Jonah by Dr. R.T. Kendall May 31/2023.

 I once knew some Dutch people very well.  And they told me that for a long time they sincerely believed that God spoke Dutch.  Since I have been in this country I have found out that some think God speaks English, with an English accent!  Jonah thought that God spoke Hebrew and Nineveh was hardly on Jonah's prayer list.  But God's prerogative to do what He wills with whom He wills the way He wills is something that we need to learn.  And after all, God can do it differently from the way He has done it in the past.  Peter was told by Jesus on one occasion how he was going to die.  You know what Peter's question was immediately:  What about John here? (John 21:21).  And it could be that God will want to do something in the world with a nation that you had not thought of, or with an individual you would not suspect.  And God may actually want to do something through you, and you ask:  Why me?  Why not this other person?  Why not that one?  You see God may deal with you in a totally unexpected way and you may not find a precedent for the way God is dealing with you; but that is what I mean by God's glory - loving His glory; the dignity of His will.  When He says to do something, happy are you if you begin to do it.

Well then, what about God's discovery of Nineveh's sin?  Perhaps the most marvellous insight of all from this passage is the very fact that God discovered Nineveh's sin.  An important line to be noted in the Old Testament is the way the word discover is used with regard to sin.  When God discovers (i.e. uncovers) one's sin in the Old Testament it is a sign of His mercy.  God, you say, already knows everybody's sin;  He doesn't need to discover it.  But God uses the word discover to accommodate us.  Of course  He already knows the sins of the world; He knows everything.  We have already established that.  But one of the amazing things to be observed in the Old Tes

tament is how God may discover sin; how He will discover evil and wickedness.  He takes note of it and it is a sign of His mercy.  We are told that Jonah was to go to Nineveh and cry against it 'for their wickedness is come up before me'.  Nineveh should be thankful for that.