Jonah 3:9-10

Jonah chapter 3, I want to read verses 9 and 10, and we’ll be focusing on these verses about the repentance of God. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? 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. God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this morning. Bishop Milton Wright once visited the president of a small college and the bishop expressed his biblical conviction that nothing new could be invented. He said the scripture says there’s nothing new under the sun. The educator disagreed with him. And he said, why, in 50 years, I believe it would be possible for man to soar like birds through the air. Bishop Wright was shocked. Flight is strictly reserved for angels. I beg you not to repeat your suggestion, lest you be guilty of blasphemy. Ironically, Bishop Wright was the father of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Only 33 years later, those two brothers made their first flight in a heavier-than-air machine, the forerunner of today’s airplanes. Bishop Wright had taken a passage. of Scripture had not properly understood it and interpreted it, and he came to the wrong conclusion. We have to be careful when we come to a passage like verses 9 and 10 here of our chapter, that we don’t draw the wrong conclusion from this particular passage of Scripture about what the Bible teaches. It’s easy to extract a verse of Scripture and build a whole elaborate theology on one verse of Scripture or so and say, here it is, but when we look at the scripture, we always have to take into account what they all say, and they all have to fit together. And so when we come to this passage of scripture, we have to weigh it carefully. Now, you could look at our text this morning, and you could come to the conclusion that God indeed changes his mind, he’s just like you and I, that God does not ordain all things by our sure, eternal, unchangeable decree that God must react to what man does. You could be just as emphatic about it as Bishop Wright. It was about men flying and you’d still be wrong. A new situation arose in Nineveh. Upon hearing of God’s judgment and in 40 days, Nineve it would be overthrown. The entire city repented in sackcloth and ashes we find in this particular chapter. They threw themselves on the mercy of God. We read here that God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them. By the way, the NIVs had compassion, and the NASVs relented are poor translations of the original Hebrew. The word repent is the word that we have in the Hebrew here, and the King James Version is correct. So here we are. God says here in this text that he repented. Now when we look at a text of scripture like this, let me ask you in general this question. Is God immutable? Is God unchanging? Is God unchanging? And where is that taught in scripture? if you were going to prove that God is unchange or immutable, where would you go? Where would you find a passage that would talk about that? Yes. I don’t have a word. Yes. It’s in Malachiah chapter 3, verse 6. Yes, and that’s in the book of James, chapter 1, verse 17. You have another one? It also says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday. Yes, yes, it is. Let’s look at Malachi 3-6. This is the last book of the Old Testament, the final minor prophet. Russell, you want to read that for us? I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, the son of Jacob are not consumed. Yeah, the reason why he doesn’t wipe out the sons of Jacob completely for their evil doing is that he has made promises. He doesn’t change. He doesn’t go back on what he has said. And we see that laid out pretty clearly there. Let’s look at James, chapter 1, verse 17. Mark, you want to read that for us? Every good, with whom there is no variation of shadow of turning. So these verses are very clear. Are they not about this matter? Let’s look at Psalm 110. if you would. Psalm 102. I want to read verses 25 to 27 there. It says here of old, hast thou laid the foundation of the earth in the heavens of the work of thy hands. They shall perish, where thou shalt endure. Yet all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture, shall thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years have no end. Now we look at the world in which we live and there’s always constant change in the world. But obviously there’s going to be a great change. I’m going to have new heavens and a new earth and this whole earth is going to be renovated by fire, you know, and purged. as the book of scripture indicates to us in Peter there. But even now, we see, you know, sometimes you have very clear and serene weather and the sky is blue and the white clouds are out, and sometimes it’s dark and menacing, and there’s thunder and lightning. There’s change. Even now, but obviously there’s going to be a great change. But God says he doesn’t change. He never changed. And so this is important. Job 2313. Let me read you this. He is in one mind and who can turn him. And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. Can God be turned? Can God change his mind? Can you make God change his mind? No. Look at numbers with me in chapter 23 and verse 19. I’m just pulling out a few verses here. I’m not going to to wear you with this. But we should see how often this is stated in scripture so that we get this fixed in our minds. The scripture says, God is not a man, that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Does anybody know what the story is here? What’s the background for that statement? Yes. Yes. Yeah, he goes to one place and he offers sacrifices and he gets this prophecy from God that blesses Israel. So what does Balak tell him? Go somewhere else and try, you know, let’s get, you know, go somewhere else to see it and try it again, you know. And so he tries it several times here. And finally, you know, the Lord says, hey, you know, I’m not going to, I’m not like men who change their mind. I don’t change my mind. If I said it, I’m going to do it. If they shall be blessed, you’re not going to be able to curse them. And so God here emphatically states it. And therefore, whatever John 310 teaches, it must coincide in some way with God’s immutability. Correct? And that’s one of his fundamental attributes. Now, how does God’s eternal purpose relate to this verse? Let’s think about that a moment. when the Bible speaks of God’s eternal purpose, it presents it as a decree that God has made that shall stand no matter what. For example, in Isaiah 46, 9 through 11, it says, declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure, I have purposed it, I also will do it. The Bible talks about God’s absolute. sovereign control over all things that nothing can therefore take God by surprise. For example, the scripture says that God works all things, not just some things, all things after the counsel of his own will. That means from the smallest thing to the greatest. The very path that the aunt takes on the ground, the decision of the king, The great fish that’s sent to swallow up Jonah. It doesn’t matter what it is. God is controlling these things. So, whatever happened at Nineveh was simply the outworking, was it not, of God’s all-encompassing eternal purpose. Would we agree with that? Would you agree with that? It was ordained by God long ago. Since God has decreed, what was going to take place, the repenting of Ninevea could not possibly have taken him by surprise, could it? He purposed that they would repent. He knew it before he sent the threat. Forty days, Nineveh shall be overthrown, as verse four indicates. That God had determined Ninevehah would repent and then brought it to pass. Anyone who knows the truth of Scripture is going to have to say, well, that’s what the Bible teaches. Besides, would we not have to concede that the scripture teaches that repentance is the gift of God? Could these people have repented on their own? No. They had to repent because God gave them repentance. So none of this is catching God off guard or surprising him or any of this. With Pharaoh in the Bible. It did surprise him. He even told Moses before he got on, I’m going to harden this. heart and he’s not going to listen. It wasn’t it wouldn’t it wouldn’t shouldn’t have been it’s not shocking. God saying this is what’s going to happen. So God has an eternal purpose and we get we have to fit that into this passage of scripture also. Now would God be God if he were reactionary? Think about that a minute. Is it true as some have told us so that well God ordains the big things but then you know that little things you know they just occur and every once in a while you know God straightens something out so we get back to the big points that he wants to get accomplished. Is that how God operates? Is this the way the scripture presents God? That all the details sort of independently occur? That he just takes care of the big things? I’m dealing with these subjects because these are common teachings. You’re going to find. You know, the gods, he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. He has to wait on man. Or he doesn’t purpose every little thing that occurs. He just steps in once in a while, straightens it. It’s like, it’s like a top. You know, when you spin the top and it goes around, around, around, around, around. Eventually it topples over. If you don’t keep it going. You know, it’s growing up, they had these, I guess they were vaudeville acts. People would spin plates on these poles. and they have to try to, you they get, you know, 30 plates going at one time on these, you know, spinning around like this on, and then they start tilting over, and he’d have to come around and spin it and keep it going, and he’d get like 30 of them going on. Is that how God has to, you know, he has to, you know, jump in and keep it spinning when it’s, you know, it’s really ready to fall off, you know, the pole? Absolutely. He knows because he’s decreed it, right? That’s how he knows it. That’s the question. Could God not change his mind about some things as to ask the question. wrong question. If he could change his mind, he wouldn’t be God. What does it mean for you to change your mind? Think about this a minute. What does that imply about you? Well, maybe there was an unforeseen circumstance that came up. You say, hey, I’m going to drive my car down to Rust Park Mall, and I’m going to do some shopping. You go out, you turn the key in your car, and the engine won’t start. You got a dead battery. You didn’t foresee that. So now you have to change your plans. Is there anything that God does not foresee? No. Or, maybe you’re powerless to carry out your intentions, and thus you have to change your plans. You could say, you know what? I’m going to try swimming across Lake Erie. I want to swim across the whole lake. So, if you prepare diligently, however your strength and your stamina gives out halfway across. You just couldn’t do it. you’re exhausted. The boats alongside you sort of, you know, keep me, you know, keeping me watching over how you’re doing. Finally, you have to just get out and get in. People have tried to swim the English channel didn’t make it. You know, they had to stop. Can we say that God’s powerless to carry out? We’re going to say that. I thought he was almighty. So we can’t say that, can we? And he’d have to change his mind if he couldn’t do what he said he was going to do because he just didn’t have the power. Well, that’s out of the question. could it be that your earlier decision was wrong and it needs to be corrected? Suppose you decide you want to drive to PNC. Park and watch the pirates play baseball. As you’re going down and you get off on the wrong street, you get lost in Pittsburgh, and you have to backtrack because you got sidetracked, and you made a mistake. You made a wrong turn, wrong decision. You had to reverse yourself. Can we going to put God in that? category, he has to reverse himself. Isn’t God, doesn’t he declared he’s just the opposite of man? Doesn’t he declare, I’m not like men? As we saw in numbers there, chapter 23. I’m not like, God is not a man. He’s not like that. So there cannot be unforeseen circumstances of the Lord God’s plan. He doesn’t make mistakes. He never has to back trap. He never has to scrap a plan and have plan B. His plan A didn’t work, nor is he powerless to carry out his will. He is the almighty one. So no obstacle can stand in his way. And thus, God doesn’t react to unforeseen circumstances, mistaken notions, or stronger than expected opposition. If God had to react to these things and form a new plan, he can’t be God. Therefore, God is not reacting to Nineveh’s repentance, changing his plans as if he didn’t expect the response, as if he didn’t know what was going to happen. Now, with this in mind, I emphasize all this before we come to the text of the scripture, so that we have an idea of the overall teaching of scripture before we look at this scripture and jump to the wrong conclusion. So, how can you reconcile then the unchangeableness of God? and him saying he doesn’t repent, Well, sometimes we see, he says he does. Look with me at Jeremiah, chapter 18, verses 5 to 9. When the word of the Lord came to me saying, O House of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, said the Lord, behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye a mine hand, O House of Israel. At what instance I shall, speak concerning a nation, concerning a kingdom to pluck up, pull down, and destroy it. If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil I thought to do under them. And at what instance I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build it and to plan it, if it do. evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. What does this passage indicate to us here? What about the promises of God’s judgment, the threats? What about the blessings that come with faith and obedience? What kind of statements are these things in scripture? Let me ask you this. Are some of God’s threats conditional? Does he condition them upon things? Yes. We might say they’re motivational, right? In other words, I’m going to bring judgment on you. You need to repent. If you repent, I’ll spare you. If you don’t repent, you’re going to be destroyed. right. Well, God already knows what he’s going to do. He’s already determined what he’s going to do. But in dealing with man, a man, he will lay out the case for them and what they should do, although he has decreed what will actually happen. Now, the general rule is, when God makes a threat, this is what’s going to happen if there’s no change. God’s pronouncement of yet 40 days and Nine of it shall be overthrown, is based upon Nineveh remaining wicked and not repenting. After all, remember chapter one in verse two, where the wickedness of Ninevehah has come up before God. Nineveh, by God’s grace, has changed. The Bible says God saw their works, they turned from their evil way. It wasn’t the same Ninevehah then that received a threat. In the meantime, if God grants Nineve a repentance, they change their evil practices, the cause for judgment from God. then is removed for the time being. While we’re in Jeremiah, look at chapter 15 in verse 6. This is what he says to Israel. Thou hast forsaken me, said the Lord, thou art gone backward. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee? I am weary with repenting. What do you think he means that when he says that? I’m weary with it? In the beginning of when they left Egypt. What did he do? He delayed judgment. Right? It’s not that he didn’t bring the judgment, as he said he does bring the judgment, but he’s delayed it. Now, this is important. Look at Amos with me a moment. Chapter 7, verses 1 to 9. It’s an interesting little vision or revelation that’s given to Amos. Chapter 7 versus 1 to 9 of Amos. Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me, and behold, He formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and lo it was the latter growth after the king’s mollings, and it came to pass that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee, by whom shall Jacob rise, for he is small. And the Lord repented for this. It shall not be, said the Lord. Thus hath the Lord showed unto me, and behold, the Lord called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up apart. Then I said, then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee. By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small. The Lord repented for this. This also shall not be, said the Lord. Thus he showed me, and behold, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plum-line, with a plum-line in his hand, and the Lord sent it to me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a plum-line. Then said the Lord, behold, I will set a plum-line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them anymore. The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroban, with the sword. Amos sees two judgments, he cries, God, be merciful. Jacob’s small, pity them, have mercy on them, and God says, okay, I’ll wait. He does it the second time. This time with fire, not the grasshopperism of the fire. It’s the second time. Both, I think, are representative of the Syrian invasion. Maybe there was an infliction, and God held them back for a time. But the third time, he says, no more. I’m weary with delaying, if you would, repenting was delaying in this case. And now the judgment falls as he said it would. Stephen Charnock, in his attributes of God, writes this. Predictions of good are not to be counted absolute if men return to evil, nor predictions of evil if men be thereby reduced to a repentance of their crimes. So, Nineveh shall be destroyed, that is, according to the general rule, unless the inhabitants repent, which they did. They manifested a belief of the threatening and gave glory to God by giving credit to the prophet, and they had a notion of this rule upon their humbling themselves, that they might escape the threatened vengeance, and stop the shooting of those arrows which were ready and the bow of God. If you look at Zachariah chapter 8, verses 13 to 15, here’s what God says through Zachariah. And it shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the even, O House of Jude, and House of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, as I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, said the Lord, and I repented not. So again, have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the House of Judah, fear ye not. Now this is, of course, the captivity has already taken place. People are returning back to the land when Zechariah is the prophet for those returning. Now, what is he saying here in verse 14, he says, didn’t I say I was going to bring judgment? Did I repent? I brought the judgment. So whatever repentance is mentioned, when he says, I were repenting, it was really a delay. Because ultimately he still fulfilled what he said he was going to do. Now he says, I’m going to bless you, and I’m not going to go back on that. I will bless you, and you shall be taken care of by me. Now let me ask you this. Did not Nineve escape destruction. Where do we find that they were destroyed? They didn’t escape destruction. That’s right. Look at the book of Naham while we’re back here in the minor prophets. Jonah Micah Nahum in case you are wondering. Chapter 1. Notice what he says here. It says, The burden of Ninevea, the book of the vision of Nahom the Elko site. This is verse 1 of chapter one. God is jealous and the Lord revengetheth. The Lord revengenth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm and the clouds of the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry and dryeth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth and carmelisheth. and the flower of Lebanon languishes. The mountains shall quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overflowing flood, he will make an utter end of the place thereof and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end, affliction shall not rise up the second time. This is the burden against Nineveh. And so what happens is we have repentance actually being just a delay in this case. The destruction eventually does come upon. on the city. Now, we have to say this. God sometimes uses human language describe his actions. What you must understand, sometimes God just puts things on terms that you and I can understand. He often uses human speech. We should be surprised, therefore, that when it says God repented, we should think of this, perhaps, in the, God accommodating our finite understanding of things. After all, God is beyond our comprehension. He tells us things, and we have to believe that they are true, but like we said with the virgin birth, there are things that go beyond us that we just can’t really fully fathom. God is a spirit. He doesn’t have body parts. But all through the scripture, what do you read about? Behold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save. Neither is ear, heavy that it cannot hear. These These Israelites are a smoke in my nose. They irritate me, God says. The eyes of the Lord are in every place. That’s Isaiah 591, Isaiah 65-5 in Parvards 15-3. Remember the story of Babel? What does God say in it? He says, let us go down. As if God has to come down to earth to see what they’re doing down there. Does he have to do that? Doesn’t he already know what they’re doing? He puts it in terms for us to understand. I’m going to go and look. I’m going to take a look and see what they’re doing. So we come to these phrases like God repent, and we have other places where he says he never, he doesn’t repent. We have to understand them more in the sense that he’s putting it in our terms. He’s putting things in our language so that we can understand what he’s saying. If I were a human being, it would be as though I repented when Israel changed her ways. But actually, I ordained it. I brought about their repentance by my threat, and I’ll destroy them later. Any comments or thoughts on this? I did the best I could with a difficult subject, yes. When he says, you know, to expect that… Daniel does that exactly. And Daniel 9, that’s exactly what he does. He reads in Jeremiah that the promise and he says, the whole prayer is about when are you going to fulfill that? Go ahead. I’m sorry, interrupt you. Yeah, and it seems like the of his character then… Yeah, when we look at these passages, our goal is to make sure that we look at them all together to see what the scripture says as a whole. We see then, in God working out his purpose, He does interact with men. Not that we actually change God, but he changes us. When you sin, he chastens you. When you repent, he shows you mercy. He orders your life according to his wise providence. There is a mysteriousness about how God works in all of this. God never changes his mind, but there is a sense in which in his dealings with you, he changes you. and you seek from him mercy. Yet we have to say that even our sin, repentance, and his mercy have already been decreed before we came into existence, right? Even though we see these things, God does not tell us in our prayers that we can’t appeal to him as if we are changing his mind. I mean, You look at some of the prayers in scripture, the language in them, we’re praying as if we’re moving God to action. Actually, his purpose is already laid up. God doesn’t rebuke us for that. I mean, the psalmist, Psalm 130, verse 2, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. Stretch out your hand for my help, Psalm 138.7. Make thy face to shine upon me, Psalm 1.31.16. Stir up. self awake to my cause. Psalm 35, 33. These are all, you’re asking God, you know, as if he was slumbering or he wasn’t paying attention or something of this nature. We sometimes use that kind of language in praying to God. He allows us to spread out our problems. He allows us to use the human language. For we really don’t know how else to approach him, except for in such a way. You remember? were in Hezekiah when he was going to be invaded by the Assyrians, he had that threatening letter from the king of Assyria and what he’s going to do and how he blasphemes God. He takes the letter to the temple. He lays it out before God and he prays. Look at this letter. Look what he’s saying in here. God already knows all this. But he’s appealing on that face. Did you have something to add? Keith? Yeah. And don’t we see similar language to this with respect to God’s other examples of him speaking as if he that he doesn’t have him. Christ, mourning over Jerusalem, how many times I would have gathered to stop him. Yeah. I think you know, it’s difficult for us because I find it’s a struggle. You know, when you read about Moses, let’s say, in the wilderness and the Israelites have gone astray again and God says, I’m going to destroy them all and I’ll make of you a new nation. What does Moses do? He, you know, he falls upon his face. He’s pleading with the Lord. What are the heathen going to say? They’re going to say, you couldn’t bring us into the land. Now, that’s human argumentation. Right? But that’s Moses is saying, you know, what else could he say? How else can he present this? What are the Egyptians going to say, if we all die out here in the wilderness, they’ll say you couldn’t bring us into the land as you promised. Right? He’s using human argumentation there. Look at the Abraham. He’s arguing with the Lord about the destruction of song. Hey, if they’re 50 righteous, we aspire to, if you’re 40, you know, if they’re just 10 righteous, back and forth, as if somehow rather he’s bargaining or trying to get God to show mercy for lots’ sake, if you’re just 10 righteous, will you do? When God doesn’t rebuke these people for doing that because they don’t, this is how we respond. We, how else can we respond? We’re human beings. God is of one mind and who can turn him. So don’t let that truth, though, interfere with your prayer. I mean, we pray to God knowing it, his will will be done, when that’s one of the things we should say, your will be done, even though I want this to be done, your will be done. And we sometimes put it in human terms. We lay out our case before the Lord. So we shouldn’t be like Bishop Wright and jump to the wrong conclusion based on a faulty understanding of a passage of scripture, God is unchanging. That’s unquestionable. He emphatically says, I don’t repent or change my mind. My counsel is sure. Everything’s fixed from eternity. Everything’s ordained to come to pass. And therefore, we must understand this statement as God putting things perhaps in human terms indicating a delay, but not an actual change of my. He’s still going to destroy Nineve. It’s just he waits to destroy it. Just like he did with Israel, he was going to take them off into captivity, but he delays. He delays, and then he eventually takes them off into captivity. Any other thoughts as we close this morning on this? Yes. Isaiah says that he already knows what you have need of before you ask. Before you ask, I’m already answering. Things of this nature are found in scripture. And so it’s, he tells us to pray, but the truth of the matter, even your prayers are ordained. Every word you say is ordained of God in that sense. So it’s, he not only moves you to pray, you don’t only put, he actually gives you the words to pray, in a sense, and then he answers to prayer. But that is all part of the means to accomplishing his purpose, his decree. It’s still fulfilling. what he had already planned. All right. I’ll close.