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Turn or Burn
 
Jonah/Yonah the Reluctant Prophet
"The word of Adonai came to Yonah
the son of Amitai:
Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention." Yonah 1:1-2 (CJB) (Complete Jewish Bible) 
God told Jonah to go to Ninevah, the capital of the Assyrian
Empire. Many of Jonah's countrymen had experienced the atrocities of
those ungodly people.
Let's just imagine a Jewish man in New York during World War II
hearing God say, "I'm going to bring terrible judgment on Germany. Go to Berlin
and tell Nazi Germany to repent." Instead, the Jewish man heads to California
and hops a ship to Hawaii!
 His response would have been just like Jonah's! . Jonah hated Nineveh, and so he responded with anger and indifference. Jonah had yet to learn that God loves all people. Through Jonah, God reminded Israel of their missionary purpose. We all know the story how God persuaded Jonah to complete his mission to Ninevah. It's a whale of a tail! (sorry, too good to pass up!) 
"So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the
word of the Lord. Now Nineveh
was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey
in extent. And Jonah
began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said,
“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
Jonah 3:3-4
Jonah was told to go into Ninevah and shout,
"Forty days
and Ninevah will be overthrown." (Turn or Burn!)
Jonah emphasized to the people of Nineveh what would happen if they did not
repent - the city would be
overthrown in judgment. So, the
Ninevites repented of their sins, and were not judged/overthrown!
Here is the biggest miracle! Not that Jonah was swallowed by a
'Big Fish', but the entire city responded to Jonah's
preaching! The people of Nineveh fasted, mourned as if for the dead, and they
did it from the highest to the lowest,
from the
greatest to the least of them.
How many evangelist/preachers today would love to have
that kind of response?
Why was Jonah angry that God spared Nineveh?
Jonathan Swift wrote some verse that expresses Jonah’s frame of mind:
We are God's chosen few,
All others will be damned;
There is no place in heaven for you,
We can't have heaven crammed.
God doesn't lie, yet He told Jonah to do something that didn't
happen!
Some people might struggle with this conflict in the Book of
Jonah and asked these questions, "I thought God couldn't lie. Then why did He
say one thing and do other?"
Overthrown...'Haphak'
The answer to these questions are found when we look deeper into
the original Hebrew. The word which we read as
overthrown, is
the Hebrew "haphak."
Haphak does mean overthrown, but is also means
converted and
changed. Jonah was
shouting a message that could be taken two ways, Ninevah would be
'overthrown'
or...
Ninevah would be
converted,
changed,
become totally new.
Everyone took it to mean judgment, but God chose the Hebrew word
that had multiple meanings.
(Awesome is
this God we serve!)
This brings to mind the Scripture in Hebrews 4:11,
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and
sharper than any twoedged sword..."
The Word of God can cut both ways..."haphak!"
Sometimes we want to help God pass judgment on wicked people,
demanding immediate punishment. But, oh the mercies of God are more than we can
comprehend! Oh, the compassion of our Lord for sinners!
We want to judge, and He has devised a plan to save!
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but
ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and by the Spirit of our God."
1 Corinthians 6:11
In His Love
shalom bj
 
reference:
Blue Letter Bible
Complete Jewish Bible
Living Bible
David Guzik at
www.enduringword.com
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