Is There Any Hope For The Most Evil Person On Earth? Jonah 4:2

Is there any hope if you are the most wicked person on earth?  The Bible suggests there is.

"He prayed to the LORD, "Isn't this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." Jonah 4:2.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND:
The people of ancient Nineveh were wicked and evil to a degree that rivals or surpasses the worst of today's standards.  Jonah was commissioned by God to preach a message of impending destruction and proclaim God's judgment against the people of Nineveh, but Jonah chose to reject God and go another direction.  After he was swallowed by the fish he repented, and the Lord brought him to Nineveh, and preached the warning message God gave him.  The people repented and God did not destroy the city.

Jonah experienced God's compassion and mercy, so he knew personally that God is a wonderful, loving, and forgiving God.

A GRACIOUS AND COMPASSIONATE GOD
Jonah puts two beautiful words together to describe God; first that the Lord is gracious, and to be gracious is to give favor to those who do not deserve it or to show kindness when it is in your power and right to withhold it.

The second was that the Lord is compassionate.  Compassion is to give aid, comfort, and empathetic understanding to those who are suffering.

Both grace and compassion are acts of the one who is in authority or has power over another one who is unworthy to receive grace or compassion.

SLOW TO ANGER
God must be slow to anger; we are each of us living evidence to His patience because if He was quick to execute judgment each of us would have come to our end long ago.

Jonah should have been grateful that the Lord is slow to anger because he himself had disobeyed and was the object of God's judgment.  Even then God was holding back since God's wrath could have been far worse than a stormy sea and ingestion by a fish.

ABOUNDING IN LOVE
God is not only loving but He is abounding in love, His love is beyond boundaries, and past all measures.  He shows compassion and mercy countless of times to each of the earth's billions of souls every day- that is love which cannot be measured.

A GOD WHO RELENTS FROM SENDING CALAMITY
God may is swayed by our repentance.  It is like He favors forgiveness as if all else were equal He would go with the forgiveness.

The people of Nineveh heard God's message, they repented of their sin and turned to God, so they were spared.  The Gospel promises the same for each of us

To learn more about how you can find complete forgiveness for all your sins see my other post.

(c) Adron 6/3/15

Does God Give a Second Chance?

Sooner or later everyone feels they have failed- they have failed friends, family, and even God. Is there ever a second chance to get it right and to really fulfill our purpose?

"And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give to you."  Jonah 3:1-2, NIV.

SUMMARY
Jonah was commanded by God to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but the people of Nineveh were the enemy of Jonah's people, so he took a boat going in the opposite direction. A fierce storm threatened to sink the ship and he told the sailors to toss him overboard since it was God's judgment on him. In the sea God sent a great fish to swallow him; while in the fish, Jonah repents and worships the Lord. After three days the fish spews Jonah out on a beach, and there the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

REBELLION
Jonah had a clear instruction from the Lord. It was simple, "Go this way and say this thing." In the book of Jonah, his nationalistic pride is revealed as the reason he didn't to obey God; he ran in the other direction rather than preach the message to his enemies. In other words, God said go right and he went left.

REPENTANCE
Jonah's prayer of repentance is one of the most elegant and poetic chapters in the Bible,
     * He confesses his sin.
     * He avows his submission to God.
     * He declares God right.
     * He affirms his faith in God.
     * He declares in faith that he will worship God at his temple.

RESTORATION
After the fish vomits Jonah out on the beach God's word comes to Jonah a second time. It is the same commission; his opportunity is not lost, the task is still his; he is to go to Nineveh and proclaim the message.

God gave him the second chance even though he rebelled, fled, became the companion of unbelievers, even telling the sailors to throw him overboard. It is hard to find anybody who went more wrong; yet after he turns from his rebellion and seeks God he is recommissioned as a prophet. He was the prophet Jesus honored by identifying himself with more than once.*

For Jonah God was the God of the second chance; He is the same God today and offers a second chance to any who are willing to turn to him.

Matthew 12:40. Matthew 16:4.

© Adron 7/1/13

The Prayer of Jonah. Jonah 2:4

We know the story of Jonah and the fish. Jonah was running from God and his rebellion caught up to him on a boat heading to an obscure place called Tarshish. During the storm of God’s judgment, the sailors toss him overboard and God provided a fish to swallow him. He had a clear understanding of what God wanted him to do but in utter disregard of God he totally rebels, suffers punishment and consequences of historic magnitude which land (excuse the pun) him in the darkest depths of the sea. Jonah felt he had lost his relationship with God, and his commission as a prophet. He felt he had turned his back on God and God in kind had turned away from Jonah.

“…I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” Jonah 2:4, NIV.

In the belly of the fish, he prays an incredible prayer, (all of chapter two). If you were to argue that prayer was no longer an option this would have been it! Jonah prays and God who is merciful hears his prayer. God hears Jonah even from the bottom of the sea; even though he has rebelled, sinned, and heading the wrong way. We are never too far from God that He won't hear our prayers.

His prayer is like a chorus we all could sing, it is the despair we all have felt. “I have been banished from your sight.” We often feel as if we have failed God so much and so repeatedly that there surely is no way to redeem our situation. We feel “banished,” that is judged, condemned, and sent out the back door.

Then the great turn around the word, “Yet.”  He says it as if he was saying “in spite of” or “non-the-less.” It is like he is saying “just wait and consider this great thing.” It is a big word that little word, yet.

What a prayer of faith! He is comforted and says “yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” He has not given up and is not thinking about heaven now, or he would use different imagery; he would say "I will come to your holy temple." He is speaking of present real deliverance. In faith, Jonah anticipated actually going again to the temple in Jerusalem. He says this because he knows he will receive the deliverance he asked of God. Remember he is saying this while still in the belly of the fish at the bottom of the sea!

If only my prayers were so confident. If I could learn one thing from Jonah it would be how to pray. I need to pray to believe and express that I believe.


P.S. Take time to read all of Jonah 2 there are many more insights on prayer.

(c) Adron 5/28/10