Jonah 3:6-10 "For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (7) And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: (8) But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. (9) Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (10) And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."
I'm using more Scripture than usual this morning because I want us to get the
full impact of these actions. Through Jonah, God called the Ninevites to
repentance. And they did. They called for a fast from the king unto the least.
Every man and every beast was covered with sackcloth which was the outward sign
of the inner turning of the heart. There was a deep concern of the action of
God toward them if they did not repent. Repentance is not only a feeling of
remorse, but it is the actual turning away from the thing which is offensive to
God. The king made a decree, "... cry mightily unto God: yea, let
them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their
hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce
anger, that we perish not?" And the people did turn away from their
offences.
Then we see God's response to their repentant hearts. "And God saw their
works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that
he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." This is
not the only time where we see the action of God repenting from His intentions
toward men. They repented "from their evil way" and God repented of
the evil that He had intended toward them. We saw at the very beginning of
chapter 1 that God had told Jonah, "their wickedness is come up before
me." The evil way of Nineveh was wickedness. The evil that God "had
said that he would do unto them" was the consequence of their wickedness.
God was not going to do wickedness unto the people, but He was going to bring
about the chastisement as a result of their wickedness. But because they had
turned away from their sinfulness, God "turned away from His fierce anger."
Remember, repentance is a "turning away from" something. The people
turned away (repented) from their wickedness and God turned away (repented)
from His fierce anger. But made a turning away from something, but God's
repentance did not include wickedness. We are told that "God
repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did
it not." The evil spoken concerning God was not the same evil as spoken
against Nineveh. One was a wicked evil and the other was to do damage. God
would have done damage to that wicked city if they had not turned away.
God is willing to use whatever means it takes in order to bring about
repentance in our lives. It is His goodness through patience that brings about
repentance in our lives. Lord, I'm so thankful that you are patient toward me.