Dwell in the Word: Jonah 3:1-10

Think on these questions as you dwell in Jonah 3:1-10:

1. The response of the people of Nineveh to Jonah's message was one of repentance and belief in God, contrary to Jonah's expectations. How does this narrative challenge our perceptions of who might be receptive to God's message, and what does it teach us about the potential for genuine transformation in unexpected places?

2. The humility shown by the King of Nineveh, who also responded in repentance, contrasts starkly with Jonah's initial reluctance. What lessons can we draw from this contrast in attitudes toward God's message, particularly in our own tendencies to accept or resist divine guidance?

3. Reflecting on the people of Nineveh's swift response to Jonah's warning, what parallels can we draw between their attitude of belief and our own reception of God's truth in our lives? How might their willingness to heed God's word prompt us to reconsider our response to conviction and the need for repentance in our daily lives?

Transcript:

This chapter of Jonah is really an amazing one, isn't it? Can you imagine a prophet walking through, telling people to repent and people believing it and turning from their sin and fasting and putting on sackcloth? We can't imagine that because we don't know what it looks like, but you understand what I'm saying. Can you imagine people turning from their sin and mass? People turning and repenting and believing God about their sin. What an amazing thing that God did here in the city of Nineva. And this is exactly the opposite of what Jonah expected. Remember, he didn't see the point of going to these Gentile unbelievers. We don't know exactly what he thought, but there was very much a sense that, What's the point? And I don't want to go to these unclean unbelievers, right? But here Jonah goes and he calls out this message. He says this, Yet 40 days and Nineva shall be overthrown. The people heard this and understood their sin. And there's this amazing one-word sentence in verse 5, And the people of Nineva believed God. That is not what we would expect. We would not expect these pagan, unbeliever Gentiles to believe God and to turn from their sin.

But here they are. Something amazing is happening through the work of God. Not only does it happen in the people, which is an amazing thing in of itself, but the word reaches the King of Nineva. And he does this too. In fact, he commands people to turn from this because he does not want the wrath of God to come upon their city. This is just absolutely amazing because you would think that a king would be very much, No, I'm in charge. We will be doing whatever we want to do. Especially when you think back to the way that often they had their local deities and even the Kings of the Day were considered to be above the common people. Here, there is humility in the King of Neneva. There is a sense where he absolutely believes God so much that he commands this to his people. And look at what he says here right in the middle of verse 8, Let everyone turn from his evil way, everyone. And from the violence that is in his hands, who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish.

That is his hope that this wrath will not come upon his people, that they will not be punished for the sin that they have. And the awareness here, that their violence, that their sin is a reality, you can tell that they know that this is a problem. They have something within them that they need to turn from. They acknowledge their sinfulness. They're not saying, Who is God to say that what we're doing is wrong? No, they understand. And we see here that God sees this and He sees how they turn from their evil. And look at what He does. God relents from the disaster He said He would bring on them, and He did not do it. Their repentance that God obviously is bringing about, these people can't do this on their own, God sees this and He does not do what He said. And we see here that this lack of belief in Jonah is being contrasted by the belief in the people of Nineva. This Hebrew person ran away from God, and it took this serious event in the Fish for Jonah to return to God. And we're going to see, he's not even there yet.

But here these people just hear this word from Jonah about God bringing this disaster upon them, and they believe they are quicker to believe than this Hebrew prophet. As we think about what this means, we need to think about, do we believe God? Are we like the people of Nineva? When we hear the word of God and we're convicted of our sin, do we turn within ourselves and say, Well, my sin isn't that bad? Or do we justify it in some way? Or do we, like the people of Nineva, believe God? Do we believe His word? Do we trust the work of the Holy Spirit in us and turn from our sin? May we be like the people of Nineva that we might bring glory to God.