The Second Sunday after Epiphany (OT)

Jonah 3:1-10

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” ³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. ⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 

⁶ The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷ And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, ⁸ but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 

¹⁰ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. 

Jonah after being vomited out of the Fish, listens to the LORD.  He heads to the city of Nineveh.  The city of Nineveh is so large that Jonah travels a full days journey in order to get into the heart of the city.  There he proclaims his simple confession, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"  These simple words lead the entire city to repent.

Jonah is preaching on the street corner and his message reaches the ears of the King and he issues a decree of repentance.  Isaiah and Jeremiah speak to the Kings face and he doesn't listen to them.  But here is the reason people are going to listen to Jonah.

Jonah was just vomited out of a Fish.  He spent three days in digestive fluid.  In chapter two he describes seaweed wrapped around his head.  This is a man who looks worse than the normal poor man coming into town.  He comes to warn you that what has happened to him could happen to you also.

There is another simple explanation, God established faith in their hearts.  God used this simple phrase to create faith in foreigners.  He used the threat of destruction to open people up to a Gospel message. "Yet forth days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"  It did not take quite forty days for God to turn the hearts of the people, it just took one fishy man.