And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (Jonah 3:4.)

The book of Jonah is not only a testimony to God’s sovereignty, but it is a testimony to the effectiveness of His word. God sent a mean, reluctant preacher, with a half-hearted sermon, to a wicked and vicious people, and turned them from their course of sin.

Here is this preacher, preaching a message that, on his part, can neither be called heartfelt, nor compassionate. God does not need your help in the equation to work His word into the hearts of men. He is God all by Himself. And even so, He is pleased to use men to facilitate His word, to bear His word, and to distribute His word. Yet, only God can deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right heart. You may be warm and inviting in your speech, but that won’t open a closed heart. You may be cold and callous, as Jonah, and that won’t close an open heart.

Jonah was not one we would have chosen, nor one that we would have considered effective. And yet God’s preacher is always the right preacher for the job, regardless of what you think about his attitude, his resume, or his pedigree.

Jonah preached this 5 word sermon in the original language. There is no mention of God. There are no instructions to repent. There is no invitation or altar call. And yet the whole city of Nineveh comes to the altar. The last word in our verse of emphasis is “overthrown.” It can mean to be “turned over”, as in being conquered by one's enemy or “turned over,” as in changed, converted, or transformed. God’s message through Jonah was absolutely true, just not as Jonah thought it should be.

God did not only make Jonah preach, but we can see that even Jonah’s selfish preaching was not of himself. We are reminded that the word of God will never return void. Even if it is a piece of word, a smidgen of word, a poorly proclaimed word, a half-hearted word, if it’s God’s word; it’s a word from God.

And that’s the product of preaching. It’s the turning of a soul from inevitable destruction by a word from the Lord. “How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” Give Jonah his much deserved criticism, but at the end of the day, he was certainly not a got-up-and-went preacher, he was God’s sent preacher.

Yuri Solomon holds degrees from Gospel Ministry Outreach Theological Institute and the College of Biblical Studies. He is author of the book Biblical Masculinity. More info @ www.wordtalkonline.org