Even Hard Hearts Turn May 24 for paper
Today, Nineveh is an archaeological site in Iraq. In the prophet Jonah’s day, Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a ferocious empire. It was the Assyrians who destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and carried away their inhabitants. They were an extremely vicious nation noted for their cruelty and torture of their captives. God calls Jonah to go preach against the Assyrians. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” Jonah 1: 2
So little wonder with the reputation of the Assyrians that Jonah arose all right, headed for Joppa and jumped aboard a ship headed for Tarshish, at the end of the known world to try to escape God and this assignment he must have considered suicidal. So the Lord unleashed a raging wind and violent storm. The ship is in such danger they throw the cargo overboard. Jonah, on his own advice to his shipmates, was tossed into the sea. He is sinking into the depths drowning. But God sends the great fish to swallow Jonah whole. On the third day, the fish vomits up the prophet on dry land.
God calls Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh and he goes. The message God gave him was “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. So the message God gave Jonah had even the hard hearts of the Assyrians turn. When God saw what they did, how they believed Jonah’s message, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Why did Jonah go the second time? Jonah has a revelation as he prays in the fish. Most likely Jonah goes because of this revelation and because the Lord loves him and the Assyrians need God.
Why do you go? Why do you reach out to those around you? You know those people whom God has put into your life. Some of them are hurting. They need to hear Jesus cares. Others are Assyrians hurting others, maybe even threatening you. They need to be warned of their sin. When God has put that person on your heart, why do you go?
God does demand that you speak up. We have been given the message of reconciliation and the ministry of reconciliation. Also what does God desire! “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2: 3, 4
God puts his desire also in your heart. God promises to use you, just like Jonah, to lead others “to come to the knowledge of the truth”. You are driven by the Gospel, by the Good News that God loves you, the Good News that God loves the ones to whom he sends you. And the one to whom he sends you needs to hear so he can come to the knowledge of the truth!
Why did the Assyrians listen to Jonah? I’d expect them to ignore, to smash, to viciously attack this loud mouthed foreigner. And Jonah’s message contained no word of forgiveness. No hope of God’s love. But God’s word is powerful; it touched the guilt that burned Nineveh’s heart and created hope for mercy?
Why do you speak? God invites you who have experienced forgiveness, life, love, the free gift of Jesus through his death and resurrection, to call out as Jonah did in Nineveh. Yes you also have been invited to rise up and share the good news of love and life to those around you. “What difference are my words to Sam?” “As if Sally is going to listen to me!” Your words and mine change no one, that’s true. Neither did Jonah’s words. God told Jonah to proclaim the word He would give him! God also promises us, “I will give to you my words!” and his words can change even the hardest heart.
The same God lives today. We speak God’s Law, and he convicts sinners. Still more, we speak God’s Gospel—Christ, nailed to the cross for all of our sins—and he forgives that sin. The hardest hearts, the Holy Spirit can flip upside down. He is the reason the cruel Ninevites repented, and is also the reason even the hardest heart can turn today, if we like Jonah speak the words God will give us.
Blessings