Jonah, the amazing evangelist?! That's not exactly how I would put it. The prophet Jonah was probably the worst evangelist in all recorded history. A strong statement, you say? Juvenile hyperbole? Take a moment to consider the matter, and then please write to me and explain how Jonah could have possibly been any worse than he was. Just how bad an evangelist was Jonah? Let us count the ways.…

First, he hated the people he was preaching to. Perhaps "hated" isn't a strong enough word. He truly loathed the Ninevites. The Bible makes it clear that Jonah actually wanted to die more than he wanted to go to Nineveh. When the storm came up at sea, Jonah didn't tell the crew to turn the ship around and drop him off somewhere close to Nineveh; he told them to throw him overboard. Now that really tells you something about the depth of Jonah's feelings on the subject.

The force of Jonah's anger leads him to suicidal tendencies on more than one occasion in the biblical account. Of course, it doesn't take a degree in psychology to understand that public speakers who despise their audiences do not tend to go over very well. And yet there is Jonah, barely managing to keep the lid on his repressed feelings of bitterness and rage, watching dumbfounded as 120,000 people repent at his message. And he didn't even want them to repent. Imagine—an evangelist who actually wants to see his listeners burn in hell. How can you possibly be worse than that?

Secondly, Jonah was a terrible evangelist because he offered no hope to his audience. The Bible distills his entire message down to a single sentence: "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4). There is no hint of grace, hope, or divine compassion to be found in the preaching of Jonah. No possibility of forgiveness or pardon is offered. All you find is judgement and condemnation. Not exactly a "good news" gospel, and certainly not the pathway to success as a motivational speaker. But succeed Jonah does.

Thirdly, not only does Jonah have issues with the Ninevites, leading him to make his message as stark and hopeless as possible in the hopes that no one will accept it, but Jonah has serious issues with God as well. The story brings out the fact that he is actually repulsed by the gracious and forgiving aspects of God's character. And this man—a pathetic, petty, selfish, prejudiced, bitter little man—causes the entire city of Nineveh to repent?! The whole thing is completely ludicrous.

But that is precisely the point. Do we not often discover that the power of the point God is trying to make is found precisely in the absurdity of the events directed by his providence? I believe so, and in my mind the great absurdity (and greatest lesson) of Jonah is found in the paradox that the single worst evangelist in all recorded history sets off single greatest revival in all recorded history.

Again, there may be some readers who will question whether or not the revival in Nineveh is the greatest of all time, but I can find no other that surpasses it. Let us take a moment to consider some of the great biblical revivals. Pentecost? Not even close. How can you compare 3,000 people with 120,000 people? It is not my intention to belittle what happened at Pentecost, but it just cannot compare to the comprehensiveness of the revival in Nineveh. I don't remember reading that any Ninevite skeptics ever accused Jonah of being drunk in the middle of the day, for instance. The apostles were persecuted at every turn in Jerusalem. In Nineveh, even the farm animals were repenting.

Another biblical revival some might point to is that of king Hezekiah (2 Chron. 29–31). This was indeed a great revival, and the Bible does say "there was nothing like this in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon" (2 Chron. 30:26), but it was not as universally accepted by the people as the revival in Nineveh. When Hezekiah sent out messengers to invite the people to celebrate the Passover, most of the people "laughed them to scorn and mocked them" (2 Chron. 30:10). Only a few men are said to have "humbled themselves" and come to Jerusalem (v. 11). No such caveats exist in the Nineveh account.

Probably the most comprehensive revival that ever took place in Judah occurred during the time of Josiah (2 Kings 23). Josiah's efforts are described in glowing terms by the biblical writers: "Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might" (v. 25). High praise, indeed, but the very next line in the biblical narrative is significant: "However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah" (v. 26).

In the biblical portrayal of events, even Josiah is unable to deflect God's wrath from Jerusalem as effectively as the Ninevites did from their city. The bottom line is that the revival in Nineveh is unparalleled in Scripture for its comprehensiveness, its earnestness, and its effectiveness.

One cannot help but be struck by the supremacy of this gentile revival over any that ever occurred among the Israelites. It is a curious fact of the Hebrew Scriptures that pagans often accept the truth more readily than God's own chosen people. God himself once commented to Ezekiel that he was sending him "to the house of Israel—not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language.… Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you" (Ezek. 3:5–6).

Jesus was certainly cognizant of this phenomenon and referred to it on numerous occasions, much to the chagrin of his Jewish listeners: "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah…and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath…to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:25–27). Those comments nearly got him thrown off the cliff at Nazareth.

When Jesus spoke specifically about the story of Jonah, he famously referred to it as a "sign," explaining it in this way: "The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgement and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here" (Matt. 12:41). Jesus thus presents the revival in Nineveh as a sign and a witness against the Jewish nation, and a clear warning for us today who consider ourselves spiritual Israel.

The sign of Jonah, according to Jesus, is that the "gentiles" repent whereas the "Jews" do not. And that is a sure sign of condemnation for those who think they possess the truth.

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