Our God is merciful and long-suffering. He wants no one to perish but to seek Him in the salvation He gives in Jesus Christ. There are no sins that cannot be forgiven except for calling the indwelling of Holy Spirit evil and not the divine anointing of a holy God for those who believe.
Jonah only wanted to not look like a fool. But God had other plans!
It is never too late to turn your life around!
James 2:17 (ESV) "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."
Because genuine faith produces love for others, it makes a difference in the way we live and impact the people around us. When we were poor and needy, lost in our sin, Jesus didn't pass us by and say, "I hope everything works out!"
Genuine faith produces love for others. More than a ticket to heaven someday, faith means being the hands and feet of Christ to a world longing for hope today. First5
As the old man walks the beach at dawn, he notices a young man picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up to the youth, he asks a simple question, "Why are you doing this?”
The boy answers that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.
"But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. How can your efforts make any difference?”
The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and threw it to safety—into the ocean past the breaking waves.
“It makes a difference to this one," he said.
Here’s what I know: We can make choices that matter, that make a difference. To this day. To this encounter. To this conversation. To honor the truth that love will set us free. Sabbath Moments
When Jesus saw the religious hypocrite, he exposed every self-righteous mole and pimple. “All their works they do to be seen by men” (Matthew 23:5 NKJV). This is the working definition of hypocrisy: “to be seen by men.”
We must do good works. And some works, such as benevolence or teaching, must be seen in order to have an impact. To do a good thing is a good thing. To do a good thing to be seen, however, is a serious offense. Here’s why: hypocrisy turns people away from God.
When people enter a church to see God yet can’t see God because of the church, don’t think for a second that God does not react. “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding” (Matthew 6:1 MSG).Max Lucado
Jonah 3:5-10
3.So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 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. 8 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. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10 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. The New King James Version
The city exhibited trust or faith in God, as evidenced by a change in behavior. The custom of wearing sackcloth usually demonstrated an individual’s act of repentance. Jeremiah called on his generation to repent, commanding the inhabitants of Judah to put on sackcloth in mourning due to the coming of the great nation from the north. The king of Nineveh wore sackcloth to demonstrate his repentance upon hearing Yahweh’s announcement of imminent judgment.
Nineveh’s repentance is universal, with both man and beast crying out to God for mercy. The Hebrew term here has the core sense of turning around. Here and elsewhere it is used with the idea of repentance. This contrasts sharply with the adamant refusal to repent that is the typical response that Israelite prophets received at home.
The Assyrians were famous for their violence. Faithlife Study Bible
The term used for God here is the general term for deity. The fact that the writer does not use the personal name for God here may suggest that the Ninevites had a short-lived or imperfect understanding of God’s message. History bears this out: We have no historical record of a lasting period of belief in Nineveh. Eventually the city was destroyed, in 612 b.c.
The king’s edict reached all of Nineveh.The reversal of the threat to destroy Nineveh depended solely on the grace and mercy of the Lord. At times, the announced judgment of God is not His real intent. Such announcements usually include offers of mercy and forgiveness The Ninevites’ repentance moved the Lord to extend grace and mercy to them. The NKJV Study Bible
There was a wonder of Divine grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh. The Ninevites hoped that God would turn from his fierce anger; and that thus their ruin would be prevented. They could not be so confident of finding mercy upon their repentance, as we may be, who have the death and merits of Christ, to which we may trust for pardon upon repentance. They dared not presume, but they did not despair.
Hope of mercy is the great encouragement to repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves down at the footstool of free grace, and God will look upon us with compassion. God sees who turn from their evil ways, and who do not. Thus he spared Nineveh. We read of no sacrifices offered to God to make atonement for sin; but a broken and a contrite heart, such as the Ninevites then had, he will not despise. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Jeremiah 18:7–8 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
Joel 2:14–16
Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind Him—
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the LORD your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion,Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly…
2 Chronicles 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
Jeremiah 18:11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” ’ ”
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