Regrets

So Jonah is vomited out of the fish, and here is what happens next. Jonah 3: 1Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”³ This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.

qA city bound for destruction, but God's love is displayed by him sending an apprehensive prophet named Jonah to go and tell them if they repent, they will be saved! These people heard Jonah's message, and they began to repent, and even the king of Nineveh repented and led his people in a fast and a show of repentance in sackcloth and ashes. The King even had the people put their animals in sackcloth and ashes, so his repentance was very real.

I would think Jonah would be happy for all of these lives changing before his very eyes, but he was sad and said the following reason he was on the run to Joppa, the opposite direction of Nineveh. Jonah 4: 1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. ² So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. ³ Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”

Years ago, when I was in youth ministry, I had a young lady who was questioning why we were so concerned about bringing in new kids. I told her it was because the Bible compelled us to reach out to new people. She answered with the following words,"Then it won't just be our tight-knit group," and I won't like that at all. A church is an outreach machine that God has designed to follow His great commission, and we are not to be a holy huddle, but to be an outpost in the shadowland to bring lost people to the light of Jesus, which is the gospel. If we ever become a "club" that is closed to all people, we are in the way.

Jonah regretted the fact that the Ninevites were repenting!!! He was feeling the opposite of what a prophet of God should be feeling. So he went up on a hill overlooking Nineveh and had a pity party, just hoping they wouldn't all repent. God supplied some shade in a very leafy plant, and the next day he sent a worm to kill the plant, or shade, and sent a strong hot wind from the east and turned up the heat on old Jonah. Here is the final thing God said to Jonah to bring him back into reality and help him get his priorities fixed. Jonah 4: ¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. ¹¹ But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness,^[a] not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

We should never have any regrets over a soul being saved. In fact, Jesus said it this way in Luke 15: ¹⁰ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”... No regrets, just praising the Lord!!! This the right perspective for all who call Jesus Lord.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren