The story of Jonah is found in the book of Jonah chapters 1 through 3

Influential Men of the Bible: Jonah

The story of Jonah is found in the book of Jonah chapters 1 through 3

Jonah the son of Amittai, received a message from the Lord to go to Nineveh and announce His judgment against it because God had seen how wicked its people were. (Jonah 1:1-2)

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians worshiped nature; a tree god, a sun god, a rock god, etc. Their army was very brutal and cruel. They skinned people alive and made pyramids of human skulls from their conquests. Whenever they would capture a city, they would put fishhooks in the jaws of their captives, chaining them together to lead them away. So when God spoke to Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah was a little fearful. Instead of going to Nineveh, he went to Joppa and boarded a ship to Tarshish to escape the presence of the Lord. As Jonah was sleeping on the ship, God sent a powerful wind over the sea that caused a violent storm that rocked the ship. Jonah knew it was God, and that he was the reason that God sent the storm. “Throw me into the sea” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. For I know that this terrible storm is all my fault”. (1:12) thesailors threw him into the raging sea. “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights”. (1:17) In chapter 2, we find Jonah crying out to God out of the fish’s belly. He came to realize that running from the presence of the Lord put him in a dark and lonely place. He began to repent. He promises God he will do what had been asked of him. God heard his cry, and spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. (2:10) God spoke to Jonah a second time about going to Nineveh. This time Jonah said yes, and he made this three days journey in one day. For three days, Jonah walked from one end of this great city to the other. crying: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” (3:4) The entire city listened and repented of their sins. God saw their work, and changed his mind and did not destroy them. Jonah got very angry! (4:1) God showed Jonah through an encounter with a shade tree how He could change his feelings from anger to pleasure with Nineveh because they turned from their wicked ways.

We spend so much time worrying about how wicked people are, how loud the upstairs tenant plays their music, or that their seems to be a lot of drug activity on the street. Jesus said in St Matthew 28:19-20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Maybe we, like Jonah, don’t want to give them a message from God that they need to change their ways. Instead we board the “Praise the Lord” ship to church to run away from our environment. If we would come to realize that change is only going to come to this world, through us, we’ll change our minds and take the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, to them that are in danger of judgment. Maybe they’ll turn from their sins. That is the reason why God has sent you to that job! that apartment complex! that street in the first place.