Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1911 — OLD TESTAMENT TIMES TABERNACLE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD TESTAMENT TIMES TABERNACLE

4 -BIBLE-STUDIES’ GOD’S PITY FOR THE HEATHEN Jonah 3:5 to 4:ll—April 30 “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." — Matt. 28:19. SKEPTICS have long been inclined to treat the story of Jonah’s experiences in the belly of the great fish as a seaman’s yarn. Many pulpiteers even laugh at ihe account of Jonah’s experiences as suitable only for the credulous and not for wise, “Higher Critics.” Nevertheless, the Great Teacher refers to Jonah and his experiences in the belly of the great fish, and those who believe the Scriptures will seek no better ground for their faith in the story than this. Nor is Jonah’s account without a considerable parallel. One of the New York journals recently gave a detailed account, profusely illustrated, showing how a sailor, overboard, was swallowed by “a great sulphur whale,” but after several hours escaped, his skin made purplish

from the action of the digestive fluids of the whale’s stomach. So far as we know, Jonah’s case w-as the only one in which any one spent parts of three days and nights in the belly of a fish. True,° the throats of the majority of whales seem

too small to admit a man. We remember, however, that they are quite elastic. The great sulphur variety is of enormous size and is said to have a throat capable of swallowing a skiff, much larger than a man and less flexible. Preaching to the Ninevites Our special lesson, however, is connected with Jonah’s mission to the Ninevites. Jonah’s preaching was that within forty days God would destroy Nineveh. But the people, impressed by his message, xepented of their sinful course and sought Divine forgiveness. We are, of course, to understand that God knew the end from the beginning —that He knew’ that the Ninevites would repent and that He would not blot them out wdthin forty days, in accordance with Jonah’s preaching. Nineveh did pass away utterly, great city that it was, but not within forty literal days. Possibly the time meant by the Almighty was what is sometimes prophetic or symbolical time, a day for a year—forty days, forty years.

The lesson shows us how much greater is the compassion of the A 1 mighty than that of His imperfect servants of human kind. God wrns pleased to have the Ninevites turn from their sins to hearty repentance. He was pleased to grant them an extension of earthly life. But Jonah was displeased. His argument was, There, God did make a fool of me. He told me that this great city would be destroyed within forty days, and I preached it. But all the while He must have known that it would not be destroyed within forty days. God has brought discredit upon me, and I am now to be regarded as a false prophet. Jonah was more interested in himself and his own reputation than in the Ninevites and their interests. The Lord’s servants must not do so! God Repented of the Evil

The.,.query, arises In some minds. How can God repent and change His mind if fie knows the end from the beginning? The answer is that the word repent has a wider meaning than is generally appreciated. Humanity uses it only in respect to a change of purpose. But, as modern dictionaries show, the word may mean either a change of action or a change of purpose, or both. God’s purposes do not change. He never repents of them. But He does change His conduct.

Thus Israel. His favored people f<Ql centuries, was cut off, and God’s dealings toward them changed. But God’s purposes never changed toward Israel. He foreknew and foretold their rejection of Jesus and his rejection of them, and how later they would be regathered to their own land and be forgiven and blessed by Messiah. The Lord taught Jonah a lesson respecting his sympathy for a gourd, an inanimate thing, and his lack of sympathy for tne Kinevites. So it is with many preachers and others. They have sympathy for the flowers, for the birds, for the lower animals, for children and, to some extent, for all mankind under

the distresses \of the present time. Nevertfie less such people sometimes become angry at the bare suggestion that God does not intend to roast the Nine rites, Sodomites. Amalekites, or anybody else, to all eternity and that His gracious purposes for the world in general

will be manifested in giving all an opportunity to attain to human perfection, a world-wide Eden and everlasting life, if they will hear and obey the Great Messiah—whose Head is Jesus and whose members, the elect Church, have been in process of selection and preparation throughout this Gospel Age.

"And Nineveh shall be overthrown."

The repentant king of Nineveh.