Jonah 3-4 3 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.” 5 The
Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the
greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he
rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth
and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in
Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste
anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals
be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them
give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God
may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so
that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from
their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he
had threatened.
4 But to
Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord,
“Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I
tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and
compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from
sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is
better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you
to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of
the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see
what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a
leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to
ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But
at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it
withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind,
and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and
said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be
angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been
concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It
sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have
concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a
hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their
left—and also many animals?”
In a fish’s belly,
Jonah recommitted himself to the Lord’s purpose. But the popular Bible story
about the consequences of disobedience doesn’t end with Jonah obeying God. The
book actually concludes with him acknowledging why he didn’t want the job—and with
the Lord chastising him for his selfish reasons. Jonah was afraid that the
Ninevites, who were a threat to the Jewish people, might actually repent, and
then his merciful God wouldn’t destroy them. The reluctant prophet admitted he
wanted to see them wiped out: “Therefore in order to forestall [their
salvation] I fled to Tarshish” (Jonah 4:2). When the Lord relented, Jonah’s
trip became a success for everyone but him.
Believers resist doing God’s will for many reasons.
Sometimes, although we don’t like to confess this, we say no because we dislike
the probable outcome of obedience. As Jonah did, we also can lose sight of
spiritually important things and focus on our own desires and comfort.
Our unhappiness with what we think might happen is not a
reason to resist God’s plan. If the Lord calls us to act, He will take care of
the end results. Our job is to obey.
What form of selfishness is keeping you from obeying the
Lord? Maybe you are too angry with your spouse to work on your marriage or too
hurt to welcome back a repentant child. But we’re not to be ruled by feelings,
no matter how strong they are. Your heavenly Father expects obedience. The
final results may surprise you, particularly how blessed you will be for having
followed Him.
Matthew Henry's
Concise Commentary
3:1-4 God employs Jonah again in his service. His making use of us is an evidence of his being at peace with us. Jonah was not disobedient, as he had been. He neither endeavoured to avoid hearing the command, nor declined to obey it. See here the nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty. Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those back to their place who had deserted it. See the power of Divine grace, for affliction of itself would rather drive men from God, than draw them to him. God's servants must go where he sends them, come when he calls them, and do what he bids them; we must do whatever the word of the Lord commands. Jonah faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. Whether Jonah said more, to show the anger of God against them, or whether he only repeated these words again and again, is not certain, but this was the purport of his message. Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to delay judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in. And should it not awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that we cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days, as Nineveh then was that it should stand forty days? We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live a month, yet we are careless though we are not sure to live a day.
3:1-4 God employs Jonah again in his service. His making use of us is an evidence of his being at peace with us. Jonah was not disobedient, as he had been. He neither endeavoured to avoid hearing the command, nor declined to obey it. See here the nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty. Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those back to their place who had deserted it. See the power of Divine grace, for affliction of itself would rather drive men from God, than draw them to him. God's servants must go where he sends them, come when he calls them, and do what he bids them; we must do whatever the word of the Lord commands. Jonah faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. Whether Jonah said more, to show the anger of God against them, or whether he only repeated these words again and again, is not certain, but this was the purport of his message. Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to delay judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in. And should it not awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that we cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days, as Nineveh then was that it should stand forty days? We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live a month, yet we are careless though we are not sure to live a day.
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