Running Rebel (Part Eight): The Repentance

Transcript

JROT 25
2/4/2024
Running Rebel (Part Eight): The Repentance
Jonah 3:6-10
Jesse Randolph

Tonight, we are resuming our study of chapter 3 of the Book of Jonah. Last week, we started our study of chapter 3 and looked at the first five verses of this chapter. This week, tonight we’ll look at the last five verses, verses 6 through 10. As I mentioned last week, Jonah chapter 3 really marks a major transition in this book. It’s a turning point in this book. You could even say it’s a high-water mark in this book. Chapters 1 and 2 of the book are marked by this downward descent, this downward decline that this Hebrew, this prophet of God, this mouthpiece for Yahweh, Jonah was on as he found himself in this perpetual state of drift from and disobedience toward God.

We see this drift in Jonah’s initial attempt to run away from Yahweh to go to Tarshish instead of Nineveh. We see this drift in Jonah dozing down in the hold of the ship that was taking him to Tarshish when the sailors above board were frantically trying to figure out what to do and how to still the storm. We see this downward drift in Jonah asking the sailors to toss him into the sea rather than to take him back to Nineveh which is where God had told him to go. I don’t know how many times I’ve said this already in this study, but we’ve seen over and over in chapters 1 and 2 and now in chapter 3 that this book, this book of Jonah ultimately isn’t about Jonah, though the book obviously bears his name. Nor is this book about the fish which most of the world has heard something about nor is this book about the various sideline figures like the sailors and the captain back in Jonah 1. No, the book of Jonah is all about God. About God sovereignly working and God sovereignly saving and God sovereignly purposing and God sovereignly pursuing.

Indeed, we’ve already seen in our short study of this book God pursuing Jonah. He pursued Jonah on that first occasion when He hurled the storm on the sea in the first place. We’ve seen God pursuing that group of pagan sailors who Jonah was sailing with which they ultimately responded to by crying out to Him, crying out to God, fearing Him and making vows and sacrifices to Him. We’ve seen God pursuing Jonah again, a second time by causing this fish to swallow him up before he sunk to the bottom of the ocean’s floor only to eventually spit him out, vomit him out on dry land. We’ve seen how God, through Jonah, was pursuing the Ninevites, the people of Nineveh. Bloodthirsty, this murderous people as He, Yahweh, eventually caused this entire city to turn to Him in repentance as they came to believe in Him, and that’s what we saw last week. We saw God recommissioning Jonah. We saw God giving Jonah this message to deliver to the Ninevites. We saw Jonah this time responding to God’s call and commission faithfully. Where we ended last Sunday night was the Ninevites hearing God’s message, through Jonah, and ultimately believing in God, Jonah’s God as they turned to that God in faith.

Now, to set the stage for where we’ll be going tonight let’s re-read the verses we were in last week, that would be Jonah 3:1-5. That sermon was titled “The Recommissioning.” Jonah 3:1-5 says, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.’ So, Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.” Again, what we saw in this text last week was how, notwithstanding Jonah’s disobedience and notwithstanding his waywardness and notwithstanding his rebellion, which we see all over chapter 1 in particular. God gave Jonah this second chance. He gave him this renewed opportunity, another opportunity to fulfill the mission God had originally given him which was to go to Nineveh and proclaim this judgment against it.

God as we saw last week instead of moving on from Jonah He actually stuck with Jonah and recommissioned Jonah as the man, as the prophet He wanted to proclaim this message of judgment to Nineveh. The results that we saw as we worked our way through verses 1-5 last week were nothing short of incredible. What we saw, in verse 5, was how the people not only reacted, it says “Then the people of Nineveh believed in God,” which, in and of itself, is quite the incredible statement because it parallels that statement of faith related to Abram in Genesis 15:6 where it says Abram “believed in the LORD; and it was counted to him as righteousness.” But we also saw, in verse 5, that they not only believed but they acted. It says, “they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.” These were common acts, sackcloth and fasting, of repentance in the times in which Jonah lived. Meaning, the Ninevites here not only believed but they repented. They repented and believed, which is the formula for salvation which has transcended Testaments.

Note, looking again at verse 5, that belief swept over and pervaded the entire city. Belief came upon, it says, “the greatest to the least of them.” From the down-and-outers in Nineveh to the upper crust in Nineveh. Belief swept over this wicked, pagan city. Whether you want to call it a “revival” or an “awakening” or just a “mass conversion” what we see here described in Jonah 3:5 was nothing short of incredible. The response to Jonah’s preaching was astounding as repentance and belief spread like wildfire all throughout Nineveh. Now, tonight as we work our way through the second half of chapter 3, we’re going to learn how this incredible event that happened in Nineveh once the people believed there, what more happened from that point forward. Let’s take a look now at Jonah 3:6-10. This is our text for this evening. God’s Word reads, it says, “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” Verse 10 says, “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

I love how Hugh Martin in his old commentary on Jonah from 1870 describes the magnitude of this event. He says this, "A great and proud city suddenly smitten into the most profound humiliation, from the greatest of its inhabitants unto the least of them—from the king on the throne to the meanest citizen—is a spectacle to which, I suppose, history affords no parallel. Cities, and countries, and communities have oftentimes, with not a little unanimity, given themselves to humiliation and fasting. But there is no event on record that can at all be compared with the fast and the repentance of Nineveh.”

How did this all start? It started through the preaching of one man, Jonah, as he declared throughout this city, and we seen it already in Jonah 3:4. Here’s his message, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” To our astonishment as we read this account and perhaps to Jonah’s astonishment as he watched all of this unfold before his very eyes, the wicked Ninevites somehow didn’t respond with violence against him. Jonah wasn’t like Jeremiah, who was attacked by those whom he was called to preach. Jonah wasn’t like Stephen, in the New Testament, who was stoned for preaching the gospel. Jonah wasn’t even in Nineveh, met with mocking indifference to his message. Rather, each of the individuals who lived in the wicked pagan city of Nineveh corporately and uniformly, it says here, turned from sin and called upon the name of the Lord.

With that as background let’s get back into our passage for this evening as we work through this verse by verse. Take a look again at Jonah 3:6, our first part of the passage for this evening. It says, “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.” So back in verse 5 where we left us off last Sunday night we saw how the city, the entire city repented and believed in God from the greatest to the least; and now, we note as we get to this part of the narrative that Jonah is completely out of the picture. In fact, Jonah’s name won’t be mentioned in this text for the rest of this chapter. He’s completely out of at least this part of the story. He has exited stage right. Instead, here in these few verses what we’re going to focus in on would be God’s dealings now with the people of Nineveh. Jonah had preached to them back in Jonah 3:4. We saw, in Jonah 3:5, that the people of Nineveh “believed in God.” Now, in verses 6 through 10 we’re going to see described more fully the repentance that accompanied their belief. That’s the title for this evening’s message, by the way, “The Repentance” as in repentance of the Ninevites.

As we’re going to see this evening as we work our way through this text the Ninevites’ repentance was royal. Meaning, it both impacted their king, and their king then facilitated its spread across the city. The Ninevites’ repentance was radical in terms of its scope and its reach and its breadth. The Ninevites’ repentance, finally, was reciprocated as God replied, in kind, we’re going to see in verse 10 to their repentance.

Let’s start with the fact as we see here in verse 6 that the Ninevites’ repentance was royal. We’re first told here in verse 6 that the “word reached the king of Nineveh.” Now, there have been some, a little detour here, who have wondered what this “king of Nineveh” reference is all about because what you’d customarily see as you read your way through the Old Testament is that when you see a king referred to it’s typically a king of a nation not a king of a city or a local principality. Some critical scholars have even tried to argue here that this “king of Nineveh” language shows that the text of Jonah can’t be trusted as actual history but that instead this story must be mythical or fictional. Well, critics are going to be critical. Theological liberals are going to be theologically liberal and Bible deniers are going to deny the Bible. That’s just what they do. There’s truly nothing new under the sun. We can’t do anything about that. But what we can do is push back and offer at least a few plausible explanations for this reference being to “the king of Nineveh,” a city, rather than the king of Assyria, the country.

First, would be to mention that there are in fact historical records from this very time which establish that though Nineveh was not the capital of Assyria during Jonah’s day in which case the king of Assyria would necessarily reside in Nineveh like the Governor of Nebraska necessarily resides in Lincoln. But there still are certain records of certain kings of Assyria residing in Nineveh which makes sense because it was this large and strong and fortified city like we saw last time during Jonah’s day. So, the idea of there being a “king of Nineveh” or a “king in Nineveh” is not at all far-fetched, historically speaking.

Second, it wasn’t unheard of, despite what the critics say, for there to be in the Old Testament references to “kings of cities.” King Ahab, in his interactions with Elijah the prophet in both I Kings, the end of I Kings and the beginning of II Kings is referred to at least twice as the “king of Samaria,” a city. You might recall also, here’s a second one in Genesis 14:1-2 there’s this description of this war between the various kings in the Valley of Siddim near the Dead Sea, and the “kings” are described as being “kings” of various cities, Shinar, Ellasar, Goiim, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar. Those are all cities of which they had kings. Bringing it back to Jonah though, verse 6, that there was a “king of Nineveh” and that he was referred to by that title really shouldn’t cause any raised eyebrows or testing or questioning the veracity of this account.

Also note here in verse 6 that it was, it says “the word” which “reached the king of Nineveh.” What “word”? Well, it was the “word” of the Ninevites’ belief in God, Jonah’s God, the God of Israel. It was the “word” of the underlying message that was preached by Jonah which had caused the Ninevites to believe. Meaning, the king of Nineveh, himself here, was now hearing some version of Jonah’s message. He was hearing some version of that warning that Jonah gave in Jonah 3:4, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Now, the way verse 6 is constructed it doesn’t appear that the king heard Jonah’s message firsthand. Meaning from Jonah’s lips, when Jonah actually preached it on that single day when he “began to go through the city one day’s walk,” as it says in Jonah 3:4, and cried out against it. Rather, the language of verse 6 indicates that the word of Jonah’s message which was really the word of Yahweh’s message came to the king indirectly. It says, “The word reached the king of Nineveh.” What’s really being stressed here and emphasized here in verse 6 is the reaction of this king. Look at what it says and note the description, note how this description cascades its way down through these four verbs that we see in this passage. First, it says “he arose from his throne.” When the word reached the king of Nineveh “he arose from his throne.” This unnamed king like any king customarily sat upon some elevated platform on some decorated seat of authority but here, we’re told that out of a sign of reverence and humility and repentance the king stepped down relinquishing the trappings of his royal authority he arose from his throne. He stepped down. Not only that, but we’re also told he “Laid aside his robe from him.” By removing his robe, which surely would have been costly and grand, he was removing an item which signified his wealth and his prestige and his power. No longer was he showcasing his high position, then but rather in the face of the sovereign God who had just revealed Himself to him through Jonah’s words he was demonstrating contrition, repentance, belief in Jonah’s message and ultimately in Jonah’s God.

Next, we’re told that this king “covered himself with sackcloth.” That was yet again an act of self-abasement. A traditional symbol of mourning and emphatic symbol of repentance. This was another act of self-abasement. Then finally, the end of verse 6 it says, “and he sat on the ashes.” He joined the rest of Nineveh in the dust, adding his pleas for mercy to theirs. The king then had exchanged his royal robes for sackcloth. He had traded his throne for ashes so that in the end here he lays prostrate, humbled, and humiliated, and broken, and indistinguishable from the rest of the people of Nineveh.

Again, we ask, and we note how did all of this come about, ultimately? It was through the proclamation of the word of God. The word which God had given Jonah to declare to Nineveh did its work among the people but then it also did its work in the heart of the king convicting him and crushing him and cutting him. Hebrews 4:12 says that the “word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Well, that was no less true in Jonah’s day than it is in our day. It certainly proved to be true here as God’s word pierced this once-arrogant king’s heart as he collapsed before its power and was now wearing sackcloth in the dust.

As we turn to verse 7 we see that this “king of Nineveh” did not allow his own repentance, his personal sackcloth-and-ashes moment to lead to a state of stagnancy or inertia. No rather, what we see next is that this man understood that he was still the “king of Nineveh.” With the power he wielded he wasn’t going to try to get in the way of the God of Israel, Jonah’s God. Rather instead he was going to do all that he could to fan into flame the work that God was already doing in the hearts of the Ninevites.
Let’s take a look at the next three verses where we’re going to see that the repentance in Nineveh was not only royal it was radical. We read, in Jonah 3:7-9, it says “He issued,” this is speaking of the king, “he issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.’” The king’s remorse then here led him, the king and “his nobles” meaning, his royal court, the other officials who were around him, the heads of state, to issue this royal decree. This royal “proclamation.” Look how broad, look how sweeping, look at how radical this “proclamation” was. As we see here there were three components to this “proclamation.” First, a fast was declared. That’s in verse 7. “Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.” Second, there was a command to wear sackcloth, that’s verse 8. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth. Third, and I’m going to argue centrally, was this broader call to the Ninevites to repent of their evil, and their wickedness, and their violence. That’s the rest of verse 8 where it says, “and let men call on God earnestly that they may each turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.” So, the king of Nineveh’s decree called on the people of Nineveh to fast, to wear sackcloth, to call urgently on God, and to relinquish, repent of their evil ways.

But let’s work through this proclamation piece by piece starting with the royal command to fast. Verse 7 and note how comprehensive this command was. “Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.” This part of the proclamation can really be broken up into two parts. First, at the heart of the command is this general order to not “taste a thing.” That’s the over-arching instruction here. Then that instruction is then emphasized by the command not to “eat” or “drink water.” Now that alone, issued to man, to men and women is quite the decree, quite the command. A forced fast issued upon the Ninevites not only to not eat but not to drink water. That tells us right away that this envisioned period of fasting could not have been very long because while humans, it’s been shown can go without food for up to a few weeks water, especially in this part of the world, would be a completely different story. So, the royal edict to abstain from food or drink could not have been perpetual in its duration or even all that long lasting.

Then, of course what jumps off the page for most of us as we read this royal proclamation is that not only humans, here called “man” were impacted by it, but so were the animals of Nineveh. Look at the language of verse 7 again, “Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing.” Again, the critics, those who like to make sport not only of the historicity of Jonah but of the entire Bible, they love to point to this passage in arguing that this section of Jonah and perhaps the whole book of Jonah is this embellishment. It’s ahistorical. It’s a legend. The idea that this fast was called, and this fast applied not only to the people, the humans in Nineveh but to the various domesticated animals in Nineveh, they’ll say is just too much to stomach.

Well, a couple of responses to that one. First, there is evidence from the ancient world, specifically, in neighboring Persia that there were times in which animals were included in fasting practices. Not as here as a sign of remorse necessarily but usually out of cases of tradition and superstition. Second, and here’s the main idea, I don’t want us to lose sight of this is. The whole point of this passage is to point to how broad and far-reaching the Ninevites’ response and repentance was. We saw how, in verse 5 the repentance extended it says, “from the greatest to the least of them.” Now in verse 7 we’re seeing one expression of how committed the Ninevites were to demonstrating their repentance. Not only were people not allowed to eat or drink, neither were the animals. What’s being described and pictured here is the totality of Nineveh’s repentance. The sincerity of Nineveh’s repentance. The universality of Nineveh’s repentance.

Next, as we see in the first part of verse 8, there’s this next part of the decree or the proclamation. There’s this call to wear sackcloth by “both man and beast,” it says, “must be covered with sackcloth.” We’ve already covered sackcloth briefly up in verse 5 where the people of Nineveh are described as “putting on sackcloth.” We covered it in verse 6 where the “king of Nineveh” we just saw was covering himself with sackcloth.” But just by way of review, sackcloth was a coarse cloth made of black goat hair usually and it was donned, it was worn as an external sign of grief, contrition, humiliation, or all of the above. Though it may sound strange to us that the king here was decreeing that “both man and,” again “and beast must be covered with sackcloth.” What did these poor animals do? I thought animals, like creatures, unlike people aren’t moral creatures. Leave Fido and Bessie and Fifi alone. Don’t make them wear sackcloth. But the point that we should be taking from verse 8 here just as we should in verse 7, again is how total and comprehensive and thorough the Ninevites’ repentance was.

Now, many will come to this passage, and they’ll just fumble their way through and stumble their way through these issues that I just worked through. They’ll get tripped up on figuring out how all of this worked. How do you fast from water? Why are animals wearing sackcloth? Why are animals being called to fast? But in doing so they potentially devalue and underemphasize what’s actually at the heart here of the king’s proclamation which we are going to see now in the next part of verse 8. After ordering a fast, after ordering the wearing of sackcloth, look at what comes next at the end of verse 8. It says, “and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.” That language is really at the heart of this proclamation. The commands to fast and wear sackcloth were external demonstrations. But what we see here at the end of verse 8 was really about what was going on in the heart. We know, do we not, from I Samuel 16 involving the selection of David to be king that “God sees not as man sees,” He doesn’t “looks at the outward appearance, but” God looks where? “At the heart.” and note the instructions that were given here. The Ninevites were told “to call on God earnestly.” That word “earnestly” is actually the word strength. Meaning they were called on to “call on God with strength” which, if we smooth that out a bit means to call on God with conviction. The Ninevites were being called on here to call on the Lord with conviction meaning they were to pray to God and cry out to God with conviction.

But it wasn’t just praying to God that God wanted from them. It wasn’t just crying out to God that God wanted from them. We know, of course, from the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and from other Old Testament books that God has a certain view about empty and hollow religiosity and prayers offered boldly in the public square for instance. In fact, why don’t you go over with me to Isaiah 1. Let’s take a little detour over to Isaiah 1 where we’re going to see how God looks at empty hollow religiosity, prayers offered for prayers sake, fasting offered for fasting sake. Look at Isaiah 1, we’ll pick it up in verse 10. In my heading of my Bible here, this is not the inspired text but it says, “God has had enough.” Isaiah 1:10 says, “Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts; they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.” So, when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.” In other words, God has never been looking for and has never been seeking empty, formulaic, so-called “worship” from a bunch of whitewashed tombs. No, as we see here God wanted the people of Nineveh, He wanted their lives to match their prayers. Through this king, the “king of Nineveh” and through this proclamation God was calling for true repentance. A genuine turning away from evil and a genuine turning to the Lord. It says there, again verse 8, “And let men call on earnestly.” Why? We read next “that each may turn from his wicked way.” Now that word “wicked” means evil, trouble-causing, calamitous. The people of Nineveh had been known historically as being a morally wicked people. A morally repugnant people. A morally stained people. Remember, why did God send Jonah to Nineveh in the first place? Jonah 1:2, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” When God sent Jonah to them the Ninevites were known for their wickedness, for their moral misbehavior, for their debauchery and now that Jonah had finally preached his message of judgment to them the Ninevites were to be known for that wickedness no more. Instead, they were “to turn from” them, each of them from their “wicked way,” as it says here in verse 8.

Not only that, as we keep on reading at the end of verse 8, it says that each Ninevite was to turn “from the violence which is in his hands.” The people of Nineveh, the city of Nineveh like the broader nation of Assyria, were known for being a violent people. In fact, they were known for being an extremely violent people. Especially in the violence they showed other nations. Indeed, there are these archaeological records from Nineveh from this time that indicate that when they would conquer another people, they would cut off the noses of those they conquered. They would literally skin their victims, the ones they conquered, alive. As one commentator has noted “The Assyrian records are nothing but a dry register of military campaigns, spoliations, and cruelties.” But not any longer. Their sorrow for sin which they were to demonstrate outwardly through fasting and wearing sackcloth was to be matched up with an actual turning from sin in the heart. Repentance has always involved not only a change of mind but a change in the direction of one’s life. The people Nineveh, once known for their violent ways, they were called on here to repudiate that chief and characteristic sin of being violent, being evil. I think of what Paul said many centuries later, in Ephesians 4:28 when he says, “He who steals must steal no longer.” The same idea was playing out in Nineveh of Jonah’s day. These once-violent Ninevites were to be violent no longer. Each Ninevite was to “turn from the violence which is in his hands.”

In verses 7 and 8 we are given the contents of this proclamation which the “king of Nineveh” issued. Now, as we turn to verse 9, we are given this insight into the king’s hopeful attitude about what might happen. What God may do if the people not only wore sackcloth and fasted but if, at a heart level they turned from their wicked way and from the violence which was in their hands. Look at verse 9 where the “king of Nineveh” is recorded as saying here in the last couple of lines of his “proclamation,” he says, “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” “Who knows”? says the king. Underlying those words are his evident hopeful thinking, his wishful thinking concerning the possibility of God now withdrawing His threat and withholding His judgment of God relenting from His judgment and turning from His anger. The words of the Ninevite king here, in his proclamation, sound very familiar. They sound similar to the prophet Joel’s words to the southern kingdom of Judah in Joel 2:12-14. I won’t turn you there but you’re free to turn there. Joel 2:12-14 where Joel to the people of Judah says this. “‘Yet even now, declares the LORD, Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him.”

Back in Jonah noting a few important details here about this last line of this proclamation that was issued by the king and his nobles, here in verse 9. First, there’s this baked-in recognition in verse 9 by this member of Ninevite royalty that God may act in the way he wanted him to but there was also the chance that God wouldn’t act in the way he wanted. The reality is the people of Nineveh had been so wicked and so violent and so evil that the king here in verse 9 was acknowledging that he couldn’t strong-arm God into turning, into relenting, into withdrawing His burning anger. “Who knows” he says. “God may,” not God will, “God may turn and relent.” The words of this proclamation sound very similar if you go back to Jonah 1 to the words of the ship captain to Jonah back in Jonah 1:6. Look at Jonah 1:6, the second part of this passage. This is after the captain approaches Jonah down in the hold after he finds him sleeping down there. He says, “Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.” It’s conditional just like we see here in Jonah 3:9.

In other words, bringing it back to Jonah 3:9, God isn’t some sort of genie in a bottle. God isn’t moved or compelled to move by outward signs of religiosity or religious formality. It’s completely up to Him. It’s His prerogative which He will exercise in His perfect timing according to His perfect will and in His perfect sovereignty. “Who knows?” Also, note the clear recognition here already by these pagan Ninevites that God is the One who holds the keys to life and death. They were hoping surely that God would “turn and relent” “so that we will not perish,” it says. They knew already that it was not their Assyrian deities who dictated whether they lived or died. But rather, it was the God of Israel, Jonah’s God; and in this respect, the Ninevites here their faith resembles the pagan sailors of Jonah 1:14, who acknowledged this very thing, about life and death, being in the hands of Yahweh. Look at Jonah 1:14. It says then they meaning the sailors called on the Lord and said, “We earnestly pray, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased.” Further, back to Jonah 3, note how the Ninevites here they understood right away that God is a God of anger and wrath. God is a God who has anger and is a God of wrath. They knew that, in their paganism, in their idolatry, in their evil, in their wickedness that they sat under the judgment of God, and they faced the wrath of God. As we see here, they desperately wanted to see God “withdraw,” it says, “His burning anger.” They had heard, from Jonah, this message of impending doom and judgment and wrath “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown,” and they desperately wanted to flee from the wrath that was to come. The Ninevites hadn’t heard some sort of syrupy sweet message from Jonah when he preached to them. God just loves you so much. God just thinks you’re so great. God just thinks you’re so special.” God just wants to bless your socks off. That’s not way they heard. Rather what they heard was a preacher, Jonah who had given it to them straight and the result was that they now knew that God is a God of wrath. God is a God, Psalm 7:11, who feels “indignation every day.” They wanted to be spared from “His burning anger” it says so that they would “not perish.” They were seeking divine clemency. A pardon from on high.

As we come to the end of verse 9 now and get ready to look at verse 10, one can only imagine the worry and the anxiety that was hanging over Nineveh at this time. They had believed. They had expressed sorrow for sin. They had fasted. They had put on sackcloth. The king had joined them in this. They were entertaining some hope however faint it might be that God might spare them, that He might “withdraw His burning anger” from them so that they might “not perish.” But, at the same time there were no guarantees as to any of it. The fast, the sackcloth, the proclamation, the outward displays of repentance. There was no guarantee that any of it would actually result in a divine stay of execution. No, because of their past atrocities, because of their past violence, because of their past wickedness Nineveh deserved judgment and God, if He were to impart that judgment on them and bring His judgment to rain down on them would be acting justly because we know after all from Genesis 18:25 the “Judge of all the earth” will always do what is just. But at the same time with what little information they had already accumulated about God, this God, the God of Israel, the God of Jonah they were quick to throw themselves helplessly on His character. What they knew of His character. Jonah 3:9 again, “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.” Those words remind me of Psalm 130:3-4 which says, “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.”

OK. We’ve seen tonight so far how the Ninevites’ repentance was royal meaning, it impacted their king, and the king facilitated its spread across the city. We’ve seen how the Ninevites’ repentance was radical in terms of its scope and its reach and its breadth. Now, as we come to verse 10, we’re going to see how the Ninevites’ repentance was reciprocated as God replied, in kind, to their repentance. Look at verse 10. It says, “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” As more than one preacher has used when preaching this text, here’s the line you’re going to hear me say multiple times as we close tonight, “Nineveh repented, and God relented.” That’s the simplified version. “Nineveh repented, and God relented.” It’s simple but it’s true. Now we should start by noting that the words “deeds” here, it says when God saw their deeds that’s not referring to works. What I mean by that is what’s most certainly not happening here is God promoting or suggesting some form of works-based righteousness. Like you do deeds, and I will no longer bring My calamity upon you. No. Note how when it says there, “When God saw their deeds” that clause is informed immediately by what comes next and what comes next is “that they turned from their wicked way.” In other words, the “deeds” that are being referred to here, those aren’t deeds of sackcloth wearing or deeds of fasting. Rather, the “deeds” that are being described here is the fact that “they turned from their wicked ways.” Borrowing a truth from a later date with John the Baptist in Matthew 3:8 they were “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.” Meaning, God here didn’t relent “concerning the calamity which He had declared He was going to come upon them because they had done certain external acts, external works, external deeds. Rather, God relented because they “turned from their wicked way.” God didn’t relent because of their performance of certain rituals. He didn’t relent because they abstained from food or water or because they wore black goat hair over their backs. He relented, rather because they repented. The people of Nineveh repented and then God relented. They “turned from their wicked way.”

This is where a lot of ink has been spilled. I’ve just given you kind of the straight, fast, and dirty exposition of what’s happened here. The people of Nineveh repented and then God relented. But there’s been a whole lot of writing, head scratching, commentating by theologians and academicians and ivory-tower egghead types as they ask the question. How? How can God relent concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them while still being an immutable and unchanging God? Now I’m calling them eggheads and maybe that’s not fair but the question they ask is a fair one. Because God is after all described throughout the Scriptures as being unchanging, as being immutable. In fact, I’ll give you a few Scriptures here which affirm that God is unchanging and is immutable. We went through most of these Scriptures two summers ago when we covered this very topic. The immutability of God in our Summer in the Systematics series through Theology Proper. You can jot these ones down though. Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Psalm 102:27 “But You are the same,” speaking of God there, “And Your years will not come to an end.” Malachi 3:6 “For I, the LORD, do not change.” James 1:17 “Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” What are those passages teaching us? They are teaching us that God is unchanging in His character, in His person, in His promises. Those truths about God’s unchanging nature, His immutability, His faithfulness, His commitment to His promises go to the very heart of who He is, as God. It’s because God is unchanging and because He is immutable that we can have such confidence about the promises He has made which have yet to be fulfilled. We know with confidence because He is immutable and because He is unchanging that God is not going to just wake up on the wrong side of the bed one day and renege on His promises. It’s for that reason when we see references in the Bible to God “changing His mind” we know that what must be happening here is what theologians call an anthropomorphism meaning, accommodating language of some sort is being used to help us, as humans, understand what’s being described, in reference to the eternal God. The reality is, human language couldn’t possibly capture all that goes on in the divine mind so sometimes accommodating human language has to be used as a necessary, but necessarily inadequate substitute, to describe something for us mere humans about the divine. For instance, we see this in Exodus 32 this. This is in Exodus 32:11. It says, “Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.” So that’s Moses’ language. “Change your mind,” God. Then, in verse 14 of Exodus 32, incidentally written by Moses, he records it this way, “So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Now, does that mean that God somehow reversed His once and forever eternal decree and actually “changed His mind”? Something caught Him off guard and something caught Him by surprise and whoops. Got to change My mind about that one. No. God’s character, God’s person, God’s promises are unchanging and and unchangeable. He is immutable.

I like how B.B. Warfield summarizes this doctrine of God’s immutability, meaning He doesn’t change. Warfield says, “To ask, 'Could God not change his mind about some things?’ is to ask the wrong question. If he could change his mind, he would not be God. What does it mean for you to change your mind? At the very least, it implies that unforeseen circumstances have arisen. Or it may be that your earlier decision was wrong and needs to be corrected. Or it may be that you were powerless to carry out your intentions and have been obliged to change your approach. But God is not ignorant of the future, or guilty of erroneous opinions, or powerless to carry out his will. He is not a man that he should change his mind. He is the eternal I AM, who knows the end from the beginning. He is the Lord; He does not change.”

Indeed. That’s the timeless eternal principle, God does not change. But note this, and this is where I get to my egghead theologian remark, and this is really important. To say that God is unchanging and immutable in His character does not mean, we don’t make this logical leap to say that that must mean that He is totally disengaged from and unresponsive to His creation or to His creatures. The testimony of Scripture is quite the contrary. You can jot these ones down. Genesis 6:5-6 says, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Judges 2:18 says, “When the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them.” I Samuel 15:10-11 says, “Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, ‘I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands’.” Hosea 11:8 from our series in Hosea last year, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, All My compassions are kindled.” So, God is unchanging. God is immutable in His character, in His person, in His promises and at the same time the testimony of Scripture is that God grieves, that God has compassion, that God has pity toward His creatures, toward His creation. He’s engaged with His creatures. He is responsive to His creation. He’s no disengaged deity. Rather, His tri-personhood, one God, three Persons highlights just that, His personhood as He relates to and engages with the very people that He has made in His image. God is not some immovable monolith, some distant “Unmoved Mover,” the “God” of the philosophers who stands aloof from His creation and this whole thing He set in motion back in eternity past just sort of runs by itself now like one of those self-playing pianos. No. God is active in His world. He moves in His world. He answers our prayers. He draws near to us so that we can draw near to Him. Here’s how Herman Bavinck once summarized these very truths. He said, “Though unchangeable in Himself, God lives the life of His creatures, and is not indifferent to their changing activities. There is change around about Him; there is change in the relations of men to God; but there is no change in God.” Indeed.

Now, bringing it back here to Jonah 3:10. I know I’m theologizing here tonight. A few more thoughts, if I may. First, the whole idea of the Ninevites repenting and God relenting is perfectly consistent with God’s demonstrating His unchanging character. Note that the Ninevites here are described here as “turning from their wicked way.” The Hebrew verb there for the Ninevites turning is shoob which literally means to turn or to change. It’s the term where we get our English term “repent.” But then that word there that’s given of God “relenting,” that’s a totally different verb. A totally different term. That word is the Hebrew verb is naham and it means to “feel compassion” toward another, to be “moved to pity” toward another. So here in verse 10, in “relenting concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them,” God was demonstrating compassion, demonstrating mercy which we know is fundamentally a part of who He is. Fundamentally a part of His character. In fact, look down at the page at Jonah 4:2. Jonah’s all upset about the Ninevites repenting and God relenting and one of the reasons he’s upset is the middle of verse 2 there. He says, “for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God.” Meaning, if God hadn’t relented here, He wouldn’t be showing compassion toward this now-repentant people, the Ninevites and that would actually be more troubling than anything for God to be anything other than He is! Namely, compassionate.

Second, the idea here of the Ninevites repenting and God relenting is consistent with promises God made in other settings about how He would respond to wicked peoples who did repent versus those who refused to repent. Here’s Jeremiah 18:7-10. It says, “At one moment,” this is God speaking to the people of Judah, “at one moment, I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.” There’s freedom in other words for God to do one versus the other. Meaning for what’s happening in Nineveh here in Jonah 3:10 is that by relenting, God was actually acting consistently with His character and even consistently with His promises. God, fundamentally in His character is consistently against sin. There is no variation in God’s loathing of sin and His determination to punish sin. That’s a constant feature of God’s character. And here, because the Ninevites had repented, because they had changed their conduct, because they had turned from their evil ways they actually were, in a sense, a new people, a new city. They were no longer sinful Nineveh. They were repentant Nineveh.

Hugh Martin, a guy who wrote the commentary back in 1870 writes insightfully on this reality. This is a new Nineveh Jonah’s interacting with God’s interacting with. He says, “It was wicked, violent, unrighteous, a theistical, proud, and luxurious Nineveh which God had threatened to destroy. A city sitting in sackcloth and ashes, humbled in the depths of self-abasement, and appealing as lowly suppliants to his commiseration—a Nineveh like that—that Nineveh, he had never threatened. That Nineveh he visited not with ruin. He had never said he would. The Nineveh which God threatened to destroy passed away; it became totally another city—far more so, in virtue of this change in moral state, than if it had been translated from its olden geographical position, and wholly transformed in its architectural appearance.” He’s writing in 1870, “Surely its great moral change had made it more truly another place—a kind of new creature, old things having passed away, and all things become new than any alteration in its physical aspect could have done. It really, in God's estimation, is not the Nineveh He threatened at all. The terrific threatening does not apply now.” Nineveh, in other words, was an altogether different city; and so, it actually was consistent with God’s character here to relent in bringing the calamity He had declared He would bring against them.

Not only that. But God, consistent with His character and consistent with His warnings and consistent with His promises, we know as we continue to read the history of this city, He did, in fact, destroy Nineveh. Not long after Jonah’s day we know that this city, this city of Nineveh slipped back into its sin and into its wickedness. That’s what I tried to explain last Sunday night the book of Nahum is all about. It’s written later to Nineveh having slidden back into the, this pattern of sin. In fact, here’s how the book of Nahum opens in Nahum 1:2, you can turn there if you would like. It’s just two books to the right. Nahum 1:2 starts this way. I’ll just read from the beginning in verse 1 actually. “The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite. A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; The blossoms of Lebanon wither. Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by Him.” In other words, as it related to Nineveh God never changed. He never altered one of His promises. He never modified any aspect of His character. God has always been opposed to sin and to any offenses to His holiness and to His holy character which is why He went after Nineveh in the first place. And yes, Nineveh repented, God relented. He stayed their execution in Jonah’s day as a God of mercy and compassion. But when Nineveh went back to its wicked ways, they felt the fire we see here of His righteous anger and they were destroyed.

Bringing it back once more to Jonah’s day Nineveh repented, you can go back to Jonah 3, and God relented and Jonah was just thrilled about it, right? Wrong. Jonah has been off the stage, I said earlier, in the five verses we’ve covered tonight but he’s going to be reintroduced to this story in Jonah 4:1. Just when we thought that there might be redemption for Jonah, just when we thought it might have “clicked” for Jonah we see this, in Jonah 4:1. “But it,” meaning the Ninevite’s repentance, “greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.” Nineveh repented, God relented, and Jonah pouted. How sad. How tragic that a Hebrew prophet like Jonah would take on such an attitude toward Nineveh. Especially when he should have known this. The Ninevites repentance was measured against the history of his own people the Israelites. In fact, turn with me as we close to Psalm 106. Go back a few books in your Bibles toward the middle there to Psalm 106. We won’t read the whole Psalm. It’s a lengthy history of Israel told poetically through Psalm, but we’ll pick it up in verse 32, Psalm 106:32. This is all about the Israelites being disobedient in provoking God to wrath and what came about from that. Psalm 106:32 says, “They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, so that it went hard with Moses on their account; Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips. They did not destroy the peoples, As the LORD commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons and shed innocent blood. The blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood. Thus, they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds. Therefore, the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people, and He abhorred His inheritance. Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power. Many times He would deliver them; They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless,” verse 44, “He looked upon their distress when He heard their cry; And He remembered His covenant for their sake and relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness.” The Israelites somewhere along the way had repented. That’s the reference there to hearing their cry and God had relented. “He remembered His covenant for their sake, and relented” it says, “according to the greatness of His lovingkindness.” How quick was Jonah to forget that fact when it came to the repentance of the Ninevites. We’ll get more into Jonah’s response next time. Jonah 4:1 and following but before then I leave you with this thought and with this challenge. As those who live on this side of the cross may we never forget how, like the Ninevites, we were once dominated by sin, evil, wickedness, and all the rest. May we never forget how, through our grace-given repentance, our God-given repentance God relented of His anger and His wrath toward us. May we never forget how God’s righteous anger and wrath toward us was absorbed by Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. May we never tire of calling on more and more sinners, former “Ninevites” like us, to turn from their wicked ways, to repent and believe in His saving gospel so that He may relent and save their souls. Amen?

Let’s pray. Lord thank You so much for this time together in Your word tonight. Thank you for the richness of the book of Jonah written so many years ago in a different time and a different context, different language, different culture but we can sit here all these years later in this part of the world and mine and extract timeless truths which we can, with which we can deepen our understanding of who You are, deepen our appreciation for Your forbearance and Your patience and Your compassion toward us and deepen in our appreciation for Your solution for mankind’s sin which is the cross of Jesus Christ at Calvary. May we keep that truth, the cross of Calvary at the forefront of our minds even as we study a book like Jonah. May we remember that we do live on this side of the cross and that we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and because of what has happened to us and through us through Christ we can now live in an upright and God-honoring way. May we learn these lessons from the Ninevites and from Jonah and ultimately from You and live in a way in our life, in our day in a manner which brings You praise, honor, and glory. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.