Jonah 3:1-4:
Conversion of Nineveh
3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
Jonah’s Anger
4 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Meditation
Jonah gets a bum wrap about running away from God’s first command to go to Nineveh to warn them of their impending destruction. Here is a guy who most certainly witnessed and probably experienced the brutality of the Assyrian empire in Israel (the Northern Kingdom). You see, the Assyrians repeatedly attacked Israel then extorted payment from the kings to withdraw. When one king or another refused to pay, the Assyrian king would seize large chunks of the country, cart off the inhabitants, decimate the land, and relocate foreigners to repopulate the area. When Assyria attempted to do the same to Judah (the Southern Kingdom), God intervened and ran off the Assyrian king who withdrew to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Jonah is called to preach to this city—the epitome of evil to any self-respecting prophet from Israel—about repentance. Can’t say that I blame him for running away. But God’s call is God’s call.
Jonah realizes his mistake in assuming he could out run God after being thrown into the ocean and swallowed by a big fish. He spends three days inside a smelly, dark, goopy place reflecting on his life and his God and eventually repents:
“But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9)
Our text today begins with Jonah’s second chance after being “spewed out” (Jonah 2:10) by the big fish. I hope the “get up, go to Nineveh” (vs. 3:2) command included a moment to bathe. Either way, Jonah goes to Nineveh, reaches the city center, and proceeds to declare the great city will be “overthrown” within “40 days” (vs. 3:4). No details about who will overthrow them, no action plan for defense, no salve of comfort or survival. Just the news regarding the destruction to come. The people don’t panic or start packing. No one clamors to get out of the city. Instead, “the people of Nineveh believed God” (vs. 3:5) and respond by taking a stance of grief and repentance— putting on sackcloth and fasting. Notice the people respond before any political statement is made. (Maybe we don’t have to wait for the government to tell us when to do the right thing?) Once the king hears the news—he declares a National State of Repentance—because maybe it will appease God and “God [will] relent and change [God’s] mind” (vs. 3:9). Who knows?
God does change God’s mind! Nineveh gets a second chance which makes Jonah angry. Jonah did not want Nineveh to be spared because of all those horrible things they did to Israel. How dare God be merciful to these people? How dare God not punish “those people?” How dare God forgive “them?” Jonah’s anger is so deep he would rather die than live in a world where God would forgive Nineveh. Or is it more that Jonah doesn’t want to live with the fact that he is the prophet that saved Nineveh?
This portion of the story ends with God’s question “is it right for you to be angry?” (vs. 4:1) Is it right for you to be angry that Nineveh gets a second chance even after you received a second chance? Is God’s grace only for those who agree with us? Can God really be merciful to those who have hurt us? Do those who have been brutal to us not deserve God’s steadfast love even when they sincerely repent? If they do not, then do we deserve second chances?
Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the church season called Lent. Forty days where we examine ourselves, repent for our sinfulness, and identify ways to do better. Because everybody deserves a second chance to be in relationship with God. That’s the point of repentance—both for us and for “them” (whoever “they” are).