In | Jonah’s Sermon

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 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.
Jonah 3:3-5 ESV

This sentence is the entirety of Jonah’s sermon to Nineveh. This may be the most perfunctory sermon in the history of prophets—and it works. He doesn’t give instructions or make qualifying remarks of any kind, but the people take it upon themselves to fast and wear sackcloth. Sackcloth was a coarse garment that became a symbol of mourning, and after Jonah’s lackluster speech, even Nineveh’s king put it on while sitting in ashes.

While “Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth,” Jonah only takes the trouble to go just one single day’s journey into the city. He doesn’t even make it halfway. This is the definition of “half-hearted.” Jonah seems to do whatever he can to compromise his message—and the whole city is still converted. The irony of Jonah’s beginning continues to the end. The character of God, “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness” (Ex 34:6 NASB), is demonstrated in a most unlikely setting.