Jonah Chapter 2:10-3:6…

This will be a summary of the lesson:
Verse 10: We see God speaking to the fish and Jonah ends up on dry land.
Chapter 3:
Verse 1: The Word of the Lord came to Jonah a 2nd time. Praise the Lord we serve a God of second chances.
Verse 2: Did God’s message change?
I propose it was Jonah that changed. We need to see that Jonah’s change was not in his attitude toward the Ninevites though.
***Jonah 1:2 in most translations reads “Cry out against” where in most translations Johan 3:2 reads “Preach to it”
Verses 3 & 4: Notice a couple things here:

• Nineveh was huge. Would take a 3 day journey to cover all of it
• Johan right off the bat starts crying out “Yet, 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

QUESTION: What is missing in Jonah’s message?
Where is a message of mercy or a chance to repent?
Verse 5: Take notice Scripture says Ninevites believed God doesn’t say they believed Jonah.
QUESTION: What is the significance of sackcloth without ashes?

Sackcloth only without ashes is a sign of mourning. It is only when there is combination of sackcloth and ashes is their mourning and repentance.
Ashes were figurative of worthlessness.

Verse 6: King put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. This was a representation of mourning, repentance and figurative of King saying he was worthless. He set aside his royalty and robe.
It is an interesting point to consider that normally a prophet would enter a city and go to the King to deliver message from the Lord for the whole area. However, this King had Word of Lord travel to him. The King could have had Jonah brought to him and then disposed of…nice way of saying killed. But instead the King did something entirely different. We will see the Kings response in verses 7-10.
Have a blessed week.