Jonah -- Preacher of Repentance (6) -- The Sign of Jonah

Jonah — Preacher of Repentance (6) The Sign of Jonah

You Can Run But You Can’t Hide – Jonah Re-Commissioned

Chapter 3 of Jonah’s prophecy opens with Jonah back on dry land in a virtual rewind of verses 1-2 of chapter 1. Jonah is to “arise,” “go” and “call out,” but with one major difference–this time Jonah does not attempt to flee.[1] “Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, `Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord’” In light of all that has happened to Jonah, it is remarkable that he is neither rebuked, nor is he allowed to go on his way. The word of the Lord came to him a second time, which, in effect, indicated that YHWH re-commissions Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh to fulfill his original mission. Notice too that Jonah is given the message which he is to proclaim to the Ninevites–one of the distinguishing marks of YHWH’s prophets is that they speak his words, not their own.

Aside from the significance of YHWH ensuring that his greater purposes will be fulfilled when Jonah is re-commissioned–the gospel will go out to the ends of the earth, in this case to Nineveh–we also see in Jonah’s re-commissioning that God often gives us second chances to accomplish that of which we have already made a significant mess. Jonah is an example to us in that he is sustained in his time of trial by his knowledge of God’s word (specifically the Psalms), and he is also an encouragement to those of us who often take more than one time to do things the right way. YHWH commissions Jonah but does not abandon him when Jonah rejects YHWH’s call. YHWH loves his people enough to discipline them. And his purpose for Nineveh still stands.

Jonah Goes to Nineveh and Calls for Repentance

In the last half of verse 3 of chapter 3, we learn that “Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.” Four times in Jonah’s prophecy the city is described as large (1:2; 3:2, 3; 4:1). But the Hebrew text of 3:3 is much more specific as to why the city’s size is so important to what follows. The verse can be variously translated as Nineveh is “large to the gods,” or “a large city to/for God.” The latter makes more sense in context.[2] Nineveh is a large city in the heart of pagan Assyria with its multiple deities. Yet, Jonah is told that Ninevah is YHWH’s city. Jonah would naturally assume that YHWH is Lord over the cities of Israel. But YHWH is also Lord over the pagan Assyrian city to which Jonah is being sent. Jonah might see Assyria as enemy territory, but he now knows the city is under YHWH’s authority. To paraphrase the Psalm 24:1, “the earth is the Lord’s, every square inch of it.” No doubt, the same thing holds true today. YHWH’s rule extends to every corner of the earth.

Jonah “arose” and “went” (v. 3) which tells us there has been a complete change in Jonah’s previous attitude. It would have taken Jonah a month or so to travel the 500 miles north to Nineveh. As we read in verse 4, as soon as he got there, “Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey.” The Nineveh of Jonah’s day was not quite the great city it had been a millennium or so earlier, or that it would become under the reign of king Sennacherib a hundred or so years later. But it still was large enough to take Jonah a full day to pass through the city. Jonah did not wait to get to the city’s center–the summer palace of Assyian kings–but he began preaching the words YHWH gave just as soon as he entered the city. “And [Jonah] called out, `Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’”

Jonah’s message is briefly summarized, but it is not a stretch to assume that the heart of Jonah’s preaching was that which we’ve already read in Jonah’s prophecy–the city had become a place of exceedingly great evil and had come to YHWH’s attention. The words of Jeremiah 18:7–8 are also likely a factor when we consider the content of Jonah’s preaching. “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.”

When God speaks, a decision is demanded. Unless the people of Nineveh repent of their sin and trust in YHWH’s great mercy to save them, the city would be destroyed in forty days. The number forty is not a random number. “Forty” years or days appears several times in Scripture as a time of waiting and testing. Israel was in the wilderness of the Sinai forty years. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness for forty days. According to Deuteronomy 9:18, 25, Moses spent forty days of supplication before the Lord.[3]. YHWH’s clock is running. Nineveh has forty days to repent.

Unlike Israel, Nineveh Believes and Repents

Jonah does not make his reader wait long to discover the outcome–again, loaded with irony, in this case, bitter irony. We read in verse 5 that upon hearing Jonah preach, “the people of Nineveh believed God.” Jonah does not use YHWH here (God’s covenant name), but Elohim (a word for the supreme God–the creator), not the covenant Lord of Israel, a name which would have made little sense to pagan Assyians. In light of the history of Israel (the northern kingdom), this is a shocking declaration. YHWH sent prophet after prophet to Israel; Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and a host of others. Instead of repenting and turning back to YHWH in faith and seeking forgiveness, the people and their kings from Jeroboam on only harden their hearts and pursue pagan ways with greater vigor.

But in pagan Nineveh, the people hear the creator God’s call to repentance but one time, they receive it, and they believe in him and his call to repentance. If they repent their city will be spared. So much so, they respond to YHWH’s call to repentance by demonstrating the fruit of faith in YHWH and his promise–concrete acts of repentance. “They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” These are signs throughout the ancient world of grief, sorrow, and mourning. The contrast between the faith and repentance of the Ninevites and the people of Israel could not be greater. When Jesus speaks of the Ninevites repenting and appearing as witnesses in the judgment, the indication is that many of those in Nineveh were genuinely converted. The gospel did go beyond the confines of Israel (Luke 11:29-32). Jonah was YHWH’s witness to the neighboring Gentiles which Israel failed to be.

So great was the effect of Jonah’s preaching upon the people that “the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” Even the unnamed king of the city repented by taking upon himself the garments of grief and mourning, something much different from the royal robe the king usually wears in public. The king too is aware of his sin and the threat of judgment, lest he lead his people in repentance. He was so taken by Jonah’s call and the citizen’s reaction, “he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, `By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.’” So serious was the king to avoid YHWH’s wrath, even the animals were made symbols of repentance. The people engaged in a national fast and were exhorted to call out to God. Again, contrast the reaction to Jonah’s preaching, with that of Israel’s reaction to Elijah, Elisha, and Amos.

The king’s decree as not merely symbolic. As we read in the last part of verse 8-verse 9, the king commanded “let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” Implied in this is that the great evil–which is never specified, and which came before YHWH’s attention like a bad odor–was something which had been identified by Jonah in his preaching and conduct which came to the realization of the people. The Ninevites knew they must grieve and mourn at their sin. They must also turn from their evil ways and cease their violent behavior. Desirous of protecting his people, the king hopes that God’s anger will be turned aside and the he may relent. The king got his wish, for as we read in verse 10, “when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”

Did God Repent?

Verse 10 has been the subject of much theological debate across the centuries. Did God actually change his mind and relent, or as in the KJV puts it, did God “repent” (i.e., change his mind) and spare the city? Repentance implies turning from sin, and older translations can raise controversies which are not actually found in the biblical text. There are those who seek to limit God’s decree by human action, and who say “yes,” God did change his mind and relent because the Ninevites believed. But if true, this makes God a mere reactionary to human decisions.

Conundrums like this are easily solved by simply considering the matter of perspective, God’s and ours. As humans limited to both time and space, we can only see God’s eternal decree as it plays out in history. God’s will is hidden from us because we are sinful, time-bound creatures who cannot possibly know what God decreed to do from all eternity–unless and until we actually witness the execution of his decree in time. It was always God’s purpose that the gospel be preached in Nineveh. And it was always God’s purpose that many would repent and believe when Jonah arrived (God ensured that he did) and preached.

From a human perspective, Nineveh was a city of concentrated evil. It certainly seemed to be a place doomed to destruction, a place where the inhabitants would likely kill a prophet like Jonah for daring to call them to repentance. Yet it was God’s eternal will that the Ninevites would believe Jonah’s preaching. It certainly looked to Jonah and to the king of Nineveh as though the Ninevites realized their sin, repented, gave up their evil ways, and only then did YHWH spare them from certain judgment. From our limited and sinful perspective it may appear as though God changed his mind and relented after the Ninevites believed. Yet, the city’s collective repentance is what God had willed all along. But we cannot see things in light of eternity. The problem is not that God’s will is pliable–his will does not change, God’s will is immutable. The problem is our finite and limited understanding as creatures who can only watch things play out before our eyes. When we describe what we see, yes, God relented and spared Nineveh. But he willed this from all eternity. It is a matter of perspective.

Jesus’ Appeal to the Jonah Story

What then do we take with us from Jonah’s song (Jonah 2:1-9) and Nineveh’s repentance? In Luke 11:29-32, Jesus makes repeated reference to the Jonah story as in someway prefiguring his own messianic mission. Responding to the demand for additional signs, Jesus emphasizes two elements from Jonah’s prophecy seen in his messianic mission. The first is our Lord’s reference to the “sign of Jonah”–Jonah’s confinement in the fish for three days and nights which prefigures Jesus’ own death and resurrection. The second is Jonah’s role in preaching to the Ninevites which brought about their repentance.

Although one greater than Jonah had come to Israel preaching about the kingdom of God, the religious leaders of Israel refuse to believe his words and demanded more signs. Luke tells us “when the crowds were increasing, [Jesus] began to say, `This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.’ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’” As the greater Jonah, Jesus is the final prophet YHWH sends to Israel before the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. Jesus is also YHWH’s true witness to the Gentiles. The people of Nineveh believed Jonah. But the people of Israel refuse to believe in the greater Jonah. This was an evil generation and no more signs will be given it–except our Lord’s empty tomb.

In the story of Jonah’s preaching to the Ninevites, and in Jesus’ warning to Israel, we hear God’s call to repent of our sins and place our trust in Jesus, the greater Jonah, whom God sent to save us from our sins. The question now before us is this: “will we be witnesses against our own evil generation? Or will we be among those on trial, who demand more signs, and who wish to remain indifferent to our sin and the evil around us?” Who are we–Ninevites who believed, or Israelites who didn’t?

To read the first in this series, click here: Jonah the Preacher of Repentance: Who Was Jonah?

To read the next in this series, Jonah the Preacher of Repentance: Angry With God, Again

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[1] Cited in Estelle, Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy, 106.

[2] Estelle, Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy, 108.

[3] Leslie C. Allen, The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), on Jonah 3:4.