Jonah: Chapter 3

Jonah  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  30:36
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THE SETUP FOR CHAPTER 3

We continue our journey through the upside down story of Jonah. A story where people who aren’t followers of Yahweh call out to Him and offer sacrifices to Him and Jonah, a prophet of Yahweh, who runs from Him. A story where God speaks to a fish. Last week we focused on Jonah’s prayer. But he didn’t even speak to God until he had tried death as a means of escape and even then, his life was spared by being swallowed by the fish God would speak to. Jonah finally decides to go where God is calling him, but as we will see the irony and comedy of this upside down story continues in Chapter 3.
As we begin chapter 3 we see that God gives Jonah a second chance and this time the prophet has a different response. The first time Yahweh spoke to Jonah, he arose and ran, but this time he arose and went.

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.

Let’s think about some of the important elements of this story for a second so that we can see how our own story parallels Jonah’s. First, we have Yahweh. The all knowing, merciful and just God who rules in heaven and created the earth and the sea. Second, we have Jonah who is a prophet of Yahweh. In other words, he has devoted his life to serving God and proclaiming God’s truth to people wherever God calls him to go. Then, we have Nineveh.
Nineveh is repeatedly referred to as 2 things. First, Nineveh is referred to as is evil. Nineveh is described as a bad place where their wickedness has come up before God. It is a city founded by bloodshed and part of the Assyrian Empire, who would later destroy Israel.
Second, scripture calls it a “great city”. Literally translated as “Great unto God”. This largely refers to it’s size. When you count the total number of people in Nineveh, some scholars think the city had about 600k people, but others claim the number was closer to 300k. Comparatively, US cities with about 300k people include: St. Louis, Missouri; Greensboro, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Paul, Minnesota; Lexington, Kentucky; Corpus Christi, Texas. Nineveh’s was just under 8 miles across, however many people think that if you include its surrounding suburbs outside of the city walls or even take into account traveling through the different areas of the city it would be about 60 miles of travel.
Even though “Great unto God” refers mostly to it’s size, the wording is also intended to make you pause and think about why the city would be important to God. After reading through the end of the book of Jonah, we know that the people of Nineveh are also important to God. He cares for them. This phrase, “Great unto God” also can mean important to Him. In his book, “Form and Meaning”, Dr. Jonathan Magonet talks about this phrase as being what he calls a “growing phrase” in scripture. It is a technique of thematic repetition that adds words to phrases as they appear throughout a book in the bible, with each addition giving further clarification to the theme’s significance in the book.

Arise, go to Nineveh the great city

Arise, go to Nineveh the great city

Nineveh was an exceedingly great city

“At first we know only of Nineveh’s size and its wickedness that has arisen to God… But when in chapter 3 Jonah comes to the city, then it is revealed as being a great city “to God.” As yet we don’t know whether this only concerns its great evil (as in 1:2) and its imminent punishment, or if the phrase implies some other relationship to God. It’s only in chapter 4, which ends with God’s question, that the fullness of the implications of the city’s relationship to God and even its size is spelled out: the myriads who don’t know their right from left hand and all their cattle.” — MAGONET, FORM AND MEANING: LITERARY TECHNIQUES IN THE BOOK OF JONAH, 32-33.
So God cares about the people in the city and the city is also very large. Large enough to take 3 days to walk across. Here is a bonus little bit of information about Nineveh. The mention of 3 days also causes you to remember the 3 day/night journey Jonah had in the fish. In the semitic dialect used in ancient Assyria, known as Akkadian, the name “Nineveh” sounds like “Nina,” a river goddess symbolized by a fish. Listen to this quote by Yael Shemesh in the book, “‘And Many Beasts’ (Jonah 4:11): The Function and Status of Animals in the Book of Jonah.”
“If the thesis of a link between the name of the city and the fish is correct, the story incorporates an ironic play on words that enhances readers’ enjoyment: Jonah tries to flee in the opposite direction, to get as far as possible from “Fish City” and avoid performing his mission. But the Lord intervenes and sees to it that he winds up in a fish all the same—first a marine creature and then the metropolis.” — YAEL SHEMESH, “ ‘AND MANY BEASTS’ (JONAH 4:11): THE FUNCTION AND STATUS OF ANIMALS IN THE BOOK OF JONAH,” P. 12.
That isn’t crucial, I just find it interesting and funny. But getting back to Chapter 3, similar to Christ followers today Jonah has surrendered his life to Yahweh. God has given him a calling. The place God called Jonah was important to Him, but from Jonah’s perspective it would have been difficult to understand why. So the first thing God tells Jonah to do is:

ARISE AND GO

This phrase is also repeated in this book. It’s meaning is very simple because we use the same phrase in our language today, except we say “get-up-and-go”. You can actually look it up in the dictionary. It means “a character trait manifested in a readiness and ability to initiate action.” In other words, there is an urgency to what God is telling Jonah. “Get up! Go NOW! Don’t wait. Hurry! Go immediately. Give Nineveh a message. I’ll give you the message later, just get there.”
In fact, this is pretty much the only thing that God tells Jonah. He is sending Jonah with a message, but Yahweh doesn’t even tell Jonah what that message is. When God calls us to GET UP AND GO somewhere, He doesn’t expect us to know everything about where we are going. He doesn’t want us to know everything about it. Why not?
Because if we wait around, we may talk ourselves out of it. If we know the whole message, we may talk ourselves out of it. If we know every detail, we are more than likely going to talk ourselves out of if. Jonah knows that Nineveh is not a good place. They are so bad that he doesn’t want them to experience the love and mercy of Yahweh. So in chapter 1 he talked himself out of going.
I know this is true, because I have to do it every single day. My alarm is set 15 minutes ahead. I know that about my alarm, but I never remember when I first wake up. But if I ever decide to just lay there for a few seconds I will talk myself out of getting up, then I will remember the truth about my alarm and how it is an evil liar and I will turn away from it and ignore it. Discipline is being able to find the urgency in everything you are called to do and doing it with faith, even when you aren’t fully aware of every detail. I found this quote on the internet and have no idea who said it, but I thought it was quite profound. “Most problems, you can recover from. Like, if someone breaks into your house, it’s not the end of the world. But the anxiety you can feel about the possibility of something like someone breaking into your house can ruin your life.” God was telling Jonah not to worry about the details, just get up and go and proclaim His truth...

SHARE GOD’S TRUTH

God wanted Jonah to give the Ninevites a message. What was that message? Jonah’s message is a curious one. It isn’t anything fancy or verbose. In fact, if I’m honest, after looking at all of the attention to the tiny details in the book of Jonah, his sermon appears to have the least effort put into it. There are several different thoughts that come to mind when looking at Jonah’s 5 word sermon, but since we don’t have any other information to go off of we are going to make the logical assumption that Jonah faithfully delivered the message God intended.

4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

ע֚וֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת

In case you are curious, here are the 5 words in Hebrew.
There are 2 thoughts about Jonah’s message that I want to talk about. The first thought is something that Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians. Jonah’s words aren’t important. This story is about God’s message. God is the one with the life changing truth that He wants to share with the Ninevites. When talking to the Corinthians about who brings the messages and teaches about God, Paul basically says, “Who cares! It doesn’t even matter!”

5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

God is the one who makes it grow. Jonah can run around doing his best, but it is God who changes lives. Maybe it is because I stand up here every week yapping at you all, but I find this very encouraging. Most days that I am up here I feel overwhelmingly unprepared. Mentally unequipped. Spiritually insignificant. But every week I try to walk up here and not think about all of that. I acknowledge that, even though I may not always agree, God has called me to step up here and share what I am learning. So I come up here and do my best and trust God to do the growing.
I tell you this because God may be calling you to do something too. And just like Jonah or me you may not feel like you can or you may not agree with God on His decision, but nonetheless He has called you. I want to encourage you to walk into a closet and pray. Don’t do like Jonah and wait for God to put you in a prayer closet. Close your eyes and lift up your hands to God and ask him for the strength to do what He has called you to do and for Him to do his part in touching hearts and changing lives. Don’t think about all the reasons why you can’t. Jonah didn’t do the best job, but it didn’t even matter because it was God doing the work anyway.
God wants to use your obedience to...
Change Lives.
Teach Lessons.
You can do what God calls you to because, ultimately, He does the work. God wants to use your obedience to change lives. The second thing I want to point out about Jonah’s message is that God wants to teach us through obedience. We are going to read into Jonah’s message a little bit here, but based on what we know about Jonah and what we know about what God does to the Ninevites this is very plausible. Let’s take another look at Jonah’s message...

“Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

The NLT translates “overthrown” as destroyed because that was likely Jonah’s intended meaning, but the Hebrew word actually has 2 different meanings. The word used here is “Haphak” (haw-fak’) and it means destroyed or changed. The message is worded ambiguously, so Jonah probably either meant or at least interpreted the use of “Overthrown” as “Destroyed”, whereas God knows that it means “Changed”. In the book, “Jonah”, Philip Cary says...
“The ambiguity of ‘overturned’ amounts to a kind of pun. The word can mean to overthrow and destroy, but also to turn over, around, so that one thing becomes another… Some such transformation or conversion…seems to be what the Lord had in mind, if indeed these are the exact words given to Jonah to speak. So it may be that the Lord has fooled Jonah, giving him a message containing more good news than Jonah realizes.” - Philip Cary, Jonah, 109.
The use of this ambiguous phrasing also sets Jonah up to learn the most important lesson in Chapter 4, which we will talk about next week when we finalize this study on Jonah. Our final observations of Chapter 3 are going to come from Nineveh and their response to God’s message to them. Let’s look at God’s Mercy.

God’s Mercy

In the rest of the chapter we will see the Ninevites response, then the king’s response, then the king’s response or edict to the Ninevites, then God’s response to the Ninevites repentance. First, the people begin to fast before they are told to by the king. Their belief in God is a forward fulfillment of the king’s call to “turn and repent”. This characterizes the people as so eager to repent that the king’s command only states what they already feel inclined to do. Let’s read starting in verse 5.
5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
7 He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.
8 “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.
Let’s pause there for a second. Notice who has some “Get-up-and-go” now! Funny how the prophet ran from God, but in contrast the king of the evil Nineveh immediately responds to God. And his response is insane! Think about how selfish Jonah has been. Running because he doesn’t like the Ninevites. Putting others in danger. Not explicitly admitting that he messed up. Then he comes to Nineveh and, as best we can tell, barely puts any effort into his mission and even at that it comes off as a threat. Then we have the king. He did what Jonah should have done all along and IMMEDIATELY responded to God. As soon as he heard the message he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.
That means that the first thing this evil king did after hearing God’s word was to step off of his throne and remove his robe. These were symbol’s of his exalted position. His robes were probably made from a fine material and very ornate. Then he put on sackcloth, which was fabric made of goat or camel hair which made it coarse and uncomfortable. Often used for humiliation, wearing sackcloth usually demonstrated an individual’s act of repentance. Then he sat in ashes. A sign of deepest humiliation. Ash was used to identify with the dead. Then what happens next is the best part. The king says...

9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

Who knows! Who knows? Jonah knew. That’s why he ran. He knew God was merciful, but hoped that He would not be. The Ninevites most likely thought that God would kill them no matter what, but they had hope and they showed incredible faith by repenting anyway. In their day people would do horrible things in the name of their gods. Not only that, but these are the Assyrians! They aren’t afraid of anything! “The Bible Knowledge Commentary” notes that...

This fear of judgment from God is startling because the Assyrians were a cruel, violent nation (cf. Nahum 3:1, 3–4) fearing no one (cf. 2 Kings 18:33–35).

But they turned anyway. Without contract or agreement or even any promises. Just a threat from an angry prophet and the hope for a merciful God. And God comes through for them. He responds to their repentance.

10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

They repented, God relented. The word is “Naham”.

נָחַם (nāḥam). vb. to have compassion. Describes the act of feeling regret, offering comfort, or having compassion.

Our God, Yahweh, loves to show compassion. Naham. He longs for us to turn from death and destruction. Give up our self appointed place of importance. Sacrifice our lustful desires and evil hearts. Turn from our wicked way and ask for His mercy, His lovingkindness, His Naham.
Let me close by asking you a question that I want you to think about and pray about.
WHAT HAS GOD SHOWN YOU THAT YOU NEED TO DO, BUT YOU HAVE NOT YET DONE?
Like Jonah, is God calling you to do something, but you just keep running from it. Even as we study Jonah and every week this thing is held out in front of you but you keep trying to ignore it. Or maybe you could relate more to the Ninevites. Maybe it is some kind of sin or evil that you feel like is controlling your life. Crouching at your door. Holding you hostage. Or maybe like the king it just brings you comfort. What is God showing you? Pray with me about that this morning.
God I pray that today you would make your words loud and clear in our hearts and give us the strength to do what you have called us to do. If anyone here is struggling I pray you would give them the courage to humble themselves before you, call on you earnestly and turn from their bad desires and seek you and your mercy. Thank you for your naham, your compassion and mercy.
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