Gtcotr/ss081714
Jonah 3
1 ¶ Now the word of the LORD
came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 "Arise, go to Nineveh,
that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you."
3 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.
·
What are you getting up to do?
Hebrews 5:8 Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the
things which He suffered.
Jonah 3
4 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!"
5 ¶ So the people of Nineveh
believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the
least of them.
6 Then word came to the king
of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself
with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to
be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and
his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything;
do not let them eat, or drink water.
8 But let man and beast be
covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from
his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
·
It is a good sign when men are the better for what they suffer …
Jonah 3
9 Who can tell if God
will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not
perish?
·
There
is a place where we stand with God that is somewhere between hope and fear, a
place of reverence where we see our mortality and understand that He alone is
God and we are not.
·
In
this place we do all that is obliged us and turn our humble hearts over to the
good conscious of God.
·
When
we see God we fall at His feet and cast our crowns before Him.
Jonah 3
10 Then God saw their works,
that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that
He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Some
imagine God changed … God does not change, not in the sense of altering His
Word, His Will or His Way.
·
He is the same yesterday, today and forever … (Hebrews 13:8)
·
Malachi 3:6 I am the LORD,
and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already
destroyed.
Jeremiah 18 NLT
7 If I announce that a
certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed,
8 but then that nation
renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned.
9 And if I announce that I
will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom,
10 but then that nation turns
to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.
11 ¶ “Therefore, Jeremiah, go
and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I
am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each
of you, and do what is right.’ ”
12 But the people replied,
“Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly
following our own evil desires.”
13 So this is what the LORD
says: “Has anyone ever heard of such a thing, even among the pagan nations? My virgin
daughter Israel has done something
terrible!
·
Fasting and prayer does not change God, it changes us
·
A changed us changes God
·
But
only in the sense that it releases Him to do His word and will, His way!
