Does God expect you to pray
for the evil ones?

Let’s see what He teaches us from His Word,
and the story of
Jonah and Nineveh

 

In our world today we are surrounded by evil at every turn. In the Fall of 2023, we find ourselves on the brink of WW3 after experiencing a modern day horrific Holocaust type event, on October 7th. Our world is at unrest signaling that we are living in the end-times according to scripture.

Speaking of scripture, what does it say Believers and followers of Jesus are supposed to be doing as we watch prophecy unfold real-time? Answer: we are to be spreading the Gospel, praying for everyone, and looking up and listening for His trumpet to call us up. Wait a minute? We are supposed to be doing what? Praying for everyone and spreading the gospel? What about the evil ones in the world? Surely, God doesn’t expect us to be praying for the perpetrators, the terrorists, and the protestors against God’s Chosen People, are we?!?

Regardless of whether you agree, scripture is very clear… YES!

Here we find ourselves in another one of God’s “sifting” seasons. This is when God does another sweep separating the wheat from the chaff. (Matthew 13:24-30) As we see prophesy unfolding before our very eyes and watching the players take their places for the Psalm 83 war, God is testing His followers.

 

Whose side are you on?

Think before you answer; your choices may not be as clear as you think. Some would say, Hamas or Israel; or Palestinians or Israel; or Islam or Israel; or the Arabs or Israel. The wholehearted followers of Jesus would correctly say, I’m on God’s side.

Followers of Jesus should be in, and remain in, a humbled state of mind and doing what God and His Word says to do. As followers of Jesus, we don’t tell Him what we will do, we are to listen and obey. It doesn’t matter how wicked the wicked are, we still must obey God and not do what our flesh wants to do  – as it wants to seek vengeance on the evil ones. God clearly states in scripture that vengeance is His.

Focus on the winning side, God’s side. It’s important that you choose wisely who you will follow because God is testing us in this moment to see who is really with Him in the heat of the battle.

It’s important to note that we know that it is impossible for anyone to understand the pain of those who are experiencing the atrocities firsthand. Those of us who are watching from afar online are hurting for you, and praying for you, but it is impossible for us to truly understand your pain. For those like me that God has gifted to encourage others, we can cry with you, hurt for you, and pray for you as we attempt to keep you lifted up through this battle. Like Aaron and Hur held Moses arms up during the battle in Exodus so that they could win, there are those of us who are committed to doing that for you through prayer from where we are. (Exodus 17:11-12)

Understandably so, some people are so hurt and angry that they couldn’t imagine praying for the evil ones who have brutally murdered innocent victims on that fateful day in October and are still abusing the hostages taken that day, and continue to kill in this ongoing war for the survival of Israel. So, why in the world would a loving God ask us to pray for the evil ones and the ones who support them? Let’s look to the Word and see what Jesus tells us to do.

Jesus says,

“You have heard the law that says,
‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.
But I say, love your enemies!
Pray for those who persecute you!
In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.
For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good,
and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that?
Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.
If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?
Even pagans do that.
But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48

“Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the LORD.” Romans 12:19

We are to love and pray for our enemies. It’s not a love like we have for our family or children. It’s a God-love that wants all to be saved and not perish in Hell for eternity.

God is testing you here. Choose wisely which side you stand on.

 

Vengeance is mine!

There are so many hurting from the atrocities and losses. It is only natural to want the wicked to suffer for what they have done. Hurting people have every right to want justice.

Do you know who wants vengeance more than you though? God!
Rather than stress out and make yourself sick wanting to retaliate, getting mad at your government for sitting on their hands or talking out of both sides of their mouth, and then thinking there must be something you can do; look to the one who can provide justice. Find hope and peace in choosing to trust God to handle the justice for you.  You can trust that He will save those who will repent, AND, He will punish those evil ones that can’t get enough of their evilness. God can exact judgment on the evil ones much better than you can.

Perhaps you are saying that God doesn’t care, or He doesn’t move fast enough for you. If you are struggling with forgiving the wicked ones and praying for them, allow these scriptures to encourage you. Remember, God’s timing is perfect and He is working a plan behind the scenes that you can’t see. He wants to know if you will trust Him to handle this for you. Cling to these scriptures. Read them everyday to remind you that He’s got this. You can trust Him to take vengeance.

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18

“I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them.” Deuteronomy 32:35

“Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.” Deuteronomy 32:43

“And David said, “As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.” 1 Samuel 26:10

“O LORD, the God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth! Arise, O Judge of the earth. Give the proud what they deserve.
How long, O LORD?
How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?
How long will they speak with arrogance?
How long will these evil people boast?
They crush your people, LORD, hurting those you claim as your own.
They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans.
“The LORD isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.”
Think again, you fools! When will you finally catch on?
Is he deaf—the one who made your ears?
Is he blind—the one who formed your eyes?
He punishes the nations—won’t he also punish you?
He knows everything—doesn’t he also know what you are doing?
The LORD knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!
Joyful are those you discipline, LORD, those you teach with your instructions.
You give them relief from troubled times until a pit is dug to capture the wicked.
The LORD will not reject his people; he will not abandon his special possession.
Judgment will again be founded on justice, and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it.
Who will protect me from the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
Unless the LORD had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave.
I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me.
When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side—leaders whose decrees permit injustice?
They gang up against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
But the LORD is my fortress; my God is the mighty rock where I hide.
God will turn the sins of evil people back on them. He will destroy them for their sins.
The LORD our God will destroy them.” Psalms 94

“Don’t say, “I will get even for this wrong.” Wait for the LORD to handle the matter.” Proverbs 20:22

“The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.” Nahum 1:2

“Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the LORD.” Romans 12:19

“For we know the one who said, “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The LORD will judge his own people.” Hebrews 10:30

 

Still can’t pray for the evil ones?

Let’s break this down.

So it’s still a “hard pill to swallow” wrapping your head around loving and praying for the evil ones? Totally understandable. Let me share a story with you that will hopefully help you. Let’s start with making sure you understand how God feels about the “two greatest commands” first, which are:

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this:

1. ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’

2. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31

Now for further clarification, let’s visit the story of Jonah. If you’ve never read his story, or it’s been a while, check it out. It’s only four chapters but packed with powerful points from God for us to learn from.

Some key takeaways:

• When God calls you to do something, say yes.
• Trust God that He knows best and is working a plan you cannot see
• You can’t hide from God
• Obedience is key
• God is full of mercy and grace
• Sin is sin to God, and all deserve forgiveness
• God is judge, not you
• We cannot possibly understand God’s Master plan; trust Him
• We must exercise faith, and forgiveness

A man named Jonah, from the tribe of Zebulun – one of the sons of Jacob, was called by God on assignment to warn the evil ones of Nineveh of God’s coming wrath if they didn’t turn from their evil ways. These were very evil people much like our modern day evilness that we are familiar with. When God called to Jonah to go warn them, he said, NO, to God! In fact, he even had the nerve to try running and hiding from God refusing to obey. Jonah didn’t want God to spare the evil people. Sound familiar?

Sidebar: While this may sound insane, stop and think about that a minute. Think real hard. Has God ever asked you to do something and you said no? Perhaps you thought it was a crazy idea in your head and ignored it, but it was actually the Holy Spirit speaking to you and you shook it off as crazy. Or perhaps, like Jonah, you ran from God knowing it was Him and you were to scared or to mad to do it. If you aren’t sure, stop and pray; ask God if you have done this. If you have, repent and ask Him for another chance. He says in Matthew 9:35-38, that the harvest is full but the laborers are few. He needs His followers to be vessels to help Him save the lost, gather them in the fold to be prepared for eternity with Him. Think about it, pray about it.

Back to the story; what Jonah didn’t realize in his circumstance is that it’s impossible to hide from God. Our Creator, the one true living God of Heaven and earth, sees all and knows all. There is nowhere you can go to hide from Him, EVER. (Jeremiah 23:24) In his attempt to flee from God, he jumps on a ship and tries to sail far away from God. Kinda funny when you think about it. While he is sleeping on the boat trying to forget about God’s request, God sends a strong and mighty wind and starts rocking the boat. While Jonah is likely dreaming about watching the evil people of Nineveh perish, he has no clue what God’s plan is or what He is doing that Jonah can’t possibly see or know, yet.

Remember, we must pray for our enemies that God’s will be done. He will give them what they deserve one way or another.

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18

This command in scripture applies to ALL God’s followers; the chosen ones, the sojourners and followers, according to scripture.

 

God gives Jonah a second chance

So unbeknownst to Jonah, God sent a mighty wind upon the seas to bring him back. While he is asleep, the rest of the crew are tossing things off the boat and praying to their gods for help and can’t figure out why this crazy storm won’t let up.

You see, God controls the earth and everything in it; He controls the winds, the seas and uses them however he sees fit. No one else has this power over the earth, certainly not some mythical character called Mother Nature. (Isaiah 45:5-7,12) In this storm, God has plans to turn Jonah back to Him. How tragic would it have actually been if God had given up on Jonah and called someone else to the task. Be thankful that God doesn’t give up on you when you wrestle with Him over His requests to you.

The story begins with the call and the immediate response to run away.

“The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish. But the LORD hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.” Jonah 1:1-4

Jonah truly believed he could run from God and that there would be no consequences for his disobedience. He believed that he could get away and God would either call someone else for the task or destroy Nineveh. He was wrong. Thankfully God didn’t give up on Jonah.

God sends a storm and causes chaos on the ship. (Jonah 1:4) The crew is panicked realizing this was not a typical storm and frantically try to figure out how to stop it. When they had prayed to their man-made gods and thrown almost everything off the ship, the Lord drew their attention to Jonah, the passenger. Jonah knew then that it was because of his disobedience to God’s command, and told them if they threw him overboard the storm would stop.  They were frightened to be responsible for his death but he assured them that it would be ok. Fearing that His God would punish them for throwing him overboard, they continued to fight the storm. It didn’t take long to realize that they needed to listen to Jonah. So overboard they threw him and the storm immediately stopped.

 

God sends a whale for Jonah’s lesson

Jonah is about to be humbled by God in the most unique way ever known to man. Question is: will it get his attention?

Jonah runs from God because he doesn’t want to warn the wicked people in Nineveh of the possibility of complete annihilation from God. He believes that if he runs away and doesn’t do what God asks, then surely Nineveh will perish.

Jonah almost dies after being thrown in the sea and being swallowed by a whale. Imagine for a moment what must have gone though his mind when that huge whale popped up in the waves and opened up his mouth to swallow him?  He had no expectations of living through the experience of being in the literal bowels of hell in the whale’s belly.

As he was in the depths of despair certain he was about to die, he cried out and prays to the Lord.

“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish.
He said, “I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me.
I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!
You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea.
The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.
Then I said, ‘O LORD, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’
“I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me.
Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.
I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.
I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O LORD my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!
As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD.
And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple.
Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows.
For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.”
Then the LORD ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.” Jonah 2:1-10

Oftentimes, it’s not until we get to the very bottom of the pit and out of hope, or in the whale’s belly, before we will turn to God for help and hope. It’s at these moments that you are able to focus on Him only because He is your only source of hope. God is waiting for you to cry out to Him. He wants to help you and get you back onto the path of righteousness. Once you are there, walk with Him and follow His lead to stay on the path. If you get distracted, trip, and make a mistake, repent and get back up and cling to His hand. He forgives you and sets you upright again to follow Him. When we cling to Him and stay focused on His path, we don’t have to worry about ever being in that nasty pit of despair ever again, because our hope is in Him.

 

The God of Second Chances

God tells Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh and warn them to turn from their wicked ways; Jonah obeys.

He is successful in his assignment and the king and all of Nineveh repented and turned from their wicked ways so God did not destroy them at that time. It was truly a miracle that they heeded the warning and repented.

All the people turned back to God, repented, and He spared them.

What you would not expect to see happen here? Rather than rejoice that they repented and were forgiven: Jonah gets mad that they didn’t perish for their evilness and told God he wanted to die! Now, remember that only a few verses above, Jonah repented and asked God for forgiveness and God forgave him. Now, Jonah is upset that God is giving the very same grace and mercy to the Ninevites giving them a second chance too.

It’s quite possible that Jonah expected to experience their evilness during his warning. When he didn’t experience it, but realized later that they listened and repented, he was furious. He wanted them to die and be judged for their sins. Jonah didn’t believe they deserved to be redeemed. He literally went outside the town and set up a tent of sorts and awaited the soon coming wrath on the town. He was shockingly and angrily surprised that it didn’t happen.

In their humble repentance, God’s wrath turned from them and Jonah wants to die because they didn’t.

 

God always knows best!

This story begins with Jonah running from God, and the story ends with Jonah wrestling with God over His decision to spare the wicked people and forgive their sins.

God in His tenderness shows undeserving grace and mercy towards Jonah and towards the town of Nineveh. Here, God discusses with Jonah that he has no right to be mad. In fact, he should be rejoicing with the angels that more sheep had come into the fold.

“The LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?” Jonah 4:4

God is trying to teach us to trust Him. We didn’t create this world so we can’t possibly know the big picture of what was, what is, and what is to come. We must trust our Creator, YHWH God. If He says to forgive, we must forgive. If He says to let Him handle it and He will render judgement on those who don’t repent, then we must trust Him. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), we don’t get to compare who is a worse sinner and who deserves God’s forgiveness.

Here, God has to humble Jonah yet again, even after saving him from death in the whale. We should be grateful that God doesn’t give up on us.

While Jonah was camped outside waiting to see God destroy the town, God blessed Jonah with a shade plant to keep him protected from the sun. God knew all along what Jonah was thinking and waiting to see. Then, God kills the shade plant and Jonah is suddenly baking in the heat and beaming sun with no shade and is angry with God for not keeping him shaded. God puts things in perspective for Jonah.

“Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” Jonah 4:10-11

 

In summary

I pray that God has used this blog to help you see that we must trust God in all things.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Proverbs 3:5-6

You will find that when you trust Him with all things, and release your anger to Him, and allow Him to direct your path and His plan, that you find perfect peace. A peace that surpasses understanding.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

Once you learn to trust Him, He will give you the peace you need to be able to pray for all people, even the evil ones.

 

Can God forgive me after all I’ve done?

 

YES!!!

YES! YES! A thousand times YES!
If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, or you want to rededicate your life to Him wholeheartedly, follow these steps. In doing so, you will live in peace during the chaos while you await Jesus’ soon calling up of His followers.

_____________________________

Don’t complicate the process for salvation. Keep it simple.

Do the ABC’s and repent today.

• A: Admit that you are a sinner. (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 64:6, Ephesians 2:8-9)

• B: Believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God and that He died for your sins and rose from the dead for you. (John 3:16-18, 1Corinthians 15:1-4)

• C: Call on Jesus and repent of your sins and turn back to Him and ask Jesus to show you the way. (Romans 10:9-13, John 14:6)

 

May God bless you and keep you.

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