0117. Jonah, God's Missionary to the Ninevites

Jonah, God’s Missionary to the Ninevites

"And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle"? (Jon_4:11).

God’s call to Jonah was plain, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it". Nineveh’s wickedness had come up before God, and He was ready to destroy the city,–and yet, His heart yearned toward the lost, toward the thousands of infants, and even toward the cattle. Jonah ran away from God. God followed him with the storm, and preserved him in the fish’s belly, He restored him that He might send him yet again to Nineveh.

The great gourd, which proved Jonah’s delight in the hour of his bitterness, was God’s object lesson of His heart toward Nineveh. Jonah confessed that he knew that God was gracious. He said: "Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? * * for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness".

So, in Jonah, we see God’s missionary heart toward the great city of Nineveh.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR