December 11, 1913

Nineveh, That Great City

(Concluded.)

EGW

Once more the servant of God was entrusted with the commission to warn Nineveh. “The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” This time he did not stop to question or doubt, but obeyed unhesitatingly. He “arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.” Jonah 3:1-3.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 1

As he entered the great city, he began at once to “cry against” it as he had been bidden. Lifting up his voice in warning, he declared, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” From street to street he went, all the while sounding this terrible note of warning.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 2

God's message was not given in vain. The warning rang through the streets of the godless city, and was passed from lip to lip, until all the inhabitants had heard the startling pronouncement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to the heart, and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins, and to repent in great humiliation.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 3

“The people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water: but 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. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” Jonah 3:5-9.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 4

As kings and nobles, with the common people, the high and the low, “repented at the preaching of Jonas” (Matthew 12:41), and united in crying to the God of heaven, his mercy was granted them. He “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.” Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and his law was revered.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 5

In this crisis, Jonah should have been the first to rejoice because of God's amazing grace; but, instead, he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet. Jealous of his reputation among men, he lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” “Was not this my saying,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” Jonah 4:1, 2.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 6

When Jonah learned of God's purpose to spare the city that had corrupted its ways before him, he should have cooperated heartily in this merciful design. But he yielded to his inclination to question and doubt, and, as the result, was once more overwhelmed with discouragement, and lost sight of the interests of others in his concern over himself. He felt as if he would rather die than live to see the wicked city spared; and in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, “Now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 7

“Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.”RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 8

Then the Lord gave Jonah and object-lesson. He “prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 9

“Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night; and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” Jonah 4:3-11.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 10

Though confused, humiliated, and unable to understand God's purpose in sparing Nineveh, Jonah nevertheless had fulfilled the commission given him to warn that great city. The event predicted did not come to pass, yet the message of warning was none the less from God. And it accomplished the purpose God designed it should. The glory of his grace was revealed among the heathen, and when those who had long been sitting “in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,” “cried unto the Lord in their trouble, ... he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.” “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107:10, 13, 14, 20.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 11

The Saviour, while on earth, recognized the preaching of Jonah as a sign to the Ninevites, as Christ's preaching was a sign to the Jews. “The men of Nineveh,” he declared, “shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matthew 12:41.RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 12