Nineveh was a large city. People in the great cities of the world live relentless lives. We are consumed with what is happening now: running businesses, raising families, enjoying sports.

Jonah arrives and says, “Let me tell you what’s coming. Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

Authentic gospel preaching always engages people with eternal issues. That is where Jesus began: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). Paul begins Romans with the awful reality of God’s judgement: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. 1:18).

Jonah begins there too: “Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Whatever you are doing now, there is God, and there is eternity, and it is nearer than you think.

This probably wasn’t the only thing that Jonah said. But it was the core of his message, and everyone knew it. God burned that one sentence into the hearts of the people of Nineveh.

Cities change when people hear the Word of God.

Even if people are not converted, hearing the Word brings an awareness of God into the culture, and “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). More than that, where God’s Word is heard, lives will be changed. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

So many people in our cities are comfortably absorbed in their daily lives and do not think about eternity. It would be a good thing if more of them heard God’s Word.

How might you share God’s Word in your city?