Commentary - Jonah 3:1-4

Bird's-eye view

In this pivotal section of Jonah, we witness the potent efficacy of God's sovereign grace, not only in recommissioning a disobedient prophet but also in preparing a pagan metropolis for repentance. After the Lord's severe and merciful discipline in the belly of the great fish, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time. This is the gospel of the second chance, a theme that echoes throughout Scripture. God does not discard His instruments because of their failures; He refashions them. Jonah, now chastened and obedient, undertakes the mission he previously fled. He goes to Nineveh, that great and wicked city, and delivers a stark, unadorned message of impending doom. The sermon is brutally short, just five words in Hebrew, yet it is precisely the word God intended. This passage sets the stage for one of the greatest revivals in history, demonstrating that the power of conversion lies not in the eloquence of the messenger, but in the authority of the God who sends him and the Spirit who prepares the hearts of the hearers.

The central theme here is the unstoppable nature of God's decree. Jonah's rebellion in chapter one was an attempt to veto God's missionary plan. Chapter two was God's veto of Jonah's veto. Now, in chapter three, we see God's original plan proceeding exactly as intended. The Lord's purposes are never frustrated by human sin. He can make a disobedient prophet obey, and He can make a violent, pagan city repent. This is a profound display of God's glory, His mercy to the undeserving, and His absolute authority over every affair of man, from the heart of a pouting prophet to the heart of a pagan king.

Outline

Context In Jonah

Jonah 3 follows the prophet's dramatic rescue from the sea and his prayer of thanksgiving from inside the great fish. Chapter 1 detailed Jonah's commission, his defiant flight toward Tarshish, and the storm God sent to intercept him. Chapter 2 recorded Jonah's repentance and deliverance, culminating in the fish vomiting him onto dry land. Thus, chapter 3 opens with a reset. God is not improvising; He is simply restating the original mission. The events of the first two chapters were not a detour from God's plan but were rather an essential part of it, designed to prepare His messenger for the task. Jonah had to be swallowed by death and spit out again before he could be a proper sign to the Ninevites, a living sermon of judgment and resurrection. This chapter is the direct consequence of God's severe mercy, showing what happens when a man, having been brought to the end of himself, finally submits to the word of the Lord.

Key Issues

The Gospel of the Second Time

There is profound gospel comfort in the simple phrase, "the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time." Our God is the God of the second chance, and the third, and the seventy-times-seventh. Think of Peter after his denial. The Lord didn't write him off; He met him on the beach and recommissioned him three times. The same grace is at work here. Jonah had failed spectacularly. He had not just sinned privately; his rebellion had endangered a ship full of pagan sailors and brought him to the very gates of death. By all human standards, he was disqualified from ministry permanently.

But God's calculus is not our own. God's investment in Jonah was not finished. The Lord had disciplined His prophet, not to destroy him, but to restore him. The call is essentially unchanged from the first chapter. God does not lower the standard because of Jonah's failure. He does not say, "Alright, Jonah, since Nineveh is too much for you, how about a smaller town?" No, the mission is the same because God's purpose for Nineveh is the same. This is a glorious demonstration that our security and our usefulness in God's kingdom are not based on the strength of our grip on Him, but on the strength of His grip on us. He who begins a good work will bring it to completion.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying,

The story effectively starts over, but with a crucial difference. The first time the word came, it met a rebellious heart. This second time, it comes to a man who has been through the belly of Sheol. God takes the initiative. Jonah is not on probation, trying to earn his way back into God's good graces. He is on dry land, a recipient of a stunning deliverance, and God simply speaks to him again. This is pure grace. The narrative does not waste a moment on Jonah's psychological state or a period of rehabilitation. God's word is creative and powerful. When it comes, it brings with it the power for its own fulfillment. The first word was disobeyed, leading to death. This second word, spoken to a man who has passed through a type of death and resurrection, leads to obedience and life for a whole city.

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you.”

The command is identical to the first one in its essential charge: "Arise, go to Nineveh." God has not changed His mind about the importance of Nineveh, calling it again "the great city." Its greatness was not just in size, but in its significance in the ancient world as the heart of the brutal Assyrian empire. The mission is still daunting. But there is a slight change in the instruction. In chapter 1, God told him to "call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me." Here, the instruction is to "call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you." This emphasizes the prophet's role as a mere herald. Jonah is not to preach his own opinions, his own anger, or even his own theological insights. He is to be a mouthpiece, delivering the exact message God gives him. His only job is to be faithful to the script. This is a crucial lesson for all preachers. Our power is not in our originality, but in our fidelity to the word given to us.

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.

What a difference a fish makes. The first time, Jonah arose and fled. This time, Jonah arose and went. The obedience is immediate and unqualified. He went "according to the word of Yahweh." This is the heart of faith. The text then reminds us of the scale of the task. Nineveh was "an exceedingly great city." The phrase "a three days' walk" likely refers to the time it would take to traverse the entire metropolitan district, not just the walled city itself. This detail is not just geographical trivia; it underscores the magnitude of the assignment and, consequently, the magnitude of the repentance that is about to occur. Jonah is one man, walking into a sprawling, violent, pagan megapolis. From a human perspective, his mission is absurd. But he is armed with the word of God, which is all he needs.

4 Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Jonah enters the city and begins his preaching tour. He gets one day into his three-day circuit and delivers the message. And what a message it is. In Hebrew, it is just five words: "Od arbaim yom v'Nineveh nehpaket." It is stark, severe, and devoid of any explicit offer of mercy. He doesn't say, "Repent, and you might be spared." He simply announces the verdict and the deadline. The word "overthrown" (nehpaket) is the same word used for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It means to be turned upside down, to be utterly ruined. This is the hard edge of the law. It is the proclamation of pure judgment. And yet, embedded in this threat is a sliver of grace. Why forty days? A countdown implies an opportunity. If destruction were absolutely irrevocable, God could have sent the earthquake that very afternoon. The forty-day warning is a summons to repentance, even if the word "repent" is never used. It is a divine threat, and all of God's threats are conditional, designed to produce the repentance that will avert them.

Application

This short passage is packed with application for the church today. First, it teaches us about failure and grace. Many Christians feel disqualified by their past sins. They have fled to Tarshish in one way or another and feel they are permanently benched. Jonah reminds us that God's grace is greater than our rebellion. He is a God who restores and recommissions. Repentance, even from the belly of a fish, opens the door to renewed service. God does not need perfect servants; He needs servants who have been broken of their pride and are willing to simply obey.

Second, we see the nature of our mission. Like Jonah, we are sent into great, wicked cities. Our culture is our Nineveh. And like Jonah, our message is not one that is calculated to win friends and influence people. It is a message of judgment and grace. We must preach the bad news before the good news makes any sense. We must tell our world that because of its sin, it stands under the sentence of condemnation. "Yet forty days..." is the message. The time is short. Judgment is coming. But in that warning is the implicit offer of the gospel. The overthrow can be averted. How? By turning and believing. The power is not in our clever presentations, but in the stark, simple, authoritative word of God. We are just heralds. Our job is to be faithful to the message, and to leave the results to the sovereign Spirit of God, who can turn the hardest of hearts, just as He did in Nineveh.