Study Questions

Jonah 3:1-10

Nineveh was the capitol city of Assyria. The Assyrians swept into the Northern Kingdom of Israel around 740 BC. This was after the ten tribes of Israel and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were divided into separate kingdoms. The Assyrians started deporting the Israelites to what is now Northern Iraq.

“So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan, where they are to this day” (1 Chronicles 5:26).

After more than two decades of forced deportations, the Assyrians finally conquered Samaria, the capitol city of Israel, in 722 BC. About 27,290 Israelites were forced into slavery.

“The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes. This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened to the commands nor carried them out” (2 Kings 18:11-12).

The Assyrians have a well-deserved reputation for being one of the most brutal cultures in the ancient world. Erika Beibtreu declares, “It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.” The Assyrians tortured their enemies and boasted about their cruelty. ISIS is appalling, the Nazis were horrendous, but the Assyrians may have been the most grotesquely violent culture in human history.

If you want to learn more about the brutality of the Assyrians, please open the link below. This Reuter’s article compares the barbaric modern practices of ISIS to the ancient atrocities of the Assyrians. Please be warned, the boastings of King Ashurnasirpal II recorded in this article are PG-13! Read the article with great discretion. http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/03/09/biblical-brutality/

This is why Jonah ran away. He took a boat to Tarshish in Southern Spain, what was then considered the end of the earth. Jonah had every reason to believe that he would be tortured if he preached judgment in Nineveh. Jonah might also have been afraid that if he preached in Nineveh, that God would show mercy to this terrible enemy of Israel.

1. What modern city would you avoid visiting at all costs? Aleppo, Syria? Mosul, Iraq? Pyongyang, North Korea?
2. Imagine if God asked you to go to that city and boldly preach a sermon of judgment. Would you want to run away like Jonah?
3. Do you think God is asking you to speak up to people in your own life?

Jonah 3:1-10
1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.

After he is lost at sea, after he contends with the fish, Jonah washes up on shore. God commands Jonah a second time to preach judgment in Nineveh. Jonah 1:2 and Jonah 3:2 are similar commands, but this time God drops the description of Nineveh as wicked. God will not give up on Jonah or Nineveh.

Nineveh was the biggest and most powerful city in the ancient Near East for about 150 years. It had an urban perimeter of seven and a half miles. Jonah tells us that the population was 120,000, plus many animals. It took about three days, not necessarily to walk the city, but to adequately preach to a city so large.

The name Jonah means “Dove.” Jonah was God’s messenger pigeon bringing a message of peace to Nineveh. This is like sending a preacher to convert Nazis in Berlin during World War II. This is like sending a preacher to convert ISIS terrorists in Mosul, Iraq. Even those parallels don’t quite fit since modern Americans have never seen our neighbors kidnapped into another land or tortured on the scale of the Assyrians. To understand this story, you have to understand that Jonah was rooting against the salvation of Nineveh.

1. How do you feel about God extending mercy to such a depraved group of people as the Ninevites?
2. Who do you struggle to offer grace to in your life?

Jonah 3:4-5
4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

God gave the Ninevehites a forty-day grace period. If God really wanted to destroy Nineveh, he never would sent Jonah to warn them. He certainly wouldn’t have given them forty days to repent. The Assyrians believed in God. The Assyrians were pagans who didn’t know who God was! We can speculate that there were some Israelite captives in the city, but we have zero biblical evidence to support that conclusion. Taking the story at face value, it appears that a bunch of pagan Assyrians give up their vile gods Ashur and Marduk for the One, True God of Israel. Essentially, the most warlike people in the world are surrendering their national religion and identity because Jonah preached a single sermon of judgment.

It wasn’t even much of a sermon! Jonah doesn’t even appear to be trying! His message is short, vague, and offensive! There is not much rhetorical brilliance in the five Hebrew words we translate as, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Jonah does not consult his biblical commentaries or write an impassioned sermon. He just repeats what God told him. He doesn’t even mention which God sent him to preach this news! By some miraculous grace, the God of Israel uses that half-hearted little homily to change the world.

The people of Nineveh repent on day one. Jonah doesn’t need to spend three days preaching in the city. The people of Nineveh started fasting and wearing sackcloth. Fasting is a way of seeking God’s mercy. Wearing sackcloth is a symbol of repentance.

1. Have you ever tried fasting as a way of seeking God’s mercy?
2. I have never seen anyone wear sackcloth, but I have seen people wear funeral black. I have imposed ashes on foreheads on Ash Wednesday. What, if anything, do you do when you need to show your repentance?
3. Today’s story is about grace, but God’s mercy doesn’t come cheaply. How do you confess your sin to God?

Jonah 3:6-9
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

The repentance started from the ground up. Near Eastern kings were not accustomed to following the moods of their people. This king had the good sense to hop off his throne, take off his fancy clothes, and sit in the dust. The king commanded that everyone fast, including the animals. The king was trying to catch up with the repentance of his people.

I like the king’s words, “Who knows? God may relent.” The king does not presume that God will offer compassion. The king does not wallow in despair. He hopes and prays that God might spare his people. The Assyrians repented for their evils ways and violence. God heard their prayers. Apparently, God cares even for distant, wicked people.

1. Who do you need to pray for that is far from God?
2. Take a moment to pray for the wicked, the violent, and the distant from God.

Can you imagine the terrible noise that the cattle made after going unfed for a few days? Can you imagine the cacophony of crying babies? God heard the noise and relented. Once again, the Bible tells us that God changed his mind about the impending destruction.

Jonah 3:10
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

God desires that all of creation will be reconciled to him. God is interested in the salvation of the wicked Assyrians. God is even interested in the redemption of our animals! Jonah subtly reminds us of God’s promise to Noah that he is committed to saving the world.

Nineveh was saved, but not for long. Nineveh was wiped off the face of the earth in 612 BC. The Assyrians were spared for years, or perhaps even generations, but they couldn’t hold onto their spirit of repentance. No wonder Jonah is so grumpy at the end of the story! He invested his time saving a people he didn’t like who would one day go back to their grotesque patterns of violence. The Book of Jonah was probably written long after Nineveh had fallen, reminding people that we need to hold onto our contrite hearts.

We all need to repent. Some of our sins can be shared in public. Some of our sins should only be shared in private. Take a moment praying appropriately for the sins in your lives. Pray for those who once were close to God, but now have fallen away. Pray for the children and grandchildren or believers who are far from God. Pray with the hopeful expectation of the king of Nineveh. Who knows? God might save the most unexpected person in your life.