Jonah 3

Again, with the point why we don't see certain things and symbolism.

And let's do Jonah and the whale very quickly, 'kay? And then we'll sw- we'll take a break, switch to New Testament.

New Testament won't take us that long.

Um, Jonah, you, you guys know the story, right? And, um, and you can look it up.

Jonah 3 and 4.

So here's Jonah, supposed to preach to the Ninevites.

The Ninevites are, were like the Nazis of their day.

They would build walls out of people's heads.

Brothers and sisters, would you turn with me in your Bibles to Jonah 3.

Jonah 3.

I will read the text, will petition the Lord for help, and begin.

Jonah 3.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.

And in this chapter, we finally come to the great city and we see the great city, Nineveh, come to God and God shows them boundless mercy.

Nineveh's exemplary repentance here in this chapter, recorded after the fact by Jonah himself, is his own spirit-inspired rebuke, along with the question for ancient Israel who first received this book, and by extension us, where is your heart? How is your repentance? Because for those who repent, this chapter presents the good news of the boundless mercy of God.

The church in America, like the churches across the nations of the earth, it's time to repent before the Lord genuinely on behalf of ourselves, on behalf of our children, on behalf of all the things that we have done as a sign of brokenness.

The Bible tells us in the Book of Jonah that God instructed a prophet to go to that great city and bring it a message of caution to turn from their ways, lest they be judged.

You know the story.

Jonah ran away, got into the belly of the fish, repented, and came back.

Give us Jonah 3:1, please.

Jonah 3.

The call came again.

Jonah 3:1.

If the people change their attitude and behaviour, the predicted event may not happen.

The people of Nineveh took Jonah's prediction to heart and changed their ways, so God did not destroy them, as we read in Jonah 3 verse 10.

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

When later generations forgot this prophetic warning and Nineveh again became an evil, cruel place, God destroyed it.