EXPOSITION:

Jonah now obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh, a very large city.Jonah proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. “The Ninevites believed God and entered into a fast, all of them, from the greatest to the least.

The king of Nineveh, himself rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust (Verse 7), with the proclamation that, no people or animals, herds or flocks, must eat or taste anything, neither were they to drink anything also. Instead, they were to call upon God and to give up their evil ways.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened (verse 10).

Fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual condition to you, resulting in brokenness, repentance, and a transformed life.

A total fast of both human and beast in Nineveh attracted the mercy of God on the land. What was not a reality suddenly was, what hadn’t worked suddenly did, the emerging disaster was averted through an act of humility with a concordant restoration of the broken relationship with God.