May 3rd, 2026: Christian Expectation of Grace | Jonah 3:1-5, 4:6-11

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (Romans 12: 1-3).

Today we study in the book of Jonah. All of the major and minor prophetic writings in the Old Testament record in detail the messages given from God to that prophet.  In the book of Jonah, the message is extremely short and the writings in this book speak of the behavior of the man Jonah, rather than focusing strictly on his words.  Jonah had been called to preach to the arch enemy of Israel - Nineveh.

 Nineveh was the largest and the capital city of the Assyrian Empire - today would contain Turkey, parts of Iraq, Iran, and Syria. The Assyrians as a whole were extreme in their brutality toward their enemies and gruesome in their worship methods. Their crimes against humanity were atrocious and horrific. The Assyrians were known for the slaughter of their enemies and their torture practices. Their religious ceremonies were full of idolatry, sorcery, sexual immorality and pagan human sacrificial rituals.  The Assyrian reputation was so well known that many cultures simply gave up rather than go to battle with them.  

 God called Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to preach to them about their destruction.  At the time of Jonah, the Assyrians had not yet conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.  Jonah knew of their wickedness.  He knew of their threats and their reputation.  Jonah did not think it would be right for God to give a nation such as Assyria, the enemy of Israel, grace. He feared that God would be God to them. His fear we find out, was justified, because, as he thought, if they repented, God would forgive!   Nineveh’s reputation was horrible, but God’s reputation was to hear and forgive.

Tarshish is located in southern Spain and is thought to be roughly  2,500-3,000 miles from Nineveh.  Nineveh is east and Tarshish is as far west as one could possibly go at that time. Jonah ran away from Nineveh to head to Tarshish. While we can’t always understand our callings, God does not make mistakes. By attempting to run away, Jonah refused even the idea of grace for Nineveh, and hoped God will send someone else, or better still, send the promised destruction. Are we guilty of the same?  Today, we will see that God does not forget his callings, whether for Jonah or for us! For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Romans 11:29).

A great storm arose that threatened everyone on the ship with Jonah heading to Tarshish.  When asked to pray to his God, Jonah told the crew that his God is the very Creator of the seas and that the reason for the severe tempest they are attempting to survive, was Jonah’s disobedience to Him.  Jonah’s suggestion was to toss him overboard and stop the storm.  Yet, God protected Jonah and prepared a great fish to swallow him and spit him out on land, heading him back toward Nineveh.  Scripture doesn’t say how far they were away from the shore, or where exactly the great fish vomited Jonah out, but we do know that it was three days and three nights that Jonah was inside the great fish.  How do we know that?  Because Jesus himself told us. 

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.(Matthew 12: 39-41)  By most estimates, it would have been another 500-600 miles of travel for Jonah to reach Nineveh. 

Jonah 3: 1-5

 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

Notice that when Jonah headed to Nineveh, the instruction from  God did not change!  Jonah had a job to do; a calling from God.  As you study, think about your calling.  What is it that God has told you He wants you to do?  If you have left something undone, start there.  He won’t give you more to do until you are obedient to the first things God asked. 

So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 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.

Look at the message, eight words!  Jonah doesn’t give them a way out! Yet the heathen pagan people of Nineveh believe him and repent!  They put on sack cloth and fasted as signs of their sincerity.  Sadly Jonah isn’t very happy with their response.  Let the same not be said of the church when a sinner repents!

Jonah was not responsible for how the residents of Nineveh reacted or responded to his  message.   He was responsible to do what God asked him to do - no excuses.  It is the same with the church.  Whatever the fear or reason for hesitation, our  job is to be obedient and to grow in our relationship with God.  

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: (2 Peter 1: 4-10). As we grow, adding to our faith, we are to share and extend grace to a lost and dying world.  We are not in charge of the results. We are, however, responsible to make the fact of eminent destruction known and share Jesus’ grace that leads to salvation. 

Jonah 4: 6-11

 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

But Jonah was not happy that the people of Nineveh repented in sack cloth and ashes.  He was not happy that God extended grace. So, Jonah did what we do when we don’t get our way.  He pouted.  Sitting on a hill outside of the town to watch.  It may have been that he was thinking, maybe God would change His mind and strike them all dead.   These were cruel, killing, pagan sinful people. They were not of God’s chosen people.  They sinned great sins.  They had caused tremendous harm to everyone around them. Yet, there HE is; God, showing mercy and giving grace! I can understand Jonah’s anger, but it is wrong thinking.   

You have to admit Nineveh was on a grand scale of evil.  And although Jonah won’t see it, because he will be long dead, Nineveh did eventually  fall and was destroyed for their wickedness about 100 years later, exactly as Jonah was told to prophesy. Nineveh would forget about God and their repentance and return to their wickedness. The prophet Nahum, would later prophesy to Ninevah: Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses: Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. (Nahum 3: 1-4).  God does what He promises, with or without our understanding, and in His time. 

So God, like the Father He is, tries to show Jonah the futility of his pouting.  He prepares a gourd  to shelter our angry disappointed prophet from the heat of the sun. Ironically Jonah does not see God’s hand of grace though he is glad for the shade. 

But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

But the same God that prepared the gourd also prepared a worm and a vehement east wind.  He can do that you know.  He will teach us if we listen.  Jonah again is angry and wishes to just die!  God asks him the question we should ask ourselves.  Do you have a right to be angry?  God said this to Cain. Jesus said it in a parable.  Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? (Matthew 20: 12-15).

Some scholars think that Nineveh’s inability to discern between their right hand and their left hand is referring to the children of that city.  Sometimes in our rush to judgement we fail to see a situation as it truly is.  We narrowly see only what we prefer.  

There continues to be quite a debate about why Jonah felt the way he did and acted the way he did as a prophet of God.  May we suggest that even the best of us, regardless of our calling, will misunderstand grace and get it wrong from time to time.  We are not so unlike Jonah as we would like to think. 

Nineveh got a reprieve; destruction would occur down the road.  The book of Jonah ends with no resolution of Jonah’s anger or repentance. Did he ask forgiveness - we are not told. Did he continue to prophesy - we are not told. Let’s bring the lesson down to our level today.  Do we as the church or individually, harbor the same resentful attitude to those that hurt us, disagree with us, or deliberately annoy us.  Do we allow or even help them to reach out to God? Is there anyone or any group we have labeled too evil or too  wicked to repent?  Excluding the unforgivable blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, do we hinder salvation based on our opinions? Are we angry at God’s goodness?

There will be a day when we will understand all things.  For now, we trust God.  He knows the beginning and the end.  He knows the plans and purposes that we do not.  He works things out for all sides of the encounter. He freely extends grace to those who will seek it.  Aren’t you thankful? 

Thank you for studying with us! God bless!