God called Jonah to go to Nineveh in the Eastern part of the globe to deliver His message, but Jonah headed in the opposite direction to the West. This typifies man’s stubbornness to God’s call.

Jonah’s eventual answer to the call of God was a mystery. The mystery is how God arrested Jonah, when he ran away, prepared a fish to swallow him and later spoke to the fish to vomit him on a dry land. Jonah’s experience in the belly of a fish typifies what grace is. We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, but He decides to show it to us. God expects those who have experienced His grace to reach out to others, so that they also may experience the work of grace.

Some may wonder whether the fish was figurative or real?  Why would God go all this length to accost a man? Could He not have raised another man to go to Nineveh than subject Jonah to this ordeal? God is sovereign, He can use any means to arrest our attention to demonstrate His power to us.

Jesus made reference to Jonah and the fish in Matthew13:39-40 to prove to us that Jonah’s experience was real and pointer to Christ’s death and resurrection. “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Besides, Jonah’s experience points to the work of God’s grace.

I believe that someone reading this article today is like a Jonah. Don’t wait until God will send a fish to swallow you before you respond to His call.

In Jonah 3:1 we read, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying…” God had a specific job for Jonah, just as He has a specific job for every one of us. God could have chosen another person to go to Nineveh, but didn’t. God is a God of a second chance. He gave Jonah a second chance. He gives us a second opportunity to right our wrong.

Nineveh’s Response To Jonah’s Message
The reaction of the city to Jonah’s message was overwhelming. The king and all the people from the least man to the highest responded to Jonah’s call to repentance. In chapter 3 Verse 5, we read, “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.” A national repentance and revival ensued due to Jonah’s call to repentance. Again in verse 10, we read, “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.”

Jonah’s obedience to heed the call saved a nation from God’s judgment. God responds to genuine repentance be it from an individual or from a nation.

The story of Jonah points to God’s plan to reach out to people of all nations, who are destined to experience His grace and mercy. Men are chosen and called to bring the message of salvation to nations in fulfilment of God’s plan to redeem all peoples in all nations. Contact: [email protected]