Jonah Chapter 3

Jonah Chapter 3

Jonah Chapter 3 records Jonah’s trek into Nineveh.  He survived the belly of the great fish through the hand of God.  Now, he is a walking sign.  A man by whose offering to the sea immediately resulted in their calm.  A man who should be dead having spent three days and three nights in the fish.  Did the men on the ship see him swallowed up?  Did those same men relay the tail of what happened to any of the Ninevites?

Jonah Chapter 3 features a lesson in repentance.  It is not merely a momentary verbal, acknowledgement of the engagement in evil.  It is far more.  John the immerser once cried out to the Pharisees and sadducees to bear fruit with their repentance (Matthew 3:8).  Nineveh would be held to the same standard.

When a nation repents, as Israel did often, the repentance typically came from the leadership first.  Throughout the Bible, this is a reoccuring occassion.  The sign and prophetic speech of Jonah would once again spur on these results and do so in the hearts of the Ninevites.  Sadly, generations afterward did not heed their example.  The Book of Nahum is an excellent follow up read to the book of Jonah.