The Lesson of Nineveh and God’s Great Mercy
Shared on November 10, 2024
There are many believers that have a Jonah mindset towards their enemies – they don’t want them to be saved. Watch this week’s lesson as Pastor McCrary shows that this mindset is not proper for the child of God. There is a powerful message that the Lord shows all people through the people of Nineveh.
Introduction
Are there people that you don’t believe can ever be saved or don’t want to be saved? That is not the mindset we should have as stewards of the gospel. To be clear, we are not the judge of who can or can’t be saved – that role belongs to the Lord. In our lesson this week, we are going to see that even those who we believe are most evil can be saved.
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
For the past couple of weeks, we have seen how Jonah had no desire to go to Nineveh and preach. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrians. The Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and likely brought harm, if not death, to acquaintances, friends, and family of Jonah.
Yet, the Lord tasked Jonah with going to Nineveh and preaching to which Jonah responded to in disobedience. Jonah ran from his assignment only to end up in the belly of a great fish. After being spat out of the fish and on dry ground, Jonah had the second chance to do things right.
Our lesson opens up with the word of the Lord coming to Jonah for a second time (Jon. 3:1). What was that word? God said to him, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you (Jon. 3:2).” So, Jonah obeyed this time around and made the journey to Nineveh (Jon. 3:3).
Now knowing the history between Jonah and the Assyrians, I think that many of us would wonder why God was so adamant on sending Jonah to Nineveh? Sure, we know that it was because their wickedness had come before the Lord (Jon. 1:2). But why Jonah? Was there no other prophets that the Lord could send to Nineveh?
Why Jonah?
God could have certainly raised up and sent other prophets to preach in Nineveh. So, there was certainly a reason and a purpose as to why Jonah was called on. Do you have any thoughts or ideas as to why God chose Jonah to go to Nineveh?
I believe the answer is actually quite clear and I think that this is something that God still does today. What I mean by this is that God is always offering His children correction. You see, the Lord is always shaping and molding us to fully take on His image and likeness in our heart.
I did a bible study last year about Jesus’ message to the church of Ephesus as recorded in Revelation 2:1-7. The church of Ephesus was a church that still labored for the Lord, but it was a church that was missing something in their works.
Jesus said to that church, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.”
After saying what sounds like very lovely words, Christ rebuked the church because something was off in their labor. Jesus said to the church, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
We call the church of Ephesus the loveless church. Yes, they called themselves laboring for the Lord but they did it without love. They lacked patience for those that were evil and did not give them a chance. To some of you, that may sound like the right thing to do but the word of God is meant for everybody.
We have to remember that we who are now justified of our sins were once evil in the eyes of God. In his letter to the church of Ephesus, Paul gave them this same reminder. Paul wrote, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins … even when we were dead in trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:1, 4-5).”
The church of Ephesus was divided over Jews looking down on Gentiles. Paul had to remind the Jews what they once were so that they would stop thinking evil of the Gentiles. He then called for unity in that church by uniting in love and faith in Christ (Eph. 4:1-3).
Jonah had hate in his heart towards the Assyrians. He despised them so much that he chose to turn from God’s assignment! God’s desire was to put love and faith back into Jonah’s heart. Part of his faith was restored through him being disciplined in the belly of the great fish. Now, Jonah needed to see that if God would save the Assyrians, then he needed to let go of hate before it consumed him completely.
I believe the Lord still offers such correction to us when our thoughts and our actions are betraying His way. God does not simply rebuke us just through His words – you should keep that in mind.
A lot of times the Lord will put us in a position to do something we may not want to or like to do. A lot of times the Lord will put you in a position to change your outlook on things. The onus is on us to learn from such opportunities that God gives to us rather than look at them as harsh punishments. There is never anything with God’s corrections as He corrects (rebukes) us from a place of love and grace.
Jonah Preaches in Nineveh
Scripture tells us that Nineveah was a big city – a three-day in diameter if you tried to walk it. Some suggest that Nineveh was as big as 60 to 75 miles in circumference!
On his first day’s walk, Jonah cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (Jon. 3:4)!” Well, that statement would definitely catch people’s attention, wouldn’t it? You’d probably suspect that the Assyrians would have taken this proclamation very lightly or with great hostility, right? After all, the Assyrians were very strong and powerful with a city large enough to take three days to walk on foot.
Nineveh repents and believes
So, when we are told that the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast, some of us may be surprised by this (Jon. 3:5). Many people, like Jonah, would have been shocked that the people of Nineveh believed God. Why so?
The Assyrians were gentiles who worshiped idols and were immoral in their ways. Alcoholics aren’t supposed to be able to believe, are they? Those who are sexually immoral, they aren’t supposed to be able to believe, right? Well, that’s at least what many so-called believers would have you think.
The mindset that this person cannot be saved and that person cannot be saved because of what they do or have done is such a disgraceful mindset to have. Who am I to judge whether or not the prostitute can or cannot believe in God and be saved? Who am I to judge whether or not the drug addict or the alcoholic can or cannot believe and be saved? That is not on me or anybody else to judge!
Christians must let go of such a mindset that only a certain type of person can be saved. Having such a mindset is far from the words that Jesus said to Nicodemus when He said, “whosoever believes in Me shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The beauty of this verse is that the people of Nineveh did exactly what God desires for all people to do— believe. The people heard Jonah’s proclamation and they repented right away and believed. Israel, and eventually Judah as well, heard such a proclamation and chose to continue to live in sin.
We today have heard the proclamation that this world is temporary and that we need to repent because God will judge everybody. Chance after chance has been given to us to correct our way but only a minority has chosen to believe. The response of choosing to ignore such a proclamation from the Lord is not good.
God relents from judging Nineveh
We will see that even the king of Nineveh repented and he made a proclamation throughout Nineveh for the people to fast (Jon. 3:6-7). The king proclaimed that the people of Nineveh were to cry out to the Lord and repent from their way of evil (Jon. 3:8).
Let’s be clear what we are seeing here: the king and the people were moving out of fear of what God would bring upon them. We have to keep in mind that Jonah, preaching God’s word, had preached that destruction would come upon Nineveh and it would be overthrown.
Now, we have seen how Nebuchadnezzar responded to the interpretation of his dreams. His dream of the shattered image was a forewarning of the fall of Babylon (Dan. 2:31-45). Rather than heeding Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, Nebuchadnezzar had an image of gold built in defiance of what was to come (Dan. 3:1-7).
What a difference in response we see from one king to another. We would say that the Assyrian king was wise to fear the Lord, right? Even after he had conquered God’s people, the Assyrian king respected and feared the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar, on the other hand, chose to think of himself as a god and ended up losing his mind before he was restored and began to truly believe (Dan. 4:28-37).
Our lesson comes to an end on the note that the Lord saw how the people genuinely turned from evil. Following the steps of forgiveness, scripture tells us that God relented from the disaster that He would bring upon them. When God rebukes you, you should heed His rebuke and make corrections. If you make those corrections, God will be merciful upon you.
What we should understand is that anybody can find mercy and forgiveness in the eyes of God. All it takes is for one to heed God’s rebuke and sincerely turn from their wicked ways. God will always honor His promise of being merciful and cleansing those who turn to Him from all unrighteousness.