Oh, good evening everybody. You guys been enjoying these videos? We showed the one on the Shema last week, and this one from the Bible Project. So we're going to highlight a video from the Bible Project every week through the rest of the summer as we go through these book overviews.
It's a tremendous resource, very solid material, really interactive, really fun. So it's just a really great tool that we want to be able to bless you all with. Tonight, I am excited that we get to continue our series of more than just a book. We did our first six weeks doing basic kind of big Bible study methods with you all.
And now, beginning last week through the rest of August, we're going to be going through different sections of the Bible that we talked about and looking at a book in each of these sections and really applying the lessons that we learned in the first six weeks as we study the books. So last week, we did Deuteronomy, which was a lot of fun to do. And tonight, we're going to do, and that was out of the Torah, the section of the law. And tonight, we're going to look at the book of Jonah as a representation of the prophets.
Jonah is an awesome, awesome book. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible. I know I shouldn't have favorites in God's words, but I do, and I love Jonah. So let's do a little bit of review, because before we jump in, we want to give everybody good context with everything.
And actually, before we do that, let's pray. So we really ask the Lord, one to guide my words and to soften all of our hearts to hear him tonight. Father God, I just do thank you that we have this place to gather as your people, that we have your word to open and to study and to submit ourselves under that we may go and be disciples, that we would be effective disciples for you in this world, that we would be equipped to live the life that you have designed for us. So Father, as we jump into tonight, as we look at the book of Jonah, Father, I pray that your spirit speaks to all of us, that the words that come out of my mouth would be the words that you want everyone to hear, and that we would all leave here more in love with you, living more effectively for you, just more thankful for your grace in our lives, and ready and willing and excited to share that message of grace and salvation in Jesus to this world that's in desperate need of you.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so let's review the prophets really quickly. When we spoke about the prophets a number of weeks ago, basically this is the prophets. The prophets are people, they were sent by God to a specific people with a specific message to call these people to repentance.
That was typically the message of the prophets. And what they also did is outline the consequences to the people if they didn't repent. For the Israelites, the consequence most often told to them was that they were going to be ruled by foreign nations and they would lose their land, their promised land that God had promised them, okay? This kind of was why we wanted to show the covenants video tonight because you understand there are promises made by God, there's commitments promised by his people.
When we fall short in our commitments, the covenant is broken, the praise of Lord, we have Jesus that renews and restores everything, okay? So that's generally where we were going with the prophets. Now Jonah is one of the 12 minor prophets. It's the fifth book of the 12 minor prophets.
Now the reason they're called minor prophets is only because the books are shorter than the other prophetical books, okay? Major, minor. So the major prophets just remind you as Isaiah, Jeremiah, lamentations are thrown in there because Jeremiah wrote lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel, okay? Those are the major prophets and then everyone else beginning with Hosea through Malachi represent the minor prophets.
So let's get to Jonah. We also, we always wanna talk about the context. We need to understand the time and place and circumstance that's going on so we can rightly understand God's word to us. Jonah was a prophet during the reign of King Jerobo in the second, King Jerobo in the second and this was around 760 BC, 760 BC.
Do you guys remember from last week if you were here about the time that Deuteronomy was written? Anyone remember? Around 1408 BC is what we're looking at, okay? So we're 700 years now from last week.
I wanna read to you the first mention that we have of Jonah. He first comes on the same, he first hear about him in the book of 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 14 beginning at verse 23, says this. In the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, King of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, King of Israel, began to reign in Samaria and he reigned 41 years.
This is Jeroboam the second, so his kingship was 41 years and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam and the son of the bots, which made Israel to sin. As goes the leader, so goes the people. So we find out here that Jeroboam the second wasn't a great guy, wasn't a good guy at all, but then we see verse 25.
He restored the border of Israel from Libo Hamath as far as the Sea of Arabah according to the word of the Lord. He expanded Israel's borders, he expanded the kingdom according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amatai, the prophet who was from Gaff, Heffer. So, Jeroboam the second was an evil king, so morally they were nowhere, spiritually they were nowhere, but they did experience, he did experience some political success during this time. What this does, this does give us a glimpse at God's grace for his people.
We need to keep in mind God is a good and loving and gracious God, which we're gonna talk about in Jonah. And the other part that's going on here is that the ruling empire at this time were the Assyrians. And one reason that Jeroboam the second was able to expand the borders because the Assyrians were busy in a different part of their kingdom at this point doing other things, waging other wars, which allowed Jeroboam the second to do some of his own expansion himself. So that's some of the context we're dealing with with Jonah.
The other big context we need to understand is about the city of Nineveh, where God told Jonah to go. Let's talk about Nineveh. Nineveh is described over and over again in Jonah as a great city, as a great city. It was a great city as it's time, meaning it was great in both size and importance.
Size and importance. At this point in history, Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which is the big empire ruling everybody at this time. Nineveh was about 2,000 acres big. It had a population of at least 120,000 people.
About the same size as Springfield. And it is located 500 miles northeast of Jerusalem. How far away was it? 500 miles.
Keep that number in mind. Nineveh was famous for hanging gardens, had water dams, parks, had a 50 mile aqueduct that brought water to the city. It had a large double wall surrounding the city that said that two chariots could have ridden side by side around the city. So this was a major deal.
This is a big city back in this time. Nineveh was actually originally the first we ever read about Nineveh is in Genesis chapter 10. Nineveh was founded by Nimrod. And I always snicker when I say that name.
It was something about Nimrod, but funny name to us, okay. But Nimrod was a guy you wouldn't want to mess with. The Bible describes Nimrod as the first mighty man on earth. But kind of he's like the father of all great warriors and hunters.
And he found a lot of cities back then. He was a descendant of Noah's son, Ham. And Nimrod founded the city of Nineveh. And we read about that in Genesis 10.
Nineveh, it has maintained a strong connection with Jonah to this day. And Nineveh actually is located in Iraq, just to give you some geography. There is an old Muslim mosque and cemetery on the site of ancient Nineveh that reads Nebby Eunus. And that means the tomb of Jonah, okay.
So, this is some interesting things. Nineveh had a history and a future of being exceedingly evil. That was its reputation of being exceedingly evil. The entire book of Nahum, another one of the minor prophets.
It actually is written a hundred years later than Jonah, but the entire book of Nahum is a prophecy against Nineveh, okay. So we see Jonah chapter one verse two. When God calls Jonah, he says, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it for their evil has come before me. So, that is its history of evil.
And we know it's future evil in Nahum, chapter three, the very last sect part of the very last verse in 19 says about Nineveh, for upon whom has not come your unceasing evil. So, Nineveh is a bad, bad place. And that is where God sends his prophets. So, that's some context to give you all about who we're talking about and where he went.
Now, remember, we also want to understand where we are in the grand narrative. Do you remember the grand narrative say with me? We have creation, fall, redemption, new creation. So, where is Jonah taking place in the grand narrative?
We're still in the fall. We're still in the fall. And what we're seeing more and more clearly as we're moving through history and we're getting closer to the cross, we're hearing more and more, reading more and more about the hope of redemption. And you're going to see that very, very clearly, and very strongly in this book, which is beautiful.
The literary style of Jonah is a prophetical narrative. It's a prophetical narrative and it has a chapter, and it's chapter two is poetry. Jonah praise this prayer that is poetic in its form. Some will argue that Jonah is an allegory or that Jonah is a parable.
But what we will see tonight and discover that Jonah is a very, very real story. Okay? What is absolutely unique about Jonah is that the book of Jonah isn't about the prophet's message. The book of Jonah is actually about the prophet.
It sets it apart from all the other prophetical writings, the other prophetical books. It's not so much about what Jonah said. We're going to find out. He said just a few words regarding his message that God wanted him to say.
But this is really a book about the prophet itself, which makes it very applicable for us. The last thing I want to talk about before we really jump into the themes that we find is the structure. Jonah is a beautiful piece of literature. I mean, it's a beautiful thing to read.
And it's set up in a parallel. Okay? So let me kind of draw for you how this parallel works. So we have this first scene going on in Jonah chapter one, verses one through three, which is his first call.
When God first calls him to go to Nineveh. And we all know what happened to Jonah go. No, he didn't go right away. He didn't go right away.
The next scene we find here is Jonah chapter one, verses four through 16. And this is the scene with the sailors on the boats. And really a big highlight here is their repentance. The repentance of the sailors is the next scene.
The third scene that we find is the prayer of Jonah, which starts in the series in the belly of the fish, the end of chapter one, going through all of chapter two. And this is Jonah's prayer. And it's his prayer of repentance, kind of. We can talk about that, okay?
It's his prayer of repentance, kind of. But now this is where the parallelism comes in. So we get to now the next scene, which is in Jonah three, the first three verses. And this is his second call.
The great fish spits him up, vomits him up, throws him up. And God calls him again to go to Nineveh. Does Jonah go this time? Yes, he does.
He does go this time. And then we get to the next scene, which is in Jonah three, three through 10. And this is where he is in Nineveh. And we see here the Ninevites, repent.
So you see the parallelism here between his first call and second call. You see a parallelism here between the sailors repentance and the Ninevites repentance. And then we see another parallelism in Jonah, chapter four, verses one through four, which is another prayer of Jonah. So you call repentance prayer, call repentance prayer.
So there's parallels going on. There's a little bit different things going on in here because first call didn't go, second call he did go. Sailor's repent, Ninevehites repent. Jonah has a kind of repentant prayer here.
Jonah has an angry prayer here. And then we get to the great final scene, which is down here. In Jonah four, this is an interesting angle to write on. And we're going to be in verses five through 11.
And the big lesson here is God's compassion, which is really the whole point of everything. So I wanted to draw this so you can kind of see the structure of the book and see how the Lord put this book together for us to learn from. So we know where we're at, with our contacts, we know where we are at, with our literary style, we know where we are at with our structure. And now as we've done our good homework as good Bible study students, we are now ready to go into the themes and understanding the really the message of Jonah and what God wants us to know about him and what he wants us to know about us.
And most of all, what God wants us to know about God. Okay, ready to jump in? Awesome, okay, the first theme that we're going to look at tonight that we see throughout Jonah is the theme of miracles. Theme of miracles, miracles, here's kind of very brief definition.
God supernaturally overriding natural laws for his glory, everybody say, for his glory, for his glory, yes. This is a big theme in Jonah in particular and also all throughout scripture, right? So this is a huge thing in Jonah. Miracles are one way that God testifies about himself.
One way he testifies about himself, showing that he is the one true God. When you look at the miracles of the Bible, I'll guarantee you most, every situation going on is God declaring he is the one true God. You can look at the plagues and you can look at how every plague that God sent from a historical context, when you understand Egyptian culture, God was showing out he is greater than all these other gods that they had that they worshipped. When you look at the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, that was the whole challenge, right?
Elijah's like, hey, you build your altar, I'll build my altar, we'll cry out to our gods, we'll see who the one true God is, right? And our God won. Miracles also are a point of argument and challenge of the Bible's reliability. How many have ever heard someone challenge the Bible, challenge Christianity in general, saying all because miracles really can't happen?
You've heard that argument, right? You've read it, you've talked to someone, that's really common thing. It's a result of the culture that we live. In this modern Western culture, living in the shadow of the enlightenment, living in a scientific culture, okay?
But I'll tell you what, it's only been in the last century or so, century and a half, where this has really become an issue. Most throughout the world, people don't have an issue with the supernatural, they don't have an issue with miracles. It's a very Western culture thing. Shows are arrogance in a lot of ways.
But let's look at these miracles. So we see in Jonah, we specifically see with Jonah God's sovereign control over nature. That's a big way that he's showing himself, through miracles. He's the storm.
Jonah one for us is the Lord, the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. When Jonah ran and got in the boats, big storm came and it says God sent the storm, showing his control over nature in that way. We see it with a great fish. In Jonah one 17 says the Lord appointed a great fish.
What kind of fish was it? I don't know, but it's a whale of a tail, isn't it? Thank you. We see it with the plants.
Jonah chapter four verse six, the Lord God appointed a plant. When Jonah was out and the plant grew to give him shade. And then following verse the worm, Jonah chapter four verse seven, God appointed a worm which ate the plant and took away Jonah's shade. So we see all throughout Jonah, these miracles that God is doing, showing he is the one true God's showing that he is sovereign over nature.
Now whenever we read something in the Old Testament, we always want to see how it is affirmed, how it's modified, how it's qualified in the New Testament, right? Good Bible study students do that. That's what we're learning to do. We see Jesus doing this, don't we?
We see Jesus exercising sovereign control over creation. The New Testament really affirms this. We see in Matthew chapter eight, verses 23 through 27, Jesus calms a storm. He's in the boat with the disciples, he's sleeping, the disciples are freaking out for their lives, Jesus stands up, hush, he's still in the storm stops.
We see in Matthew 21 verses 18 and 19, Jesus curses the fig tree and it withers right away. We see in Mark chapter one, verses 29 and 34 is one of the sections where it describes Jesus healing the sick, all kinds of sickness, all kinds of infirmities, all kinds of demon possession, all kinds of things, Jesus heals it all. He's showing his sovereign control over nature for the glory of the one true God. That's the purpose of miracles.
So here's my question to you and I want to hear some feedback, what is the greatest miracle? The resurrection, let's say it loud, what's the greatest miracle? The resurrection and here's why we know the resurrection is the greatest miracle and here's where Jonah shows up in the New Testament. Matthew chapter 12 verses 39 through 41, I'm actually gonna start verse 38.
Says then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
That's a, can we just back up for a second right there? Do you remember how exceedingly evil the Bible said the Ninevites were? Like for hundreds of years exceedingly evil? And Jesus just now said that the men of Nineveh will rise up and judge this current generation that Jesus is walking around with?
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Something greater than Jonah. Jonah is a preview of Jesus, of the message of the cross, of his resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle that God has ever done. When you read in the New Testament, when Peter preaches, when Paul writes, they talk about how God raised Jesus from the dead. It's a miracle that God the Father pulled off. And here's what I want to say about the resurrection.
And this needs to be probably a whole nother series, class or something. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is verifiable. It's verifiable. There is no, and here's a little brief on it, okay?
There is no other way to explain the explosive growth of Christianity in the midst of tremendous persecution and in the midst of the completely cross-cultural message that the early church had. There's no other way to explain it unless that resurrection actually happened. Once we establish that the resurrection is a reality, we can trace back now about 2,000 years and we can show that that happened. Once we establish that the greatest miracle of all time happened, we can easily say, well, man, if that can happen, well, of course, God can appoint a fish to swallow a man.
Of course, there could be a flood that covers the earth. Of course, of course, of course, these things could happen because we can prove we can show the greatest miracle did happen. And we are living proof of that tonight, amen? And we see in Matthew 12, Jesus confirms the reality of the person and story of Jonah.
It's not a parable. It's not an allegory. He was a real guy and this story really happened to him. Jesus tells that.
So we all see that as under the first big theme that we see throughout Jonah is the theme of miracles. Here's a second big theme is this. The second theme is pride. Pride is the second theme.
Remember, this is an account of the prophets more than the prophecy. In Jonah, we learn about his sin and his shortcomings and in doing so, the person of Jonah becomes a mirror that we look in and see ourselves. See, pride is the underlying root of all sin. It's the underlying root of all sin.
And pride is best seen as the sins of self. What do I mean by that? Think about these just as a start. Self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, self-pity, self-protection.
It's basically fully relying on yourself instead of trusting God. So let's kind of look at how these show up in Jonah. Let's look at Jonah's self-sufficiency. He was going to do what he wanted and he was going to ignore God's command.
Jonah chapter one, verses two and three. Arise, God says, the Jonah, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish. From the presence of the Lord, he went down to Japa.
Whenever you go down anywhere in the Bible, that's not a good thing. He went down to Japa, found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fair and went on board to go with him to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. Now, let's do a little geography.
Let's talk about Nineveh. Let's talk about Tarshish. Let's talk about Israel. Okay?
So I'm going to do a very, very, very, very, very, very rough drawing of the Mediterranean Sea. So we have the Southern Shor, shall we say, of the Mediterranean Sea, which is down here. This is like African stuff. We come up here to the Middle East.
Israel is around here. Then we come up this way and you have all the Greek islands and they're the little things. Come over here, here's Italy. And then you come over here to the rest of Europe and up over here.
Okay? Very, very, very, very rough drawing of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, so you have Jerusalem here. How far away do you remember was Nineveh from?
Nice job. So northeast. So over here is Nineveh. Five hundred miles to the northeast.
Tarshish, at this point of history, was the edge of the known world back then. Who knows what country we're talking about today regarding Tarshish? Anybody know? Spain.
That's this guy way over here. Okay? And probably down, Tarshish was probably way on here on the southern border of it. Okay?
So here is Tarshish. You know how far this is? Is it 500 miles? Is it farther?
You know how much farther? 2,500 miles away. Jonah, I mean, when he was running, he was running. He was five times further.
My boss called me and said, hey, can you come to Chicago today for a meeting? I didn't want to go. I want to do a Jonah. I mean, it'd be like me going to Dallas.
You know what I said, Chicago today. I mean, that's kind of what we're talking about here. Some commentators even say at this point that the phrase pay the fair. Some say that could even mean he bought the boat.
I mean, he's going all in. Going all in. And it's funny, because he's saying, he's trying to get away from the presence of the Lord, which is impossible. But what it's showing is, Jonah's trying to show sufficiency in himself here.
I don't want to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take care of me. I'm going to pay my fair, maybe bought the boat, and I'm going to go.
Okay? Jonah's self-sufficiency. But also see, Jonah's self-righteousness. One dialect of self-righteousness is hypocrisy.
That's a dialect of self-righteousness. Okay? Saying one thing, but actions proving another. Doing something that's wrong, but still proclaiming a faith in God and thinking your nose is clean through it all.
Right? Let's look at verse nine. So the storm came, the sailors are freaking out. They're casting the lines to find out whose issue it was.
The lot fell on. Jonah, they start peppering in with questions. And here's where you're from. Who's your country?
What people are you? I mean, there's pepper name with questions. Jonah says this in verse nine. And he said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea in the dry land.
What did this guy just do? He's proclaiming his faith. He's proclaiming he's a follower of the one true God in the middle of him running away by the time he's fired and the word God told him to go. He's not following anybody.
Jonah's self-righteousness. Jonah's self-protection. Self-protection for him and his people. We see in this case, we wanted to show the covenant video on purpose tonight because the Jews, the covenant, was made with them.
Right? And they didn't see what the video highlighted, that the covenant and the priests' promises of God were designed to ultimately end to be a blessing for the whole world, right? We see the early church struggling with this, don't we? Selenium and the Jews first.
They didn't go out in the other world. It took them nine chapters and the book has to finally start going somewhere. In a sense, this is a so forth of self-protection. Hey, these covenant promises, this message of salvation, this message of faith in the one true God, this is for me and my people.
Not for these evil, evil Ninevites. We see a very overdeveloped sense of nationalism in Noah, over develops its national, how do we get, what's chapter four? Chapter four. Displease Jonah when he saw the repentance of the Ninevites, verse two.
And he prayed to the Lord and said, oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country? He emphasizes, this is what my, you remember your people, remember us? And you want me to go to these pagans? We need to understand, we don't, there is no one people, one country that owns the message of salvation.
Christianity isn't an American thing everybody. It's a people thing, it's a world thing. You know, and I remember, I think it was Dan that preached the message at some point, we were going through and talking about a great commission. Where the ends of the earth, where that message was given, where the ends?
I mean, we're still continuing it, but where the ends of the earth of go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the other most parts of the world. That's us. So let's have a proper perspective of that. Let's keep going with this pride thing, because we can talk about pride all night.
Joanna's self-righteousness part two. Okay, he goes outside of the city of Nineveh to watch what God's gonna do and hope for judgment to still fall on them. Who's the exceedingly evil? My goodness.
If we continue in chapter four, it says, therefore now, oh Lord, please take my life from me for it's better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said you do well to be angry. Verse five, Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city, waiting for it's in hoping for his destruction.
And the last we do see Jonah's self-pity. Instead of celebrating Nineveh, receiving his message, he goes and sits outside the city, which we just read. He makes himself a shelter. God grows a plant, which makes Jonah happy.
She'll inform from the scorching sun. But then God took away the plant, which made Jonah really mad. And we read in verse nine of chapter four, but God said to Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the plant? And Jonah said, the guy said this to God.
Yes, I do well to be angry. Angry enough to die, wallowing in his own self-pity. He is not exercising. One even little Iota of meekness.
We're gonna talk about meekness on Sunday and how controlling anger is a sign of exercising meekness. He's not doing that at all. So we see pride all throughout this in the character of Jonah. That's our second theme, our third theme, repentance.
Praise the Lord for repentance. Jonah rightly describes God in verse two of chapter four. Said, oh Lord, he prayed, oh Lord, this time he said, when I was getting in my country, that is why, we finally find out why Jonah ran initially. That is why I made haste, defly detourous.
This is why he ran. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Those are all 100% true statements about God. Jonah knew that's who God was.
That's a reason actually that Jonah ran, because he didn't want the evil men of knights to be able to experience that. He's in a bad place. But Jonah does show us that God is merciful and wants people to repent. God's desire is for all people to repent, to turn from their wicked ways toward him, to change their mind on the review of themselves, for being prideful and self-centered, and to live humble, God-centered lives.
And here's repentance, all through Jonah. We see the sailors repenting, right? Jonah 1, verses 14 through 16, they repented. These polytheistic sailors came face to face with God.
Did they come face to face with God in the storm? Is that where they came face to face to God with? And we'll see what the Bible says. Let's look at verse 16, chapter one.
We'll pick up verse 15. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. Verse 16, then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Do you see?
These sailors didn't repent because of the storm. They repented because of the calm. Who does that sound like? That sounds like the disciples, doesn't it?
In Matthew chapter eight verse 27, Jesus calms the storm. And when he calms the storm, the disciples are like, who is this? That even the winds and the waves obey his voice. This is the calm that causes sailors to repent.
We see in Jonah chapter two, another scene of repentance where Jonah repented. He repented, sort of. In the belly of the fish, Jonah sees that God spared his life and was overcome by God's provision for him. He did.
Jonah does recognize that. He was drowning. The fish came. Jonah chapter two, verse nine.
In very many ways, when you look at this Bible, it is very many ways, the central verse of the Bible. Because the end of chapter two, Jonah says the last line of his prayer, salvation belongs to the Lord. Everyone say that together. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
So it's true. But what we do see in the next couple chapters, is that the Bible is the Lord. So it's true. But what we do see in the next couple chapters, that Jonah's repentance didn't go very deep.
It didn't go very deep. He did obey. He did go to Nineveh. But he still hope that God would wipe them out.
Not exactly submitting his heart to the Lord's. That's why it was a kind of sort of repentance. We see the Ninevites repenting. In Jonah chapter three, verses five and six, we've kind of looked at these verses.
It says, the people of Nineveh believe God and called for a fast meal on sackcloth from the grace of them to the least of them. Verse six, the word reached the king of Nineveh. And he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, sat in ashes, and he began to issue proclamations throughout Nineveh. Now I'll tell you what, what's amazing about this is that they repented with a message that Jonah gave.
Jonah, give a great message. Eight words, Jonah says in English. Hebrew, it's five words. He says, Jonah says this, he says, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
That was his message. He just walked through the city, 120,000 people, yet 40 days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. Not one mention of God, not one mention of repent, not one message of belief. Nothing.
And these people still repent it. Because I think they knew where Jonah was from. They knew about the Israelite God, right? But we see them repent, and we see God respond to that.
In verse 10, a chapter three, 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. Which leads us to our last theme of Jonah as we wrap up. The last theme of Jonah, the greatest theme of Jonah. The theme that all other themes point to is the compassion of God, the compassion of God.
This is the big lesson. While we, like Jonah, spend our time criticizing and judging others. Just stop, let's just stop there for a moment. And I want you to just be honest with yourself right now.
What is the internal dialogue that goes on in your head when you come face to face with a sinner? Maybe it's someone struggling with addiction. Maybe a sexual issue, whatever. What's the internal dialogue going on?
Is there a part of you? Is there a moment of you that cast judgment and criticism toward them? You may not say that loud, but it is in there. You see, while we like Jonah, spend our time criticizing and judging others, God is looking for people to bring a hopeful message to those far from him.
Jonah missed that God's grace is big enough for the world. It was never meant to be just for the Jews alone. But for all who are far from him and don't know right from him. God says in verse 11, in chapter four, he has great lesson to Jonah and his great lesson to us.
He says, and should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left hand and also much cattle. That's kind of funny, but here, but understand, at this point in history, oftentimes your wealth was measured by your property and most of your property was livestock. So this emphasizes the greatness of the city. So it's an important city.
It's an influential city. And it's a city full of people. God's compassion is the lesson. God's compassion is the greatest theme.
Let's not forget that God is a God of second chances. Jonah was called and he ran. God called him. Jonah was called again and he obeyed, although reluctantly.
And I'm going to say, I think Jonah was called one last time. I think he was called one last time. Because when you read this, do you notice how abruptly the book ends? I mean, we just read the very last verse.
God poses his question. Should I not pity Nineveh? And that's it. We don't hear an answer.
We don't know what happens. It appears that God's question stopped Jonah dead in his tracks. So here's my question to you. Do you think did Jonah ever truly repent?
Did he ever truly repent? How many people raised your hand? Yes, I think Jonah truly repented at some point. Raised your hand.
No, I don't think Jonah really truly repented. People are, I don't know. I'm waiting for you to tell me. It's opinion.
But I think it's a good educated opinion. I'm going to say yes he did. I think he did. And here's why.
Because we have the story. Who wrote Jonah? Jonah, wrote Jonah. Jonah wrote the book of Jonah.
Who else would be so honest about their awfulness? Who else would be so honest about this crazy journey that he went on? A ship, and a storm, and a fish, and throwing up in this evil city. Unless that final question that God posed him cut straight to his heart.
And Jonah did repent of his sin of pride. He repented of his self-righteousness. He repented of his self-sufficiency. He repented of his self-protection.
He repented of his self-pity. I don't know any other reason why we would have the book of Jonah, the story of Jonah, unless through all of this, Jonah really did repent. And he wanted us to know his story because we are his story. Aren't we?
Because of who God is. He is compassionate. He is merciful. He is gracious.
He is slow to anger. He is abounding and steadfast love. Because he is these things, we are. Because as Christians, we are clothed with Christ.
Colossians tells us that Christ, who is our life. This is who we are. Because of who God is, we are, and then we do. This is the journey that Jonah learned.
He made that great proclamation, the beginning of chapter four to God. God, I know you're this type of God. I know you're compassionate and merciful. I know you're gracious.
I know you're slow to anger. I know you will relent when people repents. Jonah, in some way deep in his heart, he began to preach to himself in there. And God helped him along the way with the plant, helped him along the way with the worm, and gave him this great lesson of compassion at the end of the book.
So my question to you is this. Does God's final question to Jonah, stop you getting your tracks? Does your heart reflect the compassion in God's heart? That's the message of Jonah to us.
When you come face to face with that sinner, are you reminded of your sin in God's grace to you? And you have an opportunity to repent right there and show love and compassion to that person. What does repentance really look like in your life? Is it surface actions, reluctant obedience, or is it attitude and position of your heart?
That is the message of Jonah to us. Amen? Next week, we will be looking at Proverbs. Talking about wisdom.
Pastor Mark will be sharing the message. Really looking forward to that. Let's take a moment and pray. And I'll be dismissed for the evening.
Father God, we are overwhelmed by your compassion. Lord, we recognize apart from you, we are exceedingly evil, like the Ninevites, like Jonah. And yet, God, you pursue, and you love, and you call. And you relent from judgment when we repent and respond to your kindness and grace.
And so, God, I thank you for Jesus, for modeling that so much yourself. Lord, God, for you upholding the covenant in spite of our failure too. You are such a great God. I thank you for this honest message of Jonah that allows us to watch a journey, to view our own journey, and always come back to your compassion and grace.
You are so good. Help us not to leave here now with truly humble hearts, eager to serve, eager to share your message of salvation, the only hope in Jesus. And that we do that in a very humble way. We praise you.
We pray this in your son's great name, amen. All right, thank you everybody. God bless you. See you next week.