Jonah proclaims God’s message in Nineveh
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📚And the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time 📖, saying, 2 📚“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you 📖”.3 📚So Jonah arose and went 📖 to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, three days 📖’ journey in size. 4 📚And Jonah began to go into the city on the first day’s journey, and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
3:4 God’s message was simple and direct. Of course, God did not mean that Nineveh would be destroyed whether the people repented or not (compare Jer 18:7-8; Ezek 18:21-23; 33:10-11, 14-16). God is what Jonah thought Him to be – gracious and compassionate (Jonah 4:2).⚜
5 📚So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth 📖, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
3:5 This was a marvelous thing, not equaled in all the days of the Old Testament, as far as we know. This was a city of the Gentiles which worshiped many gods and with little knowledge of the true God. See Jonah 1:2 for the character of the people. Yet there was this turning to God at the preaching of Jonah – something that the cities of Galilee and Judea did not do at the preaching of the Lord Jesus Himself (Matt 11:20-24; 12:41).⚜
The king repents and tells his people to show their repentance
6 📚For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid aside his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes 📖.
3:6 The king of Nineveh was the very powerful king of Assyria.⚜
7 📚And by the decree of the king and his nobles, he caused this proclamation to be published throughout Nineveh, saying, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not eat or drink 📖 water, 8 📚But have man and beast covered with sackcloth, and cry out mightily to God. Yes, have every one of them turn from his evil way 📖, and from the violence of their hands. 9 📚Who can tell 📖 but that God may turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish?”
God shows His forgiving nature and relents
10 📚And God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented 📖 concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
3:10 This was according to His nature and His word – Ex 34:6-7; Joel 2:13. Jer 18:7-8 (written long after this) reveals God’s dealings with cities or countries.⚜