The Salvation of Ninevah
Jonah 3 · Miles Driedger · Dec 3, 2023
Jonah, No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261933273844

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We continue on in Jonah. I think this is lesson number 5. Hopefully I titled that properly. And it's all of chapter 3. And it's called the Salvation of Nineveh. So, for a little bit of review, and I know I haven't actually been in person in this class. busy at four weeks to do one lesson in the other class. And so, but I've listened to the recordings of the Jonah class and I think I'm up to date on everything.

So, we talked about the fact a little bit that Jonah was a prophet and, you know, there's a little question mark around that because he's so different from the other prophets. But it's important to understand that A prophet, biblically, is not simply someone who foretells the future, but someone who speaks as the mouthpiece of God himself to mankind. And that's the reason that it's taken so seriously in the Old Testament.

Scripture that you know the test it was a life-or-death thing if you you know claim to be a prophet and and were false It was it was a death sentence Because the prophet is someone who who speaks God's words for him to mankind so pretty serious Calling and it's in second Kings 14 25 where Jonah is referred to as a prophet from gas heifer and that That Joshua 19.13 is just another reference to Gathhefer.

That's all that is. But that 2 Kings passage places Jonah during the reign of Jeroboam II. in the northern kingdom of Israel. And the events of this book took place around the year 760 to 780 BC. And I'm not intending to totally backtrack and reintroduce the book, but the dates kind of play into things here.

So Jonah stands out from the other prophets, though, in that he was sent far from the land of Israel to deliver a word from God to a foreign Gentile nation. So, his ministry that he was to carry out was much more personal, much more direct. But he wasn't unique in his message. Because there were, while many other prophets spoke words to surrounding nations, gentile nations, For instance, Amos in chapters 1 and 2 deals with surrounding nations.

Zephaniath, chapter 2. And Zephaniath 2 is interesting because it also addresses Nineveh and the Assyrians. And he came about 150 years or so after Jonah. And so we can see here, Zephaniah 2.13, he says, and he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria. And he will make Nineveh a desolation, parched like the wilderness. And then the entire book of Nahum is actually completely about Nineveh and Assyria and the destruction of Nineveh. And that's the first verse of the book there, the Oracle of Nineveh, the Book of the Vision of Nahum, the Elkishite. And so, 150 years or so after Jonah's time, these prophets were again prophesying the destruction of Nineveh, and Assyria was destroyed by the Babylonians in 612 BC.

So Jonah wasn't necessarily unique in his message. He was earlier and he had to bring it in person. He couldn't just write it down. He had to go to them and speak. And so Jonah was hesitant, as we've talked about. Assyria was really a terrifying power in Jonah's day.

Nahum 3.1 calls it the bloody city. Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage. And I made a little listing there. I woke up. It actually gave me a little bit of a nightmare last night. I was envisioning some of these procedures.

And this comes from a couple of different commentaries, but the Assyrians were known for leading away prisoners with hooks in their noses or mouths. They would chop off victims' heads, hands, feet, eyes and ears, and then pile them up just to terrify their victims. One interesting thing is that they would impale people alive on sharpened poles. And interestingly, that's what the gallows in the book of Esther refers to.

They weren't 1800s Western cowboys. They were Assyrians, and they intended to impale Mordecai. That was Haman's plan. and bail him alive. And this was the part that actually woke me up last night. They would skin people alive. They would skin their victims alive. And then another thing they would do is gouge out the eyes of defeated peoples and sometimes send them into surrounding nations just to terrify the next nation that they intended to conquer. And it was very effective.

I just noted there that This is actually similar to some of the things that we read about in the Holocaust of the last century, as well as what we see today in some of the Islamic groups. So was Jonah right to be hesitant? I think most of us would have been. It would be like one of the Israelites today go to Hezbollah in Gaza and start preaching the gospel. And maybe there are Jewish people that are doing that. I don't know. We watched this thing on YouTube about this one for Israel And so I don't know if there are guys doing that or ladies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, you know, uh, um, it's, it's interesting to think about. I mean, it's easy to be hard on Jonah, but I, I wanted to kind of relay some of that information about just how these terrorists, uh, you know, attacked. And, uh, and I, I, I can imagine I would have been pretty, uh, would have been shaken in my boots.

I mean, but in any case, um, What's interesting is that about 40 or 50 years after Jonah, the Assyrians would come down on the northern kingdom of Israel, Jonah's kingdom, and defeat them and take them into exile. That was in 722 BC. And what's interesting is, if Jonah hadn't gone, if Nineveh had been destroyed, how would that have potentially played out differently?

I mean, we know God is sovereign in circumstances. But from a human perspective, this was their national enemy, their greatest enemy. And Jonah, even from that earthly perspective, had good reason to resist. Right, but let's not get too. I mean that's kind of review material.

So let's move into chapter 3 here I'm gonna read the whole chapter because it's only in verses Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time seeing Arise go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city a three days walk and Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk, and he cried out and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation, and it said, in Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and let men call on God earnestly, that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands, which we now have a visual for.

Who knows? God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish When God saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked ways then God relented Concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them and he did not do it so that's the whole chapter and Jonah is a very concise book Yes, yeah, just just a thought here I mean I Wasn't the view from Jonah 1, chapter 1, that God was to judge them because of the wickedness?

I mean, this outcomes a little bit more of the judgment, isn't it? Go ahead, Bill. Yeah, yeah. No, it's a fascinating chapter, it really is. You're right, in the first chapter, God sends him to, the way it's worded, there's cry against it, because of their wickedness, because their wickedness had come up before God. I have that in my notes in a second here, so we'll get to that. Okay, sure. The word of the Lord came a second time. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation.

There's actually a pattern in the chapters of Jonah. that I found interesting. You'll find the word, I mean, the name Yahweh, you know, you'll see it in all caps, L-O-R-D, is common throughout the whole book of Jonah, but I discovered it that it's in the first verse or two of each chapter in a bit of a structure. In chapter 1, verse 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah. And then in chapter 3, verse 1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. And kind of sandwiched in between there, in the beginning of the alternating chapters, it's the words of Jonah to the Lord. So, 1.1, the word of the Lord to Jonah. 2.1, Jonah's prayer from the fish. And then here we're at 3-1, the word of the Lord to Jonah a second time, and then next week we'll see Jonah's words to the Lord again.

But what's interesting is up to this point in the book, we actually haven't been told what Jonah's proclamation is supposed to be. We know that it has to do with their wickedness, from chapter 1, but as far as the Lord's words here, this second time, He just says, Arise and proclaim to it the proclamation, which I'm going to tell you. And it's not until he actually proclaims the message that we see the specific words that he was to bring. And I think there's an interesting application in that, that I think Jonah wanted us to see in the way he's structured this, is that his obedience to the Lord should never have been dependent on what the Lord was asking him to do, but simply on the fact that it was the Lord who was asking him to do it.

So let's look at Jonah's response. In verse 3, So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city as three days walk. And there's an interesting parallel again here with what we saw in chapter 1. So in chapter 1, Verse 2, God said, Arise, go to Nineveh. In verse 3, it says, Jonah arose. But that's as far as his obedience went. He went the other way. But again, we have God saying here, Arise, go to Nineveh. And this time in verse 3, Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. But, I have the question there, Jonah went but had his heart attitude changed.

And what's interesting, we don't really see that until next week in chapter 4. But I was thinking about this. And it's something that, as parents of young children, we see with some regularity. I saw it just yesterday. If there's disobedience the first time around, a good spanking will usually ensure that there's obedience on the second command. But the heart attitude hasn't necessarily changed. And, you know, the child may go about the task, but they may be sulking about it. You know?

And I think that's exactly the case we see here with Jonah. But that's getting into next week's material. I just wanted to kind of point that out here. Jonah arose and went, just as the Lord had told him, but he'd just been through a sound spanking in the fish. So, obedience, but was there a change of heart? We'll get into that next week.

The word of the Lord to Nineveh in verse 4. You know what, before we talk about this slide, I have something I didn't put in the slides, but if you're wondering about that, Nineveh, the great city, it shows up in verse 2 and 3. In verse 2, go to Nineveh, the great city. And then in verse 3, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk.

Well, Nineveh was the capital city of the world superpower of the day. A little bit like, you know, Washington D.C. or one of those cities. But not only was it the capital, it was the largest city. And I read in one place that it was, for some years, the largest city in the world, which makes sense.

And if you're into math, it seems like perhaps a three days walk refers to the circumference of the city, and a one days walk refers to across the diameter of the city. And your math will make sense there pretty quick, the 3.14 times the diameter. So it could be what that refers to. A city that would take three days to walk around would take one day to walk across.

So, anyway, not really important to our Bible study, but just interesting to note. I mean, it's in the text, you know, points out that this is a, this is, in fact, it says, it uses the definite article, the great city. And so, it was, does seem to be clear that it was the largest city at the time.

But let's look at this, the word that the Lord gave for Jonah to proclaim to Nineveh. So here we finally see what the words are that God told him to proclaim. And in Hebrew, it's just five words. Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. And I wanted to ask the question, you know, is there any hint of mercy in this message? You know, I know, and this is kind of coming back to your point from earlier, Bob, because I know that when I was young and heard this read and read this book, I wondered why Jonah was reluctant to share this message. And that's part of the reason I find it interesting that from chapter one, we didn't even know what the message was, except that it had to do with their wickedness. But because we've always known the whole end of the story type of a thing, We kind of feel like, and we know, we'll get to that next week, we know that Jonah understood something of God's character, but the message itself doesn't really seem to have a hint of mercy or compassion in it.

It's just 40 days and you're going to be destroyed. And frankly, I feel like if there's a nation I hated, I would have no problem going and sharing that five-word statement. But we'll talk about that more next week because obviously Jonah knew something of the character of God to know that there was indeed mercy embedded in this proclamation.

One of the key words there that it hinges on is this word overthrown in English. I actually didn't really do a translation check. This is the NASB. Anyone have a different word for overthrown? Is there, is overturned in any other translations or? Yeah. We've got it overthrown. Overthrown. Okay. This says demolished. Demolished. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Well, I do think there's mercy there. They were warned again. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there is.

It was a warning, right? And I wonder about this. Was there more to his message? Is this a summary of the message? But as we have it in the text, it just you know, it just looks like you're going to be destroyed, you know, and, uh, but, but clearly the 40 days, um, is an interesting element to that in that it wasn't right now. It's, you know, there's a, there's a time period here, uh, before that, that, um, miles falls.

Yeah. I got one definition that says to change itself or to be turned around. So, Well, that's interesting. So I looked at the Hebrew word is hafak. I'm not sure exactly how to say that. And then we can compare that to the Jewish translation into Greek, the Septuagint, which is katastropho.

And both of those words are very, very similar in meaning Well, the Greek, which we tend to be a little more familiar with, means literally down to turn or to turn under. It can refer to plowing soil, turning over the soil with the plow. And, but what's interesting is if you look at a, you know, for the Hebrew and Greek words that refer to destroy, it just, you know, you just look up the English word destroy in a Bible dictionary and they don't give either of these words. It's, neither of them in their most straightforward meaning, you know, means to destroy.

Um, and, uh, and overthrown is, is, is probably a good translation. I do think overturned would be more direct, more literal. Um, the, the Hebrew, some of the Hebrew definitions there on the screen to turn, to turn oneself. That was, that was interesting, but, uh, to, uh, turn back, um, to change oneself, to be perverse, to be turned, be turned over, be changed, be turned against, to be reversed, to be overturned, be overthrown, or to be upturned. So you can get the flavor of it there. So how should we understand this message?

You know, it is clear that the message caused really great alarm amongst the Ninevites. And then in verse 10, we see that the threat of destruction was real, because it says, God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them. So it is clear, both by the Ninevites' understanding of the message, as well as the fact that God turned from the calamity, that destruction was what was being foretold, or warned against. But God could have used a word, a couple of different words that would have more clearly referred to destruction if he had wanted to.

So another question that maybe is interesting to explore anyway, why would God choose this particular word with its particular semantic range, so to speak. And is it possible that God intended the message to be somewhat ambiguous? Is it possible that it's sort of meant to leave a question mark in the mind of the hearers?

You hear it and you think, well, are we going to be turned around or are we going to be overturned? And I thought of this analogy, it's kind of like driving down a road in the dark and coming across a road sign that reads, bridge out ahead, turn around now. And you could kind of interpret that as, you know, turn around or be turned upside down.

Those are kind of the options. They all sound kind of similar, but very different results. Yeah. Yeah. If you think about overthrown, you know, maybe the overthrowing was their wickedness. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting, isn't it? I mean, turning around, I think makes more sense in context, but anyway, so. Yeah. No, I mean, it's interesting because just to do the word study, it leaves that big question mark in your mind.

What exactly is being said here? And yet, when we see the way, you know, the Ninevites responded, and then we read that, you know, God was, God relented concerning the calamity, we kind of understand that there was destruction implied in it, that there was something that they were, you know, for them to fear, but it's not really clear from the message itself. And so I just kind of, it just sort of put that question in my mind, did God, you know, want them to to think about that or consider that, perhaps, in some way. Say, Miles, isn't it possible that the way this is worded, that the possibility of repentance is also preached? That's kind of, yeah, kind of what it's led me to a little bit, just wondering if that's sort of what's being hinted at, you know, to be turned around. Well, if it's ambiguous, then they're repenting in spite of the fact that they may have still been destroyed. So that's more genuine. Yeah, you know, that's that's interesting. And we'll look here at next at Nineveh's response.

But but one of the things that the king says is, who knows, you know, God may turn and relent. You know, he didn't have any guarantees in it. And because there's no guarantee in that message, as it's been recorded, like I said, I don't know if it was a summary or not, but as we have it recorded in Scripture, there was no guarantee that if they were to change their way, if they were to turn around, that it would necessarily even save them. But in any case, it did cause them to recognize their wickedness.

Great points, really good discussion, thank you. Let's look at verses 5 through 9, Nineveh's response. And we can look at verse 6 there. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. And I actually just noticed here now that the response to the word of the Lord here in Jonah is always to arise. It's always to get up and go. And the king did that very thing. He arose from his throne.

And so this expression here, sackcloth and ashes, and we're very familiar with that from throughout the scripture. You know, everywhere, biblically, they're an expression of humility. And I just pulled out a couple of examples. Of course, there's dozens of examples of the phrase sackcloth and ashes, but a couple of interesting ones. Job came to mind initially, and in his response to the Lord, and then in a footnote, I was turned to Genesis 18, which didn't come to mind quickly, but when I read it, Here, let's look at Genesis 18, 27.

And Abraham replied, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. And that verse there is what kind of connects this concept to man's original creation. You know, man is just of the dust. You know, of the dusty man, dusty is kind of the way, you know, Paul talks about this being in Adam, right, the man of the dust. And so you realize there's a sense of humility in that expression, as Abraham uses it there.

And then, of course, we know in Job's case where he is humbled when the Lord comes to him and declares his glory, and Job says, therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes. And so there's, in other words, it's just saying, I'm humbled, Lord. I'm utterly humbled. And we could look at many, many other examples, of course, of putting on a sackcloth, like a burlap sack, you know, just But, you know, probably no word better describes the Assyrians than proud.

They were absolutely arrogant. And, you know, from an earthly perspective, their power permitted that. Their power to subdue nations and to rule the world seemed unstoppable. And they were incredibly arrogant in that pride. But with five Hebrew words, the Assyrians are brought to their knees, which I think is remarkable, that the word of the Lord has that kind of ability.

You know, I was thinking about it this morning because, I mean, right now, really, I don't know, things change over time, but the U.S. has been regarded as, you know, the world's superpower for quite some time. And it's hard to imagine your president in sackcloth and ashes. I've never seen a president in anything other than a fine suit. But can you imagine what word from the Lord would it take for the president to be found in sackcloth and ashes? It's pretty stunning to think about, I think.

Although it may be appropriate, you know? I mean, we'll leave it at that. But, just trying to make sure my notes are where I got here. Yeah, so Ninova, continue with Ninova's response. And I noticed that there's a real contrast between between the way Jonah responded to the word of the Lord and the way that the king of of Nineveh responded to the word of the Lord and There are a few places in scripture actually Matthew kind of points it out in in the beginning of his gospel It's all the Gentiles. It's that he has he has the Gentile Kings coming to worship the the newborn King while you know the scribes just, you know, and Herod, they just, you know, all the scribes remain in Jerusalem and, you know, and they will have nothing to do with him, but these Gentiles responded to a star. And here we have, in this book, the Israelite prophet who is rebelling against the word of the Lord, and this Gentile king, this pagan, who instantaneously in the belly of a fish before he would even grudgingly respond to the Lord. And the king of Nineveh responded at, you know, at five words. So, in verse 8, we see that the Ninevites had a We can ask the question, is fear a wrong response to the Lord? I don't think it is.

There is a point at which a person has to be brought to recognize the terrifying situation of being a sinner in the hands of a just and wrathful God. Okay, so Psalm 111, verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And then Proverbs 19, 23, the fear of the Lord leads to life. The fear of the Lord is not life, it leads to life. And of course we know John 17, verse 3, that tells us what is eternal life, and it is that they may know you, the only true God, even Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

So I want to ask the question, what could have possibly induced this entire proud nation to respond to the cry of one lonely prophet and to be humbled so dramatically? And I think we have to recognize that the Spirit must have been doing a preparatory work ahead of Jonah. The Spirit is the one who prepares hearts.

And when we speak to someone and they respond positively, it has very little, if nothing, to do with us. Amen. Because we've got to remember, Jonah didn't even want to bring this message. He was doing this grudgingly, and yet they responded. And so we see that the Spirit was the one who is at work here. And so in our last couple of minutes, let's look at God's results. So Nineveh's response and then the results. And we see it in the words, God relented and he did not do it. Well, this opens up a whole can of worms in terms of sovereignty questions, right? And does God change his mind? Is God's sovereignty mechanical? Do humans have personal choice?

You know, these are all issues that get debated by theologians, and frankly, these kinds of questions have led to a lot of useless wrangling about words. You know, and I said there, I don't think that we need to try to elevate or raise our thinking above God's mind. You know, we can simply recognize what the Scripture tells us. It's clear.

You know, God is a personal God. And that's the way He presents Himself to us over and over in Scripture. He's a God who allows Himself to be affected by His creatures, and He reaches out to mankind. He desires that we respond to Him, and He in turn responds to us. God is relational, He's personal.

And He clearly cared about the Ninevites. He loved, God loved the whole world, you know, in John 3, 16 we see. That means God loved the Ninevites, as evil, as wicked as they were, and He desired that they respond to Him. And that's next week, I know this is just kind of, you know, touching the surface of God's response here, but I think it'll play in next week a little bit more as we look at Chapter 4, because next week we kind of get to get a glimpse into God's heart and His compassion towards the Ninevites and the reason that He sent Jonah in the first place.

And so it's a really neat way that the book ends. But that gives us, you know, there's a lot more stuff we could pull out and study in chapter 3 there. Miles, just a final point for us to think about and consider. The last lesson we had in Jonah stopped at verse 9 in chapter 2 and verse 10 was not covered.

And let me read it. And the Lord spoke unto the fish and it vomited him. meaning Jonah up onto dry land. So McGee thinks that Jonah was dead in the belly of the fish. And if you look at what Christ says in referring in the Gospel of Matthew back to Jonah, McGee's interpretation is that ultimately to make this a perfect prophecy, in terms of the crucifixion and resurrection, that ultimately Jonah would have died within the fish. We don't need to answer that question, but it's something for us to think about. I happen to believe that he was not dead, but nevertheless, I mean, why would Christ refer to that if in fact he were not dead? So that first, we haven't dealt with, and I'm not sure that we can really answer it succinctly.

But anyway, just to think about it. You might think about two minutes next week on that. Yeah, absolutely. Good point. I didn't notice that that verse hadn't been covered. I got missed. The scheduler messed up. No, that's OK. I should have paid more careful attention. Who's the scheduler anyway?

It's another beautiful visual from the book of Jonah. be vomited up on dry land. And I know, I have heard Dr. McGee's position on that. He seems to almost stand alone in that. He's pretty firm in it. It would make it a more direct parallel, but you know what, I think it was interesting.

Jeremy Thomas years ago taught a great series on Jonah, and I'm probably drawing from that a significant amount in my thinking, but One of the things that he pointed out is that when Jonah was cast overboard, all those sailors saw is that Jonah sunk.

And all they could have assumed is that he died, right? Who would have guessed that he was swallowed by a fish down there and survived? They assumed him dead. They took him for dead. Jeremy kind of extrapolated a little bit and made some assumptions, I think, but he said they weren't that far from land because they were trying to roll back to land. The storm hit them right away. and he suggested that the boat actually return to land because they had already tossed their cargo. What is the point in continuing to tarshish? So he assumed that they returned to land and would have You know like the grapevine the you know word spread just as fast without the internet as it does with it.

I think and Because they would have told this story we threw the guy into the sea and the storm stopped instantly They would have told everyone they they met now that again as those are assumptions, but but what Jeremy? Speculated is that perhaps the news of this prophet Jonah reached Nineveh before Jonah did I don't know, but if so, Jonah's appearance, live and relatively well, would have been a startling sign in and of itself to the Ninevites. Is it possible? I don't know. It's speculation, but in any case, it would have seemed in any case like like someone coming returning from the from the grave, so We can talk about that a little more next week there if we Yeah, that's good. That's good Well, thank you guys so much Thank you enjoyed the time today So we'll see you again next week Thank you, thank you guys