Today, we are going to talk about a man named Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of God. God needed him to tell the people of Nineveh what would happen to them if they didn’t repent for their wickedness.
In the book of Jonah, you will find the true story of how God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people there to repent, because if they did not repent before God, God was going to destroy Nineveh. However, Jonah did not want to do this. Therefore, he fled trying to run from what God had called him to do.
Jonah found a ship that was going to Tarshish, so he paid the price to go there. When they were on the boat going to Tarshish, God caused a violent storm to come. The storm was so bad in fact, that the ship was about to be broken, according to the Bible! Now, Jonah was fast asleep, so he did not know what was happening. The captain and the men were trying to lighten the load of the ship, but it was useless.
They thought the ship was going to fall apart. So, the captain went to Jonah and said unto him, “Why are you sleeping? Pray to thy God to save us.” They said to God, “It is not our fault that Jonah ran away from you, please save us!” Then they said unto him, “What shall we do unto thee to stop the storm?” He said unto them, “Throw me into the ocean.”
The storm was not getting any better, so they grabbed Jonah and threw him into the ocean. When they did this, the storm calmed down. God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights, but when he cried unto the Lord, the Lord spoke to the fish and the fish spit him out on land.
When Jonah was finally spit out of the belly of the great fish, God told him again to go prophesy to Nineveh that in 40 days they would be overthrown for their wickedness.
Jonah went to Nineveh and told them what God had said to say. When the people heard this, they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth (Which was a form of repentance) from the greatest of them even to the least of them. When the king of Nineveh heard this, he too covered himself with sackcloth, and published a decree that the people should fast, drink no water, cry mightily unto God, and turn from their wicked ways.
When the people repented before God, God saw their works and that they turned from their evil ways and did not destroy them. I wonder if the people in America will ever catch on to this idea?
Jonah was one of the prophets of God and once he finally obeyed God’s command, the result was that a nation was spared from destruction. Hopefully America will repent! Thank you for reading this article.