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God took advanlage of Jonah 's
discomforl to teach him lh al lesson.
Overnight. while Jonah spent his
time in troubled sleep. God dipped
into hi s bag of creation and
whipped up a special. one-of-a-kind
gourd - instant, giant gourd if you
please. No. there aren'l any of these
aro und or for sa le today. Search lhe
wo rld ove r. and you'll not find one
such as this. The re_just "a in' t" none.
lncredible? Unbelievable? Pre–
posterous? God couldn ' t make a
gou rd grow to maturity overnight.
could he? Well, if he's able to create
all the stars of the unive rse.
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guess
he could!
Jonah was pleased. He has his
own special gourd, a beautiful plant,
and the shade
it
provided was quite
lilera lly a Godsend. Jonah really
liked that gourd!
But God wasn't fini shed. Now he
made a single-edition. one-of-a-kind
worm capable of consuming the
unique gourd - ove rnight, o f
course. No use wasling time. (You
know,
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can't help getting the feeling
God must enjoy and have fun doing
lhings like this despite lhe se rious
purpose involved.)
But the sun rose. lhe worm ate,
th e gourd died , God added a special
east wind and ordered extra hot
lempe ratures for the day. a nd Jonah
was m-i-s-e-r-a-b-1-e!
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ha te to say
this. but "Jonah was out of his
gourd!" He fainted from exposure
and wished (again) that he was
dead.
"And God sa id to Jonah. Doest
thou well to be angry for the gourd?
And he said.
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do well to be angry,
even unto death ." It see¡ns Jonah
sha red with so many of us that
strea k of stubbornness so common
to a ll humanity. "Then sa id the
Lo rd , Thou hast had pity on the
gourd, for wh ich thou hast not la–
boured, neither madest it grow [God
did that, remember] ; which ca rne up
in a night. and perished in a night :
a nd
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should not s pa re Nineveh?"
(Verses 9-1
0.)
Tha t must have been a se lling ar–
gumen t. One thing that frustrates
me is tha t the book o f Jonah ends
there. G od's message is complete fo r
Jonah a nd for us. He doesn' t bother
te lling us whether Jonah repented of
his selfish attitude of wanting the
Ninevites to be des troyed even
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1976
when they repented of their evil
ways. (The first thing 1 wan1 to ask
Jonah when
1
see him - granted we
both make it into God's kingdom –
is for him to tell me the rest of the
slory.)
Now. the being who spoke to and
dealt wi lh Jonah and Nineveh is
Jes us o f N azareth. called lhe Christ.
And in a rder for us lo know 'how
importan! the principies and lessons
of the book of Jonah are. he made
two telling poinls from it.
When people asked him for a sign
to prove he was indeed lhe Christ,
Jesus said. "There shall no sign be
given ... bul the sign of lhe prophet
Jo nas: for as Jonas was three days
and lhree nights in the whale's belly
[the word Jesus used was
ketos,
a
Greek wo rd having the ambiguous
meaning " monster of the deep."
not
whale); so shall the Son of man be
three days and lhree nights in the
heart ofthe earth" (Matt. 12:39.
40) .
There is no olher name under
heaven whereby we may be saved.
excepl by the name of Jesus Christ.
We are saved by hi s li fe and jusli–
fi ed by his blood shed for us. His
blood, which is hi s lite. pays for our
sins. beca use his sac rifice was per–
fect. He never si nned. But the only
sign he gave at the time he was
asked (when he was no l ye l through
with his huma n life. st ill subj ect to
terrible tri a ls. temptations a nd pos–
sible sin) was that everyone would
know for certain that he was the
Messiah when his Fat her resur–
rected him from the dead. As. of
coursé, no sinning sac rifice would be
adequale. the efficacy of h is sacritice
would be absolule when and only
when his Father raised him from the
dead.
Th at's why the resurrection is so
importa nt. His sacrifice is valid.
Jesus is a li ve to auminisler all his
promises.
Yet how many people a live loday
do you k.now who be lieve this only
sign Jesus gave to provc his mes–
sia hship? And for lhose who say
they be lieve, how many only believe
in pan - most say Jesus was in lhe
tomb 36 hours, not 72. You fig ure
out Good Friday s unse l Lo Easler
Sund ay sunrise and see how many
hours you come up wilh . (We have
an interesting booklet on lh c subject
o f th e resurreclion. by the way.
We' d be glad 10 send il lo you for
the asking.)
A second point Jesus made from
the book of Jonah to 1he " genera–
tion o f vipers" to whom he was
speaking was this : "The men of
Nineveh sha ll rise in judgment with
th is generation . and sha ll condemn
it: beca use they repenled al the
preaching of Jonas; and. behold , a
grealer tha n Jonas is here" (Mal t.
12:41).
What he was saying in short was:
" Ypu've gol to be lieve and repenl or
my be ing 1he Chrisl won'l be o f any
help lo you at all." Do you suppose
those of Jesus' day may have sha red
Jo na h's prejudices aboul Ninev ites?
Do you think it might have made
them upset lo be told lha t repentant
Ninevites would be closer 10 the
kingdom of G od when they are res–
urrected fo r their one a nd only
chance at sa lvation than the pious
people of Judea?
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lhink somebod y somewhere
sa id. "When you think you stand,
take heed lest you fa ll!"
There a re many terrify ing proph–
ecies for our day. The four horse–
men of the Apocalypse a re a bout to
ride: deception. war. famine, d is–
ease. The seas a re to become so pol–
luted they' lllook like b lood. wi th no
life in lhem. Many nations will per–
ish in wars ending in a nuclear holo–
causl lhat defies the imagination .
There will be earthquakes by the
score, al! at the top o f the Rich ter
scale. A time so chaotic is coming
tha t Jesus said. " And except those
days should be shortened, there
should no flesh be saved.' '
Now is lhe time for all good men
to come to repenta nce. Now is lhe
time to follow the example of the
Ninevites in belief- not of Jona h or
o f Jon, but o f Jesus.
Don 't let sorne long-dead inhabi–
ta nt of Ni neveh rise in judgment
and condemn you!
o
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