Jonah

JONAH 1

This book is perhaps the best known of the twelve minor prophets and likely so due to its narrative sequence of a wayward prophet, a heathen city, and a great fish.

Though there are a remarkable number of contributions this book makes to the Scriptures as a whole,  perhaps the single greatest one is its use by the New Testament writers concerning the imminent resurrection of Christ (Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32).

Truth be told, most attention to this book involves one particular miracle – a great fish preserving  the prophet for three days.  But how many other miracles unfold in this book?

* the storm
* the selection of Jonah by lot as the guilty one
* the sudden subsiding of the sea
* the great fish appearing at the right time
* the ejection of Jonah from the fish, safe and sound, on dry ground
* the gourd
* the worm
* the east wind
* the repentance of the entire city of Ninevah (perhaps the greatest miracle)

The seriousness of Jonah’s assignment doesn’t take long to figure out – it occurs in the first words that flow from this book:

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah”

We are not left to question if the instructions that Jonah is given came from too many pizzas at night or from a movie he had just watched on his television (not that pizzas and television were around back then).  Instead, it is the Word of God; that’s what we call revelation – God revealing His Word to specific individuals on specific occasions during Bible times.

Why was Ninevah a “great city”?  Because it was the capital city (which would make it the principle city) and the nation Assyria dominated the ancient world at this time.  The city of Ninevah was supposedly, according to classical writers, the largest city in the world in that day (“exceedingly great city, a three-day journey” in 3:2).

Before we are so quick to condemn Jonah for not following through on God’s plan (which we will see in 1:3), what similar apprehensiveness might we have had based upon 1:2 (they were described with this one word – “wickedness”).  Besides that, as James Montgomery Boice says: “For one man to arrive all alone with a message from an unknown God against such a city was ludicrous in the extreme.  What could one man do?  Who would listen?”  But was it the difficulty of the mission which caused Jonah to not do it?  Was it the danger of the mission which caused Jonah to not do it?  No hint in this book would suggest either of these two reasons.  On the contrary, it was for another reason Jonah disobeyed the Lord – He knew God would be merciful to the Ninevites and he didn’t want Ninevah to be blessed.  But if you were a Jew, would you want to be sent as a missionary to Germany during World War II.

Jonah was called to “go” and “preach” (same word as in 3:2).  That is no different than the great commission we have been called to obey (Matthew 28:19-20).

Does this phrase, “their wickedness has come up before Me,” suggest that it finally came to the attention of God?  If so, would that not attack His omniscience (and “no creature hidden from His sight” in Hebrews 4:13)?  Or could it be that in His patient longsuffering, He sovereignly chose to deal with them at this time.  And notice how He chose to deal with them – by sending a prophet to preach to them.

You have huge problems when the first word of a sentence begins with the conjunction, “But!”

What repetition do you see in 1:3?

“to flee to Tarshish”        “from the presence of the Lord”

“going to Tarshish”            “from the presence of the Lord”

“to go … to Tarshish”

How does this two-fold repetition fit together?  Though the prophet was commanded by God to go to Ninevah (east of Palestine), Jonah fled to Tarshish (west of Palestine and believed to be on the far coast of Spain).  Prophets were not mere machines; they had power to resist the will of God, which Jonah did. Going to Tarshish was the opposite of God’s will and thus, a fleeing “from the presence of God.”  That’s the worse place you want to be!  The safest place to be is in the will of God (yes, even in battle in the middle of Baghdad); the most dangerous place to be is outside the will of God.

It is probably not coincidental that 1:3 repeats a directional in Jonah’s pursuit – “down (in)to.”  The path he was headed was clearly downward.

“like those who go down to the Pit” (Proverbs 1:12)

“Her feet go down to death” (Proverbs 5:5)

“Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs 7:27)

Interesting that Jonah paid a fare and never got to where he was going.  That is how it is when you go against the Lord’s plan and go your own way.  But when you goes the Lord’s way, you always get to where you are going and He pays the fare (Donald Grey Barnhouse).  This is what Jochebed experienced with her baby Moses (Exodus 2:9).

The “But Jonah” of 1:3, however, collides with the “But the Lord” of 1:4

The intensity of the storm will only escalate throughout the chapter:

“great wind” (1:4)

“mighty tempest” (1:4)

“growing more tempestuous” (1:11)

“great tempest” (1:12)

“to grow more tempestuous” (1:13)

What makes you think this storm wasn’t any ordinary one?

  • The Lord sent it (1:4)
  • It was a “great wind”
  • There was “a mighty tempest on the sea”
  • The “ship was about to be broken up”
  • The “mariners were afraid” (You would think seamen would be able to handle it!)
  • Every “man cried out to his god” (There are no atheists in the “foxholes” of life!)
  • They threw the cargo overboard

By the way, to whom is God showing mercy to in these opening verses?  To Ninevah, to Jonah, and to the mariners.  Jonah would later acknowledge that fact (4:2), though it did little to move him to obedience.  Instead, the very opposite occurred.

The indifference or callousness or unconcern of Jonah is more than dumbfounding in the midst of this storm.  In fact, 1:5 informs us that he laid down and was fast asleep (the Hebrew word for “asleep” and “sleeper” (radam) in 1:6 denotes a deep sleep, a heavy sleep, a “dead” sleep!  He wasn’t even troubled at his disobedience to the will of God!

Though the captain challenges Jonah to “call on God” (we call that prayer), don’t be so quick to think that the captain was acknowledging the one true God of the universe.  The Hebrew word tells us differently (“your God” in both uses here is in the plural – “your gods”).  Also, the “perhaps” supports the uncertainty of the captain of any power the god(s) might have.