With the advent of the computer, and eventually the internet, we were blessed with the ability to almost instantaneously communicate in writing, both with our loved ones, and our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course it unfortunately also follows that, with the blessing of being able to share how the Lord is leading and guiding us on a daily basis, we are sometimes inundated with scores of false prophets who would not otherwise have a protective outlet for their desires.

Now when I say false prophet, I am not refering to someone who does a Bible study or whatever, and has reason to believe they might know the timing of the rapture. What I am refering to, are those people who predict future events with the supposed backing of our Lord, and begin their prophesy with words along the lines of "I heard from the Lord", or "The Lord told me", or something of a similar vein. Their rambling usually ends with the admonition of this being an urgent message from the Lord that needs to be quickly put out to the masses.

For the most part these types have been easy to deal with -- we simply wait to the announced date to see if it comes to pass. If it does, then it obviously was a word from the Lord. If it doesn't, then as the Bible teaches we are to ignore these people, because they didn't speak for the Lord.

But an interesting phenomena seems to be developing lately. In what can only be described as an obvious effort to remove the Word of God from being the light which exposes their dark deeds, today's false prophets are now seeking to discredit the Holy Writ, by suggesting that God's prophetic word as given to His prophets, did not always have a 100% rate of accuracy. This allows them to freely spout off what they choose, without judgment from the Word of God.

The prophet Jonah is the unfortunate pawn frequently used in this false line of reasoning. The idea behind their premise, is that God directed Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh, and prophesy it would be destroyed within forty days. Now as the Bible tells us, the people of Nineveh repented with all their heart before the Lord, and He spared their city. Thus the false prophets point out this to be an example of where a Word from God did not come to pass.

Let's go back and examine the whole story. Now the prophet Jonah had a lot of experience in his daily walk serving the Lord, even though for whatever His reason God has only chosen to reveal this period of his ministry. But we shall quickly see that Jonah knew the Name of the Lord, and His divine character.

One day the Lord came to Jonah, and instructed him to make a journey to the city of Nineveh, where he was to cry against it. But Jonah decided he was fed up with serving the Lord, and immediately fled to Tarshish and down in Joppa, where he found the local ticket agent for a boating company that was headed in the opposite direction of where God wanted him to go. So he paid the fare, and with a huge sigh of relief took his seat aboard the boat and fell asleep.

But God was one step ahead of this act of disobedience, and just as the boat was making good time across the sea, He sent a mighty wind to confront the progress of the boat. In fact, the storm was so bad that at one point it looked as though the boat would be completely ripped apart, and they would drown. So doing the only thing they knew, the mariners immediately conferred with one another in an effort to discover if any had offended their gods, to cause such a wild storm as they had never before seen.

Well after all denied any wrong doing, they suddenly noticed this passenger at the back of the boat, snoring loudly. When the shipmaster confronted him, and the cast lots singled Jonah out, he openly confessed that he was running away in disobedience to God. The mariners of course became afraid, and inquired of him what they should do. Well Jonah was strongly determined that he would rather die than cry out in repentance to God, so he quickly devised a plan that would be to everyone's benefit -- toss him out into the sea to drown.

But for a second time God was one step ahead of Jonah, and the Bible says He prepared a great fish to catch him in its mouth. For three days and nights Jonah stewed in the belly of the fish, contemplating this incredibly disasterous turn of events. Then finally, in the midst of great pain and misery, the Bible tells us that he cried out to the Lord in repentance, whereupon the fish spat him out onto dry land.

While Jonah was shakily trying to find his legs, the Word of the Lord came to him once again, telling him to arise and travel to the city of Nineveh, where he was to carry out God's original mission plan for those people. But Jonah was feeling a little more secure now that he was back on terra firma, and surely in his heart he must have been thinking: "It's obvious that I have no choice but to head for Nineveh ... however, I'll preach the message my way."

But yet again, God is one step ahead of Jonah, and knowing the thoughts and intents of man's heart, he gives to Jonah a very peculiar instruction:

Now Jonah has obviously been a very bad boy the past little while, walking in disobedience to the Word of the Lord. God is fully aware of this, and instructs Jonah to speak the words exactly as he has been given them. It is somewhat the way a parent would say to a child: "Okay you can go out with your friends, but don't get into trouble, and come home exactly when I told you." The parent is reminding the child to follow their instructions clearly and to the letter.

So Jonah continues on his journey to Nineveh. But by the time he arrives there he is feeling a lot braver and independent, and the admonition which God has given Jonah has lost its grip on his heart, and for the third time he responds in an act of disobedience, as he charges into the midst of the city, and screams:

All throughout the Bible, repentance and judgment go hand in hand. Noah was a man of righteousness, and preached repentance for 120 years before God finally brought judgment through the flood. Abraham was told by God that He would not destroy the just with the unjust, and further offered both Lot's family and relatives the chance to repent and believe His Word, and to leave the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, well before its judgment came to pass. Then in the most dramatic example of all, it is our repentance through faith in the Blood of the risen Christ that spares us of the judgment He took upon Himself.

But Jonah was tired of God's mercy. He was tired of preaching repentance in his travels. He wanted to see - once and for all - the devastation that comes in the judgment of God. So he preached their judgment without the availabilty of repentence being made known, and sat back waiting for the show to begin.

However, God had mercy on these people, whom He later described as truly not knowing their right hand from their left (Jonah 4:11). He touched their heart and caused the idea of repentance to rise up in their thoughts.

The Bible says that when God saw their works, and that they turned from all of their evil ways, that He repented of His judgment on the city.

Now when the time for the expected fireworks had passed, and Jonah looked out and saw the repentant works of the people, did he shout out and rejoice at the Lord's goodness? No! Rather he began to fuss and fume with indignation at what transpired. It was what he knew all along - that God was good, and He was merciful and loving, and desiring that none should perish.

As I mentioned previously, Jonah had well known the Name and the character of the Living God. But in his weakness, Jonah allowed his anger and need for personal vindication to overtake God's instruction of mercy via repentance. God made the point with the sulking Jonah, through the withering away of the giant gourd plant, which offered Jonah shade from the sweltering heat. When he complained to God about it, the answer he received was that if Jonah had such mercy on a simple thing as a gourd plant, how much more should he not then understand God's willingness to spare those created in His own image?