Ninevites shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold, more than Jonas [is] here.
The Lord has just refused the Pharisees' demand for a sign. He points them to Jonah instead, and He names the people of Nineveh — a foreign city with no knowledge of God — as witnesses who will stand up against His own nation at the judgment. Two hard questions follow. How could outsiders believe when God's own people would not? And what did it mean that One "greater than Jonah" stood among them, ignored?
The Lord picks Jonah for a reason. His story matched what was about to happen to Israel and to Christ.
What was the special feature of Jonah as a prophet? To whom did he prophesy? He was sent away from Israel to the Gentiles. And more than that: before Jonah could carry out his message properly, he had to pass through a picture of death and resurrection... This is the sign the Lord puts before the Pharisees. The Jewish nation was in such a state that He had to leave them and go to the Gentiles. And that would come after a real death and resurrection, when Israel's hopes had perished.
The men of Nineveh condemn by their conduct, not by a verdict of their own. What they did with little stands against what God's own people did with much.
By their conduct the Ninevites will condemn this generation in the day of judgment, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah — and One greater than Jonah was here... Poor, ignorant Gentiles understood the wisdom of God in His word, whether it came through the prophet or through the king, better than His beloved people did. And that was so even when the Great King and Prophet was among them.
Nineveh had no Bible, no history with God, no religious training. One spoken message was enough.
And first as to the instrumentality. That is the word of God. The Searcher of hearts and future Judge of men declared that "the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah" (Matt. 12:41). So a deep knowledge of God's revelation is not a qualification you need beforehand. The Ninevites had no earlier revelation from God. Education, scholarship and spare time are not essential either, as that history shows.
One writer weighs the word itself and stops short of calling this conversion.
Again, the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah. Matthew 12:41. We cannot say they were converted. Fear caused it, but they believed the testimony, judged themselves, fasted and put on sackcloth.
This is one of three such claims packed into Matthew 12, and each one points to a different glory of Christ.
There are three "greater" passages in this chapter: "greater than the temple" (v. 6); "greater than Jonah" (v. 41); and "greater than Solomon" (v. 42). He was "greater than the temple" because the revelation of God was shining out from Him at that moment. The display of light is the thought in the temple. "Greater than Jonah" relates to the effect of His death. "Greater than Solomon" relates to the glory that came as the fruit of His death.
Now remember what kind of messenger Jonah was. Nineveh listened to a man who had tried to run from his errand.
They were willing to admit their own evil, their sinfulness, their forgetful ignorance of God. And they did this at the preaching of Jonah — a prophet who was, by comparison, unfaithful, and who tried to escape the mission God sent him on. "And behold, something greater than Jonah is here."
One lesson from Jonah comforts; the other warns.
Our Lord draws two great lessons from the story of Jonah (Matt. 12:41). One is that there is hope for anyone who repents, however low he has sunk. The other is that there is condemnation for anyone who refuses to repent, however privileged he is.
Nineveh still puts a question to every generation that hears the message and shrugs.
The Ninevites were pagans. The Jews were God's chosen people, and the One who came to His own was their own Messiah... but they turned a deaf ear to His pleading cries. What clearer proof could there be of how corrupt their hearts were? And are "the men of this generation" any better?
- Sign. Jonah pictured Christ. He was sent away from Israel to the Gentiles, and only after death and resurrection.
- Preaching. Nineveh had no Scriptures, no schooling, no religious background. The bare word of God reached them, so no one can plead disadvantage.
- Repentance. They believed the message, judged themselves, and showed it by fasting and sackcloth. One writer stops short of calling that conversion.
- Witness. They repented with very little light. So they will condemn, by contrast, a generation that had the Messiah standing among them.
- Greater. The whole weight falls on the last phrase. One greater than Jonah stood there in person. The more privileged the hearer, the heavier the guilt of ignoring Him.
A queen of [the] south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, more than Solomon [is] here.
The Pharisees had just asked Jesus for a sign, and He answered by naming two Gentiles who will condemn that generation at the judgment. One is a queen who crossed the known world for a king's wisdom; the greater wisdom now stood in front of people who did not want it.
The comparison stings because of what each side already had in front of them:
They were asking for signs in the very middle of the wonders worked by the hand of Christ. She took a long journey from a barren land, at the mere report of God's provisions in a distant country. With a true thirst of soul she used what she had, though it was little. They were blaming the Lord as though He had given them nothing, while His good gifts were all around them. Here was the vast moral distance between them.
Her starting point was not privilege but rumour. She had no Scriptures, no prophet, no upbringing in the God of Israel:
As for herself, we may suppose she had never heard the voice of a prophet or seen the Scriptures of God. She had no advantages, as we say, from education, and was a complete stranger to the God of Israel. Her soul had only a slender stock to trade with. She had simply heard, in her own land, of Solomon, his deeds and his wisdom. That was all she had; but with such small provisions she was ready to take a long, untried journey.
She moved on a report alone. That makes her one of two witnesses against people who wanted proof first:
This showed her earnestness of purpose to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The wise and wealthy son of David did not carry the Word of God in his ordinary speech as the Lord Jesus did. Yet she came without a single miracle to attract her, and without a sign to guide or confirm her. She heard the wisdom of Solomon. … So there was a double testimony against them: Gentiles, high or low, at one time or another, rose up to condemn the men of Jerusalem.
Jesus names the men of Nineveh just before her. Each supplies something Israel lacked:
With the men of Nineveh, repentance stands first. With the queen of Sheba, faith stands out beautifully. In Israel both repentance and faith were plainly missing. That was so despite the pure grace and truth shown among them in Him who had all the credentials of the Messiah.
Their refusal was serious because no journey was required of them at all:
The queen of Sheba came a long way to hear the wisdom of a servant of God. The men around the Speaker were unwilling to listen to the wisdom of the Son of God. They needed no hard journey; the Eternal Son had come from Heaven into their very streets. The rejection of Him, greater than Jonah and greater than Solomon, is the ruin of men.
The verse turns the usual order upside down: the people with the least light condemn the people with the most.
The queen of the south likewise testified against the wickedness of this perverse generation. The report of Solomon's wisdom drew her heart, and it led her to him from the furthest parts of the earth. And a greater than Solomon was here. Poor ignorant Gentiles understood the wisdom of God in His word better than His beloved people did, whether it came through the prophet or the king. They understood it better even while the Great King and Prophet was among them.
The warning reaches past that generation: "Like them we must not be, or this Queen of the South will rise up in judgment against us" (J. T. Mawson). And the wisdom she travelled for is still within reach:
Not one question brought to Jesus on earth puzzled Him. The wisdom of the True Solomon, the Greater than Solomon, could meet and answer every hard question. Nor is it different now, for Christ, risen from the dead and glorified in heaven, "became to us wisdom from God" (1 Cor. 1:30). There is not a question the troubled, anxious sinner can bring to Him that He will not answer in wisdom and in grace.
- Little light, used. She had no prophet, no Scriptures, no background — only a report — and she acted on all of it.
- Much light, wasted. The men demanding a sign stood among Christ's works and still said He had given them nothing.
- Faith, not proof. She travelled with no miracle to draw her. Nineveh shows the repentance Israel lacked; she shows the faith.
- Greater than Solomon. She crossed the earth for a king's wisdom; they would not cross a street for the Son of God, and that refusal is the ruin of men.
- The witness stands. Outsiders who grasped God's wisdom better than His own people will rise in the judgment. And the Greater than Solomon still answers every hard question brought to Him.