Have you ever been in a situation in which you just cannot get your mind to release from a principle or concept that you know is damaging to you? Have you ever been in a place where you know you should not be, but you lack the desire to leave? Have you ever heard a certain type of joke or story being told, and you know that it is outside of the proper thought process that you need to absorb, and yet you still do absorb it? In general, have you ever been immersed in something that just seems to hold you, in spite of yourself? When we are in these situations, it may seem to be akin to mud wrestling: no matter whether we accomplish a measure of victory, or not; we are still perceived as being dirty.
When we grab for God’s forgiveness of our actions, as based on supposed historical precedent, we need to be very careful that we fulfill all the requirements that were placed on our chosen entity of history. We need to resist the urge to generalize the events of the Bible; instead, we need to carefully overlay the entire environment on our own. We need to ask questions about the appropriateness of the fit of the ancient event to the modern condition. Among the questions is this: just because a certain outcome is present in a historical even, does this mean that the historical event acts as a kind of formula for motivating the LORD to dispense forgiveness? Of course, these sorts of questions are neither needed nor appropriate for the consequential commandments of the LORD, except where repentance has been blended with the consequential commandments: Nineveh is such a blending.
And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.
Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
(Jonah 3:1-10)
In the case of Nineveh, they followed the commandment of the LORD, which they summarized as follows: let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Specifically, they wanted to trigger a consequence of non-destruction: if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not. This is in accordance with a portion of the prayer of king Solomon, at the dedication of the first temple of God, in Israel.
Explore The Fullness of David: Part Five
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