The moment Jonah was delivered the word of the Lord came unto him “the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee”; for if the Lord pursued His servant with His storm and tempest, and cast him into the deep, in the midst of the seas, it was for restoration as well as correction, and to put the prophet into a right condition of soul to be the vessel of the divine will. Accordingly he did not now attempt to flee, but he arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. It is always so in the Lord’s dealings with His people. If we turn back from the path which He marks out for us, we surely must encounter the chastenings of His hand, and the object of His dealings is never accomplished until we are brought face to face again with the path from which we declined, and are made willing, by grace surely, to enter upon it. It is on the principle enunciated by the psalmist— “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word.”
This teaching lies on the surface; but the typical import of this chapter has, we apprehend, the deeper significance. Jonah is, in figure, a risen man; for he says, “Out of the belly of hell” (or the grave) “cried I.” Jehovah had brought death in upon him; and together with this, it must be borne in mind, as shown in the last paper, he is identified with the remnant. This has therefore a double symbolical meaning. Israel, in the person of Jonah, is set aside, on account of their unfaithfulness, as the vessel of testimony. Judging according to man the light is quenched; all hope for the world has forever disappeared. When all God’s waves and billows were rolling over the heads of those whom He had chosen as His witnesses on the earth, where was the possibility of any further testimony in the world? We might ask with the psalmist, “Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Selah. Shall Thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or Thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” Psalm 88:10-1210Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. 11Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? 12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? (Psalm 88:10‑12).
The answer to these questions is only found in the death and resurrection of Christ. All hope, as founded upon man’s responsibility, was indeed gone; but God in His grace and mercy sent His beloved Son, and when He came He identified Himself with His people, went down in His compassion into the very place where they lay dead in trespasses and sins, Himself died, undertaking the whole of their responsibility, that He might glorify God in the very scene and place where they had dishonored Him, As He Himself said,
“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of Man” (the rejected one) “be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
But it was not possible that He should be holden of death, not possible, whether we consider the glory of God, or the rights of His own person; and hence He rose on the third day as the first-begotten of the dead, and it is of Him as the risen One that Jonah becomes a figure. As the risen One, He is (though He was ever that) the faithful and true witness; and Israel being now set aside, He can, in the fulfillment of the purposes of God, bear testimony to the Gentiles, and the issue shows, in figure, that the casting away of the Jew is the reconciliation of the world. (Rom. 11.) The two things are in the chapter—the historical fact of Jonah’s mission, and that of which this mission is an emblem.
Jonah, now obedient, goes to Nineveh; but before his preaching is described the Spirit of God pauses to call attention to the magnitude of the city. It was a city great before God, of three days’ journey. Such was the result of the activity of man in his alienation from God, priding himself upon the greatness, the pomp, and magnificence of his works which tempt him to say with Nebuchadnezzar, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” And, intoxicated with his own pride, he cares not, even if he remembers, that the judgment of God has been pronounced upon all his works. It was this judgment of which Jonah was the herald, proclaiming in the face of the “haughty glory” of the world, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
The character of the message demands our attention. It is one of pure judgment, unaccompanied by any offer of mercy whatever, even though the people should repent. This may seem strange; but it must be remembered that Jonah’s preaching had reference only to God’s government upon the earth. As a rule indeed the prophets generally were not concerned with eternity; that is, the judgments threatened, and the blessings promised on condition of obedience or repentance, were confined to this world. The subject of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest, was not within the scope of their ministry. Connected as they were with the kingdom, they spoke only of God’s ways, claims, righteousness, and government as displayed in this scene.
Looked at in a typical way, the message of Jonah has another significance. The number forty has a distinct meaning in the Word of God, as may be seen in the forty years’ wandering of Israel in the desert, the temptation of our Lord during forty days in the wilderness, and so on. It indicates the period of full probation. Thus understood in this passage, and bearing in mind that Nineveh sets forth the world—the world, especially in the aspect of its exaltation through its own pride against God, we have simply the annunciation of the fact, that after the world has been fully tested, tested in every variety of way, it will be destroyed. It is the cross of Christ that gives us the culmination of God’s test of the world; and hence our Lord said, “Now is the judgment of this world.” Judgment irreversible was passed upon it in the death of Christ; for thereby God demonstrated openly, before all, the character, the hopelessness of evil, of the world, inasmuch as it accepted the leadership of Satan in crucifying God’s beloved Son. True it was that God withheld the execution of the judgment; for in the death of Christ was laid the foundation on which God could righteously offer salvation to that same world in its guilty and lost condition, and accomplish His own counsels of grace in redemption. But the judgment has not been recalled, could not be consistently with the glory of God. It has only been suspended, because the Lord “is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” “But,” Peter goes on to say, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:9-109The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:9‑10). Yes, it remains true— “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
The effect of the preaching was wonderful. We read, “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.” It began with the king, who “arose from his throne” on hearing the word, “and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” Moreover, in conjunction with his nobles, he issued a decree that neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, should taste anything; they were not to feed nor to drink water. In a word, a universal fast was proclaimed. All were to be covered with sackcloth, to cry mightily unto God, and to turn from the evil of their ways, in the hope that God would turn away from His fierce anger, that they might not perish. Verses 5-9. The reader will remark that they believed God. In chapter 1 The sailors cried to Jehovah, because there it was the glory of Jehovah in His relation to the Jew that had been manifested in His judgments. Here it is the world in relation to God as such, and this will explain the difference; and being in this chapter on the ground of creatorial relationships, the cattle are also mentioned; for the whole creation (and this includes them) shall one day be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8.)
Our Lord refers in a striking way, to the repentance of Nineveh— “The men of Nineveh,” He says, “shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Matthew 12:4141The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:41). It was proof indeed of the hardness of the hearts of those to whom the Lord came preaching repentance because the kingdom of heaven was at hand (Matt. 4:1717From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 4:17)), that they were insensible to His appeals, even though His appeals were enforced by the miracles which He wrought in their midst. The Ninevites were heathen; the Jews were God’s chosen people, and He who came to His own was their own Messiah, Jehovah indeed the Saviour; but they turned a deaf ear to His entreating cries (Matt. 23:3737O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37)). What clearer demonstration could there have been of the utter depravity of their hearts? And are “the men of this generation” any better? Combined with the ministry of reconciliation which is still carried on (2 Cor. 5) in the tender mercy of God, the proclamation is still made— “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown”; and who heeds it? A few here and there, through grace; but the mass, the world, is as insensible today as it was in the days of our Lord. And further, suppose that some divinely sent messenger were to stand today in the midst of London with the message of Jonah, what would be his reception? It is not too much to say that he would be regarded either as a fool or a madman. Oh, that it were better understood that the bestowment of light and privileges do but bring an increase of responsibility and of condemnation, when the light is refused, and the privileges are despised! Beautiful spectacle this of the repentance of Nineveh, and no mean foreshadowing of the time when the Gentiles shall serve the Lord with one consent!
The chapter concludes with the action of God consequent upon Nineveh’s repentance— “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.” We see again what is in the heart of God toward men—that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked; and hence, that if He proclaim judgment it is with the object of turning them from their evil way. The people of Nineveh did not know what He would do. They only said, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent?” And God responded to this feeble faith, as He ever does, and spared them from destruction. It is but a human mode of speech, it need scarcely be added, when it says that He repented. His aim was to produce repentance on the part of Nineveh; and this having been done, He could, consistently with His ways in government, show His compassion and forgiveness. What abundant encouragement for the sinner is found in this record.
“He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” But then, blessed be His name, there is also written, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
E. D.