Jonah

JONAH

Scripture references:
2 Kings 14:25; Jonah;
Matthew 12:39–41; 16:4;
Luke 11:29–32.

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When told to go north to Nineveh, Jonah boarded a ship going west! It took a storm and a great fish to set Jonah back on God’s path.

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JONAH’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE

Jonah lived in Israel and predicted the triumphs of Jeroboam II that led to a resurgence of the northern kingdom in the eighth century b.c. His little book relates the story of his reluctance to carry a warning of divine judgment to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and what happened when he did deliver the message. Jonah’s famous three-day stay in the belly of a great fish is referred to in the Gospels as a symbol of Christ’s stay in the tomb after His crucifixion.

JONAH’S LIFE AND TIMES

Jonah was a patriot who predicted the victories won by Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). This king of Israel, who is given little space in the Old Testament, was one of the most successful rulers of the northern Hebrew kingdom. During his forty-year rule, Assyria was weak and Israel became the dominant power in the Middle East. Jeroboam II expanded his borders almost to the extent reached in Solomon’s days, and, like Solomon, dominated the trade routes that ran through Damascus.

When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and announce the destruction of the capital of Israel’s most powerful enemy, he chose to run away instead. Jonah explained his motivation in the little four-chapter book that bears his name.

Ah, LORD, was this not what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, One who relents from doing harm (Jon. 4:2).

Jonah’s attempted flight was thwarted, however. God sent two unusual elements: a storm that nearly destroyed the ship on which Jonah had taken passage and a great fish to return the fleeing prophet to land. The next time God spoke, Jonah obeyed. He went to Nineveh, and announced the coming judgment. As Jonah had feared, the people of Nineveh did repent! Jonah sat on a hill outside Nineveh waiting to see what would happen until it became clear that God had chosen to delay the judgment Jonah had announced. Angry and miserable, Jonah begged God to end his life.

Instead, Jonah rebuked his prophet, reminding him that the Lord had pity on “Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock” (Jon. 4:11).

Jonah missed the significance of God’s warning and subsequent relenting. Amos, a prophet from Judah, would soon come to Israel and issue God’s indictment of Israel’s sins and call on His own people to repent. Nineveh’s repentance and God’s gracious failure to punish that city was an object lesson for Israel. Surely, if God would be gracious to an enemy of His people, God would be gracious to His own people if only they would repent! However, Israel did not repent. They persisted in their sins. The judgment of which Amos spoke came when Israel fell to Assyria and its people were carried away as captives and were swallowed up in that mighty empire.

JONAH: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY

Jonah is a prime example of a patriot who knew God well but whose first loyalty was to his nation. He was unwilling to do God’s will when he feared that what God had in mind might conflict with his own hopes for his nation’s future. We have much to learn from Jonah today.

•     Jonah warns us against confusing God’s purposes with our own political or national agendas. We are to be loyal to God and responsive to Him. We must avoid any temptation to “use” God to advance our own purposes.

•     Jonah reminds us that we are to view others as God views them, being as gracious and merciful toward them as He Himself is. Compassion is a quality God values and which we are to nurture as well as express in our relationships with others.

•     Jonah encourages us, in that God overlooked His prophet’s rebellion and gave him a second chance to do His will. God is gracious to us as well as to others. When we rebel, we need to remember that we too can safely return.

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