Jonah 3: The power of a repentant heart

Jonah 2 revealed God's mercy towards His own children. Even when we refuse to obey, God's patience is overwhelming.

Nothing short of miraculous, He sends a big fish to swallow Jonah. The prophet doesn't die. He praises God for saving him, and goes on to commit himself to God's task for him. When he does that, God instructs the fish to spit His prophet out. He fish obeys.

Still, making a choice to follow God is not simple. To be fair, unlike the fish, and the plants and the sea and the sky, we human beings have complete freedom and we have more control than we think. Somewhere along the line, we've allowed that control and freedom to rule over our hearts. And it is not uncommon to run away from the mission that God gives us. In chapter 3 of Jonah, we learn that God always gives second chances.

Another chance
How many of us have asked God for 'another chance'? Jonah doesn't, but God calls Jonah a second time anyway (3:1). In reality, if Jonah had said no, God would probably have asked a third, a fourth, a fifth time. He would probably have called Jonah over, and over, and over again.

Could God do without Jonah? Absolutely! Remember that even with Jonah's deliberate running from God, the Lord still easily worked His plan with the sailors. God's constant call for us (to live a life worthy of the Kingdom) is His mercy and love, in action! He never gives up on any one of us. Only we are guilty of giving up on ourselves.

It's at this point in the story that we encounter the Ninevites. Given our earlier little revelation about Assyria's power, the Ninevites look like pussycats here. Contrary to what we might think, Jonah at this point, still did not choose to serve God. Yes, he did go to Nineveh (3:3). And yes, he did agree on his own accord (2:10). But more than anything, he was still hoping for the city to be destroyed. When it was not destroyed, Jonah got angry.

Jonah served. But he sure didn't go because he wanted to bring God's love. He was still serving himself – quite possibly to avoid being eaten up again. Aren't we sometimes guilty of that ourselves – doing church work for every reason under the sun, except God?

Applaud the user, not the tool
Still, all he did was to go in and give the message. And amazingly, his enemies heard the message… and repented! Boy, was that easy! It took some sailors (who worshipped other gods), a storm and a fish to make Jonah do something half-heartedly, but it took a half-hearted man with God's message to help a city repent whole-heartedly. Clearly, it's not the instrument, but the player who is good. Give me a guitar and I could carry a tune. Give it to Mr Clapton and he will mesmerise you.

It's God's who always has the last word, isn't it? All that was required for a successful mission was the Message, and an open heart. The instrument was a mere medium used to get the Message across! And thank goodness the Ninevites listened without prejudice. A truly repentant person is always worthy of God's forgiveness.

True repentance never comes too late
It's fascinating to me that the king of the Ninevites did not feel offended that people were proclaiming a fast even before he knew anything – isn't it rude to proclaim something so serious without going through the government first?

Instead, when he heard about it, the king ruled for everyone to fast and repent. He himself did so, even though forgiveness from God was never guaranteed. Jonah's main message was not, "unless you repent…". The emphasis (in Jon 3:4) was: "40 days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed!"

Isn't that beautiful? We have so much to learn from these people! The king of Nineveh repented, knowing that he and his people's actions might have been in vain (3:9) – it might have been too late. But true repentance never comes too late.

- Updated 1 Aug 2007