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How many men who writing their biography would write as Jonah did. He informs us with such detail his own defiance to the will of God his creator. He tells of his own selfishness, rebellion and failure but never blames God but exalts God’s great and holy name. He takes four chapters to describe in detail his own downfall but only a few sentences to summarise the greatest event of this book is the repentance of the inhabitants of “that great city” of Nineveh. This is the miracle which the sceptics have conveniently missed. The central words in this book are found in Ch. 2 v. 9“Salvation is of the LORD.” Jonah had to learn this the hard way.
Many people over the years have missed this great work of salvation God bought about through repentance and have concentrated instead on the incidentals of the fish, the gourd, the east wind, the ship and Nineveh.
In chapters 3 and 4 we see the out working of the statement that Jonah made inside the fish “Salvation is of the LORD.”
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This great Creator God the upholder and sustainer of the universe is also
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1 A Compassionate God
“The Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time” Jonah 3:1
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The same call came to Jonah a second time which just shows to us the grace and patience of our longsuffering God. The writer of the Psalms knew this too. “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” [Psalms:103:8,9,10] When we sometimes fail or are disobedient this incident should give us courage to follow God’s will. God will even use our failures to make us more fitted to serve Him.
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2. A Concise Message
“Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown” Jonah 3:4
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With a message like this Jonah would not have been a very popular preacher on today’s platforms. Many of today’s Christians would have said that his message was too direct, especially his preaching about sin and judgement. The message was also too dull and did not have the usual anecdotes and easy to remember outlines. Although these things are helpful as windows into the message sometimes too many make it not a house with windows but a greenhouse, that is, all windows and nothing to support them. This message that Jonah was preaching was not a message of repentance but of judgement. He did not waste time but preached the facts. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
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“The people of Nineveh believed God” Jonah 3:5 After hearing the message the whole city grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Here we see that faith was the whole basis of repentance and their faith was shown by their manner of repentance. This is what this book is all about the miracle of repentance and people of Nineveh believing God. Satan in his craftiness has diverted the minds and thoughts of men and women away from the real wonder of the salvation of the Ninevites to a great fish swallowing Jonah.
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4. A Colossal Result
“ God saw their works that they turned from their evil way” Jonah 3:10
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Have we repented of our sin and called upon the Lord asking Him to forgive? Are we willing to be obedient to the Word of God and to follow His ways? Here we read that “God saw their works” and He showed compassion ,
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He had mercy on the repentant people that He turned from the evil that He said He would do unto them “and he did it not.” This means that the generation of Ninevites to whom Jonah preached were saved from judgement .
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5 A Cantankerous Servant
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry” Jonah 4:1
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Jonah was angry because God had given the people of Nineveh another opportunity and had forgotten that is just what God had done for him when he cried out in the belly of the great fish. Sometimes we are angry when God extends to others the same mercy and grace that he has extended to us. Jonah retired from his work for God with anger and bitterness in his spirit towards God.
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