“A Most Unusual Revival”

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Jonah 3:1-10

Introduction: (What?)

The old-time revival is almost a relic of the past. Perhaps you remember when revivals were scheduled for two weeks in the month of June. An evangelist was expected to do home visits during the day and preach every evening. Services would run as long as two hours. I led singing in a week long revival at County Line Baptist church in Wetumpka, AL. Both the evangelist and I were college students at the time. Every day they gave us a list of people to go and see. The evangelist was big on prayer, so in between visits we would stop on the side of the road, get out of the car and kneel and pray. After the first day I had 30+ chigger bites on my legs from the knees up. I led music with one hand in my pocket, scratching chigger bites. Now we have 3- or 4-day revivals running Sunday through Tuesday or Wednesday. The Evangelist expects to be put up in a nice hotel, fed with the finest foods and generally allowed to rest all day and maybe get in a round of golf or a fishing trip before service time. The revival at Nineveh was one of a kind.

Explanation: (Why?)

1. Revival Recall (vv 1-3)

The beginning of chapter three is almost like the beginning of chapter one. “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time; ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.’ Jonah got up and …went to Nineveh according to the LORD’s command.” Aren’t you glad that God gives second chances? The important thing though is that you respond DIFFERENTLY than you did with your first chance. The first time God spoke to Jonah, he “got up to flee to Tarshish.” This time, “Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’s command.” Jonah learned the hard way that he couldn’t run from God nor hide from God. To his credit, he obeyed the second time around. He didn’t have anyone else to emulate, because he was the only prophet that God actually sent to preach repentance in a foreign land. Nobody had ever done this before. The first time God told Jonah to go to Nineveh “because their evil has come up before Me.” The second time God told Jonah to go “and preach the message that I tell you.” That would make an evangelist happy. God doesn’t expect him to come up with a catchy message on his own…God is going to tell him what to preach. I don’t know if you have any idea of what a pastor goes through each week in preparing a message. It is like giving birth. Even though the preacher might want to preach the text as it is, he can’t help wondering how so-and-so will react to parts of his message. The reason I say it is like giving birth is, you must read the passage until you are impregnated with it’s truth, meaning and application. Then you must prayerfully spend time in studying, writing and re-writing until you sense the “baby” is almost ready to be delivered. This is the gestation period. Sometimes you are making changes right up until service time. And then you must deliver the “baby” in the presence of a room full of people.

God took some of the pressure off of Jonah when He told him, “preach the message I tell you.” It could be that God, knowing Jonah’s frame of mind and attitude, decided not to trust him to come up with a message on his own. I’ve heard of some pastors who told the evangelist “you can get away with saying what you do because you’re going to pack up and leave at the end of the revival. I can’t do that because I have to stay here and live among these people.”

2. Not So Good News (vv 3b-5)

The setting in which Jonah was to preach was not in a synagogue or temple, or even a house. He was to be a street preacher, preaching on the move. “Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, (both in size and importance) a three-day walk (about a 60 mile circumference). Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, ‘In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!’” That has got to be the shortest revival sermon ever preached; only seven words. Also, it is the most negative. Usually an evangelist likes to kind of warm up the crowd with a sermon that will make them want to come back the next night and bring some friends. Many times the evangelist will want the church to schedule a “pack the pew” night, a pizza blast for the youth and a hot dog supper for the kids. Anything to get them in the door, and then zap them with the gospel. Not so with Jonah. All that first day Jonah would go a little ways, stop and preach his seven word sermon, and then move on a few blocks and repeat it. The 40 days is significant in that it mirrors Moses’ prayer on behalf of the rebellious Jews, and also refers to a time of testing or judgment in the OT. I’m sure that he preached it with a scowl on his face and with a growl in his voice. Also he was probably thinking, “I can’t wait to get to the other side of the city and sit down and watch God do His thing.” (Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for “demolished” has a secondary meaning which is “changed”. I’m sure the Jonah intended the first meaning to be true, but, as we shall see, it is the second meaning that actually happened.)

Then a very strange thing happened. Jonah’s message out ran him. “Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth---from the greatest of them to the least.” Only one day had elapsed.

3. Unexpected Response (v 6-10)

Jonah must have been a bit miffed when his message preceded him through the city and they took it to heart. (v 5). Then in v 6-7 we find, “When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh:” The response of the people evidently came from the decree from the king. John McArthur noted that the response of the Ninevites stemmed from the reports of Jonah’s miraculous fish experience, and that his skin was bleached from the stomach acid of the fish and validated his experience.

The decree which the king issued was; “By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.” It was a Persian custom to use animals in mourning ceremonies. Those keeping herds or flocks would need to deny food and water to their animals. In addition to the wailing prayers of the people, the animals were braying, bleating and mooing because of their hunger and thirst and the uncomfortable sackcloth on their backs.

The king was taking a “shot in the dark” that God would relent. Note that he said, “Who knows?”, and uses the word “may”. He was hoping that their acts of repentance and mourning would sway God.

Application: (How should I respond to this message?)

If we look at God’s response to Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chron. 7:14, we can see a parallel to the decree of the king.

Beginning in v 13 God said, “If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence (covid 19?) on my people, and my people, who bear My name, humble themselves (fasting, sackcloth), pray and seek My face, and turn (repent) from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

God’s actions in v10 give credence to this parallel. “God saw their actions---that they had turned from their evil ways---so God relented from the disaster He had threatened them with. And He did not do it.”

I’m not saying that God sent covid 19 upon the earth, but He certainly allowed it. Could it be that it is a call from God for His people to humble themselves, repent of their sin and seek His face rather than just His hands? As the king said, “Who knows?” But it is worth a shot.