I. From Joppa the prophet probably went up to Jerusalem, to appear in the Temple, to which he had looked from the deep, to sacrifice to God with the voice of thanksgiving, to pay what he had vowed. Then, probably, he returned to Gath-hepher, his former home. And there, as it would seem, he was living when he received the second commission to go to Nineveh. Notice the points of identity between the first and the second commission. (i) God still needs to speak. (ii) Nineveh is still a great city. Therefore that is the place for Him to speak. There are also points of difference between the first and the second commission. (1) One respects Jonah himself, and glances, not reproachfully, but still in a spirit of fatherly faithfulness at his recent disobedience. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, preach the preaching that I bid thee."Formerly he knew the message that he was to deliver. Now he is simply told that a message will be given him, but he is not to know it until he arrives at the place. He is relegated, as it were, from the position of the "friend who knoweth his Lord's will," to, or towards, that of the "servant who knoweth not." (2) The message is different in its substance also, to meet the change in Nineveh.
II. From Jonah's preaching in Nineveh we see: (i) The exceeding sinfulness of sin. The horror of great darkness which settles down with the night upon Nineveh is all brought by sin. (ii) The inflexible justice of God. (iii) The stupendous power a city has power for good and power for evil.
A. Raleigh, The Story of Jonah,p. 189.
References: John 3:1-4. W. G. Blaikie, Homiletic Magazine,vol. vi., p. 250. John 3:2. J. McC. Hussey, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 177; J. Keble, Sermons from Lent to Passiontide,p. 279. John 3:4. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi,p. 333; J. Vaughan, Sermons,15th series, p. 85.