Chapter 11 JONAH
The book of Jonah is not about a whale. It is not about a prophecy or the destruction of an evil nation. Its not about running away from God. All these have legitimate place in the story but this account is about the heart struggle of a prophet.
There are two things a prophet needs to have clear in his heart. First, how can he be sure he has heard from God. Second, how can she be sure she has conveyed the prophecy correctly. Prophets in the Old Testament were usually confident by nature, but Jonah was not. He had a real struggle to be sure he was hearing and speaking the words of God. His problem was, what he heard sometimes got distorted by the time he delivered it. There was a temptation to embellish it to make it more presentable. Perhaps that temptation is still around today?
This book is about the man. The man is named Jonah. What does Jonah mean? We have two Hebrew alternatives. (YWN) is the Hebrew to which we can add the vowels (yawen) to make “muddy” or “unclear” or (yona) to make “dove”. Noah might have said he was “unclear” if the water had receded, so he sent out a “Dove”. The association continues in the Hebrew mind as the Spirit of God hovered like a dove over the waters to turn chaos into order148 so the Spirit of God descended like a dove on Jesus at his baptism to make it clear that he was the son of God.
As a young prophet, Jonah heard from God telling him to prophesy to Jeroboam II.
Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He continued all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and made Israel sin. He did restore the border strip of Israel from Lebo-Hamath the dead sea in accordance with the word of the Lord, spoken by Jonah, the prophet, who was from Nazareth.149
We are not told that God told Jonah he was to bless the king, but clearly Jonah thought that was part of the message so that is what he did. When Jeroboam captured the first small city in this strip of border land, he set about boasting how great he was. To which, God sent a more experienced prophet named Amos to Jeroboam to prophesy, “The Lord will use the people from Lebo-Hamath to the dead sea to oppress you”.
Now clearly that got Jonah’s goat and caused friction between himself and God. Jonah thought God had told him one thing, and he had delivered it as he thought he should, then God sent another prophet to contradict him. Whether Jonah elaborated or misunderstood or whether God changed his mind because of the kings boasting we are not told. It is so easy to misjudge God when we don’t know all the facts. Clearly this was a factor Jonah was trying to resolve when he got his next commission. Had he misheard God? Why had God made him look a fool and taken away his creditability last time? Was Amos a false prophet? Whatever, he was not going to be caught twice.
Jonah gained the reputation of a complainer. But he is not the only complainer in Scripture. His complaint, “Why do you make it easy for such evil people to escape justice”, is a valid question. Jeremiah had the same compliant150 What is Jonah running from? God or Fear? The Assyrians had a nasty habit of impaling people who disagreed with them. Impaling was the precursor to crucifixion. Solders would impale a live person with a long pole and line them up along the main road into the city. Was that why Jonah thought he stood a better chance running away? Did he fear being impaled? Perhaps he just hated Gentiles, but then why flee to gentile Spain? Perhaps he did not like the idea of giving evil people the chance to repent. Perhaps he was thinking of the threat to Israel his people. Perhaps he thought Israel is so evil its about time God sent the Assyrians to punish them anyway. There are many people who think like that.
Arise, and go to Nineveh, the great city: and preach in it exactly as I told you.151
So his sermon was just eight words long in English. But that was enough.
‘’Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed’’!
So what was Jonah’s complaint? Jonah had to reconcile in his heart, How can God bless those who have done so much evil? Its the same question Jeremiah asked, (but he did not run away):
Whenever I complain to you, Lord, you are always fair. But now I have questions about your justice. Why is life easy for sinners? Why are they successful? When you spoke to me, I was glad to obey, because I belong to you, I don’t go to parties and have a good time. Instead, I keep to myself for you because you have filled me with your anger. Why am I in perpetual sorrow, while they enjoy life? 152
It’s a fair question. The psalmist asked it also, as have a number of other people.
“Ultimately divine grace toward sinners cannot be understood. It doesn’t have a reason it simply reflects the way God is” (anon).
Jonah is both sensitive and insecure. In his arguments the pronoun “I” pops up too often. Jonah was from Galilee. It is worth pointing out that nearly all the prophets that went to surrounding nations come from the same area as Jonah. Nahum, who will appear in our next study came from this area. This was the main base of Jesus” ministry. The South was nationalistic in its outlook. It had the focus of the temple, lawyers and high priest. Whereas the North was much more international because the trade routes crossed here. It was called “Galilee of the nations” because the cross roads of the main trade routes met at the hill of Megiddo (Armageddon).
Jesus was unpopular in the South but very popular in the North. We think of him as preaching to Israel but many of the world’s tradesmen would have stopped off here and no doubt listened to his preaching.
Iraq was known as Assyria then, and Nineveh only became the capital after Jonah’s time. It was a place of importance and had a palace there for the occasions the king came visiting, but it was not the royal palace, it was just an alternative to staying in a hotel. The three day’s journey mentioned is across Iraq to the city of Nineveh, not across Nineveh itself153, which eventually grew to be ten miles across, (half a day’s journey). The city was started about seven-fifty-BC and Jonah arrived about thirty-years later. The king appears to have been visiting from the capital at the same time as Jonah because he also joins in the act of repentance. Interestingly, Jonah is the only prophet Jesus compared himself to. Jonah was a sort of folk hero round about Nazareth.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.154
The question must be asked here, How can a nation turn so quickly to repentance in such a short time and with such a minimal preaching? What is going on behind the scenes in Nineveh?
It is clear that something was going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. Why was God so determined to get Jonah to Nineveh on time? It may be that the Assyrians themselves were fearful. At a time of civil war, it would be an ideal time for the Meads and Persians to attack them. The Assyrians were a very religious people. Joshua found it easy to defeat Jericho for similar reasons, although Jericho made a big show behind their walls, rumours of Israel’s victories lead the people to fear. Although Nineveh put in a brave face, they were not a secure people inside155. When God plans He usually prepares the circumstance ahead for success. Consider the miracles in the book Jonah. There is the wind which the sailors recognised as supernatural; The cast lots that singled out Jonah from all the crew; The storm ceased immediately Jonah thrown overboard; A fish conveniently around in a vast ocean to aid Jonah at the precise time; The fish got sick just as he was passing the right place for Jonah to continue his journey; A worm waiting to eat the roots of Jonah’s “umbrella” and scorching winds that made him appreciate it.
Whatever, The people did repent and the city was saved. But only for another one-hundred-and-forty-years. Then another prophet named Nahum was called to go again to Nineveh because they had backslidden into their old ways. This time when the king offered to repent and put on sackcloth, Nahum answered, “Its too late”. There was no option for repentance now because the time of grace was over and judgement time had arrived. Nineveh fell in six-hundred -and-twelve-BC and the rest of Assyria fell in six-hundred-and-seven-BC.
Figure 40: Edom -where are we? -Place
Figure 39: Outline Joel
Figure 38: Obadiah -where are we? -Time
Figure 41: The Battle for the Sceptre -Time
148 See also Genesis 1.
149 2 Kings 14: 23-25
150 Jeremiah chapter 12.
151 Jonah 3: 2
152 Jeremiah 12: 1 ff
153 My preference: Nineveh was inland from where Jonah was delivered by the fish. Some say the three days was the time it would take to see all its treasures, Some would argue it was the circumference of the city which would be thirty miles and only one-and-a-half days journey. Some would argue it was the time it took the king to travel between his 2 palaces. But these reasons are all immaterial, why the writer mentioned it at all was probably just to show how big the city was.
154 Matthew 12: 40
155 In accordance with the culture of the day, Nahum calls them ‘a bunch of women’ chapter 3: 13