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Scott's Reference Library
Jonah 3:1 through Jonah 3:5 (NIV)
1Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2“Go to the great
city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very
important city—a visit required three days. 4On the first day, Jonah started
into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”
5The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the
greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
Jonah 3:10 (NIV)
10When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he
had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-4
God employs Jonah again in his service. His making use of us is an evidence of
his being at peace with us. Jonah was not disobedient, as he had been. He
neither endeavoured to avoid hearing the command, nor declined to obey it. See
here the nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a
return to our work and duty. Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those
back to their place who had deserted it. See the power of Divine grace, for
affliction of itself would rather drive men from God, than draw them to him.
God’s servants must go where he sends them, come when he calls them, and do what
he bids them; we must do whatever the word of the Lord commands. Jonah
faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. Whether Jonah said more, to show the
anger of God against them, or whether he only repeated these words again and
again, is not certain, but this was the purport of his message. Forty days is a
long time for a righteous God to delay judgments, yet it is but a little time
for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in. And should it not awaken us
to get ready for death, to consider that we cannot be so sure that we shall live
forty days, as Nineveh then was that it should stand forty days? We should be
alarmed if we were sure not to live a month, yet we are careless though we are
not sure to live a day.
VERSES 5-10
There was a wonder of Divine grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh.
It condemns the men of the gospel generation, Matthew 12:41. A very small degree
of light may convince men that humbling themselves before God, confessing their
sins with prayer, and turning from sin, are means of escaping wrath and
obtaining mercy. The people followed the example of the king. It became a
national act, and it was necessary it should be so, when it was to prevent a
national ruin. Let even the brute creatures’ cries and moans for want of food
remind their owners to cry to God. In prayer we must cry mightily, with
fixedness of thought, firmness of faith, and devout affections. It concerns us
in prayer to stir up all that is within us. It is not enough to fast for sin,
but we must fast from sin; and, in order to the success of our prayers, we must
no more regard iniquity in our hearts, Psalms 66:18. The work of a fast-day is
not done with the day. The Ninevites hoped that God would turn from his fierce
anger; and that thus their ruin would be prevented. They could not be so
confident of finding mercy upon their repentance, as we may be, who have the
death and merits of Christ, to which we may trust for pardon upon repentance.
They dared not presume, but they did not despair. Hope of mercy is the great
encouragement to repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves down
at the footstool of free grace, and God will look upon us with compassion. God
sees who turn from their evil ways, and who do not. Thus he spared Nineveh. We
read of no sacrifices offered to God to make atonement for sin; but a broken and
a contrite heart, such as the Ninevites then had, he will not despise.
VERSES 5-10
There was a wonder of Divine grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh.
It condemns the men of the gospel generation, Matthew 12:41. A very small degree
of light may convince men that humbling themselves before God, confessing their
sins with prayer, and turning from sin, are means of escaping wrath and
obtaining mercy. The people followed the example of the king. It became a
national act, and it was necessary it should be so, when it was to prevent a
national ruin. Let even the brute creatures’ cries and moans for want of food
remind their owners to cry to God. In prayer we must cry mightily, with
fixedness of thought, firmness of faith, and devout affections. It concerns us
in prayer to stir up all that is within us. It is not enough to fast for sin,
but we must fast from sin; and, in order to the success of our prayers, we must
no more regard iniquity in our hearts, Psalms 66:18. The work of a fast-day is
not done with the day. The Ninevites hoped that God would turn from his fierce
anger; and that thus their ruin would be prevented. They could not be so
confident of finding mercy upon their repentance, as we may be, who have the
death and merits of Christ, to which we may trust for pardon upon repentance.
They dared not presume, but they did not despair. Hope of mercy is the great
encouragement to repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves down
at the footstool of free grace, and God will look upon us with compassion. God
sees who turn from their evil ways, and who do not. Thus he spared Nineveh. We
read of no sacrifices offered to God to make atonement for sin; but a broken and
a contrite heart, such as the Ninevites then had, he will not despise.