Biblical Revivals and Awakenings
So far in our series we’ve looked at seventeen examples of revival in the Bible:
- Seth
- Noah
- Job
- Abram
- Joseph
- Moses
- Joshua
- Judges
- Naomi
- Ruth
- Hannah
- Samuel
- David
- Solomon
- Jehu
- Elijah
- Elisha
We move next to an example of one of God’s prophets who ran from revival.
Jonah
Most Christians and Jews have heard the story of Jonah and the big fish who swallowed him, but how does his story fit into our series about revival? And how does his story fit into God’s Eternal plan to bring the Seed of the woman into the world to destroy the seed of the serpent?
Jonah is mentioned briefly in 2 Kings 14 –
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. 2 Kings 14:23-25
The names of the kings of Judah and Israel give us some idea of when Jonah prophesied. His prophecy concerning the restoration of “the territory of Israel” most likely came during the latter part of the 9th century BC. Jonah was from Gath Hepher, which was part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel at the time (near Nazareth). If all we knew about Jonah was that he prophesied one thing concerning Israel’s territory, he would be a footnote in ancient Hebrew history. The reason Jonah is so well-known is because of another prophecy. We go to the Book of Jonah to learn more.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1:1-3
Why would Jonah do that? God had spoken through Jonah before (to Israel) and Jonah seemed fine with speaking the Word of the Lord. So, why would Jonah run from prophesying there?
Keep in mind that Jonah was a Hebrew prophet and Nineveh was one of the great cities of a powerful Gentile empire – an empire that would have been a threat to both Israel and Judah.
We first find Nineveh mentioned in Genesis 10 as one of the cities that Nimrod built. Nimrod was a great-grandson of Noah through the lineage of Ham and Cush. Nimrod built Babel (Babylon), Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. He then went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen (between Nineveh and Calah). Nineveh was a powerful city-state during the 2nd millennium and increased in power during the 1st millennium. Jonah would have been well aware of Nineveh.
Jonah’s running from God didn’t work out well for Jonah. Jonah got on a boat going in the opposite direction from where God told him to go, but God sent a great storm that almost destroyed the ship. Jonah told the sailers to throw him into the sea in order to save their lives.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17
Jonah prayed to God and God caused the great fish to vomit Jonah onto dry ground (Jonah 2). God spoke to Jonah a second time –
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! Jonah 3:2-4
This must have been an interesting sight. Here’s a Hebrew prophet from Israel preaching in the great Gentile city of Nineveh, Assyria. You might think that the people of Nineveh would have laughed at Jonah or just ignored him, but that’s not what happened.
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. Jonah 3:5-10
Given the time frame of when Jonah preached in Assyria (early 8th century BC), the king of Nineveh at the time may have been Shalmaneser IV, Ashur-dan III, or Ashur-nirari V. The Bible doesn’t mention his name and ancient Assyrian history doesn’t have a lot of information about them. What we do know is that the king and people of Nineveh believed the Word of God spoken by the prophet Jonah.
Can you imagine preaching in a large city and seeing the leaders and citizens obey God? That must have thrilled Jonah – right? Not so much. In fact, Jonah became angry. Why?
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” Jonah 4:1-3
Jonah the prophet was angry because he knew what God would do. How did Jonah know that? Because he knew God. Jonah the Hebrew did not want God to save the Gentile people of Nineveh. Jonah knew that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, “One who relents from doing harm.” How did God respond to Jonah?
And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock? Jonah 4:10-11
That’s God’s heart. He loves people – all people – Jew and Gentile. We need to have that same kind of love for people everywhere. It shouldn’t matter where they were born, where they live, what they believe, or their status in this life. God wants to save people – He wants to revive them, give them new life.
Takeaways
The first takeaway comes from the fact that Assyria conquered Israel later in the 8th century BC. The same nation that experienced great revival under the preaching of Jonah and the mercy of the Lord, attacked Israel and took almost all of God’s people in the Northern Kingdom captive. What happened? Is that any way for Assyria to show gratitude for what God had done for them? God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and relented from the disaster He had planned to bring upon them. God did not destroy Nineveh, so why would another Assyrian king lead his army against Israel?
God often uses other countries do carry out His will for His people. God warns His people through His prophets. God gave the leaders and people of the Northern Kingdom two centuries to repent of their wickedness against Him, but they would not listen to His prophets. They would not obey God, so the Lord brought about the end of the Northern Kingdom through a nation He had once “revived.” We’ll learn more about those events in the next part of our series.
The second takeaway comes from how Jesus Christ used the events in Jonah’s life to respond to the scribes and Pharisees who asked Him for “a sign.”
But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:39-41
Jesus used Jonah’s three days and nights in the belly of the great fish to point to His resurrection from death. Jesus pointed to how the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, but how the Pharisees were not repenting even though “a greater than Jonah is here.”
Revival is always about obeying God. Jesus Christ is God. Obeying our Lord Jesus leads to revival.
Next Time
In the next part of our series, we’ll meet two men who prophesied to Israel during its last days before the Assyrians brought the Northern Kingdom to an end. We’ll see what lessons there are for understanding the need for revival.
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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