“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”” (v1,2) we are not told whether this was immediately or where he was when The LORD spoke to him.
God is so gracious; He is the God of the second chance. God was quite willing to forgive Jonah for his rebellion upon his repentance. We can be used of God even though we have failed miserably previously. God is patient and did not give up on Jonah, often known as the reluctant prophet.
Note there is a slight difference in the call of God. Initially he was told to ‘cry out against the city’ but this time he is told ‘to preach the message that I tell you.’ Seems to be saying that God will tell him what to say when he gets there.
Note the difference this time – “So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”” (v3,4)
Jonah went almost immediately having realised that his earlier reluctance was futile. Nineveh was a large city, three days journey, either around it or across it. Evidently The Lord told him what to say because he cried out against the city and said that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown in judgment. The word ‘overthrown’ indicates destruction as referred to in Genesis 19 regarding Sodom and Gomorrah. He clearly knew that there was a time-limit so that must have been given to him by The Lord.
There was a response from the people (v5-9) for they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth. Even the king did and caused it to be told throughout the city by his command. He went on to say that everyone should turn from their evil ways and violence with the hope that God would turn away from His fierce anger. These are acts of repentance following a recognition of Almighty God and crying out to Him confessing sin and for forgiveness. Even their animals were to be covered in sackcloth. Repentance is a complete turnaround, not just being sorry. I have often said that if I had a pound for every person who said they were sorry in court (where I worked for over forty years) and they would not do it again, I would be a very rich man. Most of them did come back.
They were to mean business by ‘crying out mightily to God’ and ‘turn from their evil way and violence.’ Jonah could speak from experience having cried out to God from inside the fish after his disobedience.
“Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” (v10)
God responded to their repentance and relented from judgment upon them. This does not make God’s warnings of no effect. We are told that if we do not repent of our sin we shall die, but if we do repent, we shall be saved and receive eternal life. There is no inconsistency here. There are similar words in Jeremiah 18:7,8. It shows God’s justice, mercy and grace and it does not show that God got it wrong. Is not this the essence of all Gospel preaching?
We see that God did judge Nineveh some 150 years later and it is recorded for us in the book of the Prophet Nahum. Evidently the future generations of Nineveh did not repent and believe in the One True God, and God, having delayed His judgment upon them, now carried it out.
