Left and RIght

The Lord told Jonah that He had thousands of people in Nineveh who didn't know their left hand from their right. Now knowing left from right is important, especially in following directions. But what did the Lord mean when He said that they didn't know their left from their right?
Some think it may mean children but I don't think that fits the context of the book.
Others felt that it could mean uneducated but I don't think so.
I think it means that they were morally corrupt. My son told me that in Nepal the people were careful to keep their right and left hand separate. The left was used for cleaning themselves, especially after going to the bathroom, while the right was used for eating and greeting people. These people were so morally bankrupt that they had no concept of right or wrong, right or left.

He wrote the book.

Well we finished our series on Jonah and I will never see Jonah the same again. Someone asked if there was a fifth chapter as the book ends abruptly. What happened to Jonah? Did he see his sin?
Personally I think he did because he wrote the book. He was the one that told us about his encounter with God. Yes, he wrote the book.

The Sign of Jonah

We read in Luke 11:29 - 32, "As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here."
Note they repented at the preaching of Jonah not his miracles. The people responded to the preaching of Jonah as soon as they heard it not like us today. Jonah pointed to the greatest of all preachers, Jesus Christ.
One of the great signs of today is the preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the world.

A Dirty Trick

When Jonah saw that the people repented he became angry and went out of the city. There a plant grew that gave him shade from the sun but the next day it died. Again Jonah expressed his anger to God. Why had God made the plant and then destroy it? What kind of a dirty trick is that?
The Lord did it because He had a lesson to teach Jonah (and us). The lesson is simple: I (God) don't make things to destroy them. I am the Creator not the destroyer. You feel that way about the plant Jonah which I made but you do not feel that way about the city I made. Jonah and we have to learn this principle. God does not create to destroy. Blessings come quickly judgment comes slowly. Repent and the Lord blesses quickly, reject and the Lord remains patient, not wanting to destroy. This is how He acted with Nineveh and this is how He acts with us.

Questions

When my children were young they asked many questions. Most of the questions were why questions and that is how they learned. When I was teaching I asked a of questions of my students to help them learn but I knew they were learning when they asked me questions.
God asks questions but not to get information that He doesn't know but to make us examine our own hearts. For example:
In Genesis 3 He asked Adam and Eve "Where are you?", "Who told you that you were naked?", and "What have you done?"
In Genesis 4 He asked Cain "Where is your brother?" and "What have you done?"
In Matthew 16 Jesus aced His disciples "But who do you say that I am?"
In Jonah 4 the Lord shows Jonah how gracious He is by asking Jonah questions rather than issuing indictments. These questions are given so that Jonah will examine his heart. What is the Lord asking you today? Maybe He is asking the same question He put to Isaiah ;"Who will go and who can I send?"

Mercy

It is interesting that Jonah's life hinges on the mercy he despises. God showed mercy to Jonah by sending a fish and a plant but Jonah was not interested in extending that mercy to others, especially the Ninevites.
Are we any different? We expect that God will be merciful to us in our sins but that He will judge the sins of others. Jesus called this the speck and the plank in the eye.

Angry at God

Jonah got angry with God. " But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry." Jonah 4:1 It is interesting that if what we see is right and it doesn't come out that way we get angry with God. God just didn't see it my way so He must be wrong. Who is God anyway? Did Jonah think he was better than God?
I met with a lady to day who is bitter over the death of a loved one. I don't know if she blames God, I don't think she believes that she does, but the way she acts says something else. Her behaviour is more like a person who blames God for what happened than for one who sees God as the wise, all knowing, all powerful one.

Does God Repent?

The King James Version of the Bible says that God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to Nineveh. Does this accurately describe what God did? THe New Century Bible says that he changed his mind. The NIV says that he relented. What we need to know here is that God's judgment always comes with a condition. "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned." Jeremiah 18:7-8 Too often we quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 saying that God will heal our land if we repent but that may be true only because God is a merciful God and not because of what we did. Our repentance does not guarantee healing, only God's mercy does that.
Just thinking.

Jonah Like

I wonder if we are Jonah like sitting outside the city waiting for God's judgment to fall? Sometimes instead of working to redeem our cities we are just waiting for the judgment of God. God will judge but not until He has given an opportunity to repent. Jonah preached repentance and God stayed His judgment for 150 years. When Nahum preached to Nineveh judgment came because they did not repent.

What was he thinking?

I wonder what Jonah was thinking the second time he was called to preach in Nineveh? The first time he was told specifically what the message would be but now he was to go and then God would relate the message to him. Maybe he thought that God had changed the message so that he could proclaim that there would be no time to repent but judgment was imminent. He was ready to preach what God commanded him.

Cities

Nineveh was a great city. God calls it great in the book of Jonah. Cities are places where evangelism takes place. Paul often looked at cities to do his evangelism. But why cities and not small communities?
First, cities are have power and prestige. If you can establish a church in a city then you can reach out from that city to the surrounding areas.
Cities are also a place of prosperity. People go to cities to get rich. Often they find that their wishes have not been met so they are open to the Gospel.
But cities are place were there is all sorts of sin and crime. Cities need the gospel.

A Second Time

God is the God of the second chance. Jonah had messed up big time but the Lord called him again. This time he obeyed. But did you notice the difference in the two calls? In the first call he was to go and preach against Nineveh because their wickedness had come up before God. In the second call Jonah was told to go and proclaim the message that the Lord would give him. Because he had failed the first time the Lord led him in baby steps the second time.
Imagine if Jonah went from Chapter 1:2 directly to Chapter 3:3. Instead of reading
'The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.'
It would read:
'The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh.'
Now that is how it should have been but Jonah disobeyed so God had to deal with His runaway prophet.

The Jonah Story as told by a child

This is worth watching.

Idolatry

Idolatry
Jonah makes an amazing statement in his prayer recorded in Jonah 2. He says that those who cling to worthless idols forfeit God's grace. I wonder if he was thinking about the sailors or the Ninevites when he said that. I am certain that he wasn't thinking that it was he who was the one who was clinging to worthless idols. His idol was his nationality. He was not an isolator, he was a Hebrew and they worshiped the true God. So Jonah repented, not of his idolatry but for running from God. How could he preach grace when he had forfeited grace by cling to his idol?

Saving Others

Jonah was told to go to Nineveh to preach to the people there so that they might be saved from the wrath to come. He didn't do it. He wanted the Ninevites to suffer the wrath of God.
When the sailors found out that Jonah was running away from God they did everything within their power to save him. Even though they knew from Jonah that he was the cause of the storm they risked their lives to save him. They even sacrificed their cargo to save him but they were impossible to do so.
Jonah had it in his power to save the people of Nineveh and refused to do it. The sailors did not have it in their power but they did their best to save him.
What about us? Do we see secular relief organizations trying to save the sick and dying while we sit by and watch? Secular organizations may have the power to save the sick, starving and dying for a time but eventually they will be lost. Meanwhile we have the power to save them for eternity, the power of the Holy Spirit with in us, but we do nothing.

Arise

One of the key words in Jonah 1 is down but another key word is arise. The Lord told Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh. When the storm came the captain of the ship told Jonah to arise and call upon his god. Jonah told the sailors to pick him up and throw him overboard. The Lord told Jonah again to arise and go to Nineveh. Jonah chose to go down rather than arise. His choice not to arise led him to go down to the very depths.
Once on the Sea of Galilee the disciples called upon the Lord to arise from His sleep and call upon God to calm the storm. Both Jonah and Christ were sleeping when told to arise but Jesus calmed the storm with His Word, Jonah had to give his life. Christ was in the will of God, Jonah was disobedient and had to die to himself.

It must be God's will.

When Jonah decided that he would not go to Nineveh but rather go the opposite direction he went down to Joppa and guess what? There was a boat heading to Tarshish. He easily could have seen that as a sign from God. God must have intended him to go because there was the boat, there was opportunity, all he needed to do was pay the fare.
Circumstances can be so misleading. We can see circumstances has being from God when they just as easily could have been placed there as a test. When we choose to disobey God there will be opportunity.

Why is Jonah in the Bible?

If you read the minor prophets you will notice that Jonah is much different than the other prophets. Jonah is much more biographical than the other minor prophets. The other prophets have autobiographical material but Jonah seems to be written by someone other than Jonah.
Jesus makes it very clear that Jonah has much to say to us today (see Matthew 12:40). Jonah has in the central truth of Scripture "Salvation comes from the Lord". Not only does Jonah teach us that salvation is from God, not from ourselves, but that God is a compassionate God, not willing that any should perish.
Jonah is important in what it teaches us about God. Read Jonah and notice what he teaches us about God.

A Pea

Who do identify with in the story of Jonah? Is it Jonah, the Ninevites, the sailors or the fish? Today I want to identify with the fish.
Once upon a time, a long time ago when our children were at home, we were eating peas for supper when a pea went down the wrong way. I started to choke but soon it was okay. However, the pea did not come back up. A couple of days later I was trying to start the lawn mower and every time I pulled the starter on the lawn mower I would begin to cough. Soon up came the pea that was lodged in my wind pipe.

I wonder if the fish had a coughing spree and finally up came Jonah?

A Whale of a Tale

I couldn't resist this title though I could have used the title "Tale of a Whale". When I was a young child, many, many years at Daily Vacation Bible School at our church we had quizzes. One of the questions was, What swallowed Jonah? I said, "A whale." I did not get the question correct and was told the correct answer was a big fish not a whale. Today I know this to be correct but back then we used the King James Version of the Bible only and in Matthew 12:40 the KJV clearly says that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. I was upset, I felt that I had been cheated.