Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

Jesus came preaching the good news, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17). The Lord wants us to recognize the ways of sin, to regret being involved in them, and to return to His old paths of righteousness for life. "He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from of the book of life, and I will confess his name before the Father, and before His angels," (Revelation 3:5). When it was reported to Jesus that Pilate killed some Galileans while they were sacrificing in Jerusalem, he probably wanting a condemnation of those people as being wicked, since they received such a tragic end, but Jesus tells them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all Galileans, because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will likewise perish." (Luke 13:3). When Peter asks Jesus if they should forgive up to seven times, thinking he was giving a lot of room here, and Jesus tells him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." (Matthew 18:21-22), meaning in indefinite number, as long as the one keeps honestly repenting of his sin to you.

 That brings us to our question, "Did Jonah want Nineveh to repent?". When the Lord came to Jonah asking him to travel to Nineveh and cry against it because their wickedness had come before Him, Jonah traveled towards Tarshish which he felt would be away from the presence of the Lord by ship. A great storm assailed the ship, and so much so, that the crew cast lots to see upon whom this storm was sent by his god. When the lot fell to Jonah, they asked him why, and he told them his story of fleeing from God, and after valiantly trying to row out of the storm, they relented and threw Jonah overboard, because he had told him that would calm the storm, which it did, and a great fish appointed by God swallowed Jonah (Jonah 1:1-17). Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and nights and then prayed to the Lord and the fish vomited Jonah up (Jonah 2:1-10).

 Then the Lord called to Jonah a second time saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you." (Jonah 3:2). Then Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to the city which was a three days walk across it and cried out, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.' The people of Nineveh believed in God; they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them." (Jonah 3:3-5). Even the king sent out a proclamation to not only put sackcloth on themselves, but their beast also, to neither eat nor drink, and that they should turn from their wicked ways so that the God may withdraw His anger and they not perish. When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked ways, He relented from the calamity that He was to bring upon them in forty days (Jonah 3:6-10).

 So then, for the answer to our question we turn and read, "But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, 'Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.' And the Lord said, 'Do you have good reason to be angry?'" (Jonah 4:1-4). So there we have the answer to our question as Jonah did not want Nineveh to repent, but to be overthrown by God because they were a wicked people!

 But the lesson is not quite over as Jonah goes outside the city to sit and see what, if anything, would happen. Since it was extremely hot out there, the Lord appointed a plant to grow up overnight to shade Jonah, which made him very happy, but then a worm attacked it and it died the next day and the sun was again so very hot that Jonah exclaimed, "'Death is better for me than life.' Then God said to Jonah, ' Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?' And he said, ' I have good reason to be angry, even unto death.' Then the Lord said, 'You had compassion on the plant for which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?'" (Jonah 4:8-11). The lord has compassion and shows mercy on those who show deeds of repentance and turn to Him. Jonah wanted them to be destroyed, and only learned the lesson of compassion because of a plant that he longed to have back, and to forgive up to seven times seventy!

 Not only did Nineveh repent of their wicked ways, but the Lord says this concerning them and the wicked men who stood against Jesus when He walked the earth. "The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here." (Matthew 12:41). May we too be like the men of Nineveh, repenting of our sins and stand up for the ways to life eternal!