God’s compassion is boundless but will the Ninevites listen, see their need for repentance and follow Him wholeheartedly? The Lord is slow to anger but He will also bring about justice according to His timetable. The prophets Jonah and Nahum speak to this message.
Nahum 1:3 (NIV)
"The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. "
Introduction
Jonah and
Nahum are part of the genre of Scripture called the Minor Prophets. They are called minor because of their short
length, not because their contents are less significant than the Major
Prophets. In Biblical times, the prophets
worked to refocus the people to live in faithfulness and obedience to God. Many of their writings call the people to
repentance and would warn the people of coming judgment if they did not obey
God. But the prophets did not just
preach doom and gloom they also preached a message of salvation and coming
glory. Sometimes prophets wrote of
specific future events where they had seen a vision and other times they just
proclaimed God’s promises. This
devotional will look at two prophets from the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Jonah
and Nahum, who ministered to the Assyrians in Nineveh about 150-200 years apart
from each other. They were both sent by
God because of the wickedness of the Assyrian people, although they had differing
messages.
Read: Jonah 1
During the
time of Jonah the Assyrians, of which Nineveh was the flourishing capital, were
one of Israel’s great foes. The book of
Jonah depicts it as a wicked city worthy of destruction. God sent Jonah to preach to the Ninevites of
their coming destruction and of God’s forgiveness if they would repent. The hated Assyrians, Israel’s arch enemy,
would be forgiven by God if they repented.
Jonah was being asked to preach repentance in one of the most dangerous
places on earth, in a godless, faithless city filled with debauchery and corruption
and tell them of their need for repentance.
No wonder Jonah ran to Tarshish, which was in the opposite direction! But the Lord sent a storm that threatened the
ship (vs. 4). The sailors worked hard to
try to save the ship by throwing cargo overboard to lighten the vessel while
Jonah slept below. The captain confronted
Jonah to call on his god which exposed Jonah’s guilt. Jonah must be thrown overboard to save the
ship and the crew. The men tried to row
to land but could not (vs. 13) and when the situation became impossible they
reluctantly threw Jonah overboard in full acknowledgement of God and His power,
and pled with God not to hold them responsible for Jonah’s death (vs. 14). The sea then became calm and the sailors
greatly feared the Lord. Jonah was then
swallowed by a great fish and was inside the fish for three days and three
nights.
Prayer and Journaling
1. Jonah
was being sent with a message of forgiveness to the most brutal place on
earth. This shows that even our worst
enemies can repent and be forgiven. Ask
the Lord to show you someone in your life who is in need of God’s
forgiveness. Ask Him to show you how you
can pray for this person and how God wants to use you to testify to His love
and forgiveness.
2. When
we repent God forgives! What a glorious
God we serve – a God who forgives! Ask
the Lord to show you how He has forgiven you. Thank Him for this forgiveness
and for the wonderful blessing of being one of His children.
3. Pray
for the Canadian Church to hear the message of God’s forgiveness if they repent
and turn from their wickedness. Ask the
Lord to revive the church to be fully obedient to Him.
