"Marching Orders"

"Then God saw their works, that they had turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Jonah 3:10

I know that as soon as you see the reference, Jonah, you know that we are talking about the city of Ninevah and its 600,000 citizens. Usually when talking about the book of Jonah I'm usually focused on Jonah but today my thoughts are turned toward the 600,000 men, women, and children that God was trying to reach. Jonah, for some reason, was hand picked by God to be the one to take a message of repentance to this great city. Actually, God went to a lot of trouble to get Jonah to do what He had asked him too.

In chapter 1:1-2 we see the assignment ...Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." Seems like a pretty reasonable request for a prophet to get to me, but Jonah was already on his way in the opposite direction by the end of verse 2. You know the story, God pursues him, finds him in the belly of a ship, puts him in the belly of a fish, he repents, gets spit out, and he the receives the same marching orders, ...Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." Jonah 3:1-2

Why the people of Nineveh listened I don't know, because its pretty apparent that Jonah's heart wasn't really into reaching them, but according to verses 5-9, they did. It says that they believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. It says that even the king, got off his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. It also tells us that as they all fasted, from the king on down to and including the livestock, that they all cried out mightily to God, turning from their evil ways in the hopes that God would relent.

Jonah must have been the right man for the job because 600,000 people were left crying out to God. 600,000 men, women, and children believed the words that he cried out and were on their knees with hearts full of repentance. A whole city was saved, because God cared enough to make a way for them. 600,000 souls saved. Why? Because, as Jonah put it, "God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm." Jonah 4:2

Jonah was asked to arise and go to Nineveh and because he went, lives were saved! How about you? The Lord may not have assigned you Jonah's marching orders, an exceedingly great city that takes you days to get through, but... He did say ... "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" ... and believe it or not, lives depend on it!