Commentary, Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Beth Tanner, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tbi/jonah-3.html. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bul/jonah-3.html. There is a twofold view of God--as He sets Himself forth in His word, and as He is in His hidden counsel. But GOD knows any and everything so nothing takes GOD by surprise, GOD knew what would happen after the people heard Jonah. Jonah’s Anger. 1983-1999. God decreed all from eternity. The Ninevites did return, etc., and therefore escaped the threatened judgment. Go to. What kind of story is it? To us there is no certainty of life for a day, whereas the Ninevites had a 40 days' respite ensured to them. BibliographyTrapp, John. Some times the condition is expressed in the terms of the threatening, and sometimes it is understood. They seem to have turned every one from his evil way. "Commentary on Jonah 3:10". See Jeremiah 18:7-10. God chose not to bring judgment to the city of Nineveh. This gives to the denunciations of God a conditional character. But truth of knowledge is the same in the Teacher and the taught, because the knowledge of the learner is a likeness of the knowledge of the Teacher. Yet to that end Scripture condescendeth healthfully to those words from which thou shrinkest, that thou shouldest not think that what thou deemest great is said worthily of Him. 1685. 1832. In other words He showed mercy towards them because of their repentance. That they turned from their evil way] To which they were by nature and ill custom so wedded and wedged, that they could never have been loosened but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of Heaven. Cf. When God repents of the evil (Jonah 3:10) that He said He would do unto men, the change is not really in Him, but in them. The reason why the announcement of destruction was made absolute, and not dependent on Nineveh‘s continued impenitence, was that this form was the only one calculated to rouse them; and at the same time it was a truthful representation of God‘s purpose towards Nineveh under its existing state, and of Nineveh‘s due. "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge". But as the people soon relapsed, Sardanapalus burnt himself to death, and the city was taken, (St. Jerome) thirty-seven years after Jeroboam. The answer is, that He knew that the city would repent under the shadow of the Divine commination. Biblical Commentary Jonah 3:1-5, 10 EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: This is one of those scripture passages where the preacher must know the underlying story to make sense of the lectionary readings. It was exceedingly prompt. You can find the best commentary on Jonah for you using the tools on the right side. When he does not do what he said he would, we as finite men can say only that he has changed his mind or repented, even though we should recognize, as Jonah did ( Jonah 4:2), that he had intended or desired this all along." Ac 15:18, “Known to God from eternity are all His works.”. God is always willing to forgive, but we should not presume on His forgiveness. The possibility of mercy was clearly understood by Jonah, for he was displeased with it. All Rightes Reserved, Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855. The dealings of God with men have ever been characterised by judgment and mercy. To them one day sufficed; to us shall so many months and years not suffice? He approaches Jonah with mild and dispassionate language--“Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” How great the patience that bore with Jonah’s petulance! John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible, And God saw their words, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible, "We may know the character of God only from what he does and the words he uses to explain his actions. Bibliotheca Sacra152:608 (October-December1995):387-99. This, of course, was not what Jonah had in mind. Why listed? BibliographyPett, Peter. (Read Jonah 1:1-3.) Background1 Determining date and authorship of Jonah remains problematic, as explicit references do not exist within the narrative. For the meaning of the prophecy is, that the disposition of the inferior causes, whether in nature or in human acts, is such, that such an effect would follow” (as in regard to Hezekiah and Nineveh), “which order of the cause to the effect is sometimes hindered by other things supervening. Yahweh, the covenant keeping God) occurs frequently earlier and later in the story. Chapter 2. Copyright StatementThese files are public domain. God morally regards us at any one moment just as we are. It was not that the city was destroyed, in Jonah’s sense. What is said through all the scriptures concerning the Lord's repenting of what he had before said he would, and doing it not, is meant to show the change by his grace wrought in man, and not the least, change in himself. God never changes His mind about truth and character. (1) An interval seems to have elapsed before Jonah was sent a second time to Nineveh. ‘And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil which he said he would do to them; and he did not do it.’. ", Some have complained that there is no archeological or documentary testimony regarding this wholesale repentance in Nineveh, but no thoughtful person could really be surprised by that. (Jonah 3:9.) In fact, Griffiths said that, this passage from Jeremiah "is a general rule, demonstrated in the particular case of Jonah. 1874-1909. "That God should choose to make his own actions contingent-at least in part-upon human actions is no limitation of his sovereignty. God saw; not only with naked and single intuition, hut he saw and approved, was singularly well pleased with that he saw. Continued from Ch. And God saw their words, that they turned from their evil way,.... Not their outward works, in putting on sackcloth and ashes, and fasting; but their inward works, their faith in him, and repentance towards him; and which were attended with fruits and works meet for repentance, in that they forsook their former course of life, and refrained from it; and these he saw not barely with his eye of omniscience, as he sees all persons and things, good and bad, but so as to like them, approve of them, and accept them, in which sense the word is used, Genesis 1:4; and so the repentance of these men is spoken of with commendation by Christ, and as what would rise up in judgment, and condemn the men of that generation, Matthew 12:41; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not; this is spoken after the manner of men, as Aben Ezra observes; and is to be understood, not of any such affection in God as repentance; but of an effect done by him, which carries in it a show of repentance, or resembles what is done by men when they repent; then they change their course and conduct; so, the Lord, though he never changes his will, nor repents of or revokes his decrees, or alters his purposes; yet he sometimes wills a change, and makes an alteration in the dispensations of his providence, according to his unchangeable will. (12) It is not said that God looked to their outward fasting, however proper, as an indication of mourning: this may be; but "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way." Chapter 3. The Bible ever assigns the first place to the eternal principles of righteousness, rooted in the character of God, subordinating to them all divine arrangements. "The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible". See the change in Jonah! There is a doctrinal difficulty here. Matthew 3:7-10). The gracious purpose of God in allowing this interval was probably to give time for the news of the miracle concerning Jonah to reach Nineveh, whose fate was so intimately connected with that of the prophet. God‘s sparing Nineveh, when in the jaws of destruction, on the first dawn of repentance encourages the timid penitent, and shows beforehand that Israel‘s doom, soon after accomplished, is to be ascribed, not to unwillingness to forgive on God‘s part, but to their own obstinate impenitence. April 29, 2020 May 8, 2020. He changed His mind based on the actions of the city. 2012. Confessions and humiliations are our messengers; but if the heart be not broken, if the life be not amended, what peace? With the Ninevites God was justly angry. BibliographyConstable, Thomas. Watch our overview video on the book of Jonah, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. Many wish so to repent as not to part with their favourite pleasures, luxuries, and worldly vanities. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pet/jonah-3.html. References: 3:10-4:1.—J. In this discussion of Jonah 3:10 … God adds, “the message that I tell you”, and 2. Repentance is essentially a change in one"s thinking. Having first decided to place the option of obedience and disobedience before nations, his holding them responsible for their actions automatically involves a sort of contingency. Copyright StatementThese files are considered public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that is available in the Online Bible Software Library. The purpose was: If the Ninevites do not return from their evil ways, and the violence that is in their hands, within forty days, I will destroy the city. However the name "LORD" (Heb. by Grant Richison | Dec 5, 2001 | Jonah | 3 comments, “Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”. Repentance in man always produces a corresponding change in God’s administrations towards him. Chapter 1. "God" (Heb. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. However, immutability does not mean immobility. To them the overthrow of the city was preached, and 40 days were granted for repentance: to us eternal torments are threatened, and we have not half an hour‘s life certain.”, And He did it not - God willed rather that His prophecy should seem to fail, than that repentance should fail of its fruit. In God all things are disposed and fixed, nor doth He anything out of any sudden counsel, which He knew not in all eternity that He should do; but, amid the movements of His creature in time, which He governeth marvelously, He, not moved in time, as by a sudden will, is said to do what He disposed by well-ordered causes in the immutability of His most secret counsel whereby things which come to knowledge, each in its time, He both doth when they are present, and already did when they were future.” “God is subject to no dolor of repentance, nor is He deceived in anything, so as to wish to correct wherein He erred. He therefore changed his purpose, and the city was saved. Elohim, the strong one) appears exclusively. Jonah 3:10. Biblical Commentary Jonah 3:10 - 4:11 EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: This is one of those scripture passages where the preacher must know the underlying story to make sense of the lectionary reading. To the penitent God shows mercy; to the obedient, favour; to the rebellious and impenitent, judgment. [Note: Ellison, " Jonah ," pp383-84. How alarmed sinners would be if they were sure that they had not forty days to live! When then outwardly His sentence seemeth to be changed, inwardly His counsel is unchanged, because He inwardly ordereth each thing unchangeably, whatsoever is done outwardly with change.” “It is said that He repented, because He changed that which He seemed about to do, to destroy them. The Bible ever assigns the first place to the eternal principles of righteousness, rooted in the character of God, subordinating to them all divine arrangements. 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