*Jonah 3:1-4:11
Reluctantly obeying God, Jonah preaches to Nineveh and the city repents, but Jonah becomes angry when God spares the city.
- Jonah’s Second Call:
- God commands Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh and proclaim His message of impending judgment.
- Jonah obeys this time and enters Nineveh, a great city, as instructed by God.
- Jonah’s Proclamation:
- Jonah delivers a concise yet powerful message to the people of Nineveh, proclaiming that in forty days the city will be overthrown.
- The people of Nineveh, from the greatest to the least, heed Jonah’s warning and respond with sincere repentance.
- The King’s Decree:
- Word of Jonah’s message reaches the king of Nineveh, who responds with humility and calls for fasting, repentance, and a cessation of evil deeds.
- The king hopes that God may relent from His fierce anger and spare the city.
- God’s Compassion:
- Witnessing the genuine repentance of the Ninevites, God relents from the disaster He had planned to bring upon them.
- God’s mercy is evident as He chooses not to destroy Nineveh as initially proclaimed through Jonah.
- Jonah’s Displeasure:
- Seeing that God has relented from destroying Nineveh, Jonah becomes angry and displeased.
- He expresses his frustration to God, stating that this outcome is the very reason he initially fled from God’s presence.
- God’s Lesson for Jonah:
- God teaches Jonah a lesson about His compassion and sovereignty through the illustration of a plant that provides shade for Jonah but is then destroyed by a worm.
- God challenges Jonah’s anger, questioning his right to be angry about the plant’s demise when he did not create it.
- Closing Thoughts:
- The book concludes with God’s rhetorical question to Jonah, highlighting the stark contrast between Jonah’s concern for a plant and God’s concern for the great city of Nineveh, with its multitude of people and animals.
Jonah 3:1-4:11 teaches us about God’s mercy and the importance of having the right attitude. When Jonah finally obeyed God and warned the people of Nineveh, they repented, and God forgave them. But Jonah was upset because he thought they didn’t deserve mercy. This reminds us that God’s love is for everyone, not just for those we think deserve it. We should be grateful for His forgiveness in our own lives and be willing to show that same kindness and compassion to others.
Jonah 3:1-4:11 (WEB)
3:1 The LORD’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. 6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, LORD, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. 3 Therefore now, LORD, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”4 The LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. 6 The LORD God prepared a vine and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. 7 But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine so that it withered. 8 When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and requested for himself that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”9 God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?”He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”10 The LORD said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”