JONAH: An Inescapable Mission
The Task that Must be Done
Scripture Text: Jonah 3:1-10
WHEN GOD GIVES YOU AN ASSIGNMENT
First, we must be Attentive to the Mandate of God. Jonah 3:1-2
Jonah 3:1–2 (NIV) Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Our God is a God of second chance. cf. 2 Timothy 4:11
Second, we must Actualize the Message of God. Jonah 3:3-4
Jonah 3:3–4 (NIV) 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”—Oscar Wilde
“The usual length of a day’s journey in the East, on camel or horseback, in six or eight hours, is about 25 or 30 miles.”--Easton's Bible Dictionary
The significance of Number 40. cf. Genesis 7:17; exodus 24:18; 1 Kings 19:8; Matthew 4:2.
1 John 2:3 (NKJV) 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
Third, we must Abdicate the outcome of the Mission to God. Jonah 3:5-10
Jonah 3:5–10
SACKCLOTH --a garment… "worn as a sign of mourning or anguish. It was also marked by fasting and sitting on an ash heap”
ASHES associated with sacrifices, mourning, and fasting. Grief, humiliation, and repentance
2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
cf. Jeremiah 18:7–8
CONCLUSION:
Have you failed God lately?
Return to him. He still loves you.
