(Study No. 4) Chapter 3
The Declaration of God’s Message through His Prophet
(Vs.1-2) “Then the Word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
God is the God of second chances! He came to Jonah the second time. God’s message had not changed but Jonah had changed. God’s Word cannot be changed. Once He has released His Word it never returns to Him void or without accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it. As He Himself has declared; “For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).
God’s purposes can never be thwarted by man or by demons, or by fallen spiritual entities in the unseen spiritual realm or by Satan himself. As Job declared after He had seen how sovereign God is; “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42: 2). Jonah had learnt this lesson. He was now willing to go and to do what God had called and commissioned him to do. Again in this situation we see how Jonah can represent Israel’s attitude to the Gentile nations which will change when the Israeli remnant co-reign with the Messiah from Jerusalem over the Gentile nations after He has returned and rescued the remnant out of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble at the end of this present age (Jeremiah 30:5-10).
It wasn’t easy for Jonah a Jewish man to take the Word of God to a Gentile nation that was hostile to Israel. It is interesting to note that in the New Testament we find that the apostle Peter, a Jewish man, was sent by the Lord Jesus to a Gentile and a Roman Centurion at that. The Romans were Israel’s conquerors and by and large enemies of the Jewish people.
Even in the New Testament the apostles found it difficult to accept that God could save the Gentiles. In the Book of Acts we are told that Peter went down to Joppa, the same city port that Jonah went to in order to escape God’s call. Just as Jonah was reluctant to take God’s Word to the Assyrians so Peter was somewhat reluctant to take the message of God’s salvation to the Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’ house also located at Joppa.
After the Lord Jesus spoke to Peter in a vision he obeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit. While Peter was preaching the gospel of the kingdom and extoling the person and work of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit suddenly fell upon Cornelius and those gathered in his home. Peter and those Messianic Jewish New Covenant believers with him were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in other languages and praising God. These Gentiles were born again by the Holy Spirit, baptised with the power of the Holy Spirit, and subsequently baptised. They received the package deal!
After this had happened Peter and those Messianic believers with him realised that the same experience he and the 120 in the upper room had received on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem was the same encounter with the Holy Spirit as these Gentiles had received. God clearly revealing to Peter and the other Messianic believers that God indeed wanted to save Gentiles as much as He did the Jews. After Peter had returned to Jerusalem and reported to the other apostles what had happened they realised that God wanted to save the Gentiles. See (Acts 10-11:18).
Sometime later when the apostles at Jerusalem, under the head bishop James being the first among equals, they realised from Peter’s testimony and from the prophet Amos that it was always Gods intention to save Gentiles (wild branches) and to spiritually graft them into the Commonwealth of Israel (the Olive Tree). See (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:6-21) (Romans 11:17-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22). God wanted to save the people of Nineveh and He also wanted to teach Jonah that He loved all men and wanted all men to be saved. Peter also had to realise this as well. Now let’s continue…
(Vs.3) “Jonah obeyed the Word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city-a visit required three days.”
When we obey God’s Word we may not always see what He wants to do but we must be willing to obey what He says to do, and do it without question. This was the attitude of the first century Body of Messiah that was regularly led by the Holy Spirit who in turn revealed God’s will to them through the Old Testament scriptures, and through the testimony and letters of the apostles.
Any word God gives will never contradict His Word. Today we have the complete canon of scripture and the Holy Spirit, being the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from God the Father and will never lead us into doctrinal error or into un-Biblical experiences (John 15:26-27; 16:12-15). The blessed Holy Spirit will enable us to draw out from the Word of God what He is saying and enlighten us as to what it means and also reveal to us the thoughts, the feelings and the purposes of the Messiah our Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).
God saw that Nineveh had great potential and wanted to bring the Ninevites into a covenant relationship with Himself, and He has not changed where Gentiles are concerned. As we read in both Testaments; “Whoever shall call upon the name of the LORD will be saved!” He is the God of the Jews and the Gentiles and makes no distinction between them as Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:28-30). Our Triune God does not want anyone to perish but wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Peter 3:9).
Now Nineveh in the time of Jonah was a huge fortified city. Nineveh was a vast city, estimated to have covered an area of roughly 750 hectares (about 1,900 acres). It was surrounded by a 12-kilometer (7.5 mile) long fortification wall. It took three days walk to go all through the city from one end to the other. For Jonah it must have been an absolutely daunting place to have to preach in its streets and yet he was obedient to his call and commission from the LORD. After his experience in the belly of the fish, and his decent into Sheol, Jonah feared God more than he feared man. It is interesting to note that William Booth of the Salvation Army once said; “I wish I could dangle my preachers by a rope over hell for one week.” And then we read…
(Vs.4) “On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
Jonah’s message to the Ninevites was very brief, calling the whole city to her about God’s nature and purposes. It was a message of holiness before the LORD. Wickedness and violence was very prevalent in the city. Because of its wickedness in God’s sight He was ready to judge them and bring them to destruction. Jonah did not preach repentance but just warned them of God’s impending judgement and nothing else. This was more than sufficient in God’s book to bring the whole city to a place of repentance.
Often we want to shy clear of speaking about wrath and judgement and seek to bring people comfort and try not to make people feel disturbed. The unsaved and backsliders need to hear clearly and succinctly without embellishment what their way of thinking and reasoning will bring upon them. If you look at all of the prophets, the apostles, the Lord Jesus and the scriptures we have today in both testaments, they all preached judgement first before they preached mercy.
When you look at all of the men God has used down through Church history such as William Booth, John Wesley, George Whitfield, D.L. Moody, R.A. Torrey and many others they all firstly preached judgement and the wrath to come and the need to thoroughly repent before God before they preached mercy and forgiveness. If the unsaved have no realisation about judgement and hell and the eternal lake of Fire they will never appreciate the mercy and forgiveness of God. Now Jonah was doing something very dangerous and yet very courageous. He must have known that the God who delivered him from the belly of the fish and brought him up from Sheol would most certainly bring him out of Nineveh alive. God had commanded him to go and did not even tell him if he would actually survive.
For us who seek to rightly divide the Word of God and not to add to it or to take away from it or embellish it need to remember how the LORD has looked after us in the past and that nothing can happen to us until we have fulfilled His will on earth and we need to be praying to this end. You know brothers and sisters that when you join the army they do guarantee you will not be wounded or even killed. In God’s service many today are laying down their lives as they preach the Word of God. In many churches if their pastors preached hell and judgement and the need for holy living alongside God’s grace and mercy, they would be censured and in some cases asked to leave the church. There is a balance of cause in this matter. God wants balance but not compromise. These are two different words.
We read in God’s Word; “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight” (Proverbs 11:1). If one is only preaching most of the time about hell and judgement and sin while minimizing God’s mercy and grace, then it is a false balance that God does not approve of. On the other hand if one is only preaching most of the time about love and forgiveness and ‘acceptance’ while avoiding talking about sin or calling it by another name that is palatable to the hearers, then this too is a false balance that God does not approve of.
It is written in scripture that “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:1). We see this interaction at the cross. God’s mercy for us as sinners based on the truth of His Word showing the need for righteousness which no of us can ever produce being paid for by our substitute by the righteous one the Messiah our Lord Jesus. He who knew no sin became a sacrifice for our sin with our sin in order that we might become the righteous ones of God with the Messiah’s righteousness.
At the cross a divinely appointed exchange took place. God was treating His Son as if He had sinned, even though He was without sin, and treating us who by birth and nature are sinners as righteous even though we are not righteous. This is activated in our lives through repentance and faith, and by that same faith we are justified before God and have credited to our account in heaven the very righteousness of the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Romans 3:21-31). The balance is found in preaching righteousness with truth, and a balance between judgement and mercy, between sin and holiness.
In the case of Jonah he did not preach or even mention the need to repent. He made a proclamation that “in forty days Nineveh was going to be overthrown, overturned or destroyed”. That was the message! Nothing was added to it or taken away from it! We are not told that Jonah proclaimed anything else. Sometimes God will tell His servant to preach about sin and judgement while at other times He will tell them to preach about forgiveness of sin and mercy from God. Having said this there will always be the balance between righteousness and peace, between sin and the need for righteousness. Jonah’s obedience was a result of his faith. It was the faith that produces obedience (Romans 1:5; 16:26). The Bible recognizes only this type of faith.
Well once Jonah had made the proclamation of impending judgement the blessed Holy Spirit went to work convicting the Ninevites of their sin and wicked ways and their need to change their ways. And so we read…
(Vs.5) “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”
They believed in God as the judge! God supernaturally revealed Himself to the Ninevites at every level of society. They in fact proclaimed their faith by their actions. Scripture is clear that all men have some spiritual awareness of God in creation but because of sin they have chosen not to seek Him but to live as they choose to live in sin and rebellion (Romans 1:18-32). The righteousness of God and His judgements always requires a quick response. Fasting and sackcloth was the visible outwards evidence that they had been spiritually transformed deep down on the inside. Their faith produced obedience. It was the same faith that Abraham had in God, and Abraham was a moon worshipper from Ur of the Chaldees before God revealed Himself to him as the one who created the moon and Abraham became a worshipper of God. We read where Abraham believed God and God credited His righteousness to Abraham because of his faith (Genesis 15:6) (Romans 4:3) (James 2:23).
(Vs.6) “When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.”
When God revives a city or a nation He shows no favouritism. Whether rich or poor or living in the lap of luxury or as a political leader, or as a king God expects them to repent. The king arose from his throne which was his place of authority and control. He divested himself of his royal robes which set him apart from others. He like all of his subjects covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust, humbled by the hand of God Himself. He too like his subjects was repenting in dust and ashes. When the Lord Jesus mentioned this event involving Jonah He clearly said that the people of Nineveh repented before God implying they had received God’s mercy (Mathew 12:41). Jonah’s proclamation was forty days with no promise with any assurance. All the Ninevites knew was they had better change their ways or else!
In light of the New Testament we know that repentance leads to eternal life in God’s Kingdom (Acts 11:18). The message of the prophets, the apostles and the Messiah our Lord Jesus was repentance and faith for the forgiveness of sin. Repentance always came before spiritual transformation and refreshing from the presence of our Triune God in heaven (Acts 3:19). It was through repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus the Messiah that one received God’s salvation (Acts 20:21) (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). We do not see this here in the Book of Jonah, never the less the spiritual reality is the same. Without firstly repenting, there cannot be forgiveness of sin and spiritual transformation deep down on the inside (2 Corinthians 5:17). And then we read…
(Vs.7-9) “Then he (the king) issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. “But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
The King set the pattern for the people. Would that we had godly governments today like the king of Nineveh. One of the things that happened under the revivals of John Wesley and William Booth, both men whom God used in saving England at the time they lived even affected many of those in government. The early Methodists and the Salvation Army changed society for the better. People stopped drinking and sleeping around, crime diminished, justice prevailed in many courts and in high places. Backsliders were spiritually restored. Dead churches became enclaves of evangelism and discipleship. Evangelical Bible based missionary societies were born, souls were saved and repentance, hell, judgement, holiness of heart and life, righteous living, mercy, grace and atonement and cleansing by the blood of Messiah, was paramount in preaching from pulpits and in the open air. Educational institutions were spiritually awakened, businesses became employers of born again believers, and Christianity was on the curriculum in many schools and universities. It was said that the revival under John Wesley and the Methodists saved England from a ‘French style’ revolution.
Now notice in the case of Nineveh there was no promises made but in their repentance they sought God’s grace. While they had to be covered on the outside with sackcloth, the spiritual reality was that they urgently called on God, they gave up their evil ways and violence and hoped in that God might relent and with compassion turn his fierce anger away so that they would not perish. In light of the New Covenant we have the assurance that “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be saved!”
(Vs.10) “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways; He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.”
God is more willing to have mercy on a sinner than to judge him or her, such is His heart towards all He has created both man and beast and the environment itself. As we read in the Psalms; “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion. The LORD is good to all; His compassion rests on all He has made” (Psalm 145:8-9).
God is looking for people who will repent, who are willing to have God change them deep down on the inside in order to love and serve Him. Repentance is turning away from a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting way of life to a Messiah loving, Messiah accepting way of life calling on God to work in us that which we cannot do for ourselves. See (Ephesians 2:1-10). Jonah had changed outwardly and come to the place where God wanted him to be, to do what God wanted him to do, and to say what God wanted him to say, but had his attitude towards the Ninevites changed? God saw the deeds of the people of Nineveh and He responded favourably towards them when He saw their genuine heartfelt repentance accompanied by faith. It is interesting to note than when the Lord Jesus the Messiah wrote His seven letters to seven Churches in Revelation that seven times He said “I know your deeds!” He was looking for their deeds as the outcome of their faith and it is the same today for the wider Body of Messiah. Because Jonah was faithful to say what God wanted him to say there was a deep heartfelt change in the people, in the king and throughout the whole vast city of Nineveh!
