Jonah 3.4-6-Jonah Proclaims That Nineveh Will Be Overturned At The End Of Forty Days And Nineveh Responds By Having Faith In God And Repenting
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday November 14, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 3:4-6-Jonah Proclaims That Nineveh Will Be Overturned At The End Of Forty Days And Nineveh Responds By Having Faith In God And Repenting
Lesson # 42
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 3:1.
This morning we will note Jonah 3:4-6, which records Jonah proclaiming to the Ninevites that their city will be overturned at the end of forty days and they respond to this message by exercising faith in God and repenting of their sinful behavior.
Jonah 3:4 records that when Jonah began to enter Nineveh, he announced that the city would be overthrown at the end of forty days.
Jonah 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. 4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’” (NASU)
“One day’s walk” refers to Jonah’s entire first day of walking through the city, which would include meetings with the city’s officials including the presentation of gifts to the city’s dignitaries.
The statement “yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” is composed of five words in the Hebrew.
The fact that the message declared there would be an interval of forty days before the city was overthrown implied a call for repentance on the part of the Ninevites.
If the Lord wanted to destroy the city, He did not need to have Jonah issue this proclamation to the citizens of Nineveh.
Therefore, this proclamation from the Lord delivered by Jonah to the Ninevites was taken by the Ninevites as an invitation to repentance.
Jeremiah 18:7-8 helps us to understand what was taking place in Jonah 3:4.
Jeremiah 18:7, “There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it.” (NET)
Jonah 3:4, “Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’” (NASU)
“Yet” is the adverb ʿôḏ (עֹוד) (ode), which denotes limited temporal continuation (BDB 728 s.v. עוֹד 1.a; Gen 29:7; Isa 10:32) and means “at the end of” as indicated by the expression “forty days” (NET Bible).
“Forty days” refers to a specific period of forty days in which the Ninevites can repent and if not, the city would be overthrown.
“Will be overthrown” is the feminine singular niphal passive participle form of the verb hā∙p̄ǎḵ (הָפַךְ) (haw-fak), which is ambiguous since it can signify “judgment, a turning upside down, a reversal, a change, a deposing of royalty, or a change of heart.”
Therefore, Jonah’s message from the Lord can be interpreted by the Ninevites as “at the end of the forty days Nineveh will be destroyed” or “at the end of the forty days Nineveh will have a change of heart.”
So the Lord told Jonah that Nineveh would be changed, turned upside down but whether for good or evil, he did not know and neither did the Ninevites, which adds to the irony of the book of Jonah.
The Lord intends to judge the city of Nineveh if they don’t repent and if they do repent, He will relent, which of course, Jonah did not want.
Jonah 3:5 records the Ninevites believing in God and humbling themselves from the least to the greatest of them by declaring a fast and putting on sackcloth.
Jonah 3:5, “Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.” (NASU)
“Believed” is the third person masculine plural hiphil active imperfect form of the verb ʾā∙mǎn (אָמַן) (aw-man), which is used with the Ninevites as its subject and ʾělō∙hîm, “God” as its object and means “to have confidence in, to trust in.”
It means that the Ninevites not only placed their absolute confidence in Jonah’s message that they would be changed or overturned in the sense of destroyed by God or changed in the sense that they would repent but also that they were casting themselves upon the mercy of God.
That the Ninevites faith in God was a “saving” faith or a faith that delivered them from eternal condemnation is indicated by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 12:41.
Further indicating that the Ninevites exercised saving faith in the Son of God, Yahweh is that the Lord would not have relented and withheld judgment if the Ninevites had not acted in faith.
The fast proclaimed by the Ninevites in a corporate sense as recorded in Jonah 3:5-9 was as a demonstration of their faith in God and their repentance before Him and their desire for forgiveness from Him.
The citizens of Nineveh clothed themselves with sackcloth as a sign of repentance and that they were seeking forgiveness from God.
“From the greatest to the least of them” refers to two extremes in Ninevite society implying every other individual in between.
Jonah 3:6 records that when Jonah’s message to the Ninevites from the Lord reached the king, he arose from his throne, removed his royal robe, clothed himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
Jonah 3:6, “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.” (NASU)
Some contend that the common people of Nineveh were the first to hear Jonah’s message from the Lord with the king hearing about the news of the common people believing in God and declaring a fast and putting on sackcloth.
However, the protocol would call for the king or at least his administrators hearing the message from Jonah first and then the common people.
As we have noted in verses 3 and 4, to enter Nineveh, Jonah, like any other diplomat or emissary would have had to follow accepted protocol.
Therefore, Jonah did not simply stroll into Nineveh proclaiming judgment against its inhabitants but rather would have had to follow accepted protocol.
This would explain why in Jonah 3:6-7 the king of Nineveh issued a proclamation to his subjects to repent.
The king along with his political and military leadership would have been the first to hear of this message of judgment from the Lord.
Also, indicating that the king of Nineveh was one of the first or maybe even the first of his officials to hear Jonah’s message is that verse 5 as we noted is a summary statement.
The events recorded in verse 5 are simply a summary statement that every aspect of Ninevite society including the king believed in God as a result of Jonah’s message.
That the king is included is indicated by the two prepositional phrases at the end of verse, “from the greatest to the least of them.”
Verses 6-9 provide the reader with specific details with emphasis upon the king’s actions in response to Jonah’s message.
Verse 5 says that the people of Nineveh declared a fast, which is something that the common people would not have the authority to do, only the king would have that authority, which he exercises as recorded in verses 7-9.
“The king of Nineveh” appears to be Aššur-dān III (773–756) since he was a contemporary of Jeroboam II of Israel (793-753) during whose reign Jonah ben Amittai prophesied in the north (2 Kings 14:25).
The expression “king of Nineveh” does not refer to the king of Assyria but more than likely it refers to the head of not only the city of Nineveh but also the province to which it belonged since cuneiform evidence seems to suggest that no distinction is made between city and province in designating a governor.
Cuneiform documents never use this phrase to designate the reigning Assyrian monarch and the Old Testament never uses this title elsewhere, but instead refers to ‘the king of Assyria’ (e.g., Is 36:13).
These actions on the part of the king of Nineveh demonstrated his faith in God.
It demonstrated that he was placing his confidence upon God in the sense that he was casting himself upon the mercy of God whereas before he did not.
So the king of Nineveh believed in God in the sense that he was casting himself upon God’s mercy for forgiveness.
These actions demonstrated his repentance before Him as well meaning they demonstrate a change of attitude on his part.
Specifically, he was changing his attitude and conduct toward the inherent law written into their souls by God, which is basically the Ten Commandments (Romans 2:14-15).
This change of attitude and conduct is demonstrated by his arising from his throne and laying aside his robe, putting on of sackcloth and sitting on the ashes.