Jonah 3:2,4,5 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
So Jonah goes and begins to preach in this pagan city. His message is very simple. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”(v. 4). That’s it. That was his whole message. It’s eight words in English; only 4 words in Hebrew.
To be honest, I love short messages, and I love to give short messages, But I’ve never preached an eight-word message in my life.
And a pretty depressing message if you ask me. None of this “Nineveh, God loves you…” or “Nineveh for Yeshua” or “Say Yes Nineveh.” A message of impending judgment and nothing more.
God says to Jonah – PREACH MY MESSAGE; simple, urgent, to the point. These days the message of salvation across the world so often removes a key word –”REPENT!” Whenever Yeshua (Jesus) preached – or John the Baptist – or any of the saints preached – it started with the word – REPENT!
This is a critical point. There’s apologetics, and witnessing of all kinds, according to wisdom and opportunity, but if we’re going to preach, we MUST understand that we MUST preach HIS MESSAGE! And His Message begins with the word – REPENT!
It’s not the way we would do it. If we were going to put together a “Nineveh for Yeshua” campaign, we would hire an advance team, get a PR man, put together an ad campaign, buy billboards, do a social media blitz, start a Facebook page, get our Twitter team going, make some “Nineveh for Yeshua” t-shirts, do some training, set up the buses, train the counselors, rent a stadium, buy some TV time, recruit the counselors, print the follow-up materials, set up home prayer meetings, arrange for simultaneous translations, rehearse the choir, and organize Operation Nivevah. We’d have to raise $3 million just to get started.
Nah, Jonah skipped all of that.
He just went to Nineveh looking half dead and gave his entirely negative 8-word sermon. And the people repented!
Jonah was a “dead man.” When God does that to you and me we won’t have to say much either, “Repent, and believe the gospel”… 5 words will probably do it! But the message will almost certainly begin with the word — “Repent”!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Yeshua (Jesus) knew the heart of every man and woman. As a totally pure and righteous human being, His experience of every other sin-filled person is really impossible for us to imagine. He knew that every repulsive thought, attitude and action of every person in the world would soon fall on Him, and that He would carry them…away. And so Yeshua did not come with a spirit of condemnation — but with a spirit of grace and truth.
As we are entering some of the most turbulent times in history, we’ve been receiving an unbelievable amount of email expressing concern about the future. But I want to tell you a little something – the future is VICTORY!
How often, in all the issues we have to deal with talking with people, we know or we feel we are right; our idea, our position, our interpretation is it, and we’re ready to fight for it…
Life wears us down. We live in a world of relentless motion, pressure, and performance. Yeshua (Jesus) doesn’t deny this. Instead, He speaks directly to those who are “weary and heavy-laden.” The Greek for “weary” (kopiao) means utterly worn out—soul-tired, not just physically fatigued. The burdens He mentions aren’t only external tasks but inward baggage: guilt, shame, expectations, and hidden wounds. Yeshua’s call isn’t merely an invitation to stop—it’s a call to come. He offers what no one else can: rest that restores.
When we read the promises of God, we must read them the way we ourselves want to be heard—in full context. Just as we expect others to understand our words in light of what we’ve said before, God expects us to interpret His promises in light of all He has revealed in His Word.
A few days ago, I shared a quote from B.J. Willhite, and today I want to delve deeper into his powerful insight. He wrote, “The law of prayer is the highest law of the universe—it can overcome the other laws by sanctioning God’s intervention. When implemented properly, the law of prayer permits God to exercise His sovereignty in a world under the dominion of a rebel with free will, in a universe governed by natural law.”
When God spoke to Abram, the command was clear yet profoundly personal. The Hebrew phrase lech lecha carries a dual meaning: “go forth” and “go for yourself.” This journey wasn’t just a physical relocation; it was a spiritual pilgrimage—a call to walk out God’s will and to walk into his divine inheritance. Abram’s journey was not merely about distance but about destiny.