride or fear of what others would think. Even the king—who held an almost god-like status in the culture and had everything to lose—humbled himself, bowing before the one true God. It was a culture-wide repentance, extending from the greatest to the least.
Their repentance was not chiefly about their emotions, how sorry they felt, but about casting themselves wholly upon God’s mercy. It wasn’t about what they could bring to the table. Rather, they said, “who knows? God may turn and relent.” (verse 9) They recognized that repentance is about what God is doing, not what we can do to gain any kind of merit. Mercy is not a matter of merit; it is God’s gift.
Genuine repentance is tangible. You make a 180 degree turn in the other direction.
Even though Nineveh was awful by any standard (seriously, stop gouging eyes out!), God had mercy on them. I would’ve stubbornly agreed with Jonah that they were just too far gone. But God’s grace and mercy reach even the blackest hearts. And I’m with Paul when he said he was the foremost of sinners. I don’t gouge eyes, yet pride, envy, and wrath are always within arm’s length for me. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16, ESV)
The story of Nineveh’s repentance is about God’s perfect patience, his deep mercy, and his profound forgiveness. Thanks be to God.
Guest writer Rebecca Faires teaches German and theatre, raises four sweet children, and kisses her husband. Hallelujah.
I love that the King himself even publicly humbled himself and repented.
Wow. I hadn’t realized just how many awful things the Ninevites were up to! I l
Hey there, friends. Long time, no see! I was out of town last week and just now caught up with the Jonah story. It's good to be back :)
I've loved it so far. I haven't spent a ton of time in this book of the Bible, but I'm so glad that I am now. Just to read how God was and has always been (and always will be!) in the business of showing extravagant grace to the least deserving of people. Jonah, the Ninevites, Paul…it gives me a weighty and lovely hope that I am never too far gone for His grace to reach me. My prayer is that I would be like the Ninevites and turn to God immediately and fully when He asks me to!
I have known the story of Jonah since I was a kid and NEVER knew how God would reveal himself to me through this study. In my current season of separation from my husband I am blown away by what the book of Jonah has revealed to me.
God called Jonah to Nineveh to tell them one simple thing, to repent or face destruction. He didn't ask Jonah to convince Nineveh or play therapist to Nineveh, he told him to simply speak the truth. These were wicked people! My flesh thinks, "surely one sentence wouldn't be enough to turn them from their sin." THAT is when my heart is convicted. It's wasn't Jonah that was changing hearts, it was the work of the Lord, Jonah was just the messenger! All it took was one sentence and God handled the rest.
I am just to listen! He is doing the rest! In this separation sometimes I think my husband is too far gone, too far removed from our situation. I get caught up in trying to convince him, coddle him, convict him….but God is clearly telling me that all I need to do is speak truth. HE will handle the rest. HE is the redeemer of his heart, all I need to do is obey His instructions to speak truth.
That our Father would use such a broken, stubborn and prideful vessel such as Jonah gives me hope. It is a real fact that Jonah's miracle of being "vomited up" on the shore left him horribly disfigured from the digestive juices of the fish. Well this made him an "overnight sensation" to the huge (most likely 100k or more folks!) town of Nineveh. Just what GOD could use to get their attention. All they had to do was look at Jonah to see that God meant business. So in his own journey of repentance and brokenness, Jonah was used mightily. Sometimes our "miracles" will come with "disfigurement", but His downy love carries us on.
I am just a bit farther on in the journey than most of you, but His Truth just gets more amazing and His faithfulness more apparent.
Love to all…..Katy at 63
I usually do my little devotions while at work (shhh) because the mornings are hectic for me when I already get up so early. I kept putting off reading this morning for some reason (probably because I was behind a few days). But as I was working I felt the Lord knocking on my heart to stop what I was doing and just read-so I did. I try not to ignore His voice anymore!
I've met a guy that I would normally ignore any possibility of a relationship with because his values are so opposite of mine. But I know that God is telling me to not turn away from him and to pray for him. Everyday. And it makes me question everything. After 26 years of having no boyfriends, why would God want me to continue to see this guy when he obviously doesn't meet any of my "qualifications"? Boy that makes me sound like a snob.
So I'm unsure right now but this scripture is what God intended for me to read today is something I can cling to for now. I all I can do is pray for him (his name is Christian if anyone wants to join me in prayer) and show him Christ's love as best I can despite being a "chief" sinner myself.
The Nineveh people, Saul (Paul), the list goes on. There is such great hope for ANYONE to to be saved!
God's grace and mercy is so much larger than what we can fathom. Amen
I'm a little late to the Jonah study. It's been an interesting few weeks. But sisters I'm here to tell you. GOD IS FAITHFUL!! School situation: worked out smoothly. Work situation. Well working out, but I received confirmation yesterday that I'm right where I'm supposed to be. God is good!
By the looks of my bible I haven't studies Jonah all that much. I have two notes. I've watched veggie tales more than I've spent time in these four chapters. But what I do have is awesome.
Grace: an unobligated giver giving something remarkable to the undeserving.
I know this is chapter 3. But my notes on 2:7-9 says God uses the defeated to do great things!
I love how ch 3 begins with… Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time….. Doesn't it always?
A 2nd time, a 20th time, a 245th time, a 2,764th time, or Five Hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred (minutes) times a year!
Thank you Rebecca, I have new notes in my bible. :) repentance is about what God is doing. Not about merit.
Because I beg to differ with our brother Paul on who's the chiefest, I feel often times that I have more feathers in my headdress than he does. I don't know how to say this other than to say it. I've felt the nudging to confess (if you will) for a while. Not because I need to confess it, but because someone needs to hear it. Because repentance isn't about merit. It isn't about earning your way into grace. No matter what you've done or what you will do, if you are in Christ there is therefore no condemnation.
If we think gouging eyes out is bad, well then I'm going straight to hell. And I used to believe that, all day, every day, begging for Gods forgiveness. I'd read my bible. I'd try to be a good church lady, you know the kind that are so full of The Lord that they practically float instead of walk, I prayed for hours, I went to church, I watched church on tv. I listened to church on the radio. Because I desperately wanted grace, mercy, and even if I wear the dunce hat in heaven maybe if I was good enough I'd get to touch the hem of his robe or like Moses (my fellow murderer) I'd get to see His back.
My former life can be described like this:
Sex, drugs, rock n roll and 2 abortions later.
Yeah. I said the A word out loud. And I've spent years idolizing condemnation because I didn't believe that forgiveness, that grace or mercy was for me. Then I took a class called forgiven and set free, then I taught it for several years. And The Light started to come on.
Sisters, (I say sisters because the stat is 1 in 4 women,there's more than 4 of us here, I can't be the only one) don't wait years or another moment in the corner with the dunce hat on!! (First off, that's my corner! J/K I'll share it!) forgiveness is for You! Today! Right Now! Walk in the Freedom Christ died to give you! It Is For Freedom Christ Set You Free!
It's not about your merit, what you can do, how far you can run, it's about His Grace! Receive it today!
Wow! What an awesome testimony Shelly!! The Spirit of God in your message is going to set some souls free!!
Awesome addition to today’s lesson. Thank you! This is my first time reading Jonah (I honestly have never read the entire bible through), and this book is a blessing to my soul. GOD is in the blessing business, and HE has forgiveness and mercy aplenty. But we have to be in a receiving position in order to get what HE has for us. I learned this lesson recently and will not be forgetting it soon.