CRITICAL NOTES.]
Jonah 3:3. Went] I am made wiser by correction. Great city] Lit. great to God. Some great through God, i.e. through his favour; others great before God. “It was most natural to refer the size of a city, of which the Hebrews could form no adequate conception, to the Divine estimation. I have accordingly rendered the words literally, as our preposition to is often used to note opinion, or estimate” [Henderson]. The Hebrews expressed superlative ideas by using the name of God, e.g. “mountains of God,” “cedars of God,” &c. Three days] in circumference, or the length of Jonah’s journey through it. Expositors differ.
Jonah 3:4. A day’s journey] commenced, when he found opportunity to preach. No time to loiter, nor gratify curiosity. Cried] as a herald. Forty days] The measure of delays in God’s visitations. A number of frequent use in Scripture. Overth.] Lit. overturned (evertere), turning upside down, total destruction, as Sodom (Genesis 19:25; Isaiah 1:7).
HOMILETICS
JONAH’S OBEDIENCE.—Jonah 3:3-4
God’s chastisement brings forth fruit, and secures dutiful obedience. Weak parents correct their children, and leave them to please themselves afterwards. The results of discipline are lost. Chastisement is an evil unless it produces obedience. “Happy is the man whom God correcteth.”
I. Jonah’s obedience was prompt. The command was “arise,” and “Jonah arose.” He consulted not his own interests as before. Impressed with the mercies of God, and the obligation of his vows, he promptly obeys. He goes in no restless, turbulent spirit. He is hearty and enthusiastic. We are commonly reluctant, especially when danger threatens. We are too formal and time-serving. True, ready obedience to God is liberty and blessedness. “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.”
II. Jonah’s obedience was complete. He neither delayed nor stopped short of his destination. “He went to Nineveh.” When he got there he lingered not at the gates, nor gratified curiosity by surveying the lofty towers, the gorgeous temples, and the princely palaces. Neither did he modify his message, nor falter in its delivery. Before the mansion of the rich, and the doors of the poor, in the marts, and in the streets, he gave the alarm (Proverbs 1:20). Like Caleb, we must follow the Lord fully (Numbers 14:24), or wholly. This requires (a) decision of character, (b) unreserved obedience, (c) undaunted fortitude, (d) unwearied perseverance. “My foot hath held his steps, his ways have I kept and not declined.”
III. Jonah’s obedience was divinely directed. “According to the word of the Lord.” Fear, self-will, and prejudice had influenced him before; now God’s law is supreme in his heart and life. Religion is the same now; for no man can guide himself, nor be a law to another. We require a rule, (a) Divine in its sanctions, (b) practicable in its requirements, (c) plain in its directions, and (d) beneficial in its results. God’s “commands are not grievous.” but easy and delightful; “in keeping them there is a great reward.”
“His adorable will let us gladly fulfil,
And our talents improve,
By the patience of hope, and the labour of love.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jonah 3:3. According, &c. Did you ever pass through a painful crisis, a sore probation of patience, faith, or constancy, keeping in view all the while that your purpose and procedure, your temper and policy, should be “according to the word of the Lord”? And did you fail? No; and you never will fail while the desire of your heart, and the doing of your hand, are ruled and ordered thus. This is the essence of Christianity—the essence of faith [Martin].
Great city. Great cities have manifested the pride of man, in their erection, enlargement, strength, and splendour; the corruption of human nature, in the enormous mass of sin which they foster, having often proved moral pests; vortexes swallowing up the wealth of a nation, and vomiting out the crimes of mankind; and the power, justice, and holiness of God, in their total annihilation (Nahum 3:8; Isaiah 13:19; Ezekiel 27:32-36) [Sibthorp]. Nineveh, the city of God. God cares also for the heathen (2 Kings 5:1; Jeremiah 25:9) [Luther].
Jonah 3:4. Speak promptly, and delay not. In God’s kingdom every moment is precious. The time when he puts his word in thy mouth is the right time; not that which thou fanciest for thyself [Lange].
1. God is able to reach and overthrow the greatest persons or places when he has a controversy against them.
2. The Lord often sees it fit, in great wisdom, to conceal any thoughts of love to a people, and holds out only threatenings and severity to induce them more seriously to repent [Hutcheson].
If God had meant unconditionally to overthrow them, he would have overthrown them without notice. Yet, always denotes some longsuffering of God” [Pusey].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Jonah 3:1-3. This is substantially the same commission, and yet different. The “second” call to a man is never exactly the same as the first. The third is never a repetition of the second. Another tone is in the voice of the speaker, firmer or milder. Other shades of meaning are in the message. If it is “the second time,” still more if it is the seventh time, or the seventy-and-seventh time, there will be changes in the message corresponding with changes which time has brought in circumstances and in character. It may seem a refinement, but, properly understood, it is but a simple truth, that he never receives exactly the same command or invitation from God more than once. “If slighted once, the season fair can never be renewed” [Raleigh].
A great city. Nineveh covered a great extent of ground. Historians say that its walls were 480 stadia, or 60 miles, in circumference. It was great in population. Jonah mentions 120,000 who could not discern between their right hand and their left. It was great in splendour and power. “The researches in the mounds have astonished Europe with the barbaric grandeur of the statuary, and the full details of life and history sculptured on marble, or stamped in arrow-headed characters upon the bricks.” But it was morally great to God on account of the human souls, and their spiritual condition. In God’s sight, grandeur, territory, and architectural beauty, are nothing to immortal souls, and the influence which they exert. The material worlds, the sun with its satellites, are not so great as a man. Try to realize how great you are in the sight of God.
Jonah 3:4. Yet forty days. Delay in the execution of sentence is sometimes an encouragement to sin (Ecclesiastes 8:11); but gives space for repentance, and displays the long-suffering of God (see Exodus 34:5-6; Psalms 103:8; Joel 2:13-14; 1 Peter 3:20).