Jonah 3:1-5, And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.   So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.   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.   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.

Nineveh was a “great city” — great in population, great in power, but also great in wickedness, and “their wickedness had come up before God.” (Jonah 1:2).

The Bible tells us that God takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ez. 33:11). God would have spared Sodom for only ten righteous people (Gen. 18:32), and He is “…longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9). God, in His mercy, uses His chosen method to reach the city.

• A Preaching Prophet

Jonah 1:2, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

Jonah was not the first preacher. The legacy of Biblical preaching goes back to the pre-flood saints such as Enoch, Methuselah, and Noah.  After the Patriarchs, there was Moses the lawgiver and Joshua; the Judges were also preachers, and Solomon called himself “the preacher.”  Jonah was an Old Testament prophet. The prophets preached against the apostasy of their day, expounding on the Law and prophesied of future events. The legacy of preaching continues through the New Testament with John the Baptist who introduced the Lord Jesus Christ who also had a preaching ministry. Jesus trained his twelve apostles and sent them forth to preach. The resurrected Christ commanded His church to “preach the gospel to every creature!” The church, empowered at Pentecost, went preaching throughout the world. In the book of Acts, even the deacons Phillip and Stephen had preaching ministries. The Apostle Paul immediately preached in Damascus after his conversion. Paul charged his son in the faith Timothy to “preach the Word.”   From Genesis through Revelation, God’s tool for reaching people has been preaching.

The effectiveness of the New Testament Church to reach people for God is directly related to her obedience to following God’s plan of preaching The Word.

1 Corinthians 1:21, For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Romans 10:14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Mark 16:15, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

• Prophet Preaching

Jonah 3:2, “…Preach unto it the preaching I bid thee.”

Jonah was God’s “messenger boy.” He was not carrying his own message but was delivering a message from God.

The Old Testament priests came to God on the behalf of the people, while the prophets like Jonah came from God with a message for the people. This message is often referred to in the Bible as the prophets’ “burden” (Isa 21:1; Jer. 23:34; Ez. 12:10; Ho. 8:10; Na. 1:1; Zec. 9:1; Mal. 1:1; Rev. 10:8-11). The “burden” of the New Testament believer is the Great Commission: “Preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). God commands us to reach our Nineveh with His Word.

2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

Titus 1:3, “But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;”

When Jonah obediently gave the Word of the Lord to the people of Nineveh, he didn’t add to God’s message or take away from it. The result was amazing — the people, believed God! Jonah delivered God’s message, the people received it, and the city was reached!

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. (Jonah 3:5)