The question is usually asked in Old Testament survey classes, “Was the great fish more relieved to be rid of Jonah than Jonah was to get out of the great fish?” Maybe their sense of relief was mutual. At any rate, we hope that Jonah gave thanks to God for the divinely provided creature that rescued him from certain death.

When I read the third and fourth chapters of the book of Jonah, I see that he was stubbornly attacking God in chapter 4. He will seriously overstep his boundaries. As we read the chapter we just know that Jonah is going to get a proverbial “kick in the head” from God. And we will not be able to work up much sympathy for him if and when this happens.

Strangely enough, Jonah is not kicked in the head, even though he deserves it. The book ends with a rebuke which lingers in mid‑air, leaving the reader with a most uneasy feeling. The book does not leave us with a warm fuzzy feeling, like we might wish it did. The book did not begin with a “Once upon a time …” Neither does it end with a “happily ever after.”

Our uneasiness at the end of the book is by design. God does not want us to be comfortable, for repentance and change seldom result from our comfort. The question is, “What is it that we are to feel uncomfortable about?” The third and fourth chapters expose a very serious sin in Jonah, which is just as common today. Let us listen very carefully to Jonah’s protests and God’s probing as we conclude our study of the book of Jonah.

The stage for the events of these last two chapters of Jonah has already been set in the first two chapters of the book. In chapter 1 Jonah was commanded by God to go to Nineveh, where he was to cry against this great city for its sins. Instead of traveling to the northeast, Jonah went down to the seaport of Joppa, where he boarded a ship headed to Tarshish, apparently on the coast of Spain. Jonah was headed in the opposite direction!

Jonah’s disobedience resulted in God bringing about an intense storm, which was breaking up the ship, and which had frightened the sailors to the point that they were fervently calling on their gods to save them. At the same time, they were casting all the cargo overboard. Finding Jonah sleeping soundly below deck, the captain of the ship commanded him to pray (which he apparently never did). At the seamen’s initiative, lots were cast to determine on whose account the ship was about to sink. After persistent and thorough interrogation, Jonah told them he was at fault and what they must do to save themselves and their ship—cast him overboard.

Only after God thwarted their diligent efforts to get Jonah to shore did the sailors consent to do as Jonah had instructed them. They preceded this act with a prayer which expressed their concern for putting an innocent man to death. When Jonah was cast over the side, the sea calmed and the seamen worshipped the God of Israel with sacrifices and vows. If this first chapter revealed anything, it dramatically contrasted Jonah with the heathen sailors. He was disobedient to the command of God; they obeyed what God told them to do through Jonah. They prayed frequently and fervently; Jonah did not. They had great compassion on Jonah; he seemingly had none on them.

Chapter 2 records the “psalm” of Jonah. The poetic form and terminology of Jonah’s “psalm” is very similar to that of the psalms of the Old Testament. In theology and emphasis, however, Jonah’s psalm falls far short of the biblical pattern and ideal. Jonah’s “psalm” was self‑centered, focusing more on the prophet’s dilemma, danger, and deliverance, than on the God who spared his life.

In this “psalm” there is an evident disdain for the Gentiles and the telltale signs of self‑righteousness in the “praise” of Jonah. Nevertheless, when Jonah gave the glory to God for his physical deliverance, God commanded the great fish to spit Jonah up on the beach.

In chapters 3 and 4, all appearances of piety vanish in the account of the prodigal prophet. This is the reason for my subtitle for this message: “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” In chapters 1 & 2, Jonah’s sin is apparent, but it is still somewhat subtle and passive. All of this changes in chapters 3 and 4, for Jonah’s preaching and the repentance of Nineveh causes Jonah to “blow his stack” and now his sinfulness is seen in its ugliest dimensions. In chapter 1, Jonah simply sought to withdraw from God’s service, but in chapter 4, Jonah attacks God, persisting that it is his right to be angry with Him. In chapter 2, Jonah prayed that God would save his life, but in chapter 4, Jonah prayed that God would take his life. Things go downhill very quickly in our passage.

It is at this critical point that our story begins. God’s first words to Jonah were virtually a repetition of the command given to him before the storm and his incarceration in the fish. We have an account of the preaching of Jonah in Nineveh, and the dramatic repentance of the entire city, along with God’s relenting of the evil He had foretold through the prodigal prophet.

In chapter 4 Jonah blurts out his reasons for rebelling against the command of the Lord to preach against the city of Nineveh. The events which take place in this chapter were intended to reveal the sin of Jonah. While the sins of the prodigal prophet become very apparent to the reader, they apparently do not have much of an impact on Jonah, and so the story ends in a kind of stalemate, with God’s final words of admonition suspended in mid air, and Jonah still angry with his God.

1. The marvel of an undeserved commission (Jonah 3:1-2)

Did anybody see Jonah emerge when the great fish disgorged him on the dry land? If so, the story must have spread rapidly and perhaps even preceded him to Nineveh, and that may help explain the reception the city gave him. Had Jonah been bleached by the fish’s gastric juices? Did he look so peculiar that nobody could doubt who he was and what had happened to him? Since Jonah was a “sign” to the Ninevites (Matt 12:38-41), perhaps this included the way he looked.

What the people saw or thought really wasn’t important The important thing was what God thought and what He would do next to His repentant prophet. “The life of Jonah cannot be written without God,” said Charles Spurgeon; “take God out of the prophet’s history, and there is no history to write.”^2-1

God met Jonah.

We don’t know where the great fish deposited Jonah, but we do know that wherever Jonah was, the Lord was there. Remember, God is more concerned about His workers than He is about their work, for if the workers are what they ought to be, the work will be what it ought to be. Throughout Jonah’s time of rebellion, God was displeased with His servant, but He never once deserted him. It was God who controlled the storm, prepared the great fish, and rescued Jonah from the deep. His promise is, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5, nkjv; see Josh. 1:5). “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isa. 43:2, nkjv).

God Spoke to Jonah.

After the way Jonah had stubbornly refused to obey God’s voice, it’s a marvel that the Lord spoke to him at all. Jonah had turned his back on God’s word, so the Lord had been forced to speak to him through thunder and rain and a stormy sea. But now that Jonah had confessed his sins and turned back to the Lord, God could once again speak to him through His word. One of the tests of our relationship to God is, “Does God speak to me as I read and ponder His Word?” If we don’t hear God speaking to us in our hearts, perhaps we have some unfinished business that needs to be settled with Him.

God commissioned Jonah.

“The victorious Christian life,” said George H. Morrison, “is a series of new beginnings.” When we fall, the enemy wants us to believe that our ministry is ended and there’s no hope for recovery, but our God is the God of the second chance. “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time” (Jonah 3:1). “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me” (Micah 7:8, nkjv).

You don’t have to read very far in your Bible to discover that God forgives His servants and restores them to ministry. Abraham fled to Egypt, where he lied about his wife, but God gave him another chance (Gen. 12:10-13:4). Jacob lied to his father Isaac, but God restored him and used him to build the nation of Israel. Moses killed a man (probably in self-defense) and fled from Egypt, but God called him to be the leader of His people. Peter denied the Lord three times, but Jesus forgave him and said, “Follow Me” (John 21:19).

However encouraging these examples of restoration may be, they must never be used as excuses for sin. The person who says “I can go ahead and sin, because I know the Lord will forgive me” has no understanding of the awfulness of sin or the holiness of God. “But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared” (Ps. 130:4, nkjv). God in His grace forgives our sins, but God in His government determines that we shall reap what we sow, and the harvest can be very costly. Jonah paid dearly for rebelling against the Lord.

God challenged Jonah.

Four times in this book, Nineveh is called a “great city” (1:2; 3:2-3; 4:11),^2-2 and archeologists tell us that the adjective is well-deserved. It was great in history, having been founded in ancient times by Noah’s great-grandson Nimrod (Gen. 10:8-10).^2-3 It was also great in size. The circumference of the city and its suburbs was sixty miles, and from the Lord’s statement in Jonah 4:11, we could infer that there were probably over 600,000 people living there. One wall of the city had a circumference of eight miles and boasted 1,500 towers.

The city was great in splendor and influence, being one of the leading cities of the powerful Assyrian Empire. It was built near the Tigris River and had the Khoser River running through it. (This fact will prove to be important when we study the Book of Nahum.) Its merchants traveled the empire and brought great wealth into the city, and Assyria’s armies were feared everywhere.

Nineveh was great in sin, for the Assyrians were known far and wide for their violence, showing no mercy to their enemies. They impaled live victims on sharp poles, leaving them to roast to death in the desert sun; they beheaded people by the thousands and stacked their skulls up in piles by the city gates; and they even skinned people alive. They respected neither age nor sex and followed a policy of killing babies and young children so they wouldn’t have to care for them (Nahum 3:10).

It was to the wicked people of this great city that God sent His servant Jonah, assuring him that He would give him the message to speak. Alter making the necessary preparations, it would take Jonah at least a month to travel from his own land to the city of Nineveh, and during that trip, he had a lot of time available to meditate on what the Lord had taught him.

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God can’t keep you and the power of God can’t use you. “And who is sufficient for these things? . . . Our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 2:16 and 3:5).

Jonah’s Preaching and Nineveh’s Repentance (3:1‑9)

For the second time, the “word of the Lord” came to Jonah: “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you” (vs. 2). It is not a new command that Jonah is given, but almost a repetition of the command given to him in chapter 1. This time Jonah obeyed, not joyfully or with a proper attitude, as we shall soon see, but at least Jonah went to Nineveh.

The population of the city of Nineveh, perhaps including its “suburbs,” was exceedingly large (cf. 1:2; 3:2; 4:11). We also know that the city was great in size. The city was described as being a “three days’ walk” (3:3). Secular history has a great deal more background information concerning this city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

Jonah’s message was simple, to the point, and frightening: “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (3:4).[1]

2. The marvel of an unparalleled awakening (Jonah 3:3-10)

From a human perspective, this entire enterprise appears ridiculous. How could one man, claiming to be God’s prophet, confront thousands of people with his strange message, especially a message of judgment? How could a Jew, who worshiped the true God, ever get these idolatrous Gentiles to believe what he had to say? For all he knew, Jonah might end up impaled on a pole or skinned alive! But, in obedience to the Lord, Jonah went to Nineveh.

Jonah’s message to Nineveh (Jonah 3:3-4).

“Three days’ journey” means either that it would take three days to get through the city and its suburbs or three days to go around them. The niv translation of verse 3 suggests that it would take three days to visit all of the area. According to Genesis 10:11-12, four cities were involved in the “Nineveh metroplex”: Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen (niv). However you interpret the “three days,” one thing is dear: Nineveh was no insignificant place.

When Jonah was one day into the city, he began to declare his message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over-thrown.” Throughout Scripture, the number forty seems to be identified with testing or judgment. During the time of Noah, it rained forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:4, 12, 17). The Jewish spies explored Canaan forty days (Num. 14:34), and the nation of Israel was tested in the wilderness forty years (Deut 2:7). The giant Goliath taunted the army of Israel forty days (1 Sam. 17:16), and the Lord gave the people of Nineveh forty days to repent and turn from their wickedness.

At this point, we must confess that we wish we knew more about Jonah’s ministry to Nineveh. Was this the only message he proclaimed? Surely he spent time telling the people about the true and living God, for we’re told, “The people of Nineveh believed God” (Jonah 3:5). They would have to know something about this God of Israel in order to exercise sincere faith (see Acts 17:22). Did Jonah expose the folly of their idolatry? Did he recount his own personal history to show them that his God was powerful and sovereign? We simply don’t know. The important thing is that Jonah obeyed God, went to Nineveh, and declared the message God gave him. God did the rest.

Nineveh’s message to God (Jonah 3:5-9).

In the Hebrew text, there are only five words in Jonah’s message; yet God used those five words to stir the entire population, from the king on the throne to the lowest peasant in the field. God gave the people forty days of grace, but they didn’t need that long. We get the impression that from the very first time they saw Jonah and heard his warning, they paid attention to his message. Word spread quickly throughout the entire district and the people humbled themselves by fasting and wearing sackcloth.

When the message got to the king, he too put on sackcloth and sat in the dust. He also made the fast official by issuing an edict and ordering the people to humble themselves, cry out to God, and turn from their evil ways. Even the animals were included in the activities by wearing sackcloth and abstaining from food and drink. The people were to cry “mightily” (“urgently,” niv) to God, for this was a matter of life and death.

When Jonah was in dire straits, he recalled the promise concerning Solomon’s temple (Jonah 2:4, 7; 1 Kings 8:38-39; 2 Chron. 6:36-39), looked toward the temple, and called out for help. Included in Solomon’s temple prayer was a promise for people outside the nation of Israel, and that would include the Ninevites. “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel . . . when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You” (2 Chron. 6:32-33). Jonah certainly knew this promise, and perhaps it was the basis for the whole awakening.

Like the sailors in the storm, the Ninevites didn’t want to perish (Jonah 3:9; 1:6, 14). That’s what witnessing is all about, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, nkjv). Their fasting and praying, and their humbling of themselves before God, sent a message to heaven, but the people of Nineveh had no assurance that they would be saved. They hoped that God’s great compassion would move Him to change His plan and spare the city. Once again, how did they know that the God of the Hebrews was a merciful and compassionate God? No doubt Jonah told them, for this was a doctrine he himself believed (Jonah 4:2).

Just like the seamen of chapter 1, the people of Nineveh took these words of imminent divine judgment seriously. We are told, “They believed in God” (3:5), which focuses on the faith of these Gentiles in the God of Israel, and not just their fear of judgment. It suggests to me that there was a real revival resulting from Jonah’s proclamation. This revival seems to have begun from “the bottom up,” rather than being imposed from “the top down.” The people, we are told, believed in God. They called a fast and put on sackcloth (3:5). The response was unanimous, from the lower to the upper classes.

By the time word reached the king, the city’s repentance was already well under way, but because the king also believed Jonah’s warning, he made every effort to assure total compliance to the city‑wide repentance. He began by personally repenting (3:6). The king then made a proclamation which required all of Nineveh to fast, and to abstain from drinking water (3:7). Both men and animals were to be covered with sackcloth, and all the people were to call upon God and to abstain from their wicked ways and their violence (3:8).

ticularly interesting to note that there was apparently no need for the people to be told what their wicked ways were. Of course, Jonah could have filled in the details for the people, but it seems as though no one needed any such clarification. The issue, then, was not one of having inadequate knowledge of what God considered sin, but lacking the desire to abstain from it. The issue was not that of information, but that of motivation. I have the distinct impression that if our nation received word of God’s impending judgment, we would have little difficulty determining what it is we are doing which is offensive to God, which is, in short, sin.

If the Ninevites had but 40 days left, why would they cease sinning? One would think that they might be inclined to act in accordance with the expression, “Eat, drink, and make merry, for tomorrow (or 40 days) we may die.” Nineveh’s motivation for putting off the wickedness of the city is described in verse 9: “Who knows, God may turn and relent, and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?” (3:9).

God’s message to Nineveh (Jonah 3:10).

At some point, God spoke to Jonah and told Him that He had accepted the people’s repentance and would not destroy the city. The phrase “God repented” might better be translated “God relented,” that is, changed His plan. From the human point of view, it looked like repentance, but from the divine perspective, it was simply God’s response to man’s change of heart God is utterly consistent with Himself; it only appears that He is changing His mind. The Bible uses human analogies to reveal the divine character of God (Jer. 18:1-10).

How deep was the spiritual experience of the people of Nineveh? If repentance and faith are the basic conditions of salvation (Acts 20:21), then we have reason to believe that they were accepted by God; for the people of Nineveh repented and had faith in God (Jonah 3:5). The fact that Jesus used the Ninevites to shame the unbelieving Jews of His day is further evidence that their response to Jonah’s ministry was sincere (Matt 12:38-41).

Some people find it very troubling that God would “relent,” that is, change His mind, regarding the destruction of Nineveh. Let me simply point out that Jonah expected God to do so (4:2), and the Ninevites at least hoped He would do so (3:9). If God intended to destroy Nineveh, why would He announce to them that He was going to do so? The proclamation against Nineveh which God instructed Jonah to deliver was not simply a promise of things to come, but a warning. The Ninevites were absolutely correct in understanding Jonah’s words as they did, as the occasion for repentance. This is entirely in keeping with what God has said in the book of Jeremiah:

Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it, if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it, if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds”’” (Jeremiah 18:5‑11, emphasis mine).

God’s promises of blessing are contingent upon man’s obedience, and God’s judgment may be averted by repentance. The Ninevites hoped for and Jonah expected God’s “relenting,” based on the principle expressed above.

God took note of Nineveh’s repentance, something which involved more than mere words or token gestures. Verse 10 does not tell us that God heeded the words of the Ninevites, or even that He regarded their sackcloth and ashes, but that He took note that their deeds had changed, that they had “turned from their wicked way.” Here is genuine repentance. No mere words of regret, no trite, “I’m sorry,” but a change of conduct signaling a genuine change of heart. Nineveh had truly repented of her evil ways, and God therefore relented of the calamity which He had threatened.

It is noteworthy that we are given no explanations for the quick, sincere, and virtually universal repentance of the Ninevites. It may have been that the sailors preceded Jonah, and gave a report of the miracle which had taken place. Jonah’s appearance, in and of itself, may have proven to be an awesome sign to the Ninevites. There may also have been other incidents which served to prepare the Ninevites for their repentance,[2] but they are not so much as mentioned. Indeed, the absence of such reports serves to dramatize the conversion of this Assyrian capital city.

Our Lord’s reference to the repentance of the Ninevites is particularly informative, and confirms our observations:

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation in the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:38‑41).

The request of the scribes and Pharisees for yet another sign from our Lord, prompted Him to turn to the book of Jonah, where two lessons could be learned. In His first use of Jonah, Jesus promised one final sign that was similar to that of the prophet Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, Jesus would be in the belly of the earth for the same period of time. Jesus’ resurrection would be a “sign” to Israel, just as Jonah’s “coming forth from the fish” was a sign (perhaps to Israel). This one final sign, the “sign of the prophet Jonah,” Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, would be irrefutable proof that He was Israel’s Messiah.

There was yet another lesson which the book of Jonah had for the Israelites of Jesus’ day. The Ninevites immediately repented at the preaching of Jonah, even though there was far less evidence than that which the Israelites of Jesus’ day had witnessed. And, compared with Jesus, Jonah was not nearly as important, or, I think, as persuasive or powerful in his preaching. If the Ninevites could repent with so little evidence, then surely the problem with the Jewish leaders, the scribes and Pharisees, was not a lack of evidence. The problem was not one of evidence at all, a problem which would be solved by some compelling sign. The problem of the scribes and Pharisees was the same as Jonah’s, and thus no evidence could change their willful rejection.

I am inclined, on the basis of the teaching of Jonah and that of our Lord, to see the “sign of the prophet Jonah” as two‑fold. It is the “sign” of Jonah’s three day entombment in the great fish, from which he is released, alive. It is also the “sign” of Jonah, whose hardness of heart kept him from grasping what God was trying to teach him, regardless of how clear and forceful that message was, while at the same time this message is perceived and acted upon by the less well‑informed Gentiles.

Jesus’ use of the account of the repentance of the Ninevites in Matthew chapter 12 accepts and affirms the impression which we gain from taking the narrative at face value. He confirms the fact that the Ninevites believed in God in spite of little evidence. Hearts that were open to the word and the will of God were quick to recognize it and respond to it. Hearts that were not so inclined—as was the case with Jonah’s heart—would not get the message, regardless of how clear it was.

Threefold Repentance Jonah 3:1–10

THIS passage falls into three parts: Jonah’s renewed commission and new obedience (Jonah 3:1–4), the repentance of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5–9), and the acceptance thereof by God (Jonah 3:10). We might almost call these three the repentance of Jonah, of Nineveh, and of God. The evident intention of the narrative is to parallel the Ninevites turning from their sins, and God’s turning from His anger and purpose of destruction; and if the word ‘repentance’ is not applied to Jonah, his conduct sufficiently shows the thing.

1. Note The Renewed Charge To The Penitent Prophet, And His New Eagerness To Fulfil It.

His deliverance and second commission are put as if all but simultaneous, and his obedience was swift and glad. Jonah did not venture to take for granted that the charge which he had shirked was still continued to him. If God commands to take the trumpet, and we refuse, we dare not assume that we shall still be honoured with the delivery of the message. The punishment of dumb lips is often dumbness. Opportunities of service, slothfully or faintheartedly neglected, are often withdrawn. We can fancy how Jonah, brought back to the better mind which breathes in his psalm, longed to be honoured by the trust of preaching once more, and how rapturously his spirit would address itself to the task. Duties once unwelcome become sweet when we have passed through the experience of the misery that comes from neglecting them. It is God’s mercy that gives us the opportunity of effacing past disobedience by new alacrity.

The second charge is possibly distinguishable from the first as being less precise. It may be that the exact nature of ‘the preaching that I bid thee’ was not told Jonah till he had to open his mouth in Nineveh; but, more probably, the second charge was identical with the first.

The word rendered ‘preach’ is instructive. It means ‘to cry,’ and suggests the manner befitting those who bear God’s message. They should sound it out loudly, plainly, urgently, with earnestness and marks of emotion in their voice. Languid whispers will not wake sleepers. Unless the messenger is manifestly in earnest, the message will fall flat. Not with bated breath, as if ashamed of it; nor with hesitation, as if not quite sure of it; nor with coldness, as if it were of little urgency,—is God’s Word to be pealed in men’s ears. The preacher is a crier. The substance of his message, too, is set forth. ‘The preaching which I bid thee’—not his own imaginations, nor any fine things of his own spinning. Suppose Jonah had entertained the Ninevires with dissertations on the evidences of his prophetic authority, or submitted for their consideration a few thoughts tending to Show the agreement of his message with their current opinions in religion, or an argument for the existence of a retributive Governor of the world, he would not have shaken the city. The less the Prophet shows himself, the stronger his influence. The more simply he repeats the stern, plain, short message, the more likely it is to impress. God’s Word, faithfully set forth, will prove itself. The preacher or teacher of this day has substantially the same charge as Jonah had; and the more he suppresses himself, and becomes but a voice through which God speaks, the better for himself, his hearers, and his work.

Nineveh, that great aggregate of cities, was full, as Eastern cities are, of open spaces, and might well be a three days’ journey in circumference. What a task for that solitary stranger to thunder out his loud cry among all these crowds! But he had learned to do what he was bid; and without wasting a moment, he ‘began to enter into the city a day’s journey,’ and, no doubt, did not wait till the end of the day to proclaim his message. Let us learn that there is an element of threatening in God’s most merciful message, and that the appeal to terror and to the desire for self-preservation is part of the way to preach the Gospel. Plain warnings of coming evil may be spoken tenderly, and reveal love as truly as the most soothing words. The warning comes in time. ‘Forty days’ of grace are granted. The gospel warns us in time enough for escape. It warns us because God loves; and they are as untrue messengers of His love as of His justice who slur over the declaration of His wrath.

1. Note The Repentance Of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5–9).

The impression made by Jonah’s terrible cry is perfectly credible and natural in the excitable population of an Eastern city, in which even now any appeal to terror, especially if associated with religious and prophetic claims, easily sets the whole in a frenzy. Think of the grim figure of this foreign man, with his piercing voice and half-intelligible speech, dropped from the clouds as it were, and stalking through Nineveh, pealing out his confident message, like that gaunt fanatic who walked Jerusalem in its last agony, crying, ‘Woe! woe unto the bloody city!’ or that other, who, with flaming fire on his head and madness in his eyes, affrighted London in the plague. No wonder that alarm was kindled, and, being kindled, spread like wildfire. Apparently the movement was first among the people, who began to fast before the news penetrated to the seclusion of the palace. But the contagion reached the king, and the popular excitement was endorsed and fanned by a royal decree. The specified tokens of repentance are those of ordinary mourning, such as were common all over the East, with only the strange addition, which smacks of heathen ideas, that the animals were made sharers in them.

There is great significance in that ‘believed God’ (Jonah 3:5).

The foundation of all true repentance is crediting God’s word of threatening, and therefore realising the danger, as well as the disobedience, of our sin. We shall be wise if we pass by the human instrument, and hear God speaking through the Prophet. Never mind about Jonah, believe God.

We learn from the Ninevites what is true repentance. They brought no sacrifices or offerings, but sorrow, self-abasement, and amendment. The characteristic sin of a great military power would be ‘violence,’ and that is the specific evil from which they vow to turn. The loftiest lesson which prophets found Israel so slow to learn, ‘A broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise,’ was learned by these heathens. We need it no less. Nineveh repented on a peradventure that their repentance might avail. How pathetic that ‘Who can tell?’ (Jonah 3:9) is! We know what they hoped. Their doubt might give fervour to their cries, but our certainty should give deeper earnestness and confidence to ours.

The deepest meaning of the whole narrative is set forth in our Lord’s use of it, when He holds up the men of Nineveh as a condemnatory instance to the hardened consciences of His hearers. Probably the very purpose of the book was to show Israel that the despised and yet dreaded heathen were more susceptible to the voice of God than they were: ‘I will provoke you to jealousy by them which are no people.’ The story was a smiting blow to the proud exclusiveness and self-complacent contempt of prophetic warnings, which marked the entire history of God’s people. As Ezekiel was told: ‘Thou are not sent … to many peoples of a strange speech and of an hard language. Surely, if I sent thee to them, they would hearken unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee.’ It is ever true that long familiarity with the solemn thoughts of God’s judgment and punishment of sin abates their impression on us. Our Puritan forefathers used to talk about ‘gospel-hardened sinners,’ and there are many such among us. The man who lives by Niagara does not hear its roar as a stranger does. The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with other generations than that which was ‘this generation’ in Christ’s time; and that which is ‘this generation’ to-day will, in many of its members, be condemned by them.

But the wave of feeling soon retired, and there is no reason to believe that more than a transient impression was made. It does not seem certain that the Ninevites knew what ‘God’ they hoped to appease. Probably their pantheon was undisturbed, and their repentance lasted no longer than their fear. Transient repentance leaves the heart harder than before, as half-melted ice freezes again more dense. Let us beware of frost on the back of a thaw. ‘Repentance which is repented of’ is worse than none.

III. We Note The Repentance Of God (Jonah 3:10).

Mark the recurrence of the word ‘turn,’ employed in Jonah 3:8–10 in reference to men and to God. Mark the bold use of the word ‘repent,’ applied to God, which, though it be not applied to the Ninevites in the previous verses, is implied in every line of them. The same expression is found in Exodus 32:14, which may be taken as the classical passage warranting its use. The great truth involved is one that is too often lost sight of in dealing with prophecy; namely, that all God’s promises and threatenings are conditional. Jeremiah learned that lesson in the house of the potter, and we need to keep it well in mind. God threatens, precisely in order that He may not have to perform His threatenings. Jonah was sent to Nineveh to cry, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shah be overthrown,’ in order that it might not be overthrown. What would have been the use of proclaiming the decree, if it had been irreversible? There is an implied ‘if’ in all God’s words. ‘Except ye repent’ underlies the most absolute threatenings of evil. ‘If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end,’ is presupposed in the brightest and broadest promises of good.

The word ‘repent’ is denied and affirmed to have application to God. He is not ‘a son of man, that He should repent,’ inasmuch as His immutability and steadfast purpose know no variableness. But just because they cannot change, and He must ever be against them that do evil, and ever bless them that turn to Him with trust, therefore He changes His dealings with us according to our relation to Him, and because He cannot repent, or be other than He was and is, ‘repents of the evil that He had said that He would do’ unto sinners when they repent of the evil that they have done against Him, inasmuch as He leaves His threatening unfulfilled, and ‘does it not.’

So we might almost say that the purpose of this book of Jonah is to teach the possibility and efficacy of repentance, and to show how the penitent man, heathen or Jew, ever finds in God changed dealings corresponding to his changed heart. The widest charity, the humbling lesson for people brought up in the blaze of revelation, that dwellers in the twilight or in the darkness are dear to God and may be more susceptible of divine impressions than ourselves, the rebuke of all pluming ourselves on our privileges, the boundlessness of God’s mercy, are among the other lessons of this strange book; but none of them is more precious than its truly evangelic teaching of the blessedness of true penitence, whether exemplified in the renegade Prophet returning to his high mission, or the fierce Ninevites humbled and repentant, and finding mercy from the God of the whole earth.^[3]

Why Do People Repent?

Jonah repented, survived in the belly of the fish, washed ashore, and went to Nineveh to preach. He traveled into the city and began to preach: “In forty days, Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

To Jonah’s shock, the people neither laughed nor laid hands on him. Instead, the entire city responded. The Hebrew word for “repent” (shub—to turn) occurs four times in verses 8–10, and that is the striking, central message of this passage. Against all expectations, the powerful, violent city of Nineveh put on sackcloth—a sign of mass repentance. And they did so “from the greatest of them to the least” (verse 5), from the top to the bottom of the social spectrum. How could this have happened?

Historians have pointed out that about the time of Jonah’s mission, Assyria had experienced a series of famines, plagues, revolts, and eclipses, all of which were seen as omens of far worse things to come. Some have argued that this was God’s way of preparing the ground for Jonah. “This state of affairs would have made both rulers and subjects unusually attuned to the message of a visiting prophet.”1  So there was some sociological explanation for this response.

While such a movement toward God always has social aspects, since we are embodied beings who live in particular places, cultures, and historical times, nevertheless such factors cannot wholly explain or account for this kind of repentance. Ellul is amazed at what happened. “Nineveh, with its wholly war-like orientation accuses itself of violence (3:8). . . . Nineveh, proud of its power and invincibility, ceases to be itself when it thus humbles itself.”2

In January of 1907 a revival broke out at a Bible conference in Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea. Those attending the conference came under deep conviction of sin, especially when a preacher called them to repent of their traditional hatred of the Japanese.3  Of course, the Korean Christians had accepted the fundamental truths of the gospel of grace, and yet these had not sunk in deeply enough for them to forgive the Japanese. They felt morally superior to a nation they saw as oppressive and cruel. In the light of the gospel, however, the Koreans at the conference saw that they stood before God as equally sinful and condemned with all other human beings, yet rescued by the sheer and costly grace of Christ. This drained away their pride and bitterness.

They returned to their homes with a new willingness to repent of wrongdoing. People went house to house repairing relationships and returning stolen articles. The worship services were filled with a new power.4  The result was explosive growth of the church. The Methodist church, for example, doubled in membership size in a single year. There have been many such spiritual movements across the world in the history of the church.

How do we explain such phenomena? Many have pointed out that the Japanese-Korean pacts of 1904 and 1907 imposed Japanese rule on the country. Did this sociopolitical background open many Koreans to a Christian message that offered resources for addressing ethnic hatred, for repenting and offering forgiveness? Yes, but can such factors fully explain what happened? Of course not, since these conditions occur constantly in the world and they do not have results such as these.

Repentance is always a work of God (2 Timothy 2:25).

Preaching Justice

However, we must not be too quick to liken Nineveh’s “turning” to the revivals of modern church history. While it says they “believed God” (verse 5), there is no indication that the Ninevites came into a covenant relationship with the God of Israel. The word the Ninevites use is “God,” the generic word Elohim, rather than the personal, covenant name, “Yahweh,” that the Lord uses with his people Israel. There is no mention of the residents of Nineveh forsaking their gods and idols. They did not offer sacrifices to the Lord, nor was there any rite of circumcision. This is why almost all commentators agree that Jonah did not successfully convert the Ninevites.5 What, then, was really happening?

The king of Nineveh understood God to be saying that each citizen of the city must “forsake his evil way and the violence that he plans toward others” (verse 8). Violence is “the arbitrary infringement of human rights. . . . Of such social injustice Nineveh was blatantly guilty.”6 Assyrian imperialism, cruelty, and social injustice were condemned by other Hebrew prophets as well (Isaiah 10:13ff; Nahum 3:1,19).

This call to repent of oppression and injustice fits with the messages of other biblical prophets in the relatively few times they spoke to pagan nations. In Amos 1:1–2:3 the prophet denounced Israel’s neighbors for their imperialism, cruelty and violence, and oppression of the weak. Biblical scholar Christopher J. H. Wright points out that “in the Old Testament . . . where an Israelite addresses pagan nations, the condemnation is typically targeted at their moral and social wickedness.”7  That is what Jonah did as well. His message to Nineveh focused on the city’s social practices, their “deeds” (verse 10), and the call was to change their ways (verse 4).

As we have seen, the Assyrian empire was unusually violent. It slaughtered and enslaved countless people and oppressed the poor. It was renowned for its injustice, imperialism, and oppression of other countries. Yet the text shows that the impulse toward exploitation and abuse was also eating away at the fabric of Nineveh’s society. It wasn’t merely that the Assyrians as a nation were oppressing other nations, but individuals were violent toward one another, poisoning social relationships. “Let every person forsake . . . the violence that he plans toward others” (verse 8). The wealthy enslave the poor while the poor strike back through crime, and middle-class people cheat one another. It may be that the repentance “from the greatest of them to the least” (verse 5) shows the beginning of a reconciliation of the various strata of society.

Many argue that while the reported summary of Jonah’s message to Nineveh was a bare threat (verse 4), it is reasonable to infer that he gave them more information about God than is mentioned in the text. That is almost certainly true. They did, for example, turn to God in the hope that he would hear them. This makes it likely that at least they questioned Jonah to find out if there was any hope of God’s forgiveness.8

Nevertheless, the biblical text does not tell us that God sent Jonah with the purpose of converting the populace into a saving, covenant relationship with him. He was warning them about their evil, violent behavior and the inevitable consequences if they did not relent and change.

And while we know from the rest of the Bible that changing social behavior is not sufficient for salvation, and that God cannot give final forgiveness without faith and an atoning sacrifice (cf. Numbers 14:18; Hebrews 9:22), nevertheless, God’s response is instructive. Though the people of Nineveh do not forsake their idols and sacrifice to him, God in his mercy relents from his threat to destroy the city. For the time being, he expresses favor in response to the city’s intention and effort at social reform.

Preaching God’s Wrath

What kind of ministry brought about this remarkable result? Some commentators jump to the conclusion that Jonah preached salvation through faith and the city’s response was a great revival. However, as we have seen, there is no evidence of conversion to faith in the Lord. Others conclude that modern-day readers should emulate Jonah by providing social services in cities rather than doing evangelism.9 However, Jonah did not go to Nineveh just to quietly do social work. He preached the threat of divine judgment loudly in God’s name.

What actually happened doesn’t fit into either of these categories. There was a coming together of different warring classes and individuals within the body politic in order to bring about social healing and a more just society.1 0 And yet it was the result of a preaching ministry that proclaimed the wrath of the biblical God explicitly.

It is hard for us to even imagine today the ministry that happened in Nineveh. Usually those who are most concerned about working for social justice do not also stand up and speak clearly about the God of the Bible’s judgment on those who do not do his will. On the other hand, those who publicly preach repentance most forcefully are not usually known for demanding justice for the oppressed.

Nevertheless, this text encourages us to do both. In this instance, God seeks social reform through his prophet, a change in the Ninevites’ exploitative and violent behavior. Yet he also directs that the city should be told about a God of wrath who will punish sin. Ellul writes: [Jonah] . . . did not become free to select for himself what he would say to men. He did not go to them to tell them about his experiences. . . . He did not decide the content of his preaching. . . . Thus . . . our witness is fast bound to the word of God. The greatest saint or mystic can say nothing of value unless it is based solely on God’s word.1 1

We seldom see ministries that are equally committed to preaching the Word fearlessly and to justice and care for the poor, yet these are theologically inseparable. In Isaiah’s time Israelite society was marked by greedy exploitation and imperialistic abuses of power, rather than by generous, peaceful service and cooperation. This led to social breakdown and psychological alienation. However, when Isaiah looked at this unjust society he saw “Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another . . . they devour . . . but are not satisfied. . . . Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh . . .” (Isaiah 9:19–21).1 2  Isaiah did not see social injustice as merely meriting God’s wrath. Rather, the misery and social breakdown, the economic and political “devouring” of one another (yet the inner emptiness and discontent it brings) is all actually the outworking of God’s wrath.

Imagine if a house were on fire but you couldn’t see the flames. As the house crumbled and collapsed, you would wonder what was happening. Only if someone enabled you to see the fire would the dissolution of the building make sense.

Without understanding the wrath of God, it is impossible to fully understand why so many societies, empires, institutions, and lives break down. Referring to this passage in Isaiah, Alec Motyer wrote that in a world created by a good God, evil and injustice are “inherently self-destructive.” The resulting social disintegration “expresses [God’s] wrath. He presides over the cause and effect processes he has built into creation so they are expressions of his holy rule of the world.”1 3  That is, God has created the world so that cruelty, greed, and exploitation have natural, disintegrative consequences that are a manifestation of his anger toward evil.

To work against social injustice and to call people to repentance before God interlock theologically.

Martin Luther King Jr. did not make the mistake of separating the call for social justice from belief in a God of judgment. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” he responds to the question of how he can advocate civil disobedience, the breaking of some laws, in this case laws of racial segregation. He answered that some laws are unjust.

One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.” Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.1 4

Here there is no separation between working for justice in a society and declaring the displeasure of a just God. In his great “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King did not appeal to modern, secular individualism. He did not say, “All should be free to define their own meaning in life and moral truth.” Rather he quoted Scripture and called his society to “Let [God’s] justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).1 5

The Mystery of Mercy

Even though Jonah let the Ninevites know that forgiveness was possible, that wasn’t the main thrust of his preaching. The summary that the text gives us of his sermons was not “In forty days, Nineveh might be overthrown” but “In forty days, Nineveh shall be overthrown!” That was what Jonah enthusiastically wanted and predicted. He enjoyed preaching wrath. He did it with glee, not tears, because he couldn’t wait for God’s hammer to fall on them.

But God responded with mercy. “When God examined their deeds, how they forsook their evil way, he renounced the disaster he had said he would do to them, and he did not carry it out” (verse 10). At this, Jonah is plunged back into the depths of his despair and disappointment with God. His response is surprising to the reader, and it sets up the remarkable final chapter of Jonah’s encounter with the Lord.

Doing Justice, Preaching Wrath

1. 1. Daniel C. Timmer, A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation, and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah

(Dow ners G rove, I L: I nterVarsity Press, 2011), p. 94.

2. 2. Jacques Ellul, The Judgment of Jonah (G rand Rapids, MI : Eerdmans, 1971), p. 97.
3. 3. See Thomas S. Kidd, “The North Korean Revival of 1907,” The G ospel Coalition, May 2, 2017, w w w .thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/the-north-korean-revival-of-1907/; and Y oung-Hoon Lee, “Korean Pentecost: The G reat Revival of 1907,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies 4, no. 1 (2001): 73–83.
4. 4. See William N. Blair and Bruce Hunt, The Korean Pentecost and the Sufferings That Followed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977).
5. 5. P. Trible w rites: “The narrator reports the radical theological turning of the city, though not its conversion to

Y ahw ism.” P. Trible, “Jonah,” in The New I nterpreter’s Bible, vol. 7 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), p. 513.

6. 6. Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel (G rand Rapids, MI : Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1976), p. 225.
7. 7. Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Dow ners G rove, I L: I nterVarsity Press, 2013), p. 185.
8. 8. See Timmer, Gracious and Compassionate God, p. 41.
9. 9. Old Testament scholar H. L. Ellison concludes that modern-day readers should learn from Jonah that Christians are called to go to the cities and places of great need and become involved in “social services” that are “not simply . . . a means to an evangelistic end.” See R. E. Clements, “The Purpose of the Book of Jonah,” Supplement to Vetus Testamentum 28 (1975): 18, quoted in Baker, Alexander, and Waltke, O badiah, Jonah, and Micah, p. 86.
10. 10. See Trible, “Jonah,” p. 516, w here she speaks of the repentance of Nineveh across the classes as “addressing systemic concerns,” as an encouragement for those w ho desire “corporate and social” healing for cities.
11. 11. Ellul, The Judgment of Jonah, p. 88.
12. 12. The translation is the English Standard Version.
13. 13. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of I saiah: An I ntroduction and Commentary (Dow ners G rove, I L: I nterVarsity Press,

1994), p. 109.

14. 14. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963, w w w .africa.upenn.edu/Articles_G en/Letter_Birmingham.html.
15. 15. Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” (speech, Washington DC, August 28, 1963), w w w .americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm.

[1] The word “overthrown” had strong connotations for Jonah. This term was used in connection with the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:21, 25, 29). It was also used in the poetic description of the overthrow of the Egyptians at the exodus (Ex. 15:7). It was also used in Deuteronomy 29:23 in connection with God’s warning of judgment on His people Israel, if they disregard His law. Cf. also 2 Sam. 10:3; 1 Chron. 19:3.

[2] “Before Jonah arrived at this seemingly inpregnable fortress‑city, two plagues had erupted there (in 765 and 759 B.C.) and a total eclipse of the sun occurred on June 15, 763. These were considered signs of divine anger and may help explain why the Ninevites responded so readily to Jonah’s message, around 759.” John Hannah, The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), Vol. 1, Old Testament, p. 1462.

^[3] Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 189–196.