I take the book of Jonah to be an accurate historical account written by the prophet Jonah mentioned in 2Kings 14:25. This is not the time or place to defend Jonah from the liberal higher critics. I've chosen this text in Jonah 3:1-10 because it describes a cultural reformation.
Cultural comes from the word culture which refers to a particular way of life for a designated group of people. For instance the southern culture is a way of life distinct from the northern culture. The word reformation denotes a change from one way of life to another way of life. The book of Jonah depicts the true nature of reformation in the most universal sense. There may be a few preachers who actually talk about reformation, but they do not appear to take reformation very seriously. When they do talk about reformation they are more often concerned with constraint and circumscription's that limit reformation. Let me make it clear that when I use the word reformation, I have biblical reformation in mind. Biblical reformation is the discovery or either the recovery of Biblical truth. Since reformation is the recovery of Biblical truth, we should hasten to bring it about. Recovering the truth of the law and gospel is ultimately important for the survival of any culture, because such recovery integrates dignity and moral standards.
Look at the little ones among us. While some of us are getting ready to die, they're getting ready to live. What will we devolve on the shoulders of our children if we do not seriously and sincerely seek reformation in the church, thus affecting every area of life including our religious, familial, social, economic, and political lives? An insincere reformation is no reformation at all.
Another reason I've chosen Jonah is because it reflects the principles necessary for reformation in church and society. Being reformed by the word of God is a necessary to grasp the substance of life and eternity. To ignore reformation is dangerous indeed, because without reformation God's wrath will be provoked.
You might say to yourself, "I don't want to provoke God" at least I hope you would entertain that thought. You don't want to provoke God and yet evil is provocative. There is such as thing as a provocative prophecy.
Deut. 4:25 - "When you begat children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day. . ."
Doing evil provokes God to anger. Let me give you a couple of examples from the word of God.
Judges 2:21 (After the death of Joshua) "then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger.
Ezekiel 8:17 - "Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked me repeatedly."
From 1450 B.C. to 600 B.C. the people of God provoked God to the point that His glory departed from the temple in Jerusalem. It was symbolic of God’s favorable presence leaving the people that professed to believe Him.
The people in Sodom tried neutrality. It didn’t work. When the wicked men of Sodom were told of the eminent destruction they just couldn't believe it was true. The nearness, the uncertainty, greatness and eternity of God's punishment and wrath doesn't seem dreadful or miserable for the unreformed man. Natural man cannot be reformed and wicked men will not be reformed, but those whom God has called to Himself can and must seek reformation. The choice is simple: reformation or judgment.
In a brief but compelling prophecy, Jonah and the object of his prophecy exemplifies the simple choice I just mentioned: reformation or judgment. In chapters one and two Jonah was reformed by the mighty hand of God. Jonah's personal reformation required a little encouragement, but he finally got the message and found that reformation was better than judgment. In chapter 3 we find reformation on the thoughts, tongues, and lives of the Ninevites.
I grant that the reformation in Ninevah was not permanent. Every generation must seek reformation according to the word of God. It was for that reason that the 16th Reformation reformers used the Latin phrase:
“ecclesia reformata simper est reformanda”
“The church reformed is always reforming”
Every Christian and every generation must rediscovery the truth of the word of God, so the beauty, majesty, and dignity of God will be the basis for culture.
After Jonah's personal reformation he went to preach reformation to the whole city of Nineveh or to put it in other terms Jonah preached to a culture unfamiliar with the true and living God. Jonah went through the streets of Nineveh preaching a very simple, but very persuasive sermon. You will find the content of his sermon in vs. 4 - "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." John the Baptist preached much like Jonah. They both preached repentance. Apparently Jonah's preaching was very powerful and very convincing, because the whole city repented in sackcloth and ashes.
The repentance at Nineveh was universal and was occasioned by their faith in God. The unexpected, but sudden reformation at Nineveh began with the people and very quickly reached the heads of state. The undeniable truth from the book of Jonah is that the reformation at Nineveh saved that city from God's impending judgment. "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them and He did not do it (Jonah 3:10)." The sinful people at Nineveh were about to have the wrath of God poured out upon them. But God showed mercy after the people of Nineveh were reformed.
God will often show mercy to a sinful people by warning them of His approaching judgment. God warns people of His coming judgment by means of sending a natural catastrophe, sickness, or other providential intervention that should get their attention. It seems to me that God's warning comes in an ascending order. When we think of the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B. C., we have little regard for the numerous lesser warning that the Israelites received beginning nearly 400 years before God's fury fell mightily on Mt. Zion. Sometimes God warns us by warning other people around us with more severe judgments. The captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel was sufficient to awake the sinning southern kingdom to repentance. But Judah would not reform and so God's judgment fell upon Judah.
Another way God warns people of His impending judgment is to send a messenger. God has sent many a messenger to warn his people. Just as God sent Noah, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and whole host of other prophets, God has called and sent his ministers to warn first the church and then the whole world. I am not able prophesy the particular time or the particular manner of God's coming judgment, but I may apply God's warnings according to God's word and His providence. When we hear of a great natural catastrophe, we should think of God's judgment. You might be inclined to believe that a hurricane destroys life and property because of the atmospheric conditions that occur naturally. That is bad thinking. A hurricane exists because of sin. Before sin entered into the world there could not have been destruction, death, and disorder. In a perfect world there is harmony and peace. A hurricane is God's judgment, just like sickness is God's judgment, just like death is God's judgment. Christians must not be ashamed of the same kind of preaching that accompanied reformation at Nineveh. "Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown." To try to hide the threats of God is like trying to hide from reality.
What we learn from Jonah and Nineveh is that reformation and a people turning from their evil ways averts God's threatened judgment. Not only from Jonah, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah and said, "The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it (Jeremiah 18:7)."
We can see that God not only calls the church to reformation, but God calls nations to reform. Once the church has recovered the truth of God’s grace, the church must then take that truth to the culture. Our present national sins should be of great concern to the church. Today God’s people feel the threats of every international, national, and local crisis that erupts. We sense the coming economic calamity. We see the moral catastrophe that accompanies a form of godliness among to many professing Christians.
Since reformation is absolutely necessary for the church and society what must God's people do? Let's get together and pray. I tell you that will not bring reformation. Let's have a day of fasting. Again fasting will not bring reformation. Let's have a revival service. No. No. No. Prayer and fasting is good and necessary, but they are not the instruments of reformation. A revival service without reformation is useless.
The people of Nineveh believed the word of God. This is the central principle of reformation “they believed the word of God.” Then they fasted. Like Jonah, you'll have to experience personal reformation first. Rediscover God's truth. The light of God's truth will light up a passion for reformation that will work itself out as a revival.
The well intentioned Christian may say: “We know of God’s impending judgment, but preaching God’s judgment will chase people away and we’ll never get to save them.” It is correct no one can save anyone except God and He uses His word to convict them of their sins. When the “Lord opened her (Lydia’s) heart to heed the things spoken” she was able to believe and seek reformation from the written word.
The majority of the church and most of our nation has not given attention to the terrible threats of God. Multitudes of sermons have been preached about reformation and the imminent dangers if people continue unreformed. Those sermons have largely been ignored. God is angry with the gross hypocrisy and the great heresies that plague the professing evangelical church. The church will do well to listen to God's threat of judgment. The church will do well to cut out all the talk about reformation, and stop amusing themselves with egocentric worship. Talk and self worship will find its end in God's judgment.
The present condition of Christianity is that it suffers from a lack of understanding God’s nature and character. The result is that the doctrine of salvation tends toward a form of universalism. The present unreformed church simply refuses to preach the simplicity of God’s grace, man’s sinful condition and in particular the doctrine of God’s salvation.
It seems the fundamental doctrines such as God’s justice and love have been distorted. With so much backwards theology we must recover the full counsel of God, if we expect reformation in the church extending to our culture. Reformation will come when Christians:
1) Seek God’s counsel from His Word
2) Hide God’s word in the heart’s mind
3) Declare God’s word without shame
4) Delight in the word of God and never forget it
Reformation is the recovery of biblical truth.
Natural man cannot recover biblical truth.
Wicked men will not recover biblical truth.
God's covenant people are the only instruments of reformation.
Will we do any less than the Ninevites?
Will we believe?
Will we repent?
If so, God may relent from the disaster that is coming upon us!
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