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Jonah
Chapter Three
Jonah 3
Chapter Contents
Jonah sent again to Nineveh, preaches there. (1-4)
Nineveh is spared upon the repentance of the inhabitants. (5-10)
Commentary on Jonah 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.
Commentary on Jonah 3:5-10
There was a wonder of Divine grace in the repentance and
reformation of Nineveh. It condemns the men of the gospel generation, Matthew 12:41. A very small degree of light may
convince men that humbling themselves before God, confessing their sins with
prayer, and turning from sin, are means of escaping wrath and obtaining mercy.
The people followed the example of the king. It became a national act, and it
was necessary it should be so, when it was to prevent a national ruin. Let even
the brute creatures' cries and moans for want of food remind their owners to
cry to God. In prayer we must cry mightily, with fixedness of thought, firmness
of faith, and devout affections. It concerns us in prayer to stir up all that
is within us. It is not enough to fast for sin, but we must fast from sin; and,
in order to the success of our prayers, we must no more regard iniquity in our
hearts, Psalm 66:18. The work of a fast-day is not done
with the day. The Ninevites hoped that God would turn from his fierce anger;
and that thus their ruin would be prevented. They could not be so confident of
finding mercy upon their repentance, as we may be, who have the death and
merits of Christ, to which we may trust for pardon upon repentance. They dared
not presume, but they did not despair. Hope of mercy is the great encouragement
to repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves down at the
footstool of free grace, and God will look upon us with compassion. God sees
who turn from their evil ways, and who do not. Thus he spared Nineveh. We read
of no sacrifices offered to God to make atonement for sin; but a broken and a
contrite heart, such as the Ninevites then had, he will not despise.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jonah》
Jonah 3
Verse 3
Exceeding great — The greatest city of the known
world at that day, it was then in its flourishing state greater than Babylon,
whose compass was three hundred eighty-five furlongs, but Nineveh was in
compass, four hundred and eighty. It is said, her walls were an hundred foot in
height, her walls broad enough for three coaches to meet, and safely pass by
each other; that it had fifteen hundred towers on its walls, each two hundred
foot high, and one million, four hundred thousand men employed for eight years
to build it.
Of three days journey — To walk round the
walls, allowing twenty miles to each day's journey.
Verse 4
Shall be overthrown — The threat is
express. But there was a reserve with God, on condition of repentance.
Verse 5
From the greatest — Great and small, rich
and poor.
Verse 6
The king — Probably Phul Belochus.
His robe — Put off his rich apparel.
Verse 7
Taste any thing — Man and beast are to forbear to
eat and drink, that the fast might be most solemn, that the cry of man,
seconded with the cry of hungry cattle, might enter the ears of God, who
preserveth man and beast.
Verse 8
And beast — Their horses and camels, both
which they adorned with rich and costly clothing, they must now in testimony of
an hearty repentance, clothe with sackcloth; the clothing of beasts must
witness for men.
The violence — Oppression and rapine.
In their hands — Which are practised by them.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Jonah》
03 Chapter 3
Verses 1-10
Verse 1-2
And the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying.
The restored commission
Here we learn what God is to those who truly repent. God may even
restore all that has been forfeited. For those who have done grievous wrong, it
is encouraging to think that there is honour, and glory, and a blessed
restoration to the full love of God, if only they return out of the darkness
into the presence from which they have departed. God sent Jonah on the very
same mission in which he had failed before,--and yet with a marked difference
distinguishing the second from the first call. The changed command, though full
of restored confidence, implies a warning to be exact in fulfilling the will of
God--to be careful as to giving the message exactly as he received it. It seems
to say, Risk not any further disobedience even in the least particular of the
mission on which you are sent.
1. The exceeding mercy of God shown in this, that He offers renewed
opportunities to those who fail to profit by the first opportunity; and it may
be even opportunities of the same kind. They may have to be followed after a
different manner, but yet the same object, the same end may be set before us
till finally accomplished.
2. There is this further wonder in the forgiving and forbearing of
God, that He causes the trials of the returning penitent to be the means of
good. Those who have passed through the experience of such penitential
struggles and fears may become afterwards a blessing to others, because they
can tell of the dangers that beset them, and of the mercy through which they
have been saved. The grace of God not only restores a man generally, as it
were, but renews him in the very point in which he had sinned and failed. Take
courage then, you who are beset with some special sin. Let us learn from the
long catalogue of those who have fallen and have been recovered to take hope
for ourselves. God desires a perfect, not an imperfect work. Grace crowns acts
of penitence and faith. (T. T. Carter.)
The preacher of judgment
Jonah, the runaway prophet, is now before us as Jonah the successful
preacher.
1. Sin in God s servants is a great hinderer.
2. Faithlessness in the servant does not necessitate failure to the
Master. Chastisement may lead to consecration, and that to successful service.
3. Moral delinquency repented of is no impassable barrier to former
favour, privilege, and honour. God does not take advantage of our weakness to
cut us off for ever. He is patient, pitiful, forgiving, and will restore His
penitent servants to forfeited blessings and dignities.
4. The preacher’s true function is to declare what God commands him.
The message as well as the commission must bear the impress of Divinity. Divine
thoughts, purposes, desires, truths, and not human notions, creeds, sentiments,
opinions, fancies, must ever fill the mind, inspire the tongue, constrain the
utterance, and fire the eloquence and enthusiasm of every ambassador of the
Cross. Note that Jonah was obedient at last to the holy orders. He did what he
should have done at first. Obedience is true or false according to the temper
in which we act. Notice the method and matter of his preaching. His method was
earnest, courageous, impressive. He “cried.” His matter was adapted to rich and
poor. It was solemn, humiliating, definite, merciful. We have the practical
fruits of the preaching,--repentance and reformation. Nineveh’s repentance was
well timed, well grounded, well evidenced, by self-denial, self-abasement,
earnest prayer, personal reform. Learn that genuine repentance averts the
punitive purposes of God. God watches for genuine indications of moral reform.
Behold them, He refrains from executing His threatenings. Repentance is a
wonderful power in the domain of moral government. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
The history of Jonah set before the young
The prophet Jonah opposed the will of God, and would not do what
God commanded him, as did Balaam; but there was this difference between
them,--that Jonah did fear and love God. God destroyed Balaam. He only punished
Jonah, and brought him to repentance. It is then a very good thing to love and
serve God; because those who do so cannot quite turn away from God, and Cod
will never quite turn away from them. If they sin, they will be punished, like
Jonah was; but those who love and serve God are still under His care, and like
Jonah are brought back to repentance. If there are among you any that are
wishing to serve God, but are yet sometimes tempted to disobey Him, you may
learn much by thinking of what happened to Jonah.
1. God gave him a command to go and tell the people of Nineveh that
He was about to destroy them. It was a very hard command for him to fulfil. Jonah
could not tell what might happen to him, if he ventured into that great foreign
and heathen city. But God could take care of him. He knew that God was a loving
Father to him. Whenever we are disposed to do wrong, then we are afraid of the
Bible; we are afraid of every thing that tells us of our sin; we are afraid of
pious persons; we cannot bear to pray. Whenever you are disposed to do what is
wrong, you feel equally disposed to flee from the presence of the Lord. You act
like Jonah. Therefore our best way is to love and serve God with all our
hearts, and ask Him for grace to do all our duty, as Jonah ought to have done.
When the lot fell upon Jonah, they asked him what he had done; and he was obliged to
tell them how he had been shrinking from doing his duty, and was trying to
escape from God, who followed him, and who knew where he was, and what he was
doing. It must have made him more miserable to have seen how much better the
heathen were than he. For he had brought them into danger, and they were trying
to save his life. At last, at his own wish, they took him up, and threw him
into the sea. Ungodly persons, when they are brought into trouble, cannot pray.
Now there is not a place on earth, and there is not a degree of guilt in which
we may be living, in which our believing prayer cannot reach the ear and heart
of God: for when
Jonah cried unto the Lord, in the midst of his troubles, God heard him, and
caused the fish to vomit him out upon the shore of his own land. How humble and
grateful he must have felt that day! He was not left, however, to be indolent
and inactive. Jonah was brought through all his troubles, to just this point,
that he must obey the commands of God. God’s commands never alter. Our sins
will not alter them; our troubles will not alter them; our deliverance will not
alter them. God commands you to love and serve Him with all your hearts; God
commands you to confess Jesus Christ in the world, to make the Bible your rule
of life, and to live by faith and in prayer. Jonah was brought to God’s command
a second time; and if he had refused, he would have been brought to it a third
time. He must do God’s will. When he accomplished the will of God, and found it
so easy, doubtless he thought, “Why did I not do it at first?” (Baptist W.
Noel, M. A.)
Arise, go to Nineveh, that
great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
Jonah’s first and second commission
What are the points of difference between them? One respects Jonah
himself. Formerly he knew the message that he was to deliver. Now he is simply
told that a message will be given him, but he is not to know it until he
arrives at the place. It may be the same. It may be milder; it may be sterner.
Undoubtedly this change has reference to his former disobedience. The message was
different in its substance also, to meet the change in Nineveh. When the
message was given, it proved to be the never varying cry, “Yet forty days, and
Nineveh shall be destroyed.” Some think he preached on this as a text; but as
the cup of Nineveh’s iniquity was now full, what was proper to the case was
just a cry of coming judgment, brief and plain, startling, stern, unalterable,
except by quick and unfeigned repentance. Probably Jonah did not add to this
message by the faintest hint or suggestion. The simplest interpretation is the
truest. This message makes us think.
1. Of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
2. How inflexible is the justice of God.
3. What a stupendous power a city has for good or evil. (A.
Raleigh, D. D.)
A missionary message
Jonah was foolish, Jonah was wise; foolish to expect to balk God,
wise to learn so quickly his folly. Misery, calamity, peril, and the sense of
an ever present God who had brought them, did their work; and the prophet, back
again at the starting-point, heeds the Divine voice, and turns with an obedient
heart to fulfil the mission which he had thought to escape.
I. God’s
authority. The Being who speaks is conscious of His right. He does not mince
words. God’s demand on Jonah now is precisely what it was in the first place.
There is no effort to compromise because of Jonah’s former flight. Now comes
the command again, plain, stern, uncompromising--“Arise, go, preach.” The
slight change of form in the expression seems full of meaning. “Arise, go, and
preach the preaching that I bid thee.” See that thou preach no other message
than Mine. God owns men. All that we are, all that we have, all the service of
our lives belongs to God. We delude ourselves with any sense of self-ownership.
We get the idea that we own what God only loans to us.
II. God’s way with
the disobedient. See how God goes to work to bring this man’s will into
subjection to His own. What a complex of world-wide, universe-wide machinery
the Sovereign of all can set in motion for the subduing of a human spirit! Jonah
is not more obdurate than Pharaoh. The storms, the seas, the worse tumults in
his own bosom, the upbraidings of the crew, his thoughts of his past, his
fear,--all are God’s instruments, and under His direction each does its
unconscious part toward the subjection of Jonah, and the salvation of the
Assyrian capital. Jonah is a changed man. From a coward he has become a
dauntless hero and prophet. Jonah thought himself free when he fled, but in
fact his first real enjoyment of freedom came when he started to fulfil God’s
command.
III. God’s
missionary message and its effect. Jonah was the first foreign missionary. The
men of far-off Nineveh were to learn of God, His love and holiness. The very
heart of our conception of God as a moral being is His holiness. The holiness
of God compels Him to insist upon holiness in all men. In Nineveh sin had taken
on its most frightful developments. Nineveh had much, but it lacked just one
element of fortune--righteousness. Nineveh’s cup of iniquity was well-nigh
full. Jonah’s preaching was plain, earnest, effective, impressive. God went
into the city with Jonah, but God had also gone before. The men of Nineveh were
ready for the missionary. “The people believed God.” To believe God is a great
thing. The best possible evidence of the Ninevites’ belief in the missionary’s
sermon was their conduct. They acted. They bestirred themselves as if they
believed that the sin of their hearts and lives was endangering them. The
ringing cry of Jonah reaches even the royal palace, and the king, humbled,
joins his subjects in their plea for God’s mercy. The people turned from their
sin, and cried for mercy.
IV. God’s mercy.
God’s heart was moved; doom was averted; Nineveh was saved. God was merciful to
Jonah in following him through all his flight, in bringing him back to the
starting-point, in using him though he had shown himself unworthy. God was
merciful to Nineveh in sending the messenger to warn the city, and in preparing
the hearts of the people for the message. And God is merciful in listening to
their cry for forgiveness. God repented. His attitude toward Nineveh was
changed. What changed it? Nineveh’s attitude toward sin. What is meant by God’s
repentance? Speaking to man, God must use language with which man is familiar.
Repentance means a changed attitude. The whole attitude of the Ninevites toward
sin, and so, toward God, being changed, in that same hour God’s attitude toward
them was changed. (John H. Mason.)
Conditions of ministerial success
I. The character
of the sermon; or the objective elements of success.
1. It should be argumentative. To expect men to believe without proof
is to expect them to become irrational.
2. It must be positive; mainly concerned in the teaching of truth,
rather than in the refutation of error.
3. It is doctrinal. The larger part of those who compose our
congregations depend upon the preacher for all the knowledge they will ever
have of these great theological truths. That preaching is the most practical
which indoctrinates the hearers with the fundamental elements of the Christian
faith.
4. It should be systematic. As there is a logical coherence between
all the parts of the religion we teach, why should we exclude system from our
mode of exhibiting it?
5. A bold, unflinching testimony to the great doctrines of God’s
sovereignty, man’s inability, election, and other unpopular doctrines of the
Gospel.
II. The character
of the man; or the subjective elements of success.
1. Individuality.
2. Earnestness is self-evidencing.
3. Consciousness on the part of the speaker that he is speaking to
his audience. Some preach for the sake of the sermon. Others preach for the
sake of the people.
4. The good preacher speaks with authority. Which may be derived
from--
5. The manner of delivery should be in accordance with the rules of
good speaking. Delivery is an art, and is based upon scientific principles.
6. The preacher must have weight of personal character; not only
piety, but weight of character. “Who of us is sufficient for these things?” (J.
W. Pratt, D. D.)
Preaching to great cities
The Lord seems to say to Jonah, “Begin where you were when you
started out to have your own way. Come back to the very point at which we were,
and start again.” But the Lord distrusted him a little still, notwithstanding
the discipline to which he had been subjected. Now God is more definite. “The
preaching that I bid thee.” There must be no mistake, no dodging, no evasion.
Man may disobey God in two ways. He may not go, may plead excuses, and refuse
to try to do the work. Or he may not do what God tells him to do, may do
something somewhat like it, but not it. It is against this second kind of
disobedience that God guards His servant. It is not difficult to obtain men, in
this age, who are quite ready to go to great cities. But there are many who,
when they go, do not do what God tells them to do. There is preaching enough,
but when you come to take out of it the theological dialectics, and the
wranglings, and the discussions of the secular phases of life, and the material
interests of the Church, and the meddling with current events, you find that
the bulk of God’s preaching is comparatively small, and often of weak portent.
The great question which lays itself down at the door of our hearts is, Are we
doing our whole duty to the city?--not to one’s self simply, but to the city?
We are here upon God’s errand. Is the city being saved? Is it being saved as we
might save it? As God expects us to save it?
I. What are the
methods with which we are to go into this great city as appointed by the
Almighty? God sends us with a definite commission, and there is to be
decisiveness of action on our part. There is to be activity, earnestness. We
are to impress upon these sinners round that we can die for them, but we can
never leave them unsaved. This indefiniteness, this far-off century, this
millennium dawning out of small faith is not of the Gospel. That is for the
prophets of evolution, of aesthetics and social culture, for the false
prophets. Within the Church are the leverages and forces to bring the
millennium to this sinking world.
II. What about the
place; what about the exact methods; what about the appliances of the Gospel?
If we are to preach to people the preaching God bids us to preach them, how are
we to reach them? Jonah was to preach street preaching. Jesus Christ preached
in the streets. The preaching of the Gospel should be just as accessible to men
as when it is preached in the streets and in the fields. Christ expects men and
women to be able to come to the preaching of the Gospel with as much freedom as
they go along the highways. There should be nothing in the Churches or in the
preaching of the Gospel that shall embarrass in the slightest degree any poor
man, or plainly clad man, who may want to find Jesus Christ. We have built our
churches away from the people. We imitate a useless, liturgical style of
architecture. We let pews to the well-to-do. When men come to the altar of God,
and it is their home, how they then throng about their minister; they don’t
hide away from him.
III. What shall we
preach? The Gospel. Just simply the plain old Gospel of the old time. You and I
are to preach that very same Jesus who went into Rome, and into Athens, and
into Asia-Minor, and whom our fathers preached, and whom our fathers revered.
Human nature needs it as much as ever it did. Preach to it the Crucified One;
not a petty little philosophy of salvation, or a poetic story of a perfect Man
Christ. But preach a God Christ, a Divine Christ, who was torn, lacerated by a
devil-world; a risen Christ, risen by His own power, which He will exert in due
time for all who die in Him. Preach a Gospel of conviction of sin, of
repentance, of regeneration, of the witness of the Spirit, by which human
hearts are made new, human character is transformed, human faces are
transfigured, and dying mortals are translated into that glory where all are
always like Him. (J. R. Day, D. D.)
Effect of Jonah’s preaching
There was never a mission undertaken apparently more unpromising
than this of Jonah to Nineveh. Here was.--
I. A most
unsuitable missionary.
1. To begin with, he was thoroughly unwilling to go. His reason he
gives in Jonah 4:2. He was fearful that the
heathen would repent at his preaching, and in that case God would have
compassion, and forgive and spare them. What a fear to be entertained by a
missionary!
2. Unsuitable because of the self-deception which he could practise
on himself, and his moral confusion and compromise. Let us not think worse of
Jonah than the case demands. He has his good traits. At least he is honest, and
he is as severe on himself as he is on others.
3. It would have seemed unfavourable also that Jonah should be sent
on such a mission entirely alone.
II. Nineveh was a
very difficult field. Perhaps the most discouraging thing about it was that its
people already knew Jonah’s country, his race, and his religion, and thoroughly
despised them all. It was to the proud metropolis of a resistless empire,
overflowing with wealth and numbers, filled with insolence and luxury, that the
lonely man from the village of Gath-hepher was sent. And did it not make
matters worse that God had bidden Jonah to carry to Nineveh such a
disheartening, exasperating message?
III. Yet the mission
of Jonah was a success. A success scarcely paralleled in ancient or in modern
times. Nineveh “believed God.” It is not possible to tell the extent or the
permanence of this national repentance. Learn--
1. All races of men have been in God’s loving care.
2. We see the method of God’s mercy to the heathen.
3. We may cherish great expectations concerning the hardest fields of
the heathen world.
4. The religious use of fear.
5. The moral power of leaders, whether social or political.
6. Learn Christ’s own lessons from this history. (Arthur Mitchell,
D. D.)
Jonah’s commission
The eye of God is always on man. We seem to act as if God
retired into the distance of heaven, and took no cognisance of the actions of
man. But if God’s eye does look upon man, the disposition of God is to show
mercy to man. For do we not see here the messenger sent to Nineveh? If God has
a disposition to show mercy, God is one whose patience has limits. We are not
to suppose that we can trifle with God; that we can go on with our iniquity,
and that God will never vindicate His honour. Learn also that we may hope in
preaching to the very worst and most abandoned. Wicked Nineveh listened to the
voice of warning. The text further teaches us the duty of the Church, the duty
of all God’s people. They are to arise and go and preach the preaching which
God bids.
1. We are to arise and go. Here at once activity is demanded at our
hand. There must be no lethargy and no lukewarmness.
2. Besides showing activity, the Church is to be aggressive. Jonah was
to go away into the haunts of wickedness, and there to scatter in the midst of
those people the warnings of Almighty God. So we are to go unto the dark
places, and carry that light which God has communicated to man.
3. The Church is to be as the “salt of the earth.” What does that
involve? That it is to influence everything that it touches. And how many are
the stimulants to urge us to this active, aggressive work! And observe that we
are to preach the preaching that God bids. The preaching must be only what God
wants. There must be no addition on our part, no fancies or imaginations of our
own. Three parts in preaching.
Christian enterprise
This is an age of enterprise. The world is more active and
energetic than ever before. Gigantic schemes, of which the world scarcely
dreamed in days gone by, are being hourly put into practical effect. This
spirit also pervades the Church of Christ.
I. Christian
enterprise is Divinely commanded. “Arise and go” is the Divine command to every
church, to every society, to every Christian to-day.
II. The object of
Christian enterprise. It is included in God’s command to Jonah, “ Arise, go . .
. and preach . . . that I bid thee.” The work of the Church is to preach, to
proclaim what God commands it--all the word of God. Nothing can be accomplished
without time, trouble, expense, and labour.
III. The effect of
Christian enterprise.
1. It had its proper effect upon the people toward whom it was
directed. They believed God, they repented in sackcloth and in ashes.
2. It received the approval of God. God was pleased with Jonah and
with the people. He heard their cry of repentance. (S. H. Doyle.)
Verse 3
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the Word of
the Lord.
Obedient at last (for children)
Introduce by description of Jonah’s conduct and history. Dwell on
his call, flight, peril, humiliation, prayer, restoration, and second call.
Also on--
Impress that the long-suffering and forgiving grace of God are
shown--
1. In giving Jonah another commission.
2. In hearing the penitent prayer of the Ninevites.
Show that penitence must, of necessity, precede forgiveness. Make
this question the point of the address,--In what spirit should God’s servants
go forth to do His work?
1. They should be strictly obedient.
2. They should be simply trustful; quite sure that God would will the
right, and give them grace as they needed.
3. They should be prompt and ready, going at once and cheerfully.
4. They should leave with God the results of their mission.
Illustrate, from one Bible character, each of these divisions.
Obedience
Erastus Corning, when a little boy, applied at a shop for
employment. The foreman looked down at the frail, lame boy, and asked, “Why, my
little fellow, what can you do?” “I can do what I am bid, sir,” was the answer.
His willingness to obey secured a place, and was the beginning of his
successful career as a merchant. (Sunday School Teacher.)
Verse 4
Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
The knell of Nineveh
Sardanapalus puts off his jewelled array, and puts on mourning,
and the whole city goes down on its knees, and street cries to street, and
temple to temple. A black covering is thrown over the horses, and the sheep,
and the cattle. Forage and water are kept from the dumb brutes so that their
distressed bellowings may make a dolorous accompaniment to the lamentation of
six hundred thousands souls. God heard that cry. He turned aside from the
affairs of eternal state, and listened. He said, “Stop! I must go down and save
that city. It is repenting, and cries for help).”
I. The precision
and punctuality of the Divine arrangement. God knew exactly the day when
Nineveh’s lease of mercy should end. He has determined the length of endurance
of our sin.
II. Religious
warning may seem preposterous. To many still it is more a joke than anything
else. Men boast of their health, but I have noticed that it is the invalids who
live long. “In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.”
III. God gives every
man a fair chance for his life. The iniquity of Nineveh was accumulating. Why
did not God unsheath some sword of lightning from the scabbard of a storm-cloud
and slay it? It was because He wanted to give the city a fair chance. And God
is giving us a fair chance for safety, a better chance than He gave to Nineveh.
IV. When the people
repent, God lets them off. While Nineveh was on its knees, God reversed the
judgment. When a sinner repents (in one sense) God repents (in another). Then
repent, give up your sin and turn to God, and you will be saved. (T. De Witt
Talmage, D. D.)
God has many preachers
God has many preachers that are not in human flesh. For instance,
fever is a terrible Elijah. When the cholera came to London it was a Jonah in
our streets. Many then began to think who would have gone blindfold down to
perdition. When poverty visits some men’s houses, and they can no longer
indulge in drunkenness and gluttony, then they bethink themselves of their
Father’s house, and the hired servants who have bread enough and to spare.
Omnipotence has servants everywhere; God can make use of even the ills of life
to work eternal good.
A warning cry in the city
It was a great and wonderful thing that was wrought that day when
Jonah “began to enter into the city.” The great capital was suddenly startled
by a voice of warning in her streets. A strange, wild man, clothed in a rough
garment of skin, moved from place to place, and announced to the inhabitants
their coming doom. Had the cry fallen on them in their prosperous time, it
would probably have been heard with apathy and ridicule. But coming as it did
when their glory had declined; when their enemies, having been allowed a
breathing space, had taken courage, and were acting on the offensive in many
quarters, it struck them with fear and consternation. It was a single day,
apparently, that was marked by such wonders in the city of Nineveh. The prophet’s
“one day’s journey” is supposed to have carried him about nineteen miles. The
repentance of the men of Nineveh prolonged, in God’s mercy and providence, the
continuance of their city for more than a hundred years. (Archdeacon
Harrison.)
Divine threatenings
I. Divine threats
are conditional It is with them in this respect as it is with the promises
recorded in the Scriptures. The appropriate condition is implied, whether it is
mentioned or not, in all the promises, and in all the threats which are
recorded in the Scriptures as coming from God.
II. Divine threats
are merciful. The threat fulminated against Nineveh was the means of bringing
the Ninevites to repentance, and saving their city from destruction, as it was
intended to be. It is the preacher’s consolation that the Divine threats are
always merciful. Observe also the suitableness of Jonah’s preaching. It might
be said, was not Jonah’s preaching quite as likely to amuse or annoy the
Ninevites as to effect a reformation on their part? They were certainly
more likely to be annoyed than amused. If not mobbed and molested in the
streets, the magistrate might be expected to deal with him as a disturber of
the peace. But nothing of this kind occurred.
1. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites of Jehovah’s power.
2. Of Jehovah’s justice.
3. Of Jehovah’s mercy.
Observe, too, how the preaching of Jonah was supplemented in
Nineveh. The manner in which this royal proclamation was produced deserves
consideration. It was not produced by the king alone, but by the king and his
nobles. The drift of the proclamation may be regarded as either imperative or
hortatory. It counselled the people to fast, to cover them selves with
sackcloth, to pray, to reform their manner of life, to associate the very
brutes with their appeal to God. Observe, the reason which the proclamation
gives for acting as it counsels is couched in very plaintive terms. “Who can
tell? “ etc. This was language equally removed from despair and presumption. (S.
C. Burn.)
The repentance of Nineveh
“The great city rises before us, most magnificent of all the
capitals of the ancient world--‘great even unto God’ It included parks, and gardens, and fields,
and people, and cattle within its vast circumference. Twenty miles the prophet
penetrates into the city. He has still finished only one-third of his journey
through it. His utterance, like that of the wild preacher in the last days of
the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, is one piercing cry, from street to street,
from square to square. It reaches at last the king on his throne of state. The
remorse for the wrong and robbery and violence of many generations is awakened.
The dumb animals are included, after the fashion of the East, in the universal
mourning, and the Divine decree is revoked.”
I. The penitent
prophet. Recall the indications of his penitence given in his prayer (chap.
2.). And note the signs in his obedient attitude, and his readiness at once to
do God’s commands. Truly penitent people give up their own wilfulness, and
cheerfully submit and obey. If we have not this spirit we may be quite sure
that our penitence has neither been sincere nor thorough. Picture the prophet
setting to his work.
II. The penitent
city. Note the signs of earnestness and sincerity. All classes joined in the
penitent acts. They united in prayer. They put away their sins. The king showed
the good example. What a picture! A whole people prostrate before the God of
judgment!
III. God’s relation
to both. Long-suffering to both. Forgiving to both. A prayer-hearer to both.
Describe--How very strange it was that Jonah, though himself a forgiven man,
was offended with God for making Nineveh a forgiven city. Our own sense of
God’s mercy in forgiving us, ought to make us very hopeful about others,
and very thankful when we find that God’s grace reaches also to them. There is
joy among the angels over one penitent, and we should share their joy. (Robert
Tuck, B. A.)
The excitement produced by Eastern prophets
Orientals are still impressed, more or less readily, by the
appearance of “holy men,” such as their own dervishes, whose enthusiasm, in
some cases, where high sincerity inspires them, is much like that which marks a
true prophet in all ages. The name “dervish,” Dr. Wolff tells us, means “one
who hangs at the gate of God,” awaiting His inspiration; and the ecstasy of
some of the class may be compared to that of which we read, for example, of
Micah, who, we are told, went about “ stripped and naked, and howled like the
jackals, and roared like the ostrich.” I do not suppose that Jonah bore himself
thus, but the fact that such appearances as those of Micah were familiar over
all Asia must have opened the way for his influence in Nineveh. We may suppose
him showing himself in such a garb as that of Elijah, or others of the
prophets,--his hair streaming down his shoulders, his outer dress a rude
sheepskin mantle. He may have arrived in the disastrous time after the death of
Shalmaneser II., when the nations conquered by that great monarch, from the
Euphrates to the Mediterranean, were, in most cases, in rebellion, and troubles
oppressed the Nineveh palaces. Wandering over the open spaces, with their
mansions and huts, and through the lanes and bazaars of each part of the city,
he terrified the crowd by a piercing, monotonous wail, in a dialect which, though
intelligible in a short sentence on the Tigris, must have sounded barbarous and
uncouth,--“Yet forty days, an Nineveh shall be overthrown.” His appearance
proclaimed him a “holy man,” and he might have been sent, in these dark times,
by the gods. (Cunningham Geikie, D. D.)
Verses 5-9
So the people of Nineveh believed God.
Belief inspired by fear
How came the Ninevites to believe God, as no hope of salvation was
given them? For there can be no faith without an acquaintance with the paternal
kindness of God; whoever regards God as angry with, him must necessarily
despair. Since, then, Jonah gave them no knowledge of God’s mercy he must have
greatly terrified the Ninevites, and not have called them to faith. The answer
is, that the expression is to be taken as including a part for the whole; for
there is no perfect faith when men, being called to repentance, do suppliantly
humble themselves before God; but yet it is a part of faith, for the apostle
says in Hebrews 11:1-40., that Noah through faith
feared; he deduces the fear which Noah entertained on account of the oracular
word he received from faith, showing thereby that it was faith in part, and
pointing out the source from which it proceeded. At the same time, the mind of
the holy patriarch must have been moved by other things besides threatenings
when he built an ark for himself as the means of safety. We may thus, by taking
a part for the whole, explain this place--that the Ninevites believed God; for
as they knew that God required the deserved punishment, they submitted to Him,
and at the same time solicited pardon; but the Ninevites derived from the words
of Jonah something more than mere terror, for had they only apprehended
this--that they were guilty before God, and were justly summoned to punishment,
they would have been confounded and stunned with dread, and could never have
been encouraged to seek forgiveness. Inasmuch, then, as they suppliantly
prostrated themselves before God, they must certainly have conceived some hope
of grace. They were not, therefore, so touched with penitence and the fear of
God but that they had some knowledge of Divine grace; thus they believed God,
for though they were aware that they were most worthy of death, they yet
despaired not, but betook themselves to prayer. They must therefore have
derived more advantage from the preaching of Jonah than the mere knowledge that
they were guilty before God. (John Calvin.)
Nineveh brought to repentance
Analyse and examine the main features of this repentance of the
men of Nineveh.
I. The people of
nineveh believed god. The men of Nineveh saw at once the reason for this sentence,
for the very first impression produced on them was a belief in God. By this is
implied not merely the acceptance of God’s message as truth, but the much
greater belief in God. Israel’s God could not have been unknown to the
Ninevites.
II. Mourning in the
city became universal. The sin had been universal, and so now became the
mourning.
III. They turned from their evil way.
Mourning was merely the outward expression of sorrow and repentance. The grand
fact is the sincerity of the repentance. They were led to alter their conduct
and change their whole manner of life.
IV. They cried
mightily unto God. And that cry of Nineveh was not unheard. It came up into the
ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. (James Menzies.)
The nature and result of true repentance
The Book of Jonah illustrates man’s perverseness, God’s love to
sinners, God’s tenderness to His people. It contains a type of our Lord’s work.
It shows God ever the same, whether dealing with Gentile or Jew: stern against sin;
yearning over sinners; faithful to promises. As to the repentance of the
Ninevites, mark--
I. Its origin.
“They believed God.” Repentance starts from faith and leads to faith. No true
repentance till there is belief--
1. That sin is hurtful.
2. That life is fleeting.
3. That God’s Word is true.
Faith of Ninevites very simple,--perhaps ignorant, yet they were
led on. It came from God. The Holy Spirit’s work thus to convince of sin.
II. Its symptoms.
1. Self-abasement.
2. It was universal.
3. It was thorough.
The next symptom was earnest prayer.
The next symptom was reformation. They turned from their evil way.
They brought forth “fruits meet for repentance.” The only proof of true
repentance is to give up sin utterly. Not only fast for sin, but abstain from
sin.
III. The result, God
repented; that is, He changed His dealings. This was foretold as possible. “Yet
forty days,”--a time of grace given. There is room in the all wise decrees for
answers to faithful prayer. Application--
1. God’s laws are the same for all. We have more light, more responsibility
than had the Ninevites; but for us the path is the same. Contrition, faith,
pardon.
2. Have we repented? A “greater than Jonas “ calls us. By His Word,
His work, His death. Let us turn to Him while the day of salvation lasts.
3. What an encouragement to the true penitent. “ There is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” (A. G.
Hellicar, M. A.)
The repentance of the Ninevites
Notice the substance of Jonah’s proclamation, and the strong
effect which it was made instrumental in producing. Most probably, while with
the zeal of an awakened spirit Jonah began to execute his commission, the
burden of it, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” was but used by
him as a general theme suggestive of enlargement. To the eye of sense the
enterprise thus commenced might seem most formidable and dangerous. But, in the
view of faith, difficulties vanished. The effect produced was remarkable. All
ranks were pervaded by feelings of disquietude and alarm. The woeful tidings
spread from mouth to mouth. God gave unwonted power to the message of His
servant, so that the inhabitants of this great and dissipated city were roused
to deep concern, and its myriads bowed themselves in penitence and prayer. The
impression produced might be partly the mere result of apprehension, as the sinner is often
scared for a time, but without lasting and salutary effect. We must distinguish
between such transient and partial feelings and genuine penitence. The latter
issues in return to Him who has been so grievously offended. Its reality is
shown in amendment of life. Notice the general nature of the Ninevites’
penitence here described, in which We must recognise the exertion of a Divine
influence and power. Fear is contagious: faith is the result of Divine influence
upon the heart; and it shows the influence of prevailing wickedness in a
community that, while some are roused by the preaching of the Gospel to
religious earnestness and activity, a much larger proportion too often remain
indifferent and slothful. The penitence of the Ninevites was in many cases
genuine. We are reminded by this narrative of the propriety of rulers, in their
official capacity, employing their influence with a view to promote the
interests of righteousness and truth. Civil eminence is to be consecrated to
God’s service. We have ground for judging of the pervading and thorough
character of the transaction. The vast city was filled with fear and
lamentation. The outward signs of abasement were everywhere discernible. Had
the repentance of the Ninevites been confined to external indications it would
have been exclusive of that homage which God requires, and has alone declared
His readiness to accept. The most important feature of the sorrow consisted,
not in the covering of the limbs with sackcloth, but in their “crying mightily
unto God,” and in “turning every one from their evil way, and from the violence
that was in their hands.” Godly sorrow will be followed by amendment, the view
of sin by its loathing and detestation. We gather from this narrative the
propriety of a nation, when threatened by disaster, turning to the great source
of sufficiency and strength. And also the happy results that may be expected to
follow from such a public recognition of the Ruler of the universe. Stand in
awe of God’s mighty power, and admire the wonders of Divine mercy and patience.
This history is fitted to remind Christians of their duty and their strength.
The duty is to “Go into all the world and preach,”--not the thunderings of wrath,
nor the avenging sentence merely of a broken law, but--the” Gospel to every
creature.” (A. Bonar, D. D.)
Repentance
1. Note the renewed charge to the penitent prophet, and his new
eagerness to fulfil it. It is God’s mercy that gives us the opportunity of effacing
past disobedience by new alacrity. The second charge is possibly
distinguishable from the first as being less precise. The substance of the
message is set forth. “The preaching which I bid thee,”--not his own
imaginations, nor any fine things of his own spinning.
2. Note the repentance of Nineveh. The impression made by Jonah’s
terrible cry is perfectly credible and natural in the excitable population of
an eastern city, in which even now any appeal to terror, especially if
associated with religious and prophetic claims, easily sets the whole in a
frenzy. The specified tokens of repentance are those of ordinary mourning, such
as were common all over the East, with only the strange addition which smacks
of heathen ideas, that the animals were made sharers in them. There is great
significance in that “believing God” (verse 5). The foundation of all true
repentance is crediting God’s Word of threatening, and therefore realising the
danger as well as the disobedience of our sin. We learn from the Ninevites what
is true repentance. The deepest meaning of the whole narrative is set forth in
our Lord’s use of it when He holds up the men of Nineveh as a condemnatory
instance to the hardened consciences of His hearers. The story was a smiting
blow to the proud exclusiveness and self-complacent contempt of prophetic
warnings, which marked the entire history of God’s people. But if repentance be
but transient, it leaves the heart harder than before.
3. Note the repentance of God. All God’s promises and threatenings
are conditional God threatens precisely in order that He may not have to
perform His threatenings. He repents of the evil which He said He would do when
they repent of the evil which they have done. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Jonah at Nineveh
I. Nineveh’s sin.
Nahum describes Nineveh as “the bloody city, all full of lies and robbery.”
Zephaniah calls it “filthy and polluted,” “ the oppressing city.” The Ninevites
were gross and sensual, cruel in war, eagerly self-indulgent; a people of
splendid physique and surprising courage, but cultivating bodily excellences
and seeking physical pleasures without thought of their higher nature.
II. Jonah’s
preaching. Dove-like, he was timid and despondent. He naturally shrank from
delivering a message which might save a godless and hostile people from
destruction. Jonah’s mission was one of great risk.
III. Nineveh’s
repentance. The Ninevites stand aghast before Jonah. Though an immoral, yet
they are a religious people. They believe in a higher power. They are moved by
the voice of prophets. Jonah’s terrible words are not unheeded. A panic seizes
the inhabitants. The king also heard and believed; but he and his advisers
discerned a ray of hope. A possibility of pardon seemed to be hinted in the
very language of the message, and had foundation in the teachings of natural
religion. What causes human misery?--Sin, nothing but sin. If the cause be
removed may not the result cease? Still, in this chain of reasoning there is
one broken link, and the Ninevites were not certain it could be welded. To stop
present sin is indeed to stop the cause of woe; but repentance does not affect
the past, and the momentum of sins before committed may hurl a train of
miseries far into the future. Repentance is, in fact, of itself an insufficient
ground for forgiveness. It does not touch the past. The wonder is, how God, on
the ground of man’s repentance, can make it consistent to forgive him. Had not
God at this very hour of Nineveh’s sin had it in His plan to send His Son to
earth to die for man there could have been no forgiveness for Nineveh. The
turning or repentance was the condition on which God would forgive. Was this
repentance sincere and lasting? It did not produce permanent results upon the
nation. But this is no reason to suppose that the reformation in Jonah’s time
was not thorough. A nation easily relapses into sin. There is no evidence that
pains were taken to confirm the work at Nineveh.
IV. God’s
forgiveness. “God repented.” How shall we reconcile this statement with God’s
unchangeableness? It is man that changes, not God. How shall we reconcile the
state-merit with God’s veracity? When God threatens, if the condition of things
be changed which makes the evil necessary, the threatening may be mitigated, if
not given up entirely. How shall we reconcile God’s forgiveness with God’s
justice? Repentance does not atone for the past. It simply is man’s part in
making Christ’s work efficacious. Repentance stops the entrance of further evil
into the heart. The narrative strikingly illustrates God’s love, His eagerness,
we may say, to forgive. The love-side of God’s nature is peculiarly prominent
in the Christian dispensation. Notice, in conclusion, the contrasts suggested
by the text. The case of Nineveh stands before the impenitent to-day as an expostulation
and a rebuke. (Sermons by Monday Club.)
Genuine reformation
The end of all providential mercies, the theme of all Divine
teachers, the indispensable condition of all true human power, dignity, and
blessedness, is genuine reformation.
I. Its method.
1. It was effected through man. Why did the Almighty require the
services of Jonah? Why did He not speak with an audible voice to the men of
Nineveh Himself? Or why did He not dispatch an angel from His throne? Or still,
why did He not write what He had to say to them in red flame above their heads?
All we answer is, Such is not God’s method with man. He makes man the organ of
blessing man. This plan serves several important purposes.
2. It was effected through man speaking, Jonah was sent to speak, he
was “to preach unto the city.” Truth spoken is the converting force.
Christianity written, as compared with Christianity spoken, is as the winter to
the summer sky. It may give as much light, but not as much heat; and without
the summer radiance the landscapes will wither and the fountains freeze.
3. It was effected through man speaking what God said. “Preach unto
it the preaching that I bid thee.” Had he spoken his own thoughts, no valuable
effect would have been produced. God’s thoughts are the converting forces.
God’s thoughts are always reasonable and universally benevolent.
II. Its
development.
1. This reformation began with the intellect. “So the people of
Nineveh believed God.” All moral reformation begins with the intellect--the
beliefs. Men must believe what God says, or no saving effect can be produced.
2. This reformation proceeded to the heart. “They put on sackcloth,
from the greatest of them even to the least of them.” As they thought upon what
they heard, deep contrition seized them, etc.
3. This reformation extended to the outward life. “They turned from
their evil way.” They renounced their old habits of wickedness, and adopted a
new and virtuous course of life. Such is ever the natural development of true
reformation. Divine ideas first enter the intellect, they are believed, they
pass to the heart and generate emotions, and these emotions come forth in new
actions. True reformation works from the centre to the circumference, from the
heart to the extremities.
III. Its value. “And
God repented of the evil that He had said He would do unto them; and He did it
not.” Though this wonderful language is in accommodation to our modes of
thought and action, it has a profound significance. It does not mean that God
changed His mind towards them;--this would be impossible.
1. It is God’s immutable purpose to pardon repentant sinners. When
the impenitent therefore become penitent, God’s conduct so far as they are
concerned is changed. (Homilist.)
Effect of Jonah’s preaching
In this chapter we have the prophet’s second call, and what came
of His obedience to it.
I. A new spirit
(verses 1-3). In part, the command is the same as before. In part, it was
unlike the first. Before it was, “Cry against it.” Now it is, “Preach unto it.”
Here is an intimation of just that mercy against which the prophet before
rebelled. Jonah implicitly obeyed it. Here was a new spirit. God had just given
him needed discipline. No doubt He now gave him needed grace. It is by both
that He prepares us for usefulness.
II. A faithful sermon
(verse 4). In this sermon two things are noteworthy.
1. It was direct, simple, plain. There is no enlargement, no
argument, no exhortation. There is great power in simplicity. It is God’s own
truth, not human additions to it, or commendations of it, which stirs the
consciences and wins the hearts of men.
2. It was also alarming. It sounded just one note, and that was a
note of warning. It was an unqualified announcement of coming judgment.
Denunciations and threatenings alone can never win and subdue to repentance.
But God’s denunciations and threatenings never are alone. There was mercy, as
well as justice, in the alarm which Jonah sounded. But neither the plainness
nor the faithfulness of Jonah’s preaching can fully account for the results
which followed.
III. A repentant
city (verses 5-9). Those that heard gave heed. The people seem to have moved
first.
1. There was first the fasting, together with the sackcloth and
ashes. What did these signify but confession of sin and grief therefor?
2. The supplication for mercy.
3. A moral change.
4. This repentance had its root in faith.
IV. Judgment
averted (verse 10). How widespread and deep the work was we cannot tell. (Sermons
by Monday Club.)
God’s purpose of grace in the salvation of sinners
The purpose of God unfolds itself gradually in the course of His
providence; and when we see the end from the beginning, we see that it is a
purpose of grace. He wished to save the men of Nineveh and the only way of
salvation with God was repentance unto life. The history of their repentance is
therefore the revelation of God’s purpose of grace in the salvation of sinners.
God renewed His commission to Jonah, but He does not upbraid the prophet with
his former refusal. All that is required is the doing of duty. That is the
fruit meet for repentance. If there be any difference between this call and the
former, it is that the terms of the second are more absolute and less definite.
Jonah now yielded to the Spirit of the Lord. He went “according to the Word of
the Lord.” That was all the difference between Jonah a sinner and Jonah a
saint, between the old man and the new. The old resists the Spirit and yields
to the flesh; the new resists the flesh and yields to the Spirit. God’s will,
not his own nor man’s, was now the law of Jonah’s life. The Lord said “Go”; go
therefore he must, go in spite of the world, go in spite of self, go whatever
should be his fate or his reception at Nineveh. All the ancients speak of
Nineveh as an exceeding great city. It must have been a sublime spectacle, to
see this single man going from one end to another of this great heathen city,
and at every step, or at every street, repeating the same awful message of God.
The terms of the prophecy were most absolute. No proof was offered of the
prophet’s divine commission. No call to repentance was addressed to their
consciences. No promise was made, or hope held out. The people believed God,
and the immediate effect of their faith was repentance. They proclaimed a
national and universal fast. They thus humbled themselves as sinners before
God. In so doing they obeyed the voice of conscience. By the joint authority of
the king and his government a proclamation was issued for public fasting,
prayer, and penitence on the part of the people. While they cast themselves on
God’s mercy, they were to turn “every one from his evil way, and from the
violence that was in their hands.” Their faith was but a peradventure; their
hope was in God’s mercy. And God repented when they repented. He did not change
His purpose, He only changed His method of outworking His purpose. His are
purposes of grace, even when they seem to be nothing but proclamations of wrath
to the uttermost. They are given for the very purpose of bringing the sinner to
salvation by bringing him to repentance. Why is there no such humiliation
before God on account of sin, personal and national, nowadays?
1. Because there are few like Jonah to preach repentance: if they are called to
preach, to be God’s witnesses, in whatever place or way or walk of life, they
are called to testify against the world that has not come to repentance.
2. Because the message of God is not seen to be a matter of fact as
personal, and to those who are sinners like the men of Nineveh as terrible as
that of Jonah to Nineveh.
3. Because God’s purpose of grace revealed in the Gospel is little
realised in its fulness and freeness of grace. Two things in relation to
salvation which this history sets in the clearest light.
Jonah’s preaching
God had delivered Jonah; but God’s pardoning mercy was no plea for
negligence of duty. The Lord requires Jonah to consider again the message with
which he was originally charged. God will have His people obey His will
instantly, unreservedly, and with a full desire to carry it out in all things.
I. The substance
of the message which Jonah was bidden to deliver. He has to proclaim that
destruction is nigh at hand, that evil awaits the city, and that this evil is
the immediate act of God. Second causes there may be, but they are only second. Most
people talk in their time of trouble about God being “all-merciful.” It is
true, but He is also holy and faithful and just. Men speak of God’s mercy as if
it were to set aside God’s truth.
II. The conduct of
the Ninevites. They acknowledged that the message must have come from the Lord.
External signs of repentance were used, anal external signs are useful when
they express internal feeling. Here we find that these outward signs were to be
accompanied by prayer for pardon and for the averting of judgments, and also by cessation from
sin.
III. The mercy of
the Lord. He is indeed more ready to forgive than to punish. Though there are
fearful threatenings spoken in God’s Word against the impenitent, there are
full and free offers of mercy and pardon to every soul that turns from his
wickedness and believes in Jesus. (Montagu Villiers, M. A.)
Verse 8
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily
unto God.
The sin and repentance of Nineveh
We have in these words part of the means which the king of Nineveh
and his nobles judged necessary for averting the calamities which threatened
their city. Fasting and prayer were only subsidiary to personal reformation.
1. The guilt and danger of conduct which is at variance with the
Divine requirements, and let us feel the necessity of actual reformation. These
heathen felt that amendment of life was the truest devotion. There have always
been persons who have cherished the expectation of acceptance with God while
they continued in sin. They divorce religion and morality. They would secure
Divine favour by ritual observances, while their conduct is in other respects
habitually at variance with the Divine requirements. The men of Nineveh may be
their reprovers, and teach them that they must reform before they can expect to
be forgiven.
2. The guilt and danger of sins of injustice and violence, and the
necessity of relinquishing them. These sins are specially connected with large
cities. Inadequate payment of labourers. Grinding the faces of the poor.
Reckless selfishness.
3. The necessity of individually relinquishing these and other sins
to which we are addicted. Men naturally shut their eyes on their own
deficiencies. To turn unreservedly from sin unto God is the last thing which a
sinner will do. So the words are, “Let them turn every one.” The great question
for each to determine is, not what are the defects of others, but what are his
own, and how the demands and threatenings of revelation affect him in
particular. The duty required of us is, that “every man should mend one.” The
principal lesson of this history is, that we should duly impress our minds with
the guilt, and incompatibility with a religious profession, of all acts of injustice
and dishonesty. You cannot be in friendship with God while you are at enmity
with man. (Robert Brodie.)
Verse 9
Who can tell if God will turn?
Peace has been proclaimed
During the Civil War in America some soldiers of the Southern Army
deserted, and found themselves caught in a wood between their own regiment and
the Northern lines. To go forward or backward equally meant death. So here they
hid and starved, feeding on berries. Meanwhile the Southern Confederacy was
broken up, and peace was made between North and South. One day an officer
riding through found them and challenging them, heard their fears. You have
nothing to fear, he said. “Peace has been proclaimed. You can have all you want
by going to the nearest village and asking for it.” So it is between the race
and God. Men want to know that in Christ God has reconciled the world unto
Himself. (F. B. Meyer.)
Who can tell?
This was the forlorn hope of the Ninevites. The Book of
Jonah should be exceedingly comfortable to those who are despairing because of
the wickedness of their times. Is this, O God, Thy way? Wilt thou make Nineveh
repent at the bidding of one man? So skilful is He that with the weakest
instrument He can produce the mightiest workmanship.
I. The miserable
plight in which the men of nineveh found themselves. They were like those in
the days of Noah. They were rich and mighty above all people. Locked in
security, they fell into abomin able sins. Their vices probably rivalled those
of Sodom. Suddenly they were startled from their security, and convinced of
their sin. Their miserable plight consisted in three discoveries--their great
sin; the shortness of their time; the terrible character of their destruction.
II. The slender
ground which the ninevites had for hope. In Jonah’s message there was no
proclamation of mercy made. It was the trumpet of the judge, but not the silver
trump of jubilee. He was sent with a thundering commission, and he dealt it out
in a thundering fashion. The king’s answer was, “Who can tell? There may be
hope.” Another thing that would cut off the hope of the Ninevites was, that
they knew nothing of God except, it may be, some dreadful legends of His
terrible acts. They lacked another encouragement that we have. They had never
heard of the Cross. Jonah’s preaching was very powerful, but there was no
Christ in it.
III. The urging of
Divine reasons why we should imitate the Ninevites in repentance. God, in order
that you may know His mercy, has been pleased to preserve instances thereof,
that so often as you look upon them you may be led to say, if such and such an
one was saved, why may not I? If you are conscious of guilt, your only hope of
deliverance lies in the mercy of God. While it will be a happy thing for thee
to be saved, it will be a serious thing for God to save thee. God delighteth to
save sinners, because this puts jewels in His crown. He is glorified in His
justice, but not as He is in His mercy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The uncertain doom of kingdoms at particular times
A state of uncertainty, a suspense between hope and fear, about a
matter of importance, is a very painful and anxious state. What can be more
important, what more interesting, than our country! When the fate of our
country is doubtful; when we can only ask with painful solicitude, What will be
the end of these things? Every mind must be agitated with doubtful
expectations. This was the state of Nineveh. What was the cause of its
denunciation? Sin; national, epidemical sin, against an unknown God. They
sinned against the light of nature, and that sufficed to bring down remediless
destruction upon them. Before the fatal blow fell they had one warning more. We
have the substance of Jonah’s sermon. They understood him to plead for
repentance. We have a very moving sight before us, a gay, magnificent city in
mourning. The repentance does not wholly consist in ceremonies: they are sensible of
the propriety and necessity of earnest prayer to God, and a reformation of
life, as well as of afflicting themselves with fasting. The light of nature
directed them to this as the only method of deliverance, if deliverance was
possible. The case of such a people looks hopeful. Yet so sensible was the king
of Nineveh of their demerit and of the insufficiency of their repentance to
make atonement for their sins, that he is doubtful, after all, what would be
the consequence. “Who can tell,” he says, “whether God will turn and repent.”
Let us humble ourselves ever so low, we are not assured we shall escape. It is
natural to a penitent, while he has a full view of all his sins, in all their
aggravations, to question whether such sins can be forgiven by so holy a God.
And Jonah was reserved on this point. National as well as personal repentance
may come too late. When a nation is in such a state that no man can certainly
determine what will be its doom, if there be any possible hope, it is only in
the way of general humiliation, earnest prayer, and public reformation.
1. Sometimes a nation may be in such a situation that no man can tell
what will be their doom; whether the threatened vengeance will fall upon them,
or whether they shall escape.
2. The event of the present war will appear dismally doubtful if we
consider some scriptural prophecies, particularly in Daniel and the Revelation.
3. The event of the present war, and the doom of our country and
nation, will appear dreadfully uncertain if we consider our national guilt and
impenitence. When a nation is in such a doubtful situation that no man can know
its doom, if there be any hope, it is only in the way of repentance,
reformation, and earnest prayer. This appears to be the only way of hope on two
accounts.
God’s promises and threatenings
There is a simple distinction between the promises of Scripture
and its threatenings to which we should carefully attend. That distinction is,
that the promises are recorded that they may be fulfilled, while the
threatenings are written to prevent their fulfilment. We see the right
influence of Jehovah’s threatenings in the case of Nineveh of old. Only one
thing could retard or prevent its ruin. That was repentance. Jonah’s mission to
Nineveh was really designed to prevent desolation. The threatening message was
delivered. The heart of man was touched, sin was abandoned, and misery was,
through grace, averted or postponed. Here we see the hopes and fears and
agitations of the Ninevites. “Who can tell? etc. They had something to
encourage, but nothing to assure. They had the forty days of respite. That brought
in conditions and hopes. We know that the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance; but, in imparting revelation from the unchanging One, language is
employed which is strictly applicable to man, in order that man may understand
the truth imparted. Human feelings and affections are thus described to the
Divinity, though He be, in fact, unaffected by them all. It is man that
changes, not God; but the language employed can occasion no difficulty to any
humble mind. (W. K. Tweedie.)
And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do
unto them,
God repenting
There are certain passages of holy Scripture which assert in the
strongest way that God cannot repent, and that He never does.
There are certain other passages which assert, just as strongly, and with as
little qualification, that He can repent, and that, in fact, He has often done
so. Here is an apparent contradiction. The ordinary method of interpretation
applied to such texts is, to my mind, eminently unsatisfactory, and in fact
involves erroneous and pernicious views of the Divine nature. We are told that
the passages which speak of God’s repentance are simply forms of speech to
indicate a change of outward procedure, but do not imply any change whatever of
interior feeling. This theory, in order to exempt God frown those imperfections
which are connected with the exercise of the affections and passions among men,
virtually denies to Him the possession of any affections at all. It makes Him
simply a Being of pure thought and unrelenting will. What a stupendous inroad
is thus made on the fulness and beauty of “the glorious Gospel of the blessed
God!” I take the words to mean what we naturally understand by them--that God
did really repent--i.e., changed His mind, which is the meaning of
repentance. When He sent the prophet He meant destruction. When the city was
humbled, He changed His mind, and waved the destroying angel home. There was a
condition involved in the threat, and understood. God knew that the city would
repent. Yes, but He also knew that the city would repent under commination. Why
should it be incredible that God “repents” or changes? Would it not be more
incredible if it were asserted that He never does? Are we to suppose that what
constitutes a special perfection in the moral character of a man is an
imperfection in God? God morally regards us at any one moment just as we are. (A.
Raleigh, D. D.)
Repentance applied to God
As to what Jonah adds, that God was led to repent, it is a mode of
speaking that ought to be sufficiently known to us. Strictly speaking, no
repentance can belong to God; and it ought not to be ascribed to His secret and
hidden counsel. God, then, is in Himself ever the same, and consistent with
Himself, but He is said to repent when a regard is had to the comprehension of
men; for as we conceive God to be angry whenever He summons us to His tribunal,
and shows us our sins, so also we conceive Him to be placable when He offers
the hope of pardon. But it is according to our perceptions that there is any
change when God forgets His wrath, as though He had put on a new character. As
then we cannot otherwise be terrified, that we may be humbled before God and
repent, except He sets forth before us His wrath, the Scripture accommodates
itself to the grossness of our understanding. But, on the other hand, we cannot
call confidently on God unless we feel assured that He is placable. We hence
see that some kind of change appears to us, whenever God either threatens or
gives hopes of pardon and reconciliation; and to this must be referred this
mode of speaking which Jonah adopts when he says that God repented. There is a
twofold view of God--as He sets Himself forth in His word, and as He is in His
hidden counsel. With regard to His secret counsel, God is always like Himself,
and is subject to none of our feelings; but with regard to the teaching of His
Word, He is accommodated to our capacities. God is now angry with us, and then,
as though He were pacified, He offers pardon, and is propitious to us. Such is
the repentance of God. Let us remember, then, that it proceeds from His Word
that God is said to repent. (John Calvin.)
Repentance, human and Divine
Jonah’s prediction, we say, was not fulfilled. But was it
not, in a very true sense? The city was not overthrown in one sense, but it was
in another. A moral revolution took place, but it was a revolution. Nineveh was
overthrown by the preaching of Jonah, as long afterwards the world was said to
be turned upside down by that of the apostles. This, of course, was not what
Jonah had in mind. It was not that the city was destroyed, in Jonah’s
sense. The inhabitants repented, and by so doing occasioned God Himself to
repent of His purpose in relation to them. There is, then, such a thing as
repentance, not only on the part of human beings, but also on that of the
Divine Being.
I. The repentance
of the Ninevites.
1. It was a sincere repentance. “God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way.” This settles the matter. It was impossible for
them to deceive God. There is in our fallen nature a tendency to the hateful
sin of hypocrisy, and there are two kinds of hypocrisy--the hypocrisy which
affects holiness; and the hypocrisy which affects penitence. The latter is the
more artful, as it is the more heinous.
2. It was occasioned by their faith ill God. “The people of Nineveh
believed in God.” Faith in God is certain to produce repentance. A man cannot
repent without repenting of his unbelief in God, and in God’s Son.
3. It was universal. They seem to have turned every one from his evil
way. It is probable that the case of Nineveh is unique in this respect. It was
an earnest of the universal repentance of mankind.
4. It was exceedingly prompt. There was a necessity for promptitude,
seeing that a time-limit had been fixed. Delay in such a case meant
destruction.
5. It originated at the summit of society, and spread downwards to
its base. But the repentance of the Ninevites, sincere and effectual as it was,
did not prevent their descendants from doing all manner of evil, and incurring
the destruction of their city.
II. Repentance as
ascribed to God. There is a doctrinal difficulty here. Some passages of
Scripture attribute repentance to the Most High, and some other passages deny
that He ever does repent. Truth may sometimes be formulated most conveniently
by a paradox. God may be said to be, “unchangeably changeable.” Illustrate from
the thermometer or from the tides. As often as a change bakes place in a human
being from loyalty to disloyalty, or vice versa, a corresponding change
in God occurs in relation to that person. This change takes place in the Most
High, not because He is changeable, but because He is unchangeable. See Jeremiah 18:7-10. That gives the
changeless principle of God’s government, and it explains all the changes in
His attitude towards nations and persons. God has Often changed in the manner
thus described, and that for the simple and sufficient reason that He is
unchangeable. If there is one who knows only too well that he is regarded by
the Supreme Being with deserved displeasure, let such an one know that a change
on his part towards God will result in a corresponding change on God’s part
towards himself. (Samuel Clift Burn.)
God’s mercy vindicated
The dealings of God with men have ever been characterised
by judgment and mercy. God always deals with man according to his works; but
the moral character of those works is determined by the state of the heart, and
by the motives from which they spring. God deals with man according to his
works. To the penitent God shows mercy; to the obedient, favour; to the
rebellious and impenitent, judgment. The conduct of God towards the repentant
Ninevites was in accordance with these general principles of His moral
government.
I. God’s
repentance. Repentance in man is change of mind and purpose, issuing in change
of conduct; but repentance in God is only change of operation or
administration, according as man’s conduct agrees with, or violates, the
requirements of the Divine law. With the Ninevites God was justly angry. Their
aggravated sins cried aloud for vengeance, and He determined to destroy them;
but when they turned away from their sins He graciously withheld His avenging
hand. This change in God’s dealings, or threatened dealings, with the
Ninevites, was not a change of principle or a change of mind, but simply a
change of dispensation, arising out of their altered circumstances. Repentance
in man always produces a corresponding change in God’s administrations towards
him. (Jeremiah 18:7-10.) This gives to the
denunciations of God a conditional character. Some times the condition is
expressed in the terms of the threatening, and sometimes it is understood. It
is as much a principle of God’s gracious government to suspend the execution of
a threatened punishment on man’s sincere repentance as it is to execute it in
the case of obstinate and continued sin. Erroneous notions have been adopted
with respect to the immutability of God. God is unchangeable in His being,
perfections, and principles of moral government. But in His actual dispensations
with man He deals with him according to the state of his heart and life.
II. The effects of
God’s repentance on Jonah. Such an act of grace and forbearance On the part of
God ought to have excited the devout thankfulness of the prophet. But Jonah heard of the
reprieve and pardon not only without joy, but with angry displeasure. The
reason of his inhuman displeasure was a fear for his own fame. Jonah’s
unreasonable anger will account for his unseemly and censurable prayer.
III. God’s reproof
of Jonah, and vindication of Himself. God’s dealings with Jonah place His own
character in the most gracious and amiable light, and in the most affecting
contrast with that of the prophet. Jonah appears to have been a man of strong
passions, and easily excited. Means had been found, in connection with the
booth, the gourd, and the worm, to arouse conviction in Jonah’s mind, and now
God proceeds to make more direct application. He approaches Jonah with mild and
dispassionate language--“Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” How great
the patience that bore with Jonah’s petulance! “Thou hast had pity on the
gourd; and should not I spare Nineveh?” Whether this appeal of God had any
salutary effect on Jonah’s mind, and led to any improvement in his conduct or
not, is wholly unknown. We lose sight of Jonah under circumstances extremely
disadvantageous to him. He drops out of history in a bad temper; and we have
little to recall him to our remembrance but his sin, his punishment, and his
petulance. (Thomas Harding.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》