Today’s study explores the power of repentance, the unexpected response of the king of Nineveh, and the cosmic hope that arises from a potential change of God’s mind. Join Clint and Michael in this thought-provoking discussion as they navigate the significance of God’s mercy and the wrestling between humanity and the divine.
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00:00:00:10 – 00:00:18:23
Clint Loveall
Friends, thanks for being with us as we start this week. The only day we’ll get in this week. But an important day in the story. Maybe a crucial day might even say in the book of Jonah. We’re in the third chapter. We’re looking at the second half of that chapter today, beginning in verse six. just a reminder of where we’ve been.
00:00:18:23 – 00:00:52:18
Clint Loveall
If you’ve not followed us, you can go back and pick up those episodes. If you’ve been with us. Just a reminder, Jonah has, by very hard, long road, made his way to Nineveh. He has gone into the city. He has preached. a case can be made that he hasn’t worked very hard at that. But nevertheless, Nineveh has responded, and we’re now has gone out into the city of this proclamation, and the people have begun to respond.
00:00:52:22 – 00:01:18:24
Clint Loveall
verse five told us they put on sackcloth and that they proclaimed a fast. And so now we see that we see what the city does, what the ruler does. We see here that message moving out into the larger context. So let me start reading at verse six. Here go a few verses. We’ll come back and talk them through.
00:01:18:28 – 00:01:44:08
Clint Loveall
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh by decree of the king and his nobles. No human being or animal, no herd, no flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water.
00:01:44:13 – 00:02:07:57
Clint Loveall
Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. let’s let’s stop there, Michael. So the first interesting thing we run into is that there’s a king of Nineveh called the king of Nineveh, rather than the king of Assyria.
00:02:08:02 – 00:02:34:37
Clint Loveall
Remember, Nineveh was a city in a larger country called Assyria. But, for, for want of the or for clarity in the text where. So this is the person with authority in the city, the king of Nineveh. I don’t know that that’s a phrase that would have been used regularly. But I think this author, to make it very clear that this is the person vested with that authority, uses this phrase.
00:02:34:42 – 00:03:17:40
Clint Loveall
He rises from his throne. He responds immediately, not only responds, but he himself does the thing that he tells others to do covers himself with sackcloth, ashes, both traditional signs of mourning, of grieving, of repentance, and he sits in the ash. Then he also decrees that others should do the same. And, Michael, that it there’s almost an absurdity here, as he not only says that the people should repent and fast and be covered in sackcloth and ash, but the animals, too, as if we’re not leaving anything on the table here are we’re leaving nothing up to chance.
00:03:17:45 – 00:03:37:37
Clint Loveall
Every living being in Nineveh is going to live out a sign of repentance and a sign of grieving. And I don’t know if this is a thing that you take literally, or if this is just the way that the author is telling us. They go all in here, they fully respond, to the message.
00:03:37:42 – 00:04:00:25
Michael Gewecke
So, as you know, Clint, we just finished the study of the Luke of Luke, the gospel. And how many times in the midst of that study did we talk about Luke’s economy of words, or how he told amazing stories with very little amount of content, really? And I think that bears repeating. Now, as we look in the book of Jonah, obviously different authors separated by massive amounts of time.
00:04:00:30 – 00:04:23:47
Michael Gewecke
But I think the thing that’s really interesting here in this book is we have this King I want to point out here, verse six, you get a little bit of the way into the city. Jonah makes his message, you know, one of the most effective evangelistic sermons with the least amount of content in it, because that message is not only affecting the people, it’s rising to the very, very top.
00:04:23:47 – 00:04:54:01
Michael Gewecke
The king of Nineveh, which let’s not have this lost on us. This is if Nineveh is Jonah’s most hated city. This is Jonah’s most hated person in that city, a representative of all that is evil and wrong. So this person, here’s the good news. And the economy of words connects back to another part of the story. This isn’t a long story, Clint, but who’s the other leader who got word of this message?
00:04:54:01 – 00:05:27:05
Michael Gewecke
It’s the captain on the ship just a few chapters back. The person who heard this very, very simple explanation from Jonah and that captain. And then all of the crew turned to the God of Israel, the named God of Israel. What we have translated capital Lord. And so that is unto itself. To your previous point. That’s ridiculous. The idea that pagans, with that little wording suddenly turned to the God of Israel, and that they find hope and faith in that God.
00:05:27:05 – 00:05:56:31
Michael Gewecke
Ultimately, at the end of that story, they were making sacrifices to that God. Well, here Clint, the crazy thing is that you would have this word reach all the way to the king of the river, and then that king would demand not only the the peasants or the people living under the king, but all of the royalty, every single person to the extreme length of saying, including animals that are not going to eat anything.
00:05:56:31 – 00:06:25:46
Michael Gewecke
It’s a it’s sort of taking the concept of repentance and confession, and it’s driving it to the most far extent that could be possibly imagine. It is a way of saying that not only did the message sink in, but it delivered them to a place that could have been unimaginable to anyone in Israel. This this is an extreme, and I think that’s a really, really helpful way for us to understand how shocking of a text this is.
00:06:25:51 – 00:06:55:46
Clint Loveall
Yeah, this is a full stop, all in response to the message. And the King seems here not only to personally be affected, but to acknowledge in a larger scale that the entire city has problems, has done wrong. Right? All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. This is the reputation of Nineveh.
00:06:55:51 – 00:07:22:46
Clint Loveall
This is the thing that God said in the beginning of the story, that the wickedness had raised up to him, had it risen to him. And the reason that he was sending Jonah. And now the King with this response has shown a complete acceptance, a complete openness to this idea of turning. And then we move on, just going to cover these one at a time.
00:07:22:46 – 00:08:20:21
Clint Loveall
But we move on. Then to verse nine, the King says, who knows? God may relent and change his mind. He may turn from his fierce anger so that we do not perish. And this is a this is a fabulous verse. This is an amazing verse. The king of Nineveh, a leader of Assyria, the chief over a wicked city, puts his hope now in the idea that the response of the people may sway God’s plan, may turn God away from wrath, and that he might show mercy to these people that in in turning away from evil, God may turn away from their punishment.
00:08:20:25 – 00:08:50:12
Clint Loveall
This is a remarkable hope. It’s a beautiful verse. Again, it comes from the most unexpected of places. Notice here that God is not the name. It’s not the divine name. It’s not all capital Lord. But it is clear that this man has in mind the God of Israel. God may relent and change his mind and turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.
00:08:50:16 – 00:08:59:42
Clint Loveall
This is the hope upon which all of this action that precedes it is based. And I think, Marco. Michael, this is a remarkable verse.
00:08:59:42 – 00:09:27:00
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, it’s a remarkable verse. And I think in many ways it challenges us, Clint, because when you look at the text, this idea, God may relent and change his mind is a powerful testament to the core question of this entire story. You go back all the way to the beginning. God simply tells Jonah, Go to Nineveh. And that is all it takes for Jonah to get in the boat and to go the opposite direction.
00:09:27:07 – 00:09:51:27
Michael Gewecke
And the question is, what would motivate him to do that? Why would you want to be so dead set in getting away from the place that God has called him to go? And I think here the king of Nineveh, the person who stands in position of power of the most hated nation that Jonah can think of, the nation that Jonah would rather die than go and give the message of the Lord to.
00:09:51:37 – 00:10:17:03
Michael Gewecke
It’s that King who here says in such clear worthy that God may relent and change his mind, and this idea even turn from fierce anger. I Clinton, how do you get fierce anger from what Jonah had said in the middle of the city? I mean, that’s the amazing thing here, is that somehow the people are so deeply convicted that they won.
00:10:17:08 – 00:10:51:25
Michael Gewecke
See, their own anger writ large. They, the king, can see that and verbalize it. And then that king can also see and understand God’s righteous anger at the people. And so this idea, if we turn not in theory, not an idea, but in reality, if we actually change and transform, if we actually confess in lament, if we actually make that goal throughout the entire nation all the way from the richest to the poorest people’s animals, the whole gamut, if we all turn, then God may have mercy.
00:10:51:25 – 00:11:22:49
Michael Gewecke
And that clan, I would submit to the reader is is actually the question that play is within God’s economy of grace, within God’s capacity to love. May there be the opportunity for him to relent. Is there possibility that God will turn away from anger? Because if there is, then the whole nation might be saved. And if there’s not, then one character in the story would feel vindication.
00:11:22:49 – 00:11:36:12
Michael Gewecke
And I think that this sets this story up in such a beautiful, poignant, even cosmic kind of way. Because the King is asking the question that under girds, this entire story will.
00:11:36:12 – 00:11:59:11
Clint Loveall
And this is the second time we’ve seen that expression, Michael, or at least an expression of that idea. The King here says, who knows? You pointed out the ship’s captain a moment ago, and it is in the early part of the story that as Jonah is sleeping, remember the captain comes to him and says, get up and call on your God.
00:11:59:24 – 00:12:39:11
Clint Loveall
Perhaps God will spare us a thought that we do not perish here. We have a very similar expression from the King. Who knows, God may relent and turn from his fierce anger, and change his mind so that we do not perish. So now twice in the story, the person charged with authority over others has put their hope in saying, perhaps there will be a way forward if we do something, if we call on our God in the first instance, and if we change our ways and turn from our wickedness in the second, who knows?
00:12:39:16 – 00:13:16:10
Clint Loveall
Perhaps God will find it within himself, within his mercy, within his power to save us. And again, we are batting a thousand in this story that everyone who encounters the work of God, the storm, and now even just the threat of, the punishment of Nineveh, the destruction of Nineveh, turns and hopes that God may do something. And it is a the way that response is written throughout this book is really beautifully done.
00:13:16:10 – 00:13:42:48
Clint Loveall
And so here we have that moment spoken from the King, the one literally in charge of all the city. Who knows, God may change his mind so that we do not perish, and it’s I think that’s where we’ll leave things, because I think in some ways it works better to treat verse ten with chapter four. but a lot of good stuff here.
00:13:42:48 – 00:13:46:36
Clint Loveall
And I think very profound themes that we’re running into now.
00:13:46:40 – 00:14:12:01
Michael Gewecke
And there is an Old Testament kind of theme present in this, this idea of God’s mind being changed. We have that elsewhere, where there’s even kind of negotiations with God. You know, if you find this many people in the city, then would you save the city and talking God down? There’s a kind of brashness in the human encounter with the divine that we discover, and that makes some people uncomfortable.
00:14:12:01 – 00:14:53:42
Michael Gewecke
The idea. Well, what does that mean? How can one change God’s mind? Or how can one leverage, an argument and put that towards God? And I think one of the amazing aspects of the Old Testament portrayal of God is that when God walks with the human in the garden, there’s real relationship, there’s real communication there. Even on the other side of sinfulness, you have stories like Abraham in which there can be or with Moses there can be these kind of back and forth conversations where God and humanity are wrestling with one another, and that’s a real invitation, I think, for us to understand in our own lives that there are times in which it
00:14:53:42 – 00:15:18:39
Michael Gewecke
feels like wrestling, when our relationship with God feels like a struggle. And Clint, that that struggle is portrayed in the biblical text. It is in the Bible. So if that’s your experience, that doesn’t make you unique or stand apart from the people of faith, it brings you into that community of faith. There’s a real kind of wrestling with God that we see at several of these turns.
00:15:18:39 – 00:15:44:18
Michael Gewecke
And I think this idea that here, a pagan king could hope that a change of the people’s hearts, a change of the people’s actions that that that they could have some input in the ultimate resolution of God’s anger over the violence and the sinfulness of the people. That is a kind of cosmic hope that I think lives on today, that if we can hear it, it’s a kind of hope that we could have for ourselves as well.
00:15:44:18 – 00:16:01:46
Michael Gewecke
And that’s a devotional reading. Jonah is not, at this point interested in us exploring some of these things internally, but there’s so many questions that it raises that I think avail themselves to that conversation. There’s much to learn from every single stage of this journey.
00:16:01:51 – 00:16:48:29
Clint Loveall
I think that’s part of the power of verse nine here is that the King understands that God has the authority and the power to do whatever God will do, and yet the King finds reason to hope that in doing the right thing, in responding, in in seeking that which God wants for them, they have hope that that there may be an alternative outcome, that it’s possible within the power of God and even the wrath of God, that they might find a new future that is arrived at through mercy.
00:16:48:34 – 00:17:19:53
Clint Loveall
It’s God’s decision to make, but who knows is not. It is is not giving up. Here. It is. Hey, we don’t know. Yeah, God may decide to do something else based on what God sees. And if that’s troubling language, we’ll spend a lot of time there next time we get together. A week from today on Monday. But, just, I guess as a commercial, know that the Old Testament is still filled with filled with that language.
00:17:19:53 – 00:17:53:03
Clint Loveall
If then if if you do this, then this will happen. But if you do this, then this will happen. And I think we can go into the nuances of that later. But there is a dynamic here in which it’s not fatalism, it’s not that all things are already scripted there. There is a a give and take between God and the world and people and God and the King, I think, says a really a kind of an amazing faith statement.
00:17:53:07 – 00:18:30:54
Clint Loveall
Who knows? Yeah, it sounds like, well, you never but it isn’t that it is. If we have a chance, it is a chance through God’s mercy. And so let’s take it. We don’t know because ultimately those decisions are God’s. But if we do this, and if God sees it and and reacts, we may not perish. And so ultimately, I think in in stunning words for the Old Testament, it is the king of Nineveh, a leader of Assyria, who sees the possibility of a different future in God’s mercy.
00:18:30:54 – 00:18:37:19
Clint Loveall
And that makes Jonah a very odd and very interesting book.
00:18:37:24 – 00:18:59:24
Michael Gewecke
Absolutely. And this story, as you’ve already referenced, Clint, is only going to give us more opportunities to connect with this mystery. And so I certainly hope that you’re going to join this as we discover how this King’s engagement and God’s engagement are going to royal Jonah all the more. certainly. Like this video, if you found it helpful, give us a comment.
00:18:59:24 – 00:19:09:57
Michael Gewecke
If you have a question or thought that you’d like to offer an encouragement, subscribe for more videos along the series. Just like this. Another series like it? We’re glad to have you with us today and look forward to seeing you next week.
00:19:09:59 – 00:19:10:40
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.