Ask Pastor Mike Live

Focal Point Ministries: Mr. 123 says, "I have a question about the story of Jonah. Why was he mad at the end of the story when God spared all the inhabitants of Nineveh? Wouldn't he be happy that it happened, that he spared them?"

Well, here is the problem: these were the people, the Assyrians, that were the arch-enemies of the ten tribes of the North. I just talked about Amos being one of the two prophets that went to the Northern tribes. It would be like you having a motorcycle gang come in and destroy your brother's neighborhood that lived not far from where you lived. They torched it, they broke all the windows, and they pillaged their neighborhood. You were sent to them to share the Gospel. You shared the Gospel with them all, and you stood back to see what was going to happen. There was a big revival among the motorcycle gang, and you weren't happy about it because you were hoping they would all be torched.

That was the problem. We have this sense—let's use what has just happened in the news here. This shooter, Charlie Kirk, gets slaughtered in living color on our screens. We think about the fact that this guy—we hear the Utah governor say we have capital punishment. We look at the Noahic covenant in Genesis 9, and we see throughout the scripture all the way through Romans 13 that there is a just recompense for that. We think, "Wow, that is what should happen. He should be executed." The state of Utah says they have a firing squad for people that are convicted in the court of law for capital murder with malice aforethought.

If you think even about your theology, you think, "Well, I hope he doesn't repent because I certainly don't want his punishment placed on Christ and have him completely forgiven. I want him to suffer for this." Especially if you are his wife or if Charlie Kirk is your brother. Let's just say you are sent there to go to the prison, and maybe you are coming like Jonah. Jonah really wasn't called to go share the Gospel. Jonah was called to say you are going to be punished by God. That was what the message of Jonah was, and yet because of that warning, they did repent.

Let's just say you were sent by God to go to the prison in Utah and say, "God's going to punish you. You're going to be executed, and you're going to be cast in the lake of fire." You told this young man that, and this young man sits and thinks about that, and then the next day you hear that he repented and put his trust in Christ. If you had a great magnanimous heart, you might say, "Praise the Lord." But that was hard in his flesh to do. That is why he wasn't happy about it. It struck too close to home for him.

All right, Chris, the Bible says that Israel will be protected. Does that refer to the people or the country or both? There are some statements about the generation; "genos" is the Greek word which will be protected, will survive. It will not pass away, as how it is put in scripture. I do believe that deals with the nation. The generation by that doesn't mean the forty years, one generation. That means they are going to survive.

If you think about it, how often—and I think it is all because of the promise of scripture—that they would be the object of Satan's targeted scorn and hatred. Satan is a murderer and he wants to steal, kill, and destroy. They would be the target of annihilation many times over throughout history, and they have been, and yet they have survived. That "genos," that gene pool, has survived. I do think that has been the promise of the Lord that they would be protected. Israel as a descendancy, as a genetic family from Abraham, will be protected.

The country is separate, I suppose. The dirt, the soil, from the river to the sea—if you want to use what the liberals are saying about Palestine, which is not a thing. But if you want to think about Israel, Judea, and Samaria, God said that piece of real estate is also going to survive, which of course it does. Israel is going to one day occupy it. That is what so much of the Old Testament is about, and even the New Testament talking about one day when the descendancy of Abraham, the gene pool of Abraham, will inhabit the land. Much of the New Testament is just reflecting the promise and faithfulness of God, saying the promises, the covenant, the promises of God, they are irreversible. So, yes, it refers to both.