Jonah 3:5, commentary and pictures

The people of Nineveh believed the warning carried through their streets that their city would be overthrown in forty days, and from the greatest to the least, from the king to the humblest servant, they joined in a public fast in sackcloth and ashes. Their fasting was the outward sign of genuine sorrow for sin and turning from evil and violence, which God saw and accepted by turning away His anger and sparing the city from the threatened doom. The delay of the predicted overthrow did not make the warning false, for God designed it to lead to repentance and lengthened their probation for forty years to prove their turning genuine. That repentance lasted only for a season, and when they returned to idolatry and violence until their sins reached to heaven, destruction finally came, showing that God means what He says about punishment for sin. Their wholehearted turning stands as the conversion needed by every church member and by cities today, paralleling the merciful delay after the 1844 disappointment to give more time to prepare, and their repentance at Jonah's preaching shall rise in judgment to condemn the generation that rejected Christ.

Nineveh's Belief and Repentance

Jonah's warning was that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days, cried through the streets for three days until the cry rang through the godless city and was passed from lip to lip until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement. The verse concerns that proclamation reaching the inhabitants throughout the city.

The people of Nineveh believed God and His warning through Jonah. God's Spirit pressed the message home to every heart, so that multitudes trembled in fear because of their sins. Their belief led to repentance in deep humiliation.

From the greatest of them even to the least of them they humbled themselves in a public, citywide response. This included the king down to the humblest servant and people of every rank, from the highest to the lowest, with the king leading and later joining them in the call to humble themselves before the Lord. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth and ashes, wearing sackcloth throughout the city.

Their fasting and sackcloth were the outward expression of genuine penitence and sorrow for sin. The outward signs accompanied a turning from evil and violence and wickedness, and a seeking of God's mercy and forgiveness. By this turning from wickedness Nineveh honored Israel's God, and His law was revered among the heathen. This occurred in what was then the mightiest nation on earth, whose great humiliation led the heathen world to revere His law.

God's Mercy and Probation

When the Ninevites turned from evil and violence, their changed conduct and humiliation were seen and their repentance was accepted, His fierce anger was turned away, and the city was spared so that the threatened destruction and doom did not fall upon it. Their fasting and sackcloth, from the greatest to the least, from the king down to the humblest servant, were accepted as the humiliation of a citywide repentance that sought mercy and forgiveness.

Their days of probation were lengthened and more time was granted to show that repentance was genuine and to turn from sin. That added time is described as forty years of probation given to prove the genuineness of their turning. The reprieve waited for the fruits of their humiliation, granting opportunity to repent and prepare rather than bringing immediate destruction.

The delay and non-occurrence of the predicted overthrow did not make the warning false nor prove it was not from God, for it accomplished the purpose designed by leading to repentance. A warning of judgment in this way grants more time to prepare, since its fulfillment of purpose is seen in the turning it produces. True and sincere repentance moves God to give another trial, as He gave to the ancient Ninevites. Israel after the report of the spies stood in the same place of condemnation and could have received the same mercy at that time if there had been true and sincere repentance, but instead sank into despondency and then into self-willed presumption.

The repentance of Nineveh lasted only for a season, and by Hezekiah's time the message had been set aside. The people returned to idol-worship and image-worship, and to conquest and defiance of God's purposes. Their sin became worse because they had received light and failed to heed it, until their sins reached to heaven and destruction came, showing that God means what He says about punishment for sin.

Warning and Example Today

Nineveh's wholehearted belief and turning stands as the example of how people turn to God, turn from sin and from wickedness, become sanctified through obedience to His laws, and receive compassion and mercy as God turns away His fierce anger. The city was given opportunity to repent before judgment fell, and because its people from greatest to least believed, fasted and wore sackcloth, their lives were spared and the threatened judgment did not fall, showing how wicked cities may be spared when they turn from wickedness. For the church this means the conversion and spiritual regeneration needed by every member, putting no confidence in men but looking to the One who is mighty to save all who come to Him. When men and women humble self as Nineveh humbled herself before God in belief, God fills them with His Spirit and fits them for His work.

When Jonah cried through the streets for three days that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown, the people from greatest to least believed God and the king led them in humbling themselves in fasting and sackcloth, and a merciful God accepted their repentance, turned away His fierce anger, lengthened their days of probation, and waited for the fruits of their humiliation. The delay and non-occurrence of the threatened destruction did not make the message false or not from God, but accomplished the purpose God designed, and the city was tested according to His will. So too the warning that the Lord would come in 1844 was of God though the event did not occur, God in mercy granting the world longer time to prepare, that the warning of judgment might be heard more widely and the people tested with greater light. His servants are therefore called to lay aside selfish sorrow over humiliation, rejoice in the reprieve, trust His wisdom and mercy, and labor to bring sinners to repentance and salvation, even as Nineveh's humility led God to extend the city's probation and spare it from announced destruction.

Their repentance in response to Jonah's preaching set them apart from the generation that rejected Christ's preaching, unlike Eli who failed to act on the warning he received and did not correct his sons. Their repentance at Jonah's preaching shall rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it. Men in cities today have been wonderfully preserved and spared as Nineveh was spared, and God has given them opportunity to repent, acknowledge His mercy with heartfelt repentance, leave the wicked works that brought rebuke and chastening, and prepare to meet death with Christ's armor on. That repentance means entirely abolishing the liquor saloons that destroy health and reason, and if spared men continue to legalize and carry on the liquor traffic and continue in those wicked works, the next stroke of the Infinite will be to destroy life. That such sparing can be misunderstood is seen in Jonah's thought that his reputation as a prophet had been damaged because mercy kept the threatened judgment from falling, though Nineveh's response remains the example of the repentance that could spare wicked cities from judgment.