For being only four chapters long, the Book of Jonah packs quite a punch. Jonah was called by God to take a message to  Nineveh (modern Mosul in Iraq) but ran away instead.  He thought he could escape on a boat bound for Tarshish, which was about a thousand miles in the wrong direction.  Of course the Lord watched him do this and created a great storm in the Mediterranean Sea as Jonah was trying to cross. Jonah quickly realized Who had sent the storm and why. When the waves threatened to overwhelm the small ship, he convinced the sailors their only hope was to throw him over the side and when they did the storm subsided.  Then the Lord summoned a great fish to rescue Jonah and He spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish while contemplating the folly of his ways.  When Jonah repented, the Lord had the fish vomit him out on dry land and the next time the Lord asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, he obeyed immediately.

It’s a great lesson on the folly of trying to avoid the Lord’s call on your life, but the lessons we can learn from Jonah don’t end there.

Lesson #2
Nineveh was a Gentile city, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and had no covenant with God.  They had made no agreement to obey Him like the Israelites had (Exodus 24:3), and God had no obligation to save them.  At one time their ancestors had known the Lord but over time the people had drifted away and taken a different path, one of paganism. But in a demonstration of His love for them in spite of their rejection of Him, God saw fit to warn them of impending judgment, and when Jonah finally arrived with God’s warning the response was remarkable to say the least.

The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.  Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.  But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.  Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (Jonah 3:5-9)

The Pharaoh of Egypt had arrogantly asked Moses, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2)  But unlike him, the King of Nineveh remembered God and knew He had no desire to judge them, but that their behavior had made it necessary.  If they changed their behavior maybe He would be merciful.

They changed their behavior, God showed compassion, and judgment was averted.

Now this was no small feat. Nineveh was a large and important city.  According to Jonah 3:3 a visit to Nineveh required 3 days just to see it all.  Jonah 4:11tells us 120,000 people lived there.  Some scholars say the fact that God said they didn’t know their right hand from their left means He was only counting the children under the age of reason.  If so, that would have made the total population more like half a million.  And everyone of them from the greatest to the least obeyed the King’s directive.

Besides fasting, praying and donning sack cloth we’re not told just what the Ninevites did to postpone their time of judgment.  The King’s decree called on the people to give up their evil ways and their violent behavior, but there’s no indication that they ever converted to Judaism or offered sacrifices for their sins, or even  began to worship the God who had threatened them.  We don’t know of any who were saved through faith in the coming Redeemer.  They just tried to behave in a manner they thought would be more acceptable to Him.

It was external, physical, national behavior and to some extent it worked.  One generation of Ninevites was spared a terrible judgment and allowed to die in peace, but as far as we can tell they all went to Hell anyway.  And the next generation behaved as badly as ever.  They conquered the Northern Kingdom and scattered its people to the four winds leading them away into slavery.  The one after that  came within one day of conquering the South before God put an end to their evil ways. The night before the battle when they were camped on Mt. Scopus looking down over the Temple Mount  God sent an angel into their camp with devastating results.

Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!  So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (Isaiah 37:36-37)

Of course God knew all this would happen when He sent Jonah to Nineveh.  He knew He was going to empower the Babylonians to conquer the so-called known world and that Nineveh and the entire Assyrian Empire would soon be no more. So what was His point?

I think this lesson from Jonah was intended as a message to the Israelites.  The Northern Kingdom was over 100 years into it’s flirtation with idolatry and Jonah was a prophet from the land of Zebulon who was known to the King (2 Kings 14:25).  Later, the southern Kingdom would fall into idolatry as well and over a 23 year period God would offer them a deal even better than the one Jonah carried to Nineveh (Jeremiah 25:3-6).

In an effort to turn his people back to Him, God was using Nineveh to give them a demonstration of His Promise to Israel in 2 Chronicles 7:14; “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

The Ninevites were not God’s people and they weren’t called by His name, but when they humbled themselves and turned from their wicked ways the scheduled judgment was postponed.  Tragically, the Israelites of  both kingdoms, who were God’s people, missed the lesson of Jonah, ignored His promise, and suffered the consequences.  Their lesson was wasted.

Lesson #3
700 years later Jesus said He would prove Himself to Israel’s leaders using Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish as a sign.  It would be another lesson from Jonah.

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:38-40)

He was speaking of the resurrection, an unmistakable sign that He was who He claimed to be. It was the definitive proof they had asked for, and should have removed all doubt that He was their Messiah.  After all, how many other times had someone made such a prediction and then fulfilled it?   And just as Jonah had given Nineveh 40 days notice, Jesus waited 40 days after His crucifixion for Israel to recognize Him before finally departing for Heaven (Acts 1:3,9).  That lesson was wasted, too.

Lesson #4
In Romans 15:4 Paul said that everything that was written in the past was written to teach us.  That being the case there’s a lesson from Jonah for us, too. But remember, things that were external, physical and national in the Old Testament often become internal, spiritual, and personal in the New. (Read Something Old, Something New.)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

When Jesus came into the world we began receiving clues that God’s focus was widening to include all His creation, not just Israel.  Henceforth the emphasis would shift from external, physical, national behavior to internal, spiritual, personal belief.  It’s not how we behave that saves us, but what we believe.

The Ninevites responded to Jonah’s warning with external, physical, national behavior and their generation escaped the coming judgment. So if God sent a prophet like Jonah with a similar warning to us today, what would be the proper response?   Is there a New Testament equivalent to 2 Chron. 7:14?  The answer is yes and it’s  John 6:28-29.

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

It’s becoming more and more obvious that the world is under judgment. No nation is exempt.  Escape from judgment has become a personal matter, and can only be found by joining a people of no nation, but of a Kingdom that’s in the world but not of the world. The Kingdom of God.  And our King, who cannot lie, has promised to  protect us from it.

They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thes. 1:9-10).

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes 5:9).

Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth (Rev. 3:10).

No matter what country you live in, trying to appropriate Old Testament promises made to a different people under a different set of rules  won’t do any good.  You can’t save your country but you can save yourself by believing in the one God sent to save you. And then by the power of the Holy Spirit you can show others how to save themselves the same way.  Remember, it’s internal, spiritual and personal.

If you know for sure you belong to the Lord, then you have nothing to worry about.  Your challenge now is to live in such a way that your life serves as an example that attracts others to Him.  If you’re not sure you’re His, you should hurry to make yourself so.  Everyone who asks receives, all who seek will find, and to whoever knocks the door will be opened (Matt. 7:7-8). No one is refused, no one is excluded.  All you have to to is to admit you’re a sinner, and ask Him to be your Savior and forgive your sins. He will send His Holy Spirit to show you what to do from there (Ephes. 1:13-14).  The Church could disappear any day now, without a prior sign or warning, and those who are left behind will soon be living in a much less friendly world.

When the people of Nineveh heard the voice of Jonah they responded immediately and although Nineveh’s destruction was foreordained, their generation was spared.  The same is true today, but the appropriate response is different.  Instead of being external, physical and national it’s internal, spiritual, and personal.  The destruction of the world is foreordained.  If you hear the voice of the Lord, respond immediately and you’ll be spared.  It’s our lesson from Jonah.  Don’t let it be wasted.

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.’”(Psalm 40:6-8, from the Septuagint translation. Attributed to Jesus in Hebrews 10:5-7).

People who don’t think of the Bible as one message for everyone, but see the Old Testament as the part for the Jews while the New testament is the part for the Church miss out on a lot. They don’t see that while the two parts of the Book are obviously different they are also tied together.

The Old Testament explained how the Israelites were supposed to behave while the New Testament takes some of those behavioral imperatives and presents them in the spiritual sense to show us what we’re supposed to believe.  If you look closely you’ll find that things that obviously call for external, physical, and national behavior in the Old Testament often become internal, spiritual and personal beliefs in the New.

The Sign Of The Covenant
Let’s start with the very foundation of  Israel’s relationship with God to show you what I mean.  Shortly after God made His covenant with Abraham He required him and everyone in his household to be circumcised as a sign of their covenant.  He said from that time on every male eight days old or older had to be circumcised or he would be excluded from being part of God’s people (Genesis 17:10-14).  It was an external sign, it was physical, and it was national.

Now listen to Paul in Romans 2:28-29.  A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.

Circumcision was an external, physical sign, an identifying mark that every male Israelite had to take to be part of the nation.   The mark that replaced it in the New Testament is a spiritual one that no man can see, and that God gives to us.  Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Cor. 1:21-22)

And in Galatians 3:28-29 Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Circumcision had become internal, spiritual, and personal.

The Giving Of The Law
Later, at Mt. Sinai, God said, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”(Exodus 19:5-6) He was adding  the most elaborate and detailed system of religious and social behavior ever devised. 613 laws to keep, dietary restrictions to follow, sacrifices every day for all manner of violations, and everyone had to obey.  It was external, physical, national behavior.

And what became of all those laws, restrictions, and sacrifices? The endless religious work that God required of all Jews?  According to the quote from Psalm 40:6-8 above, none of this was pleasing to God.  Its only purpose was to set aside the penalties due the Israelites for their sins until the Redeemer came to pay those penalties on their behalf.  Jesus said He didn’t come to abolish the Law but fulfill it (Matt. 5:17).

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”(John 6:28-29).

External, physical, national behavior from the Old Testament had become an internal, spiritual, personal belief in the New.

The Sabbath
The Sabbath was a day of rest, a holy day.  God had labored for six days in the Creation.  On the seventh day the work of creation was finished and He rested (Genesis 2:2-3).  In memorial, He commanded the Israelites to do the same (Exodus 20:8-11). Anyone caught working on the Sabbath was to suffer physical death (Numbers 15:32-36).  External, physical, national behavior.

But Jesus worked on the Sabbath (John 8:14-16), and Paul wrote that while some consider one day to be more sacred than another, others consider every day to be alike. He said each one should be fully convinced in his own mind (Romans 14:5).  Had the Sabbath become optional?

Then the writer of Hebrews explained that the Sabbath Law was symbolic of the rest a believer enters upon being saved.  Just as the Lord rested when the work of creation was done, we are to rest in the Lord when we’re saved because as soon as we accept the pardon He purchased for us the work of salvation is done. We’re a new creation (Hebrews 4:9-11, 2 Cor. 5:17). Internal, spiritual, personal belief.

Those who continue to work to either earn or keep their salvation are saying they aren’t really saved yet. In effect they’re relying on their own work and are not resting in the Lord’s completed work on their behalf.  Since their work can never be sufficient they will be scheduled for spiritual death.

Bread From Heaven
Or how about the manna God sent the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 16)? Everyone had to go out and collect their own, no one could collect it for anyone else, and everyone got just enough. It kept them alive in the wilderness. External, physical, national behavior.

Jesus called Himself the bread from Heaven and said said the manna symbolized Him.  Anyone partaking of him would never go hungry (John 6:31-35).  But everyone has to get Him for themselves, no one can get him for anyone else and everyone gets just enough to save them forever.  Internal, spiritual, personal belief.

There are more examples we could use but I think you get the idea. Hebrews 10:1 says the Law is only a shadow of the good things to come not the realities themselves. The reality is Jesus and the whole Book speaks of Him.

A New Creation
The Pharisees were the best examples of proper Old Testament behavior ever, but Jesus said our righteousness has to surpass theirs in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:20).  He said they looked great from the outside but on the inside they were full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matt. 23:27).  Tax collectors and prostitutes would enter the Kingdom ahead of them (Matt. 21:31).

He said this because their obedience to the Law was an act of their own will and a matter of self discipline rather than a changed heart. It was external, physical behavior. They were not born again.  Their spirit was not one with the Spirit of God. They had trained themselves to look good on the outside but on the inside they hadn’t changed themselves at all. They were not a new creation.

That’s because no one can recreate themselves.  We’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we’re sinners. It’s in our nature. We can only escape judgment because God sent His Son to pay the penalty due us for our sins.  Our behavior alone will not suffice, no matter how exemplary.

Paul said no one will be considered righteous by keeping the Law, but that a righteousness apart from the Law has been made known.  It’s a righteousness from God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Romans 3:21-22). Internal, spiritual, personal belief.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:17,21).

From God’s perspective everyone who is born again has already become a new creation even though we still see ourselves the same old way.   Paul even went so far as to say that when he sinned, God looked at him as though it wasn’t really he who had sinned but the sin nature that still lived within him (Romans 7:20).

He also said that everything that was written in the past was written to teach us (Romans 15:4). In this case the lesson we’re supposed to learn is that man’s best external, physical behavior falls hopelessly short of God’s standards.

Israel proved that applying will power and self discipline to behave the way God commanded them always led to rebellion, because it was all external behavior they grew to resent.  There was no internal change. Mankind will prove this point again in the Millennium.  1,000 years of perfect in person rule by the Lord Himself with Satan bound in chains will result in rebellion on a world wide scale (Rev. 20:7-10).

Only a new heart will solve our problem, and this will only happen when our mortal, perishable, corruptible bodies are changed. The wages of sin is death, Paul wrote (Romans 6:23), and death will be the last enemy  to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26).  As long as there are natural humans in the world there will be sin, no matter what external circumstances exist.

Beginning with the rapture of the Church, Jesus will be focused on destroying this enemy.  He has to reign until this is accomplished (1 Cor. 15:25). At the rapture we the living, together with the dead in Christ, will be changed from mortal to immortal (1 Cor. 15:51-53). At the Second Coming Old Testament saints and Tribulation believers who died for their faith will have a similar experience (Daniel 12:1-2, Rev. 20:4). At the end of the Millennium the same will happen for Millennial believers.  (Although the focus of the Great white Throne judgment is on unbelievers of all ages, Rev. 20:15 gives us a hint that believers from the Millennial Age will be spared.)

During this time Jesus will have destroyed all dominion, authority, and power that conflicts with God’s will (1 Cor. 15:24).   The Greek word translated destroyed means to deactivate or render inoperable.  The one for dominion means origin.  Authority means agency, the ability to do as one chooses.  And power means strength. This means when we’re perfected the Lord will disable our power of choice. Whether our origin was angelic or human, we’ll no longer have either the desire or the strength to rebel against God’s will.  Sin will be no more. Death will have been conquered.

At that point all of God’s Creation will finally be at peace, in perfect harmony with the will of our Creator forever. Hallelujah.