Chapter Outline
(1) - The Lord gives the second commission to Jonah to go to Nineveh and proclaim the Word of God to the people there (Jonah 3:3).In chapter three we will see the second commission the Lord gave to Jonah and the response to it.(2) - Jonah's obedience to the Word of the Lord becomes a reality (Jonah 3:3).
(3) - Jonah's message of doom is given to the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3:4).
(4) - The common people were the first to accept the message of the Lord through Jonah, and they repented (they changed their minds) (Jonah 3:5).
(5) - The king of Nineveh also accepted the message of the Lord through Jonah and repented (he changed his mind) (Jonah 3:6).
(6) - The king gave a proclamation to all the citizens of Nineveh to fast and pray, to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and to turn away from their current evil lifestyle in order to turn the Lord's anger and judgment away from them (Jonah 3:7-9).
(7) - Because of the positive response of the people of Nineveh God withheld His judgment of destruction. In fact, because this generation of Ninevites accepted the message of the Lord, Nineveh remained a prosperous and flourshing city for another 150 years.
In chapters three and four all appearances of Jonah's humility which we saw in chapter two have completely disappeared. Jonah's arrogance and bigotry appear to be worse than ever.Vs - 1 - And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, This is almost the same wording that is found in Jonah 1:1, except it says, "the second time." Also, in Jonah 1:1 it gives the name of Jonah's father.
Vs 2 - Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching I bid thee.
Arise, go unto Nineveh, that grreat city - This is the same wording found in Jonah 1:2.
And preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee - This phrase is a little different in the Hebrew. It literally says, "And proclaim to them the proclamation I give to you."
After all that Jonah had gone through in the first two chapters of this book, he finally does what he is told. I might add, he did not do it joyfully and he did not do it with the proper attitude as we will see as we proceed with the story. But at least Jonah went to Nineveh. Therefore, he was in the geogrpahical location where God wanted him. He was what we say, "In the geographical will of God." But he was not in the "spiritual will" of God as a believer and as a prophet of the God of Israel.
Vs 3 - So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. This means that it took three days to walk from one end of the city to the other.
The main deity of Nineveh at this time was Dagon, known as the fish-god. Dagon was represented by a stature constructed as half-fish and half-man. Everywhere Jonah would go in Nineveh he would be standing under or close to one of these half-fish and half-man statures of Dagon. After his experience with the "great fish," I wonder what Jonah thought of when he saw the statues of Dagon. Well, we can only imagine, because the Scripture does not tell us how that affected Jonah. But I would image it greatly influenced the passion of his message.
Vs 4 - And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
This tells us that even before he completed his first day's journey through the city many of the inhabitants of Nineveh began to accept the message of the Lord and to repent.Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown - The number forty is the number of probation, testing and/or judgment. Israel wandered in the desert forty years. Moses was on the mountain forty days. Jesus was tempted and tested by the devil in the desert forty days.We are not given the content of Jonah's message. Only one phrase is revealed from his dynamic message. I've often wondered if Jonah made any reference to his experience in the belly of the fish in any of his messages. He could have said, "Why, I was swallowed by a 'fish-god,' and died because I disobeyed the God of heaven, the Lord Jehovah and at that time the Lord Jehovah spoke to me concerning you. Just as I was swallowed by a fish and died, your fish-god will destroy you! Because you have turned your backs on the only true God and Savior, He is the One who is going to destroy this city. Your wickedness has come up to Him. Therefore, if you do not repent (change your minds) and believe in the Lord Jehovah (Jesus Christ), if you do not trust in Him, this city will be 'swallowed up' in destruction." But all that is only a possibility of what was included in the one phrase, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
Jonah predicted the overthrow and destruction of the city of Nineveh, but it was "conditioned" upon their acceptance or rejection of the message of the Lord through Jonah within the space of forty days.Vs 5 - So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Verse five simply gives a brief summary of these events, then beginning in verse six and going to the end of the chapter, the writer goes back and gives more details of these events. This is a typical Hebrew style of writing.There is a great principle here: grace always precedes judgment. God would give them forty days.
If God really wanted to destroy them and was not interested in saving Nineveh and its inhabitants, all He would have had to do was to say the word and they would have been history. But what did He do? he sent them a prophet who had a unique testimony. A prophet who had been swallowed by a great fish, taken to the depths of the sea, died, and was brought back to life with the great fish vomiting him out on dry land. His testimony deals with the fact that the God of Israel, the Lord Jehovah (Jesus Christ) not only delivered him from the sea, and from death, but actually had absolute control over the fish that had swallowed him. Of course, to the people of Nineveh, who worshiped Dagon, the fish-god, this story was not only amazing and unique, but it hit home. If the Lord Jehovah in His matchless grace could deliver Jonah from death, He could also deliver the people of Nineveh from their bondage to sin, as well as from their idolatrous slavery to Dagon.
The people of Nineveh believed God - This refers to a great number of its citizens. Everyone in the city of Nineveh did not accept the message of the Lord, but a lot of them did.
Proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth - This was a common practice in the ancient world for mourning or for repenting.
From the greatest of them to the least of them - This means from the king in the palace to the beggar in the street. The message of the Lord through the mouth of Jonah penetrated the hearts and attitudes of all who heard it. The rich and the poor, the rulers and the ruled, the men and the women, the young and the old, the slaves and the free. The salvation message of the Lord has always been for all people everywhere regardless of race or culture, social standing or gender. It has also always been by faith.
Vs 6 - For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
For word came unto the king of Nineveh - The leader of all the Ninevites also received the word of the Lord through the message of Jonah. There is no indication that Jonah preached to the king directly, but the king received it indirectly from those under him.
He arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes - This is emphasizing the true humility of the king of Nineveh. He responded to the message of the Lord in true humility and honesty.
This is a sign of great leadership and a great concern for the people he ruled over. The spiritual condition of the leader can many times make or break a nation. But this king set a very good example to his subjects by subjecting himself to the God of all creation. "God makes war against the arrogant, but He gives grace to the humble." (Proverbs 3;34 & I Peter 5:5).Vs 7 - And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water.
Vs 8 - But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
Because the king believed Jonah's message, he did everything he could to cause everyone in the city to see the seriousness of the situation. He issued a proclamation which required everyone in Nineveh to fast and to abstain from drinking water. Both people and animals were to be covered with sackcloth and the people were to call upon God and to abstain from their evil and violence.Vs 9 - Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?It appears that the people of Nineveh did not need to be told what their wicked ways were, otherwise Jonah would have been more than happy to fill in the details of their sins. But it seems that everyone was aware of the sinful things they were involved in. The issue then was not that of "information," but that of "motivation." The news of God's impending judgment and destruction was all the motivation necessary to get the attention of the people and the leaders of Nineveh.
In many cases when people are told of impending judgment, they would "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." But here in the case of Nineveh, they hoped that their change of attitude and change of lifestyle would change God's mind.Vs 10 - And saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.Those of us who have been studying the Bible for years know and understand that God does not change His mind. When the Bible talks about God changing His mind or repenting, it is called an "anthropopathism." This is ascribing to God an attitude He does not possess in order for human beings to understand a certain point of doctrine. In other words, if God were a man He would change His mind about destroying the city of Nineveh because of their change of mind and their change of lifestyle.
Because of God's omniscience and His foreknowledge, He knew billions of years ago that Nineveh would accept His message if they heard it. He also knew that at the same time in human history His prophet would be Jonah, a man who hated the Assyrians and was a very narrow-minded bigoted religious zealot. And because God knew all of this and much more, His plan was to accomplish much through a stubborn self-centered prophet named Jonah. He would not only have His message proclaimed in one of the greatest cities in the ancient world, but He would also save a group of sailors who would return home and share with others their miraculous experience and possibly even lead many others to a salvation knowledge of the God of Israel. Therefore, we need to at least consider the Doctrine of Divine Decrees as we pass over this verse in Jonah 3:9.
It is very important to note here that verse ten does not tell us that God took into account the prayers of the Ninevites, or even that He took into account their sackcloth and ashes. But it does say that He took into account their deeds and their lifestyles, that "they had turned from their wicked ways."The point is this: God is not interested in any of man's religious genuflexing, or man's observance of so-called religious holy days and religious rituals, or any of man's emotional appeals for God's mercy. God is only interested in man's change of attitude and his repentance, changing his mind from relying upon himself or religion to relying upon God and trusting in Him completely through faith.
The repentance of the people of Nineveh is fantastic and at the same time puzzling. What would cause such a large, prosperous and important Gentile city to accept God's plan of salvation so quickly and so thoroughly?
Some have suggested that possibly the sailors who threw Jonah overboard were from Nineveh and their return to Nineveh had preceded Jonah's coming and preaching. If that were true, just the appearance of Jonah would have been nothing short of a miracle. But whatever the background may be to the universal and speedy repentance of the Ninevites, only God knows. And this is the way it will stay until God sees fit to reveal it to us in the eternal future.
Jesus sheds some light on this incident in Matthew 12:38-41, "Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, 'Master, we would see a sign from thee.' But he answered and said unto them, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.'"
The request of the Jewish religious leaders to see a sign caused Jesus to go to the book of Jonah. In His answer to the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus said that the final sign would be similar to that of the prophet Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, He (Jesus) would be in the belly of the earth for the same period of time. In other words, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a "sign" to Israel. One final sign. The "sign of the prophet Jonah" which represents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the irrefutable proof that He (Jesus) is the Messiah to Israel.
Jesus was also telling these religious leaders of His day that the Ninevites immediately repented at the preaching of Jonah, even though there was far less evidence than that which the Jews had witnessed at the time of Jesus. And compared to Jesus, Jonah was not nearly as important.
The principle here is very simple, yet very profound. The Ninevites believed in the Lord in spite of very little evidence. Hearts that are positive and are open to the truth will be quick to recognize it and respond to it and embrace it. While hearts that are negative and are inclined to question the truth (as was the case of Jonah and the Jewish religious leaders in Jesus' day) will not get the message, regardless of how clear it may be and regardless of who proclaims it.
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