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The Word of God came to Jonah,

He was a prophet of great honor,

God sent him to Nineveh to warn,

He avoided going for his faith was not strong.

God has the whole world in His hands,

Jonah proved this when he tried to escape to distant lands,

God brought a great wind that shook the ship,

Not to trouble them but to build a strong relationship.

Jonah understood that he was the problem,

He told them to throw him to the sea, and the waters would be calm,

Even though he sinned, he was not forgotten,

God gave him a second chance to tell Nineveh of its awaiting harm.

The second time, Jonah went to Nineveh with no hesitation,

He did not delay for his experience caused him to have some meditation,

Jonah warned the people that God wanted to destroy their nation,

They repented and turned their ways, thus making a true confession.

Hebrews 11:32-35 (KJV) – “³² And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: ³³ Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. ³⁴ Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. ³⁵ Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.”

Prophet Jonah was one of the prophets that the writer of Hebrews meant when he said, “for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.” Jonah prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam, and he was a native of Gath-Hepher.

Jonah 1:1-4 (NKJV) – “¹ Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” ³ But Jonah arose 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 from the presence of the Lord.”

“As the prophet thought of the difficulties and seeming impossibilities of this commission, he was tempted to question the wisdom of the call. From a human viewpoint it seemed as if nothing could be gained by proclaiming such a message in that proud city. He forgot for the moment that the God whom he served was all-wise and all-powerful. While he hesitated, still doubting, Satan overwhelmed him with discouragement. The prophet was seized with a great dread, and he “rose up to flee unto Tarshish.” Going to Joppa, and finding there a ship ready to sail, “he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with them.” Verse 3.” – Prophets and Kings, Page 266.2, Ellen G. White.

“In the charge given him, Jonah had been entrusted with a heavy responsibility; yet He who had bidden him go was able to sustain His servant and grant him success. Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in the hour of Jonah’s despair the Lord did not desert him. Through a series of trials and strange providences, the prophet’s confidence in God and in His infinite power to save was to be revived.” – Prophets and Kings, Page 266.3, Ellen G. White.

Jonah was the son of Amittai. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Jonah means dove, and Amittai means my truth. God sent Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh in the ancient kingdom of Assyria. He was sent there because there was great wickedness in that city. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn them.

Amos 3:7 (KJV) – “Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” God does not do anything in this world without first revealing it to His servants in this world. Before He sent a flood, He told Noah about it. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He told Abraham about it. Before He returns the second time to take us home, He has already told us that in various places in the Bible.

Whatever God feels is significant for you to know, He lets you know. For example, He knows that it is vital for you to know that the Sabbath is specifically on the seventh day of the week. Therefore, He has used various people in the Bible to spread that message across different times. Now that we have seen the pattern God uses to work let us go back to the story of Jonah.

God did not want to destroy Nineveh without letting the people of Nineveh know. Therefore, He used Jonah to go and warn them. We have often accused God of being unfair, but God is very fair and just. He lets you know of the consequences you will face once you have chosen a particular sinful path so that you don’t blame Him if any calamity befalls you.

Even though Noah and his family were the only human beings saved in the ark, they were not the only ones with the message. While building an ark, Noah preached to the people for 120 years. Unfortunately, they rejected the message.

Nobody who has access to the Bible will have an excuse on the final Judgment Day to tell God they did not know which day was the Sabbath or what percentage of our income we should return as tithe. The fact that the Omnipotent God did not destroy the city before sending someone to warn them shows how merciful and loving God is. It clearly shows that it was not God’s priority to punish the people at Nineveh but to save them.

Jonah 1:9-12 (NKJV) – “⁹ So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. ¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. ¹² And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

“As the mariners were beseeching their heathen gods for help, the master of the ship, distressed beyond measure, sought out Jonah and said, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” Verse 6.” – Prophets and Kings, Page 267.2, Ellen G. White.

“But the prayers of the man who had turned aside from the path of duty brought no help. The mariners, impressed with the thought that the strange violence of the storm betokened the anger of their gods, proposed as a last resort the casting of lots, “that we may know,” they said, “for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?” – Prophets and Kings, Page 267.3, Ellen G. White.

Jonah avoided going to Nineveh. He probably feared that the people might be hostile to him if he told them the truth. Therefore, he disobeyed God and decided to run away to Tarshish from the presence of God. We often fear preaching to people the truth because we think they will hate us, and some may say we are judging them. Thus, in spreading God’s message, we are led by doubt instead of faith.

We have formed assumptions in our minds of people which are not always true. Some Christian preachers avoid approaching Islamic people to tell them the gospel because they have assumed a Muslim can’t convert to Christianity. The great gospel commission tells us to go and preach to all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). Everybody in this world deserves to hear God’s Word. Everybody has the right to know the truth.

Jonah thought that he could escape from God, but he could not. As he was in the ship, God sent a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest (Jonah 1:5). The ship seemed to be breaking. Since Jonah was a prophet, he spiritually sensed that he was the problem. He told the people to throw him into the water if they wanted the sea to be calm. He was ready to lose his life to save the other people’s lives in the boat. He had acted with doubt before, but in this case, he acted by faith. John 12:25 (KJV) – “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

We sometimes avoid spreading the gospel because we fear that our lives may be harmed. If you are in elementary school, high school, or university, you fear people will laugh at you or mock you and think you are not cool enough. God may send you to a community that is known to be hostile, but you fear going to them because you are afraid of losing your life. Job 2:4-5 (KJV) – “⁴ And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. ⁵ But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” Satan knows that we fear losing our lives. Therefore, he uses this fear tactfully to cause us to sin. God saved Jonah’s life by causing a fish to swallow him. And he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

While in the belly of the fish, Jonah made this prayer:

Jonah 2:1-9 (NKJV) – “¹ Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. ² And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. ³ For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. ⁴ Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ ⁵ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. ⁶ I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. ⁷ “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. ⁸ “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. ⁹ But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”

“At last Jonah had learned that “salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” Psalm 3:8. With penitence and a recognition of the saving grace of God, came deliverance. Jonah was released from the perils of the mighty deep and was cast upon the dry land.” – Prophets and Kings, Page 269.6, Ellen G. White.

Jonah did not blame God, for he knew he was wrong. God loves it when we acknowledge our sins and return to Him quickly. He loves it when we acknowledge that the situation He has placed us in or allowed us to be in is the perfect situation. Jonah acknowledged that staying in the fish’s belly was the perfect place for him. Therefore, he offered unto God a prayer of thanksgiving. Doubt is what makes us grumble and complain, but faith causes us to give thanks to God. He did not stay in the fish’s belly for long. God spoke to the fish, which vomited Jonah onto dry land (Jonah 2:10).

Jonah 3:1-4 (NKJV) – “¹ Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” ³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. ⁴ And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out, saying, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

God gave Prophet Jonah a second chance. God is a God who gives us numerous chances. He sent him to Nineveh again to preach His message. This time around, Jonah did not hesitate. Instead, he arose and went quickly to the land of Nineveh. The circumstance he had faced before when he was cast into the sea and swallowed by the fish was cruel, but this uncomfortable circumstance gave him the courage to face subsequent battles. When God gives you a second chance, do not waste it. Act by faith.

The situation you are going through now may be rough, but God may allow you to pass through it so that you have the courage to face more significant challenges in the future. God wants to bless you, but before He blesses you, He wants you to be mentally and spiritually strong so that you do not waste the blessing He is planning to give you. Jonah saw God’s mighty hand giving him victory, making him not die in the sea and the belly of the fish. Therefore, he was sure that if God gave him victory in the sea, He would surely make him victorious in the city of Nineveh. Pastor Elizabeth Mokoro says, “Every victory gained gives an increase in courage. Every victory gained gives an increase in faith and determination.”

Jonah 3:5-10 (NKJV) – “⁵ So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ⁶ Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. ⁷ And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. ⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹ Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 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.”

“As king and nobles, with the common people, the high and the low, “repented at the preaching of Jonas” (Matthew 12:41) and united in crying to the God of heaven, His mercy was granted them. He “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. Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride.” – Prophets and Kings, Page 270.4, Ellen G. White.

The people of Nineveh were not as hostile as Jonah might have feared. Instead, they humbled themselves, fasted to seek God’s forgiveness, and turned away from their evil ways. God saw their works (Jonah 3:10) and turned away from His fierce anger. We would all be blessed if we stopped evil and did the right thing. Malachi 3:7 (KJV) – “Return unto me, and I will return unto you.”

“The lesson is for God’s messengers today, when the cities of the nations are as verily in need of a knowledge of the attributes and purposes of the true God as were the Ninevites of old. Christ’s ambassadors are to point men to the nobler world, which has largely been lost sight of. According to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, the only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God. With the eye of faith man may behold the threshold of heaven, flushed with God’s living glory. Through His ministering servants the Lord Jesus is calling upon men to strive with sanctified ambition to secure the immortal inheritance. He urges them to lay up treasure beside the throne of God.” – Prophets and Kings, Page 274.2, Ellen G. White.

GOD BLESS YOU!

Prayer

Dear God, please give me the courage to spread your Word to everybody. Please help me to do whatever you have told me to do without fear. In Jesus name, Amen.

Activity

1. Challenge yourself by telling a friend or a stranger about Jesus or inviting them to church.
2. What has God told you to do that you are trying to avoid? Start doing it immediately.

Author: Mark Alex   

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