God's Gracious Threats

When we hear God threaten Nineveh with judgment, therefore, we should not see this as one of his eternal decrees (to which we are not privy in any case) that he is modifying 'on the fly.' His relenting, though not forced by human repentance, is nonetheless a gracious response to it. I have described Jonah's message to Nineveh as a 'threat' to highlight the conditional nature of Jonah's message and thus the possibility of such a divine response. Threats by their very nature are intended to change behaviour.

--Daniel C. Timmer, A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah (New Studies in Biblical Theology; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011), 113.