Jonah 1:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
Jonah 3:1-3 “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”
Esther 4:14 “For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Before I completely leave the PLUS series on Impacting Babylon, I want to make a related two-post detour to a similar topic – Impacting Nineveh. Nineveh, like Babylon, is in modern day Iraq. This great historical city is situated near the large city of Mosul on the banks of the Tigris river. In the days of Daniel, this capital of the Assyrian Empire was a thriving metropolis. It was also filled with worldliness and wickedness.
God clearly directed Jonah to go and witness to this needy people, and Jonah fled from God’s calling. After an unpleasant nautical detour, God clearly directed Jonah to do so again. This time, Jonah realized the futility of fleeing from God and the importance of following the Lord’s direction.
God’s plans to impact a literal or figurative Nineveh won’t be thwarted by a stubborn and resistant believer. If we refuse to follow the Lord, He may give us another chance after getting our attention. Or, He may fulfill His purposes without us. Either way, God will prevail!
PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO FAITHFULLY FOLLOW GOD’S CALLING IN OUR LIVES. We must not stubbornly require God to direct us for the second time. Instead we must serve and witness immediately when we sense God’s calling if we are to properly impact our Nineveh today!
