“Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I [God] not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11, NIV 1984).
My Musings – Contrast this with what God said earlier. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:2, NIV 1984). Jonah was not the only one getting a second chance. God could have destroyed Nineveh outright for its wickedness and would have been justified in doing so. But the whole point of sending Jonah there was to “preach against it” and prick their collective conscience to the point of repentance.
And that is exactly what happened, much to Jonah’s chagrin. “Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.'” (Jonah 4:1–2, NIV 1984).
My Advice – Nineveh was at this time an evil empire. All of its foes would have been happy to see its demise. But should God “not be concerned about” evil empires? If He is concerned, why shouldn’t we be?
“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.” (Luke 9:51–56, NIV 1984).
There are many souls that are citizens of the evil empires of the world, and it is their souls that we should be concerned about. Yes, we should stand up against them when their armies threaten ours and other nations, but at the same time pray for those within who “cannot tell their right hand from their left.”
“We will be [Jesus’] witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and [even] to the [evil empires] of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NIV 1984). Isn’t that the whole point of sending us, so that God may “[relent] from sending calamity” on those lost souls we witness to?
The Brew Is A Musing 