I have been going through the book of Jonah over the last two or three days. While it's quite a short book, not only in terms of chapters, but also in terms of the number of verses in each chapter, there is quite a lot packed into it. Just from the third chapter, which comprises only ten verses, I have gained some interesting insights which I would now like to share.
I'll start with Verse 2:
Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. (Jonah 3:2)
I want to focus in particular on the last part of that verse. When we preach, we need to make sure that we are preaching what God has bid us to preach, and not just something based on our own human wisdom. There are a lot of preachers around today who say things that may sound quite good, but ultimately they're just speaking visions of their own heart (cf.
Jeremiah 23:16 and
23:26). True ministers of God do His bidding and say what He wants them to say.
Now while we may not get messages directly from God the way His prophets did, we still have instructions in the Scriptures about what we're meant to preach. Here are just three examples to be going on with:
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15)
We are bid to preach the Gospel. Not just any old gospel, but THE Gospel.
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. (Acts 5:42)
Whether preaching the Gospel, or just preaching generally, we are bid to preach and teach Jesus Christ.
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (2 Timothy 4:2)
We are bid to preach the Word of God and instruct our hearers in its doctrines.
Getting back to Jonah 3, the next verse I want to look at is Verse 5:
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 3:5)
Notice who the people of Nineveh believed. They didn't believe Jonah in his own right. They believed GOD. This is one way to know whether a preacher is of Christ or not. If people believe the preacher, and idolise that person (buying their books and DVDs, for example), that preacher is a wolf seeking to draw disciples away after himself or herself (cf.
Acts 20:30). But if preaching results in people believing God, being convicted deeply over their sins and understanding how badly they need Christ as their Saviour, then that preacher is the real deal.
Observe also the remarkable things that can happen when we simply obey God. All Jonah was doing was preaching what God told him to preach, and it had a most extraordinary outcome. He was doing it reluctantly too, but he was still obeying, and God honoured his obedience.
One more thing I want to point out is that in ancient times, putting on sackcloth was a sign of mourning. So what the people of Nineveh are doing here is showing grief and godly sorrow over their sins.
This remarkable citywide repentance was led from the top:
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (Jonah 3:6)
See here how the king lays aside his robe, which was a symbol of all his power and authority. Wearing it probably would have made him feel very important. Doubtless he would have been very puffed up in it. The way he removes his robe and dons sackcloth instead symbolises a sinner laying aside their pride and humbling themselves before God.
If only Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison, Jacinda Ardern and other world leaders would follow this ancient king's example! He puts them to shame, just as his repentance (and that of his people) put the unbelievers of Christ's day to shame:
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:41)
Returning to the repentance of the Ninevites, let's check out Verse 8:
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. (Jonah 3:8 )
Here we see the pattern of repentance and conversion that Chris talks about in his repentance teaching. (I haven't read it for a while, so I'm not intentionally copying anything from that, if that too happened to talk about these verses.) The crying mightily unto God was the repentance. Then after conversion, they turned from their evil ways. First they humbled their hearts, then they changed their ways. The grief and godly sorrow for sin (repentance) PRECEDED the turning from sin.
I have one more comment on Verse 10, and then I'll close this out:
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. (Jonah 3:10)
The people of Nineveh were not saved by their works. Rather,
they were doing works meet for repentance. Turning from their evil way was
evidence of their repentance, not the repentance itself. And so as God always does with sinners who truly repent, He had mercy on them - much to Jonah's chagrin (but that's in the next chapter, and this post is about the third one).
As always, hope this has edified. Here's a final thought: don't be like Jonah in your attitude to the lost, but do be like him in obediently preaching what God wants you to preach. You never know what He might do with that!
