The Book of Jonah - The Changed Heart of a Prophet

*As for me and my house, we'll serve you, Lord,

lifting holy hands in worship.

We will not bow down to the gods of man.

We will worship the God of Israel.

You are holy, for you are holy, holy.

There is no one else like you.

As for me and my house, we will serve you alone.

Choose this day whom you will serve.

But as for me and my heart, we will serve you, Lord.*

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Shabbat shalom, friends. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. My name is Chadwick Harvey. You have reached Faithful Performance, and we are going to go through a very important topic tonight: the Book of Jonah and the changed heart of a prophet.

I think this topic really resonates with what we are seeing today in the heart posture of people. Love is the main message of today, just as the holy scriptures have said, and the Book of Jonah — with its underlying message — goes through that theme in depth. It shows what Yahweh told the prophet in order to correct his heart position on what he wanted done. It is a fascinating story, and we are going after the heart position that Yahweh wanted the prophet to understand.

We are all familiar with the connection between Jonah's three days and three nights in the great fish and the parallel to Yeshua, and we should absolutely hold that connection. At the same time, there are many layers to the understanding of this story. One of the main underlying themes is heart position. No matter whether we are a prophet, an intercessor, a seer, a king, a president, a prime minister, or a soldier, we must have the right heart position toward Yahweh and toward our neighbor, just as the Bible says.

Let me set up what Jonah was facing, to give proper balance to the situation. Jonah was a Jewish prophet — one of the great prophets of his day. He prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II, which we find in 2 Kings 14:25. That reign occurred from approximately 793 to 753 BC, and this is the period when Jonah would have received his call to Nineveh.

Now we need to understand the Assyrian Empire. It collapsed in 722 BC, and then Nebuchadnezzar came against them in the 600s BC. But at the time of Jonah, Assyria was the second greatest empire in the world — Egypt was first, then Assyria, then Babylon. They were a massive empire, and they hated the Jewish people. The prophet Isaiah gives the full account of the battles between the Assyrians and the children of Israel, and Hosea covers it in detail as well.

This is what Jonah was facing: a calling to go to his enemy — one of Israel's primary enemies during the time of the northern kingdom. The prophet was called to walk into the capital city of his ancient enemy and call them to repent. These were not people who loved God or loved the Jewish people. And Yahweh ordained his prophet to go to them anyway.

If we look at this in human terms, in the heart posture of today, consider what is happening in the Middle East right now. How many of us would want to go to Assyria and proclaim that judgment is coming and call them to repent? Not many of us would receive that well — much like Jonah. But that was precisely the point. The purpose was not only the repentance of Nineveh, but also the changed heart of the prophet.

The Assyrians were also known for beheading. They did not invent it — the Hittites before them did — but they carried it to an extreme. They would pile skulls in their palaces as a deliberate display to instill fear among the people. This is what the prophet was walking toward: his ancient enemy, capable of extraordinary brutality, and he was sent to call them to repentance.

Two significant things happened in Assyria before Jonah ever arrived that are important to understand. First, there was a solar eclipse — known in ancient records as the Bur Sagale eclipse — on June 15, 763 BC, over the Assyrian Empire during the reign of Ashur-dan. That date falls precisely within the window when Jonah would have ministered, between 793 and 753 BC. NASA confirms this eclipse occurred over Assyria during that period. Second, a plague struck Assyria in 765 BC, recorded in the ancient Assyrian writings themselves. So before Jonah walked through the gates of Nineveh, the Assyrians had already experienced both a solar eclipse and a devastating plague.

We see parallels in our own time — COVID, blood moons, solar eclipses. The Assyrians experienced the same kinds of signs. And the principle at work is the same: two or three witnesses will establish the matter. The plague came. The solar eclipse came. Then the prophet came. Those events prepared the hearts of the Assyrians to receive the message.

I personally believe that Jonah entered Nineveh on Elul 1 — the first day of the month of repentance, which is the month we are currently in. He proclaimed forty days and forty nights to Yom Kippur. As we will read in the scriptures, they repented, and God did relent. They were ultimately destroyed in 722 BC after returning to their evil ways, but that is not the central point. The point is that God called that generation to repentance, and they responded. He sent the plague. He sent the eclipse. Then he sent the prophet.

More than the story of Nineveh's repentance, this is a story about the heart position of God's people. I believe that the heart position of both Christians and Jewish people needs to be examined — in synagogues and in churches across this world. We are responsible to be the bigger person. We carry the gospel. We carry the scriptures. We are called to turn the other cheek. God's people must not lower their moral and spiritual posture to the level of the enemy.

Unfortunately, we have seen too many times where the people of God have lowered their heart position to match what their enemies do. I believe God is unhappy with that. He wants his believers to carry the heart position that he himself carries — the same heart he was calling Jonah to have — even toward an ancient enemy, even toward people who would take your life. He sent the prophet into Nineveh for them to repent.

This is perfected love: loving our enemy, loving our neighbor, and loving Yahweh. God does not want to see anyone go to hell — not one person. It grieves him. We must return to that grief over the lost. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Bedouins, Druze — whatever group we are considering — the believers are responsible to stand in peace, to stand in love, and to stand in the great commission for all people. The governments and armies will do what they do. But the people of God must not get swept up in the spirit of violence and revenge. That is not the heart position of Yah. That is what we are going to find in the story of Jonah tonight.

This is the story of Jonah. We are going to read all four chapters — it is a very short story.

*"The word of Adonai came to Yonah the son of Amittai: 'Set out for the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention.'"*