In The Same BoatSample

When the Worst Teach the Best

It is no wonder that Jonah ran away from going to Nineveh. These fiercesome people were no strangers to violence- especially against Hebrews. Without belaboring the point, let’s just say they HATED each other.

God telling Jonah to go evangelize them- saying that his God (Yahweh God!) was going to smite them in a few days time, was nothing if not a suicide mission. I liken it to God telling one of us to go deep into the heart of ISIS-held territory and to let them know that God (Jehovah of the Jews!) is going to wipe them away.

Ummmm… no. We’d be lucky to get past the border without being slaughtered right?!

And yet, in the third chapter of Jonah, after his ‘come-to-Jesus’ time in the whale, we see him doing just that.  The whale spits him out on dry ground and he steps obediently across the border to enemy territory. To a people who hated his people, a culture who knew nothing of his God, a nation of violent warriors… the worst of the worst- Jonah walks steadfastly and resolutely.

Can you feel your pulse quickening? Mine sure does thinking about it.

From chapter 3 verse 3 (ESV)- "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, 'Yet forty 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."

Wait… what? Back up… Just like that? The entire city believed God?

I’m confused. Anyone else? 

No time has passed. There's no 'in-between', there's no arguing, there's no fighting, there's no 'thinking about it', there's no 'praying about it', there's no 'getting a second opinion', there's no checking the internet to 'make sure'. 

There was nothing except a period at the end of the sentence and then a space for the next word. 

"...overthrown!" And..." 

Okay, I guess it's an exclamation point and not a period. But you get the idea....

People this is an astounding story! Think about what it’s actually saying. A violent and depraved culture, who is ‘bad enough’ that God Himself actually takes a personal and active interest in (meditate on that for a second!) hears one man tell them one thing and they believe. They mourn, They repent. They change.

They obey (corporately!)- immediately and completely.

Wow. Just WOW.

How often do we children of God resist the tiny things He’s trying to correct in us? Though sin is sin is sin in His eyes, very often we’re not exactly murderers here.  But our sin stands the same against the Nivevites (though I imagine ours rank a bit more bland in the sin category) and yet we push against His gentle correction. We tug at the boundaries of what is acceptable. We resist His guidance.

These Nivevites with their violence, hatred, idolatry… you name it… put us to shame in the obedience department. I think the utter dropping and repenting of their sins is a huge example to us- not only in their wholeheartedness but in their immediacy. They heard the word and they immediately repented- not the next day, or next week, or ‘sometime soon’- they dropped everything and repented, begging God for mercy.

They heard the word and changed.

The worst of the worst is one of the greatest Biblical examples I can think of to teach the ‘best’ of us. Surely if the Ninevites can surrender it all to God- in spite of their wickedness- then we as actual children of God can do the same.

REFLECTION:

If there is something God is trying to correct in you, if there is sin that needs repented of, if there is a word you’ve been given by God… hear the message and change! 

As I tell my children... "Obey me right away, all the way, and with a happy heart." Will God's children do the same?