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Jonah son of Amittai. Jonah means ‘dove’ standing for peace, Holy Spirit and in Jonah’s case flight (run away). Amittai means ‘truthful’.
Jonah was a native of Gath Hepher. He lived in the reign of Jeroboam II (790-749), and helped to recover some of Israel’s lost territory (II Kings 14:25). Jonah was a famous Statesman, as well as Prophet.
Jonah was called to save the life of the enemy nation which was already in the process of exterminating his own nation. In almost these same days the prophets Hosea and Amos are preaching the same message to the people of Israel “repent or God will destroy you”. Jonah knew the prophecy from Isaiah against Israel very well, this is why Jonah hated the Ninevites because people of Nineveh (Babylonians) will destroy his nation and his families in the near future. No wonder Jonah fled in the opposite direction to Tarshish, in patriotic dread of a brutal and relentless military machine which was closing in on God’s people.
The book stresses the universal powers of God, over individuals and nations all over the world, over life and death and also the universal mercy and love of God towards disobedient Jews and cruel gentiles. For me it is a warning and a lesson towards the (im)morality of Christians today.
I believe that the book of Jonah is a historical book. Some call it fiction, allegory, parable, or even a poem. Jesus unmistakably regarded it as an historical fact (Matthew 12:39-41). Jesus called it a “sign” of his own resurrection. He put the fish, the repentance of the Ninevites, his resurrection, and the judgement day in the same category.
God’s purpose in it:
-For one thing, it may have postponed the captivity of Israel, for lust of conquest was one of the things repented of (3:8)
-It seems to have been intended of God as a hint to His Own Nation that He was also interested in Other Nations.
-Jonah’s home was Gath Hepher (II Kings 14:25), near Nazareth the home of Jesus, of whom Jonah was a “sign”.
-Joppa, where Jonah went on board, to avoid preaching to Another Nation, was the place which God chose later to tell Peter to receive men of Other Nations (Acts 10).
-Jesus quoted it as a prophetic picture of his own resurrection on the ‘third’ day (Matthew 12:40).
-The ‘sign’ of Jonah is a warning towards to the church today.
-All in all, the story of Jonah is a grand historical picture of the Messiah’s Resurrection and Mission to All Nations. The book shows that God has concern for the whole world.
The Lord called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against there wickedness. The word ‘go’ is a strong word in Hebrew that means immediately, straight away or urgent. Most of the time God is using this word to pronounce the urgency of His message. For God it is so important that we react straight away because He loves the human people so much that every second counts in the eyes of God. Instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah fled away from God in the opposite direction ‘down’ to Tarshish. The word ‘down’ is repeated many times in the book of Jonah. The conclusion is when you run away from God your life is going downwards. It stops when Jonah repents. From that moment God lifted Jonah up (Jonah 2:6). Other words that are repeated are: but, great, anger and provided.
The storm came and the sailors called upon their gods. Jonah was below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain woke him up and said “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!” Then the sailors asked “who is responsible for all this calamity”. Wickedness and calamity are the same words that are used in Jonah. The wickedness of the Ninevites was as bad as Jonah’s disobedience to God. This means that there is no difference in ‘sin’ in God’s eyes. Jonah was so sure of himself and maybe proud, because he was a Hebrew, special people that God always will love no matter what they do. Jonah said to the sailors an opposite thing in verse 9 “I am Hebrew and I worship the Lord”. By saying ‘I am Hebrew’ he made himself special, he was more then the other people. By saying ‘I worship the Lord’ he was lying. If Jonah was actually ‘Worshipping the Lord’ then he was not on board of that ship in the first place. To ‘Worship’ means that you fear God and do what He tells you to do. Jonah did not feared God by saying ‘I am Hebrew’ it made himself special and he did not do what God told him to do. We as Christians also think that we are special people, set apart from God. We also think that God always will love us no matter what we do. This is not true! It is our free will if we want to listen to God, but if we are going our own way we also have to take the responsibility that comes out from our disobedience. Finally they threw Jonah into the sea, the storm grew calm. By this miracle the sailors were convinced that Yahweh was the true God, so they offered a sacrifice to Him.
Jonah was really separated from God (verse 4) as he had pledged in the beginning. In the belly of the fish Jonah began to pray, or rather a psalm that he remembered. It was psalm 42:7 and 40:1-4. Even in this prayer Jonah is more concerned about himself then he is concerned about the Ninevites. God answers his prayer and commanded the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land.
The important words in Jonah 2 is verse 2 “From the depths of the grave” and verse 6 “To the roots of the mountain I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.”
‘Grave’ is a translated from the word Sheol. Sheol is a word that is used in the Old Testament for the place of the dead. The meaning moves between the ideas of the grave, the underworld and the state of death. In some passage Sheol has a punitive aspect (Psalm 49:13-14) and premature committed to Sheol is a form of judgement. The Old Testament sees earthly life as a arena for the service of Yahweh; it is there that his word can be received, his sacrifice offered, his interventions experienced. Therefore in a real sense to be in Sheol is to be cut off from his hand (Psalm 88:3-5). However, Yahweh is both present in Sheol (Psalm 139:8) and able to deliver from it (Psalm 16:10). Also Jesus was in Hades to preach to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19) between the crucifixion and the resurrection. In simply words Hades is a kind of waiting room for the final judgement day as we can read in Revelation 20:13 “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and the death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.”
God is calling Jonah for the second time. It is grace and mercy from God to get a second change. This does not mean that God always give us a second change as we always think. It is al to the mercy and grace from God to us, that gives us a second chance. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. The Ninevites understood this very clear. The Ninevites repented but they still didn’t know if they where saved as is written in Jonah 3:9 “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Still Jonah didn’t had the right heart to go to Nineveh but he obeyed God and just went. Many Christians just obey God and even the commandments that He gave to us but if we are not truly in love with God what does this mean to Him. Even so isn’t the greatest commandment “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). An other interesting issue is the fact that Jonah’s second message from God was a different one then the first message. In the second message that Jonah had to preach God is mentioning the number ‘forty’. Forty is associated with almost each new development in the history of God’s mighty acts, especially of salvation. I think that from this point God already knew that He was going to bring salvation to the Ninevites.
Jonah was angry because he knew that God would spare the Ninevites if they repented, and he did not want these enemies of Israel to be spared. Jonah demanded justice from God. The Ninevites should get what they deserve and that was in Jonah’s eyes only one thing ‘they deserve death’. Jonah was using God’s own words against God by saying in verse 2 “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”. The word ‘love’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘hesed’. It means loyal, steadfast, or faithful love and stresses the idea of a belonging together of those involved in the love relationship. Here it connotes God’s faithful love for His unfaithful people. Jonah is using it for his own benefit and not for gentiles. Jonah preferred to die than to be reconciled to the gracious will of God. The Ninevites deserved death but God gave them life through the grace of God. Jonah sat down under a vine that God provided to him. The vine provided a welcome shade for Jonah, still mourning, grumbling and waiting for the destruction of Nineveh. Jonah forgot that God spared him though he was disobedient but couldn’t understand why God spared Nineveh. Then the Lord said in Jonah 4:10-11 “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more then an hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” By using the words ‘they cannot tell their right hand from their left’, God is saying that these people really don’t know the difference between good and wrong, they are totally immoral. God was teaching Jonah an important truth: If Jonah was justified in being so upset about the loss of a plant to whose existence he had contributed nothing, was not God justified in showing love and concern for the people of Nineveh, whom He had created? How often is the church not more concerned about material things like a good sound system, a nice building instead of the unsaved people next door
Jesus mentioned Jonah when he was talking to the Pharisees and teachers of the law as they were asking for a sign (Matthew 12:38, Matthew 16 and Luke 11:29). “The sign of Jonah is the only sign that will be given” answered Jesus. But what is the sign of Jonah?
-The preaching of Jonah and Jesus where almost the same; Repent or God will destroy you.
-The resurrection from the death; they both were three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
-The sign is also a warning; the sign of judgement is the only sign we get. Still in these days we see that the gentiles accept the message of God instead of the Jewish people. The gentiles are running into the Kingdom of God and still the Jews reject it as it is written in Matthew 21:42-43 “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone…….Therefor I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a people who will produce its fruit.”
In some way you can look at the book of Jonah for the church of today. The church has run to Tarshish, desiring to trade with the world (become like the world) even more than sitting before His throne. At the same time, God’s judgment is hanging over the earth. The last days are coming and great storms are coming upon the earth. Jonah slept when the storm came upon the ship where he was in while Jonah was running from God. The church is also in a deep sleep. Jonah was the prophet of God, but the heathen had to wake him up. So it is with the church at this time. The heathen have more discernment than the church has at this time. The heathen knows that the world is going the wrong way, and they are shaking the church, trying to wake them up so that they will call on their God. People which stand up in the church trying to wake the church up are often thrown out of the church, just as Jonah was thrown overboard and a big fish swallowed him. This is the time that God can discipline you in the darkness of the earth, you also can call this grace from God, just to form and disciple you. It will swallow you for a time, but you will be vomited out of it. Then you will preach the full truth of His message. You can feel the hunger for truth in the heart of the heathen nowadays and they are shouting and crying to us for help because they know that we have ‘The Answer’ for the problems of this wicked world. The church is running from the presence of God. It is running to activity in place of seeking God’s presence. The church may call activity ‘ministry,’ but it is actually running from the presence of God. The church is running to Tarshish so it can trade with the world and seek the treasures of the world, while the greater treasures – the treasures of heaven – few are seeking. The sin of wanting to trade with the world has entangled the church, just as Jonah was entangled in the belly of the fish with the weeds wrapped around his head. The weeds, the cares of the world, have wrapped themselves around the mind of the church. It took Jonah three days to turn to God because he was so entangled. It is taking Christians much longer. Sometimes our minds are so entangled with the world and have we fallen in such depths, that many have no hope of getting free. We must turn to God instead of away from Him. He can untangle any mess, and He can bring you up from the greatest depths. Ephesians 4:14 “Then we will no longer be infants (babies), tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming”. Run from Him no longer! Run to Him and grow!
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you”.
After the second call Jonah went to Nineveh, he obeyed but he still hated the Ninevites. In other words Jonah did what God told him to do, but Jonah didn’t do it with his heart. Is the church not doing the same or even worse? Jesus told us what to do, and is the church obeying God?
-Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations."
-Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
-Acts 1:8 “….and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Are we as a church better then Jonah? No, we are just like him! Are we really concerned about the unsaved people? We want that God brings judgement over these pagans. We want that they pay for there wickedness. We want to persecute them and put them to death, because a Christian world is a better world. But how can God judge the world if we are doing the same things!? The fact that we only deserve life is by the grace of God? The Ninevites understood the meaning of ‘grace’ very well, and we as Christians can learn a lesson from them. The Ninevites repented but they still didn’t know if they were saved, it depended on the grace of God. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, God had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened. The church isn’t taking God’s anger serious anymore, God will save us anyway! What will happen if God removes His hand from the church just as He removed the vine away from Jonah? Where is our comfort zone then? Remember the words Jesus said to his own people (Christians, the church) “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12). Jesus is not speaking to heathen but to Christians. Heathen don’t know God so their love cannot grow cold it is already cold. An other warning to Christians is when Jesus said “ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, ‘will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!’ Being a ‘name tag Christian’ doesn’t mean you have the free ticket into heaven. You have to live like a true disciple of God, and still…..it is through the grace of God that can saves us.
We can see Jonah also as a person in today’s life. Jonah didn’t want to go God’s way, so he found a ship that was going in the opposite direction. Soon the ship’s owner discovered that there’s a high price to pay for allowing the wrong person on board. What’s the point? It’s this: God has not authorized you to run the good race for somebody else, especially if they’re running from God and using you as a pick up truck. When Jesus is on your ship, you’ll make it through any storm, but when you allow a Jonah on board, he will turn your life into kind of a Jerry Springer Show, then before it is over, you will lose everything. Can we deal with a Jonah? No! God has prepared a big fish to do that. The kindest thing we can do is to wake him up and throw him overboard. God cannot deal with him as long we keeping rescuing him. It is pride that makes us think that we can do only God can do! Look at Jonah: while the crew is throwing desperately stuff overboard, Jonah is sleeping. He didn’t want to be delivered, he just wanted to be comfortable. If we know someone like Jonah, the reason they haven’t changed is because they’re not ready or willing to change yet! Jonah was so set in his ways that he was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights, before he maybe even prayed. The best thing we can do for ‘the Jonah’s’ is to throw them overboard and let God deal with them. It hurts but finally the Jonah’s are better off.
The Holy Bible (NIV)
Halley’s Bible Handbook
Ryrie Study Bible
The Illustrated Bible dictionary
The Call by Rick Joyner
By Patrick Frank van der Heijden 2001
