And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown’. Jonah 3:4
Do you remember the outpouring of remorse and the pleas for a return to God that were widespread in the United States in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York (9/11)? Prayers and patriotism suddenly became prominent again. Even baseball games got into the act, many featuring the singing of God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch. A wake-up call had been received, and it made a difference, for a little while. Americans were a bit like the Ninevites as Jonah made his way through and preached his message of impending destruction. But we know that Nineveh eventually was overthrown and destroyed. The lesson of Jonah’s preaching was not permanent; the collapse was merely delayed.
What about our North American self-reliance? Did America sit in sackcloth long enough to win any amount of reprieve from the Lord? Were the ashes of repentance real or were the tears borrowed from crocodiles?
What about the Christians? What message do we take from Jonah’s warning of doom and destruction. I believe God is warning us that all we see about us will eventually be dust and rubble. We build fine houses, we buy fancy cars, we heap to ourselves the things of sense and pleasure. Yet none of these things will endure the great catastrophe that is coming.
No, God would have us direct our minds to the things that will endure. He would have us lay up treasure in Heaven where neither inflation nor economic collapse can tarnish it nor erode its value.
If all of these things are to be burned up, we need to understand their temporary nature, and let them go, that we might grasp those things that will never be destroyed. –Jim MacIntosh