Here we have the Lord instructing Jonah to go to Nineveh for a second time. God wants Jonah to warn the city that if they do not change from their evil ways, He will destroy the city of Nineveh.  Jonah was afraid to go to Nineveh before and tried to run from God. Jonah boarded a ship for Tarshish and ending up spending three days in the belly of a great fish.

This time, when asked a second time, Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh. Nineveh was a great city. It was a large city. So large it took three days to walk through the city. Jonah entered the city and went a day’s journey through the city. Then Jonah declared to the city, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”. Jonah is predicting the destruction of Nineveh.  Surprisely the people of Nineveh believed Jonah. A fast was proclaimed. The Ninevites from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth. Putting on sackcloth was a sign of mourning, grief, and regret. It was not long before this message of doom reached the King of Nineveh.  The king rose up took off his royal robe covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. The king along with his nobles issued a decree ordering all people and animals to fast, not eating or drinking. He also ordered every man and beast to be covered in sackcloth.

The inhabitants of Nineveh were to urgently call on God and to turn everyone from his evil ways and violence. They were doing all this in the hopes that God might turn away from His anger and not bring destruction to Nineveh. God did see what they had done and how they repented and turned from their evil ways.

He treated them with mercy and did not bring on the destruction He had threatened. I find this story interesting in several ways. Once they received the warning from Jonah they immediately turned from their evil ways. Nineveh was a gentile nation. God was not their God. They worshipped Ishtar the fertility goddess.  Yet when Jonah gave them God’s warning everyone from the king on down immediately changed their ways. God did not get this obedience from many of His own people. This is believed to be the only time that God sent one of his prophets to a non-Jewish nation. God is merciful to us if only we will repent and turn from our evil ways.