Text: Jonah Chapter 3:1-10
QUESTION: At the point of 2:10 and 3:1, can you imagine
what Jonah must have looked like? smelled like?
3:1 Just when the second commission was given to Jonah we
don't know, or how long after Jonah's deliverance. It
seems soon.
3:2 "preach the preaching that I bid thee" -- Shouldn't this be
every preacher's concern?
3:3 "Three days journey" Circumference or diameter?
3:4 "Into the city a day's journey" Do you think there was any
language problem for Jonah to be understood?
[Some liberals attack the story here. But this is only five words
in the Hebrew, if Jonah didn't know the Assyrian language he
could easily have memorized them, but being from the king's
court he was among the well educated prophets.]
Why type of prophecy was it?
(See I Kings 11:37, 38 to Jeroboam)
3:5,6 Jonah himself became a sign. Matthew 12:38ff. Luke 11:29ff.
If this is not credible, if this is not history, we have a malicious
sacrifice of the character of Jonah.
If the story of Jonah is not historical then Jesus' reference to
the book impinges either his intelligence or honesty.
The sign of Jonah-- the miracle credentialed him as from God
to the Ninevites. We see from Jesus' words that they must
have known about the miracle. It credentialed the speaker as
from God. They were therefore the more ready to believe him.
Questions On Chapter Three
1. What were the instructions the Lord next gave Jonah?
2. Did Jonah obey this time? Why?
3. How large was Nineveh?
(Read a description of Nineveh from a Bible Dictionary
or Halley's Bible Handbook, p. 369.)
4. What message did Jonah preach?
How many words in it?
5. Did the Ninevites believe God's message?
6. What steps did they make to seek God's mercy?
7. What did God do when He "saw their works"?
8. In what sense did God repent?
9. How would the people of Nineveh condemn many of those who
lived when Christ was on earth? Matthew 12:41.
10. Jonah 3:10 says the Ninevites "turned from their evil way."
How does Matthew 12:38-41 describe this action?
--Windell Gann