Studying the Book of Jonah: part 8

 

Jonah has done what God requested, will the Ninevites take him seriously and listen?

Verse 5:  And the people of Nineveh believed God.  They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the lest of them.

Jonah’s delivery of the message must have been full of fiery zeal and quite convincing, for the people of Nineveh believed.   They didn’t just believe but put action behind their belief with fasting and sackcloth!  They were serious!  (Fasting and sackcloth were common expressions of grief.)

Luke 11: 29,30 says that Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites.   This indicates that the Ninevites quite possibly knew something of Jonah’s story before he arrived in the city.

One wonders how the Ninevites could have found out about Jonah’s story:

Did he tell them?

Did they learn by word of mouth from the sailors sharing what had happened.  We all know this kind of news travels fast!

Did Jonah’s body bear any evidence of the ordeal he had been through?

Regardless of if, when or how the Ninevites found out, they were fully aware of the supernatural wonder involved in Jonah’s deliverance once he arrived.

 

Verse 6:  The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

When Jonah’s message reached the King, the King humbled himself, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.  Even the King was repentant and fearful of the consequences!

 

Verse 7:  And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh.  “By the decree at the king and his nobles:  Let neither man nor beast, heard nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water

It surely sounds like the King was fully convinced that what Jonah was preaching was truth and that what his message said was going to come to pass unless they repented would happen.  He sent out a strict guide and expected everyone as well as all the animals to obey it.  

On a side note, can you image the noise the animals made when feeding time and came and there was no food.

This was a lot for a King to asked of those he rules over.

 

Verse 8:  but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to God.  Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

The King is calling for self-purging, soul cleansing repentance.  He called not only for an outward demonstration of their sorrow and repentance by wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes, but he also required a change in their conduct.  The Assyrians were an extremely cruel and brutal people (Amos 4:2) so this was not going to be easy for them to do, yet they did.

 

Verse 9:  “Who knows?  God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

The King was hopeful that God would turn His wrath away, and hope was all he had!

            The Ninevites repented …

-        Without promise that it would do any good

-        Without any encouragement from Jonah

-        Despite Jonah’s prejudice against them

-        Every one of them

-        In word and deed

On what basis did the Ninevites have hope that Jonah’s God might possibly relent from his fierce anger and not destroy them?   Their reasoning might have been along the lines of, “Jonah’s God gave him a second chance, maybe He will give us one also.”

 

Verse 10:  When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

The Lord relented because He saw their works/actions, their turning from their evil ways.  He also knew in their hearts that they were truly sorry.  No one has ever been able to fool God, not anyone, not anywhere, not any time and the extremely cruel and brutal Ninevites/Assyrians were no exception.

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Until the next installment, 

patsy @ From This Heart Of Mine

(c) 2022 by Patsy Norwood.  All Rights Reserved.