Jonah 3:1-5

Jonah 3:1 (KJV)

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

 

Here is one of the merciful acts of the Lord.  After Jonah had been vomited up on the shore, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.  Now I have heard preachers use this verse to claim that God always gives second chances.  When preaching that they seem to forget what happened to Jonah between the first and second reception of the word of God.  It does no good to disobey God the first time and then expecting a second chance which may not come.  It is always good to obey God the first time so you will not have to experience the chastising hand of God on your life.

 

Jonah 3:2 (KJV)

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

 

Now Jonah received his marching orders the second time and it was the same assignment he had when he tried to run to Tarshish.  Jonah should have been wise and obeyed the first time because it would have saved him much heartache since he was going to go to Nineveh by decree of God and was not going to get out of it.  He was to preach the message that God was going to give him and he was not to depart from its theme.  This time Jonah was not going in the spirit of fear but in the spirit of a sound mind.  2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)   For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  What Jonah feared the first time was about to happen.  Nineveh was the center of the Assyrian Empire and no doubt a great metropolis and heavily populated.

 

Jonah 3:3 (KJV)

So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

 

This time Jonah did not hesitate to be obedient to the mission he was given by God.  If Jonah was hurled on to the shore by Antioch which would have been directly west of Nineveh then it would have been a 400 mile (644 km) trek eastward to Nineveh which means the journey would have taken anywhere between 30-60 days.  The city of Nineveh was so large it was measured at approximately three days journey.  This would be measured from one border of the city to the border on the opposite side.  It could have measured anywhere from 18 miles to 30 miles (29 to 48 km) across but actual dimensions may be different since many historical records differ from each other on the actual size.  I am going by a day’s journey being anywhere from 6 miles (10 km) to 10 miles (16 km).

 

Jonah 3:4 (KJV)

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

 

Jonah did not go to the middle of the city because he was only one day’s journey in but that does not mean where he was preaching was not populated enough so that the message of impending judgment would not have rapidly spread.  It is quite interesting that the message that Jonah preached was only 8 words long in the English and 5 words in the Hebrew.  The word “overthrown” is the same word used in the description of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.  Genesis 19:25 (KJV) And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.  There is nothing written but I am wondering if God gave Jonah the ability to speak in the tongue of the Assyrians because the message spread rapidly and there is nothing written about any interpreters and it is doubtful that the Assyrians, especially the common ones, could understand Hebrew.  Even though the location of Sodom and Gomorrah was about 600 miles (966 km) southwest from Nineveh they may have had knowledge of what happened to those 4 cities which God overthrew and destroyed.

 

Jonah 3:5 (KJV)

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

 

God had already prepared the hearts of the people for repentance.  They could not have believed God unless God did a work in their hearts.  It is also probable that the message which Jonah preached was much more than the 5 words in Hebrew.  Here we read that the people proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, two things which are peculiar to the Hebrews.  They would not have known about fasting and sackcloth unless it was told to them because Nineveh was about 600 miles (966 km) from Israel so the common people could not afford to travel there.  They must have asked Jonah what must they do to prevent the judgment of God on their country?  Just as people asked John the Baptist.  Luke 3:10 (KJV) And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? Fasting was a time of personal cleansing and putting on sackcloth meant you were in mourning.  In Nineveh not only the common people fasted and put on sackcloth but the rulers and the rich also did the same thing because their hearts were also prepared.

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