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Have you ever felt like running away when faced with conflict or confrontation? Things just seemed too difficult to handle and thoughts of escaping felt like the best answer to all of your problems. But was it really the right choice to make — no, it was the easy choice to make and it only delayed the inevitable. Dealing with hard issues develops character especially when done in pure Agape love toward others. Whenever I have had very challenging times my first thoughts go to escaping to the beach, cutting my hair, eating whatever I want and as much as I desire to get that chemical high known as endorphins (and not necessarily in that order) because comfort is on my mind. How about you? Do you also want to escape by running away from confrontation, challenges, conflict, or doing what you know you should be doing? Does the Bible give us any examples to look at so we can learn from these in order to see what is best? You will be pleased to know that there are many accounts we can draw from, but one stands out above all else, and as the title reveals, it is about Jonah.
When we think of Jonah many words and phrases come to mind such as running away from God, Nineveh and the wicked Ninevites, disobedience, stormy seas, thrown overboard, swallowed up into the belly of a great fish for 3 days and 3 nights, fear, and also anger, but on the other side of things do we think about sackcloth, prayer, fasting, repentance, mercy, and forgiveness? It might be the perfect time to refresh our memories by reading the book of Jonah with only 4 short chapters to survey. We may relate to the way Jonah reacted to God’s request of him in Jonah 1:1-2 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ ” Jonah did not want to do it as the Ninevites were extremely wicked and cruel — the worst from amongst the nations at that time. Jonah actually wanted them to be wiped out for their extreme wickedness rather than be saved as they were arch enemies of God’s people, the Israelites. Put simply, Jonah was “over it” and thought the Ninevites deserved to die at God’s hand.
How about us? Are we like Jonah? Who would want to confront the lawless wicked people about their sins today? Can you imagine going up to the angry throngs of those involved in protesting, looting, and destroying other people’s property and/or businesses to announce their sins — then telling them to repent and change their ways! We would definitely expect them to be hostile to this message and think that no way would they want to listen and change, but rather laugh us to scorn and then set about silencing us with whatever violent means at their disposal. Likewise, Jonah certainly did not expect that the Ninevites would indeed actually listen to or even welcome his message, examine themselves, repent wholeheartedly to God and deeply desire to change from their evil practices — however that is exactly what happened despite the unlikeliness of it all. And so God obviously persevered with His unlikely prophet Jonah.
Let us read God’s repeat message to Jonah here in Jonah 3:1-10 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to 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, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?’ Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it”.
If only this could be so for our time today! Can it be so? Perhaps God will delay His plan if the people repent from their wickedness. Are the people more wicked now than in Jonah’s time? People have been wicked down throughout all time because of human nature going all the way back to the Garden of Eden with the account about Adam and Eve’s sons — Cain and Abel. You probably remember that Cain murdered his brother out of rage and jealousy (Genesis 4:8). Abel had done nothing wrong at all and honoured God with his offering moreso than his brother who was found with an envious and bad attitude. Then there is the time of Noah, about 1,800 years later when God wanted to destroy all of mankind. In Genesis 6:5 we see “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”.
Because of righteous Noah we are here today. We were given another chance or opportunity to live righteously. The rest of humanity while Noah lived were given 120 years to repent and change their ways while Noah built the Ark but they chose to ignore God at their peril. They drowned in the Great Flood. God has been incredibly patient with mankind with His perfect love and long suffering. Humans would not wait 120 years for others to change — we would have great difficulty even waiting one year. Noah died about 400 years before Lot’s time and approximately 700 years prior to the time of the Judges and more than 1,000 years prior to Jonah. The people were wicked in the time of the Judges too when everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). If we think about Abraham’s nephew Lot who lived in Sodom, we know these cities were destroyed due to the wickedness found in them (Genesis 19). Evil and wicked ways abound because we have lawlessness at work in the world led by the devil who actively works against God’s laws and entices as many as he can to disobey God’s 10 Commandments.
As we reach the end of this present evil age where Satan is the invisible ruler of the world influencing people with perverted attitudes, we see that people are still wicked with sick hearts wanting their way above God’s way (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:12). These are they who despise God and hate His 10 Commandments. This is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9) and this will continue with even more intensity like a woman in labour experiencing birth pains (Matthew 24:8) until Christ returns and so we have a choice to make. Do we think to ourselves that God should destroy these criminals — the Devil’s unwitting minions in our time who have murder on their minds — just like Jonah desired, or do we pray for them to see the error of their ways and repent? Remember that God desires all to be saved but there will come a time soon where even God will say enough is enough! (1 Timothy 2:4). Today is no different to the time of Jonah except that we are so much closer to the return of Jesus Christ and for what will happen in the future we cry out to God, come Lord Jesus, come, with strong hearts and minds joining as one just as it is written for us in Revelation 22:20-21 “He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen”.