Bible Text: Jonah 3:1-10 | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: Jonah, Turning a Prophet

1.  God re-commissions Jonah, giving him a second chance.  In the words of Warren Wiersbe: “How gracious God is to give us another opportunity after we have failed Him (Psalm 103:8-14)!”

2.  It should not surprise us that god uses imperfect people to serve Him, that’s all he has to choose from!

3.  Jonah was to go to Nineveh and God would give him the message, a message of judgment and destruction. 

4.  “He was called upon to address a very large nation…debased by every description of crime, and enfeebled almost to moral decay.  In it virtue was unknown, justice unheard of, passion and fraud had usurped their places, and the people appeared quite contented that they should.  This state of things had lasted so long, that now they occasioned no anxiety; the folk were slumbering in their wickedness.” “A nation must get proper notions of God, deep seated in its heart before its life can be pure.  This is the great need…in our own day.” (Exell)

5.  The Ninevites seem to have genuinely believed in the God of Israel. This conclusion is supported by: Jesus testimony in Matthew 12:41 where He used the Ninevite revival as an example to Israel.  They responded to Jonah’s message and believed while the Israelites were rejecting Jesus and His message. Theirs would be the greater condemnation according to Jesus; and by the Hebrew grammatical construction in verse five.  “Verse 5 employs the most common construction used to express genuine belief or trust in God or His message.” (H. L. Ellison)

6.  The Ninevites later once again fell into sin and the city was destroyed in 612 B.C.  The destruction of Nineveh was delayed by approximately 150 years.