Deeper Commentary

Jonah 3:1 The word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time saying- God's patience is amazing. Jonah failed the first time and was given a second chance, but his failure was used to prepare him. Jonah has several parallels to Elijah, who likewise struggled with spiritual elitism and judgmentalism. He too was sent a second time with his commission to Israel (1 Kings 19:4). Jonah quotes Elijah's words in Jon. 4:3. Perhaps the apostles likewise received a second commission to preach to the Gentiles after resisting that given to them just before the Lord's ascension.

The boat was not far from land- for the sailors tried to row the boat to land. Jonah would have come ashore somewhere on the coasts of Israel. We are left to imagine him walking away up the beach from the dying fish, naked, disfigured by the acids of the fish’s belly, determined to pay his vows of sharing God’s grace with others, getting some clothes, gathering some money, and making his way on camel to Nineveh. In this he is our pattern. In the parable of the two sons, the Lord divides us into two groups- those who respond to a calling to ‘go’ by saying they will, but don’t go; and those who refuse to go but afterwards go. This is clearly an allusion to Jonah. But Jonah is thus made typical of each and every one of us. 

 

Jonah 3:2 Arise, go to Nineveh- Earlier, Jonah had been told the same; but he 'arose' and got a ship to Tarshish (Jon. 1:2,3). He had been bidden by the captain to "arise" and relate with his God (Jon. 1:6). Circumstances repeat in our lives in order to help us do correctly what we were asked to do by God the first time. See on :6.

That great city, and preach to it the message that I give you- The size of the city is mentioned because Jonah was intended to see the tragedy of so many people being lost. And the book of Jonah concludes with this same point (Jon. 4:11). The tragedy of lost humanity ought to impress itself deeply upon us, as we see the lights of a city beneath us from an airplane, or as we see crowds streaming past us on a street. We wonder whether "the message" given was indeed simply limited to what is recorded in :4: "In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!". Perhaps there was also a call to repentance, which Jonah didn't mention because he wanted to see Nineveh destroyed.

Jonah 3:3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh- This time he was obedient, when previously he had been told to arise and go to Nineveh, and had arisen and went to Tarshish (Jon. 1:2,3).

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across- The Old Testament reflects that God has a heart for all humanity- not just Israel. Nineveh was a great city to God, and it grieved Him that it might have to be destroyed (Jonah 3:3)- He even was sensitive to the plight of the animals there. This is how the book concludes- that God saves Nineveh because of His native pity for humanity, concerned about the kids and the cattle, and not simply because they had repented. Nineveh was big to God- in the sense that man is so significant to Him, even very sinful man. The sensitive heart of God becomes all the more sensitive to us, His chosen people. The archeological excavations have found an area of about 100 square kilometers all surrounded by a mighty wall. It was indeed a great city, comprised of three or four smaller towns (Jon. 1:2). It was large enough to contain 120,000 young children (Jon. 4:11), suggesting a city of over half a million, with a high population density.

We enquire of the connection between Jonah's being three days in the fish, and Nineveh being a city of three days journey. The idea was surely that his three days humiliation in the fish was to result in his three days of witness. But we learn from :4 that he seems to have only witnessed for one day. He presents all the way through as the disobedient prophet- whom God used by grace. His message is really 'Don't be like me- but God is so very gracious'.

Jonah 3:4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey- The record seems to stress his reluctance and disobedience. He only started preaching after he had walked for one day within the city, when it took three days to walk across the city; despite the high population density discovered by archaeologists and required by the large figure given for children (see on Jon. 4:11).

 

And he cried out and said- He initially refused to “cry” the message of repentance to Nineveh; he wanted to be an incognito prophet. But an incognito prophet is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. So the Lord brought about a situation in which he desperately “cried” to God; and then told him to go and “cry” to Nineveh. The very same Hebrew words are used about his crying to God and his crying / proclamation to Nineveh (Jonah 1:2; 2:2; 3:2,4). Jonah was forced by circumstance to share his relationship with God with the world around him which he despised. The Lord wants to use us as His candle, and He will arrange situations in life to enable this. The family at Bethany may have been an example of this. The Jews had commanded “that if any man knew where he was, he should shew it” (Jn. 11:57). And “Jesus therefore… came to Bethany” (Jn. 12:1 RV). He purposefully attracted attention to His connection with the Bethany home. And so it was that “much people of the Jews learned that he was there”(Jn. 12:9), and the context makes it clear that this was a source of witness to them (Jn. 12:10,11). The Lord sought to expose their secret discipleship, to take the bucket off their candle. And He will do likewise with us. Jonah is of course the great example.

In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!- I suggested on :2 that Jonah may have purposefully omitted any call to repentance. He wanted the city to be destroyed. "Overthrown" recalls the triple emphasis using the same word that Sodom was "overthrown" (Gen. 19:21,25,29). But Abraham had interceded that it might not be, and we are left to conclude from the record in Gen. 18 that if Abraham had had more spiritual vision, he could have asked God to spare the city for even the sake of one. And God would have heard. But Jonah is exactly the opposite; he didn't intercede for the city, and instead wished its overthrow. "Overthrown", to throw over, can be understood as a hint at repentance. So it could be that this word choice of itself hints at a call to repentance in order to avoid being overthrown.

Historians note the "forty lean years" of Nineveh, a period of natural disasters, famines and revolts. It could be that Jonah's message was at the end of that- as if to say that in 40 days, those 40 lean years would come to their climax in destruction. It was as if they 40 days to repent, a day for a year.

It took Jonah three days to walk through Nineveh (3:3). On the first day in the city, he told them that in 40 days God would destroy them; it follows that by the time he was in the middle of the city he was telling them that they had 37 days left. So too the Jews had between 37 and 40 years notice of the destruction of Jerusalem.

This very brief statement is in fact all Jonah is recorded as saying to Nineveh. But their king and 120,000 people heard it, and repented and were saved. It is the most amazing response to preaching. But that fact is juxtaposed against the fact that Jonah, in his memoirs, is reflecting that he was the most cranky and unpleasant of prophets. He is not recorded as prefacing his message with a "Thus says Yahweh". The hundreds of prophetic messages recorded in the Bible all include something like that. But Jonah doesn't bother. It's as if he doesn't want to give any possible reason for the message to be believed.

The language of overturning recalls Sodom, another sinful city which was in fact overturned (Gen. 19:25; Dt. 29:22). Both cities sinned greatly and this came up before Yahweh (Jonah 1:2; Gen. 18:21). But the similarities are in order to highlight the contrast between Abraham interceding for Sodom, eager for their salvation; and Jonah eagerly wanting their destruction.

We note the LXX has "three days" instead of 40 days. As Jonah was praying in the fish for 3 days, so Nineveh prayed for three days. But Jonah was angry that their prayers for grace were heard. He totally didn't learn that if he had been shown grace, he must show grace to others.

Jonah 3:5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least- It is often commented that Nineveh was ultimately destroyed, and therefore their repentance was insincere. Perhaps so, but God was very sensitive to any repentance and respected it, even if the intensity of repentance was not continued. However, the Lord states clearly that there will be men of Nineveh who arise in judgment at the last day and are accepted into God's Kingdom, along with the Queen of Sheba, whereas the Jews of the Lord's day will be rejected (Mt. 12:41). What knowledge did the Ninevites and the queen of Sheba have? The queen of Sheba had the knowledge of Yahweh’s moral requirements as taught in Solomon’s Proverbs. It’s unclear how much correct theology she was taught; and if correct theology is so critically important, we would expect to hear of Solomon teaching it to her, before reading that she shall arise at the last day and be saved. We don’t read of her going back to her country clutching scrolls of the law of Moses. Maybe she was illiterate. But we read of her awed at the moral appeal of Yahweh worship. Likewise the men of Nineveh heard only a brief message from Jonah- that Yahweh was going to destroy them. We would expect to read of Jonah eagerly expounding true theology to them and giving them scrolls of the writings of Moses and the prophets; but we don’t, and we get the impression he had no interest in sharing Israelite theology with Gentiles anyway. But those men, many of them illiterate and with no access to the written word of Yahweh, shall arise in salvation at the last day. It was the moral appeal of Yahweh and their sense of His claim upon them which made them responsible to His judgment and thereby capable of salvation seeing they accepted that claim. This sets the level of knowledge required for responsibility to judgment, and for salvation, far lower than where many have set it.

Jonah 3:6 The news reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne- We noted on :2 that the word "arise" runs like a theme throughout the book of Jonah. Jonah had been told to "arise" in response to God's word and had not done so (Jon. 1:2,3). The king of Nineveh arose in response to that same Divine word. The idea is to present the Gentiles as more responsive to God's word than even His own prophet, let alone His own people. And the book of Jonah was presumably written by Jonah; in his spiritual maturity, he reflects upon all this, and perceives, and narrates, the paucity of his own response.

 

Took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes- Sackcloth and ashes are Biblically associated with repentance. We wonder why the king did this. Why listen to some wandering Jewish preacher guy who just rocked up with a message of doom, which we can infer he didn't preach very enthusiastically and with no specific call to repentance? The same question arises as to why John the Baptist, who "did no miracle", could get large numbers of Jews to repent. I suggest it was the personality and experience of the preacher which gave credibility to the message. It has been claimed there was an eclipse of the sun around this time, but that passes, and so it was the personality of Jonah, carefully developed by God, which led to Nineveh's repentance. And so it is today; technique and carrots will not elicit real, lasting repentance. So much depends upon personal contact with a preacher who is a credible example; and Jonah, perhaps with bleached skin from his time inside the whale, was proof enough of the reality of Divine judgment as well as Divine grace.

Jonah 3:7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water- The sensitivity of God towards animals which the book of Jonah stresses was reflected in that of the king. The king took seriously the threat of total destruction; he realized that God had in view to destroy the entire city with all that was in it (see on Jon. 4:11). And he therefore wished absolutely everyone and everything within the city, even animals, to reflect repentance. "Proclamation" is the same word translated "cry" in Jon. 1:5, where the Gentile sailors 'cried' to their gods and then ended up crying to Yahweh. The Gentile sailors and the Gentile Ninevites are clearly presented in parallel; Jonah ought to have learnt from the final repentance of the sailors that the Ninevites would likewise respond. His desire for them not to respond is therefore all the more obnoxious. The Hebrew for "decree" is literally 'taste'; it is the same word used for how nobody was to "taste" anything. The idea is that the king perceived or tasted the reality of judgment, and he ordered his people to have the same taste or perception. It could be that the city was saved because of the personal repentance of the king, and his preaching of that. 

Jonah 3:8 But let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn each one from his evil way- There is a sense of mutuality and rapport built up between the preacher and the hearer in all successful preaching. Jonah “cried” to Nineveh (Jonah 1:2; 3:2,4) and they “cried” to God in response to his ‘crying’ to them- the same Hebrew words are used (Jonah 3:5,8). As Jonah cried to God from the belly of the fish, so the Ninevites were inspired- presumably by what he related to them of his own life- to cry mightily to God for undeserved deliverance.

The language here is exactly that of Jeremiah in appealing for Judah to turn from their evil ways and cry to God in repentance in order to avert the planned destruction by Babylon (Jer. 25:5; 36:3,7). Again, Gentile repentance is being held up in contrast to Jewish disobedience. This is quite a theme in Jonah. One function of the book of Jonah is to appeal for God's people to repent, to take an example from the Ninevites. And this is how the Lord uses the book, in appealing for the Israel of His day to repent and avert the planned destruction of AD70. Perhaps Jonah was prophesying after some judgments upon Israel or Judah which the Assyrians were aware of; they perceived the similarities between themselves and God's judged people, and repented. This would have been in line with God's intentions regarding judging His people; that the Gentiles would see it and fear Him because of it. See on :9.

And from the violence that is in his hands- Violence was what Nineveh was ultimately destroyed for (Nah. 2:11,12; 3:1). It was a characteristic of Assyria, as the prophets often mention. They were asked to repent of their lead personal characteristic which they were proud of. To repent of that which has become our own very self definition is so hard; but this is the radical call of God's word.

Jonah 3:9 Who knows- God may change His intended judgments; He frames or plans judgment, but may change from that plan (Jer. 18:11). But we can in no way presume upon this, it is only of His grace; the same phrase is used in this context in 2 Sam. 12:22; Joel 2:14.

Whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger- God does change. It is as simple as that. He is only unchanging in that His grace to the sons of Jacob remains a permanent feature of His character (Mal. 3:6). A God this open and this sensitive to even change His own stated, published intentions was the God known to Moses, who got Him to change His plan of destroying Israel as a nation. But this is the God unknown to all legalistic religion.

So that we might not perish?- This is the word used of Israel's perishing under Divine judgment for their sins (Dt. 4:26 and often). I suggested on :8 that Nineveh may have learnt from the perishing of Israel and therefore repented. It is the same word used of the perishing of the Gentile sailors which was averted because of their repentance and turning to Yahweh (Jon. 1:6,14). Perhaps some of the sailors were Assyrians and had sent word back to Nineveh. The vine likewise perished (Jon. 4:10 s.w.), and the point was that God made to perish that which He had long laboured for, and that perishing was for Jonah's sake. And He did not want to make Nineveh perish because of Jonah's nationalism and elitism.

Jonah 3:10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which He said He would do to them, and He didn’t do it- Their turning led to God's turning. This is how sensitive He is to human repentance, even if He knows that as in the case of some at Nineveh, it will not last long. God does change. Jeremiah is clear that if a nation repents, then outcomes will change (Jer. 18:7-10). Or even without repentance, God's repentances / changes of heart were kindled together (Hos. 11:8). Just as Hosea, madly in love with Gomer, struggled to separate from and judge her as he might and maybe should have done. God repented that He made man upon earth (Gen. 6:6), and had made Saul king (1 Sam. 15:11,35). He changed His plans to destroy Israel (Ex. 32:6) because of intercession (as in Abraham for Sodom or Am. 7:3,6). The openness of God to dialogue is seen in His agreement to extend Hezekiah's life (Is. 38:1-5). God only does not change in that His grace to the sons of Jacob never changes. God therefore presents as heartbroken when human response fails- "Surely they will reverence My Son". He hoped His sons would turn out fine men and they did not. He looked for good fruit in His vineyard, but there was bad fruit. I suggest He enters into our experience by as it were limiting His omniscience, as He clearly limits His omnipotence, so that Israel "limited the Holy One of Israel". The idea that God is outside time and space is true only so far; He wishes to enter relationship with us. And so He accomodates Himself to us. If He exercises His ability to totally know future outcomes, then His emotional response to our choices rather loses its validity. The whole range of language expressing Divine hurt and surprise and hope is militated against if He foreknows everything. This is what gives relationship with God the ultimate zing, or real time intimacy. And the nature and future of that relationship is in our hands, not His- for He will remain faithful and engaged. Repentance and prayer change things; we can influence the future. We balk at how mere man can do this. But this is the huge significance to what it means to be human, made in God's image and partners, co-workers with Him. It also gives another window into the huge stakes there were in Gethsemane and on the cross.

God's 'change' over Nineveh shows for all time that Bible prophecy can be conditional, even when the conditions [in this case, repentance] aren't mentioned. Is. 46:10 and a few other such passages may appear to contradict that, but the context is of God's desire to save His people: "declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure". And that pleasure is defined in the same section, and throughout Isaiah, as the salvation of His people. That desire to save is the context of Malachi's "I am Yahweh and change not". Likewise Jer. 29:11: "For I know the thoughts [Heb. intentions] that I think towards you, says Yahweh, thoughts [intentions] of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future". But despite that, the wicked amongst Israel were as the troubled sea and had no peace; their dogged exercise of their freewill thwarted the intentions of a God who only wanted to save, whose will is that none perish (2 Pet. 3:9)- even though many do.

How was it that one unknown man could turn up in a huge city and make all of them believe that judgment was really coming, and they really must repent? Why ever listen to this one man? He must surely have told them the story of his own disobedience, experience of judgment, and gracious salvation. There was something about him that proved to that city that this had really happened; that there was and is a God of judgment above. Perhaps the “sign” of the prophet Jonah was in that 3 days in the fish had bleached his hair, made him thin, making him look arrestingly different. Whatever it was, his antitypical experience of fellowship with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus was enough to arrest a whole city in its tracks. Again, the more real, the more credible.

Mt. 12:41 says that "The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation", Israel of the first century. We must read in an ellipsis, ‘[the people of] this generation’. For individuals and not entire generations will be judged. 'Standing up' is possibly an allusion to the resurrection of the responsible at the last day, but more likely the figure is of a judge arising in judgment to state the verdict; which in this case, is condemnation. The Lord in Mt. 12:27 had spoken of how the children of the Jews would judge those Jews in the last day. The Lord clearly seems to envisage the judgment process as having a public dimension to it. The fact one person was spiritually responsive, given a similar or harder set of circumstances than what another has had who did not respond, will therefore as it were be the judgment of the person who didn’t respond. It clearly won’t be merely an awards ceremony nor a yes / no decision, but rather will context and precedent from others be taken into account. ‘If they responded and you did not, given similar circumstances, then they will condemn you’- that seems to be the Lord’s reasoning. If Ninevite men will be saved, it seems logical to assume that they must have been pastored beyond their initial immediate repentance. So one tends to believe the legends that attest that a repentant Jonah remained in Nineveh and pastored the converts until his death.

He says that the Ninevites repented "At the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, one greater than Jonah is here!". This effectively is a noun, referring to "the preaching" as in the message of Jonah, and yet also Jonah was himself the preaching or the message. And that was why he was so credible as a preacher. What he preached was judgment to come, and the Ninevites repented on hearing it. The Lord was teaching not only judgment to come, but was making specific the call to repentance implicit within that message, and urging people to accept God's grace. Hence those who heard Him were even more guilty before the Ninevites. Jonah's preaching occurred after he had been three days within the whale; after the Lord had been three days in the earth, He too would preach mightily, through the ministry of those 'in Him' who were effectively His representatives and appealed on His behalf. But He reasons as if that appeal was already being made- as if in essence He had already passed through the cross and resurrection. This is not the only time He reasons in this way; in proclaiming Himself Lord, the serpent lifted up on the pole, the One who had already "overcome the world", He reasoned as if the successful outcome of His death had already occurred. Such was His faith that He would come forth triumphant.

Their repentance according to Mt. 12:41 was so sincere that it lasted a lifetime; for at the last day, they shall arise in judgment over the Jews of the first century and condemn them. Some of the Ninevites will be in God's Kingdom and accepted at the day of judgment.