MidweekWednesday 8th April 2020

Our midweek studies continue with Jonah 3 v1-10, which considers the message of repentance God called Jonah to preach and the response made by the people of Nineveh. Have you responded to God's message of repentance?
Jonah 3:1-10Nahum 3:1-3

Jonah 3

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,1 three days’ journey in breadth.2 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People of Nineveh Repent

The word reached3 the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Footnotes

[1] 3:3 Hebrew a great city to God
[2] 3:3 Or a visit was a three days’ journey
[3] 3:6 Or had reached

(ESV)

Nahum 3:1–3

Woe to Nineveh

3:1   Woe to the bloody city,
    all full of lies and plunder—
    no end to the prey!
  The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
    galloping horse and bounding chariot!
  Horsemen charging,
    flashing sword and glittering spear,
  hosts of slain,
    heaps of corpses,
  dead bodies without end—
    they stumble over the bodies!

(ESV)

Questions to consider

  1. What changed in Jonah’s view of God so as to cause him to obey his second call (v3)?
  2. What thoughts do you think were going through Jonah’s mind as he travelled to Nineveh?
  3. What sort of city was Nineveh (v3, Nahum 3 v1-3)?
  4. What were the key factors in causing the Ninevites coming to repentance (v4-8)?
  5. What do you think was the significance of the sackcloth and ashes (v6)?
  6. How can we be involved in seeing such a change in our community today?
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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