3 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
4 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.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
3 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
4 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.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
I love the story of Jonah, but you held short of my favorite part of it all.
When Jonah throws a tantrum, and yells at God, telling him that he KNEW God would be merciful, and he didn't WANT Nineveh to be spared. And God basically says back "Jonah... who exactly the hell do you think you are? You can't tell me what to do. If I want to spare the Ninevites, I'll do that. Take a hike."
What is even more amazing is that this story tells of the relationship between God, Israel, and non-Jews both in the past and present. Not only does Jonah reject the salvation of the Gentiles, he, as you mentioned, yells at God the equivalent of, "See! I knew you'd forgive them.", and then the story ends with Jonah (Israel) sitting there, rejecting salvation (symbolized very heavily by his 3 days in the belly of the whale), and resenting God for saving other the nations. He literally and figuratively misses the boat.
Edit: For those unfamiliar with the Bible, Jesus said this: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Which refers to Jonah spending 3 days in the belly of the whale, and Jesus spending 3 days in the grave. Both were resurrected, Jonah by getting vomited out, and Jesus given new life by God.
But the rest of the story is that Nineveh's true colors reappeared later and the city was ultimately destroyed. It wasn't a real repentance and hearts and minds were only temporarily changed. If their culture would have changed, Nineveh might still be around.
They repented for a couple of centuries.
Their leaders changed, the people forgot
Just like America did.
I see a common thread of what happens when God fearing people don't fight for keeping God first in all things, even in government. Remove God, pay the price.
How many times did God destroy Israel, or have them taken into captivity, because they lost their faith as a society?
Six? Seven times? Maybe more.
And God calls them His chosen people.
But He loves us all. As the best Father, He kicks our asses when we head down the wrong path, and raises us up when we turn from evil.
Look around at America. What is going on, what is being accepted, is disgusting.