Matthew 12:41

The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.

Of surpassing interest in this passage is Christ's reference to "the judgment." Some fancy they see seven judgments in the word of God; but Christ continually spoke of only ONE. As already noted repeatedly in this commentary, THE JUDGMENT was a constant theme of Christ's teaching. Christ's view of the judgment envisioned a day of wrath and glow toward which all the world is moving, a day on which God shall rise in righteous anger and cast evil out of his universe. Christ's word on this subject makes it impossible to hold "our age" as the judgment; for "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Nor is the day of death to be viewed as the day of judgment. THAT comes after death. The verses before us show that the judgment is a simultaneous judgment of all nations and conditions of men, regardless of the ages in which they lived. The Queen of the South, the men of Nineveh, and the people of Christ's generation are spoken of as all appearing simultaneously for judgment, though, of course, their lives were separated by many centuries in time. Paul referred to that occasion as "that day" (2 Timothy 4:8). Thus, it may be logically concluded that "the judgment" of Scripture is a specific occasion, a cataclysmic day, upon which every man ever born on earth shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the deeds done in the body (2 Corinthians 5:10).

How commendable was the repentance of the men of Nineveh! They repented without any command to repent, without any promise of relief if they did repent, with no invitation to repent, without even a small desire on the part of the preacher that they would repent (but, on the contrary, a fervent hope that they would not), and without any appreciation on Jonah's part when they did repent! A preacher will know how to elaborate this!

Christ's being greater than Jonah is seen in the contrast between the messages, one secular, the other spiritual; between the messengers, one true, the other untrue; and between the miracles that certified each, one disgorged by a sea-monster, the other raised from the dead. See also Matthew 8:25.