 Alright, before the break we were looking at the Jeremiah connection. So in Jeremiah chapter 26, verses 8 onwards, we see that the people want to kill Jeremiah at which point of time. Some of the elders, they come forward and they remind the people of Micah and what he had said. So maybe if we could have one person read out for us, Jeremiah chapter 26, verses 18 and 19. Jeremiah 26, verses 18 and 19. Jeremiah chapter 26 was 18. Micah prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and spoke to all the people of Judah saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple like the bare hills of the forest. Verse 19, Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lord's favor? And the Lord learned concerning the doom which he had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves. So here the elders remind the people who want to kill Jeremiah, they remind them of Micah chapter 3 verse 12, where Micah says that Zion will be plowed like a field, the Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble and they say at that time when Hezekiah was given these words of prophecy, did he try to kill Micah? No, rather he humbled himself. So in the same way, we should now accept what Jeremiah is saying rather than kill him. So in a way, we can say that Micah helped Jeremiah through those words which he had spoken. So Micah actually does his ministry during the time of kings Jotam, Ehas and Hezekiah, which is like shortly after around the time of Isaiah, yeah, correct, his ministry was happening around the time of Isaiah's ministry, Micah's ministry. Okay, coming through, we saw before the break that Micah prophesies against the northern kingdom as well as the southern kingdom. He talks about how Assyria will, when Assyria comes to defeat the northern kingdom and take away the people as slaves. At that time, Assyria will also attack many of the cities of the southern kingdom. Why? Because the people are not repenting, the people are not changing their ways. So God will bring some punishment upon southern Judah as well through the hands of the Assyrians. So we see that being described over here in Micah chapter 1 verses 11 and 12, it talks about specifically it gives the names of certain cities which will be raided by these Assyrians. So if we could have somebody read out Micah chapter 1 verses 11 and 12. Chapter 1 verse 11, passed by Nick Sheil, you inhabitant of Shaffir, the inhabitant of Zanan does not go out. Beth Ezel Mons, its place to stand it taken away from you, verse 12, for the inhabitant of Maroth Pindu, for good. But disaster came down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. Now when you're reading this in English, it sounds like a very boring passage, it just has a list of names, you know, of some cities which are going to be raided by Assyria. But the thing about the book of Micah is that it uses a lot of poetic language, which is very interesting to someone who knows the Hebrew language. So here, he's using a very interesting play on words, the kind of words that he chooses to talk about this judgment is very creative. So this, you know, the city of Shaffir, that word Shaffir literally means beautiful, you know, someone who's like very beautifully, elegantly decorated or dressed. So what is he saying? Shaffir, your name is supposed to be beautiful, but you know what? You will pass by in naked shame, all your beauty will be taken away. And then that word, that city of Zanan, Zanan literally means to go out. And he says about Zanan, the inhabitants of Zanan will not go out. And in the same way, Beth Ebel, that word Beth Ezel basically means standing place. So what does he say about Beth Ezel, which literally means standing place? He says its place to stand is taken away from it. So he's using a lot of very clever wording, even as he's giving the judgment. And the beauty of it does not come out in our English translation. But he was probably a very skilled writer who knew how to use words to catch the attention of his readers. Okay, so now these cities actually get attacked during the time of Hezekiah. So in 2 Kings chapter 18, verses 13 to 16 is where you will have, you know, some details about this. Because around that time Hezekiah, he says, I will not pay a tribute to these Assyrians any longer. And so at that time, Sennacherib comes and attacks. And it says in 2 Kings 18 verse 13, that Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. So these are the places which are being described by Micah when he talks about Shafir and Zanan and Beth Ezel. These are the places which actually get captured. Okay, so now, you know, even as we are talking about Micah and the kind of wording that he used in his judgments, maybe we can look at chapter 3, verses 1, 2 and 3, very, very shocking words used. I mean, if you go to actually picture what he is saying in your minds, it would be a very shocking picture. If someone could read out Micah chapter 3, verses 1, 2 and 3. Sister, I will read. Okay, go ahead. Yeah. Go ahead. 3, and I said here now, O heads of Jacob and you rulers of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil, who strip the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people, play their skin from them, break their bones and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the caldron. Here Micah is using very shocking language to talk about the injustice which is being done to the common people and to the poor. You see the rich, look at the way they are treating the people and God is upset with that. You know, we look at all the injustice in the world today and we think, oh, see, God is not doing anything, but God is observing, He is very hurt by what is going on. It says, so this is what the Lord inspires Micah to write over here. Who's that person talking? Do not talk. It distracts me. So the Lord says over here, you hate good and love evil and this is what you're doing. It's like as if you're stripping the skin from the people and then you're breaking the bones, you're chopping them up into little little pieces and you're putting them in a pot to be cooked. That's the strong words that He uses. So the people may be thinking, what is there? No, I grabbed the land of so and so because that person anyway can't go to the courts. Even if he goes to the courts, I've anyway bribed the judges. So the verdict will be in my favor. So he may be just thinking of himself as being, of making himself rich, but in God's eyes, God sees him as taking the poor man and breaking his bones, pulling out his flesh and then chopping his flesh into small pieces and cooking him back because he wants to feed upon this man and make himself rich. It's that disgusting in God's eyes. So what we humans may see as a small compromise, oh, a little bit of corruption and crookedness because that's the kind of world we live in. We may see it that way, but in God's eyes, what you're doing is you're butchering the poor. You're oppressing the weak and God is very upset about that and when the day of judgment comes, those people will not be spared. The judgment against them will be great. Their act of evil was great. In the same proportion, the judgment coming upon their heads also will be great. So this is something that we need to grasp. So God inspired these writers to use specific words, to use specific images, to employ certain object lessons, to shock the people at least into paying attention for a little bit, to sit up and ask themselves, my goodness, is this how God actually sees what I am doing? In my eyes, what I'm doing is very little, but is this how God looks at my sin? So in most of these prophetic books, shocking object lessons are used to make the people sit up and pay attention. And of course, like we saw in the last portion, in the second portion of the book of Micah, is where you have the chapters of restoration, future restoration, which is talked about. Here as well, we see some nice imagery. Maybe you can just look at one single verse. Micah chapter 2 verse 12. Is Gertrude reading for us? Micah 2, 12. Yes, sister. Go ahead. I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep of the fold, like a flock in the midst of their pastor. They shall make a loud noise because of so many people. So God has spoken very harsh words against the Northern and Southern kingdoms. And at the same time, because he's a God of compassion, he also wants to talk to them about hope, about future hope. And so he says, even though I'm going to be judging so harshly, a day will come when a remnant will return to the land. And this is what he describes and says, I will put them together like the sheep of the fold, like a flock in the midst of their pastor is what he says. So that wording over there in the Hebrew language, that would literally be the sheep of Bozrah. That word, the fold in NKJV, I think it says pen. It just basically means the place where they keep the sheep. But that literal word for that is Bozrah, the sheep of Bozrah. The reason that Micah uses that particular term over there is because he's thinking of Edom. You see, Edomites, we've talked about how the Edomites lived in the mountains. In the mountains, you can't really do much agriculture. It's basically in the valley that you do your grow crops. So for them, the main economy was sheep. They would literally have thousands of sheep. And especially in the capital city, Bozrah, their main income was through this cattle that they are having among them, which they are breeding in there. So you would have hundreds of goats and sheep together, all making a loud noise. And God is saying, don't worry, one day when the remnant comes back, they will be like that. There'll be so many of you flocked together like the flock of Bozrah. And the noise will be so loud, everyone will hear. So God is basically saying, don't worry, when you come back, I'll bring you back in such a strong large number that when you start making noise, everyone will hear and they will sit up. These are all just word images, word pictures that God is using to speak judgment to them and also speak hope into them. So there's actually a lot of beauty in the Old Testament. Now because we don't know Hebrew, we miss out on many of the nice things which are actually mentioned. If we were reading it in the Hebrew language, you would catch those things which are being expressed. So the book of Micah is also an interesting prophetic book to read. Now we'll quickly get into the book of Jonah. And Jonah, as we know, is sent to the city of Nineveh to preach judgment against those people. Let's begin with the background of Jonah. We get to know in 2 Kings 14 verse 25 what he did. So if someone can read out for us, 2 Kings 14 verse 25. 2 Kings 14, 25. 2 Kings 14 verse 25, he restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of the Hamad to the sea of the Arab. According to the word of the Lord, God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah, the son of Amitai, the prophet who was from Gath-Heper. Over here in 2 Kings 14, 25, it's talking about some of the great military victories of Jeroboam, the 2nd. So Jeroboam, the 2nd like we talked about in last class, he was one of those people, an evil king but very successful in militarily. He was able to win back many of the places which had been lost to the enemy. So he's able to get back all the territories which were there from from Lebo Hamad up to the Dead Sea. He's able to conquer back all of those lost places from enemies because he's that powerful, you know, military wise. And who was the one who prophesied that he would have this kind of great victories. The prophet who gave a prophecy saying that Jeroboam, the 2nd will have success. It was Jonah, the prophet who prophesied and said that Jeroboam, the 2nd would be highly successful. Okay, so we get to know in this verse that Jonah was actually from a place called Gath-Heper. Now Gath-Heper was a border town in the Galilean region. So basically, this Jonah was from a town which was in the area of Galilee. Now keeping that in mind, you know, this is no way connected to our subject but if you can just look at John, Gospel of John chapter 7 verses 50 to 52. Look at what the Pharisees say in these verses John chapter 7 verses 50 to 52. Yes, 50, 51, 52. John chapter 7 was 50. Nicodemus said to them, was 51. Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he's doing? Was 52? They answered and said to him, are you also from Galilea? Search and look for no prophet has risen out of Galilee. So this is basically a New Testament story. You know, the Pharisees want to bring false allegations against Jesus and you know, somehow get him killed. And so they're making plans for that and Nicodemus is a secret follower of Jesus at that particular point of time. So he tries to support Jesus and he says, you know, how can you condemn Jesus and judge him right now? Give him a chance to prove himself or something like that he says. And then they reply and they say, what? You're also from Galilee. Is it? Why are you supporting this Jesus from Galilee? Don't you know, no prophet ever came from Galilee. Galilee is a useless place. But the thing is Jonah was actually from Galilee because it shows that they knew their scripture, their Old Testament, but they didn't know it that well. So in fact, they made a mistake when they said that sentence. No prophet ever came from Galilee. Wrong statement. There was definitely a prophet from Galilee and that was John, the son of Amitthai, not John, Jonah, Jonah, the son of Amitthai. Now a little bit of the political background. Now that would help us to really understand Jonah because when we think of the story of Jonah, people generally just think of a big fat fish which swallowed a man and then it spat him out. But there's so much that actually happened. You know, they almost make it sound like a fairy tale, but the book of Jonah is solidly grounded in history. So let's look at the historical background of this story. So this is basically happening, you know, in the time of, around the time of Jeroboam II. Now one century earlier, when in Assyria there was the man named Shalmanezer, the third, he was the king. This is like 100 years before Jonah was born. 100 years before Jonah was born, there was an Assyrian king named Shalmanezer, the third, who was highly powerful. Under him, the Assyrian people attacked Israel again and again and again. A lot of damage was done by the Assyrian people who were under Shalmanezer, the third. So from that time on, the Israelite people had this deep hatred towards the Assyrians, because of all the evil they had done, each time they raided, each time they invaded, you know, the, the, the, the cruelty that they showed towards the people, you know, the exploitation that went on at that time. So then after Shalmanezer, the third died, his son was not very powerful. And in fact, his son dies after coming to the throne. Then his widow, she's, you know, she tries to run the country for a little while, because the child, their child is still very, very young. So then that boy grows up, he comes to the throne, and he's also not very strong. And he has three sons. And they all just rule for a few years each. So at that point of time, Assyria was not in a very good position. In the time of Shalmanezer, the third, they were in a very powerful condition. Later on, they again become powerful and they come and attack, you know, the northern Israel. But in that in-between period of time, Assyria is not in a very good position. They are in a weak condition. So all the areas that they have taken control of, now all those areas are trying to get free from the Assyrian emperor. They don't want to be under the emperor anymore. They want their own political freedom. They want to have their own little, little, you know, independent city, independent cities and independent, you know, nations. So at this point of time is when the story of Jonah happens. You have all these provincial cities, each with their own ruler and their own management. You know, when we think of cities, we think of our modern cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, you know, you get into a car and you start driving, driving, driving, you come to the outskirts of the city and then you keep driving some more, you know, you go out into the open wilderness and then you move into the next city. But in those days when you talk about city, you're talking about a city with a fortified wall around it, which means it's like an independent unit that will have its own food supply, water supply. It will have its own armed forces to look after it because when the enemy comes and attacks, these soldiers who are part of that city will fight back and protect the city. So now today when we think of cities, we have a very different opinion. We just think of them as dwelling places. But at that time when you're talking about a city, a city is something which has political power. It's a political unit on its own. So a lot of these cities were trying to break away from the Assyrian Empire because the kings who were on the throne are weak at this particular time. So this is a good opportunity for all of these cities to break away from the Assyrian Empire and have their own independent management. So among some of the important city centers at that time was Nineveh. Nineveh was one of those more powerful cities. So Nineveh was also trying to break away from the Assyrian control at that time. And so in the book of Jonah, when it talks about the king of Nineveh and the officials of Nineveh, you know, repenting, it's basically talking about not the Assyrian emperor who's sitting in the capital. No, it's basically talking about the main ruler who is in charge of Nineveh and it's talking about his officials. So it's talking about one specific city. So I'm not sure why God chose this particular city. There were a whole bunch of cities, but maybe God saw something in the hearts of the people in this city and openness to what he can give, to what he can offer. And so, you know, like it says in 2nd tonical chapter 49, the eyes of the Lord are always roaming around, searching for whom he can find, on whose behalf he can show himself strong. So maybe he thought that this is one city which was willing to respond to him. And so he decides, you know, I want to give this city a chance to change its ways. And so Jonah is sent over here. Now look at the political situation which would have been happening in Nineveh. They are, you know, rebelling against the Assyrian emperor. So there's always that tension, that little bit of fear that maybe the emperor will come and you know, squash them. So that little bit of insecurity is there which the people of Nineveh are experiencing even as they are, you know, acting in rebellion and they're trying to establish themselves. So things are not very, very secure and stable. And now here is a prophet who comes all the way from Israel and loudly he's telling everyone and saying, God's judgment is coming, God's judgment is coming. If you don't repent, you're going to be finished. And so what are all the people thinking? It looks like the Assyrian emperor is going to come and squash us. So you see, his words have immediately worked in the hearts of the people because of the political tension which they are experiencing at that point of time. So when Jonah comes and starts offering hope, when he says repent, now they are thinking, oh, okay, if we repent, maybe we can escape from the Assyrian emperor. Maybe, you know, this God that this Jonah is talking about, maybe he'll be able to save us. So this is what is going on in the minds of the people. And another interesting thing to note is that Jonah has just come out from the inside of a big fish. So he doesn't look the way he looked when he started off on his journey. You know, you spend three days inside the stomach of a fish. And what happens to food inside the stomach? You know, you basically have all this digestive juices. Yeah, we have someone demonstrating in action what happens. So yeah, you have all this digestive juices, all this gastric acids, which start acting upon the food, right? The food has to be broken down into those vitamins, proteins and all that. And then your blood will absorb that and it'll serve as food for the body. So that is basically what happens inside the stomach of a fish. Now, I don't know whether the Lord divinely shielded and protected Jonah so that none of the digestive juices touched him, or we don't know whether, you know, God allowed some of those acids to, you know, harm his face. But one thing we know, when the fish vomited him and he came out, he definitely would not have looked very presentable. If the especially the acids worked on his flesh, he would have looked very, very strange. So here is this very strange man going through the city, loudly proclaiming and saying that the living God Yahweh is, you know, going to release judgment upon this city. If they don't repent in just 40 days, they've only been given a deadline of 40 days, not more than that. And this, you know, stirs up something in the hearts of these people and they decide, you know, we are in danger. And here is a living God who is offering us help. Let us grab it. So this happens even with us. And, you know, when we are successful and everything is going well and we are prospering, we tend to ignore the Lord. But in times of trouble, when we are feeling insecure, when we are a little scared, at that time, when the Lord reaches out his hand and says, grab my hand, I can help you, you know, if you'll come to me, we are more willing to listen to him. And this is what happens over here with the people of Nineveh who are feeling a little insecure about all the things that are going on politically and they are willing to respond to the help which Yahweh is offering. But the sad thing that we see is that this repentance of the people of Nineveh does not last very long because about 10 years later, you know, this current dynasty which is ruling in the Assyrian capital, they go out of power and Tiglath Pileser comes, he takes over, his dynasty takes over Assyria. So once he comes to the throne, he's very, very powerful. And so he, you know, he brings all these cities under control. So I'm assuming that, but that by this time, the Nineveh people have gone back to their idol worship because if they had continued to stay true to Yahweh, I'm sure Yahweh would have protected them against the Assyrian, you know, he would have protected them against Tiglath Pileser. So the repentance did not last very long because Tiglath Pileser, once he comes to the throne, he brings all the cities under control, he establishes himself and then one of his descendants is the one who comes and conquers Northern Israel. But in this deep, in the short time period, you know, it's like a window of opportunity for anyone who wants to reach out to Yahweh and make a commitment. So maybe the, you know, some of the people go back to their old ways, but there are some who continue to remain faithful to the living God because this is what Jesus says in the New Testament. Now where would we have that? Matthew chapter 12, if we can have someone read out Matthew 12 41, this is what Jesus is speaking, Matthew 12 41. Matthew chapter 12 verse 41, the man of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with the generation and condemn it because they repented and the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. Okay, so here Jesus is saying, in the days of Jonah, when he's preached judgment, some people repented and so now those people will condemn this current generation and say, when we were willing to listen to Jonah, why are you not listening to someone who's much greater than Jonah? You know, so is what Jesus says. So there are some people who did make a true commitment in Nineveh when God offered repentance and in fact we will see them in heaven when we go, but it looks like as if the majority of the people probably returned back to their idol worship because of which Tiglath Pileser is able to take over their city and all the other cities when he comes to power and about, I think 30 years after he comes to power is when northern Israel is conquered by the Assyrians. So this is just a little bit of the political background of this book of Jonah. Now, coming to some other things that we can look at in this book, okay, let's start with the chapter, the structure of the book of Jonah. Chapter one, of course, is where God gives Jonah the commission. He says, go to Nineveh and speak judgment against them and we see that what does Jonah do? He goes to which place does he, which ship does he get into, the ship which is heading to which place, a place named exactly Tarshish. Now, why does Jonah choose to, you know, he has many, like when you go to the bus stop, you know, you have a lot of buses standing over there. You decide which bus you want to get into. Why didn't Jonah choose this particular ship which is going to Tarshish? Because Nineveh is situated to the east of Israel. It's in fact to the northeast of Israel. Tarshish on the other hand is to the west of Israel. He wants to go in exactly the opposite direction of what God is telling him, you know, to do. So instead of going east, he wants to go to exact opposite direction and so he chooses a ship heading towards Tarshish. You know, that is the level of his determination not to go over there and preach judgment and later on he explains, you know, he says to God, I knew that you're compassionate. I knew you're going to forgive them. This man, he's been walking with the Lord for so many years that when the Lord says to him, go and speak my judgment upon them, he already begins to sense in his heart the purpose of God that God is actually aiming for repentance and not judgment. You know, someone who knows the Lord well can discern what is going on in the heart of the Lord. And so at that time itself, he realizes, oh, when I go and preach judgment, judgment is not going to happen. God is actually going to show mercy. Once he realizes that he does not want to, you know, follow the Lord anymore regarding this because he hates, he hates this Assyrians. He wants to see them destroyed. He does not want to see them being forgiven and being treated royally. He hates that idea. And so he gets into a ship which is heading in exactly the opposite direction because he does not want these people to be spared. And in chapters two and three is where we have the entire fish incident taking place. And then finally in chapter four, God teaches Jonah a lesson. So this is the thing that we see about the book of Jonah and the other prophetic books. In all the prophetic books, you have the godly prophet of God, the one obedient person who is so faithful and committed to God. No matter what the people are saying, no matter how much persecution he has to undergo, he stays strong and he conveys the judgment of God to the people. It's the people who are bad. They are the ones who disobey the Lord. They are the ones who rebel. They are the ones who refuse to repent. That is what we see in all the other prophetic books. Here in this prophetic book, it's the exact opposite. Here everyone is obedient to the Lord. The people of Nineveh, they repent. The fish obeys the Lord. The sailors in the ship that he's going on, they obey the Lord. Everyone obeys the Lord. There's only one disobedient person and that is the prophet. So it's like a contrast. And we also see that in this book of Jonah, the pagans, the ones who didn't even know the living God earlier, they are showing a greater level of godliness than the prophet himself. So in a way, it's like a very stark contrast between this particular book and the rest of the other prophetic books. But one thing we see about Jonah, when the ship starts getting swayed in the storm and the people think that they're going to die and they begin to say, are the gods angry with us? Is that the reason why this terrible, terrible storm has come upon us? At that time, Jonah very honestly, he speaks up and he says, God is not angry with you. He's angry with me. So if you throw me into the sea, then his anger will be only upon me and you people will be spared. So he was not a bad person. It's just that his hatred for the Assyrians was that deep. He did not want nice things done for them. And so anyway, the Lord forces him to go to Nineveh because the fish swallows him, protects him and then it warms him. So he finally is forced to go over there to Nineveh and speak the judgment of God. And this is his response, chapter four. We will look at chapter four in slightly greater detail because that is basically where the lesson of the book of Jonah is presented to us. So if we can maybe have someone read out for us, chapter four versus three, four, five. Yeah. Jonah chapter four was three. Therefore, now, oh Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. Verse four, then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry? Verse five. So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shelter till he might see what would become of the city. Okay, so when the Lord chooses to show mercy to these people, they hear the words of judgment, they believe the words of judgment and they get down on their knees. You know, it says both the king and his officials, they all repent. And so when they do that and God decides not to judge them, Jonah is so upset with the Lord that he says in verse three, take away my life, but it is better for me to die than to live. It shows that his hatred for the assurances is very personal. I mean, I don't know, it makes me wonder. This is pure assumption. It just makes me wonder whether maybe one of his, somebody in his family line maybe was very, very badly treated by this Assyrians who used to come and attack, about one generation back. So maybe somebody, maybe soldiers from Nineveh specifically had done something very bad to his family. And so maybe he holds that grudgenous heart. Of course, this is all assumption, nothing is given here about the details. But one thing we know, he is so upset that God is showing mercy that he says, I think it rather die. I'd rather die than look at the mercy that you're showing to these people. That is the level of his anger and hatred. And this is the Lord's response in verse four. The Lord says, is it right for you to be angry? And he doesn't get it. You know, he doesn't reply when the Lord asks a question. He doesn't answer. He just goes to the east side of the city. He makes a shelter for himself and he settles down over there because even now he's hoping that maybe judgment will come down. So he says over there, he waited to see what would happen to the city. So while he's sitting over there in the Middle East, you know, in that heat, you know, the heat level is right in the Middle East, especially in the afternoon time. And this man has just made some little bit of some small shelter he has made for himself. He's sitting over there out in the open and God takes pity on him. And God causes a creeper to grow up so that it can cover the shelter and provide him shade is what the Lord does for him in verse six. It says, then the Lord provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head, to ease his discomfort. The Lord is so sweet. And it says, Jonah was very happy about the plant. And then the next day, what happens? God allows a worm to come over there. The worm eats up the creeper and the creeper dies. The shade is gone. Now the shade is gone. And then what happens? God sends a scorching east wind. Now the man doesn't have shelter. Shelter is gone. And you have a very hot east wind blowing upon him. Now he really feels like dying. So it says he grew faint and it says he wanted to die. And he said, it would be better for me to die than to live. Now God asks the same question once again, verse nine, but God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? This time Jonah replies very confidently. He says, it is. He said, and I'm so angry. I wish I were dead. He says, so two times God asks him. First time God asks him, is it right for you to be angry that I'm showing mercy to the city? Second time the Lord is asking, is it right for you to be angry about the plant dying? The point that God is making over here is that he actually says that in verse 10. So maybe if someone can read out chapter four versus 10 and 11, because this is the point that God is trying to make for 10 and 11. Jonah chapter four verse 10, but the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant of which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. Verse 11, and should I not pity Neenway, that's great city in which are more than 120,000 person who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock. So the Lord is saying, you didn't make the plant grow. You didn't give, you didn't water the plant. You didn't look after the plant. You didn't do anything for the plant. But when the plant died, you're so concerned for the plant. You're so concerned and you're so angry and upset that you're willing to die because for a plant which you didn't do anything for. On the other hand, I created these people of Neenway. I provided them sunlight and rain. I am the one who brought them up. So I asked the creator, should I not be concerned for them? Are you justified in being so angry when I'm showing mercy to them? This is where the Lord reveals his heart. Yahweh shows his heart towards the nations which are sinning against him. He has no desire actually to destroy any nation. He has no interest in bringing judgment upon anyone. It reminds us of Lamentations chapter 3 where it says, the Lord does not willingly bring grief or affliction to anyone. That's not what God desires. It's the people by their rebelliousness and their continued sinfulness which force God into bringing judgment upon them. But if any nation is inclination of wanting to repent, God is more than willing to change his heart because he cares about them. Unlike this Jonah who has not tended the plant, God has been tending the people of these nations. He's been providing them rain. He's been providing them sunlight. He's been taking care of them. He cares about them. So Jonah finally understands that God is a forgiving God and he too must give up his hatred towards the Assyrians and adopt a forgiving attitude. So Jonah would have gone back home repentant and he would have learned to overcome this hatred that he has towards the Assyrians because God has shown his heart and God said, this is the way I feel about the enemy. In the same way you too will have to love the enemy and if there's a chance that they are willing to repent, you must extend that chance to them. So in most of the prophetic books, we see the anger of God. We see his righteous judgment coming upon the people. But here, God reveals another aspect of himself. He reveals this deep concern that he has towards these people on whom he is going to bring judgment. He does care about them. So the people of Nineveh are given this privilege to change their ways and it looks like some of them actually did respond and make a genuine commitment towards Yahweh. However, it looks like the rest of the people went back into their idolatry because about 10 years later, Tiglath Pileser is able to come and take over the city of Nineveh and in fact all the other cities. So it is basically Tiglath Pileser which builds up Nineveh, makes it even bigger, wider and then he makes it the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was not the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Another place called Kala, that was the capital but it is Tiglath Pileser who comes later. He expands Nineveh, makes it more stronger, greater and he makes it the capital of Nineveh. So here we see some people grabbing at the chance which God gives and some people don't realize the privilege which they are being given by the living God and they go back to their old ways. So it's always left to the person to make that choice, whether they will grab the offer which the living God is making to them or whether they will continue with this in full ways. So we should be careful that we are not like that. So these are just some of the things that we could cover. Akhil is always on the point. Yes, he was going in the opposite direction. All right, so these are just some of the things that we could look at. Anyone has any questions, any doubts? Otherwise we can close with the word of prayer and yeah, no questions posted here either. All right, let's close with the word of prayer. Thank you, O Lord, that your scriptures are always so interesting. There are so many truths which you bring out and now, O Lord, you leave it to us to choose whether we want to practice these truths and apply them to our lives or not. So we pray, O Lord, that you would help us to have an attitude of learning, way we will be willing to repent, humble ourselves and accept these lessons, life lessons which you are teaching and apply them to our everyday life. Help us, O Lord. We pray that like the people who repented in Nineveh, we will have soft hearts, O Lord, who are willing to respond to you. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you.