Jonah 3:6-9 – It Must Be Real!
A demonstration of a desire to repent is insufficient; there must be a genuine stopping of sin. An outward manifestation of piety will not deliver Nineveh from the destruction promised by God; a genuinely radical change of behaviour is needed, for it is behaviour that speaks of what is going on in the heart. And that remains the case today. Many people talk about being a Christian and ‘attending’ church, but what shows whether a person is converted is their decisions and how they live their lives. Are they living as someone who truly loves the Lord Jesus with all their heart, all their soul, all their strength, and all their mind? Or is it that they merely engage with God and His commands when it suits, and when it doesn’t suit them, they don’t? As Jesus says in Matthew 7:18, “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”
The king of Nineveh knew this, as did his nobles; hence the reason for the edict that required the ‘fruit’ of each person’s life to be evidently clear. They knew that this God of Jonah, now their God, would be watching, and He could not be fooled by simply fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes, if there was no radical change in their lives. The stakes were too high to be playing games with God. They knew that within a few days their very existence would depend on it, and each had to do all they could to prove the reality of the change in their lives.
We must have the same mindset about the besetting sins in our lives. We need to understand that God does see them, and while our salvation is guaranteed in Christ, it is sealed in by the Holy Spirit; there are still consequences for us if we persist in them. We need to hear what the king of Nineveh and his nobles are saying and put away evil from our thoughts, hearts, and lives. We need to stop doing violence to the new creature we are in Christ and make conscious decisions to live in Christ for Christ daily.
Question
- What did Jonah do when he went into Nineveh?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks for our faithful ministers of the Word.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.