DESCRIPTION: We sometimes try to see Scripture as simply a handbook for life. If that’s so and the Bible just gives us to-do lists and advice columns, why would Jonah and Nahum end in questions? The story of Nineveh is about more than Nineveh. This is about us. This is about God’s will for us. But what do these seemingly opposite books tell us about God’s will? In Jonah, He displays radical grace to Nineveh through a disobedient prophet, but in Nahum God completely wipes the city off of the face of the earth. What’s the common factor? What is God’s revealed will?

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DESCRIPTION: Assyria had tormented Israel and Judah for generations, mocking God as they went. God opposes the proud and the arrogant, those who try to lift themselves to God’s level and God details their impending destruction. God is against Nineveh. Judah had been abused and humbled for over 200 years. God speaks a word of comfort into their affliction. God promises salvation now over their Assyrian oppressors and salvation to the rest of the world today as over sin and all other oppressions and torments. The question you must ask yourself, though, is “Which message is for me?” Is God comforting you in your brokenness and humility with the knowledge that He is Justice or is God telling you that He knows your pride and stands against you?

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DESCRIPTION: This is where God’s wrath gets personal. We want to cheer on the destruction of these wicked people, but like when David condemned the man in Nathan’s parable (2 Samuel 12), we realize all too quickly that we, too, have set ourselves against God. God’s wrath provides comfort for the broken and beaten Jews as well as the broken and beaten among us that God will deliver justice because He cares about sin, but we cannot forget Nahum 2:13: “Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts…” Where is God loving everyone here? Where is loving the sinner and hating the sin here? If God sets Himself against people, how can anyone avoid destruction?

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DESCRIPTION: Nobody likes to talk about God’s wrath. It’s uncomfortable to think that there is some being out in the universe that can cause seas to dry up and hills to melt. It seems evil of God to wipe out people groups or to send people to Hell today. But is the alternative better? Is it better that God be indifferent to the affronts of sin against Himself and against us? Would we think that God is good if He turns a blind eye to all of the things that we do to harm each other and tear apart relationships as if there wasn’t anything wrong? God takes sin, justice, and righteousness seriously in His good wrath. But who can stand against His wrath? Who wouldn’t be destroyed by it? The only one who can stand God’s wrath and save us from it is God Himself.

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DESCRIPTION: Last week’s text ended with Jonah exclaiming that salvation belongs to the Lord. We thought that he had repented and was able to move on to be the hero of the story that a man who has a book of the Bible named after him; not so much. Jonah grudgingly goes to Nineveh to preach and the entire city repents! Jonah barely exerted himself and God brings all of Nineveh to Himself. So why was Jonah there? God clearly did all the legwork for him, so was going to Nineveh more about the Ninevites repentance, or Jonah’s? Was God so adamant about Jonah going to Nineveh because only Jonah could save the city or because it was only in Nineveh that Jonah would see his sin truly and fully and be able to repent of it truly and fully?

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DESCRIPTION: Last week’s text ended with Jonah exclaiming that salvation belongs to the Lord. We thought that he had repented and was able to move on to be the hero of the story that a man who has a book of the Bible named after him; not so much. Jonah grudgingly goes to Nineveh to preach and the entire city repents! Jonah barely exerted himself and God brings all of Nineveh to Himself. So why was Jonah there? God clearly did all the legwork for him, so was going to Nineveh more about the Ninevites repentance, or Jonah’s? Was God so adamant about Jonah going to Nineveh because only Jonah could save the city or because it was only in Nineveh that Jonah would see his sin truly and fully and be able to repent of it truly and fully?

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DESCRIPTION: Easter is all about resurrection, Jesus’ resurrection. It takes us from our lowest lows and raises us up with Christ to the throne of God. But what do we do with that resurrection practically, though? Very little of the Bible is useful simply as head knowledge, it has to be applied. But how do we apply the resurrection? Jonah had a resurrection experience, but the odds are poor that we’ll get eaten by fish in 2012. So how do live in the power of the resurrection? It’s like running into a minefield. . .

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DESCRIPTION: The storms of our life most often are the most effective at revealing what we actually believe. What is it that we do in the storm? Why do we want God to calm it? Is it because we think that God owes us better? He doesn’t. Is it because we’ve done everything right? We haven’t. Is it because we read the Bible and we go to church and we go to community groups and this just doesn’t happen to that good of a Christian? It does. Jonah’s storm came out of God’s grace as he ran from God and toward a religious life. How are you running from God?

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DESCRIPTION: Many talk about this part of Jonah’s story as God’s wrath upon those who stray from His way, but what if there’s more to the story? If the point of the story is God’s wrath on the heathen, why do the sailors worship God? Why is Jonah still alive? Rather, we see God relentlessly pursuing Jonah out of His love and grace. God sends an unprecedented storm and a massive fish to Jonah, all so that Jonah will go up to fix his eyes again on God. This isn’t a vengeful god on a warpath, this is a Shepherd seeking after the lost sheep of His flock.

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DESCRIPTION: We are zealous for what we are passionate about. We are zealous for that which is most important in our lives. We are zealous for those things that keep us awake at night when they’re threatened. But what can bear the weight of our zeal? Scripture reveals that, just like the church in Laodicea, when we are zealous for our own comfort and success we only find ourselves to be wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. It is only in Christ that we can find satisfaction for our zeal. But how do we become zealous for Christ?

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