Jonah 3:3-5 "So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. (4) And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. (5) So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them."
I can't begin to imagine what Jonah looked like when the whale vomited him out
onto dry land. I won't even try to describe what my imagination thinks he
looked like, but I will just say he had to be some kind of a mess. But I
believe he wasted no time after arriving on dry land. He must have gone at a
quick pace in order to get there and do what the Lord had told him to do. The
Lord tells us it "was an exceeding great city of three days'
journey." Some think it may have been as much as 60 miles in diameter.
That was indeed a very large city and now Jonah, already considered an enemy,
was walking into the city with a message from God: "Yet forty days, and
Nineveh shall be overthrown." If he had done this in the natural realm,
there would have been an angry mob that would have come against Jonah. In my
mind, I can understand Jonah's reluctance to go to this city, much less give
the message of the Lord. God had told Jonah from the beginning, "their
wickedness is come up before me." But he was going in the power of the
Lord to call this city to repentance. He was going in the same spirit of which
Zechariah spoke, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the
LORD of hosts." (Zechariah 4:6)
What could he have expected from the people? I'm not sure what he thought would
happen, but we are told the response that came: "So the people of Nineveh
believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of
them even to the least of them." I try to imagine what happened in the
city as Jonah was crying out for them to repent. Actually, as we look at the
message again, I don't see Jonah mentioning the word, "repent."
That will come into the scene more as we continue our study, but for now
Jonah told them they were going to be overthrown in forty days. But the
people were led to repentance by the Spirit of God. They "proclaimed a
fast, and put on sackcloth." Again, I try to imagine what took place in
that great city. I picture people falling to their knees in repentant prayer
unto the Lord. I picture mothers praying with their children and grandmothers
praying with their grandchildren. I picture merchants giving refunds to their
customers because they had been overcharging for their goods. We even see the
king arising "from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered
him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes." (Jonah 3:6) The Lord willing,
we will see his decree on Monday, but for now think about the glory of God that
pervaded the entire city. I pray for revival in our land and may it begin in
me.