Jonah 1:1,2 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

By the word of the Lord coming unto Jonah, is meant the impression made on his mind, either by vision or revelation; and Jonah perfectly understood that the direction to go to Nineveh was of the Lord. The reason for Jonah's commission is assigned; the wickedness of the place was come up before the Lord. Reader! think what a mass of sin and iniquity rising like a cloud, must daily, hourly come up before the Lord, from every great city, and from every place! Think how precious, on this account, must be the person of the Lord Jesus, whose holiness in our nature becomes the preservative of all nature from going to instant destruction. Here it is in this sense I venture to believe the Apostle was directed to teach that Christ is the Saviour of all men; that is, in providence. For he upholds all things by the word of his power, and by him all things consist. See 1 Timothy 4:10 with Colossians 1:17. Nineveh itself must have been a great city indeed, the chief city of the Assyrian empire, taking three days journey to go through it, and containing six-score thousand persons. Jonah 3:3 and Jonah 4:11. And yet all ignorant of the Lord! Reader! What an awful thought it is now, in the present hour, of the millions that are in darkness respecting salvation! Will you not learn here from to admire and adore the Lord's distinguishing mercy to this our land? And will you not still stand more amazed in the recollection, that amidst such fulness of gospel light as is vouchsafed our land, so much depravity should abound? Is there a nation under heaven deeper sunk in transgressions? And yet it remains! To what and to whom shall this be ascribed, but to Him whom John saw as a Lamb which had been slain. Revelation 5:6.