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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Jonah III].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1712)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
<CENTER>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>J O N A H.</B></FONT>
<BR>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. III.</FONT>
<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
</CENTER>
<FONT SIZE=-1>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
In this chapter we have,
I. Jonah's mission renewed, and the command a second time given him to
go preach at Nineveh,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:1,2">ver. 1, 2</A>.
II. Jonah's message to Nineveh faithfully delivered, by which its
speedy overthrow was threatened,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:3,4">ver. 3, 4</A>.
III. The repentance, humiliation, and reformation of the Ninevites
hereupon,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:5-9">ver. 5-9</A>.
IV. God's gracious revocation of the sentence passed upon them, and
the preventing of the ruin threatened,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:10">ver. 10</A>.</P>
</FONT>
<A NAME="Jon3_1"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_2"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_3"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_4"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Jonah's Mission Renewed; The Prophet's Mission to Nineveh.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 840.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>1 And the word of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> came unto Jonah the second time,
saying,
&nbsp; 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it
the preaching that I bid thee.
&nbsp; 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word
of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three
days' journey.
&nbsp; 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and
he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
overthrown.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
We have here a further evidence of the reconciliation between God and
Jonah, and that it was a thorough reconciliation, though the
controversy between them had run high.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. Jonah's commission is renewed and readily obeyed.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
1. By this it appears that God was perfectly reconciled to Jonah, that
he employed him again in his service; and the commission anew given him
was an evidence of the remission of his former disobedience. Among men,
it has been justly pleaded that the giving of a commission to a
criminal convicted is equivalent to a pardon, so it was to Jonah.
<I>The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>);
for,
1. Jonah must be tried, whether he do indeed repent of his former
disobedience or no, and whether he have gotten the good designed him
both by his strange punishment an by his strange deliverance. He had
deserted his work and duty, and had been under arrest for it, had
received a <I>sentence of death within himself;</I> but, upon his
submission, God had released him, had given him his life, had given him
his liberty; but it is upon his good behaviour that he is released, and
he must again be put upon the trial whether he will follow the will of
God or his own will. After he has been thrown into the sea, and thrown
out of it again, God comes and asks him, "Jonah, wilt thou go to
Nineveh now?" For <I>when God judges he will overcome,</I> he will gain
his point; he will bring the disobedient stubborn child to his foot at
last. Note, When God has afflicted us, and delivered us out of
affliction, we must hear his voice, saying to us, Now return to the
duties which before you neglected, and which by these providences you
are called to. God now said, in effect, to Jonah, as Christ said to the
impotent man, when he had healed him, "Now go and sin no more, <I>lest
a worse thing come unto thee</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+5:14">John v. 14</A>),
a worse thing than lying three days and three nights in the whale's
belly." God looks upon men, when he has afflicted them and has
delivered them out of their affliction, to see whether they will mend
of that fault, particularly, for which they were corrected; and
therefore in that thing we are concerned to see to it that we receive
not the grace of God in vain, neither in the correction nor in the
deliverance, for both are designed to be means of grace.
(2.) Jonah shall be trusted, in token of God's favour to him. God might
justly have said concerning Jonah, as we should concerning one that had
cheated us and dealt treacherously with us, that though we would not
proceed to the rigour of the law against him, nor ruin him, yet we
would never again repose a confidence in him; justly might the Spirit
of prophecy, which Jonah had resisted and rebelled against, depart from
him, with a resolution never to return to him any more. One would have
expected that though his life was spared, yet he would be laid under a
disability and incapacity ever to serve the government again in the
character of a prophet. But, behold! the word of the Lord comes to him
again, to show that when God forgives he forgets, and whom he forgives
he gives a new heart and a new spirit to; he receives those into his
family again, and restores them to their former estate, that had been
prodigal children and disobedient servants. Note, God's making use of
us is the best evidence of his being at peace with us. Hereby it will
appear that our sins are pardoned, and we have the good-will of God
towards us; does his good word come unto us, and do we experience his
good work in us! if so, we have reason to admire the riches of free
grace and to own our obligations to the Lord Jesus, who received gifts
for men, <I>yea, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
dwell</I> even among them, and employ them in his word,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+68:18">Ps. lxviii. 18</A>.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
2. By this it appears that Jonah was well reconciled to God, that he
was not now, as he had been before, <I>disobedient to the heavenly
vision,</I> did not <I>flee from the presence of the Lord,</I> as he
had done. He neither endeavored to avoid hearing the command, nor did
he decline obeying it; he made no objections, as he had done, that the
journey was <I>long,</I> the errand invidious, the delivery of it
perilous, and, if the threatened judgment did come, he should be
reproached as a false prophet, and the impenitence of his own nation
would be upbraided, which he had objected,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+4:2"><I>ch.</I> iv. 2</A>.
But now, without murmuring and disputing, <I>Jonah arose, and went unto
Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
See here,
(1.) The nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way,
and a return to our work and duty, from which we had turned aside; it
is doing that good which we had left undone.
(2.) The benefit of affliction; it reduces those to their place that
had deserted it. Jonah might truly say with David, "<I>Before I was
afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word;</I> and
therefore, though it was dreadful, though it was painful to me, and for
the present <I>not joyous, but grievous,</I> yet <I>it was good,</I>
very good, <I>for me, that I was afflicted.</I>"
(3.) See the power of divine grace working with affliction, for
otherwise affliction of itself would rather drive men from God than
bring them to him; but God by his grace can <I>turn the disobedient to
the wisdom of the just,</I> and make those <I>willing in the day of his
power,</I> freely willing to come under his yoke, whose <I>neck</I> had
been <I>as an iron sinew.</I>
(4.) See the duty of all those to whom the word of the Lord comes; they
must in all points conform themselves to it, and yield a cheerful
faithful obedience to the orders God gives them. <I>Jonah arose,</I>
and did not sit still in sloth or sullenness; he went directly to
Nineveh, though it was a great way off, and a place where, it is
likely, he never was before; yet thither he took his journey,
<I>according to the word of the Lord.</I> God's servants must go where
he sends them, come when he calls them, and do what he bids them;
whatever appears to be the word of the Lord we must conscientiously do
according to it.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. Let us now see what was the command or commission given him, and
what he did in prosecution of it.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
1. He was sent as a herald at arms, in the name of the God of heaven,
to proclaim war with Nineveh
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>):
"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city," that metropolis, and <I>preach
unto it,</I> preach <I>against it,</I> so the Chaldee. What is against
us is preached to us, that we may hear it and take warning; and what is
preached to us, if we do not give ear to it, and mix faith with it,
will prove to be against us. Jonah is sent to Nineveh, which was at
this time the chief city of the Gentile world, as an indication of
God's gracious intentions in process of time to make the light of
divine revelation to shine in those dark regions. God knew that if
Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, had had the means of grace, they
would have repented, and yet he denied them those means,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+11:21,23">Matt. xi. 21, 23</A>.
He knew that if Nineveh had now the means of grace they would repent,
and he gave them those means, sent Jonah, though not to preach
repentance to them expressly (for we find not that he had that in his
commission), yet to preach them to repentance, for that was the happy
effect of what he had in commission. If God thus in dispensing his
favours, in giving the means of grace to some places and not to others,
and the spirit of grace to some persons and not to others, acts by
prerogative and in a way of sovereignty, who may say unto him, What
doest thou? <I>May he not do what he will with his own?</I> He is
debtor to no man. Go, and preach (says God) <I>the preaching that I bid
thee.</I> That is,
(1.) "The preaching that I did bid thee when I first ordered thee to go
thither
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+1:2"><I>ch.</I> i. 2</A>);
go, <I>and cry against it;</I> denounce divine judgments against it;
tell the men of Nineveh that their wickedness has come up to God, and
God's vengeance is coming down upon them." This was the message Jonah
was then very loth to deliver, and therefore flew off and went to
Tarshish; but, when he is brought to it the second time, God does not
at all alter the message, to gratify him, or make it the more passable
with him; no, he must now preach the very same that he was then ordered
to preach and would not. Note, The word of God is an unalterable thing,
and will not be made to bend to the humours either of its preachers or
of its hearers; it shall never comply with their humours and fancies,
but they must comply with its truths and laws. See
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+15:19">Jer. xv. 19</A>.
<I>Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.</I> Or,
(2.) "The preaching that I shall bid thee when thou comest thither."
This was an encouragement to him in his undertaking, that God would go
along with him, that the Spirit of prophecy should abide upon him, and
be ready to him, when he was at Nineveh, to give him all the further
instructions that were needed for him. This intimated that he should
hear from him again, which would be his great support in this hazardous
expedition; as, when God sent Abraham to offer up Isaac, he gave him a
similar intimation, by telling him he must do it upon <I>one of the
mountains which he would</I> afterwards direct <I>him to. The steps of
a good man are ordered by the Lord;</I> he leads his people step by
step, and so he expects they should follow him. Jonah must go with an
implicit faith. Though he knows whither he goes, he shall not know,
till he come thither, what message he must deliver, but, whatever it
is, he must deliver it, be it pleasing or displeasing. Thus God will
keep us in a continual dependence upon himself, and the directions of
his word and providence. What he does, and what he will have us do, we
<I>know not now,</I> but we <I>shall know hereafter.</I> Admirals,
sometimes, when they are sent abroad, are not to open their commission
till they have got so many leagues off at sea; so Jonah must go to
Nineveh, and, when he comes there, shall be told what to say.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
III. He faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. When he came to
Nineveh he found his diocese large; it was an <I>exceedingly great city
of three days' journey</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>);
a city <I>great to God,</I> so the Hebrew phrase is, meaning no more
than as we render it, <I>exceedingly great;</I> this honour that
language does to the great God that great things derive their
denomination from him. The greatness of Nineveh consisted chiefly in
the extent of it; it was much larger than Babylon, such a city, says
Diodorus Siculus, as no man ever after built. It was 150 furlongs long
and 90 broad, and 480 in compass; the walls 100 feet high, and so thick
that three chariots might go a-breast upon them; on them were 1500
towers, each of them 200 feet high. It is here said to be of <I>three
days' journey;</I> for the compass of the walls, as some relate, was
480 furlongs, which, allowing eight furlongs to a mile, makes sixty
miles, which may well be reckoned <I>three days' journey</I> for a
footman, twenty miles a day. Or, walking slowly and gravely as Jonah
must when he went about preaching, it would take him up at least
<I>three days</I> to go through all the principal streets and lanes of
the city, to proclaim his message, that all might have notice of it.
When he came thither he lost no time; he did not come to look about
him, but applied closely to his work; and, when he began to enter into
the city, he did not retire into an inn, to refresh himself after his
journey, but opened his commission immediately, according to his
instructions, and he <I>cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh
shall be overthrown.</I> This, no doubt, he had particular warrant and
direction to say; whether he enlarged upon this text, as is most
probable, showing them the controversy God had with them, and how
provoking their wickedness was, and what reason they had to expect
destruction and give credit to this warning, or whether he only
repeated those words again and again, is not certain, but this was the
purport of his message.
1. He must tell them that this great city shall be overthrown; he
meant, and they understood him, that it should be overthrown, not by
war, but by some immediate stroke from heaven, either by an earthquake
or by fire and brimstone as Sodom was. The wickedness of cities ripens
them for destruction, and their wealth and greatness cannot protect
them from destruction when the measure of their iniquity is full and
the measure of their vengeance has come. Great cities are easily
overthrown when the great God comes to reckon with them.
2. He must tell them that it shall shortly be overthrown, at the end of
forty days. It has a reprieve granted. So long God will wait to see if,
upon this alarm given, they will humble themselves and amend their
doings, and so prevent the ruin threatened. See how slow God is to
wrath; though Nineveh's wickedness cried for vengeance, yet it shall be
spared for forty days, that it may have space to repent and meet God in
the way of his judgments. But he will wait no longer; if in that time
they turn not, they shall know that he has <I>whet his sword, and made
it ready.</I> Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to defer
his judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to
repent and reform in, and so turn away the judgments coming. The
fixing of the day thus, with all possible assurance, would help to
convince them that it was a message from God, for no man durst be so
positive in fixing a time, however he might prognosticate the thing
itself; it would also startle them into preparation for it. It may
justly awaken secure sinners by a sincere conversion to prevent their
own ruin when they see they have but a little time to turn in. And
should it not awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that the
thing itself is certain, and the time fixed in the counsel of God, but
that we are kept in the dark and uncertainty about it in order that we
may be always ready? We cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days
as Nineveh now was that it should stand forty days; nay, I think it is
more probable that we shall die within thirty or forty days than we
should live thirty or forty years; and so many years in the day of our
security we are apt to promise ourselves.</P>
<CENTER>
<TABLE BORDER=0>
<TR><TD>Fleres, si scires unum tua tempora mensem;
<BR>Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies.
</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<TABLE BORDER=0>
<TR><TD>&nbsp; </TD></TR>
<TR><TD>We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live
<BR> &nbsp; &nbsp; a month, and yet we are careless, though we
<BR> &nbsp; &nbsp; are not sure to live a day.</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</CENTER><BR>
<A NAME="Jon3_5"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_6"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_7"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_8"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_9"> </A>
<A NAME="Jon3_10"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Nineveh's Repentance.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 840.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast,
and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least
of them.
&nbsp; 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his
throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered <I>him</I> with
sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
&nbsp; 7 And he caused <I>it</I> to be proclaimed and published through
Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let
neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them
not feed, nor drink water:
&nbsp; 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry
mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil
way, and from the violence that <I>is</I> in their hands.
&nbsp; 9 Who can tell <I>if</I> God will turn and repent, and turn away
from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
&nbsp; 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil
way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would
do unto them; and he did <I>it</I> not.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Here is
I. A wonder of divine grace in the repentance and reformation of
Nineveh, upon the warning given them of their destruction approaching.
<I>Verily I say unto you,</I> we have not found so great an instance of
it, no, not in Israel; and it will <I>rise up in judgment against the
men of</I> the gospel--<I>generation, and condemn them; for the
Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonas, but behold, a greater
than Jonas is here,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+12:41">Matt. xii. 41</A>.
Nay, it did condemn the impenitence and obstinacy of Israel at that
time. God sent many prophets to Israel, and those well known among them
to be <I>mighty in word and deed;</I> but to Nineveh he sent only one,
and him a stranger, whose aspect was mean, we may suppose, and his
<I>bodily presence weak,</I> especially after the fatigue of so long a
journey; and yet they repented, but Israel repented not. Jonah preached
but one sermon, and we do not find that he gave them any sign or wonder
by the accomplishment of which his word might be confirmed; and yet
they were wrought upon, while Israel continued obstinate, whose
prophets chose out words wherewith to reason with them, and confirmed
them by signs following. Jonah only threatened wrath and ruin; we do
not find that he gave them any calls to repentance or directions how to
repent, much less any encouragements to hope that they should find
mercy if they did repent, much less any encouragements to hope that
they should find mercy if they did repent, and yet they repented; but
Israel persisted in impertinence, though the prophets sent to them drew
them <I>with cords of a man, and with bands of love,</I> and assured
them of great things which God would do for them if they did repent and
reform. Now let us see what was the method of Nineveh's repentance,
what were the steps and particular instances of it.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
1. They <I>believed God;</I> they gave credit to the word which Jonah
spoke to them in the name of God: they believed that though they had
many that they called gods, yet there was but <I>one living and true
God,</I> the sovereign Lord of all,--that to him they were
accountable,--that they had sinned against him and had become obnoxious
to his justice,--that this notice sent them of ruin approaching came
from him, and consequently that the ruin itself would come from him at
a time prefixed if it were not prevented by a timely repentance,--that
he is a merciful God, and there might be some hopes of the turning away
of the wrath threatened, if they did turn away from the sins for which
it was threatened. Note, Those that <I>come to God,</I> that come back
to him after they have revolted from him, must believe, must believe
that he is, that he is reconcilable, that he will be theirs if they
take the right course. And observe what great faith God can work by
very small, weak, and unlikely means; he can bring even Ninevites by a
few threatening words to be <I>obedient to the faith.</I> Some think
the Ninevites heard, from the mariners or others, or from Jonah
himself, of his being cast into the sea and delivered thence by
miracle, and that this served for a confirmation of his mission, and
brought them the more readily to believe God speaking by him. But of
this we have no certainty. However, Christ's resurrection, typified by
that of Jonah's, served for the confirmation of his gospel, and
contributed abundantly to their great success who in his name
<I>preached repentance and remission of sins to all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
2. They brought word to the king of Nineveh, who, some think, was at
this time Sardanapalus, others Pul, king of Assyria. Jonah was not
directed to go to him first, in respect to his royal dignity; crowned
heads, when guilty heads, are before God upon a level with common
heads, and therefore Jonah is not sent to the court, but to the streets
of Nineveh, to make his proclamation. However, an account of his errand
is brought to the king of Nineveh, not by way of information against
Jonah, as a disturber of public peace, that he might be silenced and
punished, which perhaps would have been done if he had cried thus in
the streets of Jerusalem, who <I>killed God's prophets and stoned those
that were sent unto her.</I> No; the account was brought him of it, not
as of a crime, but as a message from heaven, by some that were
concerned for the public welfare, and whose hearts trembled for it.
Note, Those kings are happy who have such about them as will give them
notice of the things that belong to the kingdom's peace, of the
warnings both of the word and of the providence of God, and of the
tokens of God's displeasure which they are under; and those people are
happy who have such kings over them as will take notice of those
things.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
3. The king set them a good example of humiliation,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>.
When he heard of the <I>word of God</I> sent to him he <I>rose from his
throne,</I> as Eglon the king of Moab, who, when Ehud told him he had a
message to him form God, <I>rose up out of his seat.</I> The king of
Nineveh <I>rose from his throne,</I> not only in reverence to a word
from God in general, but in fear of a word of wrath in particular, and
in sorrow and shame for sin, by which he and his people had become
obnoxious to his wrath. He rose from his royal throne, and laid aside
his royal robe, the badge of his imperial dignity, as an acknowledgment
that, having not used his power as he ought to have done for the
restraining of violence and wrong, and the maintaining of right, he had
forfeited his throne and robe to the justice of God, had rendered
himself unworthy of the honour put upon him and the trust reposed in
him as a king, and that it was just with God to take his kingdom from
him. Even the king himself disdained not to put on the garb of a
penitent, for he <I>covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in
ashes,</I> in token of his humiliation for sin and his dread of divine
vengeance. It well becomes the greatest of men to abase themselves
before the great God.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
4. The people conformed to the example of the king, nay, it should
seem, they led the way, for they first began to <I>put on sackcloth,
from the greatest of them even to the least of them,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
The least of them, that had least to lose in the overthrow of the city,
did not think themselves unconcerned in the alarm; and the greatest of
them, that were accustomed to lie at ease and live in state, did not
think it below them to put on the marks of humiliation. The wearing of
sackcloth, especially to those who were used to fine linen, was a very
uneasy thing, and they would not have done it if they had not had a
deep sense of their sin and their danger by reason of sin, which hereby
they designed to express. Note, Those that would not be ruined must be
humbled, those that would not destroy their souls must afflict their
souls; when God's judgments threaten us we are concerned to <I>humble
ourselves under his mighty hand;</I> and though bodily exercise alone
profits nothing, and man's <I>spreading sackcloth and ashes under
him,</I> if that be all, is but a jest (it is the heart that God looks
at,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+58:5">Isa. lviii. 5</A>),
yet on solemn days of humiliation, when God in his providence <I>calls
to mourning and girding with sackcloth,</I> we must by the outward
expressions of inward sorrow <I>glorify God with our bodies,</I> at
least by laying aside their ornaments.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
5. A general fast was proclaimed and observed throughout that great
city,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:7-9"><I>v.</I> 7-9</A>.
It was ordered <I>by the decree of the king and his nobles;</I> the
whole legislative power concurred in appointing it, and the whole body
of the people concurred in observing it, and in both these ways it
became a national act, and it was necessary that it should be so when
it was to prevent a national ruin. We have here the contents of this
proclamation, and it is very observable. See here,</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
(1.) What it is that is required by it.
[1.] That the fast (properly so called) be very strictly observed. On
the day appointed for this solemnity, <I>let neither man or beast taste
any thing;</I> let them not take the least refreshment, no, no so much
as <I>drink water;</I> let them not plead that they cannot fast so long
without prejudice to their health, or that they cannot bear it; let
them try for once. What if they do feel it an uneasiness, and feel from
it for some time after? It is better to submit to that than be wanting
in any act or instance of that repentance which is necessary to save a
sinking city. Let them make themselves uneasy in body by <I>putting on
sackcloth,</I> as well as by fasting, to show how uneasy they are in
mind, through sorrow for sin and the fear of divine wrath. Even the
<I>beasts</I> must do penance as well as man, because they have been
made <I>subject to vanity</I> as instruments of man's sin, and that,
either by their complaints or their silent pining for want of meat,
they might stir up their owners, and those that attended them, to the
expressions of sorrow and humiliation. Those cattle that were kept
within doors must not be fed and watered as usual, because no meat must
be stirring on that day. Things of that kind must be forgotten, and not
minded. As when the psalmist was intent upon the praises of God he
called upon the inferior creatures to join with him therein, so when
the Ninevites were full of sorrow for sin, and dread of God's
judgments, they would have the inferior creatures concur with them in
the expressions of penitence. The beasts that used to be covered with
rich and fine trappings, which were the pride of their masters, and
theirs too, must now be <I>covered with sackcloth;</I> for the great
men will (as becomes them) lay aside their equipage.
[2.] With their fasting and mourning they must join prayer and
supplication to God; for the fasting is designed to fit the body for
the service of the soul in the duty of prayer, which is the main
matter, and to which the other is but preparatory or subservient.
<I>Let them cry mightily to God;</I> let even the brute creatures do it
according to their capacity; let their cries and moans for want of food
be graciously construed as cries to God, as the cries of the <I>young
ravens</I> are
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+38:41">Job xxxviii. 41</A>),
and of the <I>young lions,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+104:21">Ps. civ. 21</A>.
But especially let the men, women, and children, <I>cry to God;</I> let
them <I>cry mightily</I> for the pardon of the sins which cry against
them. It was time to cry to God when there was but a step between them
and ruin--high time to seek the Lord. In prayer we must cry mightily,
with a fixedness of thought, firmness of faith, and fervour of pious
and devout affections. By crying mightily we wrestle with God; we take
hold of him; and we are concerned to do so when he is not only
departing from us as a friend, but coming forth against us as an enemy.
It therefore concerns us in prayer to stir up all that is within us.
Yet this is not all;
[3.] They must to their fasting and praying add reformation and
amendment of life: <I>Let them turn every one from his evil way,</I>
the evil way he has chosen, the evil way he is addicted to, and walks
in, the evil way of his heart, and the evil way of his conversation,
and particularly <I>from the violence that is in their hands;</I> let
them restore what they had unjustly taken, and make reparation for what
wrong they have done, and let them not any more oppress those they have
power over nor defraud those they having dealings with; let the men in
authority, at the court-end of the town, turn <I>from the violence that
is in their hands,</I> and not <I>decree unrighteous decrees,</I> nor
give wrong judgment upon appeals made to them. Let the men of business,
at the trading-end of the town, turn <I>from the violence in their
hands,</I> and use no unjust weights or measures, nor impose upon the
ignorance or necessity of those they trade with. Note, It is not enough
to fast for sin, but we must fast from sin, and, in order to the
success of our prayers, must no more <I>regard iniquity in our
hearts,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+66:18">Ps. lxvi. 18</A>.
This is <I>the only fast that God has chosen</I> and will accept,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+58:6.Zec+7:5,9">Isa. lviii. 6; Zech. vii. 5, 9</A>.
The work of a fast-day is not done with the day; no, then the hardest
and most needful part of the work begins, which is to turn from sin,
and to live a new life, and not return with the dog to his vomit.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
(2.) Upon what inducement this fast is proclaimed and religiously
observed
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>).
<I>Who can tell if God will turn and repent?</I> Observe,
[1.] What it is that they hope for--that God will, upon their repenting
and turning, change his way towards them and revoke his sentence
against them, that he will <I>turn from his fierce anger,</I> which
they own they deserve and yet humbly and earnestly deprecate, and that
thus their ruin will be prevented, and they perish not. They cannot
object against the equity of the judgment, they pretend not to set it
aside by appealing to a higher court, but hope in God himself, that he
will repent, and that his own mercy (to which they fly) <I>shall
rejoice against judgment.</I> They believe that God is justly angry
with them, that, their sin being very heinous, his anger is very
fierce, and that, if he proceed against them, there is no remedy, but
they die, they perish, they all perish, and are undone; for who knows
the power of his anger? It is not therefore the threatened overthrow
that they pray for the prevention of, but the anger of God that they
pray for the turning away of. As when we pray for the favour of God we
pray for all good, so when we pray against the wrath of God we pray
against all evil.
[2.] What degree of hope they had of it: <I>Who can tell if God will
turn to us?</I> Jonah had not told them; they had not among them any
other prophets to tell them, so that they could not be so confident of
finding mercy upon their repentance as we may be, who have the promise
and oath of God to depend upon, and especially the merit and mediation
of Christ to trust to, for pardon upon repentance. Yet they had a a
general notion of the goodness of God's nature, his mercy to man, and
his being pleased with the repentance and conversion of sinners; and
from this they raised some hopes that he would spare them; they dare
not presume, but they will not despair. Note, Hope of mercy is the
great encouragement to repentance and reformation; and though there be
but some glimmerings of hope mixed with great fears arising from a
sense of our own sinfulness, and unworthiness, and long abuse of divine
patience, yet they may serve to quicken and engage our serious
repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves at the
footstool of free grace, resolving that if we perish, we will perish
there; yet who knows but God will look upon us with compassion?</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. Here is a wonder of divine mercy in the sparing of these Ninevites
upon their repentance
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+3:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>):
<I>God saw their works;</I> he not only heard their good words, by
which they professed repentance, but saw their good works, by which
they brought forth <I>fruits meet for repentance;</I> he saw that they
<I>turned from their evil way,</I> and that was the thing he looked for
and required. If he had not seen that, their fasting and sackcloth
would have been as nothing in his account. He saw there was among them
a general conviction of their sins and a general resolution not to
return to them, and that for some days they lived better, and there was
a new face of things upon the city; and this he was well pleased with.
Note, God takes notice of every instance of the reformation of sinners,
even those instances that fall not under the cognizance and observation
of the world. He sees who turn from their evil way and who do not, and
meets those with favour that meet him in a sincere conversion. When
they repent of the evil of sin committed by them he repents of the evil
of judgment pronounced against them. Thus he spared Nineveh, and <I>did
not the evil which he said he would do against it.</I> Here were no
sacrifices offered to God, that we read of, to make atonement for sin,
but the <I>sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite
heart,</I> such as the Ninevites now had, it what he <I>will not
despise;</I> it is what he will give countenance to and put honour
upon.</P>
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