The Changing Mind of the Unchangable God
Notes
Transcript
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10
Sermon Title: The Changing Mind of the Unchangeable God
Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you can picture in your mind the drive from Hamilton to St. Catherines and back. By car, that’s about an hour and a half roundtrip, but were you to walk that distance and were able to sustain walking 37 kilometers a day, that’s about 4-5 kilometers per hour for 8 hours, you could make that roundtrip in three days. We won’t make you walk but imagine as you drive out of Hamilton that there is a man walking on the side of the road shouting, “40 more days and the Niagara Peninsula will be destroyed.” I imagine most of us would probably react wondering who this crazy person is, maybe you laugh, and keep on driving. You go and spend your day in St. Catherines or Niagara-on-the-Lake, and as you are on your way back you see this man again, he has stopped to rest on the side of the QEW just north of the Beamsville exit, but you hear him saying the same thing you heard this morning. “Wow,” you might think, “this guy is convinced of this conspiracy.” Two days later as you’re out and about in Hamilton, you see this man heading back into town, “38 more days and the Niagara Peninsula will be destroyed,” he shouts. If you weren’t thinking it before, my guess is now you’re wondering how this guy hasn’t been picked up or checked into a mental facility.
I ask you to imagine what that’d be like, hopefully for some of you it helps to get inside the story a little bit, to pick up on the spatial dimensions or to consider your reaction if you encountered this happening. We read this account from a different time, a different place, a much different world, and it’s hard to exactly see how this would have occurred and since most if not all of us already believe in God we might not expect something like this to happen in our area. When I talk about laughing and wanting to get this guy checked out, maybe that’s a carryover from American culture where when we heard about the world ending in 2012 based on the Mayan calendar or when an individual like Harold Camping predicted Judgment Day in 2011, yes it’s a much greater thing than the destruction of a specific location, but nonetheless prophecy today isn’t often taken seriously. I’m guessing this feeling is typical for you as well, and I think it can be helpful to acknowledge our own skepticism as we go forward to look at the prophecy Jonah brings, the quite different reception it has among the Ninevites, and along the way we can hopefully see how God reveals himself.
We begin by looking at Jonah, the message-bringer. The text begins, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” This man who we’ve followed as he was called by God and responded by running and sailing away, who we have imagined sinking to the depths of the sea before he was swallowed and rehabilitated in a big fish over three days and then gets vomited back up on shore. Now Jonah gets his second chance to do what he has been called to do. When we read a “second time,” we should hear that this comes to a different Jonah than we met back in chapter 1 verse 1, this Jonah has been taught by God and has learned from him. It is not like God hit the reset button on the story of Jonah like a reset button gets pressed on a video game or a computer, deleting the progress or work that’s been made since the last save point, since the last time of obedience. The word comes, and in the Hebrew it is to “Get up, go,” and Jonah does just that. This time, however, isn’t just go “preach against,” but the Lord tells him, “Proclaim the message I will give you.” Jonah does not have to create or remember, but rather God promises the words will come. So he goes to Nineveh.
We have already taken a look at the possible distance for a three day visit, and judging from the ruins and foundations, the consensus is that probably means the area of downtown Nineveh and the immediate metropolitan area. Remember, though, Jonah isn’t just going to the city next door, Jonah has to cover quite a bit of ground to get here, 800 kilometers is a close estimate. If you look the left side of the map, you can see Tarshish where Jonah was attempting to sail to in chapter 1, most placing it in modern-day Spain on the west end of the Mediterranean Sea. He left Joppa in Israel, which isn’t marked but is all the way over on the east coast of the Mediterranean, the span of the sea is the distance from here in Flamborough to Vancouver. If you look north east from where Israel would be, you should be able to see a red dot for the city of Nineveh part of the Assyrian Empire back then, today it can be found in Iraq, and while it might not look that far, that’s an 800 kilometer trip that Jonah makes.
Jonah arrives, and it seems like without missing a beat, he preaches against them, “40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” Compared to the fake modern-day example of a prophecy against the Niagara Peninsula, this prophecy is taken much more seriously, both by us because it’s found in Scripture as well as by those who heard it. Rather than mocking him, we see Jonah as someone boldly doing what God has called him to, and in such a way that may seem discomforting, even vindictive. Jonah, this individual from a foreign nation that probably would not be considered a threat to Nineveh, let alone the Assyrian Empire, brings a threatening message against this great city. Whether the words we read in verse 4 are all he says or there is more recorded, this should be considered the message given to him by God, not just a personal agenda. It’s a message which holds the Ninevites destruction with a time frame; if they don’t change in the next 40 days, surely their sin will lead to their ruin. While we read that Jonah proclaims the message, I think we have to recognize that much like the sailors at sea can see who is behind the storm they faced, here too the one true God of Israel puts himself on display in a way untold. God reveals himself on their minds and their hearts so the people of Nineveh know this is not a joke; he also reveals they have an opportunity rather than immediately ordering their death. As quick as we see Jonah arrive and make his debut presentation in the city, the author focuses the scene on the people’s response.
Everyone hears the message from the everyday citizen who hears it on the street as they go about their homes and their work to the king who is told it by his advisors. We are not told in the book of Jonah what exactly the city is guilty of, but in Nahum and what has been recorded elsewhere we know that they were atrocious both in terms of their spiritual practices as well as practices of torture and war crimes. God calls a people who we would look at it and say that they don’t deserve the opportunity to turn away, to change, to commit to living to him, and he gives them the chance to be saved. Somehow in the outdoor preaching of one man, the Ninevites listen and the respond, by their own choice or because of the king’s city-wide decree, in fasting, putting on sackcloth, sitting in dust and ashes, calling upon God, and turning from their ways. These men and women somehow knew that the message coming to them required observance, and if time was given this God may be merciful and compassionate and not destroy them.
Brothers and sisters, I do not think we can just skim over the fact that a time is given to them; a time in which they could test their luck or choose to humble themselves, to repent and change their ways. They choose to trust what God has had proclaimed through Jonah to be an opportunity, to be a means of grace for them to change. We see that maybe in the most profound way in what the king says at the end of his decree, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” On the surface, it may come off as a confession that could be made by anyone who believes in any god. Whether we are looking at the Israelites, a people with one God, who we see throughout the Old Testament making sacrifices and crying out for God to provide for them, or looking at the heathen nations who had a buffet of gods who they believed to watch over everything from the weather to fertility to war and on and on. Since the beginning of history, the majority of civilizations have believed that there is something greater than us living on earth. It is no different from what we see in the world today, most people whether actively practicing a faith or not would say they offer prayers to someone or something in hard times. When the Ninevites cry out to God, we could just look at them as just another people in struggle hoping that maybe the powers that be would be satisfied or change their minds.
I don’t think that’s what we see, however; to me that diminishes that true faith, at least for a short time, had risen up in Nineveh. When we are told in verse 5, that they believed God, which can also be translated they “believed in God,” the changes that are made and the decree of the king contains uncertainty yet possibility for their future, a future rested in the only God. It is for that reason that I think we look at the Ninevites as not just trying to appease whatever god is in control, but having a real encounter with the true God. When the king of Nineveh makes his statement of “Who knows? God may yet relent?” he enters into good company. In 2 Samuel 12, after David commits adultery with Bathsheba, who becomes pregnant, David is convicted by God and is told his child will die. Yet the child is born and David fasts and weeps until the baby dies; his servants ask him why he doesn’t mourn now, and in verse 22, David responds while the child was still living, “Who knows? The Lord may be gracious and let the child live.” We find these words again in Joel, a prophet bringing similar news as Jonah but to God’s people and in chapter 2 verse 14 he says, “Who knows? God may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing.” There is a holy fear we see in all three of these accounts that God is in control of all things, and it is with that fear that they and we can know God’s character, especially that he is a God that is gracious and can change circumstances that have been proclaimed. Even this king in a foreign nation is able to see and confess something that has been revealed to them about a God who they have not believed in wholeheartedly yet their king speaks some of the most comforting words in all of Scripture.
God sees the change that takes place and the turning away during this 40 day period, and “he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” Literally, “God relented, he was sorry, moved to pity, he suffered grief due to the disaster in the word that had been proclaimed on them and he did not do it.” The same word that describes the king’s hope in verse 9 is the word that we see translated in verse 10 as “God had compassion;” the comfort the king found in the potential outcome of this prophecy, is what God chooses to do when he sees the reaction. This is what the entire chapter has built up to: God has grace and he changes his mind.
Theologically, this is a tough area, what does it mean that our God who does not change, changes his mind? If we look at 2 Samuel 12 and Joel 2, the two places we looked at already, God’s original proclamation is not relented from. However, what about here in Jonah 3, or in Exodus 32 when God sees the Israelites worshipping a golden calf they have made for themselves, God desires to wipe them out but Moses speaks of the promises God has made with previous generations, and God relents. If you get hung up on God changing his mind, it often seems like that is only possible if he has made a mistake or if he does not know everything, in which case God relenting causes us trouble confessing that God is perfect and that he is in total control.
God is unchangeable though in nature though; he is unchangeable in nature, unchangeable in who he is. God is perfect, and he is perfectly good and just. Extending from his nature is righteous compassion, righteous wrath, and righteous forgiveness. Our human sense of right and wrong in the 21st century usually gets wrapped up in retribution, we want people to get what they deserve, what they have coming to them. Jeremiah 18 helps in explaining God’s different justice. He calls the prophet to go to a potter’s house and watch him work with clay, and he says to him, “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announced that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.” God’s justice does seem on the surface to be the same as ours; however, God’s justice involves his grace and who it pertains to.
With the city of Nineveh, a city that does not know God as Israel does, God tells them their error so they might know what the true God, Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all things desires of his creation. For him to change his mind as we see happening in Jonah 3 or in Exodus 32 or as we see described in Jeremiah 18 is a great hope! None of us can say we have we have always followed God, that we have always given him the recognition that he deserves, yet he stands by us and offers us the opportunity to be saved. Our God works with unconditional love but does offer conditional covenants as well. Brothers and sisters, the order God gave to the Ninevites is for the purpose that they would be transformed, that they could grow from a people of sin and death to a people of grace and hope. God knows all things, he is perfect in all his ways and actions, and he does whatever pleases him that is he does all things according to his divine purposes. When he “relents,” it’s not an attack on his character, but it shows that we, his creation matter and our lives have purpose; whoever brings glory to him shall receive life!
Brothers and sisters, what a blessing it is to know that our God points out not just the wickedness of the city of Nineveh, but he also reveals to all his people their sin, our sin, and in so doing he provides us a means of grace, the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ. We have been created by Him, and his purpose is that we would be reconciled to him, that we would experience peace in knowing him and following his ways. May we seek to live and serve him in such a way that shows our gratitude for his promises to us, and may we be a people that are willing to travel whatever distance we’re called to bring that promise to whoever God calls us to. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.