Jonah 3

CHAPTER 3THEME: The God of the second chance; Jonah arrives in Nineveh; Nineveh believes God; Nineveh is not destroyedOur timetable for the Book of Jonah tells us that all along Jonah’s destination has been the city of Nineveh. As we come to chapter 3, his destination is still Nineveh, he leaves the dry land, and he is going to arrive in Nineveh! It has taken him three chapters, and he has had to detour through a fish, but he finally makes it. The turning around place for him was that fishit turned him around and headed him in the right direction. I would like to write over this third chapter the words of the Lord Jesus in His day: “For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevite, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation” (Luk_11:30).

Jonah 3:1

THE GOD OF THE SECOND CHANCE"The word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time." I was speaking on the Book of Jonah many years ago at a summer conference, and there was a school teacher attending the meetings. She was a lovely person, but after every session, she would come to me with a question. (School teachers always could ask me questions that I couldn’t answer!) One day she asked me this question: “Suppose that after Jonah got out of the fish, he went back to Joppa and bought another ticket to go to Tarshish. What would have happened?” I had never been asked that question before, but I told herand I still believe itthat there would have been a second fish out there waiting for him. But that wasn’t necessary because Jonah had already learned his lesson. Now he was going to Ninevehthere’s no question about thathe was headed for Nineveh. I think the same thing could be said of the prodigal son. Suppose that the next year that boy had said, “Dad, stake me again. I’m going to the far country.” Do you think the father would have staked him? I think he would have. The interesting thing is that the boy didn’t go to the far country. Why? Because he is a son of the father, and he didn’t want to get into the pigpen again. God’s children may get into sin, but they surely are not going to live in sin. Pigs live in pigpens, and sons live in the father’s house. It is just that simple and just that important. “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time.” Our God is the God of the second chancewhat a marvelous, wonderful thing that is! God will give you a second chance, and He will give you more than that. I know that He has given me a dozen different chances. He is long-suffering and patient. He is not willing that any should perish. If you are His child, He is going to hold on to youyou may be sure of that. Jonah now gets the call from God a second time. I do not believe that the great corporations of our day would give a man a second chance. General Motors or Standard Oil or General FoodsI have a notion that they would not give a man a second chance. Years ago here in California I became acquainted with a man who was the first vice-president of the Bank of America, which is a tremendous banking corporation. He is a very wonderful Christian and a personal friend of mine. I asked him one time, “Suppose that in one of the branches of your bank the manager absconded with all the funds, disappeared down to South America somewhere, and then, after a few years, came back and asked to be forgiven and given another chance.

Would you give him a job?” He replied, “No. He’s through.” Such a man would not be given another chance. Isn’t it wonderful that God gives us a second chance? This is not something unusual that God did just in Jonah’s case. God is not making an exception with Jonah. Remember the story of Jacob way back in the Book of Genesis? Jacob failed again and again and again and again until he actually became a disgrace to God and a source of embarrassment to Him. But God never let him go. Jacob was a trickster.

He was clever. He tried to live by his own ability even when he went down to live with his Uncle Laban. Laban was smarter than Jacob and put it over on him, but Jacob did what he could, and he did pretty well. In the end, Jacob had to flee from Laban and get out of the country. He had antagonized both his father-in-law and his brother, Esau, because of his conduct. But he could not keep on like that because he was God’s man.

He did want to serve God, but what a poor showing he made of it. As far as I’m concerned, I would have gotten rid of him and would have gotten someone else if I had been the Lord, but God didn’t do that. At Peniel, when Jacob came back to the land, God wrestled with him one night. Sometimes it is said that Jacob wrestled with God. Jacob didn’t wrestle with God, my friend. With his father-in-law behind him and his brother ahead of him, both of them wishing Jacob dead, you may be sure of one thing: Jacob was not looking for another wrestling match! He had enough problems on his hands, and he was not about to do any wrestling. It was God who wrestled with him at Peniel. That man had to learn something that night. God crippled him before He got him, but when Jacob saw that he was losing, he finally just held on and asked for a blessing. From that day on, Jacob was a different man. He was changed, as we can see down there in Egypt when he met his grandchildren, Joseph’s sons. I’m a grandfather, and I know that a grandpa is inclined to boast just a little; you would like your grandsons to think well of you. But old Jacob didn’t tell his grandsons how smart he was or how clever he was, how he put it over on Esau or how he put it over on his father-in-law Laban. This is what he did say: “May the Lord, who kept me from evil, keep the lads” (see Gen_48:16). What a change had come over him! How humble he was. He was now resting in God, and he was a different man. Then there is the story of David. Even today there are a great many folk who like to criticize David. One evil old man came to me with a leer in his eyes and a sneer in his voice, and he said to me, “Why did God say that David was a man after His own heart?” I asked him, “Are you trying to stay that it was because David committed murder and adultery that God said that about him? Is that what you are trying to say?” “Well, it certainly looks that way,” he said. That man simply hadn’t read the record at all. It is true that David committed an awful sin, but God punished him for it. God took him to the woodshed and whipped him within an inch of his life. Finally his heart was broken when his son Absalom was slain. That was the boy he had wanted to be king, but Absalom betrayed him. He led a rebellion against David and was murdered. How David wept! He cried, “Oh, Absalom, my son, Absalom; would to God that I had died in your stead!” (see 2Sa_18:33). David feared that Absalom did not know God, and so he was heartbroken the rest of his life. God punished David because of his sin, but God forgave David when he came to Him and said, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation …” (Psa_51:12). I went on to tell that old man who had come to me, “You know, you ought to be very glad that God said David was a man after His own heart because of his relationship with God. If God would save a man like David, He might save you, and He might save me. You ought to be thankful He’s that kind of a God. He gave David a second chance, and He will give you a second and a third chance.” Simon Peter also stumbled and fell and got himself dirty. He denied Christ, and when he looked through that judgment hall, he caught the eyes of the Lord. They were not eyes looking at him in anger but in pity and in mercy. Peter went outside and wept. And then when our Lord came back from the dead, He appeared to Simon Peter privately so that Simon Peter could get things straightened out with Him. My friend, if you are a child of God and get into sin, you can come back to Him, but you’d better mean business, and you’d better be sincere. You can go to Him and tell Him what you can tell no one else. He will accept you and receive youHe is the God of the second chance. There is another man who failedJohn Mark. He wasn’t much of a missionary at first. In fact, he was chicken; he turned and went home. I once heard of a man who said that the reason he didn’t fly in airplanes was because he had back trouble. When he was asked what kind of back trouble he had, he replied, “I’ve got a yellow streak up and down my back.” John Mark had a yellow streak up and down his backhe turned and left that first missionary journey of the apostle Paul. Good old Barnabas wanted to forgive him and take him on the second missionary journey, but Paul said, “I won’t take him again.

I’m through with him. I’m not about to take with me anyone who turns and runs home to mama as that boy did.” Paul had to change his mind later, because God will receive, and God did receive John Mark. So when Paul wrote his swan song, 2 Timothy, he said, “Take, Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry” (2Ti_4:11). John Mark made good. Aren’t you glad that God gives us a second chance? My final illustration is one not from the Bible but is very much up-to-date. Years ago here in Southern California, I was teaching the Book of Jonah on an evening radio broadcast that I had at that time. A day or two after I had enlarged on this first verse of the third chapter, I received a letter from a medical doctor in Beverly Hills, California. He said, “I want you to know that this verse is now the most important verse in the Bible to me. When you said that God is the God of the second chance, I came back to Him.” He went on in his letter to tell me his story. He had come from Chicago where he had been a prominent doctor and also an officer in the church.

Problems arose in the church which involved the handling of property and funds. He was blamed for the problems, although he was not guilty and had not been involved at all. He became bitter and actually left the Chicago area. He came to California and established an office here, but he never would darken the door of a church. He did, however, listen to me on the radio. When I said that God is a God of the second chance, this man wrote that “it was just like a cool drink of water to a man who was out on the desert, dying of thirst.

That meant more to me than anything.” I sat down and wrote that man a letter, and I did what any preacher would doI urged him to get into a church and to get busy again for the Lord. He wrote again and said, “I’m already back in church and busy for the Lord.” God is the God of the second chance, my friend; He is wonderful. Jonah’s story is an illustration of how God treats His children when they sin and come back to Him. The prodigal son came home. When he came home, he didn’t get a beating; he got a banquet. He didn’t get kicked around; he got kisses. Instead of the poor boy being put out of the house and rejected, the father took the boy back. How wonderful this is!

Jonah 3:2

JONAH ARRIVES IN NINEVEHNow we are going to see how God is gracious to a sinful city. This is a record of perhaps the greatest revival in the history of the world; that is, what we call a revivalpeople turning to God. What happened in Nineveh makes the Day of Pentecost look very small. A few thousand turned to God on the Day of Pentecost, but there were several hundred thousand in the city of Nineveh who turned to God. There has never been anything quite like itan entire city turned to God! No one else has ever seen that happen. The apostle Paul never stayed in a city until everyone was converted; he just preached the Word and moved on to the next town. No one from that day down to the present has seen such a moving of the Spirit of God as took place in Nineveh so long ago. It is interesting to note that all this happened in Nineveh before the church arrived on the scene, and the greatest revival of all time will take place after the church leaves the earth. You see, God is simply not dependent upon the church. If you have the notion that the church or your church or your group are the only ones God has ever had in mind, I say to you very candidly that it is a false notion. God has something even bigger in mind than the church. Now the church is to be the bride of Christ and will, I think, occupy the very closest place to the Son of God throughout eternity, but God had a purpose in mind before the church got here and even before man appeared on this earth. God was not sitting around, twiddling His thumbs and waiting for man to come along, my friend! Today His purpose is to call out a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. We believe that we are coming to the end of the age and that God wants the Word to go out so that everyone might hear. However, the greatest revival, the greatest turning to God, is yet in the future, and the story of Nineveh is just a small adumbration of that. We have been told before that this city of Nineveh was a great city (see Jon_1:2), and the last verse of the book of Jonah also says, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” (Jon_4:11). The unbeliever has criticized the Book of Jonah on many counts, and one of them is the fact that three times in this book it says that Nineveh was a great city, an exceeding great city. The Ninevites were great in sin, to be sure, but they also had a very large city. However, nothing was known about Nineveh until 1845 when Sir Austen Layard was the first to examine the ruins of this city; he and George Smith excavated the ancient city of Nineveh. Nineveh proper, that is, the tell of Nineveh, was across the Tigris River from the modern city of Mosul. It was built in the shape of a trapezium, which was about two and one-half miles in length and a mile and one-third in breadth. That would make it a pretty good-sized place, but I would say very frankly that that does not meet the demands of the Book of Jonah. The city of Nineveh lay in a plain which was almost entirely surrounded by rivers. The Tigris River came along to a point at which the Upper Zab River ran into it, forming a V-shaped valley between the two rivers. Then across the top of them, at the north, there was a range of mountains. This entire area, therefore, was protected by the natural fortifications of the rivers and the mountains. There were several prominent cities in this natural enclosure. Nineveh was located up on the Tigris River. Down at the fork where the Upper Zab flowed into the Tigris was Calah, as it is called in Scripture, now known as the Nimrud ruins. Calah was eighteen miles southeast of Nineveh proper. The city of Khorsabad was twelve miles to the northeast of Nineveh on the Upper Zab River. This statement by Jonah that Nineveh was a great city sounds strange for a day when cities were walled and were by necessity very compact and small. What surprises many folk when they go to Jerusalem is the fact that the walled city is so small. It was even smaller in Christ’s day and certainly in David’s day than it is today. The walled city of ancient days was very compact. It was really a fortress for the people to come into in time of siege. In Nineveh there were really three walled citiesNineveh proper, Calah, and Khorsabad.

Nineveh became the capital, and the entire area was known by its name. In that fertile valley, then, there lived a great multitude of folk who in time of siege would go into these cities. They tell us that one of the reasons Nineveh fell was not primarily because of the enemy from the outside, but because of a flood that took out one whole section of the wall of the city. It is quite interesting that when we go back to the Book of Genesis, we read this: “Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city” (Gen_10:11-12). All the way through the Word of God, the greatness of this city is emphasized. All of this area was given the name of Nineveh because it was the capital. One of the ancient writers, Ctesias, describes Nineveh as a city whose circuit Isaiah 480 stadia. This would mean that its circumference was over twenty-seven miles. So we find that Nineveh was “an exceeding great city” with one community after another. Here in Southern California we have a situation very similar to Nineveh’s. The Los Angeles area includes at least twenty-five smaller municipalities besides the actual city of Los Angeles. We speak of all of them as being a part of “the greater Los Angeles area,” which covers a great deal of ground. In fact, the joke during World War II was that a soldier who got lost up in Alaska and was trying to find his way back finally came to a sign that said, LOS ANGELES CITY LIMITS, and he knew he was no longer lost! Nineveh was a great citygreat in size and great in wickedness. This city was guilty of the same sins, which we read about in the other prophetic books, that brought God’s judgment. In the Books of Amos and Hosea, we find that the reason God brought judgment upon the people was because of their luxurious living and sexual immorality, because of their godless music, and because of their drunkenness. The same things could be said of Nineveh. They were given over to idolatry, their cruelty and brutality to their enemies were unspeakable, and there was gross immorality in the city. It was a city of wine and women, of the bottle and the brothel, of sauce and sex. These were the things that identified the great city of Nineveh. It is into this great city that Jonah is now called to go and to minister.

Jonah 3:3

Notice that Jonah is now doing things “according to the word of the LORD.” The first time he had set sail for Tarshish, which was not according to the word of the Lord; now he is going into Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. “Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.” This, of course, is the statement which caused the critics to laugh and to ridicule. The fact of the matter is, as we have explained, it would take several hours to go through just one of these cities, but there were three cities as well as a great area between them in which was a population estimated at several million. It is into this area that Jonah is now coming. It was “an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”

Jonah 3:4

The point is that it took Jonah quite a while to cover this ground. He didn’t have radio, he didn’t even have a loud speakerand I’ve often wondered how he did it. I think of Nineveh’s similarity to the Los Angeles area. I live in a city called Pasadena, about ten miles from downtown Los Angeles. To the south of Pasadena about twenty-five miles is Long Beach, and to the west about twenty miles is Santa Monica. All in between there is just one city after another.

Imagine Jonah starting out walking here in Southern California (he didn’t have a car, by the way). He would stop at a street corner, a busy intersection, and give his message. Then he would move on down the street to another intersection and, while he was waiting for the traffic signal to change, he would speak to another crowd. In this manner it would take him quite some time to get through a city. At this point someone is going to ask me, “How did Jonah get a crowd?” Drawing a crowd is always a problem for a preacher. It’s natural and normal for us to want as many people as possible to hear the Word of God. How did Jonah do it? He didn’t use any of our modern methods or our modern tactics. He didn’t rent a great auditorium and put on a great campaignthere’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, that’s very right to do todaybut Jonah didn’t do it. He didn’t use any gimmicks. He didn’t bring in celebrities or some great singer. He didn’t entertain the crowd. That was not his method. Jonah used a method that is a little different from any that we could use today. His method was that he was a man from the dead, and I think he was rather spectacular to see. A man who has spent three days and three nights in a fish simply cannot come out looking like he did when he went in! If you recall the illustrations which I gave earlier of the men who had been swallowed by a fish and lived to tell the story, you will remember that the late Dr. Harry Rimmer told about seeing one man who had spent two days inside a fish. The man was put on display in London as “the Jonah of the twentieth century.” When Dr. Rimmer interviewed him two years after it had happened, this man didn’t have a hair on his body, and his skin was a yellowish-brown color. You see, the gastric juices of the fish had reacted upon the individual as the fish had tried to digest him. Those chemicals were bound to have an effect upon him, and this is apparently what happened to Jonah also. You can imagine the color of Jonah’s skin, and you can imagine how he must have looked. When he stopped at a corner and the crowd gathered, they would say, “Brother, where have you been?” Jonah told them, “I am a man from the dead. A fish swallowed me because God had sent me to Nineveh but I tried to run away to Tarshish.” People didn’t ridicule Jonah’s story. They listened to him. I am told that in Russia today, out through the rural areas, there is a great company of people who have turned to the Lord. On one of our tours to Bible lands, I went ahead of the group and was fortunate to go through Belgrade, Yugoslavia. There was a mix-up about the time we were to be there, but I understand that there were some five hundred Christians who were going to be there to welcome us had they known our arrival time. This happened because some of our tapes are being translated into Yugoslavian, Romanian, and several other languages and are being used by folk there today. There is a real moving of the spirit of God in places where we would not expect it. Who would have thought that in the wicked city of Nineveh people would listen to the Word of God and to a man who said, “I’m back from the dead”? By the way, that is the same message we have. We have a message concerning a man who came back from the dead. Paul writes, “…if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom_4:24-25). Jonah entered the city with a message of judgment: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” I think Jonah gave that message with relishhe didn’t like Ninevites!

Jonah 3:5

NINEVEH BELIEVES GOD"So the people of Nineveh believed God"that is a marvelous statement to find in the Old Testament. All God has ever asked any person, any sinner, to do is simply to believe Him. What does He ask you to believe? Believe what He has done for you. Believe that Christ died for youthat He died for you and for your sins. Believe that He was raised again and is now at God’s right hand. The people of Nineveh believed Godthat is still the important thing today. I am afraid that we have in our churches many people who are as busy as termitesthey take little courses, and they talk a great deal about the Biblebut they do not know God. I was speaking with a man the other day who is that type of an individual; he goes to everything that comes along. I had gotten a little weary of hearing him tell about where he’d been and what he’d seen. He has done very little, but he is always telling about the great meetings he attends. I asked him pointblank, “Do you believe God?” He thought for a minute and then said, “Well, I think I do.” May I say to you, all of his work is of no value because he does not really believe God. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast.” They demonstrated their belief. Faith always leads to works. “And put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”

Jonah 3:6

Friend, when people start doing these things they no longer will be committing sin. They are in deep repentance before God and are asking God for mercy. And when you ask God for mercy, you are going to find out that He is merciful.

Jonah 3:7

These people, many of whom were alcoholics, are now told not even to drink water.

Jonah 3:8

You, also, must turn from sin, my friend. If you come to Christ, you can come just as you are, but when you come, you will turn from sin. You cannot possibly accept Him and not turn from sin. “Let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.” The Ninevites were a brutal and violent people. They were given to riots. They were given to cruelty and brutality and mob rule. Now the king says, “Turn from all of that and cry to God for mercy.” The strangest thing happenedthe whole city turned to God! Now that was remarkable; in fact, it was quite amazing. From the king on the throne to the peasant in the hovel, they all turned to the Lord. They cried mightily to God, and they believed God. What a glorious, wonderful time this was! We hear today that we are having revival in certain places. I do not think that you can call what is taking place anywhere (certainly not in the United States) a revival. I do think we are seeing a great moving of the Spirit of God in certain places. Wherever the Word of God is preached and taught, you will see a moving of the Spirit of God; but we are not seeing revival. Instead, we find that the church is quite inactive as far as getting out the Word of God, winning people to Christ, and building them up in the faith. When I speak of the church, I mean you and me, all of us who are believers, regardless of the group with which we are identified or the local assembly to which we go. Someone sent me this little quote because he had heard me say that there are a great many church members who are not real believers. Here it is: “Church members are either pillars or caterpillars. The pillars hold up the church; the caterpillars just crawl in and out.” That’s accurate, my friend. That is our problem today. We have too many caterpillars and not enough pillars to hold up the church.

Jonah 3:9

NINEVEH IS NOT DESTROYEDJonah went to the city of Nineveh, and the entire city turned to God. This was something that had never happened before. Certainly Noah didn’t have this kind of experience!but Jonah did. What will God do now that the city has turned to Him? The king himself asks the question We have come to what is probably the strongest statement in Scripture about God repenting. What does it mean when Scripture says that God repented? Does God repent? The word repentance as it is used in both the Old and New Testaments primarily means “a change of mind.” In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), the word is metanoesen, meaning “to change your mind.” The question arises then: Does God change His mind? One of the attributes of God is that He is immutable, which means that He never changes. There is no reason for God to change. He knows the end from the beginning. When the Los Angeles Times came out this morning, it didn’t tell God a thing. God has not learned anything from the politicians or from our colleges todaythey haven’t taught Him anything. God knows the end from the beginning, and there is no reason for Him to change His mind. He is carrying on the program that He outlined at the beginning, and He is simply following through on it. Therefore, God does not change. But Scripture does say that God repents. Follow me carefully here: There are expressions used in the Word of God which are called anthropomorphic terms; that is, there are certain attributes of man which are ascribed to God. In the Bible certain physical and psychological attributes of man are attributed to God. First of all, let us look at some physical attributes of mankind that are ascribed to God. It says in Scripture that “…the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth …” (2Ch_16:9, italics mine). Does that mean that God has eyes like I have? If He does, are they blue or brown or gray eyes? God is a spirit, and He does not have eyes like we have. But the one who made the eye can see, and He can see without the eye. The Lord knew that Vernon McGee would have a problem understanding that, and so He said, “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” I can understand that nowthat means that God sees everything. That is an anthropomorphic term, ascribing to God an attribute that belongs to man in order that we can understand. The Bible also speaks of the arm of the Lord and the hand of the Lord. That is very helpful to my understanding, but the one who made my hand and my arm does not have a hand or an arm like I have because God is a spirit. But the Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork” (Psa_19:1)that really means finger work. John Wesley put it like this: “God created the heavens and the earth, and He didn’t even half try.” Finger work is like crocheting or knitting; it doesn’t require a great deal of muscle. You don’t have to do sitting up exercises for six months before you can learn to knit. God created the heavens and the earththat is His finger work. However, when Isaiah was speaking of God’s salvation and His redemption, he said, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the [bared] arm of the LORD revealed?” (Isa_53:1, italics mine). I understand now what I would not have understood before: It cost God more, and it was more difficult for Him to redeem man than it was for Him to create a universe. These are examples of anthropomorphic terms, of physical attributes of man being attributed to God for the sake of our understanding. The Scriptures also attribute certain psychological attributes of man to God. For example, the anger of the Lord. Does God get angry? He surely does. He is angry with the wicked all of the time. God can get angry, but His anger is not like my anger. I get angry when I hear that someone has said something bad about me, but that doesn’t bother God at all. His anger is not peevish or petulant but is an anger that is against all wickedness and sin. Scripture tells us that God loves, and that is something I can understand. In fact, in the little Book of Ruth, God takes a very human relationshipthe love of a man for a womanas a picture of His love for us. Also, the church is called the bride of Christ. That tells us something of the love of God. God loves you, and you cannot keep Him from loving you. Here in Jonah we have another example: God repents. To repent means to change your mind; that is what it means when it applies to me. When I repent, I change my mind. I did something wrong, and I now see that it was wrong. I turn from it, and I go to God and ask forgiveness for itI come over on God’s side. To confess your sin is to come over and agree with God about your sin. But does God repent like that? Does He change His mind? Does He say, “My, I made a mistake there; I shouldn’t destroy Nineveh”? No. We need to see that the city of Nineveh had two options when this man Jonah entered it with his message of judgment. They could reject God’s message, they could ignore it, they could pay no attention to it, and if they did, they would be destroyedGod’s never changed that. Or they could accept God’s message, they could turn to Him, and God would deliver and save them. God is immutableHe never changes. When His Word is rejected, when people turn from Him, they are lost. But when they turn to Him, He will always save them, regardless of who they are. Therefore, who changed? Did God change? No, but it looked as if He did. Jonah had said, “Yet forty days, and this city is going to be destroyed. God is going to destroy it.” But God did not destroy Nineveh. Did God break His Word? No. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The city had two options. If they had not accepted His Word, they would have been destroyed. But they did accept God’s message, they believed God, and they turned from their wickedness. God didn’t change; He will always save people when they turn to Him. Although it looked as if God changed, it was really the city of Nineveh that changed, and that makes all the difference in the world.