Jonah 3.10-4.1-God Spares The Lives Of The Ninevites When They Repent Of Their Evil Way Of Living But Jonah Is Infuriated With The Decision
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday November 28, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 3:10-4:1-God Spares The Lives Of The Ninevites When They Repent Of Their Evil Way Of Living But Jonah Is Infuriated With The Decision
Lesson # 49
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 4:1.
This morning we will study Jonah 3:10-4:1, which records God sparing the lives of the Ninevites when they repent of their evil way of living but Jonah is infuriated with the decision.
Jonah 3:10 records that when God saw the actions of the Ninevites and that they repented from their wicked behavior, He relented concerning the judgment He threatened them with.
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.’ 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. 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. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9 Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.’ 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.” (NASU)
“God” is the articular masculine plural form of the noun ʾělō∙hîm (אֱלֹהִים) (el-o-heem), which emphasizes the Lord’s complete sovereign power over the city of Nineveh in that He could relent from destroying the city if He wanted to or decide to do so.
The narrator uses ělō∙hîm rather than Yahweh since he wants to emphasize that the Ninevites who were Gentiles were not members of the covenant nation of Israel.
“Saw” is the third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb rā∙ʾā(h) (רָאָה) (raw-aw), which means “to observe,” i.e. watch carefully especially with attention to behavior for the purpose of arriving at a judgment.
This indicates that God watched carefully with attention to the behavior of the Ninevites in order to determine if He would carry out His threat to destroy the city.
“Their deeds” refers to the Ninevites turning from their evil way of living, which is indicated by the epexegetical clause that follows “that they turned from their wicked way.”
Notice that the narrator does not mention any of the other actions that the Ninevites performed as recorded in Jonah 3:5-8.
There is no mention of the fast, the putting on of sackcloth or crying out earnestly to God for mercy and forgiveness.
The reason this is the case is that God is more concerned about the Ninevites obeying Him, which demonstrates their faith in Him.
Not only as it relates to Him but also with others.
He is more concerned about their behavior with each other and their fellow human beings from other nations than with their sacrifices, which He in fact did not call for.
Fasting was a self-imposed sacrifice as well as the putting on of sackcloth.
However, God is more concerned about obedience than sacrifice since sacrifice without obedience to Him is meaningless.
He takes no pleasure in sacrifices when there is no obedience to Him.
This is what the prophet Samuel taught king Saul after his disobedience.
1 Samuel 15:22, “Then Samuel said, ‘Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as he does in obedience? Certainly, obedience is better than sacrifice; paying attention is better than the fat of rams.’” (NET)
Jonah 3:10, “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.” (NASU)
“That they turned from their wicked way” is an epexegetical clause that identifies for the reader the specific actions of the Ninevites that caused God to relent from destroying them.
“They turned” is the third person plural qal active perfect form of the šûḇ (שׁוּב) (shoob), which means “to turn,” i.e. to repent, to change one’s behavior, to change the manner in which one lives his or her life.
This indicates that the Ninevites “turned” from their wicked behavior and obeyed God’s law, i.e. Ten Commandments, which is inherent in them (Romans 2:14-15).
“Their wicked way” describes the Ninevites’ conduct in relation to each other and other nations as not being morally good with the implication that their actions and way of life is harmful and detrimental to the rest of the human race, which interacts with them.
It describes the inhabitants of the city of Nineveh as conducting their lives independently of God as expressed in their brutality and immoral degeneracy.
“Relented” is the third person masculine singular niphal passive imperfect form of the verb nā∙ḥǎm (נָחַם) (naw-kham), which means “to relent” in the sense of ceasing from taking a particular course of action, usually with emphasis upon a gracious act.
The verb refers to God graciously not acting upon His decision to overturn Nineveh at the end of forty days as a result of observing the Ninevites turning from their evil way of living.
“Concerning the calamity” refers to the execution of divine judgment against the Ninevites.
“He had declared” is composed of the third person masculine singular piel active perfect form of the verb dā∙ḇǎr (דָּבַר) (daw-bar), which means “to threaten” in the sense of announcing something as intended referring to God “threatening” to overturn Nineveh at the end of forty days.
Jonah 3:10, “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.” (NASU)
“And He did not do it” is an emphatic clause that emphasizes that God did not carry out the judgment He had threatened against Nineveh.
Jonah 4:1 records Jonah thought it was evil on the part of God, in fact, a great evil, which made him furious that the Lord did not destroy Nineveh because the Ninevites repented.
Jonah 4:1, “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.” (NASU)
This verse stands in direct contrast with the preceding statement, which is Jonah 3:10, which records that when God saw the actions of the Ninevites and that they repented from their wicked behavior, He relented concerning the judgment He threatened them with.
The contrast is between Jonah’s angry reaction with what should have been reaction, namely, joy and thanksgiving.
The verb rā∙ʿǎʿ means “to be unjust” and is used here of Jonah considering God to be unjust for not destroying the Ninevites and to exercise mercy and grace towards them and forgiveness of their sins when they believed in Him and repented from their evil behavior.
The word does not mean “to be evil” since this would have Jonah ascribing evil to God which the prophet knows is totally absent from the character of God.
Rather, the word means “to be unjust” since in context, he is referring to God’s decision to relent when the Ninevites repented.
This is indicated by the context since in 4:6, God provides Jonah with the qiqayon plant in an attempt to persuade the prophet that He was justified in sparing the lives of the Ninevites (4:10–11).
In fact, the noun form of the word appears in Jonah 3:10 where it means “judgment” speaking of God’s decision to relent from destroying Nineveh.
“Greatly displeased” is composed of the feminine singular form of the noun rā∙ʿā(h) (רָעָה), “it displeased” and the feminine singular form of the adjective gā∙ḏôl (גָּדֹול) (ga-dol), “greatly.”
The noun rā∙ʿā(h) means “unjust” and is referring to God’s decision to not destroy Nineveh and the adjective gā∙ḏôl is modifying this noun and denotes that Jonah considered this decision by God as a “great” injustice.
The noun rā∙ʿā(h) functions as a cognate accusative emphasizing the intensity of Jonah’s displeasure with God’s decision to spare the Ninevites.
“And he became angry” is composed of the conjunction wa (וָ) (wa), “and,” which is prefixed to the third person masculine singular qal imperfect form of the verb ḥā∙rā(h) (חָרָה) (khaw-raw), “became angry” and the preposition le (לְ) (lamed) and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ) (who), “he.”
The conjunction wa introduces a result clause indicating that Jonah became infuriated “as a result of” considering God’s decision to spare the lives of the Ninevites a great injustice.
The verb ḥā∙rā(h) means “to be infuriated” and is used of Jonah’s great anger or rage with respect to God’s decision to spare the lives of the Ninevites.
The Lord’s decision to spare the lives of the Ninevites infuriated Jonah, which was due to Jonah’s self-righteousness.
He was, like Israel was no better than the Assyrians since there is none righteous according to God’s perfect holiness standards.