Introduction
The greatest example of a missionary / evangelist in the Old Testament is the prophet Jonah. Although all the major and minor prophets were known for speaking the word of God, and several of the prophets spoke the word of God to foreign nations, the story of Jonah’s message to the wicked city of Nineveh and the city’s subsequent repentance stands unique in the history of Israel.
The main point of the book of Jonah is that when a person or a city repents, God responds to their repentance with
mercy and kindness.
This exegesis paper will examine Jonah 3 in depth and will apply the principles learned from the passage to today’s evangelist.
The story of Jonah is well known by every child who attends Sunday school. Jonah the prophet is commanded by God to go preach in the wicked city of Nineveh. Jonah is scared so he runs in the opposite direction by getting on a boat headed for Tarshish. Nineveh is 500 miles to the east of Israel and Jonah caught a boat to Tarshish which is probably in modern day Spain, 2,000 miles to the west from where God told him to go.[1]God sends a storm and when the sailors find out that Jonah’s disobedience has caused the storm, they throw him overboard. God in His mercy sends a large fish that swallows Jonah. After three days, the fish spits Jonah out on a beach. Again God commands Jonah to go preach in Nineveh. This time, Jonah obeys and preaches in the streets of Nineveh about the soon coming judgment of God. In response to his preaching, the entire city repents and God decides not to destroy them. Jonah gets mad that God has shown compassion to the people of Nineveh and pouts. God causes a vine to grow to give Jonah shade and then sends a worm that kills the vine. Jonah is angry that the vine has died and God uses it as an object lesson to show why he decided not to destroy Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital of the kingdom of Assyria, a large empire during the time of the Israelite kings. [1] The ruins of Nineveh lay across the river from the modern day city of Mosul, in northern Iraq. The book of Jonah calls Nineveh “a great city” and indeed it was the greatest city of its day. The total area of Nineveh was about seven square kilometers and there were fifteen large gates in its walls. Eighteen canals brought water to the city. Archeologists say it contained between 100,000 and 150,000 people making it one of the largest cities of its day. Jonah 4:11 mentions a population of 120,000.
The city of Nineveh was a sinful city. The city was known for debauchery and violence. The Assyrians impaled enemies on stakes at the entrance to their towns. They collected heads and hung as decorations from trees in the king’s garden. They tortured people by cutting off their nose or ears, blinding them, or cutting off their arms. They piled up skulls as a warning to anyone who would oppose their rule. They skinned their victims and used the skin as a decoration on their city walls.[2] It is probable that theft and murder was common in the city.
The city of Nineveh was sinful like Las Vegas, violent like inner city Chicago, and militarily aggressive like Baghdad under Saddam Hussein. God’s command to Jonah to go in preach in Nineveh was equivalent to God telling a modern day preacher to go preach in Mosul, which is currently under the control of ISIS. Jonah was worried his head would be chopped off. The repentance of the king of Nineveh is like Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (the head of ISIS) repenting, publically turning from Islam, and announcing that he is now serving the Christian God.
The repentance of Nineveh was a true miracle.
Jonah 1-2 is about what happens when Jonah disobeys the Lord. Jonah 3 reveals what happens when Jonah is obedient. Jonah 4 gives God an opportunity to explain his actions to Jonah. The key chapter in this story for the evangelist is Jonah 3. Jonah publically preaches a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh and the entire city, from the king all the way down to the animals, responds by fasting and praying for God to relent. This chapter gives the evangelist an Old Testament picture of how God can move in a foreign city when
an evangelist is obedient to preach a message of repentance.
Thus, this post will focus on the exegesis of Jonah chapter 3.
Want to go deeper? Discover what Jonah’s failures and God’s mercy can teach us about evangelism in the original article by Dr. Daniel King, published by King Ministries International.
Click the link to read the full article: Lessons from the Life of Jonah
