A Second Chance

Jonah 3:1-4“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” ³ Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. ⁴ Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 

Jonah chapter 3 can be viewed in two aspects: Jonah’s journey to Nineveh (verses 1-4) and the Ninevites’ response (verses 5-10). This discussion will concentrate on verses 1-4, addressing Jonah’s visit to Nineveh and his proclamation.

Very similar to the opening of the book, the author skillfully conveys that God is giving Jonah another chance. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning. With resolve and purpose, God is communicating His message to the Ninevites through Jonah. God harbors compassion for the lost; He yearns for everyone to recognize Him and provides all with the opportunity to learn of His redeeming mercy.

We often experience the Lord not revealing his entire plan to us, but instead He provides guidance one step at a time. The story of Jonah illustrates why God often leads us incrementally. Aware of God’s nature and intention to forgive and show compassion to the Ninevites, Jonah chose to reject God’s plan and disobey. In moments when God does not spell out how everything is going to play out – maybe He in His all-knowing wisdom knows how much we can handle, how much we need to grow in our trust and dependence on Him, especially because our inclination is to rest in the outcome or rely on self, forgetting that the journey itself is crucial to our transformation. We often anticipate God to disclose the entire path, yet God is awaiting our obedience to the next step He has already shown us.

Verse 4 – Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” This is the sermon that Jonah gives – In Hebrew, his message was a 5-word sermon.

Why, who, and is there anything they could do to prevent this? Usually, a prophet’s message includes a call for repentance. Jonah’s message lacks any form of hope, omitting any mention of wrongdoing or how to respond. Though the Ninevites probably knew who Jonah served as His God, in his message there is also no specific mention of God.

Jonah may be outwardly complying with God’s command to go to Nineveh, but his heart is not entirely with it as he is giving as little as possible for them to know what to do to turn from their ways and fate. This may feel as an assumption, but if we look ahead to chapter 4, we get an insight into his heart and how keen he was for the Lord to destroy the city and people of Nineveh.

Moreover, just like the Ninevites had come to a time when they had to make a decision of which way they would choose, we too must remember that there comes a time when Judgement is sure. To not trifle with the time God has given us but to use it by living with an eternal perspective- Loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.

Self-Reflection: Jonah obeyed God by going to Nineveh, but his heart was not entirely committed to what the Lord had asked of him, similarly, is there anything that you are half-heartedly obeying God in. What is your heart attitude and is it in alignment with God?

Are there any areas of your life where you have fooled yourself into thinking that you have corrected your ways, but your actions say otherwise?

We stop here for today, in our next post, we delve into the Ninevites response to Jonah’s message.

God Bless.