Jonah 3
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Main Idea: Sometimes, even our flawed efforts can bring unexpected success when we trust God and boldly proclaim his truth
Introduction
Introduction
Resets are great.
Maybe you’re having phone issues and you turn it off, turn it back on, and try again.
Maybe it’s you! You’re having issues, go take a nap, and come back to try again!
Sometimes we, or our devices, need a reset. We stop and then begin again.
We set aside the difficulties to then take a renewed look at what’s going on.
This is Jonah’s reset moment. He blew the first go, but now, he’s getting it all together and God is giving him another shot. Now, when God told him to arise, he actually did!
Jonah 3:1-4 Jonah begins preaching
Jonah 3:1-4 Jonah begins preaching
Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying,
“Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you.”
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.
Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Chapter 3 opens with a line very reminiscent of chapter 1.
“Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.”
However, a few differences are evident. First, we have “the second time” giving Jonah a fresh start and another shot, but not without reminding us of Jonah’s previous failure. This time, God also adds a very telling note. He commands Jonah to speak the “very call which I am going to speak to you.” While Jonah was finally going, God was clear that he only speak what God wanted him to say.
Why do you think that phrase about what Jonah needed to say was added?
It reminds me of Balaam in Numbers 22:20
And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.”
So, treating his own prophet much like how he treated Balaam, God brings him to the place, but keeps him on a tight leash. Nevertheless, Jonah finally does what God told him to do. He hikes over and preaches.
Except, his message isn’t one of mercy. We may even be puzzled why he shirked from preaching this in the first place. Nineveh was slated to fall, to be destroyed, to be overthrown in a little over a month. Why would Jonah not want to preach it? We may ask.
Either way, the Bible doesn’t give us much about his preaching. In Hebrew, his message is a scant 5 words long.
It’s short, not so sweet, and certainly...something.
What are your thoughts about Jonah’s message in Verse 4?
Jonah preaches, but it’s easy to miss something very special about his message. Something really, really big that the citizens of Nineveh did, in fact, catch.
This “overthrow” wording primarily referred to a complete destruction. It was used three times in the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Gen 19:21, 25, 29). It’s there to vividly show the complete and total devastation of sinful cities.
What was the plan for Nineveh? Fire from the sky, earthquake, massive flood? Who knows! ut with this word, anything is on the table.
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Everything that they were would be transformed, but it may be in the best way possible.
Why? They actually repented! Check it out!
Jonah 3:5-9 Nineveh repents and turns to Yahweh
Jonah 3:5-9 Nineveh repents and turns to Yahweh
And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes.
And he cried out and said,
“In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water.
“But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God with their strength that each may turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.
“Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
Why do you think they repented?
This is incredible! It brings to mind images of the Great Awakenings, or Peter’s sermon on Pentecost!
But what’s the significance of fasting and that sackcloth thing? And why did the animals get included?
What are some modern practices we may have today that are similar to show grief and repentance? If we don’t have any equivalent practices today, why not?
It begins with the people, they fast, they put on grieving clothes, and the news finally reaches the king. He, however, joins right in! From the greatest to the least, the people turn to God! They believe the message!
I also like the detail that the king arises from his throne. So far, God has called Jonah to obey and arise to go obey him, and Jonah’s disobedience has been haunted by going down. The king’s actions echo that theme of rising to obedience, or decending to disobedience. What a great picture!
All this is incredible, but becomes even more so when we remember a key detail.
NIV Bible Speaks Today: Notes Chapters 3–4
The wholehearted response of the king is all the more remarkable since there were no guarantees of God’s response
Jonah’s message contained no message of restoration, no sliver of hope, and no promise of mercy.
It was a sermon of certain doom.
Yet, these rulers still tossed themselves onto God’s mercy, the God that had just promised to overthrow them.
They figured if they “turn from their wicked way” that perhaps “God will turn from his anger”
Notice that similarity of wording.
Why do you think they repented, if Jonah never mentioned that as an option?
But that’s not the only significance this wording holds.
It would remind readers of another time God’s judgment was turned away.
After all, God is a god of mercy, and one who is quick to forgive.
When Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments whie Israel was worshipping the golden calf, God turned in judgment on his people. Moses interceeded, that time a prophet who rose to the occastion, and these verses come up:
OT use of OT quote!
Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Just in case the Isrealites reading this didn’t think the Ninevites worthy of God’s forgiveness, the author used wording reminding them of their own sin and their own need of forgiveness.
But unlike Israel, these Ninevites were not promised forgiveness. Like Rahab in Jericho, they tossed themselves on the mercy of a God who had promised to wipe them out.
What do you think that communicated to the people reading this book and to us today?
The Message of Jonah: Presence in the Storm Why Was Jonah Sent to Nineveh?
Maybe Nineveh’s response to the word of Yahweh would be the eye-opener God wanted for his own people. They might then begin to see that even that great city repented, while they themselves remained deaf to God’s word and stubbornly unrepentant. While she need no longer fear Nineveh, for even that great city was subject to Yahweh, Israel did indeed need to fear the great King, Yahweh, before whom even the great king of Nineveh prostrated himself in sackcloth and ashes.
In fact, this repentance became legendary! Jesus even mentions it in Matthew 12:41
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
What did Jesus mean by that?
CHRYSOSTOM - What account then shall we give, when these, who had no good hopes held out to them as to the issue, gave evidence of such a change themselves, and yet you do not strive to attain the same measure of virtue as they?
What happened next? Did their repentance make a difference?
What happened in other biblical accounts when people repented?
The cool thing is, theymayhave pckednp onsome sliver of hope before.
But, that’s not all “overthrow” can show.
It’s also used for the transformation of Moses’ rod into the snake, and in Psalm 41:3 it speaks of God restoring one to health.
It’s not just destruction, but also a positive transformation. It’s possible to be overthrown in a good way!
NIV Bible Speaks Today: Notes Chapters 3–4
Secondly, ‘overthrown’ equally means a turning upside down, a reversal or a turning of the of heart (cf. the use of the same Hebrew word in Dt 23:5; 1 Sa 10:6; Ps 105:25). Jonah’s message could therefore be understood to mean, ‘In forty days Nineveh will have a change of heart.’ God’s message to Nineveh therefore contains hope (they will be changed) as well as judgment (they will be destroyed) and the decisive factor will be the matter of repentance.
Huh...Did you catch that? Perhaps it was too long.
A different commentator put it this way:
The Message of Jonah: Presence in the Storm Jonah’s Proclamation
As the Jewish expositor Rashi comments, ‘The word “overthrown” has two senses, good and bad. If they do not repent they will be “destroyed”. But if they repent they shall indeed be “overthrown”, for they will have changed from evil to good.
So..in some sense, Nineveh was overthrown, they would be totally overthrown. Just, there was the possibility that it wouldn’t be in the way Jonah was hoping
Jonah 3:10 God turns from his destructive plan and gives them mercy.
Jonah 3:10 God turns from his destructive plan and gives them mercy.
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them.
Why did God spare this wicked city?
What does the repentance of Nineveh teach us about the nature of God's mercy?
But, why did God spare Nineveh? The answer comes from the preaching of another prophet.
If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
While God hadn’t yet given that message to Jeremiah, since Jeremiah wasn’t even born yet, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Repentance will bring salvation, but prideful rebellion will bring destruction.
When God threatened punishment He provided a dark backdrop on which to etch most vividly His forgiving mercies. This emphasized His grace most forcefully to the sinners’ hearts. God’s readiness to have compassion on a wicked but repentant people and to withhold threatened destruction showed Israel that her coming judgment at God’s hand was not because of His unwillingness to forgive but because of her impenitence.
In a sense, then, salvation in the face of calling out to God is a major theme of the book.
Salvation for the sailors is emphasized in chap. 1, for Jonah in chap. 2, for the Ninevites in chap. 3; and it is the objective of God’s questioning of Jonah in chap. 4. Jonah recognized that he deserved death, not deliverance. He then knew, as we do, that no one deserves deliverance. It is an act of mercy by a gracious God. - New American Commentary
For Israel, this was only about 150 years before the northern kingdom would be ended at the hand of the Assyrians, the very people that inhabited Nineveh. They fell, not because God was unmerciful, but because they were unrepentant. God’s own people would, of course, have the chance to repent! God sent them prophet after prophet, but their refusal to listen was their doom.
I wonder, then, in our shaking of our heads against Israel, we also commit the same sin.
How many preaching times, teaching times, reading of God’s Word times do we need to consider repentance? It’s not for lack of knowledge!
When God threatened punishment He provided a dark backdrop on which to etch most vividly His forgiving mercies. This emphasized His grace most forcefully to the sinners’ hearts. God’s readiness to have compassion on a wicked but repentant people and to withhold threatened destruction showed Israel that her coming judgment at God’s hand was not because of His unwillingness to forgive but because of her impenitence.
What are some ways our lives can be overthrown in good ways?
Like Jonah, our turning back to God can often open the door for others to follow. How can you help lead others to repentance?
I think this a very encouraging passage, God can use people to do incredible things, even if they are flawed and rebellous. That reminds me a lot of me. Even when I fail and faulter and sink into sin, God is good enough to sill love me, still use me, and still point others to him through me.
How have you seen God use you, even when you’ve failed him?
The Ninevites repented, even when they didn’t have a promise of forgiveness. How did Jesus change that for us today?
