HARD message

Jonah 3:3 & 4

"3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

This week we are studying FALLING BACK to GOD! When the Church is on the right track it is FALLING BACK to GOD! During the Protestant Reformation all of the reformer's efforts were for the church to FALL Back to God. During the 1730s and 1740s in the English colonies in America the idea of secular rationalism was taking hold but then "The Great Awakening" happened and people were FALLING BACK to GOD!

People in all times and all places will find themselves moving further and further away from GOD and we will need to FALL BACK to GOD! We all need to admit that we are broken and need help. We do things wrong. We get stuck in doing things wrong. To learn something more about FALLING BACK to GOD we turn to Jonah in the Old Testament. And, there is a twist; Jonah did NOT FALL BACK to GOD! Jonah did NOT want to go to Ninava, the people there were EVIL. He went the OTHER way. He did not repent. God got him back on track by whale. After three days and nights in the belly of the great fish Jonah is spit up on shore where he can continue on his mission from GOD. Yesterday's verses; "And The Word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee."

Today's verses; "So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey." Nineveh was located where Mosul, Iraq is today. Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities of it's time. By all accounts it was a marvel to behold with a palace that had no equal in the world, gardens, neighborhoods, businesses, schools and everything you expect in a really BIG city. 

Jonah would have been not only country come to town, he was also from the enemies country. He was Jewish and he would have looked out of place, he would have sounded out of place. This city is where the warriors lived with there families. Warriors who have inflicted great pain on Israel over the years. Now, Jonah is in their hometown to deliver the message that they will be overthrown. "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Now that's a hard message to deliver to an audience that does NOT want to hear it!!!