Jonah 3
January 2
Reading: Jonah 3
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you."
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' journey. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey.
And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Not only does God save Jonah from judgment and death, but, in verses 1-2, God gives Jonah his job back. The language mirrors Jonah 1:1-2. The Lord renews Jonah’s prophetic call. This, again, is the mercy of God.
This time Jonah obeys and goes to Nineveh. In verse 4 we have the message that Jonah preached. It is a message of terrifying judgment. I think of this as the gospel according to Jonah, and it is a little one-sided. Jonah’s message is all wrath and no mercy, on purpose, as we shall see later. Even so, we learn in Jonah 3 that even when the message from the Lord is all wrath, mercy is implied because of who God is. Whenever God warns people of judgment, we always know that if they repent and turn to God in faith there will be mercy from the Lord. Jonah knew this in chapter 2.
The people of Nineveh did not know this about God, but they repented anyway. They called a fast and mourned for their sinfulness. Even the king joined them. His proclamation is sincere and over the top. These Ninevites even made their animals repent. You might say that they over-repented. They didn’t know what the Lord required so they did all that they could, believing Jonah’s word from God. in fact, the king admits that they didn’t know what God would do. (vs. 9)
He didn’t know, but we know. Exodus 34:6-7 says that the Lord is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.” We know that the Lord wants to forgive people. He would eventually send His own Son to die so that He could forgive people. Verse 10 tells us that when they repented, God relented of the disaster He had planned. This is who God is.