God gives a second chance (Jonah 3)
Jonah 3:1-10
When I was a teenager, our godparents, who left Hungary to live in the US shortly after I was born, invited my brother and me to spend a summer month with them in Miami. I can imagine that having two teenagers descend on them must have been a strain when they had no children of their own and no experience of parenting. They understood the importance of consistency and setting boundaries, but some of their rules seemed arbitrary and it was noticeable how rigidly they adhered to these perhaps fearing that their authority would be diminished if they did not. In an ongoing parent-child relationship, there is usually more flexibility, and consistency in a loving relationship is not a machine-like precision of going by the rules. God in Jonah’s story is one who is not afraid of losing His authority or standing if He shows compassion or changes His mind about just punishment.
Jonah the second time around
Jonah, then, is given another chance and the wording is almost identical to the beginning, except that this is the second time (Jonah 3:1-2; 1:1-2). Although he is to proclaim to the Ninevites what God tells him rather than cry out against them, this may be only a stylistic variation and perhaps a heads-up to the reader that judgment may not follow. This time, Jonah goes without question and his obedience is particularly emphasised by the repetition of the command (arise, go… he arose, went – Jonah 3:3) as well as the affirmation that he did so ‘according to the word of the LORD’. Some interpreters are suspicious of Jonah (given his later attitude) and suggest that his short, one-sentence message (Jonah 3:4) is a sign of grudging obedience: he only wants to say the minimum to avoid Nineveh’s repentance. However, this sounds unduly harsh, especially after his endorsement by the narrator in v.3. It is more likely that this is a summary of what he was to say.
Nineveh’s repentance
What is amazing in the account is the swiftness of Nineveh’s repentance. Hardly has Jonah gone one day’s walk into the city (Jonah 3:3),[1] the Ninevites believed in God (Jonah 3:5; an expression stronger than to believe X). While this is no conversion experience or commitment to Israel’s God (note the generic Elohim, God, used here rather than Yahweh),[2] it expresses trust in God even if the Assyrians did not fully understand His identity. Their repentance is also exemplary. Not only do they show ritual expressions of it (sackcloth, ashes and fasting), and do so en masse including the king, but they also understand the importance of turning away from wicked ways (in this case, violence; Jonah 3:5-8).[3] Moreover, they recognise that they cannot force God’s hand with repentance and presume on His mercy; they can only hope (Jonah 3:9). No wonder that God answers with compassion and grace (Jonah 3:10)![4]
Jonah and Nineveh compared
Reading the chapter, one cannot help but compare Jonah’s disobedience and restoration with the Ninevites’. Jonah was rebellious while fully knowing God’s will, while the Ninevites are later described as ignorant and deficient in moral judgment (the sense of not knowing the difference between the right and left hand; Jonah 4:11). Jonah’s turning to God as reflected in his prayer (Jonah 2) contains no specific reference to his sin, while the Ninevites’ repentance demonstrated all the elements required of God’s people. I am reminded of Jesus’ pointed comparisons made between His own people and the Gentiles and Samaritans (Luke 7:9; 10:30-37; 17:15-19), as well as between the religious elite and the ‘sinners and tax collectors’ (Matt 21:31). God was patient with Israel throughout her history despite her blatant sin, but Jonah’s story was perhaps meant to goad her out of complacency. As Christians today, God challenges us, too, to ask whether we have not become smug in the knowledge that we are saved by grace and forgotten the importance of living wholeheartedly for the Lord.
[1] For the issue of Nineveh’s size, see my post Jonah and Historicity II.
[2] Observant readers will note that the sailors prayed to Yahweh (‘LORD’ in English translations), though their attitude was not a conversion proper either. They knew at least God’s name because they asked Jonah specifically where he was from which would give a clue to his god’s identity and Jonah told them (Jonah 1:8-9). Also, in order to offer sacrifices they would have to know which God delivered them.
[3] Involving animals in the ritual of repentance seems strange, even humorous for us, but we have evidence of such practices centuries later in the Persian period, mentioned, for instance, by Herodotus (IX.24) and in Judith 4: 10.
[4] On the question of God ‘relenting’ (niḥam, Jonah 3:10) see my posts Does God Change His Mind? on the story of Saul being rejected as king and Jeremiah 18. Incidentally God’s relenting is a different word from human repentance (shuv). The root meaning of niḥam is compassion, pity, comfort, and when God relents of judgment, it is often connected to His feelings of pity or compassion (as in Jonah). Negatively, it can also have the sense of being grieved or sorry for how things developed (e.g. Gen 6:6; 1 Sam 15:11).
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