Pastor Brian Kom – April 1, 2025
Bible reading: Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city – a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. (Jonah 3:3-5)
Devotion: We continue our devotional study of the book of Jonah.
* Exposition. Nineveh is described as a “very important” city. Literally, the Hebrew says, “great to God”. Elsewhere in the Old Testament (Genesis 23:6 – “prince of God” translated “mighty prince” and Psalm 36:6 – “mountains of God” translated “mighty mountains”) the word God is used as a superlative (ie. tallest tree, fastest animal, etc.). That could be how the word is used here (very important). But in the other cases, the word God is modifying a noun; in our verse it’s modifying an adjective (great). Perhaps a better translation is that Nineveh was a city that was “great to God” in the sense of “important to God”. However we translate the phrase, Nineveh was important to God. God sent His prophet to this wicked city instead of simply destroying it. That’s striking because Nineveh was a staunch enemy of God’s people.
* Application. What do you think of Jonah’s sermon? We don’t know for sure, but we get the sense from the text that his message was short and simple: forty more days and God will act in judgment. Is there a place for us to give such a stark warning? Most certainly. If people are stuck in their sin and don’t seem to care what God says, we need to warn them that they are headed for judgment on the Last Day. There have been a few times in my ministry when I clearly told someone, “Unless you repent of your sin, you will spend eternity in hell. God has warned you through me.” We don’t say such things out of frustration or anger. We love the person enough to give them that important warning.
A pastor once told me that someone had shown up in church and said, “I used to go to this church many, many years ago. The former pastor visited with me about a sin I was committing. He was patient with me and tried to win me back. When I told him that I just didn’t care, he told me, “I am here to warn you that if you don’t repent, you will go to hell.” I laughed at him and never saw him again. But over the years, what he said to me worried me. Now, all these years later, I decided that I needed to come back and repair my relationship with God.” The former pastor was in heaven, but his words kept working in that man’s heart.
Such a stern warning is certainly not the first thing we say to someone. We want to be winsome, empathetic, loving, and patient with people. We want to listen deeply to them to learn where they are coming from as well as we possibly can. We want to show them how much we care about them with our words and actions. At the same time, there is a time and place for the sharp use of God’s law.