Jonah - the reluctant witness to the Gentiles (2)

After Jonah spent three days in the fish, he repented -- who wouldn't under those conditions? So when God called him to preach in Nineveh a second time, Jonah knew better than to run away again.  But his heart wasn't in it...

The reluctant prophet showed up in the city and basically preached half the message. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned" (Jonah 3:4). That was it. He didn't say "God loves you"; didn't say "repent before you die"; nothing of that sort was encouraged. One gets the impression that he enjoyed preaching doom to Nineveh as he didn't offer any solution to this catastrophic message for the people.  He neglected to tell them that God responds to repentance.

But here is the amazing part: the whole city responded to his cold-hearted message and believed God! All 120,000 in the city from the least to the greatest repented, the most successful conversion event in all of Scripture. The king of Nineveh took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and proclaimed a fast that even animals had to abide by.  They became contrite hoping that God would relent and change His mind about destroying them. 

And God did change his mind.  He is gracious and compassionate, not willing that anyone be destroyed, even in the Old Testament--that's why he sent Jonah to Nineveh in the first place.

And we see again that even though the messenger God sent had a seriously flawed heart, God's purpose to save nations was still accomplished.  God does not depend on the eloquence or hard work or even good intention of His servants to get this job done.  Knowing this brings great relief to those of us that fear our flaws or failures will mess up God's plan.