ADVENTURES OF A PROPHET

PART I

“How much more then should I have pity on Nineveh that great city.”  (Jonah 4 :11)

Two thousand years ago Lord Jesus taught His followers, “Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.”  (Matthew 5: 44) 

                                       

Almost everyone admires this command, yet the factual remains that it is one of the toughest lessons for a common man, and another section of mankind who find it hard to swallow the message.

The Book of Jonah acquaints us with the story of a prophet to whom God instructed to love his enemies in Nineveh.  He denied God’s command and refused to go to the people and instead runs away from the Lord.

Nineveh was a large and important city in Assyria situated on the river Tigris.  God of Love, one day said to Jonah son of Amittai, “Go to Nineveh, the great city and speak against them.  I am aware how wicked its people are.” 

Jonah did not want to warn the Nineveh’s citizens that they were about to be destroyed.  He suspected that if they would repent; God would forgive them.  Then people would laugh and mock at him and his message.

The Book does not indicate why Jonah hates Assyrians.  But if you read the book of Nahum which is dedicated to Nineveh, it describes about the people over there. It says, “They are ruthless, blood thirsty, even the Assyrians themselves left due to cruelty. They torture and slaughter their enemies.” 

So Israelites had reason to hate and fear Nineveh.  But God loved Nineveh and wanted to save the city.  Jonah planned to disobey God and set out his journey to the opposite direction in order to run away from God. 

God send a strong wind on the sea and it was so violent, that the ship boarded by Jonah was in danger of sinking.  As the calamities went on to become worse, the sailors emptied the cargo by throwing all things and cried out to their own gods.  At last they drew lots to find who the cause of it was.

Finally, Jonah’s name was drawn and after he admitted to them that he was running away from God; he agreed that they have him thrown out to the sea. Crying pardon to God, they threw Jonah into the sea and at once the storm calm down.  Seeing this, the sailors began to believe in the True God of Jonah, who created the land and sea, offering sacrifices and promised to serve Him.

Meanwhile, the Lord commanded a large fish to swallow Jonah and he was inside it for three days and nights.

From deep inside the fish, Jonah called out in distress to the Lord to save him; In his prayer he describes his present situation:

‘……threw me to the bottom of the sea.

The water came over me and choked me;

the sea has covered me completely

And seaweed was

wrapped round my head…

fear of being thrown to the bottom…

and I felt life was slipping by…’

Then God ordered the fish to spew Jonah up on the beach, and it did.

The moment he was on land, Jonah heard God’s voice repeating His earlier command, “Jonah, go to Nineveh, the great city and proclaim to the people, the message I have given you.”

 So at last, Jonah obeys God by starting out to Nineveh and proclaiming the message.  “In forty days Nineveh, will be destroyed!”

The people there and the king of Nineveh believed God’s message.  As a sign of repentance, the king took of his robe, left his throne, put on sack cloth and sat down in the ashes.  He then ordered and sent out a declaration that everyone, including cattle and sheep must wear sack cloth and was forbidden to eat or drink.  Pray to God earnestly and give up all wicked behavior and actions, perhaps God will change His mind, perhaps He will stop His anger and we will not die.

The Holy Bible says that God saw what they did; He saw that they had given up their wicked behavior.  So He changed His mind and did not punish them as He had said He would.  (Jonah 3:10)   Halleluiah!

Our God is full of love and mercy.  How enormous may be your wickedness and cruelty be, if you truly repent like the Nineveh citizen’s, giving up all pleasures and luxuries, your perishable throne and its fame, move downwards praying earnestly for God’s pardon by fasting and doing sin offerings, acts of mercy like feeding and clothing the needy ones, can change God’s anger to love, because He is our Creator who do not desire to punish us. 

So don’t lose heart, because of the opinion that God cannot tolerate you. Everything and everybody in this creation will forsake us but His everlasting love will never forsake us.. 

Jonah was greatly displeased and sulked at the Lord’s compassion and love.  He murmured to the Lord, “I knew this will happen and that is why I quickly fled to Tarshish.  I knew that You are a Loving and Merciful God always patient, always kind and always ready to change Your mind and not to punish.  

The Lord answered, “What right have you to be angry?”  (Jonah 4:4)

 He walked out and made a shelter of the East of city and sat in the shade waiting to see what is happening to Nineveh.  The Compassionate Lord made a plant to grow up over Jonah to give him more comfort.  Jonah was extremely pleased with it.  But at dawn the next day at God’s command a worm attacked the plant and it died.  After the sun rise, hot eastern wind was sent by God and Jonah was about to faint.

 Again Jonah got angry and said, “I am better off dead than alive.” 

God again taught a lesson to him and asked, “What right have you got to be angry about the plant?” 

He continued arguing with God….. With great patience the Lord explained to him, “You didn't do anything for that plant and you didn't make it grow—yet you feel sorry for it! How much more, then, should I have pity on Nineveh, that great city having more than 1,20,000 innocent children in it as well as their many animals!”

Dear ones in Christ, the Book of Jonah is a heart touching story of miraculous change of Nineveh citizens. It showcases Sovereign God’s Supremacy over all His creatures like the sea, earth etc; yet His gentleness and patience in bringing the disobedient and rigid Jonah to the fulfillment of His Saving Plan for Nineveh. Every time he runs off, from the call of God, he finds himself in trouble; yet the moment he is saved; his repentance lasts only till his self-respect is in question. Forgetting that he was saved by the same God whom he disobeyed, we find him arguing and questing when God would not carry out His threat on the repentant people.

 It is worth to meditate the message it conveys to us; do we run away from God’s Plan like Jonah or are we like the citizens of Nineveh who repented and accepted the message of Salvation.

(To be continued)

With love filled blessings

Your Sister in Christ