Jonah 3

Repentance of Nineveh

We left off last week with Jonah showing us his only shred of righteousness in the belly of the fish with his prayer where he finally submits to the will of God seeing as how God is perfect and unstoppable and in total control of all things anyhow. Jonah was then vomited back up onto the beach and then we pick back up in chapter three.

Jonah 3:1–2 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.””

We see here a second call from God to go and to preach to the people of Nineveh. After all that has happened God still gives Jonah the same task. There is no added punishments or new problems that he has to face, no God simply gives him another chance to do what is right. God is a God of second chances. He knows that we are flawed and that we will make countless mistakes yet He will always be there for those who have trusted in Him to offer that second chance. Each time we fail God all He tells us is to try again. He does not dwell on our past mistakes but instead looks forward to our future success in Him.

Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

God is not calling us to live a life of shame and regret for all of the many times we made the wrong choice or ran from His will. God is calling us to start fresh every day. He has seperated us from our failures as far as the east from the west which means they are totally gone and can never touch us again just as the east could never touch the west. This means that for us as believers we are called to start each day fresh not dwelling on our mistakes of yesterday but thinking of how can we be better today than we were yesterday. How can I today look at those same commandments from God that I failed in and today find success?

Lets look at Jonah’s response to this mercy that God has shown to him.

Jonah 3:4 “And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!””

Look at Jonah’s message there at the end of the verse. It is hardly even a full sentence. He does not tell them who God is, what they have done wrong, or what they should do to fix it, all he says is that Nineveh will be overthrown. This is not the message of repentance that God intended for Jonah to preach to the people. There is no possibility in this message for God to spare them Jonah is certain of their demise. He is certain that they are so wicked that they would never turn from their evil ways and turn to the Lord so Jonah does the absolute bare minimum to say that he has done what God has asked him to do expecting them to hear this message and think nothing of it and then be destroyed by God. That being said lets look at the people of Nineveh’s reaction to this lazy and malicious message that Jonah presents.

Jonah 3:5–10 “So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”

Through this simple and lazy message that Jonah preaches to the city we actually see the capital of one of the most evil empires to ever exist repent of their sins in a great way and in mass turn to the Lord to ask for His forgiveness. How? How could something so great come from something so pathetic? The key to understanding this is in the opening verse here the people believed God. It does not say that they believed Jonah. It is not men who preach to the hearts of sinners but it is God who speaks through the men. It is God who turns the sinners heart into a heart of flesh and enables them to believe. That being so means that even when the speaker is actively working against God and actively making it difficult for people to hear the message if God so chooses to save an entire city through that message then He will do so. We will not get in the way of the plan the Lord has for the salvation of His people. Nothing can stop Him from accomplishing His goal. Why is that important for us? We may think well we aren’t actively trying to work against God, but have you ever thought about sharing Christ with someone or talking about God in general with someone and just felt like you can’t do that? Felt like you aren’t the right person for that conversation or maybe you just don’t have enough knowledge for that kind of thing. Maybe you felt like you would just get in the way and do more harm than good. God will use those who are willing to be used and even those who aren’t willing to be used when He so chooses. The point is that it is not so much the words that we say or the way that we present it that matters. It is all according to the timing of the Lord. You will not accidentally send someone to Hell because you did not properly explain the gospel to someone. If God can use a pathetic and lazy message like Jonah’s to save an entire city then what can He do with you when you give it your best shot. Those who God is drawing into Him will be drawn in whether your message is perfect or not so do not stress about the details. The souls of others are not in your hands they are in the hands of the Lord and it is just up to us to put the good news out there so that God can call His people home.

Now that being said let me talk for just a minute to those in the room who are not believers. I do not know everyones testimony and I cannot attest to how many in this room are believers but I know there is surely at least one poor lost soul sitting here tonight listening to this sermon. How many times has God spoken to you and you ignored it? How many times has God reached out and softened that heart of stone of yours and you ignored His call. You have sat underneath countless messages I am sure greater than the one the Ninevites recieved and upon hearing that message they were so burdened with guilt they fasted for days begging for forgiveness yet you have yet to bat an eye at the Lord’s call to your heart. I urge you that if you are in this room tonight and the Lord is calling to you then answer the call. If He is saying to you that it is time for you to turn from your wicked life in the past and be changed by Him then please before you leave this building tonight come and talk to me about how you can be brought into the family of God and experience the joy and peace that His perfect plan offers to you.

Now then, let’s see how the rest of Jonah’s story plays out.

Jonah 4:1–4 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?””

This is Jonah’s most unrighteous moment yet. Upon seeing the repentance of Nineveh Jonah mourns and groans and is filled with sorrow enough so that he again wants to die all because God will not destroy the people of Nineveh. Through Jonah’s complaints though we actually get some very solid theology on who God is and the type of God that He truly is. He is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. These are the things that we all ought to thank God for on a daily bases because of our constant failures and great seperation from all that is perfect in the world. Yet here Jonah mourns that God is so good, why? Why is Jonah so upset that God is so incredible? Jonah looks at the Ninevites and sees only their sin. He does not see them as equal creations of God to him but only as evil and wicked sinners who deserve all punishment that they recieve and in a way Jonah is right. The problem with Jonah’s logic is he should also recieve that same punishment that they get because he is a wicked and evil sinner as well. We all are sinners and deserve that wrath and judgement from God but because He is so good He is sparing those of us who He calls into His grace from that punishment. We like to look at the sinners around us who do not know Christ and judge them and feel as though we are better than them and that they deserve that eternity in Hell apart from God and while we are right they do deserve it, we should always remember that we deserve it too. That is what is so great about the Gospel that even though we deserved eternal punishment Christ came and died to offer us eternal life in Him and this offer is extended to the world.

To save time I will sum up the rest of chapter four where God tries one last time to teach Jonah this valuable lesson. Jonah goes to sulk and pout on a hill outside of the city. This is in the desert heat so God appoints for a tree to sprout up and give Jonah some shade for a time. Then God appoints for a worm to come and eat away at the roots so that the scorching desert heat kills the tree. Once the tree is dead Jonah mourns and weeps for the tree and God leaves him with one final lesson saying if he mourns for the loss of a tree how much more should God mourn and feel for the thousands of souls that live in the city of Nineveh. The point being that we need to understand that God wills to save who He wills to save and it is not for us to decide who deserves His salvation and who does not. It is only up to God to be the judge over the universe and it is up to us as His servants to obediently go and tell the good news of the Gospel to all who will listen knowing that God will use our message to bring His people home to be apart of the family of God.