Jonah 4:11

GOD'S MESSENGER RUNNING AHEAD OF GODTHE DECLARATION OF JEHOVAH

TEXT: Jonah 4:11

11

and should I not have regard for Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

QUERIES

a.

Why would God want to have regard for wicked Nineveh?

b.

What is the meaning, cannot discern between right and left hand?

c.

Why mention cattle?

PARAPHRASE

And God said, Should I not then be just as concerned for the preservation of Nineveh as you were for the gourd vine. You needed the vine and I have urgent need for Nineveh to be preserved. In addition to this there are more than 120,000 innocent children and dumb animals abiding in that city.

SUMMARY

God reveals to Jonah His purpose in sparing Nineveh.

COMMENT

Jonah 4:11. SHOULD I NOT HAVE REGARD FOR NINEVEH. God must use other means than a demonstration of His wrath upon Nineveh if He is to bring any heartfelt repentance to the calloused Israelites of Jeroboam's day. He must call their jealousy into action, (cf. comments on Jonah 1:1-2). God seeks to arouse Israel, by the example of this heathen nation spared due to repentance, to the startling consideration that the favor of God was bestowed on those of every race who work righteousnessand of the possibility that the kingdom of heaven might be transplanted to a people more spiritually prepared to receive it! Yes, the Lord at this time peculiarly had need of Nineveh in its penitent state; the cause of righteousness in the earth could ill afford to spare so singular a witness to the truth; the spiritual good of Israel itself in particular required it.

This singular demonstration of God's mercy and forgiveness and salvation would also furnish hope for the faithful remnant later in captivity. This concept which the Lord sought to impress even on Jonah personally in his own experience in the sea, and which was taught again in the experience of the gourd, provided for all the faithful among the future exiles a sure ground of consolation and hope. There would be hope for them even in what might seem to be despair and grief,
And so ends this remarkable history of a remarkable prophet of God. There are some significant lessons to be learned from this account.

1.

Beware of letting our ideas of the results of God's work interfere with carrying out His present will for our lives.

2.

Beware lest we belittle what can be or what is accomplished for God by our ideas of the significance or insignificance of the place of service.

3.

Wherever and whenever God is pleased to manifest His grace and goodness it is our obligation and privilege to acknowledge and rejoice in that manifestation.

4.

God's ways are not our ways. God does not change; man must change!

QUIZ

1.

What was the ultimate purpose in sparing Nineveh?

2.

What hope would the sparing of Nineveh give to the Israelites of the captivity?

3.

How did God compare Jonah's grief for the gourd to His concern for Nineveh?