Jonah and the Ninevites (Post-Whale)

Jonah finally met the Ninevites after a long and lengthy journey.

He’d set off from Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, headed to Tarshish.

Along the way, 2500 miles from Nineveh, he spent time thinking inside the belly of a whale.

He didn’t like it. (Who would?)

That’s the part of the story most people know.

Somehow, we forget what happened after the whale spat Jonah onto a Mediterranean beach.

Jonah inside the whale

God loved the Ninevites so much, He used extreme measures to catch their attention.

He loved Jonah just as much.

We can debate whether or not this really happened. Just because a man surviving inside a whale for three days seems fantastic to our modern sensibilities doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

You choose.

What’s of more interest, and what was more important to God, is what happened to Jonah’s soul during the three days.

The prophet had a lot to think about. Sometimes God moves us into extreme situations to capture our attention.

Focused on survival, Jonah knew only one place to turn.

He also knew he had offended his Creator.

Pastor David Guzik, in his commentary on Jonah 2, noted the prophet knew the Bible.

Jonah pulled up three pertinent verses:

• In my distress, I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple. (Psalm 18:6)
• Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. (Psalm 42:7)
• For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You. (Psalm 31:22)

God heard his prayer and the whale/fish vomited him out!

“Now,” God said, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”

Did Jonah ever get to Nineveh?

Yes. And it appears he had to walk.

His mood doesn’t seem to have improved, but he followed directions.

The city was so huge, that Jonah needed three days to walk across it.

As he went he called out, “Yet, forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

(Guzik noted the word “overthrown” is the same one used to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.)

If they didn’t repent, God would destroy the city.

So they called a fast and repented.

Even the king of Nineveh “rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.”

An incredulous Jonah watched as “God relented from the disaster that He said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10).

(Eventually, God did judge Nineveh, but not for 150 years).

Jonah didn’t take it well.

And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. ³ Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah 4:2-4 (ESV)

What do you make of that?

God proved the point of the prophecy.

Was the prophet happy the hard word came to pass?

A true prophet has compassion for the people to whom he prophecies.

Jonah needed God to teach him one more lesson.

Jonah ultimately finds compassion for the Ninevites

The book ends with Jonah wallowing under a plant that God used to humble him.

First, the plant grew up in one day to shield Jonah from the baking sun.

The next day, God caused it to shrivel up and die.

When Jonah complained, God pointed out his hypocrisy:

“You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.  And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Jonah 4:10-11 (ESV)

God was compassionate. Jonah needed an object lesson in why he, too, should love the people of Nineveh.

After all, he’d just led one of the world’s greatest evangelism events–despite his foot-dragging.

But is that the end of the story?

While the book of Jonah ends with God chastening the prophet for not having pity on Nineveh, “that great city,” there are indications Jonah’s story did not end there.

After such an emotion-filled series of events, Jonah may have remained ministering in Nineveh for the rest of his life.

At least, more recent events suggest Ninevites appreciated him.

The city called Nineveh 2700 years ago is now known as Mosul in Iraq.

In 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters blew up Nabi Yunis mosque, also known as “the revered tomb of the Prophet Jonah.”

2024 Update: Chad Bird’s comments on the story are fascinating. Read them here.

Tweetables

What finally happened to Jonah after the whale incident? Click to Tweet

Did Jonah learn to love the Ninevites? An explosion suggests yes. Click to Tweet