When We Repent God Will Relent
Pastor Chang Kim
Jonah 3:1-10
3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Introduction: “I can’t say now what the calling will be but I want to be a witness to Him and live following Him every second of my life.” Roger Youderian
“Tonight I pray a peculiar prayer... that God will spare the lives of these Indians until He enables us to bring to them the message of hope.” Ed McCully
“I would gladly give my life for the Aucas if only to see an assembly of those proud, clever, smart people gathering around a table to honor the Son.” Peter Fleming
“When it comes time to die, make sure all you have to do is die.” “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” Jim Elliot
“Every time I take off, I am ready to deliver up the life I owe to God.” Nate Saint
I. Jonah’s Obedience vv1-3a
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.
To stand up for what is right is hard. It takes courage, it takes strength, it takes fortitude, it takes trusting your beliefs and trusting God.
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.
According to the word of the Lord it refers to the following guidance of God’s revealed will.
Oswald Chambers writes “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”
II. People repent of their evil ways vv3b-9
Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Even though Jonah had three days to think about what he was going to say, Jonah preaches a very simple message “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Very simple, yet so powerful that the Ninevites believed God from the least to the greatest.
Look at their actions:
1. Fast – this fasting is a means of opening oneself to God, expressing grief, sorrow over sins, and redirecting oneself to God.
2. Sackcloth – is a garment made of goat or camel hair and very uncomfortable, it symbolized grief or despair, grief over their sins.
3. The most amazing and incredible thing happened when Jonah’s message reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Ashes – are expressions of penitence and humility, implying an earnest desire to seek forgiveness. The statement that the king of Nineveh sat on ashes signified that he mourned and repented. He humbled himself from the seat of power by exchanging his royal clothes for sackcloth.
4. The king issued a proclamation, a joint decree that every call out mightily to God, turning from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.
5. Reverent fear - 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
The king did not know how God would respond to the plea, he reasoned that God might show compassion and relent from sending the judgment.
Repentance is the act of turning away from sin and turning back to God
Change of heart, change of mind, heartfelt conviction of sin, turning away from a sinful way of life, turning towards a God-honoring way of life
Apostle Paul: Philippians 3:13-14 “I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
III. God relents and shows compassion v10
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
When God sees the people’s genuine response, He responds with compassion and spares them from the announced judgment.
Jeremiah 18:7-8
7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
God is compassionate and merciful. He rescued the sailors by calming the storm, He saved Jonah from drowning by allowing a great fish to swallow him and vomit him out onto dry land, now, God spared the city of Nineveh because it repented.
Conclusion: The killers: Dyuwi, Kimo, Dawa, Gikita and Mincaye
Mincaye: “Why didn’t he flee into the jungle, if he would have fled, surely he would have lived.”
Gikita: All that he wants to do is go to heaven and live peacefully with the five men who came to tell him about the Creator, God.
Steve Saint’s article “Did They Have to Die?”
Discussion Questions
Why did Jonah obey the second time? What did he learn?
Describe the actions of the Ninevites. What do you see that is amazing about their actions? What can we learn from them?
How does the Lord respond to their repentance? What does that say about God?