‘Arise … Go … Cry’
"Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me" (Jonah 1:2).
I summarize the word of God that came to Jonah in three words:
The first word is "Arise".
God commanded the prophet Jonah to "Arise" (v. 2).
According to this command, the prophet Jonah “rose up” (v. 3).
But he did not go to Nineveh, but ran away to Tarshish.
He ‘went down’ to Joppa, 'went down' into the ship (v. 3),
‘went down’ into the hold of the ship, “lain down and fallen sound asleep” (v. 5).
To Jonah who fell into a deep sleep, the Gentile captain of the ship went to him and said:
"How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god
Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish" (v. 6).
God used the captain to remind the disobedient Jonah his command “Arise” (v. 2).
In other words, the captain’s word "Get up" (v. 6) was an echo of God's "Arise" command (v. 2).
God commands us to "Arise."
We must arise. We must arise and shine the light of Jesus (Isa. 60:1).
But if we do not arise and lie down and sleep deeply like Jonah
God will remind us again of the word "Arise" to us even through a non-believer.
We must listen to the voice of God that echoes through the non-believer and repent.
And must obey the command of God.
The second word is ‘Go’.
God commanded the prophet Jonah to "go to that great city Nineveh" (Jonah 1:2).
But Jonah disobeyed the command and tried to run away to Tarshish (v. 3).
He tried to flee to as far as he could from Nineveh so he ran away to Tarshish in the west of Nineveh.
As a result, God had "a great wind" on the sea, causing "a great storm" to occur in the middle of the sea (v.4).
The ship in which Jonah was in was about to break up (v. 4).
God commands us to "go."
We must go. We must “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Mt. 28:19).
But if we do not go and try to run away like Jonah
God will give us trials of "a great wind" and "a great storm" in our lives.
We will face a great crisis.
But we must keep in mind.
The great crisis for us is a great opportunity that God is giving us.
Trials such as "a great wind" and "a great storm" in our lives are
an opportunity for us to depend on God more and to reflect on ourselves before God.
We should reflect ourselves before God and not before people and the world,
and see if we are guilty of disobeying God's command, or that we are far from God.
Therefore, if we become aware of our "great sin" like “the great city” Nineveh (Jonah 1:2),
then we must the great grace of God by repenting the our great sin (Rom. 5:20).
And by God’s great grace,
we must obey (Jonah 3:3) the God’s command that when he gives us a second chance (vv. 1-2),
The third word is ‘Cry’.
God said to Jonah, " Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it" (1:2a).
The reason is because “their wickedness has come up before Me” (v. 2b).
"the evil spirits have been raised before me" (v.2).
But Jonah disobeyed the God’s command, and the ship that Jonah aboard was about to break up (v. 4)
because God caused the great wind to fall on the sea so that the great storm arose (v. 4).
At that time the Gentile sailors were afraid and cried to their gods (v. 5).
Later, these sailors who cried out to their gods cried out to God (v. 14).
And Jonah cried out to God in the belly of the great fish (2:2).
As a result, Jonah was given a second chance (3:1-2).
So he obeyed God's command and went to the great city Nineveh (v. 3).
What did he cried out to Nineveh as he went through the city one day’s walk? (v. 4)
It was “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (v.4).
I do not understand it.
Why did the prophet Jonah cry out to the Ninevites: “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown”?
Obviously, God told Jonah to "proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you" (3:2).
So I am sure Jonah would have proclaimed the commandment of God to the people of Nineveh,
was “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” all?
Maybe God told Jonah that ‘Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown
because you’re your wickedness has come up before me (1:2). So repent and return to me.
Then I will not bring upon you the destruction’ (3:10).
Maybe Jonah worried that God might relent from sending calamity on Nineveh (4:2)
that he proclaimed to the Ninevites “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (3:4)
instead of proclaiming to them ‘Repent and return’
since he wanted and expected God to bring calamity on the great city Nineveh (4:5)?
The bigger question is maybe God was crying out to disobedient Jonah
through “a great wind”, “a great storm” (1:4) and “a great fish” (v. 17).
If this is true, I wonder what God was crying out to Jonah.
Maybe he was crying out ‘I am concern about you’ (4:11).
I think that God had more concern about his anointed servant Prophet Jonah
more than the 120,000 Gentiles the Ninevites who didn’t know the difference between their right and left hand (v. 11).
God commands us to "cry".
We must go to this sinful world and cry out.
We must say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 3:2; 4:17; Mk. 6:12).
We must go to all the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people (Mk. 16:15).