Of all the supernatural occurrences
in the Bible, few
have received as much
ridicule and derision as the story of
Jonah. To liberal scholars and skeptics,
the account of a man swallowed
by a great fish is suitable only for
children, not for serious
thinkers.
Yet, apart from the events
recorded in the book of Jonah,
documentation exists of men
being swallowed by whales and living
to tell of it. And there are certainly
records of large populations
repenting and turning to God.
These facts, coupled with the
witness of Jesus Himself (Mt.
12:39–41), make the historicity and
chronicle of Jonah moot points.
Besides, “Jonah and the whale”
is not the book’s primary thrust.
Rather, the central theme is God’s
gracious and compassionate heart
for lost souls.
When compared with his hawkish
attitude, Jonah’s name—meaning
“dove”—is a misnomer.
Nevertheless, God chose this man
from the small town of Gath-hepher
in Zebulon, three miles northeast of
Nazareth, to be His prophet of grace
and mercy. Earlier God had sent
Jonah to announce the restoration of
lost territory to King Jeroboam II of
Israel (793–753 B.C., 2 Ki. 14:25). Wicked Jeroboam certainly did not
deserve such a gift, but the Lord
had compassion on Israel (2 Ki.
14:26–27), just as He has compassion
on us today.
Overboard
In Jonah 1:1, God had
another mission of mercy
for Jonah. He told him to go to one of the great cities of Assyria,
Nineveh. Nineveh was not yet the
capital of the powerful Assyrian
empire, although it housed one of
the royal residences.2 With its surrounding
suburbs, Nineveh’s population
was upwards of 600,000.
In Jonah’s day, Assyria was a
formidable military machine. It
was the force that took Israel captive
some fifty years after Jonah’s
ministry. The Assyrians were idol
worshipers known for their brutality.
About seventy-five years
before Jonah, an Assyrian king
boasted of his cruelty:
I carried off their spoil and their
possessions. The heads of their
warriors I cut off, and I 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
gate, 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; many within the
border of my own land I flayed,
and I spread their skins upon the
walls; and I cut off the limbs of the
officers, of the royal officers who
had rebelled.
Sending Jonah to such despicable
people was surely an act of
God’s grace; for by sending a
prophet to forewarn them of
impending doom, the Ninevites
received an opportunity to repent.
However, instead of going to
Nineveh, Jonah went to the city of
Tarshish, famous for its gold, silver,
iron, tin, lead, ivory, apes,
and peacocks (2 Chr. 9:21; Ezek.
27:12). Some archaeologists
believe Tarshish was located in
southern Spain. If so, instead of
going eight hundred miles northeast
of Israel, Jonah sailed almost two thousand miles west, in the
opposite direction.
So God threw a great wind onto
the Mediterranean Sea, causing such
a storm that the ship was in danger
of breaking into pieces. The crew
had seen storms before, but this one
was so violent the frightened sailors
cried out to their heathen gods to
save them. Hoping to lighten the
ship, they even jettisoned cargo.
Where was Jonah during this
crisis? Was he leading the sailors to
the one true God? Was he demonstrating
God’s love by helping
them lighten the ship? No, Jonah
had gone to the innermost part of
the vessel, as far from people as he
could get. And as the sailors’
screams filled the air around him,
he slept. (The Septuagint says he
was even snoring!)
It was in that ignominious condition
that the captain of the ship found
the disgruntled prophet. Although
their roles should have been
reversed, the captain roused Jonah
and admonished him to call on his
god. Perhaps Jonah’s god would
notice their plight and save them.
Sensing the offended gods needed
to be appeased, the sailors cast
lots to determine who was to
blame for the insult. The final lot
indicted Jonah. As at other times in
Israel’s history, God providentially
directed the lot (Lev. 16:8; Josh.
18:10; cf. Prov. 16:33). And His finger
pointed squarely at Jonah.
Immediately the sailors peppered
Jonah with questions,
grilling him as to his identity and
occupation. When he told them the
truth, they became terrified. They
asked Jonah the same question that
has been asked for centuries of
godly men who have fallen in disgrace:
“How could you do this?”
The solution to their problem,
offered by Jonah himself, indicated
how far the prophet’s heart had strayed from God. Instead of communicating
the truth about a forgiving
God, Jonah implied that the
God of the Hebrews was no different
than pagan gods, demanding a
human sacrifice to propitiate His
anger. Jonah wanted to take the
easy way out through assisted suicide,
whereas he should have confronted
his pride, humbled himself,
and repented of his sin.
The sailors wanted no part of
Jonah’s death wish. They rowed
harder, trying in vain to reach dry
land. Faced with no alternative, the
sailors reluctantly accepted Jonah’s
offer. But before doing so, they
prayed earnestly to the Lord, asking
God not to hold them guilty for
what they were about to do. Then
they lifted Jonah and, like so much
jetsam, tossed him overboard.
Immediately the sea became calm.
Extremely frightened, the sailors sacrificed
to God and made vows. As
far as they knew, Jonah was dead.
Instead of leaving them with an
understanding of God’s grace and
compassion, Jonah left them with an
image of a wrathful God who punishes
disobedience—an incomplete
and inadequate testimony at best.
But God was not finished with
His wayward prophet. Shortly after
Jonah hit the water, a great fish (possibly
a whale, but the Greek in
Matthew 12:40 merely indicates a
large sea creature) providentially
supplied by God, took the bait and
swallowed Jonah whole. Now,
instead of sleeping comfortably in
the belly of a ship, Jonah was uncomfortably
awake in the belly of a fish.
For three days and three nights God
had his undivided attention.
Overview
Jonah is a picture of Israel. Like
Jonah, God called the nation of
Israel to be a witness for Him among the nations of the earth (Isa.
43:10). Yet Israel fell away from
God, ultimately even rejecting His
Son, the Messiah. As God forewarned
through Moses (Dt. 28), He
disciplined Israel, even as He disciplined
Jonah. Nevertheless, God
did not reject either. As with Jonah,
God will bring Israel to repentance.
As with Jonah, God will one
day fulfill His plan to use Israel as
a witness to the nations.
Jonah is a picture of Jesus the
Messiah. Jonah’s disobedience, of
course, is in no way analogous to
Jesus Christ. However, his experience
in the belly of the fish pictures
Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection
(Mt. 12:40).
Jonah is a picture of a disobedient
Christian. Jonah wanted to run
from God’s presence, so much so
that he was deliberate in his plans
and willing to pay whatever the
cost. Perhaps Jonah would have
seen the foolishness of his actions
if he had considered David’s
words in Psalm 139:
Whither shall I go from thy
Spirit? Or whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there; if I
make my bed in sheol [hell],
behold, thou art there. If I take
the wings of the morning, and
dwell in the uttermost parts of
the sea, Even there shall thy
hand lead me, and thy right hand
shall hold me (vv. 7–10).
No one can hide from God. But
disobedience to Him produces an
aversion to His presence. The
same was true for Adam and Eve
at the beginning of time. They
hid themselves among the trees
of the Garden (Gen. 3:8). And the
same will be true at the end of
time when, during the Tribulation, the wicked will hide in
caves, trying to escape God’s
presence (Rev. 6:15–16). When Jonah said no to God, the subsequent
break in fellowship drove
him to run and hide.
Like Jonah, Christians who disobey
God often avoid fellowship
with other Christians or exposure
to God’s Word. We recoil from
repentance, seeking to rationalize
and justify our errant behavior.
Like Jonah, we, too, are a poor testimony
of God’s love and grace. We
become insensitive to the spiritual
needs of lost people around us and
are as the shameful son in Proverbs
10:5 who sleeps during harvest.
Jesus said the harvest is plentiful
(Mt. 9:37). So where are the workers?
Perhaps too many of us are
like Jonah, fast asleep, oblivious to
the cries of those perishing around
us. Often the unsaved, like the
sailors on Jonah’s ship, are more
concerned about perishing than
many Christians realize. Unless
disobedient Christians get right
with God, people who have never
received Jesus as their personal
Savior will continue to suffer from
the neglect of Christians who can
introduce them to Him. Perhaps
someday someone will ask us the
same question the sailors asked
Jonah: “How could you do this?”
Disobedience to God carries
consequences and repercussions
that affect not only us, but also the
people around us. Truly, the most
dangerous place on Earth to be is
outside God’s will.
Like Jonah, do you feel someone
nudging you, perhaps a neighbor,
a coworker, a relative, a friend?
Like the captain of Jonah’s ship,
perhaps that person is saying to
you, “What meanest thou, O sleeper?
Arise, call upon thy God, if so
be that God will think upon us,
that we perish not” (Jon. 1:6).
People who have no personal
relationship with God lack genuine
peace and live in a storm of turmoil—
whether they show it or not.
Many are drowning in defeat,
depression, and despair and are
anxious to find a lifeline, a way
out, anything that will calm their
fears and give them hope.
Are you prepared to show them
the way, to tell them of God’s
grace and compassion, so they
might not perish (Jn. 3:16)?
Scripture says, “Let the redeemed
of the LORD say so” (Ps. 107:2).
Perhaps the time to begin is today.
 Bruce Scott holds a B.A. in Bible from Grace College of the
Bible,
Omaha, Nebraska and a M.Div. from Central Baptist
Theological Seminary
in Plymouth, Minnesota. He is a Bible teacher and preacher
with The
Friends of Israel in Minnesota.
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