Did Jonah tell the people of Nineveh about his own experience? It seems likely he did, for two reasons:

1. The words of the king
“Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jon. 3:9). Where did the king get that idea? How would he have had any hope in the mercy and compassion of God? If the king knew Jonah’s story, he could say, “If God saved Jonah, perhaps He will have compassion on us.”

2. The words of Jesus
“As Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation” (Lk. 11:30). How was Jonah a sign to the Ninevites? Jesus says, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mat. 12:40). If being in the fish was a sign to the Ninevites, Jonah must have told them about it with a passion born from his own experience:

“Let me tell you what happened to me! When God called me to come here, I did not want to come. So, I got on a boat headed for Tarshish, but God sent a storm. I felt sure I was finished. But the God whose judgement I deserved saved me. He sent me to tell you that your wickedness has come before Him, just as mine did. Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

God never wastes a thing. He can use your failures, your trauma, your shame, the desperate moments of your life to advance the gospel.

Is there a failure in your own life that God could use to reach others?

Nineveh was a large city. People in the great cities of the world live relentless lives. We are consumed with what is happening now: running businesses, raising families, enjoying sports.

Jonah arrives and says, “Let me tell you what’s coming. Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

Authentic gospel preaching always engages people with eternal issues. That is where Jesus began: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). Paul begins Romans with the awful reality of God’s judgement: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. 1:18).

Jonah begins there too: “Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Whatever you are doing now, there is God, and there is eternity, and it is nearer than you think.

This probably wasn’t the only thing that Jonah said. But it was the core of his message, and everyone knew it. God burned that one sentence into the hearts of the people of Nineveh.

Cities change when people hear the Word of God.

Even if people are not converted, hearing the Word brings an awareness of God into the culture, and “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). More than that, where God’s Word is heard, lives will be changed. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

So many people in our cities are comfortably absorbed in their daily lives and do not think about eternity. It would be a good thing if more of them heard God’s Word.

How might you share God’s Word in your city?

It was not a foregone conclusion that Jonah would go to Nineveh when God called him a second time. Nothing had changed in Nineveh, so Jonah still had at least four objections to overcome:

1. Fear
The Assyrians were still known for terror and torture. Jonah still had to face his old fears.

2. Shame
Jonah had failed the Lord greatly. His sin had been exposed, and he must have wondered, “How can God use me?” Jonah had to get over his shame to obey God’s call.

3. Self-Interest
The Assyrian army was the greatest threat to God’s people, and Nineveh was one of the great Assyrian cities. Jonah feared that God would have compassion on Nineveh (4:2).

4. Unbelief
Can God really change a wicked city through one man speaking God’s Word? Nineveh had not changed, but by grace Jonah had, and when God’s Word came the second time, Jonah rose obediently and went to Nineveh (3:3).

What happened in Nineveh was an extraordinary work of God. The Ninevites believed God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth (3:5). Even the king sat in sackcloth in the dust (3:6) — an expression of humility and penitence before God.

The king issued a proclamation that everyone “call out mightily to God… [and] turn from his evil way... God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (3:8-9). By any standard, this is an amazing transformation.

Which of these four barriers to obedience are you struggling with now?