God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it. Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. ² He prayed to the Lord: “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I thought while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. ³ And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

1) What does it mean that “God relented”? Does God change His mind?
To properly understand more difficult passages, we have to hold tightly to the clear, solid truths already made very plain in the rest of Scripture because Scripture does not contradict itself. Like holding a flashlight into a dark room, these plain texts can help us understand the unclear ones. One might wonder based on reading these verses if God changes His mind. Perhaps He is fickle. But consider these passages as a very small sampling, all plainly teaching that God is most definitely not a fickle, changing God: James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6. If God does not “change His mind”, the focus should rightly shift to the other party for doing the changing; namely, the Ninevites. God chose to relent of His intended consequence because they changed. According to verse 10, God saw not only their changed actions, but the wording in the next phrase implies a deeper, heart level of repentance saying, “they had turned from their evil ways.” Rather than this being a question of whether God changed, it should reinforce God being true to His own character of grace and mercy, which He extends based upon a genuine, heart-felt repentance and casting oneself entirely upon the mercy of the Lord. (See 3:9)

2) What does Jonah’s anger display?
Jonah was angry because mercy was shown and generosity was given where he felt it was undeserved. Which leads us to see the pride of Jonah in that He somehow felt he was indeed deserving of grace, while the Ninevites were not. We see Jonah’s anger growing from the beginning of the book until its abrupt end. And in such strong anger, we see hatred for others, inflation of self, and an increasing disrespect for the Lord God. At the beginning of the book, Jonah simply gave God the silent treatment and “ran away”, but by the end of the book, Jonah’s anger has grown unabated for so long that it is hot enough for him to have no problem railing at God for showing him mercy, multiple times, through God’s own powerful creation, and then removing that mercy. Jonah’s view of himself keeps growing, his view of others keeps decreasing, yet, remarkably, God patiently loves both Jonah and the Ninevites!

3) How does the grace shown to Nineveh tie into the New Testament?
Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, who were about as extremely different as you can possibly be from the Yahwistic Hebrews who followed the Lord God and served Him only. God has set the Hebrews apart as His special people because through the line of Abraham the Redeemer would be born and He would save the people from their sin (Isaiah 53:5-6, Matthew 1:21), this is Jesus! Not just the Hebrews would be saved (as they thought), but we know from the New Testament that Jesus came to tear down the dividing wall that separated Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:13-14) because the freedom from sin was being offered to all. In Jonah’s book, we see this beautiful portrait of God’s heart, not just for the Hebrew, but for the Gentile. More so, we see God passionately pursue even the cruel, vile Assyrians who committed heinous acts against all people in their day. In the story of Jonah we see the gospel!

1) What does it mean that “God relented”? Does God change His mind?
Isn’t it encouraging to see the gospel on display even in the Old Testament?! Because of our sin, our natural position before the Holy Righteous God is condemned to Death. Nineveh was facing the same sentence. But God! God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! (Ephesians 2:4-5) This is exactly the story of Nineveh! Death was at the door, Mercy was offered, Repentance was real, and Grace walked in to bring Salvation! Where are you in this lineup? What are your thoughts on the reality of Death (spiritual and literal) as a consequence to your sin? In what ways have you wrestled with the mercy of Jesus offered by His sacrificial atonement at the cross? If you have questions about these, what’s holding you back from asking someone? If you’ve given your heart to Jesus, are you still quick to see this gospel in your everyday life? Eternal salvation happens at a single point in time, but our need for the gospel happens every moment of every day!

2) What does Jonah’s anger display?
Jonah’s portraits of growing anger clearly display the truth James teaches, “But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15) We should take this opportunity to hold the mirror up and look closely, Sisters. Where is our anger rearing its head. Where is its root in our lives? Do we feel we deserve better? Is pride growing in a dark corner that we are happy to ignore? Repent and turn away from anger, instead find satisfaction in knowing that the God who still pursued Jonah, despite his childish-tantrum-throwing-anger, is still pursuing you!

3) How does the grace shown to Nineveh tie into the New Testament?
If God, faithful and un-changing, slow to anger, patient, and forgiving, ready with mercy and grace, could extend Himself to the least likely thousands and thousands of years before Jesus was even born, let alone went to the cross and to bear our sins, how much more so should we love and forgive others? Especially those we feel are unworthy of our forgiveness? What better way to put the love of God on display to a lost and hurting world, who themselves are sentenced to Death without Christ, than to seek to live with forgiveness at our ready?!

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Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

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Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

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