According to the law of the land a murderer is categorized as a criminal. Hatred and Un-forgiveness are brothers. You will not find one without the other. The two are always together. One is more dominating at times than the other but know they are still together. Please know that any professing believer that has hatred and malice in his or her heart and acts upon it as well, does not have the love of the Father within them. A professing believer who glories in the calamity of another be he sinner or saint, does not have the love of the Father within him. Justification does not give anyone the right to gloat over another’s judgement, down fall or failure. In fact, justification should usher the believer into serious intercession for the one who has mistreated, the one who has wronged, the one whom you say Karma has caught up with.
The law of the land would say that Jonah was justified in his disobedience. Given the history of Nineveh as we have, the land would say Jonah was in his right. Please know this: When you are enlisted in the army of the Lord, when you have become a Kingdom Citizen then your rights are to do the will of Him who has enlisted you and or adopted you into the family of God. Jesus leaving Judea before the Pharisees started with him about the quantity of baptisms they thought Jesus had did; was on his way to Galilee but he had to stop in Samaria. In a small town near the plot of land Jacob had given his son Joseph, there sat Jacob’s Well. Jesus who was spent from his travels, sit at the well and a woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her for a drink. In the meantime, the disciples had gone into town to buy food. Jesus had a very impacting conversation with the woman who ran into town to tell the things Jesus had said to her. While she was gone the disciples came back with food and insisted that Jesus eat. Jesus’ reply to their insisting stated that he had meat to eat that they knew not of. Being void of understanding the disciples thought that someone had fed Jesus while they were gone. Jesus said to them ” My meat, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me.”
Jonah’s right was to do what was instructed. Running away from the task given spoke hatred and un-forgiveness. Jonah at this time in history would have rather seen Nineveh destroyed than saved. How else would Nineveh know they had an option to live or die except the warning was given. How would the city have known of impending judgement unless the prophet delivered the words given him to speak? How would the city have known that they were in my focus and was loved enough to be warned and saved if they so desired, had Jonah not delivered the word given him? Yes, Jonah was a criminal on the run with the salvation of a city in his mouth because it certainly wasn’t at this time in his heart. Yes, Jonah was a prophet on the run with revelations of his God in his mouth. The people of Nineveh needed to know more about the God of heaven than what they had heard through the histories. Examining some of the biblical histories, it would appear that I was merely a God of judgement and very partial. Let me put it this way for a good laugh Joyce. “Word on the street is don’t mess with the Hebrews cause their God is off the chain. He doesn’t play. Mess with his folk and that’s your butt!!! You know like I know you would get in tight with them Hebrews this way their God will bless you and not take your head except if you do them wrong. Matter of fact, their God is the only one who can touch them Hebrews when they mess up. Don’t get it twisted. Their God makes the decisions ’bout them. He decides who will be the instrument to correct them if they do wrong. He calls their judgments and nobody else; while yall playing.”
Truthfully speaking Joyce, I have shown mercy and grace on other nations continuously throughout older biblical history to the present. I may not be accredited for my mercy and grace, but it was I who extended it. John 3:16 has been in effect before Jesus manifested in the earth as human. We have always loved man and will always love man. Man is a part of us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting to life.” We were loving the world before the manifestation of the Christ.
So….Jonah was on the run with the salvation of the city and the testimony of his God bottled up within himself. After I arrested him and locked him up in the belly of a fish for three days and nights, the prophet got himself together and was released to do what he was days short of doing. With a new attitude the prophet went forth into towns of the wicked city proclaiming the warning and word of his God referencing impending judgement. From the considered least of men to the considered greatest of men the warning and word went forth. When the warning and word reached the head of the nation, the king of the nation, the president of the nation, didn’t take on the attitude that the warning applied to everyone else except himself. Your bible tells you that the king took the warning seriously. He knew his faults; he knew his sins and like the rest of the nation he wanted to live and not die. The king took immediate action after believing and receiving my word spoken through the prophet. Your bible tells you that the king dethroned himself, took off his royal apparel, and clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes. Sackcloth was a sign of submission (1 Kings 20:31-32), or of grief and self-humiliation (2 Kings 19:1). Sackcloth, and ashes was worn as a sign of repentance for sin. Simply put, sackcloth and ashes were an external demonstration of an internal condition. … The action itself required a most sincere humility that only the repentant one can possess.
Nineveh’s president wasn’t playing. He sent out a decree of a fast throughout all of Nineveh and all flesh fasted. He sent out a decree that affected the whole city of Nineveh. Nothing and no one was to eat or drink. The inhabitants of the city were to be covered in sack cloth and ashes and crying out to the God of heaven for forgiveness of their sins. When the head gets right with me Joyce the body will follow. When I saw their works Joyce, how everyone turned from…. I repeat turned from their evil…. I withheld the judgement. Oh, happy day. I rejoice when men forsake their wickedness and turn to me. Repentance carries more weight than silver and gold. Oh, that men Joyce would forsake their wicked ways and turn to me.
The world today Joyce stands in the shoes of Babel, stands in the shoes of Noah’s day, stands in the shoes of Nineveh. The sins of the nations have reached me. I repeat…. the sins of the nations have REACHED me. He that has an ear to hear…….
Before we go to Sodom and Gomorrah Joyce, we will take a journey in history to a personal conversation with King Solomon. Solomon was no different in his walk with me in the beginning as most men. In the early stages of salvation men and women run with all their might. But as the novelty or honeymoon stage runs out so too does the running and the seeking, the praying, as well as desires for me grow cold. Things and people become a priority one and I am left just standing in the lives of many waiting for my turn again.
Solomon had built me a house. I had said that I would dwell in thick darkness, but Solomon said not so. He built a glorious Temple for me to dwell. After the temple was built Solomon took the platform in the outer courts before all the congregation of my people. He knelt, lifted his hands to heaven and prayed fervently. Joyce, please record the prayer of Solomon.
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire community of Israel, and he lifted his hands in prayer. Now Solomon had made a bronze platform 7 1⁄2 feet long, 7 1⁄2 feet wide, and 4 1⁄2 feet high and had placed it at the center of the Temple’s outer courtyard. He stood on the platform, and then he knelt in front of the entire community of Israel and lifted his hands toward heaven. He prayed:
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today. “And now, O Lord, God of Israel, carry out the additional promise you made to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, ‘If your descendants guard their behavior and faithfully follow my Law as you have done, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ Now, O Lord, God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David.
“But will God really live on earth among people? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you. May you watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.
“If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn back and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave to them and to their ancestors.
“If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession.
“If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is— and if your people Israel pray about their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart. Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.
“In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands when they hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name.
“If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to you by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple, I have built to honor your name, then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause.
“If they sin against you—and who has never sinned? —you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their captivity and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name— then hear their prayers and their petitions from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.
“O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place.
“And now arise, O Lord God, and enter your resting place,
along with the Ark, the symbol of your power.
May your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation;
may your loyal servants rejoice in your goodness.
O Lord God, do not reject the king you have anointed.
Remember your unfailing love for your servant David.” 2 chronicles 6: 12-42
continued…….