WE have been thinking and dwelling upon the marvelous work of God which God graciously performed in Nineveh, and to the Ninevites, through the preaching of Jonah. We have seen that it brought fear of God and sincere repentance. We may have been left with the idea that we win God's compassion and favour by our repentance as if repentance is a work which we do which merits God's compassion. This is not so, and would be contrary to all the rest of that which the Bible teaches us concerning the salvation of the soul. It was God's gracious work which brought about this repentance, and far from being a means of earning favour with God, it was brought about by God so that it may be the means whereby the people of Nineveh might look from themselves to God. We find this result in the words of the king of Nineveh in the previous verse 9 of this chapter in the book of Jonah.

What we see in this verse is a turning to God and a developing trust in the mercy of God. However this trust was tempered with humility. It was a trust that expressed the understanding that mercy was undeserved. It is expressed by the king of Nineveh in the words “God may relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish. The thought behind these words is the idea that we deserve such punishment, but God would not have warned us of his anger unless he determined to be merciful. From this we see that salvation is by faith, when the soul, in sorrow for sin, throws itself upon the mercy of God with a confidence that God has threatened in order to bring salvation to the penitent.

The blessing of such faith is recorded for us in the verse before us. Our verse tells us that God did pour out his salvation upon the people of Nineveh. God had compassion, and withdrew his threatened judgement.

WHEN GOD SAW.

Throughout this history of Jonah we have had it impressed upon our minds and understanding that God is sovereign overall, and he is working his purposes out as creator and ruler of his creation. Here we have a sight of God on his throne seeing all that is going on here on earth, and in particular here in Nineveh. God sees everything all the time in the world, and so he sees what is going on in any particular place and time.

This sovereign power and overall knowledge of God is beyond our comprehension to understand. We are only able to be in one place at one time, and see only what is in front of us. We can't see beyond what is visible and what hearing and seeing impresses upon us. God on the other hand has everything open in view to him, everywhere, all the time. He not only sees our actions he sees into our minds and hearts. There is no way any one of us can hide from God or escape from him. This is a terrifying concept to sinful and rebellious humanity, and this is one of the reasons people are determined not to think about God or consider his ways. However in the case of the people of Nineveh at the time of our text, this seeing of God was one of great comfort and blessing. It meant that God did not miss anything that was going on, and so the Ninevites were assured that their repentance and cry for mercy would not go unheeded, or be missed by God.

From this we can be assured that the soul that turns to the Lord in sincere desire to know the Lord will not seek God in vain.

Let us look at this seeing of God expressed here a little more closely. There are two parts to this seeing. In the first place God sees the outward action of the Ninevities. God saw their actions – the wearing of sackcloth, their serious seeking after God and his mercy by their fasting. God seeing them saw them at prayer and listened to their cry for mercy. Then this seeing of God went much deeper. God saw how they turned from their evil ways. At first this seems simply to express God seeing outward action like stopping evil actions, so that violence ceased, and other sinful actions were given up.

If this was all that God saw it would be very easy for us human beings to deceive God and pretend to repent. It would be easy to seem to repent simply seeking God to avoid the threat of punishment, but with no real desire to change or give up sin. This would be just waiting for the time the threat of death is removed to go back to the evil ways again.

God's seeing is much deeper and more searching than this. In this seeing of God, that the Ninevites turned from their evil ways, there is the ability of God to look into the mind and heart and see the true emotions and intentions of the heart. God sees into our hearts whether there is true repentance and turning away from sin. This seeing searches the heart to see if there is real fear of God, and acknowledgment of the God's just anger against sin. This seeing knows whether there is a true humble acceptance of the need for mercy. This seeing is the seeing which is illustrated by Jesus when he told of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee praying in the temple. Jesus saw deep into the heart of both these ones who prayed. He saw into the heart of the Pharisee and into the heart of the Tax Collector, and he saw that the Tax Collector was truly sorry for his sins, and sincerely desired the mercy of God. This seeing responds to what is true and real, and in the case of the Tax Collector there was an immediate response in saving blessing. Jesus says of the Tax Collector that he went home justified. In other words God was merciful, and his sins were blotted out, and he was account just in the sight of God.

There is very real comfort in this all seeing of God. In this world sinners can escape justice, and people's hearts which are sincere can be rejected. People can be falsely accused, where as people who are truly wicked can be able to justify themselves before the courts. This is not so with God. Where there is a sincere repentance from the heart, God sees it and he responds in mercy. This is what God saw in the hearts of the Ninevites and their king.

WHAT GOD SEES IN THE HEART.

Have considered this seeing of God, let us now gather together what we learn, both for the true heart and the false heart.

When God sees into the heart, the one who has a false heart where there is no real movement towards God, God does not move in mercy. To the false heart God leaves his promise of threatening. The threatening may be withheld for a time to give time for a change of heart, but unless such a change happens God's threat of judgement will be carried out. The Bible is full of illustrations of this. We read of heathen nations that when the number of their sins became full, then God came and poured out his judgement on them. We have the case of Sodom and Gomorrah. When their iniquity was full the cities were destroyed by the terrible wrath and judgement of God. Israel was given time over hundreds of years to repent, but when they refused to repent God executed his judgement, and the nation was carried off into exile into Babylon. In the end, when the iniquity of Israel was full, God sent his terrible judgement in 70 AD when the Romans came destroyed Jerusalem, and the Jews finally had their special relationship with God taken away. The word of God is clear. We can't deceive God, and those God sees who do not turn in repentance and faith to Christ will go into eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46).

With the case of the righteous, what does God see in their hearts? What did God see in the hearts of the Ninevites in the time of Jonah.

God saw their faith. They believed the word of God given by Jonah. They believed that God was offended by their sinful living. They believed that God had a right to be offended. They believed that God was just in his threatening. They believed that God could and would carry out his threats.

This was not all that God saw. God saw that the Ninevites, from the king down to the least of the citizens, feared God and owned him as God sovereign over them. God saw that they believed that He saw all that was in their hearts, and they could not hide from him.

But they also believed, and this is implied in what happened, that God was a merciful God and slow to anger and of great kindness. It seems at first sight that God was just threatening to terrorize these people. In fact this is not so. God had no need to warn them of his judgement and the justice of such judgement. God could have left them alone, and then visited them with his judgement and destroyed them utterly. A 100 years later we read this happened to Nineveh when the city again was filled with wickedness. This leads us to see that Gods threats were given in grace, and with the intention of working repentance in the hearts of the Ninevites.

Conviction of sin, though painful and a strange work of God, is full of grace. When there is real conviction of sin as occurred in the hearts of the Ninevites, then there is a sense of fear and need which causes the soul to cry out to God for his mercy. It is because people have no sense of sin as God sees sin, and there is no deep conviction of sin, that Christ means little to them. When God brings deep conviction of sin it is an act of rich grace, because a soul in terror of hell, seeks a salvation from God which God bestows on the heart crying for mercy.

Our churches today are filled, or not so filled, with people who have little or no realization of their need due to sin. They are comfortable in the pews. They believe that they are alright with God. They go on in life believing vainly in their own righteousness to win them acceptance with God. Christ and his death in their place is not understood, and if it is it is rejected as immoral. They reach the end of their life and pass into hell to their eternal and great surprise and pain. If only people knew the reality of the sinfulness of their lives in God's sight they would turn from the comfortable belief that all was well with their souls, and with heartfelt urgency apply to God for mercy. In this condition the Holy Spirit, seeing the tenderness of their hearts before God, and their true repentance, reveals Christ to them as a perfect Saviour, who has borne their sins in his body on the cross, and by his stripes and his death, they are saved, and accounted righteous before God for his sake.

CONCLUSION.