All the disciples and the crowd have heard it many times on how Jesus referred to our last days. Jesus taught that the last days, our days today, would resemble three earlier periods in Scripture: the days of Noah, the days of the prophet Jonah, and the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus said “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. “(Matthew 24:37-39)
In the days of Noah, people were consumed with pleasure, amusement, and constant indulgence. Violence filled the earth, and moral restraint was cast aside. Sexual immorality was practiced without limit, as though nothing were forbidden. The corruption of humanity grieved the heart of God. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created, and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:5-8) But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Though God was prepared to bring judgment upon the entire earth, Noah stood as the one man who received grace—and if not for that grace, humanity would not exist today. He was not flawless, yet he was faithful, and God looked upon that faithfulness with divine favor.
In the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, wickedness had reached its peak—overflowing with immorality, lust, violence, and every form of corruption. Their evil was so great that God brought fire upon the cities and wiped them out. I will explore that account in greater detail in another topic. For now, let us turn our attention to the story of the prophet Jonah.
In the time of Jonah, God called the prophet to deliver a message of warning. But Jonah resisted his calling and fled, confessing that he did not want to proclaim judgment because he knew God to be merciful and forgiving. In essence, Jonah feared that if he warned the people, God would show compassion and spare them, leaving Jonah looking foolish in the eyes of those who heard him. This is what God told Jonah Amittai’s son: The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” (Jonah 1:1)
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. In today’s language, he might have said, “Lord, I will look like a fool, a false prophet, if You show mercy after I proclaim destruction.” For Jonah, these wicked people don’t deserve salvation, as heaven is not for them. This was the reasoning Jonah offered before God.
He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 1 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” (Jonah 1:1-13) Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. So, while Jonah was inside the big fish, assumed a whale, he cried and prayed. Just think, who would ever still live after being swallowed by an animal? That’s a miracle. So, God commanded the whale to deliver Jonah to that same place and vomited him out. Then the Lord told prophet Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” (Jonah 3:1)
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed in God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. However, when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
The twelve disciples struggled with these same feelings. When Jesus sent them out two by two to preach, they encountered others who were also preaching and casting out demons in Jesus’ name. They went back to Jesus and reported that they had tried to stop these believers because they weren’t part of the disciples’ group. John said, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not stop him. No one who performs a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. And truly I tell you, anyone who gives you even a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” (Mark 9:39)
God impressed on my heart to share this message. Before I ever began writing online, I used to think, “Well, they all deserve to perish in hell.” But the Holy Spirit gently whispered to me, “That is selfishness.”
This is what happened next to the prophet Jonah. He was furious. He sat under the scorching Middle Eastern sun, waiting, and hoping, for fire to fall from heaven and destroy Nineveh. The heat was unbearable, yet he stayed there, burning with anger and disappointment.
Then the Lord provided a leafy plant that grew up over Jonah, giving him shade and easing his discomfort. Jonah was delighted with the plant. But at dawn the next day, God sent a worm that chewed the plant, causing it to wither. When the sun rose, God sent a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head until he grew faint. In his misery, he said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
God asked him, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“Yes,” Jonah replied. “I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
But the Lord answered, “You are concerned about this plant, though you did not plant it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not be concerned for the great city of Nineveh, with more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many animals as well?” (Jonah 4:10).
Do we ever catch ourselves feeling the same way? In moments of deep hurt or anger, we sometimes wish that those who wronged us would face judgment immediately. Before God revealed His mysteries to me through His prophecies and His words, I used to feel that way too.
But through the Holy Spirit, God revealed to me that those thoughts were rooted in selfishness. He called me to share the gospel, yet I hesitated, and God heard my doubts: “I’m not worthy, and I’m not old enough to preach like the preachers, ministers, or pastors. What could I possibly say online?”
Still, God placed His words in my mouth. And even now, He continues to reveal His abundant mercy. As long as the door of salvation remains open, His compassion is extended to all. We should thank Him daily for this mercy, because without His grace, that door could have closed long ago.
But a day is coming, once every prophecy has been fulfilled, when God’s wrath will be poured out, and probation will close. And let me warn you that moment is drawing near. Don’t wait until it’s too late or until death overtakes you. Jesus said that the world would end like this: “Immediately after the distress of those days:
“‘ The sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. ‘”(Matthew 24:29)
Therefore, the choice is yours. You can follow Jesus, turn away from your old ways, and walk the path that leads to eternal life. Or you can embrace the voices that pull you away from God’s truth. The call is simple: choose the way that leads to life, not the path that leads you astray.
