JONAH IN NINEVEH Jonah, as though arising from the tomb, proceeded to the Gentile people of Nineveh, so that they could enjoy the work of God. 1. Jonah’s calling to the service. 1-4 2. Nineveh’s faith and repentance. 5-9 3. Nineveh enjoys God’s mercy. 10 1- JONAH’S CALLING TO THE SERVICE When Jonah was given a second chance to live, having once undergone death, God recalled him to service so that the Gentiles may enjoy life as well. Strangely enough, God did not reproach Jonah at all or hurt his feelings in any way for his running away from his first mission. The Bible says: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was as exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over thrown” [1-4]. He describes Nineveh as, “a great city, a three-day journey,” literally it means that it was a vast city and a person can cover it in three days, or roam its streets for three days; spiritually, as the capital of Assyria, Nineveh delivered itself to the devil, worshiping idols, but God still looks out for it as His great city voluntarily usurped by the enemy. God does not disdain His creation, especially human beings even if they deviated from His way. He still anticipates their salvation and their return to Him as His great city inhabited by the Holy Trinity. In our study of the Book of Joshua, we found that the number three represents faith in the Holy Trinity and the resurrection on the third day1 . The secret of the greatness of man lays in becoming a great city of God, or as the Bible calls him, the “City of Truth” Zech. 8:3, the kingdom of the Holy Trinity, which by his life witnesses for the resurrection of the Lord. Jonah responded to the calling and entered the city, “the first day’s walk” to call for repentance. This represents the appearance of One Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity: God the Word, who was incarnated and suffered, thus became one of us as if He was in our city, moreover we received the works of the Holy Trinity and attained salvation through Him. Jonah preached that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown; and in the Septuagint it is said that after three days the city of Nineveh would be overthrown. The figure forty represents our earthly life that is why the Lord Jesus fasted forty days so that we might fast all the days of our lives. Nineveh would be overthrown in 40 days; consequently heaven and earth vanish so that we may enjoy the new heaven and earth. Since the figure three represents the resurrection with the Lord Jesus, and then it is imperative that the old Nineveh be destroyed so that the new one would rise in Him. 1 The Author: Joshua, 1982, p. 46-47 (in Arabic). 32 2- NINEVEH’S FAITH AND REPENTANCE ‘So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth; from the greatest to the least of them” [5]. St. Jerome says, [Nineveh believed but Israel resisted, unbelieving; the uncircumcised believed, yet the people of circumcision continued in their disbelief.] Nineveh’s faith was accompanied by action. They showed a practical repentance whose tools were fasting and sackcloth; and as St. Jerome says: [Fasting and sackcloth are the weapons of faith, helper of sinners. Fasting first and then the sackcloth; the first represents the invisible and the latter the visible. One is always before the Lord; the other temporary for people’s eyes]. It is appropriate that our repentance starts with unannounced fasting and private practical life, hence followed with visible works. St. Jerome says: [Repentance links sackcloth with fasting, so that the empty stomach and mourning attire extensively to supplicate God in prayer.] Unanimously, they truly repented before God; they all wore sackcloth ‘from the greatest to the least of them.” They were led into that parade of repentance, the king and the royalty in advance; all participated in it, even the animals. This took place despite the fact that Jonah did not give them any glimmer of hope, nor did he talk to them about God’s love and mercy, nor did he teach them anything about repentance. Hence Nineveh became a living, beautiful example of true repentance. Who was that king who wore the sackcloth except the human will which bows down before God to announce its submission to Him, and its acceptance to become poor for His sake, Him Who was wealthy and impoverished Himself to make it prosperous. Repentance begins with inner change in a person’s will, which is in effect our inner king or ruler. The king changed his royal garb for sackcloth and sat in ashes. Our human will should shed the self-made clothes and confess its nakedness and egotistical poverty, so that God would clothe it with His royal heavenly will and grant it the new Adam who takes after His image. God would raise the soul from the dump it is in, to sit among heavenly hosts that she may have a place in God’s bosom. The nobles’ repentance represents sanctifying our talents and abilities to work on behalf of the Kingdom of God. The animals represent the body with its capabilities, which formerly followed darkness in an animal- like manner. In other words, repentance affects a human being as a whole: his soul and body his will and power his feelings and his actions. We should realize that what attracted God’s heart towards them was not their fasting in itself, or the sackcloth, but the repentant heart aided by fasting and sackcloth. St. John Chrysostom says: [The people of Nineveh fasted and acquired God’s love, while the Jews fasted and gained nothing, on the contrary they were blamed (Isa. 58:3,7; 1 Cor. 9:26). Thus tasting, for those who do not know how to fast, is dangerous. We should learn the rules of this exercise so that we do not run in vain or beat the air, or lest we, in our sadness, wrestle with shadows. Fasting is like medicine; it would prove useless if it were used carelessly as a result of the inexperience of its user1.] What attracts our attention in Nineveh’s repentance is the joyful hope. Jonah’s words were few and stern but Nineveh’s people did not lose their hope in the merciful God. St. John Chrysostom says: [God’s message as told by Jonah was clear. He did not say anything about their being accepted if they repented, but they still announced their 1 Conc. Stat. 3:8. 33 repentance, saying, “who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” [9]. If the ignorant Gentiles could comprehend this, how much more should we, who enjoyed tutorship concerning divine teachings and witnessed a number of these examples throughout history and in our present experience, realize1?!] 3- NINEVEH ENJOYS MERCY “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” [10]. Apparent in this text is the following: First: Repentance does not need any length of time; all it needs is a change of heart. The people of Nineveh managed to obtain God’s mercy through true return to God rather than over a long period of time. It behooves us then to spend all our days in continuous repentance yearning to achieve the measure of the stature the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). However this expectation should not take away from us the realization of God’s mercy, which is ever waiting for everyone’s repentance to embrace them instantly. St. John Chrysostom says: [Where the fear of God is, there is no need for longevity or fate, on the contrary, if there is no fear of God, time is meaningless... If we threw a rusty container in the furnace of the fear of God, it would be purified in no time at all2.] Second: The word “evil” in this context denotes hardships or tribulations permitted by God to discipline human beings or to make an example of them before others. From the human point of view, it is evil, but in essence it is not. Tertullian says, [The Greeks use the word “evil” to mean hardships and the ensuing harm3.] This was reinforced by Father Theodore4. Third: Formerly, some people were stumbled by the Biblical expression “God relented’; does God then change His mind? God uses this human expression to bring it closer to our minds. God does not relent, meaning changing His mind; it is humanity, which changes its position towards God and then the sentence changes accordingly. When people challenge God, they fall under discipline, and when they cease to do evil and return to God they find Him there with His arms spread open to welcome them. This is what is meant by relenting. When God passes a sentence for disciplinary measures, He does not insist on its fulfillment but rather He announces the sentence so that people would stop their evil and He would forgive them. St. John Chrysostom says: [In the days of Jonah, if God had not threatened destruction, they would not have been spared from destruction. If God had not threatened us with hell, we would have all fallen in it5.] He adds: [A threat of danger results in escaping that same danger... a threat of death brings on life. The sentence was nullified after it was announced, and this contradicts what happens with earthly judges, who, when 1 Letter to Theodore. 2 Conc. Stat. 20:21. 3 Adv. Marc 2:24. 4 Cassian: Conf 6:6. 5 In I Tim. Ham: 15: Conc. Stat. 5:16. 34 they pass a sentence it becomes a ‘fait accompli”; but to God it is the opposite: the sentence is passed to be nullified1.] 1 Conc. Stat. 5.16.
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