What The Bible Says
Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
The book of Jonah is not really about Jonah as much as it is about salvation coming to Gentiles. It begs the study of Nineveh (from roots in Nimrod to destruction in Nahum), chapter one's conversion of mariners, chapter two's death burial and resurrection of Christ, and chapter three's repentance and conversion of an exceeding great city; these all point to that theme. It is not till you come to chapter four that you find a case study of the preacher, Jonah, a Jew who didn't really want Gentiles converted!... same theme! Jonah 3 curiously reveals repentance of man and repentance of God. Today repentance naysayers rise up to pollute what God has made clear. They boast that John 3:16 includes no repentance nor Lordship of Christ. But look what the Gentiles of Nineveh did, “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” (Jonah 3:8). Bible conversion is a two headed coin. Paul “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks” clarifies it concisely as “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Believers are reprimanded for not knowing seven doctrines and the second one is “repentance from dead works” (Heb 6:1). Jesus repeated it twice, “ I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3,5).
Calvinists suppose that God cannot repent or change what you have in store, but Ninevehites said, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent,... and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jonah 3:9-10). Praise the Lord, he changes things when we repent.
An Essay for week #3Jan 19, 2020
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