Marvel of an Unanswered Question (Jonah 4:11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/6/2015 9:53 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Marvel of an Unanswered Question

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Jonah 4:11

            Message of the verse:  “11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"”

            I wrote in our last SD that I was going to quote from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary as we look at the last verse in Jonah once again.

            “Jonah and Nahum are the only books in the Bible that end with questions, as both books have to do with the city of Nineveh.  Nahum ends with a question about God’s punishment of Nineveh (Nahum 3:19), while Jonah ends with a question about God’s pity for Nineveh.

            “This is a strange way to end such a dramatic book as the Book of Jonah.  God has the first word (Jonah 1:1-2) and God has the last word (4:11), and that’s as it should be, but we aren’t told how Jonah answered God’s final question.  It’s like the ending of Frank Stockton’s famous short story ‘The Land or the When the handsome youth opened the door what came out:  the beautiful princess or the man-eating tiger?

            “We sincerely hope that Jonah yielded to God’s loving entreaty and followed the example of the Ninevites by repenting and seeking the face of God.  The famous Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte believed that Jonah did experience a change of heart.  He wrote, ‘But Jonah came to himself again during those five-and-twenty days or so, from the east gate of Nineveh back to Gath Hepher, his father’s house.’  Spurgeon said, ‘Let us hope that during the rest of his life, he so lived as to rejoice in the sparing mercy of God.’  After all, hadn’t Jonah himself been spared because of God’s mercy?

            “God was willing to spare Nineveh, but in order to do that, He could not spare His own Son.  Somebody had to die for their sins or they would die in their sins. ‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’  (Romans 8:32).  Jesus used Jonah’s ministry to Nineveh to show the Jews how guilty they were in rejecting His witness.  ‘The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented, and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here’ (Matt. 12:41).

            Now is Jesus greater than Jonah?  Certainly Jesus is greater than Jonah in His person, for though both were Jews and both were prophets; Jesus is the very Son of God.  He is greater in message, for Jonah preached a message of judgment, but Jesus preached a message of grace and salvation (John 3:16-17).  Jonah almost died for his own sins, but Jesus willingly died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2).

            “Jonah’s ministry was to but one city, but Jesus is ‘the Savior of the world’ (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14).  Jonah’s obedience was not from the heart, but Jesus always did whatever pleased His Father (John 8:29).  Jonah didn’t love the people he came to save, but Jesus had compassion for sinners and proved His love by dying for them on the cross (Rom. 5:6-8).  On the cross, outside the city, Jesus asked God to forgive those who killed Him (Luke 23:34), but Jonah waited outside the city to see if God would kill those he would not forgive.

            “Yes, Jesus is greater than Jonah, and because He is, we must give greater heed to what He says to us.  Those who reject Him will face greater judgment because the greater the light, the greater the responsibility.

            “But the real issue isn’t how Jonah answered God’s question; the real issue is how do you and I today are answering God’s question.  Do we agree with God that people without Christ are lost?  Like God, do we have compassion for those who are lost?  How do we show compassion?  Do we have a concern for those in our great cities where there is so much sin and so little witness?  Do we pray that the Gospel will go to people in every part of the world, and are we helping to send it there?  Do we rejoice when sinners repent and trust the Savior?

            “All of those questions are more wrapped up in what God asked Jonah.

            “We can’t answer for him, but we can answer for ourselves.

            “Let’s give God the right answer.”

I hope all who read these words have the right answer.

12/6/2015 10:19 PM