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God Forgave
Nineveh Through Jonah
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Jonah 3:10[NIV]
When God saw what they did and how
they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon
them the destruction he had threatened.
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The people in Nineveh
sinned much before God.
So God decided to
punish the
city of
Nineveh.
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God came to meet the
prophet Jonah in the land of Israel.
"Jonah, go to the city of Nineveh and say
that it will be destroyed after 40 days."
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Jonah, who received
the order of God, did not want to go to Nineveh.
Because he didn¡¯t want to be
punished from other people,
so he violated God's
order and decided to run away.
He went to the port
of Joppa to ride a ship.
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At that time in the
port there was a ship which was going to Tarshish. Jonah was thinking that it
was lucky and gave a fee for riding a ship and went down to the most bottom
of the ship. Jonah thought God would not find him if he went to that place.
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The ship that Jonah
was on departed to Tarshish.
There were no waves
and it was a nice day to set sail.
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When the ship was in
the middle of the sea from the port, God suddenly let loose a storm.
The ship that Jonah
was on was trapped in a great storm.
The ship almost sank
because of the great storm.
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People started to
throw the baggage overboard to make the ship lighter.
At last, they became so desperate
that they decided to
survive by praying to every
different
god in whom they believed.
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But Jonah did not
know anything and slept deeply at the bottom of the ship.
The captain awoke Jonah and said in an angry voice,
"Wake up and pray to
your god to save us."
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People decided to
draw lots to find out the one who was
the cause of the storm.
And Jonah was picked
by those lots. God made Jonah the
one to be picked.
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Only then, did Jonah confess.
"God punished me by what I have done to Him.
If you throw me
overboard into the sea the storm will be still. "
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So the people threw Jonah
into the sea for survival.
God prepared a huge
fish to swallow Jonah.
Jonah was inside the
stomach of that huge fish.
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Jonah repented and
prayed for 3 days to God inside the stomach of the fish.
Jonah decided to obey God's order and
go to Nineveh. So God forgave Jonah.
And ordered the fish
to spit him out near the seashore.
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Jonah went to the city of Nineveh directly
and started to spread the word of God. "God told me that he will let this city of Nineveh be
destroyed after 40
days
because of all of your sins. This city will receive great punishment from God after 40 days."
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After they heard
what Jonah said, everyone, from the king down to the lowest person of Nineveh, began to repent towards
God. Everybody sought for the forgiveness from God without eating. Everybody
sincerely confessed their
faults and sought God¡¯s forgiveness.
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At first, Jonah
disobeyed God's order because he did not know about God's mind. But God never
gave up
on Jonah
and used him to make 12 million people from the city of Nineveh to be forgiven and
not to be punished. What God really wants is not to punish us because of our
sins, but he wants us
to
repent and come back to Him.
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Today, God wants to
use us for the work of God just like what he had done to Jonah. When God
calls us and gives us
a job which
looks too hard to do, we should be faithful obedient children who obey God and
believe that He will help us and
protect us. Start to obey God with the smaller matters now
and then later He can let you do bigger things for His Glory!
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