The Reluctant Preacher and the Impossible Repentance
Introduction: God's Unstoppable Word
The book of Jonah is a profound embarrassment to all our modern sensibilities about what constitutes effective ministry. We are obsessed with technique, with branding, with the felt needs of the unbeliever, and with the emotional authenticity of the messenger. If we were to design a missionary strategy for a hostile, pagan superpower, it would involve focus groups, cultural sensitivity training, and a carefully crafted message designed to build bridges and find common ground. And the last man we would send to do it is a bitter, disobedient, and resentful prophet who has just been vomited onto a beach after a three day stay in the belly of a fish.
And yet, this is God's man, and this is God's plan. What we have in the third chapter of Jonah is one of the most staggering displays of God's sovereign power in all of Scripture. It is a story designed to strip us of all our self-reliance and to demolish our pride. It teaches us that the power is in the Word of God, not in the eloquence of the preacher. It teaches us that God's mercy is scandalous, extending to the very people we might consider our mortal enemies. And it teaches us that God is a God of the second chance, not just for wicked pagans, but for His own wayward children.
After the grand disobedience of chapter one and the desperate prayer of chapter two, we come to the great reset. God does not discard his failed instrument. He does not say, "Well, Jonah, you had your chance. I'll find someone else." No, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah "the second time." This chapter is a direct confrontation to our excuses, our prejudices, and our small-minded views of what God can and will do. The greatest revival in the Old Testament is about to be ignited by the worst sermon ever preached by a man who did not want it to succeed. If that does not get your attention, then you have not yet understood the gospel.
The Text
Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying,
"Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you."
So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk.
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 3:1-4 LSB)
The God of the Second Word (vv. 1-2)
We begin with God's gracious recommissioning of His failed prophet.
"Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you.'" (Jonah 3:1-2 LSB)
The most beautiful words in this passage might just be "the second time." Jonah's rebellion was not a small misstep. It was high treason. He was a prophet of Yahweh who heard the direct command of God and deliberately ran in the opposite direction. He boarded a ship to Tarshish, the furthest known point in the opposite direction of Nineveh. He abandoned his post. By all rights, his prophetic career should have been over. He should have been a cautionary tale told to other prophets in training.
But God's calling and His gifts are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). God's purpose was not thwarted by Jonah's sin. The storm, the fish, the prayer from the deep, it was all part of God's severe mercy to bring His man back to the starting line. This is a profound comfort for every believer who has failed, and that means every believer. Our failures, however spectacular, do not have the final word. God's grace does. He is the God of the second chance, the third chance, and the seventy times seven chance.
Notice that the mission has not changed. It is the exact same command as in chapter one. "Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city." God does not negotiate. He does not water down the mission to make it more palatable for his chastened prophet. The objective is the same. Nineveh, the capital of the brutal Assyrian empire, the enemy of Israel, is still the target of God's word. And notice the specific instruction: "call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you." Jonah is not to be a strategist. He is not to be an editor. He is to be a herald. A mailman. His job is simply to deliver the message God gives him, without addition or subtraction. This is the fundamental task of all preaching. We are not called to be creative; we are called to be faithful.
Obedience Without Enthusiasm (v. 3)
This time, Jonah's response is different, at least on the surface.
"So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk." (Jonah 3:3 LSB)
The text is beautifully stark. "So Jonah arose and went." There is no record of his attitude. No mention of a joyful heart or a newfound love for the Assyrians. Given what we learn about his reaction in chapter four, it is safe to assume his obedience was begrudging at best. He went because he knew the alternative was another encounter with God's "special providence" in the deep. He was an obedient but sullen child.
And this is a crucial point. The effectiveness of God's Word is not dependent on the emotional state of the preacher. God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick. The power is in the seed of the Word, not in the quality of the bag it is carried in. If God can use Balaam's donkey, He can certainly use a pouting prophet. This should be a great encouragement to us, and also a severe warning. We should strive to serve the Lord with gladness, but we must never think that our service is validated by our feelings. Our service is validated by our obedience to the Word of God.
The text then emphasizes the scale of the task. "Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk." This is not a quaint little village. This is a metropolis, a pagan behemoth. The description likely refers to the time it would take to walk across the entire administrative district. The point is to impress upon us the human impossibility of the task. One man, a foreigner with a strange accent, is about to walk into the heart of an enemy superpower and announce its destruction. From a human perspective, this is not just a suicide mission; it is sheer lunacy.
The Five Word Sermon (v. 4)
Finally, we come to the sermon itself, a masterpiece of minimalist proclamation.
"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 3:4 LSB)
Jonah walks a third of the way into the city, finds a street corner, and lets it rip. And what is his message? In Hebrew, it is just five words. "Od arbaim yom v'ninveh nehpachet." "Yet forty days and Nineveh overturned." That's it. That is the entire sermon.
Notice what is missing. There is no introduction. There is no gospel presentation. There is no mention of the love of God. There is no call to repentance. There is no offer of mercy. There is no explanation of who Yahweh is. It is the most unadorned, bare-knuckled, bone-dry declaration of judgment imaginable. It is pure law. It is a raw threat. The word for "overthrown" is the same word used for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is a promise of total annihilation.
This is a massive polemic against every form of seeker-sensitive church growth strategy. We think we need to woo the world. We think we need to be winsome, attractive, and relevant. We are terrified of offending anyone. Jonah's message was nothing but offense. He walked into the capital city of a military superpower and told them that their time was up, that their entire civilization was about to be wiped from the face of the earth. And what happens? The greatest revival in history breaks out. This is the scandal of the law. You cannot understand the sweetness of the gospel until you have felt the terror of the law. You cannot desire a savior until you know you are under condemnation. Jonah's terrible message was the most merciful thing the Ninevites had ever heard, because it was the truth.
The Rebuke of Nineveh
The story does not end here, of course. The response of the Ninevites, from the king on his throne down to the common man in the street, is immediate and total. They believe God, declare a fast, and put on sackcloth. They repent. And in doing so, they become a permanent rebuke to all who hear a far greater message and do nothing.
Jesus Himself makes this very point when confronting the hard-hearted Pharisees. He says, "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here" (Matthew 12:41).
The Ninevites had a disgruntled foreign prophet who gave them a five-word sermon of doom, and they turned the entire city upside down in repentance. We have the Son of God Himself, the very Word made flesh. We have the full story of His life, His substitutionary death on the cross, His triumphant resurrection from the dead. We have the explicit offer of full pardon and eternal life. We have something infinitely greater than Jonah. And yet, our cities, our nations, and very often our own hearts, remain unmoved.
The story of Jonah and Nineveh is a story about the staggering, sovereign power of God's Word to accomplish His purposes. It is a story about the scandalous, unexpected reach of God's mercy. But for us, who live on this side of the cross, it is also a profound warning. If the men of Nineveh will condemn the generation of Jesus for their unbelief, what will they say of us, who have received so much more? The simple, raw Word of God is enough. It was enough to save the great city of Nineveh through the preaching of a reluctant prophet. It is more than enough to save us today. The question is, will we believe it?