The Book Of Joel. Day 3, Assembly

A plague of locusts has come and caused a disaster in Judah. In Wednesday's study the prophet Joel called upon the people to mourn the calamity and the sin that caused it. In today's study he orders an assembly of the people in which they are to cry out to the Lord for mercy and help.

We concluded yesterday's session with these words: "Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God." (Joel 1:13) The locusts have destroyed the crops in the field and the fruit on the vines and the fruit on the trees. This has caused a cessation of grain and drink offerings at the house of God. The disaster has affected every facet of life in the nation and has affected every person in every occupation. 

The nation of Judah hasn't gone into spiritual decline as quickly as the northern kingdom of Israel but in Joel's day there had been much idolatry taking place in the very recent past. Joel's ministry likely began after King Jehoshaphat's reign ended. King Jehoshaphat had arranged a marriage between his son Jehoram and a daughter of the Baal-worshiping King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel. Jehoram and his wife, Athaliah, forsook the Lord in favor of Baal. Jehoram reigned for eight years and was succeeded by his son, Ahaziah, who only reigned for one year before he was killed, but he was an idolater too. Upon his death his mother Athaliah ordered all the males of the royal household put to death and she took the throne of Judah for herself, not knowing that her youngest grandson, Joash, had been hidden away and had escaped the slaughter. Most scholars believe that Joel began his work as a prophet somewhere around the time the evil Athaliah was promoting Baal worship in Judah; Joel almost certainly was a prophet to Judah during the reign of her grandson Joash. So the prophet is speaking to the people during a time when the past three rulers---Athaliah, Ahaziah, and Jehoram---had rejected the Lord and when these wicked rulers had been encouraging or even insisting that the people of Judah worship Baal along with them. The people need to cast aside all forms of idolatry and turn back to the living God. 

To demonstrate their sorrow over their sin, the people are to fast and pray to the Lord. "Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord." (Joel 1:14) The Lord is the One they have offended. The Lord is the One who can restore the prosperity of the land. The Lord is the only One who can make them clean of their sin and restore their relationship with Him.

"Alas for that day! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty." (Joel 1:15) The phrase "the day of the Lord" is typically used in the Scriptures to denote the judgment that will fall upon the earth in the end times. The people of Judah are not living in the end times in Joel's day but the current disaster of his day is quite severe and it's a foretaste of the wrath that will come in the era known as "the great tribulation". The locusts have done a great deal of damage already but more judgment will fall if the people don't immediately turn their hearts back toward the Lord and begin repenting of their waywardness. Joel compares the current distress to the tribulation of the last days because the locust invasion is a demonstration of the Lord's displeasure with sin (as will be the disasters of the great tribulation) and a demonstration of the Lord's judgment upon sin (as will be the disasters of the great tribulation). Joel clearly makes a connection here, as he did in our first two days of the study of this book, between the plague of locusts and the people's unfaithfulness to God. 

Things are bad but they are not so bad that they cannot get worse! The time to repent is now. "Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes---joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering." (Joel 1:16-18) The prophet's words indicate that there may be a drought in addition to the plague of locusts because he speaks of the earth as if it has not rained upon it. The seeds have shriveled up, unable to sprout, beneath dry clods of dirt. Both man and beast are suffering the effects of these terrible circumstances.

What must they do---what should anyone do---in times of adversity? Cry out to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth! Cry out to the Lord for forgiveness, for help in living in ways that please Him, and for healing of the land. "To You, Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field. Even the wild animals pant for You; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness." (Joel 1:19-20) Again we find references that indicate a drought. The pasture grasses have dried up in the heat. The leaves have withered on the vines of fruit trees and shrubs. There is no water to relieve the scorching heat. The streams have dried up. It sounds as if wild animals and fish are perishing, making food even more scarce because people can't hunt and fish successfully.

It is possible, as we discussed earlier in the book of Joel, that the reference to "locusts" could be a reference to invasions by the Assyrians. Some scholars hold to that theory, although the majority of scholars believe a literal plague of locusts occurred. But the mention of meadows and fields and vineyards being destroyed would still be in line with an enemy invasion, for a common tactic of enemy invaders was to set fire to fields of grain and to vegetable gardens and to allow their war horses to trample crops underfoot. It's possible that the locusts aren't literal locusts, but even if the destruction is caused by an enemy army we know this is something the Lord allowed to happen. The calamity is from the Lord; that much has been made clear to us by Joel. And an enemy army couldn't cause a drought, so that is from the Lord who is withholding rain from the skies until repentance takes place. 

The Lord does not enjoy sending hardship. He would far rather be pouring out upon Judah the blessings listed in Deuteronomy 28 rather than the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28. But He's allowing hardship for their own good to get them back onto the right path. And whenever the Lord allows hardship, He usually begins with the least severe forms of hardship. If repentance takes place then, there is no need to send more severe troubles. But if repentance does not take place, more unpleasant circumstances are likely to follow. Joel is telling the people they can save themselves much worse trouble than they are already experiencing if they will go ahead and make things right with God. If they persist in stubborn disobedience, not only will the current circumstances not clear up, but worse circumstances will follow. 

The Book Of Joel. Day 2, Mourning

Hard times have fallen upon the nation of Judah. In yesterday's study we discussed two theories regarding the locusts mentioned in Chapter 1 of the book of Joel. One theory is that the locusts are literal and that they have come in as a plague to devour the crops as discipline for the people's waywardness. The other theory is that the use of the word "locusts" is symbolic for the repeated invasions of the destructive Assyrians---invasions allowed by the Lord as discipline for the people's waywardness. I think both theories have merit although I tend to side with those who feel this is an actual invasion of destructive insects.

In today's text Joel calls upon the people to mourn this calamity. If the calamity weren't related to the way they've been living their lives, waking up from their complacency and humbling themselves in the sight of God by mourning wouldn't be an effective strategy against the devouring jaws of the locusts. The prophet is clearly linking the people's current predicament with the current state of their hearts.

"What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left, other locusts have eaten." (Joel 1:4) There are several stages of a locust's life and that may be what's in view here when Joel mentions several stages of the destruction of the crops.

This disaster must be taken to heart. While it's true that bad things such as natural disasters take place in this fallen world, it's also true that the Lord has a purpose for anything He allows to happen on the earth. Joel first calls upon those who are just drifting their way through life who are living in excess and who are numbing their guilty consciences with alcohol. "Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips." (Joel 1:5) The substance with which they are medicating themselves is soon to be in short supply, for the vineyards have been affected too.

The use of the word "nation" in this next passage has led to the theory held by some scholars that the locusts are not literal locusts. However, because literal locusts swoop in like an enemy army and descend upon all the vegetation in sight, the use of the word "nation" might be used to compare the locusts' destruction to that of an army that swoops in and destroys crops and villages and cities. "A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and has thrown it away, leaving their branches white." (Joel 1:6-7) In the book of Proverbs we find swarms of locusts spoken of as if they are an enemy army: "Locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks." (Proverbs 30:27) So we see that speaking of them as if they are an enemy nation or a great army is not without precedent.

Joel urges the people to mourn over this calamity. The word translated as "mourn" in this next verse is the same word as "lament", which means "to wail". The people are to lift up their voices together in a wail of grief. "Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth." (Joel 1:8) The prophet says, "Lift up your voices in grief as a young woman would wail aloud if the young man she loves and is engaged to loses his life before the happy day of their wedding arrives. Cry out in grief like a woman who has lost the love of her life---who has lost the future she envisioned with him." 

He calls upon the people to mourn for what could have been. They could have been living in peace and prosperity if they had not gone spiritually astray. Back in Deuteronomy 28, before the Lord brought the people of Israel into the land, He promised them blessings of every type if they would remain faithful to Him. He promised to bless them "in everything you put your hand to" if they would not turn to idolatry. All the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 could have been theirs if they had honored their covenant with Him. But the Lord also provided a list of calamities that would come upon the nation if they did not remain faithful to Him. One of the things on the list was the destruction of the crops by locusts. The Lord warned them that their hard work of planting would be for nothing if they turned their backs on Him.

Sorrow must accompany repentance. If we don't feel mournful about sinning against God and if we don't feel sad for sinning against our fellow man, we must question whether we are even in a repentant spirit at all, for the Bible says, "Godly sorrow brings repentance." (2 Corinthians 7:10a) Sorrow and repentance go hand in hand. 

Because of the severity of the plague, it has affected everything in the nation, including putting a stop to some of the normal rituals of the temple. "Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the Lord. The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree---all the trees of the field---are dried up. Surely the people's joy is withered away." (Joel 1:9-12)

The sacrifices and offerings cannot be made at the temple, and we might wonder why the Lord would allow the situation to come down to that, but later in the Bible we will learn that He takes no pleasure in sacrifices and offerings when the hearts of the people bringing these things aren't right with Him. We will find the Lord, through various prophets, referring to the offerings as "meaningless" and we will find Him saying that He wishes they would just close the doors to the temple and stop lighting useless fires on the altars and stop giving Him lip service while their hearts are far from Him. So the fact that the crops have failed to the point of no drink offerings or grain offerings being made at the temple is of little consequence to Him. What is of consequence to Him is that the people need to repent. This is what Joel is urging them to do. The prophet is calling upon the people to look around them and consider why disaster has taken place. What led to a curse of Deuteronomy 28 falling upon them instead of the blessings of that segment of Scripture? They must humbly and prayerfully examine their hearts, acknowledge the sin that the Holy Spirit reveals to them, be sorry for that sin and repent of it, and with the Lord's help turn away from that sin and get back on the godly path. 

The Book Of Joel. Day 1, Locusts

As we move through the Old Testament we are studying the books of the prophets in chronological order rather than the order in which they appear in the Bible. The chronological lists of the prophets differ slightly, according to which references we consult, and some of their ministries occurred concurrently or overlapped a bit. The majority of sources that I consulted listed Jonah as the oldest book of the prophets so we began with him and now, since many lists place the book of Joel right after Jonah chronologically, we will move on to the book of Joel next. 

Jonah was a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel who was called by the Lord to go and speak to the Gentiles at the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh. Joel is a prophet from the southern kingdom of Judah who is called by the Lord to speak to his own people of Judah. Neither the northern kingdom nor the southern kingdom has fallen to an enemy nation yet. The Assyrian Empire is the major world power at the time and has become the primary threat to Judah, to Israel, and to a number of other nations in that part of the world. We already know from our study of the kings that Assyria is the nation that conquered Israel and, throughout much of our study of the kings, it appeared as if Assyria would be the nation to conquer Judah as well. This is not how things turned out, for Assyria was defeated by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and in turn the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the nation of Judah. 

It's important to note that some scholars believe the locusts that will be spoken of by the prophet Joel is a reference to the repeated invasions of the Assyrians and is not a reference to literal locusts. Others, however, interpret the word "locusts" literally and believe that the Lord sent locusts into the land as a method of discipline in order to correct the waywardness of the people's hearts. After all, the Lord did warn the people before bringing them into the promised land that if they did not remain faithful to Him, "You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it...Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land." (Deuteronomy 28:38,42) I feel that a good argument can be made for either theory. The book of Joel itself is difficult to pin down to a precise date and the other books of the Bible which were written around the same time do not mention a literal plague of locusts, so I will leave it up to each of us to decide for ourselves whether we feel the locusts mentioned here are insects or are whether they represent the Assyrian army.

"The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?" (Joel 1:1-2) Joel is identified as the son of Pethuel but no other mention is made of Pethuel in the Old Testament. No doubt the people of the time would have known who the man was but this information has been lost to the ages. The book of Joel also does not tell us the name of the king (or kings) who ruled Judah during the days of his ministry. The majority opinion on this is that Joel spoke to the nation somewhere around 835 BC, perhaps beginning during the days of the evil Queen Athaliah who took the throne upon the death of her son, King Ahaziah, and who tried to wipe out all the males of the royal family so she could reign unopposed. Many scholars assert that an actual plague of locusts occurred during the end of her reign due to her idolatrous ways and due to the wicked influence she had on the nation. She was a daughter of the Baal-worshiping King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel and she had married the son and heir of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. Some scholars think that the plague of locusts came during the time she held onto the throne and that the plague ended around the time that it was revealed that her young grandson, Joash, had escaped the slaughter of the princes and had been hidden at the temple for six years. 

But whenever it was that Joel prophesied to Judah, and whether the mention of locusts is literal or represents the Assyrian invasions, it's clear that hard times have come upon the nation. These times are so trying that Joel appeals to the elders of Judah by saying, "Have you ever seen anything this bad before? Did your fathers ever go through hard times such as these?" This is a wise question because whenever adversity comes we should examine our hearts and pray to the Lord to see whether we are living in a wrong way that has brought tribulation into our lives. 

It's been a somewhat popular opinion throughout the ages, though erroneous if you ask me, that we should never question the Lord. I agree that there is a wrong way to question the Lord (a way that casts doubt upon whether He is in the right to have sent adversity, for He is always right in everything He does) but I do not believe there is anything wrong with asking the Lord why our circumstances have become unpleasant. In fact, I think the wisest thing we can do in a time of adversity is to ask the Lord whether we are living in a way that's displeasing to Him and whether that's the cause of our current hardship. It's possible to be sinning against the Lord and not be consciously aware of it, which is why David prayed to the Lord, "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression." (Psalm 19:12-13) David asked the Lord for the strength to resist sinning purposely; he refers to such sins as "willful sins" and as a "great transgression". But he also prayed for forgiveness of sins he was not aware of committing. He refers to these as "hidden faults", not because they are hidden from God but because imperfect human beings are incapable of constantly being aware of every wrong attitude or every unwise thought. So whenever adversity comes, I feel the best thing we should do and the first thing we should do is ask the Lord if there's a sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The sooner we examine our hearts and humble ourselves before the Lord, the sooner our circumstances may turn around.

Joel asks the elders to question why such hard times have fallen upon the nation and he orders them to impress it upon their children that nothing like this has happened since the founding of the nation. "Tell it to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to the next generation." (Joel 1:3) It's better to learn from the mistakes of others than to make those same mistakes ourselves, isn't it? Things have gone wrong spiritually in the nation and now other things are going wrong. If these elders can impress this information upon the hearts and minds of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren then perhaps these succeeding generations won't make the same spiritual mistakes. If spiritual mistakes are avoided, then some hardships can be avoided as well. Of course, as long as we live in this fallen world there are going to be hardships that occur that are not of our own making, but there's no doubt that we all make mistakes and that we have all caused trouble for ourselves at one time or another. 

As we move on through Chapter 1 we will find Joel urging the people to break out of their complacency. They need to "clean house" individually, in their own hearts, and they need to "clean house" as a nation. They need to remember who they are---a people who call themselves by the name of the Lord---and consider how far they have drifted from the right paths. 

The Book Of Jonah. Day 9, Spared From Destruction

Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh as commanded by God but only after running from Him and after being disciplined by Him. It does not appear, based on what we've studied so far and based on what we will study today, that Jonah preached the Lord's message in a spirit of concern for the lost souls of Nineveh. It looks as if he only preached the message because he was compelled to do so. When widescale repentance took place, he became angry with the Lord. He was so angry that in yesterday's text he petulantly stated, "It is better for me to die than to live."

As we begin today's text we find the Lord countering Jonah's angry words in a calm and reasonable manner. "But the Lord said, 'Is it right for you to be angry?'" (Jonah 4:4) The Lord invites the prophet to think things through. Why is he angry and does he have any right to feel this way? The Lord doesn't condemn Jonah's feelings, although they are wrong, but instead asks him to examine his heart to determine where these feelings are coming from.

We already know that Jonah harbors a great deal of prejudice against the heathen citizens of the nation of Assyria. He thinks they deserve whatever punishment the Lord wants to dole out. Not only that, but we've already learned that he wanted the Lord's wrath to fall upon them. While he traveled throughout the enormous city of Nineveh warning them that they would be destroyed for their sins in forty days, he wasn't hoping they would take the words to heart and be sorry for their sins. He was merely pronouncing the word of doom upon them. He was simply discharging the duty conferred upon him by the Lord---a duty he found distasteful. 

We previously talked about the theory that he considered it a waste of time to speak to heathen idolaters, not necessarily because he thought they wouldn't repent but because he thought them unworthy of the Lord's attention and of no use for the kingdom of God. He cannot imagine why the Lord would want to save the Gentiles, although he must have been aware that the Lord told Abraham long ago that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his offspring. (Genesis 12:3) When the Lord spoke of "the nations" or "the peoples" He meant the Gentiles, not Israel. The Lord did indeed call the people of Israel to be a chosen nation to Him in ancient times but He also always intended to reach His hand of mercy out to the Gentiles. Instead of being angry with the Lord about this, Jonah should have praised Him for His goodness to all people. Jonah should have been thankful for being commissioned to take part in the Lord's outreach to the Gentiles.

But when the Lord asks Jonah to examine his heart to determine why he doesn't want to see the same mercy extended to the Gentiles that He extended to the descendants of Abraham, Jonah continues to cling to his prejudices and his resentment. When the forty days are up, he hopes there is still a slim chance that the repentance of the Ninevites is not genuine. He waits at a place outside the city to see whether the Lord might destroy it after all. "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. 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." (2 Jonah 4:5-6) 

A number of scholars believe that the original text indicates the past tense here in regard to when Jonah constructed the shelter. They believe that he had already made it before the forty days were up and that perhaps this shelter is where he lodged each evening during the period of time in which he preached at Nineveh. He very likely received invitations to lodge in Nineveh---indeed, the repentant king of Assyria may very well have urged him to stay at his palace during his sojourn in the city---but Jonah did not want to step foot into a Gentile home. Although his attitude was a common one among the people of his nation of his day, it fails to take into consideration the conversion of the Ninevites. They had been saved by faith just as Jonah was, just as Jonah's ancestors were, and just as Abraham himself was. Their homes may still have contained some idolatrous objects at this time and their kitchens may not have been kosher but their hearts were made right in the eyes of God. What Jonah ought to have done was what the apostles of the New Testament did: he should have taught the people what they needed to do after their conversion. He should have worked among them for however long the Lord directed him to do so, instructing them in the ways of godly living. They have believed on the name of the Lord but they know very little about Him. Jonah has a great opportunity to teach them about the Lord but instead he's still hoping against hope to see fire and brimstone falling on them.

The Lord causes a plant with broad leaves to grow up over Jonah's shelter because He intends to use the plant as an object lesson. Instead of raining down fire and brimstone on the people Nineveh at dawn, He causes the plant to die. "But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 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.' 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.'" (Jonah 4:6-9) 

Jonah feels sorrier for himself than for the men, women, and children of Nineveh. He's too warm in the heat and he's getting a sunburn and those things concern him far more than if all the citizens of the city were burned up by the wrath of God. He feels more sadness about the death of a plant than about the prospect of thousands of lives and thousands of souls being lost. The Lord is trying to show him the wrongness of his thinking but Jonah is refusing to look at the situation from the Lord's perspective. The prophet persists in stubbornly clinging to his prejudice against these people and so the book ends with the Lord using Jonah's pity for the plant as a symbol of His pity for the people of Nineveh, but we do not find Jonah coming around to the Lord's way of thinking. Our text concludes below with the Lord asking Jonah a question about human and animal welfare, yet we never learn of Jonah's answer. It has been concluded by many scholars that Jonah's attitude never changed and that as a result the Lord was never able to use him to do any more great things. The fact that the Bible never tells us of anything else Jonah ever did may be the proof that this is the case.

"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. 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 4:10-11) Jonah didn't put a seed into the ground to make the plant grow. He didn't water or fertilize the seed or prune the plant. Yet he was sad when it perished. By contrast, he had made an investment in the people of Nineveh. He sowed the seeds there that caused thousands of people to repent of their sins. He spent day after day proclaiming the message of the Lord and the seeds of faith sprouted up in the people. His duty to those people was to remain to water and fertilize and prune these sprouts: in other words, teaching them right from wrong and helping them to form a relationship with the Lord and aiding them in growing their relationship with the Lord. Instead he is sad that the Lord did not destroy them! Jonah did not allow himself to develop a heart for these people while he worked among them. He did not allow himself to feel any compassion for them. He does not want the Lord to extend any mercy toward them. That is why the book of Jonah ends on a sad note---for Jonah. It ends with the Lord asking a question that Jonah apparently does not answer. 

The Lord loved the people of Nineveh in spite of their sins, just as He loved us while we were still living in sin. The Lord was righteous to offer the opportunity to the Ninevites to be saved, for He invites everyone to come to Him for salvation. We must accept the invitation, of course, in order to be saved but Jonah seems to have wanted to prevent the Ninevites from ever receiving the invitation in the first place. I wish he had come off as a likable person on the pages of the Bible! I really want him to be a sympathetic character and he just isn't, although I hope that at some point during the remainder of his life he repented of his attitude toward the Ninevites just as he repented of refusing to go where the Lord wanted to send him. We can't know for sure one way or the other because this matter is left up in the air with Jonah's stubborn refusal to love the Ninevites standing out in stark contrast to the Lord's merciful compassion on them. 

The Book Of Jonah. Day 8, Jonah's Complaint Against God

In our last study session the king of Assyria and the people of Nineveh repented, fasted, and prayed when they heard the list of their transgressions and when they heard the Lord's warning that He would destroy the city in forty days. Chapter 3 ended like this: "When God saw what they did and and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened."

Jonah's mission has been a success! Thousands of souls have been saved from perdition! Now he will bow on his knees and give thanks to the Lord for His mercy, right? Sadly, no. When the Lord spares the people of Nineveh from destruction, Jonah is displeased. "But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry." (Jonah 4:1) 

Jonah's sense of justice is offended. He feels that the wicked idolaters of Nineveh deserve destruction and he wants to see fire and brimstone rained down upon them. We know he wants the Lord's wrath to fall upon them because he gives vent to these feelings. "He prayed to the Lord, 'Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.'" (Jonah 4:2-3)

Now we are getting down to the primary reason why Jonah disobeyed the Lord when He commanded him to go to Nineveh. While it's true that Jonah harbored prejudice against these heathen sinners, and while it's true that he feared the ruthless and violent reputation of the Assyrians, the main reason he did not want to go to Nineveh is because he was afraid they would be spared from destruction. He knew that if they repented, the Lord would withhold His hand of judgment from them. 

What hypocrisy! Jonah, who rejoiced in the Lord's mercy and compassion when the Lord forgave him for his rebellion and rescued him from the belly of the fish, wants the Lord to deny this same mercy and compassion to the people of Nineveh. We know that Jonah was formerly called to be a prophet to his own people of Israel, for a fulfilled prophecy he made about King Jeroboam II of Israel was mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, but we have no idea how successful (or unsuccessful) his ministry was within the borders of Israel. Jeroboam II was a good king militarily for Israel but he "did evil in the eyes of the Lord" spiritually, so it's clear that Jonah was not able to persuade him to get his heart right with the Lord. I think it's quite possible and even likely that more people were listening to Jeroboam II than to Jonah. I would not be at all surprised---and in fact I think this is the case---that the only major revival that ever broke out during Jonah's ministry was in the Gentile city of Nineveh.

The children of God must never treat salvation as if it is some sort of exclusive club into which only the "worthy" are invited. No one is worthy on his or her own merit! The children of God must never forget that at one time we were all transgressors and that it's only by His mercy and compassion that anyone is ever saved. He doesn't extend forgiveness and salvation to us because we deserve it but because He is "abounding in love" toward mankind, as Jonah affirmed in his prayer. The Lord doesn't make the offer of salvation to us because of our good deeds and righteousness, for no one is righteous. "Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins." (Ecclesiastes 7:20) 

Jonah is not perfect and neither is anyone of his nation. How, then, can he look down on the Gentiles of Nineveh? Jonah was saved not by works but by faith, which is the only way anyone is ever saved, and this salvation is a gift of God---not something earned by man. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Jonah didn't earn his salvation, yet he accepted it gladly. But he wants to prevent the people of Nineveh from being invited into this same salvation, likely because they are Gentiles and not people of Israel, but he has forgotten that the people of Israel must come to salvation by faith as well. Their forefather, Abraham, was saved by faith and not by the works of the law (Genesis 15:6); he lived a long time before the law was given and even if he'd had the law he wasn't capable of perfectly keeping it. The only way anyone is saved---whether Jew or Gentile---is through faith. Jonah is trying to deny the people of Nineveh the same salvation in which he trusts. In our next study session, which will complete the short book of Jonah, we will find the Lord trying to reason with Jonah in an effort to guide him out of his wrong way of thinking.

The Book Of Jonah. Day 7, Repentance In Nineveh, Part Two

In Thursday's study we learned that the ancient capital city of Assyria was so large that it took Jonah three days to travel through it while preaching the Lord's message. The Lord's message was that if the people of Nineveh did not repent, that great city (which historians and archaeologists believe was the most impressive city in the world at that time) would be destroyed in forty days.

Jonah preaches with a passion and conviction he's never preached with before, now that he's been rescued from the belly of the fish. The people of Nineveh can see it on his face that he believes every word he says. They can tell that he's had a real experience with a real God---something none of them has ever experienced. In yesterday's study as soon as people began hearing the message they began repenting. The Bible says that they "believed God" and they began fasting and wearing sackcloth as the outward signs of humility and sorrow over their sins. 

Today the message reaches the ears of the king. "When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust." (Jonah 3:6) 

In my opinion this is one of the most astonishing conversions in the Holy Bible! We do not know which of the kings of Assyria this man was but we know that the Assyrians were idolaters. We know that this king was the leader of the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth at that time. We know that up until now he must have credited his false gods with his success and that he must have trusted in the might of his army and in the prosperity of his country. I think we can also safely assume that, despite his outward success, he was empty on the inside. He was not satisfied with the things the world could offer him. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ would have resonated with him when He said, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36) The king of Assyria appears to have everything anyone could ever want or need but he's destitute at heart. Finally he hears a message that rings so true to him that he knows this is the answer he's been seeking all his life: there is a God---the one and only God who created everything that exists---and this God cares about him and wants to give him an abundant and satisfying life on earth and an eternity of peace and joy in the presence of God forever.

All of the people of Nineveh were sinful because they lived in whatever manner their hearts desired and because they served gods who did not exist. But the king, due to his immense wealth, may have indulged himself in more ways than the average person. On top of being responsible for his own sins, as the leader of the nation he's had a sinful influence on his subjects. When he confronts these facts he falls under so much conviction that in sorrow for his wrongdoings the most powerful king in the world sits down in the dust! He cannot think of any way to lower himself more than this. He cannot think of any way to better demonstrate his desire to humble himself under the mighty hand of a holy God and to express his sorrow for having offended this holy God. 

The king has had a wicked influence on the people in the past but he immediately begins turning this around by being a good influence on them. He proclaims a fast and encourages everyone to confess their sins, repent of their sins, and submit themselves to God. "This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: 'By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.'" (Jonah 3:6-9)

Why does the king command even the animals to fast and to be clothed with sackcloth? The animals didn't sin against God; only the people sinned against God. I can't say for certain but we know that when sin first came into the world, everything in the world was affected by the pollution of sin, even the animals. If the city of Nineveh is destroyed then the animals will become what we would refer to in modern times as "collateral damage". If the Lord rains down fire and brimstone on Nineveh as He did on Sodom and Gomorrah, which may be what He intended to do, no living thing will escape---not the people, not the animals, not the insects, not the crops or the flowers or the grass. The animals haven't sinned against God and they don't need to repent but since they would share the same fate as the people if the Lord destroyed the city, they also take part in the display of repentance that is occurring all over the city. If the people of Nineveh repent and are spared from destruction, the animals also will be spared from destruction. The people are asking the Lord to take pity on them and also on all the animals. At the end of the book of Jonah we will find the Lord saying something that shows us He expects people to care about the welfare of animals. 

In a moment we will look at some words of the Apostle Paul that will provide us with a very accurate description of how the natural world was affected by the sin of mankind. We harmed everything when we fell from grace, which is why natural disasters occur and why things like injuries, illnesses, and deaths exist. But the creation, like mankind, awaits a world that has been set free from the effects of sin. The creation, like mankind, looks forward in hope to the day when our Lord makes all things new, when the children of God will live forever in a body like Jesus' immortal body in a world where no sin will ever again be committed, where no disasters will ever occur, where no person or animal will ever get sick or hurt, and where no animal or person will ever die. "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God." (Romans 8:18-21) Just as the creation shared in the fall of man (as the "collateral damage" of man's sin), the creation will share in man's liberation from bondage to death and decay.

The repentance of the people of Nineveh is genuine and the Lord hears their prayers and has mercy on them. "When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened." (Jonah 3:10) 

The Book Of Jonah. Day 6, Repentance In Nineveh, Part One

In Chapter 1 the Lord commanded the prophet Jonah to go to the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh to preach against the sins of the heathens there. He refused, instead boarding a ship going in the opposite direction. The Lord sent a violent storm upon the sea until Jonah admitted to the Gentile sailors that he had disobeyed God and that their only hope was to cast him into the sea. They eventually did so, albeit very reluctantly, and called upon the God of Israel to forgive them. The Lord immediately calmed the sea and the men on the ship worshiped Him, sacrificed to Him, and made vows to Him. Meanwhile, Jonah was swallowed by a large fish. From the inside of this fish (or perhaps from the realm of the dead as we discussed earlier in our study of the book) he cried out to the Lord for mercy and repented of rebelling against him. When Jonah repented, the Lord commanded the fish to expel him onto the dry land, alive and well.

Now Jonah is in a frame of mind the Lord can work with! He issues the same commission to the prophet again and this time Jonah obeys. "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.'" (Jonah 3:1) We previously talked about Jonah's reasons for not wanting to go to Nineveh. One of those reasons was likely prejudice in his heart toward Gentiles, for he was a prophet of Israel---a nation founded upon the word of God---and probably considered it beneath him to go outside of Israel to preach to pagan idolaters. However, having just completed our study of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, we know that by this point in history the people of Israel were quite idolatrous themselves. The preaching of Jonah and of Elijah and of Elisha and a number of other prophets did not prevent the majority of the populace from falling away from the Lord. This falling away from the Lord is what eventually caused the fall of the kingdom. Jonah's preaching, which may have had little to no effect on his fellow citizens, is going to be extremely effective on the citizens of Nineveh. 

I do not think he expected to be effective at Nineveh. I think he thought it would be a waste of time. Perhaps he said to himself, "If my own people are not listening to my message, why would these pagans listen to me? If the nation founded by the Lord does not repent at my preaching, who would these godless heathens repent?" But just as the Gentiles of the Apostle Paul's day were more interested in the gospel message than were his own fellow citizens, the Gentiles of Jonah's day in the city of Nineveh are going to listen to him and take his words to heart. 

Jonah could not have known how the Ninevites would react but his duty was to go where the Lord sent him. It's true that the Lord sends His word to people He knows will listen and to people He knows will not listen; He is holy and righteous and offers salvation to everyone. No one who has heard His word can stand at His judgment seat someday and claim they were never given an opportunity to repent. I think that Jonah has experienced his preaching being rejected a number of times in his own nation and that he expects to have it rejected by the people of Nineveh. But that's no excuse for refusing to do the work the Lord has called him to do. To his surprise, what is probably the greatest revival of his entire ministry breaks out in Nineveh. 

"Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.' The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth." (Jonah 3:3-5) Nineveh is believed to have been the largest city on earth at that time. Archaeological excavations have shown it to have been somewhere between fifty and sixty miles around the outer edge of the city limits. It was so large that the Bible states that it took three whole days for Jonah to make his way through and to preach within the hearing of every citizen inside the city limits. 

During the days of Jonah's ministry, the Assyrian Empire was the most powerful empire of the ancient world. The once-magnificent Egyptian Empire was on the decline. The original Babylonian Empire had been conquered by the Assyrians; the Neo-Babylonian Empire had not yet arisen to throw off the shackles of Assyria. The northern kingdom of Israel was on the decline politically and militarily because of its spiritual decline. Yet in spite of its power and prominence, the Lord states that Nineveh will be destroyed within forty days if the people do not repent, and it's important to note that in the original Hebrew the word translated into English as "overthrown" is the same Hebrew word that was used for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. No nation on earth at the time was capable of destroying Nineveh but the Lord doesn't have to use any other nation to bring this city down. He can rain fire and brimstone down from the skies to destroy it just as He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

The people who hear the warning of the Lord through Jonah clearly understand the type of fate that will soon befall them if they don't repent. They know it's a fate that will come directly from the God they have rejected. Jonah's three days in the belly of the whale causes him to preach for three days as he has never preached before---with a conviction and a passion he's never felt before---and the people can see the truth on his face and hear the truth in his words. The God who didn't hold back from placing this rebellious man in the belly of a fish won't hold back from burning this sinful city and everyone and everything in it to the ground. 

In tomorrow's passage we will study the second half of Chapter 3 dealing with the repentance of these people. Even the king of Assyria, who is the most powerful and wealthy king on earth in those days, bows his knees to the King of kings and Lord of lords.