To Hell with Nineveh
Jonah 4:2
"And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil."
When Jonah went away from Nineveh and hopped on the boat to Tarshish, he was fleeing from the presence of God (Jonah 1:3). Although scholars are not sure where Tarshish was, there is great unanimity as to where the ancient city of Nineveh was located (close to modern day Mosul in Iraq).
There is no doubt that Jonah knew where Nineveh was....first clue, it was East and not West, and boarding a ship in Joppa would not be the way to get there. He was "Going the wrong way" like this clip from "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." The film of Jonah's trek would be "Ships, Whales, and Walking."
Before going to Nineveh, we might surmise that Jonah has afraid for his personal safety and that explains his obstinacy, for Nineveh was a wicked city. It would be logical to assume that he would not be greeted by the inhabitants of Nineveh as Hannah Montana is by preteen girls. It is not until much later in the book that we discover, after Jonah has preached to Nineveh and Nineveh has repented from the King on down, that the reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh was that he was concerned that they might actually repent and receive grace from God. Wow!
This gets to the modern evangelical church and two twin idols that it enshrines.
One, we refuse to preach the hard doctrine of damnation and salvation to the Nations. Too many evangelicals, the Liberal error, water down the Truth. Unfortunately, watering down now leads to Hell and the Lake of Fire later (many evangelicals have no clue about the difference between the two). Jonah seemed to have a solid grasp on God's promises of Judgment. In that sense, he is more spiritually advanced than us. He does not doubt God's promises of wrath.
This brings us to the second idol (if we do take damnation seriously and soberly)....our hardness of heart, the Conservative error. Rather than wanting to see those on the road of perdition to "go the other way," we, like Jonah, seem to want people to be eternally lost; somehow to get what they deserve. There is a complacent cruelty in our not caring enough about lost people. We would rather condemn rather than place ourselves, like Jesus, in the waywards' path. If we think that the world is going to come through the door of the church to get soul care, we are mistaken. We must go to them and literally "Love the Hell out of them."
When the world accuses us of little love, we have to confess this to be true. Jonah, even after he physically went towards Nineveh, in his heart still wanted to see Nineveh damned. What a selfish and sinful response...like a petulant and rebellious child rejoices over the harm of another child...when the first child is equally guilty, and perhaps more guilty, of the same charges. Nineveh eventually was destroyed 150 years later, detailed in the book of Nahum, when it fell into great sin and did not repent anew. Yet, we are not to rejoice in the death of the wicked...neither does God.
"Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Ezekiel 33:11
"And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil."
When Jonah went away from Nineveh and hopped on the boat to Tarshish, he was fleeing from the presence of God (Jonah 1:3). Although scholars are not sure where Tarshish was, there is great unanimity as to where the ancient city of Nineveh was located (close to modern day Mosul in Iraq).
There is no doubt that Jonah knew where Nineveh was....first clue, it was East and not West, and boarding a ship in Joppa would not be the way to get there. He was "Going the wrong way" like this clip from "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." The film of Jonah's trek would be "Ships, Whales, and Walking."
Before going to Nineveh, we might surmise that Jonah has afraid for his personal safety and that explains his obstinacy, for Nineveh was a wicked city. It would be logical to assume that he would not be greeted by the inhabitants of Nineveh as Hannah Montana is by preteen girls. It is not until much later in the book that we discover, after Jonah has preached to Nineveh and Nineveh has repented from the King on down, that the reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh was that he was concerned that they might actually repent and receive grace from God. Wow!
This gets to the modern evangelical church and two twin idols that it enshrines.
One, we refuse to preach the hard doctrine of damnation and salvation to the Nations. Too many evangelicals, the Liberal error, water down the Truth. Unfortunately, watering down now leads to Hell and the Lake of Fire later (many evangelicals have no clue about the difference between the two). Jonah seemed to have a solid grasp on God's promises of Judgment. In that sense, he is more spiritually advanced than us. He does not doubt God's promises of wrath.
This brings us to the second idol (if we do take damnation seriously and soberly)....our hardness of heart, the Conservative error. Rather than wanting to see those on the road of perdition to "go the other way," we, like Jonah, seem to want people to be eternally lost; somehow to get what they deserve. There is a complacent cruelty in our not caring enough about lost people. We would rather condemn rather than place ourselves, like Jesus, in the waywards' path. If we think that the world is going to come through the door of the church to get soul care, we are mistaken. We must go to them and literally "Love the Hell out of them."
When the world accuses us of little love, we have to confess this to be true. Jonah, even after he physically went towards Nineveh, in his heart still wanted to see Nineveh damned. What a selfish and sinful response...like a petulant and rebellious child rejoices over the harm of another child...when the first child is equally guilty, and perhaps more guilty, of the same charges. Nineveh eventually was destroyed 150 years later, detailed in the book of Nahum, when it fell into great sin and did not repent anew. Yet, we are not to rejoice in the death of the wicked...neither does God.
"Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Ezekiel 33:11
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