Jonah - The God of the Second Chance

We're on the third checker of the book of Jonah, and Jonah is a very interesting book.

It has lots of turns and twists and comparisons, and our study in Jonah is really at a point where Jonah has been in trouble.

If you were with us last week, you know Jonah found himself in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

This is a fish that God appointed and it caught Jonah and Jonah was there.

And so we're looking at this and we have this in mind, that this story is just that.

It's a story about a fish or sometimes we think of it as a whale, but it says a great fish and it's swallowed Jonah.

But it's more than that, this story of Jonah, and the more you read it, the more you see the things that God wants to teach us, and so you know that's what's in our memory.

You know I have a memory of several years ago, back when I was in high school, a sophomore.

I went out on a charter fishing trip.

I went to Florida, the Gulf, with my best friend and his parents, his mom and dad, and my best friend and his dad.

We all went out on the fishing trip and we went out there and I about 15 miles out and, you know, just several hours later we got back into the port having caught.

I didn't caught nothing except the sunburn, or so I thought.

You know, since it was so late that day, I remember that we went, you know, and decided, well, let's just go ahead and go on to the restaurant.

We did go back to our hotel, went on to the restaurant, we went to one of those all you can eat buffets and seafood buffets.

I don't know if they still have those, but maybe post COVID, I don't know.

But we went there and as soon as we got in the line with people that are already there, and so we began to just kind of and everybody else notice this horrible aroma that was in the in the place as we were in line, and everybody's kind of looking at is that you, you know, it just was horrible and it was so bad.

We went ahead and got through the line that we, we sat down and the, the smell followed us to the table.

We could hardly eat, it was so sickening, and we went through and finished the meal barely, and then we got out to the car finally, and, and I realized something that while I was there, out on the fishing trip.

I had been putting the bait on and had put on wet squid on the end of the line and instead of wiping my hands on the rag of towel I did this.

All of that in the hot sun had dried on me and so the secret was out.

The stink was on me.

You know, it's one thing to catch a fish, but it's quite another for a fish to catch you.

But this is what happened to Jonah.

He said God made at times for each one of us a point of fish metaphorically, spiritually speaking, to get us to turn around and to reconsider the direction we're headed with him.

And sometimes those fish may be more drastic and larger than we'd like, but but sometimes he has to do that so he can get our attention.

So you know if we're going deliberately in the wrong direction.

So maybe that may speak to some of you today, if you feel far from God and maybe you've asked the question why am I here?

Ever asked that, why am I here?

I have Obviously not.

Every problem has something to do with our being far and running away from God.

But here's the thing we do well to pay attention Whenever we go through adversity and trouble and struggle.

We should stop and think why is this happening to me?

Is there something, god, you want to show me?

This is what he did with Jonah and he pursues him.

Hebrews says this.

It says in Hebrews 12, 6, the Lord disciplines those he loves, the one he loves, and corrects with punishment the one he receives.

And this was surely what was going on with Jonah.

So we should know that this journey that he's been on has been taking a steadily downhill course ever since chapter one, and I want to show you just for the moment, how he experiences this.

In chapter one, verse three, jonah says he paid the fare and went down down into a ship, away from the presence of the Lord.

In chapter one, verse five, we know what happened, that he encountered a storm on the sea and a terrible storm to ship.

And it says but Jonah had laid down into the inner parts of it and he had gone to sleep.

Finding that Jonah is the problem was the problem.

What did the sailors do?

They tossed him overboard.

He recommended that, in fact, and we find him in chapter two last week and Mark did such a great job with that, the prayer of Jonah, and you see some things there.

In chapter two, verse three, in his prayer it says that he was cast into the deep.

In chapter two, verse five, he was surrounded by the deep.

In verse six, and this is in his own words, he says down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.

Jonah is describing, you see, his downward movement from the surface of the waters all the way down, he says, to the roots of the mountains.

So this is a long journey for him.

All the way down to his watery grave.

Jonah thought he was going to die.

So Jonah is sinking and stinking.

And here's the question I want to kind of pose to you today how far does the love of God, how deep does the love of God go in his pursuit of us?

How deep does the love of God go?

Well, let's look for the answer as we read our text this morning.

In Jonah, chapter two I'm going to read that last verse in chapter two and then chapter three, verses one through 10, read along with me.

We're reading out of the ESV.

And it says and the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.

So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breath.

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey, and he called out yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh believed God.

They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh and he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and set in ashes.

And he issued a proclamation and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast heard 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 hands.

Who knows God may turn and relent, and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it.

Well, you know, chapter 2, verse 10 sort of sets the stage for this message, because I think of it as like a bad meal.

The fish comes up, he brings God, brings him up to the surface and it literally says he vomits it out, vomits him out onto the beach, the land.

So it's kind of like ugh, this was a bad meal and Jonah is that bad meal.

You see, there's something going on with Jonah that's not quite right.

Jonah is in what we might call process and all of us are in process and at various degrees, what I think of Jonah?

Jonah had been running 180 degrees away from God.

Now maybe he's turned just a little bit.

To what degree I don't know.

But let's just see how this begins to turn around.

And I want to look at this in three movements, if you will.

I highlighted here in our text this morning.

The first one is the turning of the prophet Jonah.

Secondly, the turning of a city and then lastly, probably the most important, is the turning of our God.

So let's look at the first one, the turning of this prophet Jonah, and that's in verses one through four, you know, in almost all of the Old Testament prophetic books.

We look at those books and the focus is always on the message.

But in Jonah, jonah is unique because the focus is on an unwilling messenger.

And only Jonah, of all the prophets, all the biblical prophets, has to have his assignment given to him twice.

So he's obviously not listening right.

And so let's look at it.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it.

The message that I tell you, and the thing that stands out here to me, the most important thing, is that the Lord has compassion on Jonah, even though he's been disobedient.

He has compassion on Jonah and he gives him a second chance.

So we serve a God of second chances and we come and we fail, like you know Aaron was talking about.

Many of us fail a lot of times in every day, but God gives us another chance to turn and come back to him when we return to God.

God promises he will return to us and we can count on that.

But this time Jonah what does it say?

He chooses to obey?

Well, this is great and kind of amazing.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord, and now there's no delay at all.

He goes right away.

Jonah completely reverses course, and it's really so surprising that one of the commentators, elaine Phillips, said this about Jonah.

The contrast between rebellious and gloomy Jonah of chapters one, three and four, which we haven't got to yet, and pious Jonah singing from the fish's belly is dramatic.

Could this really be the same guy?

So he's changed, but he's not all changed yet, and so it begs the question why does Jonah suddenly turn around, and why do we turn around when we choose to?

Well, let's think a minute, because Jonah has some motives that we need to check out.

Jonah obeys, but I would put sort of Sort of he's a lot like us.

We can, we obey as much as we, as we kind of make it look good.

Sometimes.

We get the sense, though, of this form of this prayer that he prayed while I was in the fish, and I just want to go back to it for just a minute.

Chapter two, verse one, sort of summarizes it in his own words, what Jonah really thought.

He says I was in trouble, I called to the Lord for help, he rescued me.

I will give him thanks.

Sounds really spiritual, doesn't it?

But you know, there's no repentance in that, none whatsoever.

Jonah just doesn't want to die in the fish.

I mean, if that'd be the thing, it's kind of like us.

We just don't want to die in our situation.

God, have you ever prayed the prayer?

God, if you'll just get me out of here, I will promise I'll serve you the rest of my life.

You know, it's kind of a skate prayer, right?

So we do that, and just like Jonah.

In reality, though, jonah wants the mercy that he really is willing to, I guess, tell Nineveh that they can't have.

He wants to withhold it from him.

So his feet may be walking to Nineveh, but guess what?

His heart, it's not in the river, it's not in the river with God, it's God's heart, and so he's got, he's got a, he's in process.

God is changing him, just like he does with us.

He's compliant, but he's certainly not compassionate.

In fact, he would love to do these Ninevites in, because they were known to be the most violent people.

They had one of the strongest armies in that day, and they were violent, violent people.

What is God's heart?

Well, here's what I know God will go to the most extraordinary links to let all people know that he loves them and he wants them to experience his love.

And we only have to think of our Lord, jesus Christ.

God sent his only one and only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life.

You know, it's interesting what God will do to get his message out, and sometimes he does it because we don't do what we need to do.

He takes matters, I believe, sometimes in his own hands because he loves the world.

You know, following that supernatural I guess unusual, not supernatural but the terrorist attack that the Israelis experienced back in was it October this past year what can only be described, I think, as a miracle occurred in Gaza.

And listen to this account from an American Christian professor, michael Lacona, who said he received this report from an underground Christian ministry in Palestine.

He writes these words "'God is working in the midst of war.

"'over the past two days, we have ministered "'to hundreds of fathers who have lost most, "'if not all, of their children in the war.

"'as we moved these men to safety, we fed them, "'wasst their clothes and began to read the Bible to them, "'sharing the way of peace through Jesus' "'Then a big miracle happened "'Last night, jesus appeared to more than 200 of them "'in their dreams?

"'they have come back to us to learn more from God's word, "'and are asking how to follow Jesus'".

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

The skeptic that I am looking at things on the internet is always.

You know, you don't know whether you read is always an accurate thing.

So I thought, well, I'd like to check this out a little bit more.

And I did find a report that was confirmed in January.

This January, by a former aide of the late Yasser Arafat.

He worked for him until this man actually turned, became a Christian.

This man had formerly been a sniper, a terrorist who was a sniper, and he became a Christian.

He turned completely around.

His name was Tessir Sadda and he's got a report that kind of confirms this.

He says I have a report from one of my team members that 200 Gazans gave their heart to Jesus in one lump sum.

The Lord appeared to them in visions and dreams and they were hugging each other and rejoicing.

They realized all of them had the same vision that each of the other had.

Isn't that amazing?

Only God can do that.

But what you get out of that is God loves people, he loves people, he loves you, but he loves the people that you don't love.

He loves the people that you would, and I would say these are our enemies.

You see, our own spiritual condition makes us dull to the reality that there are those people out there who are perishing, but whom God is preparing, and we don't give them consideration.

God is preparing people and our task is to open our mouth, thinking as Christians.

I think sometimes we no longer need to be concerned really about being rescued, because we're rescued ourselves and we, like Jonah, we fall asleep to the mission and we may agree with the gospel, but we're not really invested in it.

So here's a test for you.

I had to work through this myself this week and I'm convicted by chapter three of Jonah.

How many of us this week have shared our faith with one person?

And I'm not raising my hand because I didn't.

So let's move on.

I'm stepping on some toes, let's move on.

The text tells us in verse three Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, and that greatness is communicated to us in a couple of ways.

Number one is that this is a really big city.

The city was huge.

By that day's standard, it was an immense size.

Three days journey and breath and that's not really talking about from one side of the city to the other.

This is in a straight line and it's not talking about the, maybe the circumference alone, the walls itself, and, by the way, they have actually excavated the walls so they know how big the city walls were.

It's a large city, but it probably included the outskirts, what we call the suburbs, and if we are walking, say, 20 to 30 miles a day, which is normal, you could say if it took three days, you're talking about 60 miles.

But Jonah is wandering around in the city and he's talking, he's sharing the message of God.

So, bottom line, this city is huge and Jonah has an enormous task, not to mention the fact he's going to talk to people who might want to skin him alive, who want to do him in, and so this is a terrifying prospect of going to a people who were known to be violent.

And so if we put ourselves in those kind of sandals that Jonah had been walking in, we might sometimes say well, I'm afraid too when I talk with people, but here's what I know God was with Jonah and he'll be with us too.

If we just trust and obey, god can do miracles.

But if we don't cooperate with God, what happens?

Well, the greatness of this city is also communicated in another way, a more subtle way, something that is really found in the Hebrew.

The Hebrew literally says the city was great to God.

Not just a great city, but it was a great to God or for God.

So Nineveh is great to God.

Why?

Because God loves the people.

And he said later in chapter four there were over 120,000 people in that city.

And what happens when, jonah, you don't go and speak my message?

They're headed for a certain destruction.

So Jonah doesn't go.

What happens?

So, in spite of how he feels, I just say Jonah probably just takes a deep breath and he goes let's just get this over with Cause.

He doesn't wanna do it.

He takes a deep breath and he starts walking.

He gets one day's time in the city and he begins to declare God's word and he says here and he called out yet 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown.

Now there's something really interesting to me about that last word overthrown, because this is the word that we would not want to tell all these people who might kill us.

But another way to translate it is to overturn.

Jonah thinks of it as God's going to annihilate you.

He's gonna wipe you off the face of the map and he's going yes, but that's not what's in God's mind.

The word can also be translated in scripture.

It has the meaning of to be turned as in, to be turned from their ways or to something to become new.

So you kind of get this idea of what's in God's heart.

It's kind of a foreshadowing of what's going to come.

So Jonah's thinking God means to get rid of these people.

But we see there's this foreshadowing and we also get another hint of where God's heart is here the preference.

I would say that he would prefer to do this for Nineveh.

It's a subtle contrast that's found in chapter one, verse two.

He said there to Jonah arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.

And in contrast to that, we have the same God's given Jonah a second chance.

In chapter three, verse two, it says it doesn't say, like your text may read in the ESV, call out against it.

It says literally this time Jonah call out to this people Nineveh.

You see what God's doing.

He's not wanting to destroy this city, he wants to engage them in personal relationship.

This is God's heart.

You say.

Well, what's the point?

God's not wanting to get rid of these people, he's not wanting to destroy them, he wants to show his mercy to them, unlike Jonah.

Well, the city matters, even if it doesn't matter to Jonah.

It matters to God, and I think so often this is a swear.

Often we're reluctant, begrudging messengers with the gospel we have, but we never deliver.

Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

You know what?

That's?

Only five words in the Hebrew.

Five words, and you'd say, well, I'd love to go to Jonah's church man, those sermons are short and get out of there before lunch for sure with his sermons.

The thing that's unique about this Jonah warns them of what's coming, but he never tells them why or what to do about it.

What a strange sermon God's gonna get you.

That's basically what it is.

But what does this do?

This tells us the power, the incredible power, of God's word.

It achieves what it's sent for and God knows, if Jonah just gives the message, God will take care of the rest.

That'll give comfort to us, because we're not responsible for the results.

We don't write the mail, we just deliver it right.

So, in spite of this reluctant prophet who?

God is in the process remember process of turning God's message.

It doesn't fall on deaf ears.

Well, let's now see the turning of the city.

Chapter three, verses five through nine the people hear and believe God's word.

In verse five it tells us that and the people of Nineveh believed God.

They called for a fast, they put on sackcloths, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word of God reaches and touches everybody, from the top down.

It doesn't leave anyone out.

It affects everyone.

Everyone is convicted by the word of God, and this is only something that the Holy Spirit can do.

He brings conviction of our sin and he brings brokenness to our hearts and we become aware that we're not right with God in some way.

This is what he does.

He says the people believe God.

Say, well, were they converted?

Were they, did they become saved?

Well, I don't know, but they sure changed.

They changed says they believed in God doesn't say that they necessarily doesn't say they believed in God, but it says they believed God right About their possible destruction.

Here's what I think most people believe Is that God is just kind of kidding around when he says stuff like this.

The message that we carry, which says that every person without Christ is under the wrath of God.

Yeah, that's pretty funny.

God says that means that without him, we will wind up in a place called hell.

Ah, that's funny stuff, and it's one reason the church has quit sharing it.

It's part of the gospel, but that's the part that we don't like.

That God is a God of wrath.

But listen, folks, if God is a God of love, he has to be a God of wrath.

He has to give us the choice to pursue him, but we choose ourselves to walk away.

Well, the city didn't walk away.

In fact, it shows the response.

They took God's warning seriously and maybe for this city it's just the start of something else.

You know, if Jonah spoke more than these words though I don't know if he spoke just that that's what the text kind of says leads us to believe.

But maybe he added to it because I'm sure the city had probably heard Jonah.

This is the guy that had been swallowed by the fish.

That's the guy.

Three days and three nights, can you believe it?

And Jonah made himself decided to say you know, yes, guess what happened to me?

And I was caught by a fish and I spent three days and three nights in it.

I know what it is to be pursued by God.

Let me tell you what happened to me.

You know, the thing is that your personal testimony, my personal testimony, is one of the most powerful things that we carry with us.

What God has done for you.

Guess what?

Nobody can argue with it because it's your story.

It's your story.

It's the story that God brought you through the process and to come to him and to return to him.

Well, not only did the people turn to God, it says, the king did as well.

The king hears and believes God, His word.

In verse six, the word reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

This is repentance, repentance, changing your mind.

And it says and he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, by the 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 hands.

Who knows?

He said God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

Now, the king's actions and his edict that he put out there for publishing on probably put it on every place you could put it was telling us some things and it's really a pattern for real revival.

I have had an opportunity at one time in my life to be a part of a genuine revival and it was incredible.

God worked like amazing, in amazing ways.

But one of the characteristics of that, as we experienced the presence of God in our church, was this idea of repentance and we would spend time in prayer asking God to reveal our sins and to show us where we were distant from him.

You know what, if that's the kind of prayer you pray, god will, through his spirit, will tell you.

The problem is we don't sit down long enough for him to get a word in edgewise, right, we're too busy.

Well, look at the actions of this king.

It's the pattern for revival.

The first thing is says he removed his royal robe.

What does that say?

It says it's basically signifying he's taking off what's offensive to God.

Why did he remove his robe?

He was the king, he had a right and he had privileges, and this is for us a way to say for us to get rid of our pride.

So it's a removing of pride.

It says he covered himself with black sackcloth and that day and time it meant it was a symbol of confession of sin.

What's amazing is that the animals do this too, and they fast.

They say what's up with that?

I think it's just a way of saying everything is affected by our sin, paul said one time.

He said the whole creation grown waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

So the sin that we, I guess, experience in the fall affects the whole creation.

Maybe that's what he's getting at, I don't know, but it's the animals too.

And then it says sitting in ashes and dirt, which is an attitude of mourning what that meant and humility, sorrow, grief, weeping over our sin and then calling for every individual to not eat or drink but to pray intensely and consistently to God.

As I said, even the animals.

What we're seeing here is that the emotions come into play Grief over our sin and then calling for every single person to radically turn from the lies and violence of which they were guilty.

You see, because you can, you can pray to God, and that's important.

You can confess your sins, but if nothing ever changes, then it's not real repentance.

Repentance requires change in our actions, and this is what the king was exemplifying.

And what does he say?

Who knows what God, what this God, will do?

If God is not obligated to do anything different, he's not obligated to respond.

He'll do what he pleases.

He's God.

But I'll tell you one thing God pays attention when we begin to repent.

So, threatened by what the king sees coming, the king is thinking but now let's, let's just respond to this and see what God does by turning from our sin.

And guess what the whole city did.

This is a miracle.

This is incredible when God is at work, when people follow this example.

You know I had seen a recent post somewhere that read this At this point, jesus doesn't need to take the wheel, he needs to pull over and spank some of y'all with his flip-flop.

I'm not obligated to share that, but anyway, god is spanking Jonah and he needs to spank some of us.

I got a spanking this week.

How about you?

Here's the thing I can't begin to know God's purposes as we look out on our world today.

I can't begin to know His purposes.

You can't either.

But here's what I know, the answer to the crisis that's going all around us is not impending our hopes on a political figure that we think is going to save the day.

I'm not saying we shouldn't champion for righteousness and the laws, but only God can change a heart.

Real change comes from the inside out, not from the outside in, and no law is going to change your heart.

So here's the thing, my friends the nations are literally knocking down our doors trying to get in, maybe because we've not gone out, so he's bringing them to our shores.

Potentially.

We need to think that this is a possibility, that God has gone out of His way to make this happen.

He'll do whatever it takes to make sure all people know the love of God, even our enemies, who would need this more than the people who are breaking the law.

So the question is are we willing to be salt, flavoring, seasoning, preservative?

Are we willing to be light shining in a dark place, so that people can know the light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ?

Genuine change starts from the inside out, not the other way around, and so the gospel brings the only hope to people who are lost in sin and on their way to destruction.

And here's the thing.

It's not as if God is blind to the Assyrians.

He sees clear.

He said these people are evil.

He's intending to destroy them, right, because of their evil ways.

His justice requires it.

But guess what supersedes justice Mercy.

Mercy triumphs over justice and they'll never repent unless Jonah shares the message.

Second Chronicles 7, 14 says if my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Now, this is kind of the way I look at things.

It's like, okay, that was for them, is that still for us?

That was for ancient Israel.

Does this still apply?

Well, do you think God's heart has changed?

Do you think God still cares about nations?

He absolutely does, and I think it still applies.

If we will get on our knees and pray out to God, cry out to God, looking at our sin, humbling ourselves and agreeing with God about our sin and asking Him to forgive us, he will turn and he will heal our land.

That still can be Say, is it too late?

I don't think so.

So here's the thing.

I am Jonah, are you?

You know this past week.

I am familiar with this place called the Life Action Ministries and one of the things on their website I really love because it basically goes through a list, and the list is basically called the Heart God Revives and it is a list of what they show as proud people versus broken people, and I've actually printed the list out for you as you go out today.

I've got one more point, but it's there on the tables.

If you'll pick one of those up, if you really, since God's speaking to you today and you really are serious about doing what God says, pick one of those up and let God speak to your heart like he wants to speak, okay, well, finally, let's look at the last thing, the turning of our God.

We saw in the turning of a prophet, the turning of a city.

Now, the turning of our God, chapter three, verse 10.

When God saw what they did not what they said, what they did, how they turned from their evil way, god relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it.

And then we might think God's just well, he's changing His mind here, right?

Well, here's the thing God does never.

He never changed His character, his nature, always stay the same because it says.

He says I'm the same yesterday, today and forever.

So what's going on here?

He doesn't change His mind about holiness and righteousness, good or evil, but he can and he does relent this is the word here, word that means to draw in the breath.

It's a way of saying God has compassion.

He will have compassion on people when they repent.

And he can and he does overturn.

We looked at that word.

He can overturn the verdict that sin brings against us.

See, the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, christ died for us, but before that, god's wrath abides on us.

If you're a person here that has not trusted Christ, you not received Christ.

God's wrath abides on you.

So I'd encourage you to turn to Christ today to rescue you.

And Peter says in 3,9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Did you know that repentance is a gift?

God gives that to us.

We can't work it up.

So here's the question for us how, then, do we relate to people who seem bent on doing evil?

Where do we draw the line between mercy and judgment?

See for Jonah to warn these Ninevites would seemingly set them up for God's mercy and allow them to get away with murder literally Get away with murder.

You know, when most people are faced with disaster, they'll relent or turn, they'll repent, and guess what?

A while later, right back to what we're doing.

That's not repentance, going back to the old ways.

Mercy triumphs over judgment, though, but here's the thing God's patience doesn't last forever.

God is concerned about law and order and justice, but he's also a God of mercy.

You know for Nineveh this, really, even though they turned, this is just a stay of execution for them.

This is a temporary reprieve, because a few years later, in 612 BC, the Babylonians came and decimated this nation of Syria.

Jonah's prophecy did come true.

You know, the heart of God is for all people.

It's for all people To know His love, even though we will call our enemies.

And as we look at Jonah chapter 4, next couple of times, god has some questions for Jonah, and maybe, just maybe, he has some questions for us too.

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

How deep is the love of God?

How far does His mercy go?

Stuart Townsend, in his wonder filled hymn, describes it like this.

How deep the Father's love for us.

How vast beyond all measure that he should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.

How great the pain of searing loss.

The Father turns His face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders.

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers it was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has brought me life.

I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything no gifts, no power, no wisdom but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer, but this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom.

Father, we are thankful for your mercy toward us, shown most of all and only through Christ.

Lord.

I pray for every person here, including myself, lord, that we would be sensitive to your Spirit in these days, lord, that if we need to turn to you, lord, we will respond and trust you as our Savior and Lord and come to know you in faith and Lord.

If we are somehow distant from you and Lord, we are all in process, but I just pray that you would draw us closer to you, that we would take time out for you, holy Spirit, to reveal those places and those sins that are displeasing to you.

You tell us to find out what pleases the Lord and Lord, we do want to do that.

So help us, lord, in these days, to put aside and put off the old and put on the new.

And, lord, we just trust that you are going to bring us to a place that we look more and more like Jesus, and we give you thanks for that.

In His name, we pray, amen, amen.