SAVING NINEVEH

Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible…. 

Jonah 1:1-2 NKJV

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 

Jonah is an interesting man.  It can be that his writing is the first of any prophet.  But as it is a historical narrative of Jonah’s call, his experiences, and the fact of his preaching in Nineveh, it is not a prophetic writing in the proper sense. 

He was probably contemporary with Amos, maybe with Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah.  He was surely a prophet at the same time as Elisha and maybe as early as Elijah. 

This was a rich time in Israel’s history as far as their greatest prophets were concerned.  Preaching and writing men were active in both kingdoms.  It is very probable that Jonah came from the school of prophets that gathered around Elijah and Elisha.  From II Kings 14:25 it is evident that he was active in Israel. ²⁵ He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. 

Jonah has for two centuries been looked at by Liberal Scholars as a myth with a great religious principle residing in it, the free grace of God.  But there is a masterful statement in Alexander Whyte’s Bible Characters that sums up the issue, pg. 130.

“The advance of science does not involve the retreat of religion.  Nor does the uniformity and harmony of Nature enable her to dispense with the sleepless oversight of her Creator.  The heavens may become still more astronomical that they yet are, without that making them any the less conspicuously the immediate movement of the Divine Hand.  And the sea herself will yet be found to ebb and flow, and toss and storm, according to fixed and foreseen laws, without thereby blotting out God’s footprints in the deep, or causing any less praise to arise to Him from a smooth sea or any less prayer from a storm.  Our meteorology has still a multitude of confused and restless phenomena to register, and a great mass of carefully-taken inductions to reduce to a rule: but, all the time, our Bible keeps impressing upon us that bad weather overtook Jonah for his bad behavior; and that his disobedience before God had disturbed an equilibrium that was far too delicately poised for any earthly instrument of heat or cold, or dry or moist, to take account of.” 

The concern in tracing the activity of Jonah has spent its energy and genius in trying to determine why the Prophet refused to go to Nineveh.  And after all the energy and genius a great fact is missed with the truth being simply Jonah was disobedient - and oh how I identify with that. 

The fact missed is God spoke to Nineveh in the same way - the only way - He always communicates with the world, through His church.  He could have raised up a Balaam or his ass.  He had done this before.  But God, though not bound by His established principles, most ordinarily acts according to them.  He speaks to the world through the church. 

The whole of Acts is replete with this fact so that we should have it firmly established in our mind.  The commission in Matthew 28:18-20.  ¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.  This is easily overlooked.  By this is not intended that the missionary responsibility is overlooked, but the uniqueness  of God’s communication with His human creation.  Any fair exposition of Romans 1:14-17 has to recognize the Gospel is God’s word to the nations.  ¹⁴ I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. ¹⁵ So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”  Having said this look at Calvin’s insight on Matthew 28:18 New Testament Commentary Vol. 3, pg. 249. 

“Before relating that the office of teaching was laid upon them, Matthew says that Christ spoke first of His power, and rightly so.  No ordinary authority would be enough for this.  He had to hold supreme and truly divine power of command, to declare that eternal life was promised in His name, that the whole globe was held under His sway, and that a doctrine was published which would subdue all high-seeking, and bring the whole human race into humility.  By this preface, Christ not only urged the Apostles to have a brave confidence in their powers to fulfill their task, but also established the faith of His Gospel unto all ages.”