30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 11 29-32 The sign of Jonah Sign of Jonah 6
📖 Luke 11:29-32
*God who relents* _Luke 11:29-32_
God longs for people to repent and come back to Him. He is gracious and ready to forgive but people must repent and turn to Him _Joel 2:13._
Jonah was commissioned to go to Nineveh and preach to the people there to repent and turn to God, for God’s anger was aroused against them _Jonah 1:2._ We know that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh but instead, fled to Tarshish. God took Jonah through the belly of the fish experience and he finally did go to Nineveh and preached to them to repent of their sin against God. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites and they repented of their sin and turned back to God.
Jesus was telling the people of His time that His death, burial and resurrection was the sign of Jonah for them and they must repent, as the Ninevites did at the preaching of Jonah _Luke 11:30._
He is a God, who relents _Jonah 3:10/4:2._ This is God’s nature for He does not want anyone to perish but that all should experience eternal life, for which man needs to repent and turn back to God.
Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God, so that people of His time would repent and turn to Him _Mark 1:14-15. This is our task and role for the people of our time to preach to them the kingdom of God and that people should repent and believe in the gospel._ If people would repent and return to God, He is longing to pardon people for He is a God of mercy _Jeremiah 31:20/Luke 15:20/Jeremiah 18:8/ Joel 2:13._
_Will we be the people who will sigh and cry over the sin of our people and repent on behalf of our people Ezekiel 9:4? Will rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep God’s law Psalm 119:136?_
If our people repent and turn to Him, He is a God who relents and pardons man’s sin.
*Thought to ponder*
```Ezekiel 22:30 So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. (31) Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads," says the Lord GOD.```