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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Culturally
Conflicted Upon
completing my rewrite of my commentary on the Book of Jonah, I'm
convinced that the book's abrupt ending that reveals the sad state of Nineveh's existence resembles our sad existence here in the West today.
Jonah 4:11 in the Christian Standard Bible reads: "But may I not care
about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot
distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many
animals?" There's
no doubt about it. God's
evaluation of those living in Nineveh
was sad. They did not know
their right from their left. History
tells us that during Jonah's life the residents of Nineveh
lived in a state of chaos, confusion, and conflict with each other.
Just as Jonah himself was conflicted because of God's call on his
life, so chaos, confusion,
and conflict ran wild in the streets of God's
evaluation of Nineveh
could easily be His evaluation of our western-world today.
Look around you on the streets of your city.
Watch the news on the device of your choice.
Read away on your favourite social media site.
Listen to the multitude of conflicting voices vying for your
attention. Our social,
political, and religious worlds are chaotic, confused and
conflicted. They cannot distinguish
between their right and their left.
As with Nineveh, so it is with the West. Even
as Jonah, the prophet of God, was emotionally conflicted, so is our Christian
culture today. The Christian
right and the Christian left, a segregation that must repulse God, is
battling it out in public for all to see.
Those caught in the chaotic centre are confused and conflicted,
not knowing their right from their left. As
with Jonah, so it is with us. The
Lord gave those in Nineveh
one last chance to forsake their evil through a reluctant and conflicted
prophet. Jonah's reluctant
obedience resulted in a grass-roots revival, a revival that sadly lasted
only one generation. Assyria,
including its capital city Our God is the Sovereign ruler over all nations (Daniel 2:21, 4:17, Jeremiah 18:7 - 10, Matthew 28:18). He will eventually bring all nations to their knees in judgment (Revelation 18 and 19). Until that day crashes down on us, nations will rise and nations will fall at the hand of God. Is the fall of the West inevitable, or even imminent? How many godly revivals will we let slip through our Christian fingers before the fate of Assyria becomes the fate of the West? I certainly don't know the answer to those questions, but this I know. Much of western Christianity, like its surrounding culture, is in a state of conflict, not knowing its right from its left.
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