BIG IDEA:
THE PREACHING OF GOD’S PROPHETIC MESSAGE OF IMMINENT JUDGMENT CAN CHANGE MEN’S HEARTS AND TURN AWAY THE IMPENDING WRATH OF GOD
INTRODUCTION:
John Goldingay: The opening of Act Two pointedly parallels the opening of Act One. It indicates that Yahweh will not be put off and that his designated agent may not be able to escape his commission.
Cf. a mulligan in golf; opportunity to replay the shot
Jonah still doesn’t have the right attitude and heart of compassion – we will see in chapter 4. He has heart of contempt and judgment – that is the main emphasis of the book – God wants to work on the heart of His people so that our heart towards the lost reflects His heart of compassion and mercy.
Philip Peter Jenson: There are a number of differences between the two similar introductions to chs. 1 and 3, but both focus on the outward action. Because of this it is difficult to be certain about Jonah’s own thoughts and attitudes. Did he go resisting inwardly (Trible 1996), reluctantly (Fretheim 1977, 108–9), resigned to his charge or eagerly (like Noah in Gen 6:22 or Abraham in Gen 12:4)? How far should the text be examined for subtle indications of the author’s purpose? And how far does an interpretation contribute to an overall portrait of Jonah’s character? I have argued that the story makes the most sense if Jonah emerges grateful but with a continuing ambivalent attitude to his commission. His silence, together with hints provided by the narrator, indicates that he has been subdued but not persuaded (Simon 1999). But whatever his attitude, the most important point in these verses is that he did obey, whereas in ch. 1 he disobeyed. The letter of the command is fulfilled, whatever the spirit in which this was done (Golka 1988).
I. (:1-3) THE MESSENGER – CALLED TO DELIVER THE GOODS —
SAME CALLING . . . DIFFERENT RESPONSE
A. (:1) God Calls His Prophet a Second Time – Service is a Privilege
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying”
He is the God of the Second Chance; but don’t presume upon His patience
Doug Goins: Let me ask you: Has the discipline of God, the distress that God has brought into your life because of sin, made you more obedient or less obedient to him? In the long haul have you become more flexible or less flexible in responding to God’s heart desires? Are you more submissive to his will or less submissive? Has the stress made you bitter toward God, or better in serving him and following him? Are you more consistent in running with him and agreeing with him?
B. (:2) God Commands Faithfulness in Proclaiming His Message
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I
am going to tell you.”
God doesn’t always give us the entire picture up front.
C. (:3) God Casts a Big Vision of Great Challenge and Great Compassion
“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.”
-
- a very significant city
- a very large city
John Goldingay: But it hardly requires three days simply to walk through once or to walk around once; more likely the implication is that it would take three days to go and preach in every neighborhood.
Lloyd Ogilvie: Verse 3 reminds us again that Nineveh was a “great” city; 1:2 is expanded here to “an exceedingly great city.” The words literally mean “a great city to God.” Our mission to our own cities should be motivated by the same designation. Through Jeremiah, God called the displaced Judeans in exile to seek the peace of their city, for in its peace they would find their peace (Jer. 29:7). Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and through the centuries of Christian history the cities have been a neglected mission field. William Booth said, “When I got the poor of London on my heart and a vision of what Christ could do, I decided He would have all of William Booth that there was.” Nineveh was important to God.
II. (:4) THE MISSION — PROCLAIMING MESSAGE OF IMPENDING DESTRUCTION
A. Tackling the Scope of the Mission – Hardest part is actually beginning
“Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk”
B. Conveying the Urgency of the Mission
“and he cried out and said”
C. Proclaiming the Message of the Mission – Unpopular and Dangerous
“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Short sermons can be quite effective!
Daniel Timmer: Despite our tendency to read biblical prophetic warnings as unconditional, there is no doubt that the warning’s opening words, Yet forty days, reveal that God might relent. It is highly unlikely that Jonah would have waited to see what would happen to the city after delivering his message (4:5) if he had understood that message as an unchangeable divine promise of destruction. Similarly, without presuming upon a favourable outcome, Nineveh’s king was able to contemplate (in his admittedly different theological calculus) the possibility that God would relent. Still more importantly, Jeremiah 18:7–8 shows that God retains the right to rescind judgment when those threatened by it repent. Finally, the verb used for overturned (hāpak) is used in radically different ways in the Old Testament, and can refer to a city’s being ‘turned upside down’ in destruction (Gen. 19:21, 25, 29, Qal), to the ‘turning’ of a curse into a blessing (Deut. 23:5, Qal; cf. Esth. 9:1, 22), to being ‘transformed’ temporarily into a prophet (1 Sam. 10:6), to ‘changing’ the sea into dry ground (Ps. 66:6), to changing one’s heart (Exod. 14:5), or to producing spiritual transformation in someone (Zeph. 3:9). The ambiguity of the verb suggests that very different outcomes attend Nineveh’s possible responses to God’s threat of judgment.
III. (:5-9) THE MOVEMENT – HUMBLING THEMSELVES AND PETITIONING GOD FOR HIS MERCY
Perhaps most impressive and astonishing people movement of all time – an entire city repenting and turning away from their wickedness and back to God
What inspired such a dramatic turnaround?
– God’s heart of love and compassion reaching out to them
– Circumstances of the unusual prophet
Ron Ritchie: Well, the second thing that caused their repentance, I suggest, is that I think that Jonah looked strange. Let me explain. There is some evidence that in the late 1800’s a sailor fell overboard and was swallowed by a great fish of the shark family. Two days later the shark was caught in a net. He was brought on board, cut open, and the man was found alive. There was only one difference about him, and that was that somehow the fish’s digestive juices (which hadn’t got to him totally), had burned off his first layer of skin so that every feature of the man was white, and he stayed that way for the rest of his life.
A. (:5) Response of the People
- Faith – The essential starting point
“Then the people of Nineveh believed in God”
Corporate movement towards repentance on the part of all the people
Trent Butler: Nineveh was known as a religious city with temples to many gods, but in this instance the people of Nineveh turned their backs on all their national gods and personal gods and turned to the God of Israel who created the heavens and the earth. They recognized God’s power and believed he would carry out the threats he had made through Jonah.
- Humbling themselves before God
“and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.”
Involves confession of sin and petitioning God for mercy
No caste system when it comes to our standing before God
B. (:6-8) Response of the King
- (:6) Personal Response – Same as that of the people
“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.”
Effectiveness of Jonah’s preaching – the word reached the king
King taking a leadership position
Recognizing the sovereignty of the King of the Universe
(how different from Nebuchadnezzar)
Doug Goins: It is amazing that what the king is doing is following the lead of his people as he exchanges his own royal robes for sackcloth. To put on that scratchy burlap covering acknowledges that one deserves God’s judgment and affliction. It symbolizes grieving over one’s own sin. For the king to sit in ashes means he leaves his seat of authority and humiliates himself. He prostrates himself before God in repentance. These are powerful symbolic actions in leadership. When the king issues this royal decree, although it comes in response to the people’s initiation of mourning and fasting, it does add official sanction and impetus to what is already going on.
Daniel Timmer: Since Nineveh did not become Assyria’s capital city until 705, it is very unlikely that the king mentioned here is the Assyrian monarch. Recalling the partial fragmentation of the Assyrian Empire in the first half of the eighth century, it is much more likely that this man was one of the magnates who ruled over a swathe of territory that included or was near Nineveh. The presence of various visiting religious specialists in the royal court makes it possible that Jonah was viewed in the same way in Nineveh’s regional context, and the striking response of Nineveh’s ruler to Jonah’s message leaves no doubt that it was taken seriously.
The ruler’s personal response involves two contrasting movements. He arises from his throne, replaces his royal robes with sackcloth, and then sits down in ashes/dust. This puts him on the same level as the general population and visibly demonstrates his humility before God’s warning. Further, as the representative of Nineveh, he symbolizes the humiliation of the city before God.
- (:7-8) Public Response – Issuing Mandate
a. Invoking his Authority
“And he issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the
decree of the king and his nobles:’”
Buy-in from his nobles
b. Instituting Extreme Corporate Fast – extending it to animals
“Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let
them eat or drink water.”
1) Calling for Extreme Expression of Humility
“But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth”
2) Commanding Repentance – Petitioning God for Mercy
“and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his
wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.”
Fervency entreated
Corporate concern, but personal responsibility
Calling for radical lifestyle transformation
No movement on God’s part apart from movement on our part
We need God’s working in our hearts to enable us to repent
Daniel Timmer: The edict then focuses on prayer (3:8b) and repentance (3:8c). This last element is notable for its focus on behaviour, which is captured by the quintessential term for repentance, turn. Specifically, the ruler urges the population to turn from evil and violence. Evil echoes God’s condemnation of Nineveh as evil in 1:2, but violence adds new specificity (see the same expression in Job 16:17; Ps. 58:2; Isa. 59:6). It is very unlikely that this violence is limited to the city of Nineveh, or that it refers primarily to inner-Assyrian crimes. In the light of Nineveh’s religious and political prominence even before it became the capital city in 705, the violence in view is more likely that exercised by the empire as a whole, and thus a reality already known in the northern kingdom of Israel. The king’s recognition of guilt thus goes to the heart of the violent imperial project described above in the Introduction. The final statement of the edict recognizes that God may, or may not, respond favourably to the actions of the Ninevites (3:9).
C. (:9) Fear of God coupled with Hope in His Mercy
“Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that
we shall not perish?”
Trent Butler: Prayer, repentance, a change of attitudes and actions influence God. He reacts as a person in a personal relationship and changes his plans in accordance with the way people have changed their conduct.
III. (:10) THE MERCY – RESPONDING BY AVERTING EXECUTION OF WRATH
A. Awareness of Fruits of Repentance
“When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way”
B. Averting Execution of Wrath
“then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would
bring upon them. And He did not do it.”