Five Words That Call to Repentance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riJI2nmkPf8

“Proclaim the word that has the power to produce repentance”

In Jonah 3:1-10, the story reaches a point that defies every expectation. The prophet who ran away, who was swallowed by a great fish and brought back to dry land, receives the same instruction again. This time, he obeys. And what happens through a message of only five words shakes the foundations of an entire city.

A radio host, well known for atheism, once reported the kidnapping of a little girl. As the host described what the criminals had done, the voice broke. The host went off script and said something that did not fit that worldview: “I don’t know, but these men, whether in this life or the next, will pay for what they have done.” In someone who denied God’s existence, an inner sense of justice surfaced. There was a compass placed by the Creator, longing for evil not to go unanswered. The people of Nineveh recognized that same truth: they would give an account to their Creator for their evil. What both that radio host and the Ninevites needed was to connect that inner longing for justice with God’s message proclaimed by God’s people.

God grants his word (Jonah 3:1-4)

Jonah 3 functions like a mirror of chapter 1. In both chapters, Jonah receives the word of the Lord. In both, he travels. In both, he interacts with Gentiles who respond to the message. In chapter 1 it was the sailors. In chapter 3, it is the Ninevites. This parallel passage shows how God acts and reveals mercy.

Verse 1 picks up right after Jonah 2:10, when the Lord commands the fish to vomit the prophet onto dry land. After that experience, God gives Jonah the same instruction a second time: get up, go to Nineveh, and proclaim the message. Why? Because Nineveh deserved God’s just judgment.

Unlike the first time, Jonah does not flee west to Tarshish. Jonah obeys and heads east. What changed? Jonah learned that it was impossible to run from the presence of the omnipresent God. Jonah learned that God is sovereign, ruling over the winds, the seas, and the creatures of the sea. Jonah learned that salvation belongs to the Lord.

In verse 4, Jonah proclaims God’s message: in forty days Nineveh will be overthrown. In Hebrew, it is only five words. It was not an extended sermon or a great speech. Yet those five words were enough because they were backed by God and carried power for thousands of Ninevite hearts to respond.

The message was brief, but powerful. Its content reveals something essential: God is holy and just, and God will not overlook evil. The Ninevites encountered a God who does not turn a blind eye to injustice, wickedness, and sin. Because of their sinfulness, they deserved to be destroyed. But God was not acting only out of justice. God is also love, and love required stopping the atrocities the Ninevites were committing.

This message of judgment has not changed. Every sin, every rebellion, every injustice will be judged with perfect justice. The God of the Old Testament is not different from the God of the New. The full revelation shows how God sent the Son, Jesus, and how through that work God rescues, but God has not changed. Every sin rises before God and God judges it perfectly. That is why the good news of the gospel is so good: Jesus took our sins, and God judged those sins on Jesus at the cross. Everyone who believes in Jesus, recognizing the need to be saved from eternal judgment, is declared righteous before God. The full heat of wrath that belonged to the repentant sinner was poured out on Christ at Calvary.

And what about the one who does not believe? “The dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done… and those not found written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12-15). Judgment and eternal death are part of the gospel. Removing this element would change it. If we proclaim that God saves, the question is: what does God save from? God saves from receiving the just and deserved judgment for our sins. An incomplete gospel has no power to save. That is why Paul writes: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Immediately after, Paul devotes about 67 verses to describing the fallen condition of humanity.

Nineveh responds in repentance (Jonah 3:5-9)

The people of Nineveh believed God. What did they believe? First, they believed Jonah’s words came from God. Second, they believed God’s holiness had been offended by their evil. They recognized their offense against the Creator of the universe and admitted they deserved to be overthrown.

The text does not specify whether this faith included the same complete saving transformation as the sailors in chapter 1, who feared God, offered sacrifices, and made vows. Even so, the Ninevites’ faith in the proclaimed word produced genuine repentance: a real change of actions and attitudes toward God and toward what God calls good and just. Repentance is like walking in one direction and turning completely to the opposite. They were walking in injustice, rebellion, and wickedness, and when they believed the proclaimed word, they changed course.

How do we know it was genuine and not merely words? Because God accepted it as genuine, and God knows the intentions of the heart.

Their outward actions revealed what had happened inwardly. They fasted. They put on sackcloth, rough and uncomfortable garments, displaying outwardly the humility of their hearts. Everyone did it, from the greatest to the least, the higher and lower classes. When the news reached the king, the king believed too. The king removed the royal robe, put on sackcloth, sat in ashes, and proclaimed an edict that included even the animals. The whole city was shaken, acknowledging evil.

This is the third “cry” in the book of Jonah. The sailors cried out and were rescued. Jonah cried out from the depths of the sea and was rescued. Here, an entire city cries out to God with strength.

The king ends the edict with a phrase full of hope: Who knows? Maybe God will turn and relent and turn away from fierce anger, so that we may not perish. The king understood God was sending a warning. God could have destroyed them immediately, but God granted forty days because there was a possibility of forgiveness, a glimpse of hope. Destruction could have come without any announcement, but in grace God sent a prophet and moved winds, seas, and fish so that the message would reach Nineveh.

Genuine repentance is not an isolated event. The life of a believer does not only begin with repentance. It continues in continual repentance. As Paul writes, in kindness God leads to repentance. Genuine repentance does not grow merely from fear of consequences. It grows from recognizing that sin is against God’s holiness and justice. It is a contrite and humbled heart before God.

God grants mercy to the repentant heart (Jonah 3:10)

“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that God had said would be done to them, and did not do it” (Jonah 3:10).

When Nineveh repented, their condition before God changed and, therefore, God’s posture toward them adjusted. The text uses the word “relented” to describe God’s action, but this does not mean God made a mistake or changed in nature. God is immutable and perfect. A more precise way to understand it is that God refrained from the judgment that had been announced. Though Nineveh did not deserve mercy, God granted it.

Why? Because, as the whole book of Jonah shows, the gospel is for everyone and salvation belongs to the Lord. In these three chapters, God’s mercy has reached the sailors, Jonah the rebellious prophet, and now a wicked city that repented. God grants mercy to the heart that has changed course, to the one who was once rebellious and is now joyfully obedient.

Conclusion

When a doctor delivers a terminal diagnosis, the patient often asks, “How much time do I have?” What the patient wants is to use those days to put life in order, restore broken relationships, and make things right. Humanity lives in a similar in-between time. Jesus has already come and proclaimed: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The day will come when Jesus will judge everyone with perfect justice. In a sense, we are living within the forty days.

What should we do in this in-between time? Proclaim God’s word, which has the power to produce repentance. And if these “forty days” feel long, Peter explains it clearly: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill the promise… but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

The king of Nineveh’s doubt was understandable: Who knows? Maybe God will turn away wrath. But those who know the full gospel do not need to live with that uncertainty. The certainty is in God’s word: “Whoever hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life. That person does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

If God could transform an entire city with a five-word message, God can transform any rebellious heart, just as God has already transformed those who have trusted in Christ. God’s word is sufficient. It has power to confront, to awaken conscience, and to produce genuine repentance. And when a heart repents, God grants mercy through Jesus’ work.

Someone greater than Jonah has already proclaimed the message. The call still stands: repent and believe in the gospel. This is the message proclaimed in this in-between time, trusting not in human eloquence, but in the power of God’s word.