The Book of Jonah Chapters 1-2 Introduction
Because some people just refuse to believe that God is all-powerful, there are scholars have tried to argue that the book of Jonah is a myth or must be interpreted as some sort of allegory, because in their mind there is no way that what God said happened, or could have happened. The Jews regarded the book as historical, and Jonah himself as an actual historical person whose prophetic service is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. Jesus believed in the historicity of the book, testifying both to the miracle of Jonah’s three days’ imprisonment in the fish, as well as to the prophet’s successful mission to the Ninevites (Matthew 12:38-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32). Laetsch notes, “In general we may say that Christians do not believe in a God cut to proper shape to satisfy man’s reason. We believe in a God who has revealed Himself in the Bible, which according to Christ who calls Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), cannot be broken (John 10:35), is the truth (John 17:17). In this revelation of Himself God tells us that He is a God whose understanding is past searching out (Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 147:5; Romans 11:33); that with Him nothing shall be impossible (Matthew 19:26; Luke 1:37; Romans 4:21). What is man to limit God’s wisdom and power in such matters as man can grasp and understand? We are not to exalt ourselves against the knowledge of God, but to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and His Word” (p. 217). “As suggested by McCartney, the ability or inability to accept a miracle depends on whether or not one spells his God with a capital ‘G’” (Hailey p. 64). 2 Kings 14:24-25 “He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gathhepher”.
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Since Jonah spoke during the reign of Jeroboam the II, it would be logical to have the book of Jonah written sometime around this time period. Jeroboam II reigned from 793-753 B.C. Shortly before 800 until 745 B.C., (the time of Tiglathpileser’s accession to the throne), Assyria was torn with internal strife and by wars with revolting provinces. “No doubt the depressed state of Assyria contributed much to the readiness of the people to hear Jonah as he began to preach to them” (Hailey p. 63). Jeroboam II, in whose reign Jonah prophesied, was the most powerful king in the Northern Kingdom. Earlier the Assyrians had established supremacy in the Near East and secured tribute from Jehu (841-814 B.C.) However, after crushing the Arameans, the Assyrians suffered temporary decline because of internal dissension. However, the religious life of Israel was such that God sent both Hosea and Amos to warn of impending judgment. Because of Israel’s stubbornness, the nation would fall under God’s chosen instrument of wrath, a Gentile nation from the east which would send Israel into exile (Amos 5:27). Hosea specifically mentions Assyria as this chosen instrument of God’s wrath (11:5). So Assyria, then in temporary decline would awake like a sleeping giant and devour the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This prediction was fulfilled in 722 B.C. The prophecies of Hosea and Amos may explain why Jonah refused to preach to Nineveh, for he might have known that this was the nation which would be used to punish Israel. Jonah was from the town of “Gath-hepher” [gath HEE fur] (winepress of the well)-a border town in the territory of Zebulun, about five kilometers (three miles) northeast of Nazareth (Josh 19:13; Gittah-hepher, KJV. The name of his father was “Amittai” [a MIT ih], which means “faithful”. The name Jonah means “dove”. Chapter 1 1:1 The word of God came to Jonah, making it clear that such a message was not the product of his own imagination (2 Peter 1:20-21). 1:2 The command is clear and urgent. Nineveh was an ancient city going all the way back to Genesis 10:11 (5000-4000 B.C.?). It was located on the Tigris River approximately 225-250 miles north of Babylon and about 220 miles north and slightly west of the present city of Baghdad. The circumference of the actual city with the walls was about eight miles. Ancient writers believed that beyond this central city was an area known as Greater Nineveh, which was a complex of several cities and their suburbs, taking in about 60 miles in circumference. Nineveh was located about 550 miles east of Samaria, the capital of the Northern 2
Israel. That distance required a journey of more than a month, if Jonah traveled the normal distance of 15-20 miles a day. This great city was second in size only to Babylon. Since we know that Nineveh contained 120,000 young children, which may have been only about 1/5th of the entire population, the city itself may have housed over 600,000 people. 1:2 “for their wickedness has come up before Me”: God had said the same thing about the city of Sodom (Genesis 18:20-21. See also Genesis 4:10; 6:11-12; Revelation 16:19. The city of Nineveh was known for its idolatry; it had temples dedicated to the gods Nabu, Asshur, and Adad; the Ninevites also worshipped Ishtar, a goddess of love and war. The records left by the Assyrians testify to their wickedness, in fact, they often boasted in being unmerciful and cruel, the following citation is from the annals of Ashur-nasirpal II, is a typical of what the Assyrian kings boasted in: “I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountains I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool. With the rest of them I darkened the gullies and precipices of the mountains. I carried off their spoil and their possessions. The heads of their warriors I cut off, and formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire! I built a pillar over against the city gates, and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes and others I bound to stakes round about the pillar” (Smith p. 102). Here we learn that God is the one universal God over all the earth. As the one and only God, He is the God to whom all the nations must acknowledge and obey. Nineveh was violating God’s standards and she was guilty and deserved to be judged. But since God desires all men to be saved (2 Peter 3:9), God even gives this cruel city a chance to repent. Seeing that God gave such an evil empire a chance to repent, certainly then God has the ability to see to it that every nation hears the truth and is given warning. 1:3 Jonah did arise, but he arose and fled in the opposite direction. Nineveh was located to the east of Israel and Jonah is determined to head west, to “Tarshish” [TAR shish], which was an ancient Phoenician colony on the SW coast of Spain, the farthest city to the west known at that time. Later on in the book, Jonah finally states his reason for fleeing, that is, he did not want this evil people to have a chance to repent (4:2). In the Psalms David noted that it is impossible to 3
flee from God’s presence (Psalm 139:7). Hence, to flee from His presence in this sense probably means that Jonah was resigning as a prophet, since to stand in the presence of someone is often used in the sense of acting as one’s official minister. 1:3 He went to Joppa (modern Jaffa), on Israel’s coast about 35 miles from Samaria and about the same distance from Jerusalem. He just happened to find a ship headed for Tarshish, some 2500 miles west of Joppa. Apparently, Jonah thought that God would have to get another prophet to preach to Nineveh. “Someone has said, ‘When a person decides to run from the Lord, Satan always provides complete transportation facilities’” 1 Jonah might have reasoned that finding such a ship so easily was proof that he was doing the right thing. Yet circumstances can often be deceiving. We can act just like Jonah, instead of heeding the command to share the gospel with others, Christians are often tempted to busy themselves with lesser matters. “Our rebellion against God in failing to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ is perhaps not yet as bold and deliberate as Jonah’s way, but it rather more subtle. We are busy, but not with the Lord’s business. Many of our churches have become obsessed with the physical and temporal” (Banks p. 21). 1:4-5 God hurled a great storm at the ship in which Jonah was traveling and even the experienced seamen were afraid (Matthew 8:24ff). The word translated “sailors” is very similar to the Hebrew noun which means “salt”. The connection is obvious for an experienced sailor is often called an old salt. They tried every available means of saving their ship and their lives. 1:5 Ironically, Jonah appears to be the only “atheist” on board. Sadly, when Christians are being disobedient, they appear to be even more unbelieving than actual unbelievers! Like the disciples of Christ in the garden, Jonah was asleep (Matthew 26:40,43). Apparently his 60 mile or so trip to Joppa, and his mental and spiritual agony had worn Jonah completely out. In addition, when people aren’t living right they often tend to try to find an escape in such things as sleep. 1:6 “The heathen reminds God’s prophet to do his duty!” (Laetsch p. 225). Note, when we are rebelling against God, we really can’t be any help to our fellow man. 1:7 Having become convinced that someone must have roused the anger of the sea god, the sailors cast lots to detect the guilty person. Jonah knows that he is 1
Jonah The Reluctant Prophet, William L. Banks, p. 20
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the culprit, but he doesn’t confess. “He was the sole cause of the storm which had caused physical and mental anguish and financial losses to the sailors. Yet he is perfectly willing to let them suffer greater losses” (Laetsch p. 225). And we cause just as must damage or more when we aren’t living right, yet God didn’t let Jonah off the hook and the lot providentially (Proverbs 16:33) singled out Jonah as the guilty person. Jonah gambled and lost, his sin had finally caught up with him. 1:8 Once his guilt was exposed, the sailors fired questions at Jonah. Apparently they did not wish to condemn him until they could hear Jonah’s side of the story. 1:9-10 Even though Jonah had resisted the command to preach to non-Jews, that is exactly what Jonah is doing here. “His confession of faith in God is at the same time an admission that Yahweh is responsible for the storm” (Smith p. 106). The sailors then rebuke Jonah, “the greatest humiliation in the life of any believer is to experience a justly deserved spiritual rebuke from those who have made no commitment to the Lord” (Smith p. 106). 1:11 The storm was intensifying and the sailors desperately sought Jonah’s advice. 1:12-13 Jonah tells them to cast him into the sea, for that is the only way to save themselves. Apparently Jonah’s repentance is sincere, and he no longer wants to see these men suffer for his disobedience. He offers himself as the victim to be sacrificed in order that they might be saved. Yet the sailors are religious men, and are unwilling to deprive a fellow human being of this life. So they rowed hard and attempted to break through the waves and wind and find shore. The sailor, were not anxious to take human life for fear they would be held accountable for murder. This contrasts sharply with Jonah’s lack of compassion for the Ninevites (4:1-2). 1:14 Finally, they earnestly prayed to the God whom Jonah served. These Gentiles who did not have the Law of Moses, still knew the worth of human life and they pleaded that casting Jonah into the sea would not be held against them. Oh, that modern man had such a concern for human life. These sailors could certainly stand up at the judgment and condemn those who support abortion for their callousness concerning human life. 1:15 The fact the sea became calm right after they cast Jonah into the sea demonstrated the reality and power of the God of Israel. The true God had done 5
what their gods could not do, and the sudden calm was an answer to the sailors prayer. 1:16 All of this was not lost on these sailors, they immediately perceived that the God whom Jonah served, the God of Israel, was indeed the God who ruled the sea and dry land (1:9). “The irony here is that Jonah fled because he did not want to preach God’s word to a Gentile city. Now inadvertently he has been the instrument to bring the knowledge of the true God to a number of Gentiles” (Smith p. 107). 1:17 The prophet’s expected death did not occur. God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. God controls not only the sea, but even the creatures in it. Of course skeptics ridicule this account, but ironically they will be condemned by the very generation that lived when these things took place (Matthew 12:41). If one believes that God spoke the entire universe into existence (Genesis 1:1), then the miracle recorded in Jonah 1:17 is a piece of cake. The fish or great sea monster that God used may have been a fish already in existence, like a sperm whale, which has a mouth large enough to swallow a man. In addition, at least two species of shark have been known to swallow men. Or, God may have prepared a specific fish for this occasion. “G. Campbell Morgan observed that ‘men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God’ which is the main burden of the book” (Smith p. 108). 1:17 The phrase three days and three nights need not be understood as a 72-hour period, but as one 24 hour day and part of two other days (Esther 4:16; 5:1). Jesus pointed out that this occasion actually did happen, in addition, it was a prefiguring of His own death, burial and resurrection (Matthew 12:38-40). Chapter 2 2:1 Paul tells us that men should pray everywhere (1 Timothy 2:8). “A Christian cannot come into a place so abnormal that he could not pray to God there---We cannot imagine a place more fantastic, more horrible, more filthy, than the one where Jonah was, in the belly of a horrible monster, in the dreadful sea, all alone, cast away from mankind” (Laetsch p. 230). Jonah may have thought he would die immediately, God but had other plans. One lesson here is that there are many things worse than doing uncomfortable things in this life (Hebrews 10:26ff). There are things far more painful than 6
denying yourself, swallowing your pride, being ridiculed, or facing a deserved rebuke (Matthew 5:30). 2:2 Jonah realized that God had spared him, and he didn’t drown after all. This prayer is a psalm of thanksgiving (v. 9) to God for using the fish to save him. Sensing that the great fish was God’s means of delivering him, Jonah worshipped God for His unfathomable mercies. Jonah praised God for delivering him from death (Psalm 30:3) in a watery grave. Many have pointed out that Jonah’s prayer is made up of portions from many of the Psalms. This indicates the prophet’s familiarity with the Psalms and the fact that many of the Psalms had already been written and circulated by Jonah’s time. 2:2 “The depth of Sheol”: Is literally the “belly” of Sheol. This does not mean that Jonah had actually died, but it does indicate that the prophet sensed that God had delivered him from a watery grave. Clearly, the fear of death had seized the prophet.I believe there is a great lesson here concerning people who claim that they have nothing worth living for and thus want to end their lives. In chapter one, Jonah really doesn’t care and appears to be a man resigned to die. Yet, in chapter two he earnestly wants to live. 2:3 While the sailors had cast him into the sea, Jonah now realizes that God’s hand had been in the storm, thus it had been God’s plan and desire to have the sailors cast him into the sea. Jonah vividly describes being sucked into the current and battered by the waves. “He emphasizes that the sea was God’s means of disciplining him when he refers to ‘your breakers’ and ‘your billows’” (Smith p. 109). 2:4 Jonah felt cut off from God, before the fish swallowed him, he was thinking, “this is it”. It appears that Jonah is also thinking as he was sinking in the water, that he was going to die a lost man for his rebellion against God. Yet there is hope here, in addition, there also appears to be humility and repentance. When the fish swallowed him, he may have thought, I will see the temple once again, that is, I will serve God. 2:5 Jonah felt himself drowning, ocean vegetation was bound about his head as if to imprison him. Added to this was the great pressure of the water about. “Surely, death must come at any moment—a terrifying experience, indeed! Down, down, he was being carried to the bottoms of the mountains and to the valleys of the sea-bed” (Hailey p. 73).
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2:6 This verse continues the prophet’s description of his plunge into what appeared to be a watery grave. But right at what appeared to be his final moment of consciousness, right at the moment he seemed to be at the gate of eternity, the point of no-return, God had the fish swallow him. 2:7 While Jonah was drowning, he regretted his decision to disobey God, and he prayed. There was hope in this prayer, and he directed his prayer to the holy temple of Jerusalem, the place where the presence of God dwelt. 2:8 Here is Jonah’s determination to lead a changed life. “Those who follow the emptiness and impotency of idolatry do so at the price of their only source of mercy and kindness. Jonah had followed his own way instead of God’s and had come to a sad end. Instead of trusting to the empty creations of man’s own imagination, the prophet would sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving” (Hailey p. 74). In putting his will ahead of God’s will, Jonah had on a very practical level become a worshipper of himself. We tend to forget that idols come in all shapes and sizes and the most common form of idolatry in our world today is probably self-worship. 2:9 The only source of salvation is God (John 14:6). The prophet is now determined to serve God. 2:10 We are not told where the fish deposited Jonah, but God being rich in mercy decides to give Jonah a second chance. We may think that Jonah was rather dense and stupid for thinking he could run away from God, but how many of us are running away from our responsibilites? Do we avoid the commands to teach the lost, teach our children, lead our families, and so on? Do we ignore the commands to go away those who are in danger of falling away or to admonish brethren whom we know are in sin? Jonah for the moment has learned his lesson, but have we learned ours? Jonah had spent three days and nights in the stinky and slimy belly of a fish (along with what ever the fish might have eaten recently). Do we learn from our folly? Are we still experiencing a tremendous amount of pain and suffering because we simply refuse to change? Are we bringing a lot of grief and heartache upon ourselves because we won’t repent?
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