The Lord repeated His message to Jonah, and this time he went to Nineveh as the Lord had told him. It was a very big city with a high, protecting wall built around it. The king and all his nobles and all the people and all their cattle lived in the city. Since there was no refrigeration, this was the only way to have fresh meat. The city was so big that it took three days to walk across it.
Jonah walked through the city for one day and shouted God’s announcement, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”! Jonah would have been glad if Nineveh had been destroyed without a warning, BUT GOD IS NOT LIKE THAT ! That is why He has provided this book for you. Accept it from God as a loving warning, because He wants to save you now. Somehow, Jonah’s announcement got through the walls of the king’s palace (is there any place where the Lord cannot reach you?), and the king arose from his throne, took off his beautiful robe and covered himself with rough clothes and sat in ashes. That’s very undignified, but he and the people of Nineveh believed God and nothing else mattered, not even good clothes or good dinners or nice plans. The king and his nobles commanded that every man and animal must be covered with rough clothes, and they could not eat or drink anything. They were all to cry mightily to the Lord and must stop being cruel or wicked. Somehow they hoped that God would hear.
Is it really that important? They did not even have a promise that God would hear their cry, though I am sure that with all those hungry animals, grown-ups and children it was a very loud cry!
But you and I do have a promise that God will hear even a whisper. The precious blood of Jesus has already been shed for sinners, and His promise is often repeated in His Word, “Him that [comes] to Me I will. . . [NOT] cast out” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)). You are sure of a welcome. Never mind your favorite clothes and dinners and good times. Cry to Him now and leave your wickedness behind. There is no “maybe” about His forgiving you.
The Lord saw that they were sorry in Nineveh and how they turned from their evil ways. He chose not to send the judgment He had promised. What a relief !
But that is not the end of the story for Nineveh. They had no sacrifice for their sin and God held back the judgment, but later it did come. The people of Nineveh returned to their evil ways, and their city was overthrown to a heap of ruins, still buried now by centuries of earth. “Being good” just because you are afraid is not enough. The precious blood of Jesus is the only sacrifice that can blot out your sins of the past, and only God by His Spirit can give you a new life. Improving the old one is not enough. If God’s judgment did not fall upon Jesus for your sins, then it must fall upon you forever. There is no other hope.
How did Jonah like it that God held back the judgment on Nineveh? Read the next story and see.