Journal Through the Bible: Week 55 Friday

source

Jonah 3:1-4:11

Does God issue any commands?

• Again, God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach.

Does God make any promises?

• The message that Jonah was to deliver was a curse. God promised to overthrow Nineveh in 40 days if the people there did not repent. (They did.)

Does this passage teach anything about Jesus?

• The message of repentance delivered by Jonah to the inhabitants of the capital city of Assyria was the same message that Jesus preached to the inhabitants of the capital city of Israel and throughout the whole country. It was also the message of his forerunner, John the Baptist.
• The mercy that God extended to the inhabitants of Nineveh when they repented is mercy that each of us can obtain through the blood of Jesus Christ if we will repent of our sins with the same sincerity and seriousness.
• The kind of anger that Jonah had toward the repentant Ninevites was the same type of anger that Jesus preached about in the parable of the prodigal. The elder brother, or the godly person, was angry and unforgiving when the sinner repented.

Does this passage teach anything about yet-future events?

• The lesson here is that no one in Nineveh truly deserved mercy, but God extended it and gave them safety from destruction. No one truly deserves God's mercy, but He extends it to any who will receive it and offers them safety from eternal destruction. They will inhabit the great city that God has prepared for them.