Turning

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord . Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.- Jonah 3:1‭-‬10 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Jonah turns (v1-3)

Jonah had just been through a life threatening storm. He had nearly died of drowning and spent time in the belly of a big 🐟. He probably still smells of fish guts. God calls Jonah again. Not only did God save Jonah, but God gave him a second chance at his calling as a prophet. God could've rightly sent his call to another person. Jonah knew how foolish it was to run from God. Jonah now knew that God would have his way. But Jonah reacts differently. Jonah goes to the city of Nineveh.

The city turns (v4-9)

Jonah goes into a three-day city. Bible schools debate what that means. Is it three days walk across? Does it take three days to see the whole city? Jonah gets there and one day in, likely at the outskirts of the city, Jonah gives God's message. It means Jonah was no longer rebelling or dilly-dallying. He was doing what God asked. Immediately, the entire city from the king down to the animals repent. They all turn from their sin from the highest to the lowest of the cattle. The bloodthirsty enemies of Israel repent from a five word sermon.

This was meant as a foil to the nation of Israel. But these evil pagan Assyrians, they met the first prophet of God, of Yaweh. They had no biblical basis or knowledge. But Israel has the word of God and prophet after prophet. And their repentance, turning to God and away from evil things is so so shallow. And not only the nation of Israel, but does this not convict us? We have the entire Bible, the full revelation of the gospel, the understanding of the fullness of God's promise. Our repentance is so partial, so shallow. We likely need to repent of our repentance.

Repentance is a lifestyle, not an event. The life of the Christian is one of continual turning from sin and to God. Our status as a child of God is secured by the life and death of Jesus. But if we will not repent and turn from our sins, it was affect our relationship with God. God will not cut us off, but our experience of God is impacted. Our joy in God and our intimacy with God.

God turns (v10)

The city repents without knowing what God would do. Jonah only preached of righteous judgement. The assyrian had no idea if their repentance would alter the coming judgement. They did not know what would happen. There was no word spoken of grace or love.

But the Christian has the guarantee of Jesus. They know of the mind-blowing grace of God. They know the story of the gospel. But we hear the gospel every Sunday. At some point it can become background noise. That's a dangerous place to be. So how do we avoid this danger? The text here is clear. We must repent. We must confront the sin in our lives and then look at the grace of God we have in Jesus. The gospel is only awesome and awe inspiring when we see how big our sins are... Grace becomes the driver of our lives.