Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
“Transformation” is a word sometimes used when an old, uninhabitable house is renovated to something beautiful and becomes a home filled with love. “Transformation” is sometimes used to describe the life of a person who has been delivered from addictions or anger to a life of freedom and joy. “Transformation” is a word used in athletics to describe when a ‘losing team” becomes a champion in one or two seasons. “Transformation” is a word we often use when describing a person whose life has truly been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ as that person has trusted Jesus to rescue them from their sin and that person lives a new, Holy Spirit filled life with Jesus as their King! I wonder what examples of ‘transformation’ have you seen or experienced?
Yesterday, I left you in the ancient city of Nineveh around the year 759bc. A city wide ‘transformation’ was taking place! Jonah, a Jewish prophet, had finally, obediently, responded to God’s call and instructions. You’ll remember the first time Jonah tried to run far away from God, but he ended up in the belly of a huge fish! (Jonah 1)
Jonah traveled a very far distance, perhaps 700 miles, from Israel to the city of Nineveh and proclaimed the warning that God was going to bring destruction on this great city because of the wickedness of the people, their army and their leadership.
Almost immediately the people of Nineveh, including their King, became repentant before the God of Jonah! The King of Nineveh declared a city wide fast and called on his people to “call urgently on God and give up their evil ways and their violence.” (Jonah 3:8) The King’s reasoning was simple and clear: “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (Jonah 3:9)
Now as far as I know, the Assyrian King and his people knew little to nothing about the God of Israel. There is no evidence there were worshipers of God who lived in Nineveh. Very likely they, like most peoples at that time, had heard some of the famous stories about Israel like God rescuing His people from Egyptian slavery; and God leading them through the Red Sea; and then God providing Manna daily and water to keep them alive in the desert for 40 years! (Exodus 14 & 16; Deut. 8:1-4) Or the Israelite defeat of Jericho and Ai after crossing the Jordan river. (Joshua 6&8) Or God empowering David to kill the Philistine giant Goliath with a single stone. (1 Samuel 17) Or God protecting Jerusalem from invasion during the reign of King Jehoshaphat. (2 Chron. 20:22-26)
But Jonah was speaking to a Nineveh which had not indicated any interest in or respect for the God of Israel or the gods of any other nation as they had brutalized and conquered the peoples around them. Thus when both the people and the King of Nineveh immediately, without hesitation and without any knowledge of the true God of Israel, began to earnestly repent, it was a shock to Jonah!
Jonah and almost all the prophets of God had seen exactly the OPPOSITE response in Israel, to warnings from God. In fact, as we saw with King Joash, the prophets of God were often not only ignored, sometimes they were actually killed by the Kings of Israel who refused to hear or respond to God’s warnings! (2 Chronicles 24:17-22) Now, if you were Jonah, how do you think you would have responded to this unexpected, unprecedented, city-wide repentance by the entire city of Nineveh?
Jonah evidently found a place outside the city of Nineveh where he built himself a little shelter to watch what was going to happen. God had gone to an extreme to bring Jonah to this city and Jonah had courageously traveled 700 miles to this city and then boldly proclaimed God’s warning that within 40 days the harsh and justice judgment of God was going to fall on this city! Jonah certainly felt God was fully justified in destroying this wicked place and it appears Jonah was actually hopeful of being an eyewitness to the justice judgment of God on great wickedness, so Jonah waited and watched.
We have no evidence Jonah continued his warning day after day for 40 days. It appears once Jonah had proclaimed it clearly and sufficiently, Jonah felt his God assignment was completed. Do you find it interesting that Jonah did not pack up and return back to Israel as quickly as he could, leaving this fearful city of Nineveh? His record of this event gives us this explanation: “Jonah had gone and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to Nineveh!” (Jonah 4:5)
Now let’s be honest for a moment, my friends. When you see wickedness or injustice or evil happening, do you find yourself hoping God’s judgment will pour out upon the perpetrator of evil? That’s what Jonah was doing. But the people were repenting and seriously repenting wearing ‘sackcloth’ and fasting and earnestly praying to God! So I wonder if Jonah had ‘heartburn’? Was Jonah upset by their repentant response? Was Jonah hoping God would actually overlook their unexpected repentance and pour out a Sodom and Gomorrah like destruction? Was Jonah getting angry that he’d never seen any such repentance back in his hometown or anywhere in Israel for that matter?
I think we need to pause right here with Jonah, sitting in his little shelter, protecting us from the very hot, blistering Nineveh sun. We need to join Jonah in doing some soul searching into our own hearts. Clearly God hates sin and the devil who continues to fertilize sin in our world. But God loves people, all people whom He has created in His image, right? And God grieves at the damage sin continues to do in our lives, our families, our cities and our world, right?
So where’s the balance in God’s heart and in our hearts between anger over sin and compassion and love with mercy? What needs to happen in my heart and yours so our hearts align with God’s heart for people caught in the dungeons of wickedness, evil and decadence? King David may have written Psalm 14 while he was wrestling with such questions, so I urge you to read it as part of this soul-searching, and I’ll meet you back here tomorrow as we watch, with Jonah, to see what God will do to Nineveh. And here’s a worship song that will help us in this soul-searching:
Today’s Scripture: Jonah 3:3-9; 4:5.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.