By: Steve Wilmot
The story of Jonah and the whale is one of the first Bible stories every boy and girl learned if they attended Sunday School as a child.
God told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and tell the people there he was going to wipe them out because of their wickedness.
Jonah decided he didn’t want the assignment, so he hopped a ship sailing in the opposite direction of Nineveh. God was determined to convince Jonah it would be in his best interest to go to Nineveh, so he sent a storm so fierce everyone onboard was sure they were going to die.
Jonah fesses up the reason for the storm is because he is running from God so the sailors through him overboard. But “the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah” (Jonah 1.17). After three miserable days in the belly of the fish, Jonah decides to obey God and go to Nineveh.
The fish pukes Jonah up on shore and he catches the next boat to Nineveh. That’s the story we’re familiar with. But there are three “characters” in the story: Jonah, God, and the people of Nineveh. What’s their part in this story?
Let’s start with the Ninevites. They were sworn enemies of Israel. They were exceedingly brutal. One military leader wrote the following about his treatment of his enemies.
“I destroyed, I demolished, I burned I took their warriors prisoner and impaled them on stakes before their cities. I flayed the nobles, as many as had rebelled, and spread their skins out on the piles of dead corpses.
Many of the captives I burned in a fire. Many I took alive; from some I cut off their hands to the wrist, from others I cut off their noses, ears and fingers; I put out the eyes of many of the soldiers.”
No wonder Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh. Yet when Jonah went and preached a message of judgment [“Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” — Jonah 3.4], the people repented of their sin.
As evil as they were, they honestly thought they could be forgiven. What had they been smoking? Didn’t they know they were too far gone, and God would never forgive them?
What were they thinking? What about you? You’ve never done anything as bad as the Ninevites, but you’ve sinned. Badly. For years Maybe now you think you’ve gone too far and there is no hope for you. God hates you and is determined to punish you for what you’ve done. Nothing could be further from the truth. Watch this.
The people of Nineveh declared a fast to show God they were serious about turning from their sin. The king ordered every citizen of Nineveh to “pray earnestly to God…[and] turn from [your] evil ways and stop all [your] violence” (Jonah 3.8).
Even though they knew they deserved what Jonah had announced, they hoped against hope God would give them another chance. Listen to what the king said, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish” (Jonah. 3.9).
Incredible, isn’t it? Despite all they had done, they realized something many of us don’t — God didn’t want to destroy them. He wanted to pardon them.
He wanted to forgive them and begin a relationship with them. Who knows? Maybe he’d do it for them if they genuinely turned to him from all the evil they were doing.
And that’s exactly what he did! “When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3.10).
What a God! Do you know him? Have you turned from sin to him for forgiveness and a new life? If God forgave the people of Nineveh, he will forgive and welcome you, too.
“I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people” (Jonah 4.2).
Did you hear that?! God is…Merciful. Compassionate. Slow to get angry. Filled with unfailing love. Eager to turn back from destroying people.
His first impulse is to forgive and restore, not to destroy. That’s always his first compulsion. It’s what he is eager to do… even for us.
God told Abraham concerning the wicked city of Sodom if he could find just one righteous person there, he would spare all the citizens of the town. Just one godly person would tip the scales from judgment to mercy. One. That’s how eager he is to forgive you.
That is God’s heart, God’s longing for YOU. Even when you run from him. Even when you’re weak and you fail him. Even when you break promises you made to him.
How can you resist a God who loves you so much he’ll bend over backwards to forgive you and give you a new start in life if you’ll only repent and run into his arms? What a God!
———————–
Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
