For 40 Days – Day 28: Doomsday: Concepts

Key Episode Scripture: Jonah 1-4

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 3:10 ESVUK)

The book of Jonah covers one episode in the life of the prophet. The episode, among other things, covers a 40-day warning for the city of Nineveh. This warning.is part of a larger dialogue between the prophet and the One who sent him. We have painted a picture of the context in which this book takes place and previously outlined the content. This book is deep and rich in concepts worth exploring. This section of our study will not do justice to all of them. This will cover some of the pertinent ones about the intriguing notion of mission.

The Incredible Mercy of God

From the perspective of understanding God as good and loving, all-powerful, the ultimate arbiter and source of truth and justice, a reassuring aspect of His character is His mercy. No one deserves to remain alive because all have fallen far short of His standard of good, right, and just. We deserve to be wiped out.

This is evident throughout the book of Jonah. The prophet himself deserves to be wiped out both for running from the command of God in the first place and his subsequent huff at how God responds to Nineveh and the plant. Those who harboured Jonah on the boat could arguably also be said to deserve being destroyed with the ship for harbouring the rebel and initially refusing clear instructions of what they should do now they knew what they were doing. Nineveh deserved the judgment that God had set for them because of the evil they committed.

That all key parties emerge alive and carry on with their lives is a great expression of God’s mercy. This is a key characteristic of God and what’s expected of those who are sent on His behalf.

Wrestling with God

God’s relationship with the people of Israel is one of perpetual wrestling. Since Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, Israel has never taken their relationship with God in a simple, consistently submissive manner. Even in times when they’ve obeyed and complied with God’s commands, there’s been an undercurrent of the struggle to remain in their right relationship with Him.

Jonah represents that ongoing struggle to both acknowledge who God is and be grateful for how He behaves and, at the same time, portray characteristics that are actively at odds with Him. In all this, Jonah is someone God trusts to do His bidding and also has the time to engage in a questioning relationship with Him – one that isn’t resolved at the end of this book. That also points to the sense that wrestling with God isn’t about reaching a firm conclusion and settling it.

Honest interaction and the quest to know and love God do not require blind acceptance of everything He says and does. The wranglings we have with God about what He does, how He does it, and our part in it are ones He embraces as long as they are based on a faithful commitment to trust Him. That wrestle is as much a mark of those who have been filled with His Spirit as it is with those like Jonah.

The Power of Prayer

The men on the ship do it. Jonah does it in the belly of the big fish. Those in Nineveh do it in the light of the doomsday warning. It is even the format of the interaction that concludes the book. It is such a fundamental practice in the book that it’s assumed to be the regular method of conversing with God. The types of prayer that mark this book are worth studying in themselves to help us understand how we can communicate with God. From the plea for help to the querying of what God does to the confession of wrongdoing. We must pray, we must learn to pray, and we must grow in praying to develop a relationship with God. It’s not how everything will be resolved without a hitch; it is how that which is most valuable will be sustained.

The Role of Repentance

God heard what those in Nineveh were saying and saw what they did. This is what led to Him relenting. Repentance was the change of mind with actions to match the change. Nineveh didn’t just say sorry; they didn’t just put on the robes of sorrow and humility; they stopped their acts of wickedness. This was a people consciously aware of what they needed to stop doing. God didn’t give them His commandments as He gave to His covenant people. He gave them enough to know that they needed to change. They took the hint and did what they could to change.

Often when considering repentance, people can view it as a mental thing and link it with sorrow for sin. Yet the concept of repentance looks at fruit – acts that reflect the change. You don’t have to understand God totally and have recited the Beatitudes or the Ten Commandments. It is sufficient to know what needs to change and cooperate with God in embarking on the journey of change.

Witness Beyond Us

The mission of God required Jonah to be a witness of God to a people beyond the covenant people of God. Jonah took issue with this because he knew what God was like, and he wasn’t that keen on giving those uncircumcised Assyrians the benefit of God’s mercy. The purpose of God’s covenant relationship with Israel was for them to be a beacon to the nations around them—a beacon of righteousness that encouraged them to turn from their wickedness and idolatry and turn to the living God.

It was evident in relations between God’s people and strangers, from Egyptians to Philistines to Assyrians to Babylonians. God did not want His people to assimilate and acclimatise to their neighbours. He didn’t want them to compromise and dilute their identity to accommodate. However, he expected their unique and distinct character to impact the neighbours. Jonah did this even as a rebel on the boat. His presence and subsequent exit bore witness to strangers of the one true living God, maker of the land and seas.

Jonah did this when he preached throughout Nineveh with the doomsday message. The people could only believe because of what they heard about the ruler of all people. Change only took place as those with a relationship with God bore witness to it beyond themselves. That’s a significant point of what the mission requires from us. It starts at home, and it spreads to others and further as we bear witness to the one true, living, loving, righteous, holy, good, and merciful God.

Next, we will draw some conclusions about these considerations regarding this crucial episode.

For His Name’s Sake

C. L. J. Dryden

Shalom