Jonah 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, three days’ journey in breadth. 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 word reached 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.”
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.
Luke 15:18-20 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Deuteronomy 8:20 “Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
Proverbs 1:32 “For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
Isaiah 60:12 “For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, And the nations will be utterly ruined.
Jonah repented and went back to Nineveh to speak the word of the Lord. He called out against that great city as the Lord commanded. Nineveh listened and acted upon what they heard. They repented as a whole city, from the king down to every citizen, or at least most of them. They heard the word spoke against their current way of living, they believed it to be a true understanding of their sinful ways. They believed God. They had to know something of God and both His promises of destruction and His gracious acts that turned away from anger when those condemned repent. They believed in 40 days they would be destroyed because the word of God proclaimed to them. Do you ever wonder what people would do if they were told in 40 days they would die because of their sin? Some believe and some do not. Some think all of this talk about God and sin is foolishness. Others believe it to be true but will wait until later in life. And, still, others take immediate action and believe. They understand the eternal consequence of dying in their sin. They understand the frailty of life and that they could die at any moment for a host of reasons. We have not been given a 40-day notice, but we have been given notice. We can deny it, wait, or take repentant action. It all depends on what you believe to be the truth. Nowhere is it more clear than in John 3:16-19 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.