FOLLOWING from his own conviction of sin the king of Nineveh could not rest until he had gathered together his governing council and faced the message of God and how it effected all his subjects. No doubt there was a discussion in council over the message, and the king had first to convince them of the truth of the message and the urgency of action to be taken. He then press the council to draw up a course of action which met the needs of the situation and to press this upon the people as a royal command.

There is much for us to learn from the king's witness to his people, and the urgency by which he pressed his command upon them.

1.The word of God needs to be taken seriously and heeded.

We can assume that with the command to his people, the king also passed on the message from God received from Jonah. No doubt most, if not all, the people had heard the message, but in case they had not, the king felt the urgency of them knowing the message.

In this the king was making a strong witness to his people that the message of Jonah was true and it came from God, and that they should believe it and heed it, and take seriously his, the king's command, and obey it.

There is a lesson here for all of us. The king of Nineveh witnesses here to the importance of affirming the truth of the word of God, and pressing how important it is to listen, believe and order our lives accordingly.

If there is anything that is important today it is that Christians should affirm that the Bible in its entirety is the word of God and the voice of God. We should not be ashamed to affirm this and stand for this, and press the importance of receiving it as the truth of God which needs to be received and believed and obeyed. We should not be afraid or ashamed to do this, even though we shall be thought foolish and ignorant. We should stand up against any idea that the Bible simply contains the word of God, and any idea that it is not wholly given by the inspiration of God, but rather that in its entirety it should be received as God speaking his mind to us. This is thought foolish today, but if God has truly dealt with our souls as he did with the king of Nineveh we know how important the plain and complete message of the Bible is, and know that to reject the message or to ignore it endangers people's eternal welfare. We should make plain that to question the Bible is to question God, and call God a liar. We should affirm that we are denying God's truth by judging parts of the Bible and the plain message of the Bible because our human wisdom deems it to be wrong or unpleasant.

2. The king in his witness speaks of the supreme value of the human soul.

The witness of the king in his command speaks to us of the value of the human soul. The king saw, and pressed on his people, that unless he and the people repented of their sin, they would all perish. There is in this threat of God not just loss of earthly life, but the judgement of God falling eternally on all the inhabitants of Nineveh. The emphasis in the historical narrative may lead us to concentrate only on the loss of earthly life, but to lose our life under the judgement of God means to die under the condemnation of God which means eternal death in hell.

The church and Christians today seem to have lost this urgency if we listen to most of the sermons being preached today. There is no pressing on people the need to flee from the wrath to come. There is no teaching of the danger of eternity spent in the horror of hell. There is little proclaiming Christ as the only Saviour from eternal death and hell.

This is so different to what we see in the Bible. When John the Baptist commenced his ministry he cried, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. John was pressing on people to be ready for the coming Saviour King by turning from sin, because if they did not they would not see how much they need to receive the coming Saviour King, and so never know the salvation he came to provide, and so end up in hell.

Jesus pressed on people the value of their soul. He said that gaining the whole world was valueless compared with the value of the soul, and by this he implied that wealth, and success, and glory in this life was of no value, if we end up in the eternity of hell. Jesus pressed on people that the human soul can be lost in hell.

We need to recapture the tremendous value of the human soul. We need to see afresh the horror of the many walking down to broad way of life to the eternal loss of their souls in hell. We must not be put off when people hate us for this message. We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by people criticizing us and despising us and telling us we are wrong. If we have been saved from our sin, and because we have been taught by the Spirit the value of our soul, we should care for the souls of others and let nothing hinder us from calling people to believe on Jesus because he only can save a soul from eternal damnation.

3.The king's witness is a powerful example.

The king had been deeply convicted of his sin and the sin of the city he ruled. In this God had shown him mercy by giving him the opportunity and inclination to repent. From this mercy he was acting in a way that would cause him to receive mercy. Because he was king he had power and influence to bring people into the same mercy he had received, and he used it.

If we have in a similar way come to know the fear of the Lord, which has led us to seek mercy so that we have found it in Jesus Christ, like the king of Nineveh we need to make it known to others. If we have received mercy from God in that we have been given grace to believe on Jesus for the salvation of soul, then we have an inestimable benefit that we must share with others. If we have authority and influence, then we should use it in order that others may be blessed as we are.

We may not have any gifts in speaking. We may find it difficult to speak to others, and when we do we feel that we have no ability to make our witness clear, plain and persuasive, but we can seek to bring people where they can hear the word of truth which saves the soul, and we can also pray for people that they may be saved.

Whoever we are and whatever our abilities, there is always something we can do in order to care for souls. If there is nothing we can do, we can always be earnest in prayer for souls and for the provision of preaching that powerfully and clearly proclaims the truth as it is in Jesus. We should not allow our weakness in praying to stop us engaging in such prayer. This is a work of witness which cares for souls.

4. Lastly let us take to heart the action pressed on people.

The king gave wise and strong advice. Because our souls are in danger because of our sins, we need to be serious about seeking the salvation of our soul. The laying aside of food for a time, and laying aside all normal worldly interests and occupations, symbolized by wearing sackcloth, is the best thing we can do. We need to give time to the urgent need for our soul to be saved. In our modern life if may be impossible to lay aside our normal life of work and home responsibilities, but we can be serious about laying aside how we normally occupy our leisure time, and give this time to serious seeking of the Lord. We can also be serious in using such means of grace that are available. Attending church, reading our Bible, praying, etc. can't buy God's favour, but these means of grace are provided by God to lead us to faith in Christ who does save our soul.

The king of Nineveh urged people to urgently call upon God. We can't win the salvation of our soul by our own effort, but we can call upon God to save us. If we engage in such urgent prayer, what is the prayer we can offer. There is only one, the one which was used by the Tax-collector who prayed in the temple. The prayer I mean is “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

If we pray such a prayer seriously it will be accompanied by true repentance, and confession of our sin before God. Here again the king of Nineveh witnessed to this action in his command to the people. The king called the people to give up their evil ways. If this is to be done, there must be an acceptance that such ways are offensive to God, and are evil. There must be a realization of such evil that we turn away from it and hate it from our heart. We must accept before God that we deserve his everlasting condemnation, and that his punishment of us, if it fell, would be just and right. We must bow before God in true repentance from the heart for all our sins, and also for the sinfulness of our hearts. We must come realizing we have nothing which we can bring which can mitigate our guilt in any way whatsoever. No other posture before God will do. Jesus made plain in the story of the Pharisee and Tax-collector praying in the temple that God does not hear prayers which vaunt personal righteousness with the idea that this deserves reward from God.

Lastly in such praying there must be faith and trust in the mercy of God, that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and of great kindness. Without faith we can't please God, but when Jesus hears a soul truly sorrowing over sin, crying for mercy, he looks for faith in him that he will show mercy. This belief in God's mercy is embodied in the words of the king of Nineveh where he says Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger.