On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
5The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.
8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
9Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah 3
Christians look for revivals with a passion that seldom matches anything else. Our idea is that when revival comes, God will refresh and renew us with a vision of himself, perform wonderful miracles, remove all obstacles in our way and push back the borders of evil from our lives. We long for such times that cause us to “soar with eagles’ wings.” The power of God’s Spirit descending upon us will jumpstart a new spiritual sense in us that will make obstacles look like grasshoppers to us as God fills us with overwhelming faith.
These wonderful scenarios have happened so many times in history that we cannot dismiss such occasions as stemming from simply man’s own will and desire. Revivals are, indeed, wonderful times. What makes revival tarry then?
Jonah 3 details for us the neglected but sorely needed ingredient in this strange mix of our spiritual understanding. The fact is, before revival comes, there must be heartfelt repentance. Repentance precedes revival. Jonah knew that the Ninevites would repent. From the least to the greatest, these Ninevites fasted and prayed, desperately seeking God to stay his hand of judgment and wrath. When God saw their response, “he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened” (v. 10).
God withheld his judgment because he saw their turn of heart. Jonah 3 paints an amazing scenario of the Ninevites’ total acceptance of Jonah’s message (“The Ninevites believed God” v. 5) and their wholehearted willingness to repent. Even the king “covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust” (v. 6). His decree is remarkably comprehensive and total: “Let man and beast be covered in sackcloth” (v. 8). We cannot ask for a more complete picture of repentance than that …
Fast forward a few centuries to our own time … What is Jonah’s lesson of repentance to us? We love the highs of revival times, the sweetness of God’s Spirit pouring out his love and joy on us. But we seem impervious to the voice of the denouncing prophet who comes uncomfortably into our line of vision demanding nothing short of sackcloth and ashes, fasting and mourning.
But if we study the history and pattern of revivals, one thing becomes clear. Without clean and contrite hearts, God’s compassionate love cannot be truly experienced … only he who has been forgiven much loves much … May repentance mark our lives.
We need to go back to a simpler and humbler view of ourselves and our spirituality. These days, it’s not uncommon for Christians to imagine themselves in more “victorious” positions than is the reality. It seems to be the expected thing that “revival” refers to a whole bunch of feel-good stuff that God should be at the ready to deliver to us. But the truth is more sobering. Just as the Ninevites anticipated, God may plunge us into a long and protracted series of trials and tribulations if we choose to ignore the Jonahs of our day. Jonah 4: 11 says that God had mercy on the “more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.” Part of that mercy was demonstrated through the warning bells of judgment that tolled in Nineveh via the reluctant prophet, Jonah.
Revival doesn’t come just because we are itching for some touchy feelie experience. It arises out of a deep need to set things right with God … it comes out of a recognition that we are far from where God is, and our lives are poor reflections of his glory …
Repentance precedes revival. We should remember that.
