The God of Second Chances: The Book of Jonah, Part 2 :: Rev. Donnell T. Wyche, Senior Pastor

Jonah flees because he believes that God is unjust. If Nineveh is evil, it should be destroyed. What's the point of delivering the message in person, except for giving the Ninevites a chance to repent? Did you happen to notice that the original prophetic message doesn't include a call to repentance for Nineveh? It's just a prophetic judgement against their wickedness and evil.

Jonah may very well be happy to go to Nineveh to preach against it, to announce their impending destruction, but Jonah had no interest in creating space for Nineveh to repent. How did Jonah know that God would forgive Nineveh if it repented, because all Jonah had to do was look around. He was a prophet in Israel during the rule of an evil king, and God was still blessing Israel in spite of its sin, so it didn't take much for Jonah to assume that the same mercy and compassion could be extended to Nineveh.