Jonah 3

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to be at Jonah chapter 3. What happens after the fish vomits Jonah up onto the shore? Dan Man was funny yesterday with his miracle vomit. Anyways, today we're going to be at Jonah chapter 3. What's he do after God has the fish spit him up onto the dry land? Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word.
Father, You are good, wonderful, merciful, just, holy, good, and true. You've given us Your Word. We pray that as we read Your Word, we would understand it, and that Your Holy Spirit would apply it to our hearts, so we might live it in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Here we go, Jonah, Chapter 3. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I will tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed to fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and satin ashes. 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, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? 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."
Well, we need to ask our three questions. A. What's this about? B. What's the best verse to summarize this? And C. What do we call it to do?
A. What's this about? Well, Jonah stops running away. And instead of going to Tarshish, instead he turns around and he doesn't go to Jerusalem, he goes to Nineveh. Now going to Nineveh is going to some of the most hated enemies possible. These are the people who came up with the idea of crucifixion, brutal people. I mean, for Jonah to come and to preach this type of thing could very well mean his own neck, right? He could die.
and yet this is what he's going to do. He's going to follow through with it. He's going to actually keep God's commands to him to go preach. It's a huge city. He gets there and it takes three days to get through the city. Now, I'm of the opinion that probably means he's going through the hinterlands and the suburbs and then going through the city and then heading on his way out, right? But it's a big place.
It's a big place, and as he's going, and he's preaching judgment as he goes, word even gets to the king, and you would expect a king to be like, well, what's this type of riffraff coming through here? Who does this Hebrew think he is? But that's not how the king responds. He's telling them, from the greatest to the least, the king hears about it, gets up off his throne, and he lays aside his robe, covers himself with sackcloth, and sits in ashes.
I wish Dan was sitting right here because I would tell Daniel like this is a miracle as well. Just as much as somehow Jonah being able to be either alive in the belly of the fish if he was or being able to be brought back to life by being vomited up on the dry land. The point being is that The fact that this king hears a Hebrew talk about the judgment coming from the Lord and takes off his royal robe and puts on sackcloth, that is just as much of a miracle.
And so, that's what the king does. He proclaims and publishes through the city a decree. There's a day of fasting, of mourning. Even the animals are put in mourning clothes. It's repenting before God. And the amazing thing happens. Then God saw their works, verse 10, that they turned from their evil ways, and God relented from the disaster that He said He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. God was merciful. gracious, kind to them. They deserved death and destruction, but instead he gave them grace and showed them mercy."
So what's this section A about? Jonah goes and preaches God's judgment on the city. The people respond with repentance and God relents. So that's what I would summarize. What's the best verse to underline for this? I would underline the King's Proclamation, 789. That's what I got starred in my copy here.
So let's see calling. What do we call to do? How do we respond to two things here? When we know we may have to say something that's unpopular, could even get us in hot water or not be the best for some relationships. Will we go and do the thing that God's told us to do? And two, if we're the ones receiving that message, that we have sinned, that we've gone astray, that we are offending the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, if we find out we are the ones sinning, will the Holy Spirit soften our hearts And could God say of us the way he saw the king of Nineveh and the people of that city, that God saw their repentance? He saw their works of repentance. Do we actually repent?
This is one of the things I'm just going to encourage you. There are many people who will say, oh, I need to repent from this. Or they'll say, I've repented from it. And really, all that means is they've confessed they did something wrong, but they don't actually change their behavior. Repenting is with a grief and a hatred of that sin, turning from it unto God. You're going this way towards sin, and then that sin becomes like vomit to you. It's got the stench of death. It's like going to a rotting corpse, and you don't want to go to that old dead man anymore. And so you turn from it, and you hightail it to Christ.
That's what's going on here. Doesn't care about his grandeur. Doesn't care about his reputation. Doesn't care about his regalia. He leaves it all behind and puts on sackcloth. Tells everyone else, hey, we've done this wrong. It starts with me. I got to repent myself first. We repent that way. Sins in my mind that come to mind right now as I think about putting to death my own sinful anger with our children, my annoyance and irritability with my wife, daily walking in repentance, confessing sin, turning from it, putting it to death day by day. That's part of the Christian walk. and it's not some type of shame, or it's not some type of unbiblical guilt that's just saying, there is sin, and I'm a sinner, and I need to turn from sin. Do we take it seriously, knowing that God is gracious and merciful and abounding in love and kindness, grace and truth, and so do we turn to Him? I hope you will, and I hope you'll pray for me that I'll continue to repent.
that when we find sin, that we'll kill it, we'll mortify it, we'll put to death the sinful desires of our flesh. Instead, we will glory in walking in the ways that please the Lord.
Let's pray. God, we need your Holy Spirit You were put to death, or you put your son to death for our justification, but he was raised, or we put him to death for our sins, but raised for our justification. And you have raised us, you have given us new life. So we might walk in the good works, which you have prepared in advance for us to do.
And part of that is turning from our old sinful ways, but we can't do that without your Holy Spirit. So God, we plead with you and we pray that you would please help us. strengthen us in our inner man, help us in our hearts and in our minds to know what sin is, to hate it and turn from it to You.
Lord, we pray that You would be our glory, that You would be our joy, that You would be our strength. Thank You for the promise of Your Son, the hope of Your Holy Spirit. Help us, God, we pray in Jesus's name. Amen.
Well, may your heart be overflowing with love for Jesus Christ. May you know the peace that he gives. May you walk in his ways. And I'll see you next time. Bye.