The Nineveh Factor! part 1

Jonah 1:1, “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”

God's desire is that all men come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, repent of their sin, submit to God and be saved. This principle applies to all, even the great city of Nineveh full of disobedience and idolatry. God's message through Jonah was that if the people would heed the call to repentance, they would be saved.

Unrepentant sin demands the judgment of God. The judgment this world is experiencing is the result of sin. The world is reaping the seeds of sin that have been sown by past generations. This generation is reaping the sins of previous generations. How can that be so? The failure of past generations to hold themselves and their children accountable to the standard of God has brought us to where we are today. We are witnessing the results in government, in our public institutions and in society as a whole. But if people will heed the call to repentance, God will save by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

I believe there is a correlation between the pronounced judgment in the Book of Jonah and these last days. If we are to understand this connection, we must look at the historical data for both the city of Nineveh and the prophet Jonah. Evaluation of the historical setting is essential to understanding historical events and the people they affect. Our perception of history will invariably affect its value in the final analysis. Some people may think that history is just a list of random events strung together over time. Still others may suggest that history just happens without any specific order, reason or purpose. My conclusion is that life happens and history is created by the response of individuals and groups of people to life events. History is created by our human responses to life events. This thought is never more clear to me than when I read and study the Bible.

The Bible is not simply a record of random historical events strung together over time. But the Bible is the infallible, eternal Word of God. As such it is the intricate, priceless plan of God to lead and provide for His Creation. In every generation God has given mankind the choice to determine his own destiny. The journey would have been perfect had it not been for disobedience. Because of man's disobedience, history has recorded the diverse accounts of the rise and fall of people groups, nations and empires. Man's response to the eternal plan of God has determined his place in history.