Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, 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 Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
God has chosen to use mankind to do the work He needs to tell mankind about Himself. In the above text we have the beginning of the famous story of Jonah and the big fish. Jonah is commissioned to go to Nineveh, a great city, to tell them about God’s judgment. The the people of Nineveh were a very, very wicked people. Nineveh was a famous city with a rich history. It was part of the Assyrian empire. The city was quite large. It took Jonah three days to walk through it to proclaim his message (Jonah 3:3). We know the population was large. God reminds Jonah that there at least 120,000 children in the city (Jonah 4:11). We might think that Jonah was fearful of their wickedness and what they would do to him if he did preach about God’s wrath. We would not blame him for that. The warriors of the city were vicious. But, according to Jonah 4:1-2, Jonah was really concerned that if he did preach about God’s wrath, the people would repent. He was correct, they did (Jonah 3:6-9). That is an interesting thought for us to dwell upon. The preaching of God’s wrath brought about repentance that the preacher didn’t really want from the start. This shows us some very interesting truths:
1. Preaching about the whole character of God (His love AND His wrath) is powerful.
2. God can use poor delivery, half-hearted delivery and/or delivery of His message that the preacher does not even want. Remember, before his betrayal, Judas was used by God to cast out demons and heal the sick. God can use a lot of different hearts to accomplish His purpose.
3. Repentance is dependent upon God’s word being presented. God used the simple proclamation of His word to bring about an entire city’s spiritual life. God brings about repentance through the preaching of His word.
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