Jonah: Chapter 3
THE SETUP FOR CHAPTER 3
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.
Arise, go to Nineveh the great city
Arise, go to Nineveh the great city
Nineveh was an exceedingly great city
ARISE AND GO
SHARE GOD’S TRUTH
4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”
ע֚וֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
God’s Mercy
9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
This fear of judgment from God is startling because the Assyrians were a cruel, violent nation (cf. Nahum 3:1, 3–4) fearing no one (cf. 2 Kings 18:33–35).
10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
נָחַם (nāḥam). vb. to have compassion. Describes the act of feeling regret, offering comfort, or having compassion.