Jonah The Committed Prophet
Book of Jonah Chapters 3-4
Jonah the Rebellious prophet became Jonah the committed prophet, but Jonah still had a lot of hatred in him.
Jonah gets a second chance to go where God wanted him to go and do what God wanted him to do.
We may think it strange, but Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites because Jonah knew and understood the grace and mercy of the Lord, and he knew that many of them would probably be saved.
Jonah did not want any of them to get saved because Jonah hated the Ninevites, because they were such a cruel and wicked people, and had become a thorn in the flesh of Israel.
Jonah was a typical Jew who felt that the Jews were better than all other peoples.
The important word we should understand in this Book of Jonah is the word “repentance”.
Jonah had to repent of his own sin to understand the meaning of repentance, to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh.
God often gives us a second chance and to some even a third chance or more, but we should also understand that He does not always do this because He can see into our heart.
Sometimes disobedience is of such a character that God cannot go on with such a servant.
1Ki 13:21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,
1Ki 13:22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
1Ki 13:23 And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
1Ki 13:24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
1Ki 13:25 And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
1Ki 13:26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him.
It is always better to be obedient to the Word of God.
*****Jon 3:1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
Jon 3:2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
Jon 3:3 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.
Jonah gets the same command for the second time, and this time Jonah does not flee; he goes to Nineveh and preaches the sermon God told him to preach.
Every preacher is given a message he is to preach to those who gather with him!
Those who are not given a message from the Holy Spirit are not God-called, or they could have unrepentant sin in their lives.
God had accepted Jonah’s repentance and restored his ministry.
A great city would be a fortified city, and probably was a walled city, and probably had experienced war.
Most anything else would be a town, and that city in that area would be like a mother to those towns.
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which had begun to emerge as a regional power.
It was probably a saying that Jonah that he had been spat out of a fish’s mouth because he had rebelled against God.
We should understand that the Philistines worshipped a god named Dagon, and Dagon was known as the fish god. Half man and half fish.
The Ninevites would have also considered Dagon as a god.
To the Jews, Nineveh was the land of Nimrod.
Nineveh was up to 700 miles from Joppa, so it would take a while for Jonah to get there, much more than three days.
When Jonah entered the city, he began preaching the message God had given him.
Nineveh was such a great city that it would take three days to walk around the walls of that city, if you could walk 20 miles a day.
Certainly, Jonah could not walk and preach at that pace, so this statement is tied to that phrase “such a great city” to tell us just how large the city of Nineveh was.
*****Jon 3:4 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.
Jon 3:5 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.
Jon 3:6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Jonah had become a sign to the Ninevites: Luk 11:29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
Luk 11:30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
The Ninevites had heard about this man Jonah, how he spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish.
Now we do not know if the false god Dagon influenced these Ninevites or not, but we do know that the Ninevites believed that only a true God could have saved any man from such a catastrophe.
The sign to the Church is that God can bring new life to those who are judged dead in sin.
This king and these people believed in the story of Jonah, and we have no right to not consider it to be true today.
If God said Jonah was swallowed by a fish that He had prepared to swallow Jonah, then it has to be true!
The effect of Jonah’s preaching was spontaneous, and the people put on sackcloth and proclaimed a fast.
From the poor to the rich, they believed in the message of Jonah, which reached into the king’s palace, and this king caused a fast to be proclaimed in all of Nineveh.
Jon 3:7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
Jon 3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
The whole city believed the God of the Jews could have the power to destroy them if He chose to do so, and we know He had that power; He is all-powerful.
This city believed this because they believed the story of Jonah being swallowed by a large fish.
Notice how God sends a warning with a chance to repent before He would bring judgment.
We are to pass this warning to those we witness to today.
*****Jon 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
All those people who sacrificed to idols and false gods had heard about the goodness of the God of the Jews, and they understood the message of Jonah and realized they had only one option to avoid perishing.
Notice they demanded no forgiveness.
They did not ask for mercy.
In their confession, there was no sacrifice.
They offered no promise to appease God.
Just as we know today, their fast and humility came by faith in the truth of God.
Our salvation is based on faith in the work that Jesus Christ has done for our salvation, and it is in this faith that God will receive us into His family and not by these other things.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
This is the work that God has required!
This is the reason Jonah did not want to preach this message, because Jonah understood the grace and mercy of God.
*****Jon 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
God had seen the wickedness of Nineveh, and now God saw their repentance.
God heard them call out to Him.
God saw the change in them, their repentance.
What had they done? They had produced fruit worthy of repentance.
Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
Mat 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise children unto Abraham.
That fruit was that they had turned from their wicked ways.
They did not need to sacrifice some animal, for that would have been little proof.
They sacrificed a broken spirit and a contrite heart.
Psa 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Psa 51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Psa 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Not only had Jonah preached the message God gave him, but Jonah had learned a lesson he would take back to the Jews and to the Northern Tribes.
God does not need an animal sacrifice to forgive sin.
These Ninevites were not confused about Dagon because they had now met Yahweh, Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what Jonah knew would happen, and Jonah did not want any of the Ninevites to come to know the true God of Creation.
Jonah had some understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jonah did not want it to happen.
*****Jon 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jon 4:2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
The Jews, they felt that the God of the Jews was just that. The God of the Jews and not God to any other people.
There are Christians today who feel that some people are just too wicked for God to save them.
There may be, but only God can know these things!
We are never to be hesitant to reach out to others, and if the Holy Spirit encourages us to reach out to certain individuals and we refuse, then we will be held accountable for the blood of that person if they never accept the truth of the Gospel.
God desires to have mercy upon every individual!
The Lord Jesus Christ paid the sin debt for every individual.
It is not up to us to judge if any person can accept the truth of God; this is God’s business, and God is in the saving business.
To be more like Jesus Christ, we must also be in the saving business!
God’s mercy can reach the lowest of the lowest, the highest of the highest, and all those in between.
God can save anybody, anytime, in any place!
Jonah understood this, but Jonah was not pleased with it.
Jonah understood God’s goodness and was not pleased with it.
Jonah explained to God that this was why he fled to keep this from happening, and he knew this was a great sin, and Jonah said to Jehovah, “Just take my life from me”.
Jonah discussed his anger with the Lord.
*****Jon 4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Even while he was angry at God, this is proof that Jonah did not water down the truth of God, but preached the truth straight from the Word of God.
Jonah did not keep his anger stored up in his heart, and this is a great example for all of us.
We will never understand everything that God does!
We will never understand the death of a child or why so many die in some catastrophe.
We may never understand why God did not answer our prayer or answer it in a way that we did not want Him to answer it.
Jonah knew God was gracious and merciful.
Jonah knew God was slow to anger and abounding in love.
Jonah knew God was willing to turn away from executing His judgment if His conditions were met.
It is very important that we all understand the character of God, and it is our goal to be more like Him.
What Jonah went through during this time in his life is a great lesson for us all.
Anytime we get to see how God does things is a place we can learn from Him!
It is very possible that Jonah became an enemy to his own people after leading these Ninevites to the Lord.
All the Jews hated the Ninevites.
Jonah may not have been able to witness to the Jews anymore.
Life did not make sense to Jonah any longer.
And God said to Jonah: Jon 4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
What do we know about anger? Anger is very ugly if it is allowed to simmer in our heart for a long period of time.
Jonah traveled a short distance from Nineveh and made himself a booth to sit under while he was trying to get over his anger.
God does not speak a word of reproach to Jonah, but God will teach Jonah a great lesson.
*****Jon 4:6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
When we are talking to God, it is always best just to stop what we are doing and sit down with Him.
If the Almighty God wants to discuss what has just happened and He takes the time to sit down with one of His children, then it is a great honor to hear what He has to say.
God does want us to understand the things we do not understand, but we must understand that it is because of the great love that He does most things.
Remember how God had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah; now God has prepared a plant, a gourd, to come up and shade Jonah and allow Jonah some relief from the blistering sun.
Jonah was really happy with the shade this plant provided for him, but this relief would not last very long.
*****Jon 4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
If you fool with plants, then you know we can go to bed with our plants looking beautiful and wake up and find that insects during the night have tried to destroy our beautiful plants.
Then God prepared a vehement east wind, and it caused Jonah to be in misery.
That word vehement means a very hot east wind, a scorching, burning wind.
Jonah fainted from the heat, and he again wished for God to take his life.
All Jonah could think about was that gourd that had provided him with some relief the previous day.
Jonah became angry that the gourd had withered and died so soon.
Again, God told Jonah that it did him well to be angry at the gourd.
Then God said: “Here is the lesson for you to learn, Jonah”.
*****Jon 4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
Jon 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Here it becomes clear why God has created such a fast-growing plant.
If it had been a slow-growing plant, Jonah should have cared for it and watered it, but Jonah did not have to make any effort for the growth of the plant.
Jonah had no personal relationship with it.
We should understand that God is our Creator and He has that special love for all His created beings, and this includes such cruel and wicked people as the Ninevites were at this time of Jonah.
God made the sun to rise over Nineveh as well as provide rain.
Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
God told Jonah that more than one hundred twenty thousand people were living in Nineveh that could not discern their right hand from their left hand; should He not offer them a chance to be saved from Hell?
This is a trait of God’s character that we cannot overlook: Mat 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Mat 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Should God not heal them? Mat 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Even the disciples did not understand these things.
Would Jonah understand God’s feelings for Jerusalem? Do we?
Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
Even the animals were dear to God that were in Nineveh, so we must never think that God does not love His creation.
We do not get to read Jonah’s response, and the Book of Jonah comes to an abrupt end, so we know for sure that God always has the last words, and we need to grow in Christ to better understand the ways of God!
Amen