Maybe Repenting Is A Good Idea?

“Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” Jonah 3:9 (ESV)

It’s funny how we see the name Nimrod in our present day thinking. We attribute it to someone who doesn’t have any good sense but in his heyday Nimrod was considered to be a great man…until he and his subjects decided to build a tower, the rest is history. But perhaps what Nimrod is best known for is Nineveh. And when we look at Nineveh in a Biblical thought process a lot of us would think Jonah!! Jonah was a proud, self-centered egotist: willful, pouting, jealous, and bloodthirsty; a good patriot and lover of Israel, without proper respect for God or love for his enemies …but the teaching we get from the OT book that’s bears his name is priceless.

Now without going through the whole story, we can safely say that most of us reading this knows the story of Jonah and might even agree that my description of Jonah almost sounds familiar to ourselves (well maybe that’s a stretch…hmmm). It’s what starts to happen towards the end of the third chapter I would like to focus in on. Jonah goes to Nineveh after Moby Dick spits him up and says, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” and that’s all it took!! Next thing you know, out comes the sackcloth and a day of fasting. This warning was so potent that even the king sits in ashes and makes a decree that all should do likewise, even the family goat gets the sackcloth suit…and then the king says, “let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.”

Maybe it was the appearance that Jonah had after three days in the belly of the beast that convinced them but whatever it was it made the Nivevites repent and turn. And then to say, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” knowing full well that his society has a reputation that would make Satan blush…leap of faith? John Gill had this thought, “This Heathen prince encourages his subjects not to despair of, but to hope for, the mercy of God, though they could not be sure of it; and it may be observed, that he does not put their hope of not perishing, or of salvation, upon their fasting, praying, and reformation, but upon the will, mercy, and goodness of God.”

But what about this moment in time? What’s it gonna take to get the world around us to repent and turn away from their wicked ways? I know you and I can say the Name, so take a breath with me and let’s say “Jesus Christ” together. The Great Commission commands all of us who name the Name that’s above all names to go out into this world and share The Gospel Good News with this ball of hate but this planet is wacked and sometimes we can feel just like Jonah. I just hope that what I described him as isn’t part of what we would think is our “good Christian character.” Dare I ask, do you think there is a little Jonah in all of us? Sometimes I think modern day Christianity wants rapture so that YHVH can wipe out the blight of His creation…grace and mercy can take a back seat until He is done.

So, maybe repenting is a good idea don’t ya think? I admit that I struggle with the notion that God should just wipe out the world that I came out from BUT it is His desire that ALL come to repentance and that none should perish. Who do I think I am to argue against that…Jonah? May it not be so. I wasn’t the nicest guy while I thought I could hang with Ninevites and I may still not be but because of the hope I have in Christ Jesus maybe His Father will turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that I may not perish. Besides, I don’t like the sackcloth suit idea, I hear that fabric is itchy…but if I have to, I guess I have to. Amen?

Daily Bible Reading: Numbers 21-22

Think About This: “You need to be more tender-hearted and compassionate toward the faults of others. Let everything that bothers you flow like water under a bridge. Live in the presence of God.”—Fenelon

Verses to Memorize: The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you with his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17