A city in the story of God
Nineveh
Nineveh was the great capital of Assyria, a vast and violent empire, and the last place Jonah wanted to see spared. Yet it is the city where a pagan people repented and God showed astonishing mercy.
“Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”Jonah 3:2
The city in Scripture
The city in Scripture. Nineveh was the chief city of Assyria, on the Tigris in the region of modern northern Iraq, described in Jonah as an exceeding great city of three days' journey (Jonah 3:3). Its beginnings are traced back in Genesis to the days of Nimrod (Gen 10:11-12). Assyria was a fierce imperial power, feared for its cruelty, and Nineveh was its heart. God commanded the prophet Jonah, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it (Jonah 1:2). Jonah fled the other way, was swallowed by a great fish, and after his deliverance went and preached, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (Jonah 3:4). Remarkably, the people of Nineveh believed God, from the king on his throne to the least, and they proclaimed a fast and turned from their evil way (Jonah 3:5-9). 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 (Jonah 3:10). Jonah was angry at this mercy (Jonah 4). Generations later, when Nineveh returned to violence, the prophet Nahum foretold its fall, which came about 612 BC.
What it came to mean
What it came to mean. Nineveh came to mean the reach of God's mercy beyond Israel and the reality of repentance even in a pagan empire. It confronts the assumption that God's compassion stops at the borders of the chosen people. Jonah resented that God is a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil (Jonah 4:2), yet that mercy is exactly the point of the book. Nineveh teaches that no city is too wicked to repent and no people too foreign for God to pity, for the Lord asks, should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons (Jonah 4:11). At the same time, the later judgment under Nahum shows that mercy received and later abandoned does not exempt a nation from justice. Nineveh thus holds together God's patience and His righteousness. It stands as a rebuke to narrow hearts and as an open door, proof that the God of Israel is the God of all the earth who delights to forgive.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Nineveh points to Christ through the sign of Jonah. Jesus said, As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40). Jonah's deliverance from the deep prefigures the resurrection, and the preaching that followed prefigures the gospel that calls all nations to repent. Jesus also warned His own generation, The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here (Matt 12:41). A pagan city repented at a reluctant prophet; how much more should hearers repent at the word of Christ Himself. Nineveh's mercy anticipates the wideness of the gospel, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations (Luke 24:47). The mercy shown to Nineveh flows fully in Christ, who came to save the world.
Questions people ask
Why did Jonah not want to go to Nineveh?
Jonah 4:2 reveals that he knew God was merciful and feared that Nineveh, Assyria's cruel capital and Israel's enemy, would repent and be spared. He resented that mercy, so he fled.
Did Nineveh really repent?
Jonah 3 records that the whole city, from the king to the least, believed God, fasted, and turned from their evil way, and God relented from the judgment He had announced.
What is the sign of Jonah?
Jesus said Jonah's three days in the fish prefigured His own three days in the grave before rising (Matt 12:40). He added that Nineveh's repentance condemns those who reject a greater than Jonah (Matt 12:41).