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11/24 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 19-20; 1 Peter 1; Jonah 3; Luke 8
Jonah 3:4
And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
TURNED
From this very short message of Jonah, we’ll glean three truths today for our growth in grace and encouragement in faith.
Guidelines
This is the first truth to glean. When Jonah was vomited out by the big fish onto dry land, YHVH God gave the prophet specific guidelines for his obedience. When he went into the great city, Jonah was commanded to…
“…call out against it the message that I tell you.” Jonah 3:2
Jonah was not to add to God’s Word or take away from it. The slightest alteration of God’s Word can change the meaning greatly and become an adulteration as vile and impure as Satan himself.
Grace
God’s grace is exhibited in Jonah’s short message, a message consisting of five Hebrew words. Although there was no other information given— no reason for the judgment, no alternative for the penitent, no instruction for the discerning, and no command to the wise— God’s grace, through His Holy Spirit, would minister effectively unto the hearer. God’s Word would carry out His purpose, and it would not return to Him empty (Isa 55:11). And although Jonah was the means the LORD used to convey His message, Jonah could not boast in his efforts or effects from his endeavors because the power was in God alone, and not in the human instrument.
Glory
Though the city was so large it would take three days to walk it (Jon 3:3), the message took hold of the entire city the first day. The citizens of Nineveh believed God and repented with fasting and sackcloth (Jon 3:5). The king issued a decree of repentance from the evil against God (Jon 3:6-9); and God was glorified. What of Jonah? Was he a false prophet when forty days arrived? No, it came to pass as he proclaimed. Nineveh was overthrown, literally “turned,” as the Hebrew root word, הָפַךְ (ha-fakh), implies conversion. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Father, make my heart be one
With the gospel of Your Son;
May Christ’s truth equip my soul,
Fill’d with Christ to make me whole.
