TEXT: Jonah 3:1-4 (CSB) – “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!”
God wasn't trying to destroy Jonah ... He was actually giving him a second chance at obeying! Although honestly, Jonah might have thought differently about God trying to destroy him when the storm at sea came up! Or, when the sailors threw him overboard - I'm sure his last thought was being eaten by a large fish as God's way of showing him, love!
And this is a good point here: Often it appears that God is indifferent or might even hate us by circumstances at the effort He makes to give us a second chance! It is therefore critical that you don't "lose it" at this point!
There is great irony in that Jonah spent time in the belly of a great fish. The city of Nineveh’s name originally was symbolized by the Ninevites as a fish inside the womb of a human female. A fertility goddess that was worshipped in Nineveh and the reversal of what happens to Jonah by God putting him as a human inside the belly of a great fish!
From one fish to another!
If Jonah deserved a second chance from his fish experience, perhaps God was willing to give a city named after a fish in a human womb deity a second chance too! You could say that Jonah would go from one fishy experience to another!
The call and the message here are identical to the first calling of Jonah with one exception, God said to Jonah in Jonah 1:2 "preach against" ... whereas in Jonah 3:1 He said, "proclaim to it." Already an indication that God might be willing to give Nineveh an opportunity to change, to repent ... or a second chance. God considered Nineveh a “great city" ... not because it was spiritually great, but because a great many souls lived there ... and "God is not willing that any should perish!" God loved this crowded city of lost souls ... so should we love those crowded cities of lost souls today!
What real chance did Jonah hope to have in enemy territory anyways? According to Jesus' words in Luke11:29-30, Jonah's experience for 3 days and 3 nights in the fish's belly would be a sign to the Ninevites! Therefore, to have credibility with the Ninevites God would actually use Jonah's personal failure and salvation to witness to them that God just might consider them for a second chance! They must have therefore known early on about Jonah and the great fish ... this is what perhaps allowed his presence in Nineveh without danger!
The Assyrians were not compassionate people ... in fact, they didn't offer second chances to anyone! It was their custom to remove an entire nation they have conquered to another land making slaves out of the people. The leaders of the conquered lands were often chained like a dog and kept in actual kennels to humiliate them ... or at times the leaders and the people were killed and their bodies stacked up like firewood outside the conquered city's gates ... or at times the King of Assyria would behead the leaders and make a pyramid of their heads outside the gates of the city!
They were vicious warriors, sometimes skinning alive their captives and hanging the skin off the walls of the city, at other times they would mutilate the victim without killing them for a great length of time until the victim finally died from the torture! They impaled people alive on pointed sticks, sometimes lit them as human torches ... they were downright barbaric and cruel ... they were NOT KNOWN FOR COMPASSION on their victims!
And to these folks God was going to give a second chance for real life ... or they can choose death! God still makes this offer to people today! "CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY...” Choose life ... not death! Just as Jonah's experience in a great fish for 3 days and 3 nights were a sign to the Ninevites, so would Christ's burial for 3 days and 3 nights be a sign unto all generations of his resurrection power ... and the offer of life for those who repent and accept Christ as savior!
Jonah's message was simple ... like the Gospel! Surrender your sinful life and live ... or in 40 days you are all dead!
Christ says it like this: surrender your heart to me and you will be saved for eternity! Don't and you'll lose out for all eternity ... Jesus is greater than Jonah, so are the consequences AND THE BLESSINGS!
The word used in verse 4: “overthrown” is the same word used to describe Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction! God wasn't kidding around ... Jonah didn't water the message down; it was straight, honest, and convincing!
God's timing was just right too. The Ninevites had just gone through a couple of plagues. They had a solar eclipse for which "pending" doom was the usual interpretation for a culture that embraced mysticism! They were clearly worried BEFORE Jonah came ... God knows what He's doing and when He's doing it!
Since they were not a people to give second chances to anyone, they were quick to embrace this message seriously at the first of it ... and follow it with immediate and serious results, they didn't give others second chances, so perhaps they thought they had better act quickly in case God doesn't either!
Do we give second chances grudgingly or joyfully? We should learn from a pagan and vicious nation that we need to consider the message God has given us, believe it, and accept it. We will see more of this lesson tomorrow as we see about A Sackcloth of Repentance.
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