Jonah was a very complicated person.
Thousands of Sermons, Let alone Children’s Bible Lessons, have been given on the Book of Jonah. It is rich with Bible Lessons to be taught and Learned.
Jonah was a Vile Wicked Person:
Jonah 4:11 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
Jonah was Displeased with and Angry at God… Wow!!!
I have seen this attitude in “Christians” for over 40 years. There is a Lot of Hate in “Christians” in Pastor’s.
I know Pastor’s that are Like Jonah. These Wicked Pastor’s do Not Want to See Everyone Saved. One example is they Hate Homosexuals. If they have anything to do with them it is Full of Hate.
News Flash Homosexuality is Not an Unforgivable Sin.
Yes Saved people can be and many are Homosexuals. Just like there are Christians caught up in Numerous Sins: Adultery, Cheating on their Wives / their Husbands, Fornication, Being Drunks, Drug Addiction, etc…, the List of Sins is extremely Long.
There are Hate Groups that Parade about as “Christians” as “Christian Churches” that attend LGBTQIA+ events Not to Try and see anyone Saved. They go to Mock, to Attack them Not to Share the Gospel.
Wicked Vile Christians:
These Wicked People (Some of them are probably Saved Like Jonah…) Do Not Want Homosexuals to Be Saved. They are Hypocrites. They discount their own Sins… They think they are Better than the Homosexuals. I have News for You. Your own Sins are Not Better than the Sin of Homosexuality. Homosexuality is a Sin like Smoking, Drinking, Sexual Sins, Drug Addiction, any Other Addiction.
I have seen these type of “Christian” Hypocrites that Get into other People’s Faces about Sin, I have seen them Smoking, doing things that they get into other people’s faces about. I Even knew a Church going closet Homosexual who was like this.
Closeted Homosexuals in numerous Baptist Churches (Not All, a portion of them.) will attend Anti-Homosexual Rallies and be one of the Biggest voices Condemning them. The History of Congress / Politicians has shown us that Many outspoken Politicians that have made it their mission to Speak out against Homosexuals are themselves Homosexuals.
Jonah Finally Does What God Told him to Do.
Jonah 3:1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Jonah 3:9,10 are used by False Teachers to Teach the False Gospel of Repent of Sin to Be Saved. The context of Jonah 3:9,10 is very important. Please read to the end. I will explain Jonah 3:9,10 below.
Hypocrites are Everywhere. Jonah was a Huge Hypocrite.
Jonah was a very Poor Excuse for an Evangelist. He was a Bitter Judgmental Hypocrite that was Happy to see Thousands of people killed by God. He was Angry that God did Not Just Kill them. He wanted to see God Kill them. Jonah was a Blood Thirsty Psychopath.
Jonah and Lot
The Bible depiction of Jonah and Lot are very similar in one aspect. They both had the opportunity to Save a City / Cities. With Lot he was tasked with Saving The Cities On The Plain. Which included Sodom and Gomorrah.
Both Lot and Jonah had the ability to Save a City / Cities from destruction. Lot wanted to Save the lives of all the people in all the Cities on the plain. But Jonah on the other hand Hated the people of Nineveh and wanted to Watch Them All Burn like Sodom and Gomorrah did.
Saved People, Evangelist, etc…, Can Be Vile Sinners.
The Scriptures show that Jonah was Vile. Jonah was and remained a man of God… Lot is Vile as well Remember he had Sex with his two daughters. But at least he wanted to Save Lives so I put Lot way ahead of Jonah.
Proof that God Wrote the Bible is seen in the depictions of both Jonah and Lot.
The Bible shows how Vile they Both were. (Lot had Sex with Both of his Daughters.) The Bible doesn’t cover up the Sins of Bible Saints. Yes both Lot and Jonah were Saints of God. They were imperfect but God still used them.
Lot’s Task:
Lot was tasked with having to have Saved 10 souls only his own household. His household would have been much more than 10 souls. For example Abraham’s household was in the hundreds.
Genesis 18:23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
Abraham expected that Lot would have at least 10 members of his household who were Saved. So when Abraham was able to get God to agree to spare the Cites if 10 righteous people were found he stopped thinking that Lot certainly had 10 people Saved in his household.
There is Only One True Way to Be Saved in the Bible:
Bible Salvation is Believing the Gospel Only to be Saved. No person has / will go to Hell the Lake of Fire because of Sin. Jesus died for all Sin.
John 1:29 “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Hebrews 10:12 “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;”
2nd Corinthians 5:15 “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
1st Peter 3:18 “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”
1st John 2:2 “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1st John 3:5 “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”
Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
A Testament is God’s contract with Mankind on how he is dealing with man in regard to Mankind’s Salvation.
God gave Israel the Law in the Old Testament.
The Testator of the Old Testament were animals like sheep.
The New Testament Testator was Jesus. Jesus death began the New Testament.
In the New Testament Salvation is defined as the Gospel:
1st Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
A person is Saved by Believing in Jesus as the only way to Heaven. Believing that Jesus death, burial and resurrection is the only possible payment for our Sins. The only way to be Saved is putting our faith in Jesus to save us.
Were Old Testament Believers Saved by Jesus Only too?
Yes.
Jesus’ Death on the Cross Gives Eternal Salvation for All Believers, whether they lived before or after him.
In both the Old and New Testament everyone is Saved By Grace, through Faith in Jesus.
The Law was given to Show all Mankind that no one could keep the Law. The Law showed us that we were Sinners in need of a Saviour.
The death of animals were the Testator of the Old Testament to show that Sin required a Blood Sacrifice.
Believers in the Old Testament were not saved by being obedient to the law of God. The Bible clearly teaches this:
Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
We are not good enough to earn Heaven. That is true for us now, and it was also true for believers in the Old Testament.
Old Testament Believers were not Saved by animal sacrifices:
Hebrews 10:4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”
The Old Testament sacrifices pointed towards the one sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross to bring Eternal Salvation.
Like New Testament believers, Old Testament believers were Justified by Grace through Faith Alone in Jesus.
Abraham:
Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
You Must Understand That There Is Only One True Gospel.
The Bible here in Galatians 3 said that God preached the Gospel to Abraham.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Lot’s and Jonah’s tasks were the same.
Lot failed to Save 10 souls. Jonah was very successful, despite his own feelings, in Saving enough Souls that God decided to Spare Nineveh.
Jonah 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Explaining Jonah 3:9,10
10 And God saw their works…
Their Works… God is Telling us here that Turning From Sins their Evil Way is Works.
I hear Countless People who push the Repent of Sin False Gospel Say that Repenting of Sin is Not Works. God Clearly says that it is Works. Repent of Sin is also called: To Forsake Sin and To Turn From Sin to be Saved.
The people of Nineveh were trusting in their Own Good Works to Save them just like every Lost person in history. The Evil way they Turned from was not Sin, it was Trusting in their own Good Works.
The people of Nineveh were Saved by Believing the Gospel Only.
Abraham was Lot’s brother and Abraham knew the Gospel so it is a given that Lot also knew the Gospel and Believed the Gospel just like Abraham.
Jonah God’s Evangelist, he obviously knew the Gospel. He was an Evangelist, a Soul Winner. If you understand the entire Bible you will see that the Gospel started in Genesis and is present throughout the whole Bible.
Jonah 3:5 “So the people of Nineveh believed God…”
Nineveh was Saved by the people in Nineveh that Believed God. The only way to be Saved is to Believe the Gospel in both the Old and New Testaments.
The people of Nineveh did not just Believe that God would destroy Nineveh (They obviously knew that God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) that fact was a given. Jonah’s Preaching showed them they were Trusting in their Own Good Works to Save themselves.
Jonah 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
