Let us turn to the portion we
were just reading in Jonah. Jonah chapter 3. And I'll read
again the opening paragraph, the first four verses. And the
word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise,
go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching
that I bid thee. pretty much a repetition of what
we have in the opening two verses of chapter 1. But then this time we're told
in verse 3, So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to
the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding
great city of three days journey. And Jonah began to enter into
the city of days journey And he cried and said, yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And I want us to take for our
text those words that we have here at verse four, the preaching
of Jonah. The preaching of Jonah, how Jonah
began to enter into the city of day's journey. And he cried
and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Remember our last time we were
considering his prayer? There we have the content of
it in the second chapter and we observe the place from whence
the prayer was made in those opening two verses of that chapter.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly
and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried
I, and thou heardest my prayer. And the prayer then follows through
to verse 9, and there's a deal of detail given with regards
to the contents of that prayer. the different parts of his prayer.
We see how he has that awful sense of being rejected. He had been disobedient to the
command of God. Instead of going east to Nineveh,
he had fled west to Tharsis, the opposite extremity of the
Mediterranean Sea. And yet, even as he fled from
God's presence in disobedience, how the Lord pursued him. As we see there in verse 4 of
chapter 1, the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea. And
there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was
like to be broken. He'd taken, he'd gone on board
this ship at Joppa to go to Tarshish, but God hurls this tremendous
storm after the disobedient prophet. And how God points him out to
the mariners, there in verse 7 of that first chapter, how
these men said to each other, come and let us cast lots that
we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast
lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. not a mere chance thing that,
of course, affixes powers of chance and fortune, I defy. My life's minutest circumstance
is subject to his eye, says the Christian poet, and how true.
The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. It was the Lord who pointed out
this man, it's the Lord who was pursuing him. and as God pursued
him, how he becomes aware of his disobedience, aware of his
sin. He has a terrible sense then
of one who has been rejected by the Lord, his God, and rejected
because of his disobedience. As he says then here in the prayer,
Verse 3, Thou hadst cast me into the deep in the midst of the
seas, and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and
thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight. Oh God, you see, God was dealing
with him. And so there was that conviction
of sin as we observed last time, and that conviction of sin leading
really to a spirit of true repentance. how he would have been so very
far away from God. That's what he desired when he
fled, to be away from God's presence. We see it there at the end of
chapter 3 in the opening chapter, verse 3 in the opening chapter.
He paid the fare on the ship, went down into it. It says to
go with him unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Though
he wants to be away, he wants to avoid God. He's fleeing from
God's presence. But now what a remarkable change,
whereas he would have been far off, now we see him as one who
wants to draw near to God in his prayer, there at verse 4
in chapter 2, Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. This is repentance. This is a
change, that's what repentance is, a change. a change of mind,
but it's such a fundamental change. The man's life now is being turned
about, turned upside down, turned inside out, so different as God
has pursued him and God has brought him to some realization of his
sin. All there is that evidence then
of a man who is repenting as he turns to look again towards
the Holy Temple. And how his prayer even comes
in, it says in verse 7 of chapter 2. Into thine holy temple, where
God is. And that temple, of course, the
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to God by Him who is
the only mediator, even the man Christ Jesus. But with his repentance
we also see that there is faith, there's that remembrance of faith,
As he says in verse 7 of chapter 2, when my soul fainted within
me, I remembered the Lord. Oh, he remembers the Lord and
it's the covenant name. It's Jehovah. It's the great
God of the eternal covenant, the God of Abraham and the God
of Isaac. and the God of Jacob, he remembers
the Lord. He remembers the gracious character
of this God. Well, what does he say here? In the fourth chapter, those
words that we read in the second verse, I knew, he says, I knew
that thou art a gracious God. and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repentant of the evil." Where does his
faith centre? His faith centres really in this
Lord, in the grace of God. where there is that true repentance
there is also that real faith and it was evident in Jonah and
so at the end of the prayer we see him as one who can rejoice
in God and all that God is. At verse 8 in chapter 2. They
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. That was Jonah
in his foolishness, in his rebellion. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I have vowed
salvation is of the Lord. All we rejoice is in the sovereignty
of God's grace. We have then some detail with
regards to that prayer and these are some of those things that
we were seeking to open up last last Lord's Day. But as I said,
I want us now to turn to the preaching of this prophet. And how the record of his preaching
is so brief, and so very much to the point. Here in our text
then, in chapter 3 and verse 4, Jonah began to enter into
the city of Dazedurme, And he cried and said, Yet forty days
and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's the sum and substance
of his preaching. First of all then, see here how
Jonah speaks of God's judgment. It's the very heart of the message
that he has to preach to this people. He is to preach against
their sin. This is what God had said to
him right at the beginning. Chapter 1 and verse 2, Arise,
go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their
wickedness is come up before me. He is to cry out against
their sin. is to speak to them of the terrible
judgment that God is going to visit upon them. Oh, there's
such a difference, you see, when we think of preaching, a difference
between preaching before a people and preaching against their sin. And this is what Jonah does.
He preaches against their sin, yet forty days of Nineveh shall
be overthrown." I remember some years ago reading that account
of the faithful ministers in the north of Scotland in the
latter part of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. that book
by Dr. John Kennedy, Days of the Fathers
in Russia, and when he comes to speak of the nature of that
ministry, he makes some interesting observations with regards to
preaching, and I just want to read a few extracts that I've
noted down. Kennedy said, there are some
who preach before their people, like actors on a stage, to display
themselves and to please their audience. There are some who
preach past their people. They never take aim at the views
and the conduct of the individuals before them. They step carefully
aside, lest their hearers should be struck by their shots, and
aim them at phantoms beyond them. There are some who preach towards
their people. They aim well, but they are weak. Their arm is too feeble for sending
it onto the mark. Superficial in their experience
and in their knowledge, they reach not the cases of God's
people. And then he says, but There are
a few who preach to the people directly and seasonably the mind
of God in His Word with authority, unction, wisdom, fervor and love
such as these were the eminent preachers of Rosh Chai. And isn't this the character
of this man's preaching? How faithful he is! Although
he had been disobedient, No, he doesn't come before the Ninevites
to perform what we might simply describe
as a piece of theatre, a mere performance. No, he addresses
them very directly. Yet forty days, he says, and
Nineveh shall be destroyed. Here is a man who is not speaking
in his own person. He's not one who is dependent
upon his own strength. Here is one who was evidently
sent of God. Now this, we know, is true of
all the prophets. They are God's servants. They
are God's mouthpiece. They are men who are speaking
the words of God. As Peter says, those holy men
of God, they spy. as they were moved by the Spirit
of God, and we have the record of the call of them. We have
the call of Isaiah in some detail there in the familiar 6th chapter
of that book, and you know the content, and how it was that
God gave this man his commission in Isaiah 6. Verse 8, he says,
I heard the voice of the Lord God saying, Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I. Send
me. And he said, Go and tell these
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of these people
fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. They say, See
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
their heart. and convert and be healed. What
a strange ministry that man was to exercise. What was to be the
fruit of his ministry? The important thing was more
especially the faithfulness of the man in proclaiming the message
that God gave to him. And there was therefore that
Blessed Unction and that anointing of the Spirit Oh, we see it so
clearly in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. All those
who come to speak faithfully the Word of God and how we see
it pre-eminently in the preaching of the greatest of the prophets
and the prince of all preachers, the Lord Jesus. There at the
end of John chapter 3, He whom God has sent speaketh the words
of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. And how God is here, God's Spirit,
is upon Jonah in his ministry as he speaks of that terrible
judgment that's going to be visited upon the Ninevites. And in it we see something of
the greatness of the God, the one who would sense Jonah to
Nineveh. There in chapter 1 and verse
2, go to Nineveh, it says, that great city. Who is to preach
in a great city? It was the capital city, the
capital of the ancient empire of the Assyrians. But what is
that to God? What is that to God? God is greater
than man, God is greater than all the mighty empires of this
world. The language that we have there
in Isaiah, Isaiah 40, And look at what's said in verse
15, Behold, the nations are a drop of a bucket, and are counted
as the small dust of the barrens. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing. Verse 22, It is he that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are
as grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain.
and spreadeth them out as a tent of dwelling, that bringeth the
princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth
as vanitin. All this might be a great city,
but what is Nineveh before Him who is God, who is the King of
kings and Lord of lords? And this city of Nineveh was
great in size. It was a very large city. Isn't that indicated in what
we're told at the end of verse 3? Nineveh, it says, was an exceeding
great city of three days' journey. Now, there's some discussion
amongst the commentators as to just what that means, the great
city of three days' journey. Some suggest that it was the
great outspread of a city. And it would take some three
days simply to walk around the circumference of that city. Now three days, if you could
reckon that a man might walk 20 miles in a day, that means
it would be 60 miles in circumference. Well that's what some say. But
others then suggest that this expression an exceeding great
city of three days journey is to be understood more especially
in terms of the time it would take to walk to and through,
through all the main streets and all the squares of the city. And I would say in some ways
that latter understanding and interpretation fits in better
with what we're told in what follows at verse 4, Jonah began
to enter into the city a day's journey. it would take three
days to walk through the streets and to the great squares and
the points and places where people would be gathered together. And
here is Jonah, he goes a day's journey into the city and he
begins his ministry. He cries out, yet forty days
and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Oh, it's a great city. And yet,
compared to God, what is it? It is but like a drop in a bucket. Furthermore, we see here that
there must have been a great population in this city. What do we read right at the
end of the book? We read of six score thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left
hand. In other words, 120,000 infants, little children, who
don't know the right hand from the left hand. 120,000 children. How many adults
were there in this city? It was clearly a city well populated. As I said, it was the capital
city, the center of the ancient Assyrian Empire. But it was also
a great city in this sense, sadly. It was one that abounded in evil. There was great wickedness there
in the city of Nineveh. And this is why the Prophet is
sent. Remember the words that we have
in the opening chapter, verse 2, arise, go to Nineveh, that
great city, cry against it for their wickedness. Their wickedness,
says God, is come up before me. What a dreadful place it must
have been. It was full of every manner of
sin. Such an evil place. Not unlike
those ancient cities of the plain. As wicked, we might say, as Sodom
and Gomorrah. Oh, remember what God says concerning
those cities when he comes to his servant Abraham. It was Abraham's nephew Lot who
was there in the city of Sodom. And God was about to visit terrible
judgments upon that wicked city and its sister city of Gomorrah.
In Genesis 18, Verse 20, the Lord said, Because
the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin
is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have
done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto
me, and if not, I will know. Whereas the sins of Sodom and
Gomorrah were crying out for God's judgment, so too was that
the case also with the evil practiced by these Ninevites. Yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. God does not weaken sin. All
God sees, God knows. And what has God said in His
Word? The soul that sinneth it shall die. The wages of sin is
death. God is faithful. God is true
to his word, not only with regard to his promises, but also those
dreadful threatenings. God doesn't speak idle words.
He takes account of the sins of men. James tells us, when
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. That is the end of sin, it's
death. It's a terrible visitation from on high, it's God at work.
Here then we see something of the ministry of this man, the
preaching, the content of his preaching. He is to speak against
the sin of the Ninevites. He will tell them plainly that
God is going to visit them and overthrow them. they will receive
the just recompense of all their sins. And yet, and yet, in the midst
of all of this we don't only see that God is great and that
God is that one who will visit the just punishment upon the
sinner. We see also something of God's grace and God's mercy. This word of God's wrath is such
a brief word. As I said at the outset, we have
such detail concerning the content of Jonah's prayer and the way
in which he pleads with God. The whole matter of his prayer
is there in the second chapter, but what do we have with regards
to his preaching? We just have some eight words
that sum up the content of what he was to say to the Ninevites.
In a sense I suppose we can say it causes us to see that really
the prayer is more important than the preaching. We know in
Acts chapter 6 where we have the appointment of the first
deacons, who were to those serving the tables, ministering to the
needs of the widows and so forth, whereas previously it was the
apostles who were the only functionaries, they were doing everything, but
it was too much, you see. And what do they say as they
appoint those deacons? We will give ourselves continually
to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Yes, the two things
together. There is to be the preaching,
the ministry of the word, But the order that we have there
in Acts 6 lies the emphasis first upon the prayer. Prayer! And
the ministry of the Word. How important is the prayer?
How important is the prayer to the preaching? So vital. And we have detail here, as I
said, concerning that prayer that Jonah pries in the second
chapter. And yet he has such a brief account
of what it was that he actually said. Doubtless he said much
more than this, but this is the inspired record that we have,
and it is simply brief, to the point just these eight words.
Yet, forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Now why
is it so brief? Well isn't judgment, spoken of
in Isaiah 28, as that work of God, that it is strange work? It is strange act. He is a God,
really, that delights in mercy. He delights in mercy. In wrath,
He remembers mercy. All their sin, how He cried.
He cried to heaven. It was calling down God's judgment
upon them. Their wickedness, God says, is
come up before mercy. And that is true of the sins
of every nation. It's true of the sin of our nation.
The wicked laws that have been enacted and are still being enacted. God doesn't wink at these things.
They cry to him. They cry for his judgments to
be poured out. How the evil must come into his
nostrils as a terrible stench. And yet, there is not that judgment
that is immediate. Or God could have simply visited
an immediate punishment upon the city, overthrown it in an
instant. But what does the Prophet say?
Yet 40 days. Or there's respite. There's respite. the judgment is not immediate
He is a God of forbearance and what a comfort that is friends
God forbears He is so long-suffering what a remarkable attribute is
that patience that we see in the Lord our God remember the language of Paul
uses in the epistle to the Romans there in chapter 2 at verse 4
he speaks of repentance or despises thou the riches of his goodness
and forbearance and longsuffering not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance this is the case here God's forbearance
leads to a national repentance amongst these Ninevites. As we are told at verse 5, the
people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put
on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of
them. Why the king issues a decree The word came unto the king of
Nineveh. He arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him,
and he covered him with sackcloth and satin ashes. And he caused
it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither
man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, let them not
feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with
sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn every
one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their
hands who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away
from his fierce anger that we perish not. And God, God 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. And what is it that leads to
this national repentance? It's God. And it's the way of
God, it's the dealings of God. His goodness leads to repentance. And oh, that should be the case
with us, how patient God is. With us in our foolishness, in
our disobedience, how patient He was with Jonathan. Jonah had been granted that repentance. The repentance that Jonah evidenced
was the gift of God. The Lord Jesus is that One who
is exalted, the Prince and the Saviour, to give repentance to
Israel and the forgiveness of sins. I'm not saying that that
repentance that was granted to the Ninevites was the same as
a real evangelical repentance. It's not that. It's a national
repentance. But God is still in it. Or this is the way of
God. But we know that God's patience
is very much for the sake of his elects. There's that portion
that we have in 2 Peter 3 that is often misinterpreted, as if it indicates a general
call that God desires to save all and sundry without any exception.
Think of those words that we have in 2nd Peter 3 and verse
9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to repentance. And there are
those who take those words and say, look, God desires to save
everybody. He's not willing that any should
perish. But he's not saying that at all.
The word of the apostle here is addressed to the church. or more particularly to the whole
election of Christ God is not slack concerning his promises
some men can slackness but his long-suffering to us wards that
is to those to whom Peter is addressing his epistles and who
does he address the epistles to? the first epistle is addressed
to the elects according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
it's the same with the second epistle it's addressed to them that have
obtained like precious faith with us these are the us words
God's long-suffering God's forbearance is for the sake of the elect
not willing that any of them should perish but that all all
of them should be brought to that true evangelical repentance
and look at the way in which Peter continues there in that
chapter Verse 10 he says, But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. There will be a day of judgment.
Although God is a forbearing God, His judgment will yet fall. Oh, but what a God is this! The
psalmist says, Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and
plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee. Well, this
is the God that Jonah is to be preaching to these Ninevites. Yes, He's a great God. He's greater
than the nations. He'll judge the nations. But
He is also a God so gracious and so merciful. In the book
that follows here, in Micah's prophecy, those remarkable words
that we find at the end, there in chapter 7 verse 18,
who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity. and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage, he retaineth
not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will
turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities,
and they will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Oh God is gracious, and we see it even in the way in which he
deals with this heathen nation. Although their sins, the wickedness,
the violence of Nineveh is crying out. Yet what a remarkable account
we have here in the book of Jonah. And it's not just a matter of
Jonah's preaching to them. Yes, as I've said, it's such
a brief account and it's all judgment. Yet for he dies and
Nineveh shall be overthrown. But observe in the second place
that Jonah himself, Jonah in his very person, must have been
to these people a sign of God's mercy. Isn't that a truth? What does
the prophet Isaiah say concerning his own situation, his family,
his children? In Isaiah 8, verse 18, we have
that word, Behold I and my children are signs and wonders to the
nation of Israel. He begotten a son, bearing that
strange name, Meher Shalalashbaz, and he was a message in the very
name that was given to the child. read Isaiah chapter 8, and there
he says it in verse 18, I and the children which God has given
me are for signs and wonders. It was the same with the prophet
Ezekiel. You read there in Ezekiel chapter
12, the first 11 verses, and what the prophet does is a message. And he says at
verse 11, I am your sign. And it was also true with the
prophet Jonah. All doubtless Jonah was an experimental
preacher. He didn't just come and speak
in a theoretical way with regards to God. he doesn't speak of God as one
who has not had an experience of God he had a remarkable experience
as we saw to show last week in the content of his prayer and
surely he must have spoken out of the fullness of God's dealings
with him Remember how John speaks concerning his ministry and the
ministry of the other apostles in the opening verses of that
first general epistle, that which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life?
for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you he speaks of realities does John the things
that he had heard and seen with his own eyes and looked upon
the things that he had handled He had such an experience. And
this is true of all the Lord's servants, apostles and prophets,
as we read of them here in Scripture. And we know from the New Testament, from the words of the Lord Jesus
Himself, Luke 11.13, Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites. Jonas was a sign. It wasn't just
what he said, but his very person, that this was the prophet who
must go and proclaim this particular message and all that had happened
previously. He was a sign. And is he not
a sign of the Lord Jesus? As Jonas was three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth, so must the Son of Man be three
days and three nights." Sorry, as Jonas was three days and three
nights in the fish's belly, so the Son of Man must be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. That's how
He is a sign, He's a sign of Christ. And what is He a sign
of? The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
He dies. and he is laid in the tomb as
a dead man. But on the third day he rises
again from the dead. Well, Jonas is to them a sign
of Christ, a sign of salvation. The Lord Jesus is that one who
has come and been obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. And now what has God done? He has declared to be the Son
of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. He's a sign in His own person. To the mercy and the grace of
God, no wonder, no wonder that the outcome of such a ministry
by such a man was that the people of Nineveh believed God, they
believed the message. And there was a real national
repentance in the nation, in the city of Nineveh. But Jonah
is a sign of Christ, yes, but he is also a sign of God's mercy
to a man in what he himself had experienced. How the Lord had preserved him. Even when he was cast overboard
when it seemed that his death must be certain, he'd die through
drowning. But what are we told? The end
of chapter 1, there the Lord had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights. That's his preservation. Oh yes,
he cries out of the fish's belly. He calls it the belly of hell. It's the Lord dealing with him.
But it's the Lord bringing him to his senses, bringing him to
the place of conviction, the place of repentance. He cries,
he prays and God hears his prayer and he's pardoned. And he's restored. Look at the end of that that second chapter. The Lord spake unto the fish
and he vomited out Jonah upon the dry land and the word of
the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying, Arise go
unto Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching
that I bid thee. Oh, and this time he is faithful. and he preaches and his preaching
is fruitful because as we've said there is that national repentance
Jonah's words were not in vain we know that this man's words
were also fulfilled in the nation of Israel there's a reference
to him interestingly in the second book of Kings you turn to chapter
14 there in that in that book the second book of Kings chapter
14 and there at the end of the at the end
of the chapter verse 24 it's speaking of Jeroboam
the second he was a wicked king in Israel he did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord it says at verse 24 he departed not from
all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel
to sin Jeroboam the first he was the one at the time when
the kingdom was divided after the death of Solomon he was the
king in In Israel, in the north with his capital at Samaria,
and he was the man who set up the golden calves at Dan and
Beersheba, he introduced that idolatrous worship. And this
other Jeroboam is just the same. He departed not from all the
sins of Jeroboam the first, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel
to sin. It says, He restored the coast
of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain,
according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He
spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the
prophet, which was of Gath-Hepha. For the Lord saw the affliction
of Israel, that it was very bitter, For there was not any shut up,
nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said
not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven,
but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash."
Although he was a wicked man. And yet what ministry Jonah had
exercised, what he had spoken at, it's fulfillment. His ministry
was a fruitful ministry in that sense. And yet when we come to
this concluding chapter, how strange. When the Ninevites repent Jonah
we're told is exceedingly displeased, very angry. Now why was this
the case? It was because the Ninevites the Assyrians were the great
enemy of Israel why it would be the Assyrians under Sennacherib
who would overthrow the northern kingdom of Israel we can understand
but see how God deals with him how God is yet teaching this
man and teaching him of his grace and he does it in this strange
way Here is the prophet and he sets himself to look, to watch,
to see what's going to come of this city. Will God spare them,
really spare the enemies of Israel? He goes out of the city, sits
on the east side of the city, makes himself a booth, sits under
it, watching to see what would become of the city. And God cares
for him. Prepares a gourd, makes it come
up over Jonah. It's a shade to him. And he's
very glad as he's waiting and watching. But what does God do? He prepares a worm. God's in
all of the dealings, you see. God sent the storm. God sends
the gourd. God sends the worm. And why this
plant, it dies overnight. And then God prepared a vehement
east wind, it says, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah,
and he fainted and wished himself dead. Oh, God is teaching him,
you see. And teaching him what? That he
is ever a gracious God. That's a remarkable thing. He
says at the end of the chapter, at the end of the book, the end
of chapter 4, should not I spare Nineveh? That great city where
in are more than 6,000 or 4,000 persons that cannot discern between
their right hand and their left, and also much cattle. Oh yes,
there were wicked men, but what of these little children? What
of these brood-births? What have they done? Oh friends, God is
a gracious God. And there was a repentance. It
was a national repentance. And what we stand in need of,
of course, is something more than that. We need that real
repentance, that evangelical repentance, that godly sorrow.
That godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation not to
be repented of, not the sorrow of the world. We might say in
many ways this was the sorrow of the world. God spared them. What is God doing? He's teaching
the prophet, and I trust the Lord is teaching us. even through
the ministry of this man, what a gracious God! A God of such
kindness, such forbearance, or despisest thou the riches of
his goodness and forbearance and non-suffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, or that God's
goodness might lead us to that repentance. and that real faith
that recognizes God for who He is. I knew, says Jonah, thou
art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
who repenteth thee of the evil. O God, be pleased to deal with
us in those ways, the ways of mercy and the ways of grace.
Amen.