One of the greatest cities of the ancient world was Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Founded on the fertile bank of the Tigris, it had become “an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”
(SS 144.1)
Nineveh was a center of crime and wickedness—“the bloody city, ... full of lies.” The prophet Nahum compared the Ninevites to a cruel lion. “Upon whom,” he inquired, “has not come your unceasing evil?” Nahum 3:1, 19, RSV.
(SS 144.2)
Yet Nineveh was not wholly given over to evil. In that city many were reaching out after something better, and, if granted opportunity to learn of the living God, they would put away their evil deeds. And so God revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner to lead them to repentance.
(SS 144.3)
To the prophet Jonah came the word of the Lord, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.” The prophet was tempted to question the wisdom of the call. It seemed as if nothing could be gained by proclaiming such a message in that proud city. He forgot that God whom he served was all-wise and all-powerful. While he hesitated, Satan overwhelmed him with discouragement, and he “rose up to flee unto Tarshish.” Finding a ship ready to sail, “he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with them.”
(SS 144.4)
Jonah had been entrusted with a heavy responsibility. Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in Jonah’s despair the Lord did not desert him. Through trials and strange providences, the prophet’s confidence in God was to be revived.
(SS 144.5)
Not for long was he permitted to go undisturbed in his mad flight. “The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, ... so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”
(SS 145.1)
The master of the ship, distressed beyond measure, sought out Jonah and said, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
(SS 145.2)
But the prayers of the man who had turned aside from duty brought no help. The mariners proposed as a last resort the casting of lots, “that we may know,” they said, “for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?”
(SS 145.3)
“And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”
(SS 145.4)
“Then ... the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”
(SS 145.5)
“Then they said to him,‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm for us?’—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me’” Jonah 1:11, 12, NKJV.
(SS 145.6)
“So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging ... .”
(SS 146.1)
“The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
(SS 146.2)
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying:
(SS 146.3)
I called to the Lord, out of my distress, And He answered me ...
(SS 146)
For Thou didst cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the flood was round about me; All Thy waves and Thy billows passed over me.
(SS 146)
Then I said, ‘I am cast out from Thy presence; How shall I again look upon Thy holy temple?’ ...
(SS 146)
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer came to Thee, Into Thy holy temple ... .
(SS 146)
What I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” RSV
(SS 146)
At last Jonah had learned that “salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” Psalm 3:8. With penitence and a recognition of the saving grace of God, came deliverance. Jonah was released from the perils of the mighty deep and was cast upon the dry land.
(SS 146.4)
Once more the servant of God was commissioned to warn Nineveh: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” This time he did not question or doubt, but “arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.” RSV.
(SS 146.5)
As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to “cry against” it the message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” From street to street he went, sounding the warning. The cry rang through the streets of the godless city until all the inhabitants heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart, and multitudes repented in deep humiliation.
(SS 147.1)
“Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let ... every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we perish not?’” RSV.
(SS 147.2)
As king and nobles, the high and the low, “repented at the preaching of Jonas” (Matthew 12:41), mercy was granted them. “God repented of the evil which He had said He would do to them; and He did not do it.” RSV. Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was honored throughout the heathen world, and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride.
(SS 147.3)
When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city, he should have been the first to rejoice. But he allowed his mind to dwell on the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.”“Is not this what I said,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil.” RSV.
(SS 147.4)
Once more he was overwhelmed with discouragement. Losing sight of the interests of others, in dissatisfaction he exclaimed, “Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I beseech Thee, for it is better for me to die than to live.” RSV.
(SS 147.5)
“And the Lord said, ‘Do you well to be angry?’ Then Jonah went out of the city ... and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. And the Lord God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.” RSV.
(SS 148.1)
Then the Lord gave Jonah an object lesson. He “appointed a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he was faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’” RSV.
(SS 148.2)
Again God spoke to His prophet: “‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’ And he said, ‘I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.’”
(SS 148.3)
“And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, ... and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left?’” RSV.
(SS 148.4)
Jonah had fulfilled the commission given him to warn that great city; and though the event predicted did not come to pass, yet the message of warning was nonetheless from God, and it accomplished the purpose God designed. His grace was revealed among the heathen. The Lord “delivered them from their distress; He brought them out of darkness and gloom.”“He sent forth His word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.” Psalm 107:13, 14, 20, RSV.
(SS 148.5)
Christ referred to the preaching of Jonah and compared the inhabitants of Nineveh with the professed people of God in His day: “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matthew 12:41. Into the busy world where men were trying to get all they could for self, Christ had come; and above the confusion His voice was heard: “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:37.
(SS 148.6)
Today the cities are in need of knowledge of the true God as were the Ninevites. Christ’s ambassadors are to point men to the nobler world. According to the Scriptures, the only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God. Through His servants the Lord is calling on men to secure the immortal inheritance.
(SS 149.1)
There is coming rapidly an almost universal guilt on the cities, because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. Every day brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, fraud, violence, lawlessness, indifference to human suffering, and brutal destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide. Men boast of the progress and enlightenment of the age in which we now live; but God sees the earth filled with iniquity and violence. Men declare that the law of God has been abrogated, and as a result, a tide of evil is sweeping over the world. Nobility of soul, gentleness, piety, are bartered away to gratify the lust for forbidden things.
(SS 149.2)
With long-sufferance and tender compassion God deals with the transgressors of His law. And yet, the end of God’s forbearance with those who persist in disobedience is approaching rapidly.
(SS 149.3)
Ought men to be surprised over a sudden change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Ought they be surprised that God should bring destruction on those whose ill-gotten gains have been obtained through fraud? Many have chosen to remain under the banner of the originator of rebellion against the government of heaven.
(SS 149.4)
The forbearance of God has been so great that we marvel. The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over His own attributes. God allows men a period of probation, but there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted. The Lord bears long with men, giving warnings to save them, but a time will come when the rebellious element will be blotted out, in mercy to themselves and to those who would be influenced by their example.
(SS 149.5)
The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters follow one another in quick succession—earthquakes, tornadoes, fire, and flood. Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized unregulated forces of nature, beyond the control of man; but they are among the agencies by which God seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.
(SS 150.1)
God’s messengers in the great cities are not to become discouraged over the wickedness and depravity they face while proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation. The Lord gave Paul in wicked Corinth a message: “Do not be afraid, ... for I am with you ...; I have many people in this city.” Acts 18:9, 10, RSV. In every city there are many who with proper teaching may learn to become followers of Jesus.
(SS 150.2)
God’s message for the inhabitants of earth today is, “Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Matthew 24:44. The conditions in the great cities proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God’s judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. The angel of mercy cannot much longer shelter the impenitent. The storm is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler.
(SS 150.3)