EGW WritingsJonah 4

Conflict and Courage

Reluctant Prophet, August 12

CC 230.1

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. Jonah 1:2.

CC 230.2

Nineveh, wicked though it had become, was not wholly given over to evil. He who “beholdeth all the sons of men” (Psalm 33:13) ... perceived in that city many who were reaching out after something better and higher.... God revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner, to lead them, if possible, to repentance.

CC 230.3

The instrument chosen for this work was the prophet Jonah.... Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in the hour of Jonah’s despair the Lord did not desert him. Through a series of trials and strange providences, the prophet’s confidence in God and in His infinite power to save was to be revived....

CC 230.4

Once more the servant of God was commissioned to warn Nineveh.... As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to “cry against” it the message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” From street to street he went, sounding the note of warning.

CC 230.5

The message was not in vain. The cry that rang through the streets of the godless city was passed from lip to lip until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins and to repent in deep humiliation.... Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride....

CC 230.6

The lesson is for God’s messengers today, when the cities of the nations are as verily in need of a knowledge of the attributes and purposes of the true God as were the Ninevites of old.... The only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God.... The Lord Jesus is calling upon men to strive with sanctified ambition to secure the immortal inheritance.17Prophets and Kings, 265-274.

From Splendor to Shadow

Jonah’s Day, and Ours

SS 150.2

God’s messengers in the great cities are not to become discouraged over the wickedness and depravity they face while proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation. The Lord gave Paul in wicked Corinth a message: “Do not be afraid, ... for I am with you ...; I have many people in this city.” Acts 18:9, 10, RSV. In every city there are many who with proper teaching may learn to become followers of Jesus.

SS 150.3

God’s message for the inhabitants of earth today is, “Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Matthew 24:44. The conditions in the great cities proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God’s judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. The angel of mercy cannot much longer shelter the impenitent. The storm is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, as did the inhabitants of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler.

Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 21 (1906)

Ms 61a, 1906

21LtMs, Ms 61a, 1906, par. 8

“Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” [Jonah 3:1-10; 4:1-11.]

Sermons and Talks, vol. 2

Manuscript 61a, 1906

2SAT 279.3

[Jonah 3:1-10; 4:1-11, quoted.]

From Splendor to Shadow

Chapter 22—Jonah, the Prophet Who Ran Away

SS 144.1

One of the greatest cities of the ancient world was Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Founded on the fertile bank of the Tigris, it had become “an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”

SS 144.2

Nineveh was a center of crime and wickedness—“the bloody city, ... full of lies.” The prophet Nahum compared the Ninevites to a cruel lion. “Upon whom,” he inquired, “has not come your unceasing evil?” Nahum 3:1, 19, RSV.

SS 144.3

Yet Nineveh was not wholly given over to evil. In that city many were reaching out after something better, and, if granted opportunity to learn of the living God, they would put away their evil deeds. And so God revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner to lead them to repentance.

SS 144.4

To the prophet Jonah came the word of the Lord, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.” The prophet was tempted to question the wisdom of the call. It seemed as if nothing could be gained by proclaiming such a message in that proud city. He forgot that God whom he served was all-wise and all-powerful. While he hesitated, Satan overwhelmed him with discouragement, and he “rose up to flee unto Tarshish.” Finding a ship ready to sail, “he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with them.”

SS 144.5

Jonah had been entrusted with a heavy responsibility. Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been blessed abundantly. Yet in Jonah’s despair the Lord did not desert him. Through trials and strange providences, the prophet’s confidence in God was to be revived.

SS 145.1

Not for long was he permitted to go undisturbed in his mad flight. “The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, ... so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”

SS 145.2

The master of the ship, distressed beyond measure, sought out Jonah and said, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”

SS 145.3

But the prayers of the man who had turned aside from duty brought no help. The mariners proposed as a last resort the casting of lots, “that we may know,” they said, “for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?”

SS 145.4

“And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”

SS 145.5

“Then ... the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”

SS 145.6

“Then they said to him,‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm for us?’—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me’” Jonah 1:11, 12, NKJV.

SS 146.1

“So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging ... .”

SS 146.2

“The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

SS 146.3

“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying:

I called to the Lord, out of my distress,
And He answered me ...

For Thou didst cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the flood was round about me;
All Thy waves and Thy billows passed over me.

Then I said, ‘I am cast out from Thy presence;
How shall I again look upon Thy holy
temple?’ ...

When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer came to Thee,
Into Thy holy temple ... .

What I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
RSV

SS 146.4

At last Jonah had learned that “salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” Psalm 3:8. With penitence and a recognition of the saving grace of God, came deliverance. Jonah was released from the perils of the mighty deep and was cast upon the dry land.

SS 146.5

Once more the servant of God was commissioned to warn Nineveh: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” This time he did not question or doubt, but “arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.” RSV.

SS 147.1

As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to “cry against” it the message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” From street to street he went, sounding the warning. The cry rang through the streets of the godless city until all the inhabitants heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart, and multitudes repented in deep humiliation.

SS 147.2

“Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let ... every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we perish not?’” RSV.

SS 147.3

As king and nobles, the high and the low, “repented at the preaching of Jonas” (Matthew 12:41), mercy was granted them. “God repented of the evil which He had said He would do to them; and He did not do it.” RSV. Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was honored throughout the heathen world, and His law was revered. Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride.

SS 147.4

When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city, he should have been the first to rejoice. But he allowed his mind to dwell on the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” “Is not this what I said,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil.” RSV.

SS 147.5

Once more he was overwhelmed with discouragement. Losing sight of the interests of others, in dissatisfaction he exclaimed, “Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I beseech Thee, for it is better for me to die than to live.” RSV.

SS 148.1

“And the Lord said, ‘Do you well to be angry?’ Then Jonah went out of the city ... and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. And the Lord God appointed a plant, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.” RSV.

SS 148.2

Then the Lord gave Jonah an object lesson. He “appointed a worm which attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he was faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’” RSV.

SS 148.3

Again God spoke to His prophet: “‘Do you do well to be angry for the plant?’ And he said, ‘I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.’”

SS 148.4

“And the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, ... and should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left?’” RSV.

SS 148.5

Jonah had fulfilled the commission given him to warn that great city; and though the event predicted did not come to pass, yet the message of warning was nonetheless from God, and it accomplished the purpose God designed. His grace was revealed among the heathen. The Lord “delivered them from their distress; He brought them out of darkness and gloom.” “He sent forth His word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.” Psalm 107:13, 14, 20, RSV.

SS 148.6

Christ referred to the preaching of Jonah and compared the inhabitants of Nineveh with the professed people of God in His day: “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.” Matthew 12:41. Into the busy world where men were trying to get all they could for self, Christ had come; and above the confusion His voice was heard: “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:37.

SS 149.1

Today the cities are in need of knowledge of the true God as were the Ninevites. Christ’s ambassadors are to point men to the nobler world. According to the Scriptures, the only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God. Through His servants the Lord is calling on men to secure the immortal inheritance.

SS 149.2

There is coming rapidly an almost universal guilt on the cities, because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. Every day brings fresh revelations of strife, bribery, fraud, violence, lawlessness, indifference to human suffering, and brutal destruction of human life. Every day testifies to the increase of insanity, murder, and suicide. Men boast of the progress and enlightenment of the age in which we now live; but God sees the earth filled with iniquity and violence. Men declare that the law of God has been abrogated, and as a result, a tide of evil is sweeping over the world. Nobility of soul, gentleness, piety, are bartered away to gratify the lust for forbidden things.

SS 149.3

With long-sufferance and tender compassion God deals with the transgressors of His law. And yet, the end of God’s forbearance with those who persist in disobedience is approaching rapidly.

SS 149.4

Ought men to be surprised over a sudden change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Ought they be surprised that God should bring destruction on those whose ill-gotten gains have been obtained through fraud? Many have chosen to remain under the banner of the originator of rebellion against the government of heaven.

SS 149.5

The forbearance of God has been so great that we marvel. The Omnipotent One has been exerting a restraining power over His own attributes. God allows men a period of probation, but there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted. The Lord bears long with men, giving warnings to save them, but a time will come when the rebellious element will be blotted out, in mercy to themselves and to those who would be influenced by their example.

SS 150.1

The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters follow one another in quick succession—earthquakes, tornadoes, fire, and flood. Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized unregulated forces of nature, beyond the control of man; but they are among the agencies by which God seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.

Prophets and Kings

Chapter 22—“Nineveh, That Great City”

PK 271.1

When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city that, notwithstanding its wickedness, had been led to repent in sackcloth and ashes, he should have been the first to rejoice because of God’s amazing grace; but instead he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet. Jealous of his reputation, he lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” “Was not this my saying,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.” Jonah 4:1, 2.

PK 272.1

“Doest thou well to be angry?” the Lord inquired. “So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” Verses 3-6.

PK 272.4

“Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” Verses 7-11.

The Review and Herald

December 11, 1913

RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 6

In this crisis, Jonah should have been the first to rejoice because of God’s amazing grace; but, instead, he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet. Jealous of his reputation among men, he lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city. The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” “Was not this my saying,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” Jonah 4:1, 2.

RH December 11, 1913, Art. A, par. 10

“Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night; and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” Jonah 4:3-11.

Steps to Christ

Chapter 1—God’s Love for Man

SC 10.2

The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, “Show me Thy glory,” the Lord answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.” Exodus 33:18, 19. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6, 7. He is “slow to anger, and of great kindness,” “because He delighteth in mercy.” Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18.

Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 12 (1897)

Ms 164, 1897

12LtMs, Ms 164, 1897, par. 8

When the people of Nineveh humbled themselves before God, and cried to Him for mercy, He heard their cry. “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” [Verse 10.] But Jonah revealed that he did not value the souls in that wretched city. He valued his reputation, lest they should say he was a false prophet. He said, “O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” [Jonah 4:2.] Now when he sees the Lord exercise His compassionate attributes, and spare the city that had corrupted its ways before Him, Jonah does not co-operate with God in His merciful design. He has not the people’s interests in view. It does not grieve him that so large a number must perish, who have not been educated to do right. Listen to his complaint:

12LtMs, Ms 164, 1897, par. 9

“Therefore, now, O Lord, take I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” [Verses 3-6.]

12LtMs, Ms 164, 1897, par. 10

Then the Lord gave Jonah an object lesson. He “prepared a worm when the morning sun rose next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did rise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored; neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perisheth in a night; and should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” [Verses 7-11.]

Ministry to the Cities

Foreword

MTC 9.2

Cities, though, have often been arrayed against God. Such cities were dominant when the Bible was written. Jesus, Moses, David, Daniel, and most of the other Bible prophets had to deal with cities, some of which were huge for that day. Nineveh was “an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent” (Jonah 3:3, NKJV), having “more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons” (Jonah 4:11, NKJV). Babylon had about 10 miles (16 kilometers) of walls surrounding a major populace and monumental buildings that included one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. New Testament Ephesus had street lighting along its main artery, the famed Arcadiane. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Athens, Corinth, Susa, and Thebes were among the great cities of Bible times.