Jonah: A 5-Day DevotionalSýnishorn

This chapter begins with the Lord telling Jonah to preach a message of imminent doom to the wicked Ninevites (3:1–4). The point is clear: God brings justice to bear against evil, and evil Nineveh is about to experience his justice. But the Lord’s desire for the Ninevites is not destruction but deliverance. The message he told Jonah to preach was to be a warning against their evil as well as an invitation to turn from it (cf. comment on 3:5). And turn from it they did! On the first day of Jonah’s preaching, everyone in the city — from the king to the lowest servant and even to the livestock— is clothed in sackcloth, fasting, and crying out mightily to God. What is more, these outward signs of repentance are accompanied by the Ninevites’ turning from the evil for which they had been condemned. Their behavior is a model of true repentance and faith, as Jesus himself makes clear:

Jesus declared that the Ninevites will stand up in the day of judgment to condemn the scribes and Pharisees for their unbelief (cf. Matt. 12:41; Luke 11:30–32). The Ninevites believed after one short sermon without signs, whereas the scribes and Pharisees heard many sermons of Jesus and saw many signs yet still refused to believe.*

Notes:

*Page, Frank S. “Jonah.” In *Amos, Obadiah, Jonah: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture*. NAC. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995, “Jonah,” 267.