Jonah 2:10-3:10

Jonah is in a fish, alive, for three days and nights.  This really cannot be explained except by the hand of God.  It is God’s doing.  And Jonah stays in the fish until it is God’s time.  In God’s time He spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.  Then for the second time the word of the Lord came to Jonah instructing him to go to Nineveh.  

Here is some information about Nineveh, relying much on Smith’s (1901) Bible Dictionary (online).

·        The first Biblical reference (Gen. 10:8-12) was in the time of Nimrod who established the city and led the rebellion against God at Babel.  In and after Jonah’s time it was capital of the Assyrian empire which God would use to capture and disperse the northern empire of Israel.

·        The prophecy of Nahum was directed against Nineveh (Nah. 1:1); Zephaniah (Zeph. 2:13) also speaks of the desolation of Nineveh at the hand of the Babylonians (606BC) after the Assyrians dispersed Israel (709BC).  Jonah was a prophet around the year 770BC.

·        The reference to a city the size of a three day journey is of uncertain meaning.  At the site of Ninevah, rather than finding one large tel (archaeological mound) several mounds have been found over a rather large area that are conjectured to be part of the city.  These mounds suggest an area 12-14X20 miles or about 55 miles in circumference.  It may be Jonah’s reference is to the time it would take him to go through the city while preaching his message.

·        It is interesting that the Ninevites spoke a Semitic language connected to Hebrew, meaning that Jonah would not have had difficulty preaching the message in their language. 

These things are interesting and perhaps helpful in understanding the situation.  But what is truly amazing is that the people of Nineveh believed God!  Like every nation they had their own gods.  But by God’s grace and power they believed the God of the Hebrews and responded in repentant faith to the word of the LORD.  If you are skeptical, let it be known that the word for believed (v5) is the same as when Abraham believed in the LORD and He accounted it to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).  It seems that it was a movement that began among the people and then made its way to the king who affirmed it.  God saw that the repentance was genuine and He determined not to destroy the city at that time.

We see the power of God’s word.  Do you remember how Isaiah called Israel to seek the LORD and forsake wickedness and God would have mercy and abundantly pardon (55:6-7)?  Through Israel God meant for the message to go to Gentiles who could also seek God in repentance and be abundantly pardoned.  The word of God today is still the only message that is capable of making a person wise for salvation (2 Tim. 3:14-15).  Let us not be remiss to repent and believe!  Let us not be remiss to preach the word of God!