 Good morning. Sorry for all of the interruptions. We'll begin with the book of Jonah. After that, we'll look very briefly at the book of Micah as well. So Jonah is the prophetic book which talks about the repentance that God wants to offer to the city of Nineveh. So in most of the other Old Testament prophetic books, we see judgment being passed, but we do not see any repentance in any offer of repentance being given. That's probably because those nations had already chosen and made their decision. So God had waited hundreds of years giving every single nation a chance to repent and when that did not happen, when the time of judgment finally came, we see God speaking prophetically and saying that they would be destroyed in a particular way. So we see this happening in most of the prophetic books, but over here this particular city of Nineveh, not so much the entire nation, but this particular city of Nineveh seems to have been populated by people whose hearts are still willing to maybe repent and so God gives them another chance. So what we see from the book of Jonah is something that we don't really see in the other prophetic books and we don't realize because of that God is a God who wants to give people a chance to repent. If there is even the slightest chance that a person will repent, he will give that invitation, he will make that offer, he will give them one more chance, but most of the nations were not ready for that and why do we say this so confidently because we see that in the book of Genesis where God says I'm going to wait 430 years or so approximately. I'm going to wait that many years and I'm still going to give a chance to these nations which are occupying the land of Canaan, maybe they will repent, maybe they will change and then after that the time of judgment will come upon them. So God is a God who always chooses to first offer a chance to people to repent. If they still do not want to take that invitation then the judgment will come. So here probably the Lord sees in the hearts of these particular people in this particular city a desire maybe an inclination to still have a respect for the living God. So which is why in Jonah we see that God is making this, extending this offer to them and the instrument that he wants to use to offer this repentance is the Prophet. So God sends the Prophet and through the Prophet he is offering a chance to these people to repent and when Jonah is told about this he automatically realizes because he's a man who has been walking with God, he knows the heart of God. So when God says go over there and preach judgment to them and repentance automatically Jonah realizes oh I think God must have looked into their hearts and it looks like as if these people are going to listen and repent that is why God is sending me from here but this is not something which I want. So he has his own desires and his desire is to see these people destroyed maybe because soldiers from that particular city were part of some particular earlier invasion in the previous generation because in the previous generation, one generation before the time of Jonah a lot of attacks happened from the Assyrians. So they would have picked their soldiers from different cities. So who knows how terrible the soldiers from Nineveh were the ones who came and you know wreaked havoc over here in the land of Israel. So we don't know the details but Jonah seems to be very strongly holding on to some grudges. These people specifically from the city of Nineveh probably have done something to his people and he wants to see judgment come upon them but now God is saying go and preach judgment and repentance and so he begins to think oh it looks like these people are open and therefore God is asking me to go if I go and if I speak these people will respond they will be forgiven and then I will not see the judgment which I have been waiting for. I want to see their destruction but I will not get to see it. That you see is the thing which is going on in his mind and you know we too sometimes have you know issues like that. There may be someone that who has hurt us and our family very badly and we would like maybe to see them being punished and then when the thought comes to our minds what if that person repents what if that person turns to the Lord you know and gets down on their knees then will you be willing to just say oh it's good it's good that they have been restored or will you be disappointed like Jonah and think oh I will now not get to see that person destroyed. You see that tendency could be there even in our own hearts if someone has hurt us badly enough. So here we see that one generation before Jonah Assyria was in a very very powerful state at that point of time because it had some very powerful rulers at that particular point of time. They made attacks on many many nations including Israel so at that point Nineve might have taken a very active role in the attacks and so Jonah and the people of Israel have this crutch in their hearts against this particular city. So these are assumptions that we are making but one thing we do know Assyria did attack again and again in the previous generation the generation before Jonah. So we are assuming that why does Jonah have a special hatred for Nineve maybe because of the attacks done by them and by the role specifically played by this particular city. That is an assumption on our side. So what do we know about Jonah? He's very much part of the Northern Kingdom. He lives in a place called Kath Hefver and when he is born I mean in his generation now it is the time of Jeroboam II. You know whose name has been coming up a lot. So we are familiar with Jeroboam II right. He's the one who had a lot of military success. So while the previous rulers were not that powerful, Jeroboam II is in a very very strong position and militarily he's been able to take back many of the places which were lost during the previous generations. He reclaims back all of those places and in fact God uses Jonah to prophesy and say that Jeroboam will be able to do that. So in fact Jonah prophesies over Jeroboam and says through this man many of the lands which were lost will be brought back to the nation of Israel and they will be able to reclaim them. We see that in 2 Kings chapter 14 verse 25 if someone could read out 2 Kings chapter 14 verse 25. No, unless I have got my reference wrong. 2 Kings 14 25 is wrong is it? Yes. So was my reference wrong? What is the correct reference? Okay so it's correct. Okay so there are the translation based on the verse. No, that's totally fine. So we see over here that a prophecy was given by Jonah saying that Jeroboam would be successful in restoring the boundaries of Israel. So Israel was able to occupy this much land only in the time of David and Solomon to this extent. After that one by one they kept losing all the territories which God had given them. So he's able to bring it back to its original position geographically. So this was like a time when things were going well for the nation and now at a time like this God is saying go to the enemy and tell the enemy that I want to give them a chance to repent and this is not something that Jonah wants to do. So right now in this generation when Jonah is doing his ministry Assyria is no longer in such a good position. Okay it will again regain its power, it will again become strong. But right now during this particular historical phase Assyrian kingdom is not going that well because earlier there was somebody named Shalmanazer III who was ruling the Assyrian kingdom. He was highly powerful, highly successful but after his death all of these powerful cities which are there in the Assyrian kingdom you know which he had conquered and which he had brought under his control they all began to rebel because the man who came to the throne next you know Shalmanazer's son his name was Shamsi Adad. Okay so when Shamsi Adad came to the throne he was not as strong as his father and many of the cities began to rebel and say we want to have our independence we no longer want to be under the Assyrian kingdom. So things were not going too well for the Assyrian kingdom and in fact he dies at quite an early age Shamsi Adad so and his son is not even old enough to sit on the throne so his widow she tries to run the kingdom she tries to retain control over all the areas which the earlier king had managed to gain finally once that boy grows up and takes the throne he is able to rule and when he is ruling what we need to remember and realize is that Nineveh was not the capital of Assyria at that time it was a place called Kala C A L A H so Nineveh was not the capital at that time of Assyria it was another place named Kala so this son he rules for a while and then after his death he succeeded by three of his sons all of them ruled for short amounts of time so the historical records don't explain whether they died from a natural cause or whether they were murdered by all these people who are rising in rebellion so we're not very sure of the details but each of the three sons only rules for a little while and there's a lot of political turmoil happening over there in the Assyrian kingdom so Nineveh is one of the more powerful cities you know when we think of city we think in terms of you know Bangalore Delhi Mumbai which are just cities if you go to the outskirts of the city you will just have open spaces and if you keep driving driving driving you'll go to the next town but you see when you're talking about cities over here in the ancient world these cities would be fortified they would have their own fortifications just like Jerusalem there would be a nice fortification wall around it they would have their own security forces the people living inside the city would be in a more influential and you know better financial position so they were almost like independent units a city can function for almost a year on its own you know even if it doesn't get support from anywhere else because they have all the resources inside they have their own little army you know which is there to guard the city so these cities were in a good position and so Nineveh was something like that Nineveh was in a position of influence and control so the officials and the local leader of Nineveh they wanted their own independence they no longer wanted to be part of the Assyrian kingdom so they were fighting back but the danger was always there that maybe the Assyrian emperor will come and you know with his army and wipe them out because of all the rebellion that they are indulging in so it is in this kind of an atmosphere that Jonah is being sent by God to preach repentance in Nineveh so there's an uncertainty in Nineveh about what's going to happen will the army come and attack because of the rebellion which they are indulging in or will Assyria leave them alone because the king is not powerful enough to retaliate they still don't know they're not very sure there's a tension in the city so the people are in a vulnerable state they are a little afraid of what's going to happen and at this point of time when their hearts are open their hearts are ready at that time God sends Jonah to this place and it's the same with most of us if you have noticed you know we are more willing to respond to the Lord in a time of need we are more willing to respond to the Lord when he has you know when situations have not gone well and we have been humbled and we have been brought down we are more open to you know reach out to God when things are going well and everything is prosperous and fine then people don't feel the need for God that much but here they were the people of Nineveh in this vulnerable condition right now and God saw their hearts and he wanted to give them one more offer of repentance so that you know their future can be changed and so Jonah is sent at this particular point of time and they all the people repent you know we see that in the book of Jonah but I'm not sure how many years the repentance lasted because once people repent and they come under God's protection the Lord takes care of them he really takes care of his own but it looks like they left him after a while because about 10 years after you know this incident they you know Nineveh is comes under the next dynasty which is ruled by Thiglath Pileser Thiglath Pileser is also part of the Assyrian kingdom but he belongs to a different dynasty for instance if you look you know in South India if you look at the number of dynasties which ruled over the same area the area stays over there the region is the same but you have different dynasties coming and ruling so we see this particular dynasty you know it's too weak it gets wiped out you have a new dynasty coming in Thiglath Pileser is the ruler and he fully takes control of all the cities establishes himself and the power of the Assyrian kingdom begins to rise again so there's a small window of opportunity when Nineveh could have just completely come out and become fully independent under the power of Yahweh they had that chance and they even I mean the original inhabitants who were there at that time they even repented they even turned to the Lord but it looks like sometime maybe five or six years later they go back into their idol worship I mean again this is an assumption because no details are given but if they had continued under the power of Yahweh I am sure God would not have allowed Thiglath Pileser to take control of Nineveh even if he was taking control of all the other cities God would have protected the Ninevites so we don't know how long the repentance lasted but we do know that 10 years after Jonah's visit after the repentance takes place Thiglath Pileser comes takes over all the cities which are rebelling and he establishes his dynasty and Assyria starts getting more and more powerful and then finally in so Thiglath Pileser comes to the throne around 745 BC yes and it is in 722 BC that northern Israel right gets occupied by the Assyrians so the Assyrians become powerful once again and the northern kingdom is defeated so this is just the historical background so that we will know that there's a lot more to the story of Jonah than just a big fat whale and you know a plant in the end of the story okay there's a lot of detail involved this is a historical event people have this tendency to almost talk about the story of Jonah like as if it's just a fairy tale which someone made up no this is a historical story it is grounded in history there's a background to the story there are events which take place as a result of this event where the people repent so we have so many things happening with you know with regard to Nineveh okay so about 50 years after Jonah's visit which would basically be about 40 years after Thiglath Pileser comes to the throne he decides to change the capital city from Kala to Nineveh that is when Nineveh becomes the capital city of the Assyrian kingdom but at the time when Jonah was there it was just one of the powerful provincial centers it was not the capital itself so when we are reading the book of Jonah and it talks about the king and his nobles repenting putting on sackcloth and turning to the Lord it's probably not talking about the Assyrian emperor who sittings you know in in Kala rather it's talking about the local leaders you know the local the king who would have been there for that particular city it's probably talking about him and his nobles and all the people of the land and this was no small city because you know we have the population count given right at the end of the chapter it was a large huge city and it had its own army it had its own administration it was you know in such a good state that they could even think of rebelling against the emperor that was the position of the city and they all choose to repent and turn to the Lord so just looking at the structure of Jonah chapter one of course is the you know the introduction where we see Jonah being the given the commandment to go and Jonah decides not to go and so he takes a ship to Tarshish why does he take a ship to Tarshish why not take a ship to some other place because Nineveh was situated northeast of Israel so he wants to go exactly in the opposite direction so instead of going northeast he wants to go towards the west and that is basically where you would have Tarshish so he gets into a ship which is going in exactly the opposite direction to what God is asking for okay so and then we know in chapter one we also have the details of how the storm comes and then the sailors are very worried for their life and then Jonah has the decency to admit and say this is not happening because of anything that you people have done this storm is happening because of me God is judging me so if you throw me out of the ship then God will no longer you know attack you he will only attack me and so Jonah in spite of his disobedience he still has some sense of integrity on the inside and so he says you know you people throw me overboard so that God's judgment will only come upon me and it will not touch all of you and so he's thrown into the waters and of course we know that God sends a large fish to swallow him so the general assumption is that it was a whale and we don't know whether it was a whale or whether it was some other species but it was large enough huge enough to be able to swallow a grown up person and that person could actually stay inside its intestines for three days so which means it was a huge enough creature it is not just some tiny little fish it was something very very large similar to a whale so he stays inside for three days and obviously even if we have a little bit of science background we will know what happens to food which you put inside your stomach right it starts getting digested so you have all the gastric juices which are attacking it which are basically acids right you have acids which are attacking the food and bringing it down to a you know state where it can be absorbed by the body so all that is happening to Jonah during those days I'm sure God's protection would have been upon him to an extent but I'm sure it would have been a highly unpleasant experience so when he finally when the when the fish finally you know warmets and brings him out not particularly sure what condition he was in his clothes of course would have been a big mess so forget about his clothes but what about his skin if the acids worked upon his skin he would not be looking very pleasant anymore now maybe God divinely shielded him from the action of all the or the acids we do not know the details are not given Jonah does not talk about his physical appearance over here so we do not know but if if the gastric juices worked upon him he would not come out looking the same as he was earlier he went through all of this misery because he refused to submit to the Lord and do the ministry which was given to him so it's a very dangerous thing to say Lord I don't want to do this ministry I think I'll go do that ministry that seems more pleasant no it would be most wise for us to submit to whatever form of ministry the Lord is offering us to stay within the safe boundaries of his divine will okay that helps we have a question here I just take a moment to look at yes here is who is the one who restored the boundaries that would be Jeroboam the second so that is what we read in meant I'm assuming it's just a statement because it says that very clearly in second kings that Jeroboam the second is the one who established it yeah if you if there's a further follow up question to that if it is a question then yes you know you could post that and then I can address that yeah but I'm assuming that you have just simply put the the verse over there yeah sorry okay we were looking at chapter one yes chapter one the structure of Jonah chapter one is so chapter one gives us the opening details then chapters two to three is where you know he spear he preaches repentance to the people and people believe the judgment will come upon them and they choose to repent then chapter four is where God talks to Jonah and deals with his attitudes okay so Jonah needs to be corrected and that happens in chapter four so the contrast that we see two things two contrasts that we see between the book of Jonah and the other prophetic books like we said already in all the prophetic books we generally see only judgment being spoken because those people have already decided that they do not want to respond to the living god but here in this particular book we see even repentance being offered the other contrast that we see between Jonah and the other prophetic books is that in all of the other prophetic books who are the villains the people who are respond or refusing to respond to God the people who are living in disobedience it's always the people either the people of the other nations or the people of Israel they are the ones who are the bad party who is always the good party it's always the prophet the one man who is obedient and loyal and good but we see a reversal over here in the book of Jonah in the book of Jonah everyone is obedient to the Lord except this one prophet he is completely living in disobedience so we see the storm obeying God we see the sailors obeying God we see the king and the people obeying God everyone chooses to obey God except over here the one prophet who refuses to obey God so we see basically these two contrasts between this prophetic book and the other prophetic books so yeah Jesus refers to this particular incident in Matthew 12 39 to 41 and of course in other in Luke also but then maybe we can no yeah be a bit of something so yeah in Matthew 12 39 to 41 you know Jesus says this generation is asking for a sign but he says the only sign that they will be given is the prophet Jonah so the people are saying give us a sign that you are really from God that you really are the son of God and Jesus gives them a sign saying I am giving you the sign of Jonah so obviously Jesus did not use a fictional story fairy tale sign he gives them a historical sign so Jesus speaks about Jonah as if he is a historical figure and as of the events which took place in the time of Jonah are all real historical events for instance if you look at Matthew chapter 12 and you look specifically at verse 41 it says the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it it's talking about how the people who got saved during that you know event of repentance they're they all will be present on judgment day so it's not talking about fictitious characters it's talking about actual people who repented during that time and when we go to heaven we will actually meet them we'll actually get to see them so this is a very much historical event yeah maybe in another four minutes if we can just very quickly look at you know Jonah and that leafy plant and then we can move on into Micah because Micah there's very less detail mentioned even historical background there's hardly anything mentioned so you know I'm just taking a little extra time for Jonah but we will also look at Micah so yes yeah because it actually happened to some sailor you know if you look in if you look online okay the question being asked over here is is it even scientifically possible for to be swallowed by a whale or you know some such large creature and still be able to come out alive there have been incidents where animals you know I mean other creatures have been swallowed and they were able to come out alive because the acidic juices since the gastric juices inside don't kill you they're not poison they just eat away at you so you would have a lot of living creatures inside that huge holding area of the creature where the food all you know first goes in and then the gastric juices begin to act on it and slowly the creature which is inside there is so there is a story told that one person actually did get swallowed by a whale and he does come out alive now I don't know whether that's true or not I would have to actually go and see whether that's a reliable report or not because sometimes people come up with silly fiction so don't know whether it actually happened or not but there is I've read it somewhere didn't pay much attention but you could look it up in the net and see that's a reliable thing whether there was a newspaper article talking about it or not or there's just some made up you know internet story so it is possible scientifically possible okay just very very quickly coming to this last portion Jonah is very very angry that the Lord has you know forgiven the people and he's saying that he's not going to bring judgment upon them and so he is so upset that in chapter 4 verse 3 he says take away my life for it is better for me to die than to live he is he he really wanted to see the judgment brought upon these people and he's extremely upset and then the Lord says this in verse 4 is it right for you to be angry are you justified in being angry is the question which God asks and Jonah does not give an answer over there and then this particular incident happens where he's you know he goes and sits on the east side of the city because he's still hoping that maybe the judgment will come down from heaven and so he just wants to wait and see what's going to happen just in case God changes his mind so he's sitting over there waiting to see what's going to happen and then while he's sitting over there there's no shelter it's open land you know what the Middle Eastern heat is like right so this poor man is made some kind of temporary shelter for his head he's sitting over there and God miraculously makes a creeper grow so that it can cover his head and give him some shade and it says in where is it it says in verse 5 I think or 6 he says he was very happy he was so happy that God had done this miracle and provided him with a shelter and then the next day it says verse 7 God allows some you know some infection to come into that plant some worm comes and infects it it begins to chew up the plant and the creeper dies so now he's again back in the sun and on that particular day God deliberately brings a scorching east wind a hot scorching east wind and this poor man is sitting out of the open no shelter nothing and he thinks my goodness first of all I didn't get my heart's desire to see this particular city destroyed and now I'm going through this terrible condition because you see he felt really for one day the shade was up on his head a miracle took place he was happy and now that also is gone and so a second time he cries out and he says in verse 8 he says he grew faint he almost fainted you know so he's probably very thirsty probably hungry he's almost fainting and he says he wanted to die he says it would be better for me to be to die than to live and now God asks the second question which is in verse 9 is it right for you to be angry about the plant and then God so what is Jonah's reply he says it is okay very confidently he says yes it is indeed justified for me to be angry and he says I'm so angry I wish I were dead okay so then God says to him did you create the plant did you take care of it did you make it grow did you do anything for it no but you're so concerned about it on the other hand these people of Nineveh I created them I took care of them I caused them to grow up I I met their needs I provided them rain with sunlight after doing so much for them should I not be concerned you are so concerned about a plant which you never even did anything for you didn't even take one glass of water and pour water for it and you're so concerned about it on the other hand when I show mercy to the people whom I brought up for an entire generation you are so angry so is it right for you to be angry it is an amazing object lesson which brings out you know the lesson which God wanted to teach and so he says I am concerned for the city and not just for the city even for the animals of the city so we see that God is a God who loves all the nations he has no desire to bring judgment upon them but if they choose not to repent if they choose to hold on to their idolatry then judgment yes in the time in the right fixed time judgment will come yes that's the lesson that we see so clearly brought out in the book of Jonah just moving very quickly into the book of Micah for which we do not have many details however we see that Micah prophesied to both the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom because there are prophecies given about how the northern kingdom will fall we also see prophecies about how the southern kingdom will fall and in fact about 10 or 20 years after you know Micah begins his ministry that is when the northern kingdom falls in 722 so he prophesies about both of the nations and Micah is basically popular and well known for that one single verse Micah 5 2 where you have the prophecy about the Messiah who will come someone could read out Micah chapter 5 verse 2 yes so who's goings are from old from everlasting in NIV says whose origins are from of old from ancient times so this Messiah who will come will not just be someone who was born that day and started to grow up but he will be from ancient times so it's talking about an eternal everlasting Messiah who was not born like other people but who always had existed okay so we get to see the eternity of the Messiah being discussed over here and we also see his the location of where he will come and take birth in human form very very clearly told so which is why later when Herod asks the chief priests and the scribes you know these people the wise men have come and they're talking about some king who is going to come and take over this land who is this king and the chief priests and scribes very gladly tell him we are waiting for our Messiah King and we know that he is going to be born in Bethlehem Ephrata so they quote that verse to Herod and tell him about it so if we look at the structure of Micah chapters 1 to 3 we'll talk about judgment and chapters 4 to 5 talk about how he will restore the land of Israel once again and chapters 6 and 7 are a cry for repentance so in the same way God offered repentance to the people of Nineveh here God is offering repentance and saying if you will be willing to come back to me I am willing to you know give you forgiveness and change the judgment so we see that also another interesting thing that we see in the book of Micah is when Jeremiah is being attacked by people you know Jeremiah because of all his prophecies and the people hated him for it when he is being attacked this is what happens there's a quotation which is made from the book of Micah just to give a little background Jeremiah has been prophesying against Jerusalem he's telling the Jerusalem will fall the people are very angry about it and so the priests and the prophets decide to kill him and when they capture him arrest him and are getting ready to kill him the officials of the city come and they say why are you killing this man because once upon a time Micah the prophet also gave a similar prophecy and when Micah gave his prophecy in the time of Hezekiah Hezekiah did not say I'm going to kill you Hezekiah in fact got on on his knees and he repented so when Hezekiah heard the prophecy given by Micah that Jerusalem will fall Hezekiah did not retaliate and say I'm going to kill you for your word of prophecy rather Hezekiah repented and so the officials say to the priests and prophets you should be getting down on your knees and repenting rather than taking action against Jeremiah so in fact they refer to Micah to you know provide an argument to spare the life of Jeremiah so you would see this in Jeremiah 26 8 to 19 where the details are given so this this story is mentioned over there um yeah so these are actually just the two main things that we see in Micah one is of course Micah 5 2 where you have the prophecy of the Messiah who will come and this other place where the argument from the life of Micah is used to spare the life of Jeremiah so we see these two main things in the book of Micah so we have about two minutes left any other questions otherwise we can close with the word of prayer that shall be prayed Lord we just thank you so much for the lessons that you teach us from the lives of your people thank you a lot for putting in these details in your word so that we don't have to repeat the mistakes which they did oh Lord Lord we thank you that you are a God of mercy and compassion that Lord you do not hold on to the sins which we have done the way Jonah was holding on to the grudges you are not like that and we thank you for that for your great mercy oh Lord and in the same way that you show us mercy and you forgive us we pray that you would help us also to forgive other people in return and not hold on to grudges against them the same way we have been shown mercy help us also a lot to show mercy to others and grant them forgiveness in the same way that you are forgiving us help us a lot to have that kind of an attitude also a lot we thank you for the book of Micah thank you for the prophecies that he gave a lot faithfully to his people and we thank you oh Lord that he lived in a time where the king was willing to listen to your word and humble himself and repent rather than rising up in pride and saying I do not want to hear God's word so we pray oh Lord that you would help us to be like Hezekiah when his when something from you was told to him he accepted it rather than rebel against it Lord help us to have these kind of attitudes in our own lives thank you Lord in Jesus name amen so thank you so much for those of you who are online and thank you to all of you who are in the class