Jonah 3:6-10
Even the King Got Down in the Ashes
6When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.
8Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.
9Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
10When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
Berean Standard Bible
Word of that one-line sermon reaches the man at the top. Everything he does next takes him lower.
When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Off the throne, out of the robe, into rough cloth, down onto the ground. He rules the city, he has heard one sentence from a foreign preacher, and by the end of the verse he is sitting in the ash heap. A prophet who got up and went to Joppa might find the comparison uncomfortable.
The decree he issues starts where you would expect a frightened government to start. Nobody eats and nobody drinks. It covers the herds and the flocks along with the people, and then it puts sackcloth on the animals, which is where most of us stop and smile. Go ahead. It does nothing for anybody's repentance and it is faintly ridiculous, and the book records it without explaining it.
Underneath the clothes, though, the decree is about something else.
Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.
Violence is what the king names, and he names it with no prophet standing over him telling him what his problem is. He does not ask anybody to feel differently. He asks them to put down what they are holding.
Then he says a thing somebody else in this book has already said.
Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.
Back in chapter one, the captain of the ship woke Jonah and told him to call on his God, in case that God would consider them and they would not perish. Two men, neither one with a promise to hold, both hoping out loud. Neither of them presumes on the answer. Both of them move before they have it.
The chapter closes with God's side of it. God saw what they did, that they had turned from their evil ways, and he relented from the disaster he had threatened to bring on them. This is not God changing his mind about right and wrong. Jeremiah has him state it as settled policy: if he announces that a nation is going to be torn down and that nation turns from its evil, he relents. Nineveh turned, and God did what he had always said he does.
How We Know
The king's "Who knows?" in verse 9 is a set expression, not a shrug. David uses it in 2 Samuel 12:22 while fasting for his dying son: who knows, the LORD may be gracious. Joel 2:14 uses it of a whole nation turning back. In both places it means hope without a promise attached, which is precisely the posture of a man who has heard a warning and no offer.
What God then does in verse 10 is stated elsewhere as a standing principle. Jeremiah 18:7-8 says that if a nation God has threatened turns from its evil, he relents from the disaster he intended.
Those two supports mean the king's words and God's response both sit inside patterns this Bible sets out plainly.
Questions
1 Word gets to the king. What does he do, and where does every step take him?
AnswerDownward, every time. Off the throne, out of the royal robe, into sackcloth, and then sitting in ashes on the ground. A man who ruled that city put himself on the floor over one sentence from a stranger.
2 Part of that decree is odd. What is the odd part, and what is the part that carries the weight?
AnswerThe animals are dressed in sackcloth, which does nothing for anybody and is a little ridiculous and is in the text regardless. The weight is in the line underneath: each one is to turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.
3 When did you last do the right thing without knowing whether it would make any difference?
AnswerThe king was in that position with everything to lose. He had one warning from a foreigner, no offer of mercy attached to it, and no promise that turning would help. He got off the throne anyway.
4 Did God change his mind here?
AnswerNot about right and wrong. Jeremiah records God stating it as his standing policy: he warns a nation, and if that nation turns from its evil, he relents. Nineveh turned, and God did what he had always said he would do.
What This Means for Us
The king did not know it would work. Who knows, he said, and he meant it. No covenant, no prophet at his elbow explaining the terms, no promise of any kind: one sentence from a stranger, a real fear that it was true, and he came down off his throne on the strength of it. Most of us have a great deal more to go on and move a great deal less.
What he changed matters as much as that he changed. Not the clothing, though the clothing changed too. The violence in their hands. So the question here tonight is not what would look repentant, but what is in our hands right now that should not be.
Prayer
Father, a king got off his throne on the strength of one sentence, and you saw it. Show us what is in our hands. Give us the sense to turn before we are certain of the outcome. And thank you that you relent. Amen.