Jonah 3:1-2 - Made Willing

1-2 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you."

Jonah has not been forced to do that which he did not want to do. This is not what God is like. Force is not generally how God’s sovereign will overarches man’s own. But Jonah has nevertheless been made willing by God. We are reminded of in Ps 110:3 "Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power..." (shall be "willingness" or a "freewill offering" - see Ro 12:1) And the means by which they are made willing do indeed include some very hard things. Did God bring these hard things upon Jonah out of dictatorial glee, or was it out of love? And so, are not the hard things in our own lives also brought in love from God? And ought we not to receive them as such? In fact, aren’t the hard things often simply God allowing us to suffer, for a while, the consequences of our own sin, before reviving us? Doesn’t He simply turn our evil to our good? And aren’t we tempted to slanderously blame Him instead of ourselves – to complain instead of giving thanks?

Some might just see this incident in Jonah’s life as just a human response to discipline - which it certainly is. But it is also the sovereign power of God bringing about His purposes through a man, without violating his will, but rather by making that man willing. You cannot logically believe in a sovereign God Who is unable to do such things. He is either infinitely reactive to the whims of all men (effectively making men themselves in charge of events, and thus gods), or He is mysteriously able to guide all wills and events to achieve His predetermined ends. Jonah has been made willing.

And so we see God has blessed Jonah by bringing him to obedience. The Ninevites will hear the Word of God through Jonah – not because of Jonah, but because of God’s bringing Jonah to submission to His perfect will. God alone is the prime source and cause of all mercy and goodness, though He often wonderfully chooses to display it through broken earthen vessels. Remember the verse...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. {2Co 4:7}

Jonah will now obey willingly, but he will do so by the grace of God. This is how we should all see our obedience; not as something we cough up out of our own goodness and offer to God (sacrifice), but as something God has worked in us by His grace (mercy).

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. {Ho 6:6}

And it is grace that has revived Jonah so that grace may be brought to Nineveh. Christ is in all and through all. What care and mercy we see that God revives Jonah and restores him to ministry in the task in which he had failed. Yet this does not mean that Jonah is now perfect in his obedience and motivation. Some will argue that it is possible for saints to attain to that – but, as long as we dwell in mortal flesh alongside our old carnal nature, there will always be something in need of the grace of God to overcome it.

It is never we who become righteous, but we who abide in the righteousness of Christ. Unless we understand this we shall ever be waiting until we are "good enough" before we act. It is only when we remember that we can not ever be good enough that we lean on Christ and He is made perfect strength in our weakness. Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance {Mt 9:13} and we saints are sinners who are justified by, and are being sanctified by, grace.