00:00:00:41 – 00:00:22:58
Clint Loveall
Hey everybody. Thanks for being back with us as we start off Monday. in. Back in. Jonah, at the end of the third chapter. I don’t know if this verse will take us a whole study, but it is a fascinating verse, kind of culminates the third chapter and just it’s been a while since we’ve been together, so just a reminder of where we’re at in the story.

00:00:22:58 – 00:00:50:39
Clint Loveall
Jonah has made his way to Nineveh. He’s he’s preached. Or at least he’s maybe not preach. He’s proclaimed, the impending doom of Nineveh and the city, and from the king on down has responded with repentance, sackcloth, ashes, even going so far as to say that put the animals in sackcloth. And we kind of ended with this verse last week, last time we were together.

00:00:50:43 – 00:01:19:33
Clint Loveall
Who knows? God may relent and change his mind. He might turn from his fierce anger. So we do not perish. And this is where we now move as we see God’s reaction. So we’ve had Jonah in this story. We’ve had the people, we’ve had the King, and by extension, the rest of Nineveh. And and now we see, really not the not the first action of God in the story.

00:01:19:33 – 00:01:49:55
Clint Loveall
Certainly we’ve seen others, but we now see God, evaluate Nineveh and show up in this place. So let me read this. And then I do think there’s a lot to unpack today. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

00:01:50:00 – 00:02:18:21
Clint Loveall
So what makes this interesting? I think, obviously, Michael, is this phrase God changed his mind and the word changed here, is a big word. In Hebrew. It means relent. It means repent. It means to be sorry for or sorry about. It means to have compassion. It is a big word family. And here it clearly has this sense of turn.

00:02:18:21 – 00:02:41:49
Clint Loveall
And if you look at the words beginning in about verse eight, I don’t know if maybe we can bring that up. if you could maybe verse eight, so you’ve got here, if you just look at verse eight, they shall not feed. all shall turn from their evil ways. And then you have verse nine, who knows, God may relent.

00:02:41:54 – 00:03:08:42
Clint Loveall
He may turn from his anger. And then verse ten, God, how they when God saw how they turned, God changed. God turned. So there, there is this repetitive movement through this part of the story of turning the people turn and God turns. Now that’s not mechanical because the king doesn’t say, if we turn, then God will. He says, who knows?

00:03:08:42 – 00:03:37:46
Clint Loveall
So it’s the divine option. It is. It is the space for God to be God, to be gracious. And, I know for some people, Michael, this is maybe troubling language. The idea that God changes God’s mind is is maybe tough to wrap your head around. But I think in the context of the story, the author has been setting us up for this movement by introducing that language throughout this part of the text.

00:03:37:57 – 00:04:05:16
Michael Gewecke
You know, let’s hone in on a few aspects of that, Clint, because I think it would be very foolish and very shortsighted to try to just nail that down to one specific thing. I think that this is a robust combination of factors. Actually, this idea that God changes God’s mind teaches us something about the relationality of God, that God is in relationship with the beings that God has created, and also it has a deep connection to the grace and mercy of God.

00:04:05:16 – 00:04:29:52
Michael Gewecke
But let’s start with the first one. As you see God’s call to Jonah in the first part of this book, we’ve said many times that that call is something that Jonah is immediately repelled by. Why? He wants to have nothing to do with the invites. He does not want to be anywhere near their sinfulness, their brokenness, their enemies status from the people of Israel.

00:04:29:52 – 00:05:04:26
Michael Gewecke
So what we have happening is Jonah rushing away to assure that that kind of relational connection never happens. But of course, God is at God’s core of relationship. Now being we have that in the Christian, doctrine of the Trinity. And so what we have happening in some sense here, Clint, this idea of changing mind is that God sees these people, real people that are beloved, and God sees the action, and God’s mind is changed in the same way that when one is moved by the love of another or by the action of another, God is affected by that.

00:05:04:26 – 00:05:28:04
Michael Gewecke
That’s a beautiful expression of God’s true and sincere love for humanity. And I think that that’s worth celebrating as part of the picture we have in this. And I also want to point out that your your point, Clint, that is so well made about the idea that the King of Nineveh phrases this question so poignantly. Who knows? It’s throwing upon the very mercy of God.

00:05:28:04 – 00:05:48:05
Michael Gewecke
God may relent. God may turn. That, in other words, gives the full agency and choice to its rightful source, which is God. God is the one who will lot ultimately choose to show mercy, or God is the one who will ultimately choose to hold the people to account for the sins that they have committed. There’s no quibbling here.

00:05:48:09 – 00:06:13:22
Michael Gewecke
There’s no bartering back and forth or negotiating. This is the sins that happened or didn’t happen. This is a full, basically admission of guilt and saying that if we confess that guilt and we turn that God and God’s freedom and grace and love may relent from this thing, that God has chosen it, and that is a core attribute of what Scripture reveals God to be.

00:06:13:24 – 00:06:37:35
Michael Gewecke
God is ultimately the being who is willing to take upon. Ultimately, we see in Jesus Christ, of course, many, many books later in the Bible we see the extent to which God is willing to go to, to, create relationship and mercy and grace with humanity. But even in this story, we see that kind of commitment to relationship, to love, to mercy.

00:06:37:35 – 00:06:41:45
Michael Gewecke
And this is the character of God being revealed in a text like this. Yeah.

00:06:41:45 – 00:07:08:17
Clint Loveall
And I think one of the dangers, one of the struggles of translation is you have this word and we have to pick an English equivalent and changed his mind is not is not terrible. But you could just as well put reconsidered or or God was moved with compassion about the calamity that he had said he would bring. And so this, this divine possibility, who knows?

00:07:08:22 – 00:07:43:09
Clint Loveall
God may respond to what we do, and then God does. God sees the effort. He judges the heart of the people. He judges the actions of the people, and it moves the needle on what God intends, on what God plans. Because now there, rather than punish, there is an opportunity to stay in relationship with rather than bring calamity, bring destruction.

00:07:43:13 – 00:08:07:43
Clint Loveall
There is a sense of moving forward in new possibility for the people and possibly for God. And just, to highlight that the word calamity here in verse ten is often translated evil. God was going to do bad to the city. Now, I don’t mean that God would have been at fault. I mean, that’s the that’s the sense of what was going to happen.

00:08:07:48 – 00:08:41:46
Clint Loveall
Badness. Evil was going to fall on them as a punishment for their own evil. And here God does not do it. Ultimately, God is the God who does not do evil but does good. The the God who. Yes. Holds people accountable, but because of who God is, those same people always live within the divine possibility that God has both the freedom and power to chart a new course.

00:08:41:51 – 00:09:14:21
Clint Loveall
And and if that’s troubling language, I would just encourage people to move to other parts of the scripture. the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the bargaining between God and Abraham, the the sort of bargaining, bartering of Moses and God in, both Moses’s calling and later in parts of the Exodus. There is a fluidity to God that is in the, I think, built in to the idea of being in relationship.

00:09:14:23 – 00:09:41:39
Clint Loveall
I think that’s well said, Michael, that to be related to someone means a kind of give and take in which we can’t always operate within fixed parameters. There’s a fluidity to that and I think we see that here. And I think it’s it’s beautifully painted here. It is really well done. The author doesn’t dwell on it. The author doesn’t expound on it theologically.

00:09:41:43 – 00:10:02:07
Clint Loveall
The author just says, when God saw what they did, when God looked on Nineveh and saw them change, God also decided he would change his plans. He would change his reaction. He would change what he was going to do. And that’s that it. It’s a really powerful verse.

00:10:02:16 – 00:10:23:22
Michael Gewecke
Absolutely. And in fact, I will try to remember to link this in the description of the video here. But we did a study of Exodus, and you might remember from that study, this is chapter 32. I’m looking here at verse 1314. Moses shows up and just goes toe to toe with God. Remember Abraham, remember Isaac, remember Israel.

00:10:23:22 – 00:10:51:27
Michael Gewecke
Then verse 14, after this speech that Moses gets, he gets up in God’s face almost is the ideas, the emotion. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. And Clint, the reason I won’t bring up this is because we do see this story told about the Israelites. Yes, we know about Sodom and Gomorrah, and certainly that story is going to be God meeting out justice to unrighteousness to evil.

00:10:51:41 – 00:11:20:47
Michael Gewecke
But we also have this story as it relates to the people of Israel himself who are found wanting, who are found guilty. And God changes God’s mind in that circumstance. And so then when you fast forward to Jonah, where we are here and God changes God’s mind in this circumstance, I just think that is an unbelievable moment. But now, and I realize we got to be careful walking on this ground, but I, I just want to bring this back to our memory here.

00:11:20:58 – 00:11:40:33
Michael Gewecke
Remember Jonah one one. Okay. Back to the beginning of this book. Back before any of the the shipwreck or the or the the storm and being thrown into the sea and the whale and then the psalm before all of that. Right. You have God who says, go, then you never cry out against it, for the wickedness has come before him.

00:11:40:33 – 00:12:04:06
Michael Gewecke
And now we know at this point that the city is willing to repent for that wickedness. The word that then strikes me is right here in verse three. But but Jonah set out. I can’t help but think that that transition, the idea that God has said, go cry out against the wickedness of that place which any Israelite prophet would love to do.

00:12:04:06 – 00:12:34:37
Michael Gewecke
I mean, read Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s got some real words for those other nations who are not following in God’s way, but Jonah is unwilling to do it. Why? I think because Jonah, at his core, is exactly afraid of this scenario that has played out, that the God of relationship and the God of mercy and grace would show that same mercy and grace upon the foreigner and the enemy that God has done previously, even to the people of Israel.

00:12:34:37 – 00:13:20:51
Michael Gewecke
I wonder if Jonah knows God well enough to know the risk of going and proclaiming that the people had transgressed God’s will for their life, and here we see that not only are those people willing to hear, we’ve seen that not only have they made this extravagant response to that, right. I mean, we were blown away that they from the the most princely and noble class all the way down to the animals themselves, just this unbelievable scene of repentance that it might happen across an entire society, that at that movement, God then changes God’s mind, that God transforms the history away from the right justice of evil that would have been done against those of

00:13:20:51 – 00:13:49:12
Michael Gewecke
wickedness and evil themselves. And instead, God finds a way forward in grace and mercy and reconciliation. And that is a powerful testimony to God’s willingness to engage in the life of the other. Because Jonah here, I think Ross represents the people of faith. Jonah is the person who grew up within the nation of Israel. The mercy God showing is to people who Jonah would prefer not having seen mercy.

00:13:49:12 – 00:14:05:33
Michael Gewecke
And we’re going to see that fleshed out in the chapter to come on. So I don’t want to read ahead, but I just think that this is a pivotal moment to understand this book, that we learn something about God right now. And now the question is, will Jonah learn something about God and therefore himself, or will he not?

00:14:05:45 – 00:14:36:18
Clint Loveall
I think one way you can imagine this book is sort of big picture, small picture, and we keep shifting between those viewpoints. in the beginning of the book, we have this big picture. The wickedness of Nineveh has come up to God, and then we dial in on Jonah, who runs away. And then we have the big picture of the sea and the storm, and the small picture of Jonah asleep, the big picture of sailors, the small picture of Jonah in the in the fish, the big picture now of Nineveh.

00:14:36:23 – 00:15:18:28
Clint Loveall
And we are getting ready in the transition to move back to the small picture of Jonah. And and if we do a little scorekeeping in this book, Michael, so far. Sailors have been changed right? Nineveh has now been changed, right? God has changed direction. and so the last one left in the story is Jonah. Right. As we dial back down our focus to the small again, and we and we leave, we’re sort of left with this question.

00:15:18:40 – 00:15:42:55
Clint Loveall
If you could hang up this story for a moment right here. When God saw what they did and how they changed, God changed his mind. Has Jonah changed his mind? In some ways? We’re still guessing at this point in the story about Jonah’s mind, but it’s becoming clear. And as of tomorrow, it becomes crystal.

00:15:42:55 – 00:15:43:46
Michael Gewecke
Clear.

00:15:43:51 – 00:16:24:29
Clint Loveall
And Jonah is the last character standing in the story whose mind has not been changed, whose behavior has been, maybe that’s not fair. Certainly been influenced. God got Jonah to do what God wanted. Kind of. But Jonah stands as the last man out in terms of this question. What has changed and what hasn’t? And, again, what is Jonah’s relationship with these people who have now repented and they’ve now been spared?

00:16:24:34 – 00:16:30:51
Clint Loveall
And how is Jonah going to respond? I think it’s again, it’s just such powerful storytelling.

00:16:30:55 – 00:16:49:04
Michael Gewecke
Well, and remember chapter one, verse two, God gives that order and it says, But Jonah went the other way. I can’t help but notice here, Clint. remember, the Bible doesn’t have chapter and verses in the original text, so he did not do it. The next word I don’t want spoil the next study, but the next word is.

00:16:49:04 – 00:17:11:27
Michael Gewecke
But just like we had before. But. And then Jonah’s going to move in, and we’ll cover that together if you stay with us in the study. But I just want to make it clear here that Clinton I we’re not anti Jonah. We’re not against Jonah. I don’t think that I, I come to this text with a kind of orient nation to try to, belittle him or make him look small.

00:17:11:28 – 00:17:39:14
Michael Gewecke
I actually want to point out here that maybe I shouldn’t speak for you, but. But for me, when I come to a text like this and engage with John, I think it is honest in a way that teaches us to be honest with ourselves. In other words, if we are really honest, there are many people and places and things that God could call us to that we would resist, and many of us would resist with all of our might.

00:17:39:16 – 00:18:09:48
Michael Gewecke
No, God, I refuse of all of your gracious plan. That is one step too far. That’s one city. Too far. That’s one person too far. That’s one action I’m unwilling to commit. And the question is, as God moves you through your life and you see waves of conversions, people transformed by God’s grace through unwilling servants, at some point, do you ever look around and say, wow, this is astonishing.

00:18:10:03 – 00:18:34:45
Michael Gewecke
God is capable of doing more than what I could have imagined, more than I could have even asked for. And if we, as people of faith, are able to humbly and openly receive God’s strength in those moments when God calls us to do the things that quite frankly, we don’t have the stomach for, we might have learned something from this book that I think is critical in living out the faith.

00:18:34:49 – 00:19:06:04
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And again, maybe to set up tomorrow, don’t miss the idea that the the Ninevites, there is a sense here, maybe in which we could say obedience opens new possibilities, the obedience of the people, the repentance of the people has literally changed their future. Now, keep in mind that behind that is Jonah’s obedience. Now it’s half hearted and it was reluctant and it was coerced.

00:19:06:09 – 00:19:40:28
Clint Loveall
But ultimately, in Jonah doing the thing that God called him to do, are the Ninevites delivered? Jonah is the reason behind their repentance. Is his appearance, is his profession. And again, how does Jonah respond to that? And that’s where the story takes a very interesting turn. I think in some ways, the last chapter of Jonah, is the most interesting.

00:19:40:28 – 00:20:05:39
Clint Loveall
It’s the most challenging. so I hope you can join us tomorrow as we continue through this last section. We’ve we’ve kind of told you that Jonah is a drama in four parts. I don’t even know if you can fairly call the fourth chapter the conclusion. In some ways, chapter three is the. I guess it depends which part of the story you’re talking about being concluded.

00:20:05:43 – 00:20:19:12
Clint Loveall
But, chapter four, however you would talk about it is very, very interesting. And I think the clearest picture we have in the book of, of who Jonah is and what Jonah’s struggling with.

00:20:19:17 – 00:20:40:26
Michael Gewecke
And I might add, what questions we will not see answered clearly. Yeah, that the answer is very clear to leave out parts of this story that I think are essential to us understanding the point of this story. Thanks for being with us here, everyone. It’s a joy, of course, to spend time together. I hope that this study has helped you and your own faith or understanding.

00:20:40:26 – 00:20:49:21
Michael Gewecke
Give this video a like if you’re on YouTube, that helps us there. it helps other people find it. Subscribe for more studies like this. We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

00:20:49:22 – 00:20:50:04
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.