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October 28, 2015 |
| Jonah 3 | ||
1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a days journey into the city, proclaiming, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonahs warning 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. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
v.1 Having returned from the fish, Jonah is restored to God and given the same command as before.
v.1-3 The city map of Nineveh1 120,000 people (Jonah 4:11) "It was the largest city in the world"2
v.4 It seems certain that Jonah said more than just those words because the people realize it is God who will overthrow the city, instead of an enemy army.
v.4 Mentioned 146 times in the Bible, the number 40 generally symbolizes a period of purification.
v.4 The fact that God says that there are 40 days until the city is destroyed actually makes this an offer to repent. If God had not wanted to offer repentance he would have destroyed the city without ever sending Jonah, as was done with Sodom and Gomorrah.
v.4 The explicit 40 day time also makes it clear that God is behind this warning. What man would dare to make such a clear prediction on his own.
v.4,5 Jonah never got a chance to go all the way through the city before they started to repent and the news spread faster than he could walk.
v.5 "Sackcloth and ashes were used in Old Testament times as a symbol of debasement, mourning, and/or repentance. Someone wanting to show his repentant heart would often wear sackcloth, sit in ashes, and put ashes on top of his head. Sackcloth was a coarse material usually made of black goats hair, making it quite uncomfortable to wear. The ashes signified desolation and ruin."4
The idea was to make yourself look on the outside how you felt on the inside.
v.5 The Ninevites immediately begin to repent. What would happen if you went through San Antonio proclaiming that the city would be destroyed in 40 days?
v.5 Why did the Ninevites repent so quickly? Gods timing.
v.6 Even the king took off his signs of wealth and authority and repented in sackcloth. He does this without hearing from Jonah directly but only about him from others.
v.7,8 He is earnest to ensure God sees their repentance. Though they cannot repent, even the animals of his people are required to fast and wear sackcloth.
v.8 The king says "Let them give up their evil ways and their violence" (Jonah 3:8). Note that they did know right from wrong but their problem was that they were as likely to choose to do evil as to do good.
v.9 The king does all of this on faith. Jonah has not promised them that God will relent if they repent.
v.10 "God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways". It was not enough that they "call urgently on God" (Jonah 3:8) nor that they cover themselves and their animals in sackcloth and ashes. God wanted to see that their hearts had changed, that they would turn away from their evils. "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance" Matthew 3:8
v.10 Jonah may have only planned to travel one day into the city. He hoped to be rejected and to then complain to the Lord who would destroy them. Jonah had agreed to do the work God had set before him but he still hated the Ninevites. He feared that they would repent.
"[Nineveh] was the largest city in the world for some fifty years until, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria itself, it was sacked by an unusual coalition of former subject peoples, the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians, and Cimmerians in 612 BC"5
"The city wall has been destroyed by ISIS as of February, 2015. The wall was destroyed during an effort to destroy historical buildings and monuments in the province by the jihadist rebel group"6
Genesis 10:11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah which is the great city.
2 Kings 19:36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
Isaiah 37:37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
Nahum 1:1 A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.
Nahum 1:8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.
Zephaniah 2:13 He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, leaving Nineveh utterly desolate and dry as the desert.
Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.
Luke 11:32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh#/media/File:Nineveh_map_city_walls_%26_gates.JPG
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh
3 http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/40.html
4 http://www.gotquestions.org/sackcloth-and-ashes.html
5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh