Jonah 4:1

Jonah 4:1 says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.  We would think that Jonah would be very happy that his obeying God and proclaiming His word had been used by God to save Nineveh, but Jonah was displeased with what God had done.  He was more than upset.  He was angry.  I believe he was angry with the people for repenting and being saved, at God for forgiven them and even at himself for his part in it.  We today need to guard against resenting anyone being saved.  No matter how we may personally feel about them, we need to realize that everyone is saved by the same grace of God, and the only way anyone is saved is by the grace of God.  We should rejoice anytime this happens.  Verse two adds, And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.  Jonah was in effect telling God I told you so.  Even before Jonah tried to run away to Tarshish, he knew that God's mercy would be extended to the people of Nineveh if they repented and turned to Him.  Jonah, I believe, would have willing gone to Nineveh if he thought the people were actually going to be destroyed.  As followers of Christ, we need to be careful that we are not looking for the vengeance of God to fall on anyone, but for His mercy to be displayed.  I do not believe that we can ever have the attitude that we are waiting for God to give those that we don't like, even those that we hate, what they deserve.  Instead, we need to pray that God will save them through His mercy, just as He did us.  Verse three continues, Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.  Jonah was so successful as an evangelist that he wanted God to take his life.  That is a powerful hate for a group of people.  I believe too often today we hate groups of people instead of wanting to reach them with God's love.  A person who dies without knowing Christ as their personal Savior is forever separated from God, and we should mourn anytime that happens.

Jonah 3:10

Jonah 3:10 says, And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.  The people of Nineveh were saved because they truly repented, asked for God's forgiveness, and turned from their evil ways.  Again, true repentance is more than words.  True repentance is a change in our very nature, where God's forgiveness leads to a new way of life.  There are those who say everything, both good and bad, is preordained.  Here, we read that God changed His mind about what He was going to do to the people of Nineveh.  Some would say that God knew all along that they were going to repent and be saved, but He did not send Jonah with a message of salvation, but of destruction.  Fortunately, we as His followers today are sent with a message of salvation.  I don't believe we are to look for the destruction of sinners, no matter how evil they are, but for their salvation.  We know Jonah knew of the reputation of the people of Nineveh as being evil, but it wasn't a fear of them that made him not want to go. We know he didn't want to go because he was afraid that they would be saved.  What is our attitude today about those who are truly evil today?  Do we fear them?  Do we want them destroyed?  As followers of Christ, we must pray and witness for their redemption, not their destruction.  If anyone dies without coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, then they are forever separated from God.  We, as God's followers, should never be happy when this happens, no matter how evil, or good, that person might be. We cannot write off whole segments of society, or the world, because we view them as evil.  Again, from the cross, Jesus asked for forgiveness for those who crucified Him.  We might say they didn't deserve it, but neither do we.  If we, as followers of Christ, begin to live our lives out of fear and hatred of whole segments of the world, then we cannot be effective witnesses for God.  God may still work through us, but we will miss the joy of our salvation.

Jonah 3:7

Jonah 3:7 says, And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:  There was not just a claim of repentance, but there was a total change in life.  It affected not only the people, but also their animals.  Nothing was to eat or drink.  I think sometimes today, we take repentance too lightly.  We want to repent without anyone knowing that we did anything wrong.  Repentance requires acknowledging that we have sinned and asking God's forgiveness.  It requires humbling ourselves and admitting that we cannot restore ourselves to a right relationship with God.  As long as we feel that our sin isn't really a big deal and that as long as we utter words of repentance God has to forgive us, I am not sure we have really repented.  Repentance should touch every aspect of our life.  I don't believe we can truly repent and stand on our own goodness.  Sinning against God is a serious thing, and repentance should be also.  Verse eight adds, But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.  They were called on not just to show outward signs of repentance, but to change the very nature of the way they lived.  Repentance has to bring change, based on turning everything over to God.  We cannot feel that our sins are small and other peoples are big.  Any sin separates us from God, and we can only be restored to a right relationship with Him when we ask His forgiveness.  Nothing else should be of importance until this happens.  The outward signs are not enough until we call on God. Verse nine continues, Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?  The king was hopeful that God would hear them, and that He would not destroy them.  We today know that as God's followers He is not out to destroy us, nor anyone else, but that doesn't make sin any less powerful.  We cannot effectively follow God with sin in our life, no matter how small we feel it is.

Jonah 3:4

Jonah 3:4 says, And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.  Nineveh was a large city, and Jonah was but one man. Since he was God's messenger, though, he had no reason to fear.  I hear people today say that Jonah was bleached out very white while in the belly of the whale.  I personally don't believe that to be the case, since God prepared the whale to save him, and the Bible doesn't say anything about it.  Jonah was not sent to call attention to himself, but simply to proclaim God's word.  The city was put on a forty-day notice, and it was up to them whether to believe or not.  We cannot be that exact about the time, but we can tell the lost of the world that if they don't turn to God, they ultimately will be destroyed.  Verse five adds, So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.  Jonah didn't want to be there, and we find no evidence of his preaching being powerful, but the whole city believed God.  The people must have been convicted by the power of God, because from what we read about Jonah's message, he offered them no hope.  We today, when we are reaching out to the world, need to reach out to them with the message of repentance and hope, not with the message of destruction.  We are not called to judge and condemn the world, but to reach them with God's love.  The people of Nineveh did not say they had forty days, so there was no hurry.  They believed God and repented.  They humbled themselves before God, from the greatest to the least.  What a revival Jonah preached, but it wasn't Jonah's powerful preaching that made the difference.  It was the belief of the people.  God today can work through the simplest of messages, as long as it is His word being presented under His leadership and authority.  We simply have to obey His calling and proclaim His message.  God will bring forth the results.

Jonah 3:1

Jonah 3:1 says, And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,  God never gave up on Jonah.  He still was speaking to Him.  We need to realize that God will always do all He can to protect us and when He delivers us from problems in this world, even those we create, we need to listen for His word to us.  We are saved and delivered for a purpose, and that is to serve God faithfully.  Verse two adds, Arise, go into Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.  God still had the same purpose for Jonah.  He was still to go into Nineveh and preach the preaching that God gave him.  All we today can do is proclaim the message that God gives us.  Jonah still had the same specific calling that he had before.  We today may run so long that God uses someone else to do what He had called us to do.  He would not have destroyed Nineveh without His message going out to them.  He will not destroy people today without His word going out to them.  If I run from God's call to go witness for several years, He would be a cruel God to just let those that I should have witnessed to die without hearing about His salvation plan.  Jonah was being sent to Nineveh not just for those of Nineveh, but so that he might grow in faith as well.  When we are sent to witness, and obey, we grow in our relationship to God, and to those around us.  We are taught compassion for them.  Verse three continues, So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.  Jonah was through running from God and was now going to his mission field.  Jonah was one man, going to a very large city, that God had said was so evil He was going to destroy it.  When we look at the world today, does the task of reaching the lost seem overwhelming in this evil world?  We may ask what just one person can do, but we need to realize that as God's followers, it is what God can do through one person doing His will that is important.  It is not based on our ability, but on God's.  God did not send an army to Nineveh, but only Jonah, empowered by God's word.

Jonah 2:6

Jonah 2:6 says, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.  Jonah was in about as hopeless a situation as a person could be.  He felt the whole world was bearing down on him.  Still, even in his situation, he said his Lord and His God had brought him up from corruption.  When we find ourselves in a seemingly hopeless situation in this world, do we acknowledge that God has already delivered us from corruption, no matter the outcome.  Remember, Jonah was still in the belly of the whale at this time.  We, as followers of Christ, need to realize that we are everlasting delivered already and to thank God for that daily.  Verse seven adds, When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Jonah could in no way rely on his own ability to save himself, so he prayed to God.  We can never save ourselves today, but if we are followers of Christ, we have already come to understand that.  If we aren't, until we come to understand that, then nothing else matters. As followers of Christ, if we are out of His will, then we need to turn to Him again, and hopefully we will do it before we are brought as low as Jonah was.  Remember, he was still one of God's chosen people. Verse eight continues, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.  If we believe that there is any way we can save ourselves, then we are believing lying vanities.  There are those today who claim they do not need God's forgiveness but rely on their own ability to forgive and thereby save themselves, but in so doing, they cut themselves off from the mercy of God.  Verse nine states, But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.  Jonah acknowledged that salvation was only from the Lord.  He would sacrifice to God with thanksgiving and do what he had vowed to do.  We today need to acknowledge that Christ is the only way to salvation and serve Him with thanksgiving.  Verse ten adds, And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.  Jonah's prayers were answered, and he was returned to dry ground.  He still had the same mission.  We today, when we are restored to God, still have the mission of proclaiming His word.

Jonh 2:3

In Jonah 2:3, Jonah continued, For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.  From this statement, we can almost say Jonah was blaming God for his predicament.  He knew that the sailors weren't responsible.  Jonah acknowledged that God was still in control.  Even as he ran, even in the belly of the whale, He knew that God was working in his life.  Through all his misfortunes, God had not given up on him.  We today can take courage from the fact that no matter how bad things may seem in life, if we are truly followers of God, He will never forsake us.  That even includes when we are not following His will.  Verse four adds, Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.  Jonah, in one of the most hopeless places I can think of, still had hope in God.  Anytime we are out of the sight of God, that is out of His will, we may see a situation as nearly hopeless, but we need to realize that God is with us.  Even if we are firmly in God's will and the world seems determined to destroy us, we need to remember that God is with us.  We need to look to God through it all.  Verse five says, The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I think we sometimes think of Jonah going straight from the ship to the being swallowed by the whale, but he says he was deep in the water with weeds wrapped around his head before the whale swallowed him.  We may not immediately be rescued when we have trouble in this world, but we are assured that God will make a way.  We never need to live life as though we are defeated.  God is with us if we are His followers.