Sermon Tone Analysis
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The Mercy of God
Intro
As we discussed last time, this portion of the story details out the biggest miracle of the book of Jonah.
The repentance of the people.
But why call it a miracle?
Well, because apart from the grace of God they would not have been able to repent.
They could have easily been destroyed without any warning whatsoever.
Similar to Sodom and Gomorrah, the people were not expecting destruction, nor were they provided with a chance to repent.
But the Ninevites are given mercy by God.
One writer wrote “the Assyrian records are nothing but a dry register of military campaigns, spoliations, and cruelties.”
They were a violent and wicked nation and were guilty of their sins.
And yet, this wicked people are given grace.
God sends to them Jonah.
An unwilling missionary prophet to these people to proclaim the impending justice to come upon their heads should they not repent.
Body
Body
This is the longest section where Jonah is no where to be found (starting in verse 5).
Maybe an indication of Jonah’s turning from God, while the people of Nineveh are turning to God.
And the people have so great a repentance that even their animals were to be covered in sackcloth and refrain from eating and drinking.
This is the longest section where Jonah is no where to be found (starting in verse 5).
Maybe an indication of Jonah’s turning from God, while the people of Nineveh are turning to God.
So great is their repentance that even their animals were to be covered in sackcloth and refrain from eating and drinking.
So great is their repentance that even their animals were to be covered in sackcloth and refrain from eating and drinking.
And where is Jonah?
You would expect that Jonah would be found rejoicing.
Celebrating at the great miracle that God has done in bringing these sinners salvation.
He should be likewise humbled to have been God’s instrument to save an entire nation.
He should be full of joy, and thankfulness, and gratitude, and love for the people.
He may have preached for the three day walk earnestly trying to go in and out as fast as possible.
Just to say, well God I did it.
Let’s get me home now.
Perhaps saying the bare minimum without love.
Generally, when we read of the prophets, they are pleading with the people with such vigor.
Jeremiah even goes with the people to Egypt.
But where is Jonah?
It is rather odd, but the irony is rich in this story.
We do not expect the people of Nineveh to repent, and yet they do.
And when they do.
we expect Jonah to be there with them rejoicing or even rejoicing that God had extended mercy to them, but we do not see that either.
Jonah is gone.
So while Jonah is quick with his message, the level of repentance from the people is not.
For the full period they repent and turn to God.
Hoping that He would relent.
They give God great reverence, and the mercy they receive from God is even greater.
8- The king, orders the people to call out and repent to God.
Not to their God, but to only one God.
The one true God.
His command and the people’s reaction are very familiar to us as well.
We are reminded of the Ship’s captain and the seamen.
He also makes the statement of perhaps they may be spared and they repent.
They both are facing a great danger.
The Ship are in a very present danger and the Ninevites are facing an impending one.
It is in God’s hands whether sinners should perish or be delivered.
But these pagans correctly rejected determinism, that humans are only actors in a play written and directed by supernatural powers, and that they have no will of their own and no way to affect the outcome.
- The New American Commentary: Amos, Obadiah, Jonah.
It is a bit odd though.
40 days and impending judgement.
Why not just pack up your bags and leave?
Why not move?
If anything, you could consider it a gift from God that they are even warned in the first place.
I believe that it is mainly due to the fact that they understand that the nation of Israel understood God to be the God of all things.
They would understand from Egyptian history how they had their great exodus and how God how worked wonders.
They would also recall how they had come to the Promised land and the strength that God had put on display.
So to escape from the God of heaven and earth (See ) would not be realistic.
There is no escape from this God.
The word translated “relent” (niḥam) varies in meaning in different grammatical forms and in different contexts, but it always connotes in some sense the feeling of emotional pain.
Elsewhere it can mean to “comfort” or “regret.”
As Sasson explains, here and in its two other uses in Jonah (3:10; 4:2) it refers to “divine actions that are contemplated but are never fulfilled.”
The meaning “repent” or “change one’s mind” is an appropriate translation when the subject is humans (cf.
; ).
But when it refers to God’s decision to change an announced course of action in response to human repentance, prayer, or some other circumstances, the translation “relent” is preferable (see and comments in this volume).
In this chapter God decided that in light of Nineveh’s turning, he would save them rather than follow through on his previous announcement to destroy them.
The word that characterizes vv.
8–10 by its repeated use is šûb, whose basic meaning is “return.”
Other than its use in 1:13 in the causative stem (lit., “the men rowed hard to return to dry land”), all its uses in Jonah are in these verses.
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