Jonah Chapter 3 Part 1B: Jonah: A sign unto the Ninevites
I wonder if Jonah had ever read Psalm 116 and if he remembered it while he was in the belly of the fish.
V3:1 begins as V1:1 - the word of the LORD came unto Jonah
· V1:1 begins with “now,” a specific time
· V3:1 begins with “And” tying this verse with V2:10, which also begins with And, tying it to V2:9
· Read V2:9-8 through V3:1 and note the order of.
Ø Confession was made, Jonah resolved to sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving (publicly proclaim) and pay his vow (here am, I send me). Than Lord spoke to the great fish and he was vomited out on dry for to pay his vow; the reason he was saved alive
Ø From Isaiah 6:5-8 before Isaiah could be sent his lips had to be seared and his sins dealt with. Purified lips and a purified life.
Ø In V2:8 his sins were dealt with and he had resolved to speak for the LORD.
V3:2 and V1:2 - Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city
*Note there are differences:
· V1:1 Now, V3:1 And . . . again. While Jonah’s past was forgotten his mission wasn’t. He had to fulfill his vow made unto the LORD and to go and speak.
· V1:2 Cry against the wickedness [proclaim what he LORD has against the city because of it’s wickedness], V3:2 preach unto it the preaching [seems to be a more specific message]
· In V1:3 Jonah rose in disobedience in V3:3 He rose in obedience to pay his vow unto the LORD.
That great city of Nineveh:
· V3:3 Three days journey – it took three days to walk across the city
· The historians have written it was sixty miles in circumatsnce with walls that were a hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots could drive upon them abreast; and it had fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high.
· V4:11 There were more than 120,000 children in Nineveh. This could have been a city of more than 600,000 to a 1,000,000 people.
· V4:11 and also much cattle, shows Nineveh was not just the city itself but the outlying area.
Ø Note: cattle in the Bible not only refers to bovines (kine) but also to sheep, and goats. Gen 46:34; 47:6
We are told only about only one statement Jonah made, V3:4 “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” But I can not help to believe that Jonah, as a sign unto those people, told of all the LORD had done to get him to deliver this important message.
Read 3:10, 4:1, 4:5
When Jonah built the shelter cover him while he waited to see what happened to the city he knew of the people's repentance and that they had turned from their evil ways. He also knew that the LORD repented of the evil He was going to bring upon the city and spared the city, the Ninevites, and the livestock. Jonah must have been in the city for the forty days just as Jesus was seen for forty days doing many things. (I wonder if someone from Nineveh witnessed the great fish vomiting Jonah out on dry land and followed him to town or ran ahead of him.)
**Acts 1:3; John 20:30 [Corinthians 15:6; John 21:25]
· Jesus was seen for forty days after He rose from the dead
Ø Jonah would have been seen for forty days by the Ninevites
· Jesus spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God
Ø Jonah would have spoke of things pertaining to repentance
· Jesus did many things not recorded after He rose from the dead
Ø Jonah would have done or said many things not recorded
**Being vomited out of the belly of the great fish proved that Jonah was a prophet of the LORD and he spoke the words the LORD gave him to speak and proved to the Ninevites that they must heed his message.
**Being raised from the dead proved that Jesus was the Son of God as He declared; proved His deity as He declared; proved He spoke the words of the Father as de declared; proved His offer of the kingdom of God and eternal life. It proved John 3:36, 10:39, 4:16, and 20:31.
Our faith in Christ is justified because He rose from the dead.
Luke 11:32 The men of Nineveh will raise in judgment of the evil generation of Jews who rejected the risen Christ.
There is a time when the evil generation of Jews that eye witnessed the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the forty days after His resurrection stand and be judged for their rejecting Him astheir messiah. The witnesses against them will be the Ninevites who responded to the preaching of Jonah.