From Mercy to Judgment: The Story of Nineveh, An Exposition

Introduction

This book was written to be an aid for those who may be searching for something more within the pages of Scripture. While it’s true that the Bible is complete within itself and needs no additional material, sometimes it is nice to have someone’s thoughts or ideas to compare to your own or to help extrapolate and define the truth as you read. I am not a Doctor of Theology, and while I have preached on several occasions, I am not an ordained pastor. But I believe that each Christian has the ability and should be a well-studied theologian in his/her own right. To be so well versed in the Bible as it was meant to be, as God intended for each saint in Christ.

One of the cool things I have seen over the years is the way that God reveals truth to us. As a kid I knew the story of Jonah, and I had a basic understanding of it. However, it wouldn’t be until I was much older that I realized that there was so much more to this story than just a big fish and following God’s directions. In this exposition, I combined the Minor Prophet Nahum with Jonah, since historically speaking they are part of the same story. Jonah shows us God’s faithfulness to show mercy to the repentant heart, while Nahum shows God’s promise of judgment on those who are prideful and refuse to repent and come to Him for forgiveness. Nineveh would learn both of these lessons over a hundred-year span, and would receive both God’s mercy and then His judgment.

I hope you enjoy this exposition and learn something new from it as I did as I wrote it. If you enjoy this one, then please check out my previous book: A Walk… Through Romans (An Exposition of Romans).

In Christ,

Thomas Rowan

Special thanks to Bethany Shetter.

For your patience and grace with me

and the support of my writing.

You are one of the godliest women I know,

and a blessing, not only to me, but to all.

Jonah

Chapter 1

Running from God

When you think of Jonah, what do you immediately recall? Perhaps the big fish? Maybe the testing of God’s calling? Or even the frustration of Jonah over God’s mercy? These are common and easy things that people often remember well within this story. But what about God’s sovereignty? Or that Nineveh is a prime example of God’s salvation plan with the Jews to the outside world?

Jonah was a minor prophet living within the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II, recorded in 2 Kings.

He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:25).

During this time, the nation of Assyria was encroaching on Israel’s land in the north. However, due to the constant infighting and civil wars within Assyria, they hadn’t tried to push too much into Israel yet.

During these years, Israel became complacent in their faith and worship, thinking they were untouchable. However, during this same time frame, the other minor prophets, Amos and Hosea, would preach their warnings for the coming judgment in Israel at the hands of the Assyrians if they did not repent.

Like most Jews at the time, Jonah hated the Assyrians. But I think if Jonah had just obeyed God from the start, his story would be read simply as another story of God speaking through the prophet. However, because of the disobedience of Jonah and the anger in his heart, a whole new dimension was added to Jonah and his relationship with God that we, I think, can better relate to. Because as we will see, Jonah, the man of God, resisted God significantly more than the pagan people did, and still, our God was faithful all the way through.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Jonah 1:1–3

One of the most interesting things I’ve seen within my Christian life is how regularly God seeks us out without us seeking Him. The first thing we see here is that God spoke first. We can go back to Genesis and see that God chose Noah and his family. A little further on, God chose Abraham. There is never anything special about the people God chooses. It isn’t until after they are chosen and called that these people of faith within the Bible have any faith.

We know that Jonah was already a prophet in Israel, so this calling from God wasn’t anything new for him. But then God tells him to go to Nineveh. Now, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The city was about five hundred miles northeast of Jerusalem in what is now northern Iraq, near Mosul.

An important thing to note here is that the Assyrians were not Jewish. They were part of the rest of the world, later known as Gentiles in the New Testament. For me, this was a fantastic realization that God further proves He planned to involve the whole world in His salvation plan from the beginning. God called Abraham and said that through him a nation would come, and from that nation would be God’s witness to the rest of the world.

Then we read, But Jonah… With all of creation, as soon as God speaks, nature responds accordingly. One clear example of this is in the New Testament with Jesus.

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace! Be still! And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Mark 4:37–39

We humans are the only piece of God’s creation that can hear God speak and choose not to answer. Now, of course, hindsight is always 20/20. Many of us have said over the years when we read the story of Jonah that we would’ve obeyed God. No, you wouldn’t have. I know you wouldn’t because I wouldn’t either.

You must remember that the Assyrians were cruel to Israel. A more common day analogy for this would be World War II. Imagine a Jew reaching New York City in the middle of the war, then God telling him to go to Berlin, Germany, and preach repentance so that God could forgive them. The attitude of everyone during that