This post is Day 20 in a series of studies about “Jonah”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today. (The form is at the bottom of the page).

Jonah – Day 20

This heathen king had heard about the God of the Jews and about His fierce anger. His reputation had gone before Him! The King of Nineveh had heard that The Lord could be a compassionate God, but he was also aware that the sins of his people deserved death.

Jonah 3:9

“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

The Thought

The expression “fierce anger” appears thirty six times in the version of The Bible that I read regularly, but only in the Old Testament! I find that interesting! But this heathen king had heard about the God of the Jews and about His fierce anger. His reputation had gone before Him!

Several times when the Israelites were in the wilderness, they got fed up and frustrated, and became angry and rebellious against God, and several times He was tempted to destroy them all and start again.

The King of Nineveh had no doubt heard some of those stories, and was not at all sure what the Lord’s reaction would be to the prayers of him or his people. He had heard that The Lord could be a compassionate God, but he was also aware that sin cannot go unpunished, and he knew that the sins of his people deserved death. How sad that he hadn’t done anything to improve his community before things became so drastic.

This un-named king had not had the opportunity to read Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He lived too long ago to know that the Son of God has taken our sins to the cross, but still he had hope in a God who forgives. How much more should we have that hope when we have the whole story of Jesus available to us.

Action

Praise God that He is full of compassion, slow to anger and rich in love (Psalm 145:8). Read that psalm today.

Pray for a new revelation of how Jesus has saved you, and those you love from death.

For a full list of online studies available on this site, please click here.

If there is a subject you would like to see on this site, please use the comment section below or drop us an email (there’s a link at the very top of the page). We can’t promise to cover them all, and our studies are usually prepared a month or two in advance, so please be patient.

For a full list of physical resources available through this site, please click here.