Jonah, Part 2

1) God affirms his faithfulness to the called (vs. 1-3)

Upon his second chance to follow the mission of God, Jonah is called once again to go back to Nineveh and preach against their wickedness. God’s grace and mercy is on full display in the life of Jonah as Baldwin writes, “God will not be frustrated with the effrontery of a prophet, nor has he allowed the prophet to wander indefinitely off course.”[1] God has used the ship, the storm, and the sea creature to get Jonah back on course. This is reminiscent of the words that Joseph said to his brothers in , “What you meant for evil, God meant for good.”

Keep in mind. Jonah’s second chance is not arbitrary, but God’s response to Jonah’s repentance. In chapter 2, from the belly of the fish, Jonah repents of his disobedient and God forgives him. If we are saved, why ask? 1) You are declared right () As a declarative act of God and not a process by which we are infused with righteousness, justification takes place in the believer once for all time 2) God commands us to confess () Confession for Christians is an ongoing process. 3) God promises to forgive () For Jonah, his faith in God declared him right, even when he disobeyed, but his repentance restored his relationship with God and renewed his calling. You cannot fulfill the calling the Lord has on your life if you are disobedient.

Interestingly enough, the second calling of Jonah comes with the promissory words, “that I tell you.” I’m sure this is the same promise God made in verse 2, but not the promise Jonah heard. This time, Jonah acknowledges that God is going to give him the words to speak. He will speak the words of God to the sinners. If they have a problem, they will have a problem with God. (). , Moses was called, did not feel adequate, but God promised to be with him. God wants you to be successful in his calling on your life. Sometimes successful is great reward, sometimes successfulness if faithfulness with no positive outcome. Jerimiah was called to preach repentance to the southern kingdom of Judah and he knew they would reject, which they did, but he was obedient.

Jonah’s mission wasn’t to be successful. He couldn’t make the people repent of repent on their behalf. He could only stand on the word of God and the promises of God. Ultimately, Jonah’s call was to be obedient to God and let God figure out the outcome. Thus, when Jonah sought forgiveness, God gave it to him and placed him back in right standing.

Illustration

Famous Second Chance.

Application

2) God affirms his calling in forgiveness (vs. 3-4)

In verses 3-4 Jonah continues the mission that God originally gave him. That is, preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. There is probably no one more qualified at this point to preach repentance and forgiveness than Jonah. He is the poster child for what this can look like. Place yourself in the shoes of the Ninevites. Here is a man who ran from God, was almost lost at sea, eaten by a fish, and lives to tell about it. He is a breathing example of what God wants the Ninevites to do. He is also an example of God using someone to accomplish his task that society might say is unusable. His past is too bad for God to use him. Do you know what he once did?

You see, when Jonah gets right with the Lord, the Lord continues his mission. When we are called to follow God, we are called to leave everything behind for his calling. That also means sin and disobedience. For Jonah to fulfill his call he had to have God get rid of the sins of fear and pride that were keeping him from his calling. Until then, he had no mission.

The content of Jonah’s preaching is seen in verse 4. If “they do not repent, they will be overthrown” or destroyed. This is the lesson Jonah had to learn in the belly of the fish. This is the same type of language used the describe Sodom and Gomorrah. The number 40 is significant in scripture and the Ninevites would have known that. Moses went up to the mountain to meet with God for 40 days, the Israelites wandered for 40 years, and more modern Jesus was tempted by Satan for 40 days. I’m not sure why 40 is significant, but when we see it in the bible we should perk up.

Jonah was sent to preach repentance just like Jesus. Consider . Jesus parallels himself with Jonah here to show the Pharisees their wickedness. The Ninevites got a sermon and the Pharisees get the son of God. The Pharisees observe Jesus healing, like the demon-possessed man, but they still want a sign. Jesus tells them that they’ve had more signs than the Ninevites and they need to learn from their lesson. They need to repent. Waiting on a sign to repent is liking waiting for a heart attach to start taking care of yourself. All of the forewarning they needed was right in front of them.

Jonah was comprehensive in his preaching of repentance. Now, the Scripture says that Nineveh was great city, a 3-day’s journey. There are a couple of theories on this. One says that it took days to get to the city center of Nineveh from the suburbs and the other says that the 3-day’s journey was Jonah taking his time preaching. The first theory we can eliminate because by the 8th century Nineveh was not a major city as their population had depleted and the town was going down. Thus, based on clues I believe that Jonah took three days to walk the streets of Nineveh making sure as many people as possible heard the message of repentance. Jonah wanted to be thorough as to not let anyone miss out on the forgiveness of God which had been demonstrated to him so beautifully. Jonah’s forgiveness lead to his obedience to fulfilling the call of God.

Illustration

Application

I firmly believe that the devil loves it when we sin and fail because it causes shame and guilt. Not positive shame and guilt, as if there is any, but shame and guilt that leads us away from the call of God on our life. These verses in Jonah show us that we are not tarnished goods, but through forgiveness we are ready for service.

3) God affirms his grace (vs. 5-9)

Upon hearing the call to repent, the people of Nineveh repented and turned to God. It is miraculous to see the whole city, which is presumed doomed, turn to God in repentance. However, some scholars, such as Walton argues that this was not a salvation experience. Stuart takes a similar position as Walton and argues, “they remained, by all accounts, the same polytheistic, syncretistic pantheists they had been all along.” However, Page argues “Jesus’ own testimony is that ‘they repented at the preaching of Jonah’ with the result that they will be present at the judgment condemning those who rejected Jesus’ preaching.” Thus, it is appropriate to preach that at least some actually repented.

Interestingly enough the author repeats himself here and also mentions that the king repents. This is interesting because it demonstrates that the wickedness of the nation was not relegated to one particular group and it also shows the heights and depths of repentance is for everyone. God’s forgiveness is good enough even for politicians. The author also adds in the king to show that everyone repented, least to great, repented for their evil.

The king, convinced by the preaching of Jonah that Nineveh needed to repent, called everyone to fasting and repentance. Through not eating and wearing sackcloth, which is made of coarse goat hair and worn right next to the skin and is a symbol of morning, the Ninevites were on some level dedicated to authentic repentance in light of their wickedness. The king even wanted the animals to fast. He didn’t’ want the vengeance of the Lord to come upon them on any person or beasts account. The King wants everyone to have a real experience with repentance and not just an outward demonstration.

Similar to the captain in chapter 1, the king tells everyone to turn to God, even though he knows God is not obligated to save them. In other words, prayers and repentance do not necessitate that God calls back his judgement. Nonetheless, if God continued to destroy them they would be destroyed forgiven and not destroyed in a state of sin.

Illustration

Application

Similar, you and I will die one day. That is the consequence of sin, but we can die forgiven and be in the presence of God or die not forgiven and separated from God.

[1]Joyce Baldwin, “Jonah,” in The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary, ed. T.E. McComiskey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 2:567.