Nineveh Repented But America Won'T

We are living in a day, friends, where the nation has slid so far into moral chaos and social disorder that if this country does not repent and turn back to God, she will not escape the coming sword of judgment. Ancient Nineveh was a vast city. In fact, it was the largest city in the world at the time of its demise.

But when the prophet Jonah was sent to warn Nineveh of impending doom, it did an about-face and turned from its wicked ways from the king down to the peasant on the street. Ancient Nineveh repented and averted God's devastating judgment upon it. The people of Nineveh were exceedingly wicked.

In fact, God told Jonah, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. And do you know what, friends? God can say the very same thing about America at this present hour. Her wickedness has come up before me.

Nineveh repented, but America won't. And that's the title of my message this evening, Nineveh repented, but America won't. We will be in the book of Jonah.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. There are some liberal scholars who denounce the book of Jonah and call it only a fishtail. But I must remind you, friends, that Jesus Christ validated this story about Jonah and the whale, both in Luke's gospel and Matthew's gospel.

Jesus declared, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas. And behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

So you better believe Jesus over some eggheaded scholar, friend. And I'm telling you that the men of Nineveh will rise up against this generation of Americans who refuse to repent and turn back to the God of the Bible. Before we get into the reading of our passage this evening in chapter three, I want to lay a groundwork before you of how Jonah was viewed by the Ninevites and why they trembled at his message.

Here was a prophet who emerged from the waters of purging and divine mercy to boldly proclaim a message hot from the heart of a holy God. And his preaching brought this great city to its knees. And I will say this right now, friends.

What America needs today is a prophet, a man who's been purged and prepared to emerge onto the scene and cry out in God's name for repentance and drive this nation to her knees in a turn and back to the God of the Bible. Why were the Ninevites so taken up with the preaching of Jonah? First, we must understand some background information about them and their customs. At the time of Jonah's visit, the prominent religious worship going on in Nineveh was the worship of the god Dagon.

Dagon was a fish god who was worshipped in Mesopotamia at this time in history. In fact, images of Dagon have been found in the ruins of temple palaces in Nineveh and Dagon was represented as a man wearing a fish, or more specifically, he was a merman, part man and part fish. So picture this in your minds, friends.

These Ninevites worshipped a merman, so to speak. Here are some Ninevites standing along the seashore along the Mediterranean coast. And lo and behold, what comes out of the water but a whale.

And this whale spits a man onto the beach right before them. This would account for Jonah's immediate success as a man with a message from the depths of the sea and the heights of the heavens. Listen to the words of a Bible scholar from the 19th century who was an expert in this time period.

Listen to the words of Henry Clay Trumbull as he describes the scene. What better heralding as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh could Jonah have had than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish in the presence of witnesses, say on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish god was a favorite object of worship. Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the mercurial nature of oriental observers, so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the fish god, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea as he went on his mission to the city where the fish god had the very center of worship.

I mean, just imagine this, friends. Picture that scene of the whale coming out of the ocean and spitting Jonah on the sand. Bible scholars speculate that Jonah's appearance alone would draw a crowd, for his skin would have been bleached white from the action of the fish's digestive acids.

Imagine the startled Ninevites standing by the seashore that day, while a strange man appears strangely before them. His skin, his hair, and his clothes are ghostly white. Can you imagine the parade that followed the spectacle of Jonah into the city gates? His very appearance in the city caused a great stir, as well as the accompanying crowd behind him.

It's no wonder the king gave him a ready audience to his court and listened intently to his frightening message given by this even more frightening man. Both Jonah's physical appearance and his bold message of warning would have made the king's hair stand on end. Now that we've had our little introduction to Jonah, let us now turn to our passage for this evening, as found in Jonah chapter 3. And as I read this striking of passage to us, I hope our understanding of the background nature which I've just related now lends a deeper appreciation of the text as it pertains to our subject this evening in regard to repentance or judgment.

Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. 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. I will pause there.

That, friends, is the only preaching worth hearing, the kind that has the seal of God upon it. Now let us continue with our text. So Jonah rose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey, and Jonah began to enter into the city in a day's journey. And he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed to fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them.

I will pause there. Notice the people of Nineveh believed God and acted on his word. The people of America today not only do not believe God, but they mock God in the highest courts of the land, calling evil good and good evil.

God is nothing more than a curse word in America today. We will now continue in verse six. For a word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and he covered him with sackcloth and satin ashes.

Wouldn't it be something, friends, if the president of the United States repented and took off his two thousand dollar suit and put on sackcloth and satin ashes as he humbled himself before the God of the Bible. The wicked king of Nineveh did it. Notice what the king did next.

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his noble saying, let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed nor drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hand.

Let me pause here, friends. Can you imagine what would happen to this country if the people of this land did the very same thing, humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, stopping the violence that is in the land? A true turning back to God of the Bible would drastically alter the future of America. Any nation that humbles herself and turns back to God in repentance will see his great mercy displayed.

God declares in Malachi, return unto me and I will return to you. Are we willing to do it as a nation or will we just be destroyed by God's vengeful anger? Doom was riding above the clouds of Nineveh and doom is riding above the clouds of America at this very hour, friends. Don't you believe for one skinny minute that a nation can mock God and promote evil in the land and get by with it for long? Now look and see what the king of Nineveh said next as seen in verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not.

Notice, friends, it took repentance on the part of the Ninevites to have God repent of the evil he wished to bring upon them. Oh, friends, if only America would turn back to the God of the Bible in true repentance and humiliation, if this country could once again become a nationwide prayer meeting like it was back in 1858 when every major city had a noonday hour prayer, businessmen were getting saved left and right back then and this nation was brought to its knees in prayer and repentance and many young men were saved right before the bloody civil war where they soon died on the battlefield. God in his mercy sent a mighty awakening to America back then.

Oh, how much more desperately we need a spiritual awakening in this land today. The divine sword of judgment hangs over America this hour like the sword of Damocles ready to drop at any moment. What will it take for America to turn back to God? How bad does it have to get in this country before Americans are driven to their knees? What national tragedy must befall us before we come to our senses, realize our errors and our great sins in the land? When will we cry out to God for mercy and favor instead of mocking him and legislating him out of the land from the king down to the beast? The people of Nineveh turn from their evil ways and in humiliation turned in repentance toward the God of all creation.

Oh, when will America humble herself and fall to her knees and turn from her evil ways and repent of her national sins and turn back to the God of the Bible? Our text shows us the pattern for revival and it shows us the response of God to the repentant Ninevites and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. Listen friends, there's hope for America only if she will turn back to the God of the Bible in true repentance. If she does not then she will surely be destroyed.

God will not be mocked. Nineveh repented but America won't. Heaven help us all.