Jonah 3:1-10

Jonah 3:1-10

 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey.

And Jonah began to enter the city after a days journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the kings and his nobles, saying, herd not clock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and hi did it not.

a. There were 120,000 people in Nineveh.

1). Jonah 4:11 “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and much cattle?”

b. Tradition says that Jonah is buried in ancient Nineveh in modern day northern Iraq near the modern city of Mosul.

1). “The sanctuary of Jama Naballa Jonas is another place that tradition says is Jonah's grave, near the city of Mosul(today in Iraq), near the ancient remnants of Nineveh. On one of the two most prominent mounds of Nineveh ruins, rises the Mosque of the Prophet Yunus (previously a Nestorian-Assyrian Church). Jonah is believed to be buried here, where King Esarhaddon had once built a palace. It is one of the most important mosques in Mosul and one of the few historic mosques that are found on the east side of the city.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah

2). If this tradition is true it means that Jonah stayed and ministered to the people of Nineveh after their conversion, which would be completely appropriate and necessary.

c. During his earthly ministry Jesus taught that the people of Nineveh repented. When we look at the whole counsel of God we can see Jesus was saying these people will not only be in heaven, but they will sit in judgment over the people who lived during Jesus ministry.

1). Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

d. Christians will judge the world.

1). 1 Corinthians 6:1-3 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?

2). We will see the people of Nineveh who repented during Jonah’s ministry in heaven. Glory to God!