At the end of Jonah 2, "the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land" (Jonah 2:17). Jonah 3 records for us what happens after this, and Jonah 3:10 speaks of a God who relents. Immediately, we have many questions about what this means when God does not do what He said He would. This creates a lot of problems for us, which hopefully this study will address. 

 

(A) When God relents, He appoints the means : Jonah’s obedience (Jonah 3:1-3a)

After chapter 2, the man of God has experienced a miracle. He has died (thrown into the water) and came back to life. Let us read this from a cultural point of view, where this is not about a man being swallowed by a fish. It is about a man dying and descending into hell, but now, has a new lease of life. This is almost exactly a specific instance in a human being life -- being born. Jonah has essentially been reborn.

Jonah 3:1 and Jonah 1:1 are almost exactly the same! Do you see how God is so kind and presses the reset button to give Jonah pretty much a second chance? It's as if chapters 1 and 2 did not happen. But something is different in 3:1. In 1:1, God acted because of their evil. But in chapter 3, God acted out of His sovereign will. It wasn't provoked by Jonah or Nineveh. God just had a message for the people.

Again Jonah 3:3 is similar to Jonah 1:3. Jonah 1:3 begins with "but" while 3:3 begins with "so". "But" takes us in a different direction while "so" indicates causality. There's another phrase inserted into Jonah 1:3 -- "according to the word of the Lord". Jonah went in the way that the word of the Lord told him to go. Something has changed in these 2 chapters and it is not God. Jonah has changed! A heart that once said "but" now says "so". Isn't this amazing? In the same way, 2 people can sit through the same Bible study but one can say "but" and the other can leave saying "so". Jonah's posture towards God is fundamentally different! What is your heart before God and God's Word when it comes? People who come to God's Word insisting that they are here just to take an opinion are people of the "but". People who resolve to obey even before reading God's Word are people of the "so". Your life reveal what you think about God and His Word! If you go to Bible studies and fundamentally nothing changes, you're living in chapter 1. Let it not be so.

What made this change possible? Jonah articulated it in 2:8-9. He acts in this way because he has had a specific encounter with God, one that has to do with his salvation. What is salvation? Has it occurred to you that this word means that you need saving, need saving from something and by someone? It also means that if you need salvation, you are unable to save yourself. Jonah understood this when he found himself in the darkness of that fish, in hell and if not for God, he would not be able to come out. Christians forget this all the time! We forget that we could not save ourselves! This is the only thing that can drive obedience. Rom 1:5 speaks of "obedience of faith". This is an obedience that comes from faith where we are not trusting myself but in God or what God has done, therefore we do something in keeping with that. This ultimately leads us to do something fundamentally different. Jesus Himself says that loving Him means obeying His commands (Jn 14:21). Trusting and loving Jesus means doing something about it and this is what we saw Jonah doing. His obedience is His response to a God whom he loves and in whom he trusts. This is the cause of the entire set of actions that follow.

 

(B) God relents when sinners repent: when repentance bears fruit (Jonah 3:3b-9)

We are told that Nineveh was a "great city", so huge that it takes 3 days to cover the breadth of it (Jonah 3:3). Jonah enters and makes his way through and was only a third in (Jonah 3:4). Jonah's message was also nothing complicated and was merely a simple word of judgment. In fact, it's just a sliver of the gospel, containing only the judgment part of things. The text describes Nineveh as a developed, political, educated place. Jonah;s message is simple, partial, incomplete and has merely the seed form of the gospel. What a contrast! Why is this contrast here? We are meant to see the amazing response to this simple message!

We read of the response to Jonah's message by different people in Jonah 3:5-9.

  • People of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5) 

The people heard Jonah and believed God (Jonah 3:5a). They heard the message from the man but their faith was in the source of the message! They responded on that basis. This affected everyone, "from the greatest of them to the least of them". The simple, small even reluctant message triggered this massive response!

  • The king (Jonah 3:6)

This message triggered the response. Somehow word reached the king. What does this mean in an era without social media and technology? This is the chain reaction that Jonah's message has sparked. Upon hearing the message, the king rose from his throne and removed his robe. What does this mean for a king to do this? Kings rule because of divine right. Therefore for a king to get off his throne is akin to admitting that he is no king or abdicating. 

The king also goes into mourning. Why? People only mourn only when death is present. Therefore, he is saying that he is a dead man. This says volumes about the extent of his brokenness.

  • The official response (Jonah 3:7-9) 

The king doesn't only mourn, but also implements a national policy. He puts it in writing as a law and publishes it throughout the entire city. His command also affects every living thing -- man, beast, herd, flock. This is total and complete. Every living thing in the land has been tainted by sin. This is the extent of sin. The king's policy also calls for a total fast from food and water. It is as if they too, died. What is the rationale? Part of the king's law is a gamble, hoping for God to relent.

What can we learn about repentance from here? From the people of Nineveh, we see that repentance is pervasive and faith-motivated. From the king, we learn that repentance is a responsive humility that involves dying to self. From the official response, we realise that repentance is public and total, involves self-denial, and is ultimately about God. 

Repentance comes with a certain sense of humility. This is why Jesus speaks of being meek in the Beatitudes. Repentance is knowing that we have no other hope if God did not move and came to us first. This seems to be a ridiculous message to modern, sensible people. We are claiming that we have made a moral wreck of our lives and are morally abject within. Yet this is true and repentance involves embracing these truths as descriptions of each of our lives.

What can we take away from this passage? Everyone of us has a huge problem and that problem is God. If you don't know this, you don't know your own heart. Just think about the past 10 people that you spoke to. Did you love and serve them? Did you even think about God today? Our sin runs so deep, repentance must be the natural posture of our hearts. Today, we need to reject the lie that we can be good without God. Instead, we need to let repentance be our natural response, and bear fruit that is in keeping with repentance (c.f. Matt 5:8). 

Before we move on to the next section, let us consider what brought about this repentance. This repentance came as a result of a chain of events. It began with God sending a word to the prophet to go. Jonah heard, then obeyed, and went in faith and obedience. He proclaimed the message to Nineveh. The people heard and repented. God saw that they had turned from evil and He relented.  

Did God change His mind? But God also set a chain of actions that led to Him changing His mind? When God decides to do something, He also sets the process. This process depended on Jonah obeying. So what? This shows us that our obedience is important in achieving God's will for our lives! Jonah shows us how his life is wrapped up in something bigger. Jonah's life culminated in reaching the capital of Assyria. Who has God told you to go and speak to? Where is God sending you to? God uses the choices in our lives to do what God plans. Our lives are not about us. Our lives are wrapped up in a complicated web of God's sovereignty. God is at work, but He has appointed the means which is our obedience to do His will.

 

(C) The God who relents cannot be manipulated : turning first from evil (Jonah 3:10)

There are 2 verbs used to describe God’s actions in response to Nineveh (Jonah 3:10). God "saw" and "relented". God is a person who responds to action. If God did not see, He would not have relented. The God who sees is a real, living person. God is not a force. God sees, notices, observes, judges and will also respond.

Notice also what the people turn from, and what God turns from as well.  The people turn from their evil way (Jonah 3:8,10). This was also part of their policy (Jonah 3:8). There was moral reform and transformation of their character! Remember that Nineveh was part of Assyria and the Assyrians had a violent culture that celebrated war (and masculinity). Therefore, turning away is huge for them, and involves rejecting their identity in a sense. 

God takes note of the fruit of their repentance. We also learn the meaning of repentance. Repentance is only true and real if there is fruit from it. God relenting is not because of their repentance, but because of the fruit of their repentance. God relented because they changed. God loves repentance! God cannot be manipulated by a show of repentance. God knows our hearts and thoughts (c.f. Ps 139). He knows if our repentance is true. In fact, sometimes we don't know if our repentance is true. It takes confrontation with God's word to know our own hearts. Repentance is marked by turning from evil. This passage gives a small picture of our own salvation.

Just like the Ninevites, every single Christian hears that news and is invited to repent, not only once, but again and again. Eph 2:14-17 describes for us our own experience. Where are you in your walk with God? If you're not a Christian, this is what our faith is about. How will you respond? If you're a Christian, are you a good repenter and Is repentance in your blood? As we continue in our faith, let us find ourselves more and more dependent on God, this God who loves His people. 

What is God saying to you today and how will you respond?