One of the amazing things in God’s character is that He does not force himself upon us. He calls, and then waits for our response. With every call we are faced with a decision. There are basically two choices before us. We can either harden our hearts so that we do not heed the call, or we can obey. In the book of Hebrews 3:12-15 it says, “Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today;” lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm to the end: while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion..” In the third chapter of the book of Jonah, Jonah and the Ninevites are both faced with the decision of whether to obey God’s message, or to harden their hearts.
But this raises an important question. If we are free to disobey God, do we have the ability to destroy God’s plans? No! God will always accomplish His purpose. The question is not whether God will triumph, but rather whether we will be included in that triumph. The book of Esther records how Queen Esther had to face this decision when she was asked to petition the king to spare her people from destruction. “Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai: “All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” They told to Mordecai Esther’s words. Then Mordecai asked them return answer to Esther, “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:9-14) All too often we choose disobedience because obedience conflicts with what we perceive as our own best interest. We need to broaden our horizons and realize that God’s plan is our best interest. When we become aware of God’s will for us, we need to have the same attitude as Queen Esther: “…I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16)
In a previous program we saw how Jonah chose to harden his heart at God’s first call. At the second call he takes the path of obedience. The book of Jonah, chapter three, verses one through four tells what happened:
“The word of Yahweh [that is, God] came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.” So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
Traditionally, verse three has been translated, “…Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.” The imperial city, or Nineveh proper, was enclosed by a wall about eight miles in circumference. The administrative district around Nineveh, however, included extensive suburbs and lessor cities like Hatra, Khorsabad and Nimrud. The name “Nineveh” may have been used to also include the cities of Rehoboth Ir, Caleh and Resen, which are mentioned in Genesis 10:11-12. So, no one should find fault with the description that it took three days to go all through the city. For someone to say, “I am going to Nineveh” during the days of Jonah would be equivalent to someone today saying, “I am going to Karachi” when in fact they are planning to visit Malir or Nazimabad.
But we should not allow arguments about the physical size of Nineveh to distract us from the lesson God is trying to teach. Verse three can also be translated, “Nineveh was a very important city.” The fact is that each person is important to God. In 2 Peter 3:9 it is written: “The Lord is… patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” But God does not merely desire our salvation, he actively demonstrates His love for us. Romans 5:6-8 says, “For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We should never doubt whether we are important to God. We are so important to him that Christ died for us. If God loves each one of us so much, is it any wonder that Nineveh was important to Him? God wants everyone to be saved, no matter who they are. And so, God sent Jonah to Nineveh. “He proclaimed: “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4)
But this raises another question. As we learned in a previous program, the Assyrians were a wicked and cruel people. Surely they did not deserve to be spared from destruction did they? No, they didn’t. But does anyone deserve salvation? The Apostle Paul points out that, “…For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one.” (Romans 3:9-12) The truth is that if we were good, we would not need saving. And, since we are bad, we do not deserve it. “…we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:3-5)
But while God wants our salvation, He allows us to freely choose. Will we accept, or will we reject His message? Will we repent, or will we harden our hearts? “The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” (Jonah 3:5-6) Will we respond to God’s message like the Ninevites did? The book of Hebrews reminds us that, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27)
We can learn another lesson from the Ninevite’s response to God’s message. By all external measures the Assyrians were not the most likely candidates for conversion. Their extremely ruthless and violent behavior would cause the vast majority of us to simply write them off as irredeemable. But, “…man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh [that is, God] looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) God can see through the hard exterior to the tender soul within. Remember that Jonah viewed the Assyrians as the enemies of God’s chosen people, the people of Israel. Yet God wants to save them from destruction. Do we have the same concern for our enemies that God does? Jesus said, “But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) We cannot see people’s hearts. Who knows? Maybe by doing what Jesus said, our enemies will repent like the Ninevites did.