Bible Study - Book of Jonah Part 5 - Jonah 3:1-10

Last week, we heard of Jonah’s thoughts and meditation, especially upon some of the psalms, and his prayers while in the belly of the great fish. He called out to the Lord in his distress and knew that salvation would come only from the Lord and hoped to be in the temple again one day. The Lord answered his prayer and called the great fish to vomit him up onto dry land.

As Chapter 3 begins, God gave Jonah another chance to do what he had been called to do as His prophet, though he did not deserve it since he had still not fully repented of his attitude toward God and God’s will.  In Jonah 3:1-2, God commanded him again to go to Nineveh with almost the same words He used in Jonah 1:1-2. This time, Jonah went and followed “the Word of the Lord.”

God is a God of second (and even many more) chances for people, in His patient, forgiving mercy. Remember how Peter had failed Jesus and denied three times that he ever knew Him. Jesus forgave him and called him again to be His apostle and “feed His sheep.” (See John 21:15-18. Jesus also taught Peter to forgive not just 7 times but 70 times 7 times, over and over again. See Matthew 18:21-22. Peter learned to speak of God as “the God of all grace.” See 1 Peter 5:10 and 2 Peter 3:18.)

Think also of Saul, who was strongly anti-Christian and even involved in arresting and helping put Christians to death. The risen Lord Jesus turned his life around and made him a strong believer and missionary, with a new name, Paul. Paul often spoke of how undeserving he was and yet what a great example of what God’s mercy and forgiveness could do. (Read Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Think about you and me, too. How many times have we failed our Lord and He has still loved and forgiven us, also? Every day? See Mark 2:15-17.)

Nineveh was a very great city, capital of the Assyrian Empire, the strongest power of the Middle Eastern world of that time. It was also a very wicked city, far from the one true God and His will. Jonah was sent to proclaim one very simple but strong warning to the people and leaders. He began to go into the city and called out, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 2:3-4). He said just what God wanted this time, and he used the same word that was used in Genesis 19:24-25, when God “overthrew” the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and utterly destroyed them, “even what grew on the ground.” God had given them opportunity to repent, too, but they refused and wanted to do more and more evil.

Amazingly, we hear in Jonah 3:5 that “the people of Nineveh believed God” and “called for a fast and put on sackcloth” as a sign of repentance for their wrongdoing. This word from Jonah reached the king of Nineveh (who was also the king of the whole Assyrian Empire) and he too showed repentance by removing his royal robe (see an example of such a robe, in Joshua 7:21, where the same word is used) and “covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes” (Jonah 3:6).

These are the typical things done by people in the ancient world as a sign of sorrow and repentance for their sins, not just Jews. (See Ezekiel 26:15-16, and the people of non-Jewish Tyre.) See also these examples from the Scriptures:

• Fasting (not eating food, and sometimes, drink, for a period of time) - Joel 1:14 and 2:12, 15 and Nehemiah 9:1
• Sackcloth (very rough clothing, maybe like wearing a burlap bag) - Joel 1:13, Genesis 37:34 (Jacob, when he thought his son, Joseph, was dead), Job 16:15, and even wicked King Ahab in 1 Kings 21:27, when he repented and was allowed to live longer
• Ashes - Job 42:6, Daniel 9:3, and Matthew 11:21

The King of Nineveh also decreed that both man and beast not eat and put on sackcloth and “call mightily to God” and “turn from evil” and “the violence that is in his hands” (Jonah 3:7-8). (The people of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire were known for being very violent people and for using violence to get whatever they wanted for themselves, as they conquered and plundered other peoples.)

There are many skeptical people who would say that the simple preaching of Jonah could not possibly have accomplished all this. Jonah could not; but it was not simply his word, but the Word of God and from God that he proclaimed - the same Word of God that created the universe and our amazing world (see Genesis 1-2) and turned around the life of Paul and has turned our lives to faith and trust in our Lord and what Jesus has done for us. God’s Word is God’s power.

Commentators and historians have also pointed out that Middle Eastern people and cultures of that time were very emotional and had high esteem for prophets and oracles and may well have heard stories of earlier prophets of Israel, and could be influenced by them. The Roman writer Cicero speaks of these characteristics; and the fact that cattle and other animals were even involved in the mourning process of these peoples is attested by the Greek historian, Herodotus, and later, Plutarch. Look at Joel 1:18,20 and how “even the beasts of the field” are described as “panting” for God’s help in a time of trouble and judgment. Think also of how during “Holy Week” in the New Testament, many Jewish people, also emotional, were stirred up and praising Jesus on Palm Sunday, and yet by Good Friday were calling for His crucifixion.

The Lutheran Bible Companion also points out two periods in Assyrian history, during the time that Jonah lived and could have preached at Nineveh , that could reflect his influence. There was a time of “great religious stirrings” where some called for putting trust in only one God and no other, which parallels the Old Testament teaching of monotheism, that there is only one true God, which Jonah did follow. There was also a time where there were two severe plagues and an earthquake, which severely troubled the people and could have helped make them more open to the warning of judgment and the call to repentance by Jonah.

Most important, we have the words of our Lord Jesus, recorded in Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32, that the “men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.” (We’ll talk more about this passage and what else Jesus affirms regarding Jonah, probably next week.)

As we return now to Jonah 3:9, the King of Nineveh, after commanding the people to call out to God and repent and turn from their evil ways, then says, “Who knows what God will do? Hopefully, He will turn away from His anger and relent, so that we may not perish.” This sounds much like what is said in Joel 2:14: “Who knows whether God will not turn and relent” from the disaster threatened for His own chosen people if they did not return to Him in faith. Joel, of course, also reaffirmed the mercy of God. Read Joel 2:13, and then all of Joel 2:12-17 and God’s response in Joel 2:18. See also Exodus 32:11-14, after the people of Israel had built and worshiped a golden calf as a pagan god. Moses pleaded with God to turn away from His “burning anger,” and God did so.

That is exactly what God did also for the pagan people of Nineveh, in Jonah 3:10. He saw “how they turned from their evil way,” and He did not bring disaster and “overthrow” the city and its people. Jeremiah spoke of the same outcome, in an example in Jeremiah 18:7. He also gave the same warning, even to his own people of Israel, if they kept going away from the Lord and His will.

Sadly, the repentance of the people of Nineveh did not last for a long time. They did not continue in faith and response to the one true God and went back to their very evil ways. See the prophecy of Nahum about their coming destruction. This time they did not listen and Nineveh fell to the Babylonians and was destroyed in 612 BC. This is a danger. Think about the reaction in the United States after so many people were killed in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. There was religious fervor for a time, and more people went back to church, but it did not last either.

Next week, we will talk about Jonah’s surprising reaction to God’s mercy upon Nineveh in Jonah, Chapter 4.