Jonah 03: The Unthinkable Happens

A prophet walks into his enemy’s capital, speaks a single stark warning, and watches an empire kneel. That’s the shock of Jonah 3—and the heartbeat of this conversation: simple obedience meets unthinkable mercy, and the result is a city changed from the throne to the livestock.

We revisit Jonah’s second chance and why it matters for anyone who has ever run the other way. Then we step into Nineveh’s streets to hear the blunt message—“Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown”—and watch the most unlikely audience believe. The king trades robes for rags, a decree calls the city to lay down violence, and even the animals wear burlap in a raw, communal cry for mercy. Beneath the humor is a serious claim: humility moves history, and God sees when people turn from evil.

Along the way, we pull two threads you can carry into your week. First, obedience is the doorway to impact you cannot engineer. Jonah didn’t craft a strategy; he took the next faithful step, and God did the rest. Second, no one is beyond reach. If you’ve written off a person, a family member, or even yourself, Nineveh stands as a witness that God relents when hearts repent. We close with encouragement for “impossible” situations and a prayer for courage to act while trusting God with outcomes.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown
Podcast.
In this podcast, we will bebreaking down the Bible one
chapter a day.
Whether you are a new believeror have been following Christ
for a while, we believe that youwill learn something new and
fresh every single day.
So thank you for joining us.
Let's get into breaking down theBible together.

SPEAKER_01 (00:23):
Well, hello everyone.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Jonah chapter three, andtoday's title is The Unthinkable
Happens.
The Unthinkable Happens.
Look, there are so many thingsabout this chapter.
It is a short chapter.
There's so many things aboutthis that I find absolutely
hilarious.
And I just I can't wait to getinto it.

(00:44):
And you know, you would thinkthat, you know, a guy who is a
prophet given his life to honorGod's word, and he goes the
opposite way when God tells himto go somewhere else.
You'd think that would be themost unthinkable thing.
No, no.
Then you would think there wouldbe a storm.
And they'd throw this Jokeroverboard.
That's unthinkable.
No.
Then he gets eaten by a fish.

(01:05):
Nope.
That's not it.
And then from the belly of thefish, he prays.
And then he gets vomited uponthe shore.
That's the most unthinkablething.
Nope.
That's not it yet.
We're gonna find out about ittoday.
It is gonna be great.
I can't wait to get into it.
So get your Bibles, get yourpopcorn, get your coffee.
It's gonna be great.
While you're doing that, makesure you also like, share,
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.

(01:27):
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
And make sure you're going tothe Bible breakdown discussion
on Facebook.
It's an amazing group of peopledoing a wonderful job.
And as always, the more we dig,the more we find.
And you can get the hub of allof that at the
Biblebreakdown.com.
It's been with us the pastcouple of days.
We've been talking about thebook of Jonah and it's the

(01:49):
beauty of salvation.
It is this wonderful thing thatall along the way, God is
working salvation in so manydifferent ways.
Chapter one, he was workingsalvation in that he is wanting
Jonah to go preach to the peopleof Nineveh.
These horrible people, accordingto the Israelites, very
prejudiced.
The Israelites were veryprejudiced against Nineveh, but

(02:11):
don't worry, the Ninevehes werevery prejudiced back to them.
I mean, they hated each other,and there were good reasons.
They were not nice to oneanother.
So once again, imagine the worstenemy you can think of.
And then God says, I want you togo witness to them.
Witness your salvation story.
Testify to them of what God'sdone in your life.

(02:32):
How quickly would you go dothat?
Or would you be like, Well, God,I don't really want you to save
them.
You know, that's kind of whatJonah was saying.
And so God is offering themsalvation.
Well, then He ends up uh reallysaving all of the people in the
boat after they threw overJonah.
Because when they saw that thewind and the wave stopped, they
gave their lives, they vowed toserve the Lord.

(02:53):
So the beauty of salvationthere.
And then God saves Jonah fromthe fish.
Well, now in chapter three,we're gonna see how God does the
absolute unthinkable.
And there's so many funny thingsabout this chapter.
So we're gonna read this, andthen we're gonna just have some
fun with this.
Here we go.
First of all, I love that theBible says, and this is imagine
Jonah years later is writingback, and it says in verse one,

(03:14):
then the Lord spoke to Jonah asecond time.
So it's like, we're gonna trythis again, Jonah.
Have you learned your lesson?
Yes, sir.
All right, here we go.
Chapter uh verse two.
Get up, go to the great city ofNineveh, and deliver the message
I have given you.
This time, this time Jonahobeyed the Lord's command and
went to Nineveh, a city so largethat it took three days to see

(03:38):
it all.
On the day Jonah entered thecity, he shouted to the crowds,
Forty days from now, Ninevehwill be destroyed.
The people of Nineveh believedGod's message, and from the
greatest to the least theydeclared a fast, and to put on
burlap and to show their sorrow.
When the king of Nineveh heardwhat Jonah was saying, he

(03:59):
stepped down from his throne andtook off his royal robes.
He dressed himself in burlap andsat on a heap of ashes.
Then the king and his noblessent a decree throughout the
city.
I love this, this is so funny.
No one, not even the animals ofyour herds and flocks, may eat
or drink anything at all.
So even little foul uh Phido,even the birds, even the cats,

(04:21):
especially the cats, no onecould eat or drink anything at
all.
The people and those pooranimals alike must wear garments
of mourning, and everyone mustpray earnestly to God.
They must turn from their evilways and stop all their
violence.
Who can tell?
Perhaps yet, even God willchange his mind and hold back

(04:44):
his fierce anger from destroyingus.
When God saw that they what theyhad done and how they had put a
stop to their evil ways, hechanged his mind and did not
carry out the destruction thathe had threatened.
Okay, so I love this.
So, first of all, and we'll getto the the the unthinkable
miracle, but first of all, theyare so serious about this that

(05:07):
they say no one, not evenPookie, Pookie the Chihuahua,
not even the cats, not even yourgoldfish, not your herds, not
your flocks, can eat or drinkanything at all.
And I love this.
People and animals must weargarments of mourning.
Can you imagine trying to putburlap on the cow?

(05:33):
And hey, hey, goat, come overhere.
I need to put some burlap onyou.
You know, come come on come onover here, you know.
And they they do all of this,but it's just a sign of saying
none of us are innocent.
All of us are guilty.
Here's the unthinkable miracle.
Remember, the Ninevites hatedthe Israelites.
And when they saw an Israeliteman coming into their capital

(05:55):
city, it's a miracle they didn'tkill him on the spot.
That's already a beautifulsalvation.
Jonah was allowed to live.
And then not only does he comein, but he comes in speaking
judgment.
He comes in saying, You foolsare gonna die.
God has seen all you have done.
This is the southerninterpretation, right?
God has seen you fools, andy'all, y'all gonna die.

(06:16):
It's over for your kind.
You better get ready, becauseit's over.
And you know what they couldhave so easily done?
Dude, you're not from aroundhere.
You're from Israel.
We're gonna kill you.
But instead, they go, Man, theGod of Israel is powerful.
The God of Israel, He does whathe says.
He's going to kill us.
The best we can do is humbleourselves and pray, and it even

(06:40):
says, Perhaps even yet, God willchange his mind and hold back
his fierce anger.
So they weren't even certain itwas gonna work.
But just at the chance, theydecided they were gonna humble
themselves.
That's unthinkable.
That is amazing.
But you know what?
He was sincere and God forgavethem.

(07:02):
That's powerful.
It's powerful, and it's amazing.
There's two things I'd like totake away from this for us
today.
Number one is look what happenswhen we obey God.
Can you can you imagine forJonah?
He's like, listen, these peoplehate me.
I hate them.
They're probably gonna kill me.
There's no way God can savethese people.
Here we go.

(07:22):
You know that's all God reallyrequired of him.
He didn't require of him tounderstand how it was gonna
work.
He didn't require of him to haveit all figured out.
He just needed him to beobedient and to take the next
step and let God do the miracle.
Look at what happens when we arejust faithful to do the best we
can with what we have.
God does the rest, and he can dothe most unthinkable things

(07:44):
through the most faithful of hisservants.
And then secondly, look at howmuch mercy God can have.
These are terrible people.
They don't serve God.
They don't worship God, they arebrutal destroyers.
But when they humble themselves,no one is beyond the reach of
salvation.

(08:04):
And so this is what I want toleave with you today.
Two things.
Number one, is never think thatsomething is impossible.
Little is much when God is init.
God doesn't require us to haveall the answers.
He requires us to turn ourselvesfully to Him.
Do what we can and trust Himwith the rest.
Are you in the middle of asituation right now that seems
impossible?
It seems hopeless.

(08:24):
There's no way that this can getfigured out.
You know what?
You're probably right.
You're probably right.
You know the situation betterthan anybody else, except for
God.
And the Bible says with manthings are impossible.
So maybe you're right.
Maybe this is impossible.
But that's not where the verseends.
With man things are impossible,but with God all things are
possible.

(08:45):
So I want to encourage you, doyour best, trust God with the
rest.
But then the second thing is tocomfort maybe somebody in here
or somebody who's listening tothis and to say, no one is
outside the reach of God.
God is able to do exceedinglyand abundantly above all we
could ask, think, or imagine,according to the power of God

(09:06):
that works through us.
And so it doesn't matter.
Maybe you've got a a friend, arelative, an in-law, an outlaw,
something in between, and theyjust seem like, God, I just
don't know if you could everreach them.
They're just too far gone.
You know, you're never too fargone for the Lord.
He's always able to reach.
He's always able to go.
And if you have enough faith totrust him, he's got enough power

(09:30):
to deliver from anything.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, God, that you're withus and you're for us.
And I'm so thankful for yourword.
I'm so thankful that itstretches us, it encourages us,
and challenges us in so manyways.
Our job is to trust you and totake the next step, and you
always do the miracle.
I'm thankful for you today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.

(09:51):
Anyway, God's Word says in Jonahchapter two, verse nine,
salvation belongs to the Lord.
And what a beautiful salvationit is.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Jonahchapter four.