2 JONAH- THE FIERY EVANGELIST AMAZED

God vindicated Himself in the quiet statement ‘ So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast.’ It seemed impossible or highly unlikely that such an overwhelming response should come from the cryptic cry of the recycled prophet. Did Jonah tell how God had judged him in the hurricane, the boisterous sea, his apparent death, burial and resurrection after 72 hours? If so, what an impact on the prophet!

Did his jaundiced appearance after 3 days and nights in the gastric juices of the sea monster confirm the Ninehvites’ conviction? Were any sailors present, who shouted ‘ This is the man who was swallowed by the massive fish. Look at him. He is alive. His God is true. Trust Him and quit your ungodly life-style’? God has not told us. We reverently trust the divine record that they believed. Did snot our Lord Jesus say, ‘ There shall no sign be given you except the sign of the prophet Jonah, who was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights’.

Who told them to ‘ proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth ‘(or rough goat’s hair covering)? (V5) They repented and showed that by turning from food, fluid, comfort (goat’s hair irritates) and normal entitlements of living. They impressed their newly-recognised God, Who worked supernaturally from the ‘greatest of them to the least of them’. The almighty God described the far-reaching effect of that lone voice in the Hebrew language, which God turned in their understanding to the Babylonian tongue. This preceded by centuries the day of Pentecost, when they heard in their own language in which they were born. God did not change.

Jonah’s powerful preaching fired ‘the King of Nineveh, who immediately rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with (coarse, irritating, unbecoming) sackcloth, and sat in ashes’. Did his regal example trigger off a revival, stirring the entire city and metropolis? He chose sterile ashes, remains of a fire that had consumed everything, rather than the padded comfort of his throne. We long that national leaders repent of corruption and sham and show their broken-heartedness..

The King proclaimed a national fast from food and water, supported by his nobles, which was published throughout Nineveh. At every street corner the town criers announced the King’s decision to repent and turn to the Lord. Writing on cuneiform tablets supported the spoken word. (V7) No one explained the rapid spread of the urgent call of God. The people were commanded by a ‘heathen‘ ruler to cry’ mightily’ to the God they did not know. ‘ Every one must turn from their evil ways and from the violence in their hands’. (V8) Repentance was well defined, for evil must be abandoned and violence, or oppression, wickedness, and depravity must cease. Noah had faced violence prior to the flood, while Jonah exposed Nineveh’s disorder by his preaching, and later confirmed in archaeological findings. This rampant evil in our days precedes the coming in glory of our beloved Lord.

‘Who can tell’ showed the grace of God that even heathen rulers wondered whether God would ‘turn and repent’, which meant to ‘revoke His sentence against us when we had met His terms’ (A.O.T.) (v9). God does not repent of sin as we humans need to do, but often changes the direction of our life when we cry to Him. They questioned too whether God would ‘ turn away from His fierce anger, so that they did not perish’. Who gave them such hope as this?

How did this truth come to them, from a severe, cryptic, and clinical Jonah? Did Jonah tell his extraordinary deliverance from the savage sea and God’s mercy showered on him? Was this a direct answer to the prophet’s prayer from the confined, gastric compartment of a sea monster? If so, how importunate was his prayer, and how gracious his God to respond! We must reassess the value of prevailing prayer. .

God watched over the people of Nineveh (a million or two) and saw their works, when they turned from their evil ways. V10 God is omnivident, that is, all-seeing. No sin is hidden from His sight. No godly act is forgotten. ‘ God repented of the evil that He said He would do unto them; and He did it not’. The just God revoked the sentence that was against the mighty city, and He restrained His hand of fierce judgment against them. The A.O.T adds "He was comforted and eased concerning them", an insight into the fatherly heart of our God.

No city in Bible or secular history turned to faith in the Living God so utterly as the city of Nineveh. This encourages us to pray even for the most dissolute, decadent, and degraded nations. The Lord gave them one hundred years after discovering the merciful, living, and loving God before Judgment fell. The ultimate severity of God removed every trace of this vast metropolis until the spade of the archaeologists verified its vastness and final, total destruction.

Thank God for solemn truths recorded in His holy Word.

, Zodhiates Key Hebrew Greek Study Bible. A.O.T. Amplified Old Testament