Jonah 3:5

John 3:5

I. Our Lord tells us that "Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites." He was a sign (1) of the impartiality and inflexibility of the Divine justice. Prophet though he was, raised to a higher place of life than common men, admitted to a knowledge of some of the secrets of the Divine government of the world; in favour, as might be supposed, in the celestial court, he no sooner swerves and turns from the way of obedience, than God turns upon him the arrestive and vindicative powers of His government. He is pursued, convicted, cast into the deep. It will appear manifest to them that all nature serves God for His just occasions; that the nets of capture are already woven spread wherever there can be the footsteps of flight; that storms are brooding in the air and vengeance sleeping in the sea, for those who choose to awake them. (1) He was also a sign of Divine mercy. For he is alive! He has been delivered. From sea and grave, and death and hell, he has come forth. He is not merely in life, he is in favour, once more, with God. Let us take this man as a sign of mercy, repent and pray, and press towards the gate see if it will not open a little wider. So the prophet was "a sign" unto them.

II. Notice the effects which are produced upon the city by Jonah's progress through it. They are such as no man ever produced in a single day, either before or since. They are such as could flow onlyfrom the presence and action of the mighty power, and the still mightier grace of God. A sense of God soon filled the city. It was shed from group to group, from street to street. It was awful, painful, at the first, like a "resurrection of condemnation," to their spirits. It turned them away from their own gods as effectually as the sailors in the ship were turned from theirs. "They believed God." Possessed of that faith, all that follows is natural and inevitable.

III. The proclamation which was the faithful exposition of the true sentiments, both of king and people, bears certain marks which we may briefly note. (i) We cannot fail to be struck with the comprehensiveness of it. The prohibition is over every human being, and over all the animals possessed by and related to man. (ii) Fasting was the first part of the decree. Fasting has been a religious exercise in the East as far back as history takes us. The efficacy of it will be more or less, according to climate, individual temperament, and other circumstances. (iii) The covering with sackcloth was the next part of the decree. In its nature and purpose it is closely allied to fasting with this difference, that it is visible. (iv) Each person is to utter a mighty cry. The Eastern nations have always been addicted to vocal demonstration for the expression of the stronger emotions. The "might," no doubt, is to be in the desiremore than in the mere voice that utters it. (v) But by far the most striking and satisfactory characteristic of this proclamation is the last that which requires from every man a personal and practical reformation: "Let them turn every one from his evil way."

A. Raleigh, The Story of Jonah,p. 216.

References: John 3:5. J. Menzies, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 100. John 3:5. W. G. Blaikie, Homiletic Magazine,vol. vi., p. 295.John 3:8. J. N. Norton, Golden Truths,p. 15 2 John 1:3 :9. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 275.