TO LOVE A SINNER

I have heard once or twice some members of the Church express their disdain for their duty to perform temple ordinances for certain members of their deceased family who they deem unworthy to receive such. Their instinct is to withhold what they consider the greatest of all blessings, namely salvation in the kingdom of God. It has puzzled me that they would feel in such a way because that's the whole point of work for the dead, to give them an opportunity to change and become different thereby casting off the unworthiness. The temple ordinances themselves do not guarantee automatic salvation.  The saving ordinances come free to all men through the grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ but salvation comes on the condition of repentance. They are not rewards for perfection but rather the balm for spiritual wounds caused by sin and a gateway to one's journey to exaltation. The whole point of the saving ordinances is to change the natural man into a saint of God. There was once such a man who did not consider a whole nation worthy of this opportunity, a prophet of God nonetheless whose name was Jonah.

Lest we judge Jonah too harshly, it is worthwhile for us to come to understand the inclination which made him turn away from God's errand with which he was commissioned. Jonah was heavily engaged in prophetic activities and was an adviser to King Jeroboam II, king of Israel (2 Kings 14:25). He was the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher, which was located in the territory of the tribe of Zebulun (Joshua 19:10-13). As an Israelite, Jonah was taught that he was of the chosen people and that the Gentiles were corrupt and therefore not acceptable to God. When the call came to cry repentance to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, 'Jonah was torn between his loyalty to God and the whip of his emotions. The latter were at a fever pitch and in the end determined his actions. Because he couldn't face the mission call, he determined to flee the country and get away from the unpleasant responsibility' (Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings - Malachi, p 98). Not only did Jonah feel his race was superior to that of the heathen nations but Assyria seemed to be the last straw of his contempt. Assyria was not only a heathen nation but a highly brutal and barbaric one. It was also a bitter enemy to Israel. Jonah, therefore felt Assyria was not worthy to be saved. He was afraid that the preaching of repentance would avert Nineveh's imminent and deserved destruction.

Assyria, named for the god of warfare, Ashur, was located in the Mesopotamian plain. The area that it was located in is today primarily the nation of Iraq, 'their history one of kings and slaves, wars and conquests, bloody victories and sudden defeat' (Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, The Story of Civilization, 1:266). Warfare was a science to its' leaders but it wasn't just their warfare effectiveness that struck terror to the hearts of the Near Eastern world, it was their savage and brutal nature. Soldiers were rewarded for every severed head they brought in from the field. Their treatment of captives included impaling, torturing, blinding children before the eyes of their parents, flaying men alive, roasting them in kilns over a slow fire, slicing off ears, noses, hands and feet, chaining men in cages for the amusement of the populace and clubbing the survivors to death (Old Testament Student Manual, 1 Kings-Malachi, Enrichment D, p 113). The king of Assyria himself admitted to the awful 'violence that is in their hands' (Jonah 3:8). Why would God want Jonah or anyone to cry repentance to such a people? Surely they were ripe for destruction but it's not men's deeds that make them ripe for destruction but their unwillingness to repent and Nineveh had not been yet given such a choice.

The Lord took Jonah on an interesting trip in his attempt to flee to Tarshish, giving him an opportunity to rethink his actions in the belly of a whale where he spent three days and three nights. When the Jews sought for a sign of divinity from Christ, He referred to Jonah's miraculous emergence from the belly of a whale, synonymous of His emergence from the tomb after three days following his death. I think after three days inside a whale, you would pretty much want to go and preach to Assyrians. It could not be any worse than being inside a fish for the rest of your short life. Jonah repented quick smart and delivered his message to Nineveh. Not one of compassion, mercy or love if they repent, but a very simple and direct one, Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days (Jonah 3:4). To his surprise the barbaric Assyrians repented and were spared the prophesied destruction. Jonah was so upset that he wanted to die. He knew the Lord would spare this people, not because of their repentance but because of the Lord's infallible mercy, hence his unwillingness to preach in the first place: "Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness..." (Jonah 4:2).

All that the Lord does, He does with great meaning, seeking to provide us with teaching moments. The repentance call to Nineveh provides several lessons:

• People are called to repentance so that they would know they are doing something wrong. Everyone deserves an opportunity to change and work out their salvation. Jonah was told that people of Nineveh could not 'discern between their right hand and their left hand' (Jonah 4:11). Judgement cannot be passed effectively on anyone who does not possess true knowledge of right and wrong. Hence the importance of missionary work.

• The saving of Nineveh had the great potential to help Israel see that if the carnal nation, with its ungodly mind, can be saved through repentance, so can Israel be saved from its' prophetic dispersion, if they would only repent. Since Jonah lived during the reign of Jeroboam, his mission took place approximately 788 B.C. (Old Testament Student Manual, 1 Kings-Malachi, p 97). Assyria swept out of the north, captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and took the ten tribes into captivity in 721 B.C.

• Jonah's mission was to typify the future adoption of Gentiles, who would observe the word of God, into the chosen lineage of Abraham, by side stepping the self-righteous mind of Israel and their pride of its' own election, to come to believe in Israel's divine call to be the vehicle of salvation to all who would believe.

The greatest lesson of Jonah's mission is that divine mercy has no bounds and the reaches of Gethsemane go far and wide, that even the sins which are 'as scarlet...shall be as white as snow' (Isaiah 1:18). Surely the sins of Assyrians in Jonah's time could not be more scarlet than they were yet the Lord forgave them all. The mercy of Him who has power to forgive is beyond the understanding of our finite minds but should be emulated and sought after by every true follower of God. The Lord is eager to forgive. He seeks to make us whole. He only, can provide the balm of Gilead which can heal all wounds, especially the ones caused by sin. When Jonah acknowledged the Saviour to be a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and of great kindness (Jonah 4:2), he was also proclaiming Him to be a God of love for none of these attributes could exist without this one quality of heart. Through his reluctance to fulfill his mission call, Jonah is a symbol of humanity's lack of godly love which desires all to share in God's acceptance. May we have the perfection of this love bestowed upon us, as true followers of Christ (Moroni 7:48)  so that we can be a means of salvation to our brothers and sisters who cannot 'discern between their right hand and their left hand' (Jonah 4:11) and may we be an ensign to the nations of righteousness and saving grace of Him who we follow and whose image is in our countenance.