Can even the worst city be saved?

In Jonah 3:1-10, a reluctant prophet finally preaches to Nineveh — and the most violent city of its day repents. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows how far God’s mercy can reach.

Nineveh was the brutal capital of Assyria, infamous for staggering cruelty — which is part of why Jonah had refused to go. Yet when he finally preaches a short, blunt warning, the entire city, “from the greatest to the least,” turns to God in repentance. Dr. Holt explains that such widespread repentance happened because God enabled it, and points to other unlikely people God saved. Jesus Himself later affirmed that Nineveh’s repentance was real.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why didn’t Jonah want to preach to Nineveh? Because Nineveh was Israel’s brutal enemy, and Jonah did not want them spared. He would rather they be destroyed than forgiven.

2. How did the whole city come to repent? God moved them to respond to Jonah’s warning. From the king down to the least, the people turned from their sin.

3. What does Nineveh’s repentance teach us? That no one is beyond God’s mercy. If the cruelest city of its day could repent and be spared, no sinner is past hope.

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.” — Jonah 3:5 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Jonah Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.