When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

 

'By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.  But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.'

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When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. -Jonah 3:6-10 (NIV)

 

We often speak of the story of Jonah, and in doing so, we focus on the consequence of disobedience which is a huge takeaway that we gain from Jonah's story. As we discussed on last week, it is imperative that we obey God so that we do not bring harm upon others due to our failure to obey God's instructions. It is also imperative that we are cautious of who we "ride" with so that we are not put in harm's way due to another individual's actions. Beyond these lessons, there is another facet to consider as we reflect on Jonah's story, one that many of us may not be able to honestly address. And that is what do we do when our enemies repent?

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We may often find ourselves in a situation where someone does something to us that is wrong, flat out vicious, deceitful, and even harmful. And we pray and put it in God's hands realizing that He can handle the situation better than we can. Then as we are trusting God to handle the situation for us, we constantly find ourselves waiting for the sign that this individual is paying for the wrong that they have done to us.

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Sometimes instead of hearing about anything going wrong with this individual, it instead appears that they are excelling and "living their best life". It appears that this individual is having success after success after success and seem to be prospering in every aspect of their lives. We start to feel "a certain kind of way" because here we are having been innocent in the situation, having this very unfortunate thing to be done to us, and while we are dealing with the mess that they left behind, they are turning up, having the time of their lives. We cannot understand how God is letting them get away with what they did. We may even start to grow weary questioning what's the benefit of doing the right thing because it sometimes feels like it gets us nowhere. There are a few things that we must come to understand:

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First, don't lose your trust in God by being deceived by what you see. If you put it in God's hands you must also trust that God knows exactly how to handle both the situation and all the individuals involved. There are times when it may take months or years for someone to pay the price for the wrong that they've done. We see and hear many stories whether real or fictional, about individuals who commit crimes and move along living their best lives never expecting their wrongdoing to catch up with them. And just when they think they've gotten away with it, there goes a knock on their door. God's timing is not our timing, and God's ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). We must stop looking for the signs that God is doing what we say we are trusting Him to do and simply trust Him to do it and keep it moving. If you are constantly watching the life of your enemies waiting for them to fall, then how much of your own life are you living?

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We must also realize that people who don't have conviction, even if going through a rough patch, will not wear it on their sleeves. There are some people that keep right on living, being who they are, not allowing things to faze them even if they are experiencing difficulties.

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There are times in which your enemies will go extra hard trying to imitate a life that portrays things as being all good just so you won't know that they are dealing with the repercussions of what they have done to you. That same person that cheated on you, betrayed you, or backstabbed you may strategically be doing all that they can do to act as if their life is on top of the world just so you don't know how miserable they are. You have to stop frustrating yourself waiting to see what's going to happen to them. Quite frankly, once you put it in God's hands, It's None of Your Business!

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In Jonah 4:5, after Jonah had spoken the words to the city of Nineveh as God had commanded him, he actually went out of the city, and scripture states that he "sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city" (NIV). Jonah wanted to see what would become of this city that acted wickedly toward God. We at times have this same attitude when we feel like people should pay a price for the harmful things that they may have inflicted upon us. Here it was someone who not that long ago was in the belly of a whale, waiting to see someone else come to their demise. Jonah wanted to know that his efforts were not in vain just as we at times want to know that our prayers and efforts in giving the situation to God and letting Him fight the battle for us was not in vain.

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Secondly, what we must understand is that at the end of the day, no matter how hateful, envious, scheming, or conniving some of our enemies are, if they find it in their hearts to repent, humble themselves, and ask God for forgiveness, God WILL NOT turn His back on them. God will save them. God is not going to deny them salvation no matter how much He loves us. Maybe it took for that individual to do you wrong in order for them to realize that they needed to change. Maybe it was in doing you wrong that the individual realized that they needed God. You never know if God used you as a vessel to bring that person to their point of repentance. You don't know if God allowed you to have to suffer the pain so that it could result in His gain. God had to allow Jesus to suffer to save us therefore, we must accept the fact that we are not exempt from encountering experiences in which we may have to be hurt so that someone else can be saved. We may not like it but there isn't anything that we can do about it.

 

If you read the entire book of Jonah, you will discover that Jonah got angry with God. God forgave the city of Nineveh after they surrendered and called out to Him, vowing to turn from their wicked ways. Jonah was so upset that he told God that he would be better off dead. Why Jonah allowed God forgiving Nineveh to upset him to this extreme, we don't know. We do read the dialogue in which Jonah tells God that Him forgiving the people of Nineveh was the exact reason why he first chose to flee instead of following God's instructions to go to the city. Jonah actually prayed to God telling God that he knew that because He was a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God that He was going to forgive the people if they turned from their wicked ways. It almost feels like Jonah felt like he wasted his time. Jonah did not see what the point was of God sending him to warn the people if God was going to turn around and forgive them. Jonah missed the point that God used him as a messenger to save the people. It took for God to send someone to Nineveh to shake the people up, making them realize their wrongdoing, and making them aware that they were about to be destroyed. There are a lot of people who go around inflicting harm, pain, and suffering upon others and because they get away with it, they see no cause for them to turn from their wicked ways. However, if they are finally put in a situation where God sends a "messenger", a police, a lawyer, or some other type of messenger to them, that might just be enough to make them realize how serious their actions were and cause them to turn from their wickedness and do the right thing.

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Sometimes we simply have to let go and stop waiting and watching for our enemies to be destroyed. Jonah praised God for compassion after God had the whale to swallow him up. God did not destroy Jonah because of his disobedience. God gave Jonah another chance. Yet, this same Jonah, got upset, sat down, and eagerly waiting for the people of Nineveh to be destroyed due to their wickedness. Clearly, Jonah probably weighs sin on a scale. In his mind maybe being disobedient to God was not the same or not as bad as the wickedness of the people of Nineveh.

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At times we all fall victim to this same manner of thinking. We may become disheartened when we don't see the punishment that we think our enemies deserve occur, forgetting that we too have sinned in some way, shape, or form. You may have knowingly kept the extra change that the cashier gave you and later on felt guilty and repented and God forgave you. The person that hurt you could have lied on you to your supervisor, causing you to lose your job and after realizing what they did, they may have asked God for forgiveness and God forgave them. In your eyes you may say, "It's not the same", because the wrong change was given to you, furthermore, the cashier did not lose their job. However, the point is that both acts were wrong, and God forgave them both.

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If we start allowing ourselves to put sin on a scale and weigh it in comparison to one another, we will always feel like everyone that hurts or inflicts pain upon us will always be at greater fault compared to what we might have done. When someone harms us, we may find ourselves asking God, "What did I ever do that was so wrong?" We do these as a way of rationalizing why this level of pain was inflicted on us when nothing that we ever did compares to what was done to us.

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Now if we look at the behaviors and actions of people, are there some that are worse than others? Absolutely! If we look at it in a natural sense, someone lying about how much money they made on their last job in order to get a better starting salary is nowhere near the same as someone purposely running someone over because they owed them money. In a natural sense, yes, some behaviors and actions are worse than others. But when it comes to the forgiveness of sins, it is not so. God does not forgive a lie and then refuses to forgive fornication. In the same sense God does not forgive fornication and then refuses to forgive someone that steals. Regardless of what we may do to one another, God forgives us all. God does not measure the sin and then decide on if it is worthy of forgiveness. Matthew 12:31 states," Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men"  (KJV). According to scripture, the only thing that is not forgiven is blasphemy of the Holy Ghost.

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As much as we may not like it, we must accept the fact that God is a compassionate God who will not turn His back on those who earnestly seek Him. God will not turn His back on those who earnestly ask for His forgiveness. This means that as evil of an act that our enemies might have done to us, if they repent to God, He won't reject them. In Ezekiel 18:21-23, we see that God plans are not to allow people to remain wicked so that they can suffer. God's hope is that men will turn from their wicked ways and repent and be saved. Therefore, God is not going to turn His back on your enemies and deny them an opportunity to receive salvation just because He loves you. God does not delight in punishing people which is why He does give us an opportunity to confess our sins, repent, and right our wrongs.

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Jonah's behavior is also a cause for us to reflect on another topic of discussion, which is our willingness to forgive. We know that Jonah was upset because God did not destroy the people of Nineveh as He said He would. Now was Jonah upset because he took it personal when people sinned against God, we don't know. But even if that were the case, God forgave them, wiped their slate clean, gave them a new start, and Jonah was still in his feelings.

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Jonah could have said, "Thank you God for the mercy that you have shown your people.", but this was not the case. As hard as it is, in order to prevent ourselves from being "stuck in Nineveh", waiting for our enemies to be destroyed, we must ask God to help us to forgive.

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It is imperative that we seek God to help us to forgive because some of the things that people have done toward us are heavy. At times some of these trespasses are so bad that we may not even want to be in the same room as the individual that trespassed against us. Some people may have wronged us so badly that we don't want anyone to mention their names to us. We may even go to the extreme of deleting any trace of their existence out of our lives. We'll delete them from our friends lists and delete their texts from our phones. We'll delete any emails that they might have sent us. We'll block their numbers. We'll get rid of any gifts that they might have given us or discard any photos that we might have of them. And if that makes you feel better then, "Do you Boo!"

 

But even after doing all of that, you are not going to be able to truly move on until you forgive them. As long as you carry the resentment and the agony of what they did to you, you are also carrying them along with you everywhere you go. Understand that forgiveness does not mean that you forget. To be honest, forgiveness does not even mean that you get over it right away. Some things take time to disperse but those feelings cannot disperse if you don't first release them. You must take the step to forgive so that you can release the weight and pain, give it God, and ask Him to help the dispersion to occur. Sometimes when someone does us wrong, all the feelings are not released in the same way. Each feeling may involve a different step that must be taken in order to free yourself from that feeling. And as you release these feelings little by little, you will start to see the difference that it makes on different areas of your life as these feelings of hurt, pain, resentment, disappointment, shame, betrayal, and whatever it is that you are feeling, are released from you.

 

​There are those that intentionally and willfully hurt us and there are those who had no clue that what they did would have affected us in the way that it did. There are some people who live life clueless to their actions. Even God knows that some of us have very serious issues. In Jonah 4:11, God states, "And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty-thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left…"  (NIV). God even considers that some people have some very serious "personal issues". There are some people who are oblivious to most things, lack the skills that they need to make sound decisions, and are even a tad bit naïve. We too must consider this as we interact with others.

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As we deal with what our enemies have done to us, we must remember who is in control. God had to exercise stillness and temperance and watch Jesus, who was perfect and innocent, endure the cross, in order for His plans and Jesus' purpose to be fulfilled. In the same sense, God has to stand still and watch our enemies do what they do to us whether it is for the purposes of saving them or Him saving us. There are times that God is going to sit and watch us endure but that doesn't mean that He loses His control over the situation. At times God has to allow the trial to do what it was designed to do so that we can be what God has called us to be, do what God has called us to do, and receive what God has promised to give us. If we were to reflect on it, we might just discover that the thing that our enemies did to us, brought us closer to God. And in many cases, we might even realize that we are in a better position now than we would have been if our enemies had not done what they did to us. It may be hard to admit at first, but if God allowed it, we must know that it was with intent. Sometimes it may be revealed to us and sometimes it won't.

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So back to our original question, what do we do when our enemies repent? We let God be God. God forgives and it's as simple as that. Their salvation is between them and God even if we are the vessel that God used to bring them into repentance. We may not ever know what our enemies' relationship with God is. We might not ever know if our enemies accepted salvation or not.

 

Does that mean that our enemies won't pay for what they did to us? No, it doesn't. Does it mean that their punishment may not be as harsh? We don't know. The truth is that it is not our concern neither is it our mission to figure it out (especially for the purposes of our own gratification). When we are where we are supposed to be in our relationship with God, our intent won't be to see our enemies harmed. This is not a judgment call because we are all human and if we were to be truthful, no one wants their enemy to inflict severe havoc on their lives and then win the Powerball. However, if they do, we must trust that God knows what He is doing. We have to trust that God is skilled enough not just to fight the battle but to also determine how the war ends. Just as God considered the many people that were in Nineveh, sometimes He might also consider who our enemies are connected to.

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We must realize that even if our enemies may be evil in nature, they might be connected to someone who is not wicked. They might be connected to someone who may be God-fearing, who is keeping them lifted up in prayer. They might be connected to someone who may be favored by God and because of God's faithfulness to that individual, your enemies may have grace and mercy imparted upon them. There is a song that talks about "a praying grandmother". There are many people that have testified that amid all of their sin, because of the prayers of those around them whether it was a praying grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, sis, or brother, their lives were spared.

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In the same sense, there may be people connected to you who might have deserved a certain punishment or consequence but did not receive it because of God's favor on you and because of the prayers that you prayed concerning them. When we pray about our enemies, would we want someone else to pray that same prayer about someone that we loved and wanted to protect? We must be conscious, conscientious, and careful of what we wish upon others regardless of how evil they may have been to us. Sometimes the greatest and most effective prayer we can pray about our enemies is rooted in three simple words, "Lord save them!" Our prayer should be for them to find salvation if they don't already have it. This is imperative because just as God promises to forgive the wicked if they turn from their wicked ways as highlighted in Ezekiel 18:21-23, if we read further, verse 24 states that if the righteous become wicked, they will be punished. We never know when we might find ourselves having fallen astray. We can't wish for the destruction of our enemies that sin and want compassion when we ourselves fall short.

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When it comes to our enemies there is something else that we must realize and it is also supported by scripture therefore, we can stand firmly on it. Psalm 23:5 states," Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…" (KJV). Sometimes the greatest punishment that God can place upon your enemies is for them to see you overcome their trespass. Sometimes the greatest way for God to vindicate you is for your enemies to see you walk out the fire unharmed. Sometimes the greatest way for God to show His power and authority is for your enemies to see you come out of the lions' den unharmed, without a scratch. The greatest vengeance is sometimes simply seeing you succeed. And God knows this. We, however, have to stop thinking that destruction is the only way for our enemies to suffer. At times, your being able to show your enemies that you can move on is the greatest victory that you can gain from the war that they brought into your life.

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When someone wrongs you, it is not easy not to have a part of you that hopes that they won't get away with it. But if truth be told, this can't be our focus. It is challenging but our focus should be, "God what are you trying to teach me?", "Lord forgive them for they know not what they do.", and "Lord, help me to move on from this!" We have to remember that God promises to fight for us. We must remember that God has promised to neither leave nor forsake us. As long as we have God, WE WIN!

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Therefore, regardless of how God chooses to deal with those that harm us, it is completely up to Him. Some may have the same pain inflicted upon them that they inflicted upon us as we see in the story of Daniel. Some may have to humble themselves before us just as Joseph's brothers had to do to him. And some might be forgiven and saved just as God saved the people of Nineveh when they repented. Either way, we cannot sit and watch, awaiting their demise.

 

In last week's blog post, we had to "Throw Jonah off the Boat", but this week we all have to tell Jonah to "Go Home!". And if you are realizing that you are Jonah, sitting and watching your enemies, click off their social media timeline, stop passing by their favorite hangouts, stop trying to secretly get the scoop from someone who they're connected to, and give it to God. "Go home" and prepare for the next thing that God has for you. Most importantly, if your enemies did repent after realizing what they did to you, do me a favor, it may be hard, but rejoice because although you may feel like you lost, God gained a soul and for that we must always be happy.