Other than the shortness of this lent what is so special about it? Nineveh people showed, by action, how to repent from sin correctly in a manner pleasing to God. The event also showed the mercy of God. God always gives us a second chance. No matter how bad we are, if we genuinely repent our ways and turn around, there is hope for our lives. The other marvelous thing about Nineveh lent was that, they went for the mass repentance without even knowing that it will be accepted by God. Jonah never told them that if they repent, they will be saved. He actually wanted them not to repent so that they will be punished. Jews did not like Nineveh people. This comes from historical distrust arising from the Babylon conquest. So, the repentance of the Ninevites was genuine. They did that without even knowing if there is any benefit of doing so. God, seeing their sincerity, accepted their prayer and sacrifice and cancelled the punishment he had planned for them. Matthew Henry commented on this as follows:

What it is that they hope for - that God will, upon their repenting and turning, change his way towards them and revoke his sentence against them, that he will turn from his fierce anger, which they own they deserve and yet humbly and earnestly deprecate, and that thus their ruin will be prevented, and they perish not. They cannot object against the equity of the judgment, they pretend not to set it aside by appealing to a higher court, but hope in God himself, that he will repent, and that his own mercy (to which they fly) shall rejoice against judgment. They believe that God is justly angry with them, that, their sin being very heinous, his anger is very fierce, and that, if he proceed against them, there is no remedy, but they die, they perish, they all perish, and are undone; for who knows the power of his anger? It is not therefore the threatened overthrow that they pray for the prevention of, but the anger of God that they pray for the turning away of. As when we pray for the favour of God we pray for all good, so when we pray against the wrath of God we pray against all evil.

What degree of hope they had of it: Who can tell if God will turn to us? Jonah had not told them; they had not among them any other prophets to tell them, so that they could not be so confident of finding mercy upon their repentance as we may be, who have the promise and oath of God to depend upon, and especially the merit and mediation of Christ to trust to, for pardon upon repentance. Yet they had a general notion of the goodness of God's nature, his mercy to man, and his being pleased with the repentance and conversion of sinners; and from this they raised some hopes that he would spare them; they dare not presume, but they will not despair. ...

God saw their works; he not only heard their good words, by which they professed repentance, but saw their good works, by which they brought forth fruits meet for repentance; he saw that they turned from their evil way, and that was the thing he looked for and required. If he had not seen that, their fasting and sackcloth would have been as nothing in his account. ...

There were no sacrifices offered to God, that we read of, to make atonement for sin, but the sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, such as the Ninevites now had, is what he will not despise; it is what he will give countenance to and put honour upon.

This gives us great hope. In our case, we know that God will accept our confession and turning away from sin. Jesus has already paid for our sins. So, the acceptance is already guaranteed if we are sincere. There is no uncertainty there.

Jesus was very fond of the people of Ninevites. When the Sadducees and Pharisees were pestering him for a sign, he had given them the example of Jonah. Like Jonah spending three days in the bladder of the whale, the son of god will spend three days in the bladder of the earth. He also told that this wicked generation will be tried and judged by the people of Nineveh. Their sins are completely wiped out as a result of their confession and lent.

Nineveh was a very affluent metropolis in the old testament times. They were influential businessmen. This area is called Mosul in modern day Iraq. Mosul had been the cradle of Christianity. Unfortunately, Islamic State has just about wiped them off the map. Even the tomb, believed to be that of Jonah, was destroyed and desecrated. This part is covered in this edition of Malankara World Journal.

Finally I came across the following devotional comparing Habakkuk with Jonah. It analyzes the age old conflict between mercy and punishment. We see the bad people enjoying the same water, sunshine and other perks given by God, sometimes even better than the devoted and often wonder why. How come God let people like ISIS get away with the atrocities they do to Christians? That is because of Mercy. In the long run, we are better off having a merciful God than a vengeful God. Because we can all be punished by God if He does not dilute His vengeance with mercy. Here is the excerpt from Habakkuk:

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
- Habakkuk 3:2b

This is an interesting and overlook-able four words right in the midst of Habakkuk's prayer to God. First he praises God for his awesome deeds, asks Him to make those deeds known, then he takes a twist and asks God to have mercy when He's doling out His wrath. It's almost as if Habakkuk's saying, "go easy on those who can't really see your awesome deeds!"

Contrast this with another prophet, Jonah. After Jonah preached to Nineveh, he sulked because he knew that God would spare Nineveh if they repented. And God did spare Nineveh (one instance of Habakkuk's prayer being answered).

I find that I fall into Jonah's camp of desiring God to completely destroy civilizations much more often than Habakkuk's view that God should exercise mercy when He's angry. It's a tension we need to experience occasionally to keep our emotions and thoughts in check. It probably wouldn't hurt us to err on the side of mercy.

God, with his mercy, is unpredictable. We do not know how God will react to certain situation. Will he be outraged and destroy like he did to Earth at Noah's time or to Sodom and Gomorrah or save them as he did to Ninevites. When the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus, two of Jesus' disciples prayed to him to bring the fire from heaven and consume them and show them. Yes, Jesus could have done that. But he didn't. He took a way around the village. When the sisters of Lazar send messengers to Jesus saying that Lazar is very sick, Jesus could have said a word and could have healed him. But he didn't. He let Lazar die and the sisters and the village had to go through the mourning process before he resurrected him. So, God's actions and reactions, by nature, are mostly uncertain. Will he answer our prayers today or will he say "wait" or "no". We will never know. But we know it is always tempered with mercy.

Harold C. Warlick Jr. has the following to say about that:

God essentially wanted Jonah to engage in God's process of judgment, repentance, and forgiveness. God came to Jonah twice. God comes to every church and every Christian twice. Our initial attraction usually comes when we grasp the idea of the sovereignty of God. God is, indeed, judge of God's creation. Yet God's nature is also one of tenderness and forgiveness. Consequently God's call is to grow, to be enriched by all God's creation, and learn from it. In short, God has made us and our churches co-creators in that process of judgment, repentance, and forgiveness. God is growing and we grow with God and God grows with us. This process so directly laid out for Jonah is a common denominator which is a recognizable line throughout the scriptures and church history. ...

We can take heart in the story of Jonah, for in the end God is as forgiving of Jonah as God is of those in Nineveh. In like manner, when Jesus prays to God that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, then speaks of forgiving others, he is painting a picture of heaven as a forgiving place. And in his post-resurrection appearances he comes back to those he has forgiven and even breaks bread and is recognized not as a ghost but as one who shares the common meal with as yet imperfect humans. Apparently forgiveness still goes on in heaven when we bring our limited perceptions and judgments there.

Yes, our God is a God of Love, Forgiveness and Mercy. He is a God of second chances. Amen.