Jonah: A Never Ending Story

Jonah goes to Nineveh. Jonah gives a half-hearted address.

Jonah entered the city, went one day's walk and preached, "In forty days Nineveh will be smashed." Jonah 3:4 The Message

Jonah preaches his sermon, leaves the city, puts up a "tent" and camps out to wait for the fire and brimstone. I imagine Jonah counting 40, 39, 38, 37 . . . as the zero day advances, his expectations are more and more aroused — 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . Day 40 dawns, but there is no fiery spectacular. No great ball of fire — no thunder claps of destruction - no earthquake — no smoke - no sulphur - Nothing!

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Jonah 3:5 NIV

Talk about a far-reaching and life-changing revival! It touched everyone in that city, even the king. It humbled them, and brought them to repentance (a fancy way of saying - they changed). God relented and decided to spare them.

Surprise! – that was the problem all along for Jonah. But in this story we are not done. God was not done surprising Jonah. There would be a few more surprises: A Castor Bean plant; A Worm; and A Wind.

Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:5-11 NIV

God was teaching Jonah about Grace. Grace belongs to God. This was a shocking revelation for Jonah. Much of God’s Grace falls in that category – we never see it coming. Then again it shouldn’t surprise us. This is the same God that used a Big Fish to get Jonah going in the right direction!

This then would seem to be the end of the story. As with all good stories, we have our moral – Grace belongs to God.

But with respect to late night advertisers – “Wait! There is more!”

This story will not end.

Quick Review of our story:

• Hear God
• Don’t Listen
• Run Away
• God surprises us
• We Repent (Change our ways)
• We Enjoy the blessings
• Get bored and return to our old ways (Surprise!?)
• We Hear God (Surprise!) and off we go again in our seemingly never ending story.

God gives second chances, but theses chances are not without expiration .

Nineveh changed, but the change didn’t last. Zephaniah predicted Nineveh’s destruction (again because of their wickedness). In another 200 years Nineveh was destroyed. God is patient, but God’s patience has its limits.

Does that surprise you? Did you think that your second chance didn’t have an expiration date?

Jonah is the short story version of the Old Testament and to a larger extent our own lives still today.

• We hear God.
• We don’t listen.
• We run away.
• God surprises us in some way.
• We repent (change our ways).
• We enjoy the blessings of our change and God’s grace.
• We get bored and return to our old ways (Surprise!?).
• We hear God (Surprise!) and here we go again . . .

Where are you in the cycle?

Ready for something new?

Break free from the never ending story and live within the loving arms of God’s amazing Grace.