We have studied several New Testament books in a row, and I thought it might be good to go back to the Old Testament again, at least for a short study. I chose the Book of Jonah, one of the twelve Minor Prophets, found near the end of the Old Testament.
The term “Minor Prophets” does not mean that these writings are less important or less valuable than others. All of Scripture is God’s Word and is valuable for us. This term simply means that this writing is shorter than more extensive books of prophecy, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which are much longer. In fact, the Book of Jonah is very short - only 4 chapters and 48 total verses - not what we would normally call a “book” today.
If I asked what people remember about the Book of Jonah, many would talk about Jonah being swallowed by a great fish. Actually, only three of the 48 verses say anything about the great fish and Jonah. The primary emphasis of this book is upon God and His wanting His message to be shared - and how well Jonah did and did not do with that sharing.
This is a good study for the Epiphany season of the church year that we are now in. Epiphany has to do with letting light shine, so that hidden things can be revealed. Jesus does that in the Scripture readings we hear this season between Christmas and Lent. Jesus is “the Light of the world,” and He is constantly showing who He is and the plan of rescue coming to us, through Him, as our Savior, through His Words and deeds.
Epiphany is also a time that encourages us to let the light of Christ shine through us to others, too. As we hear what Jonah did, we can think about how we are doing as witnesses for our Lord and His Word. We are reminded that God really does want His message of repentance and forgiveness shared with the whole world, including us when we fail in our own lives.
We’ll begin with some background on Jonah and the time when he was a prophet of God. We don’t know a lot, since Jonah is only mentioned one time in the Old Testament, other than what is in the Book of Jonah itself.
The high point of the one nation of God’s people was under Kings David and Solomon, who reigned from about 1000 BC to 930 BC. After that, there was disagreement and struggle about who should be king, and the nation split into two kingdoms, Israel to the north, with its capital in Samaria, and Judea to the south, with its capital in Jerusalem. The Southern Kingdom stayed more faithful to the one true God for a longer time, but not the Northern Kingdom. Many of their kings allowed and even encouraged much evil and supported worship of false gods and drifted far away from God and His will.
God sent many prophets to both kingdoms, calling them to repentance and faithfulness to God, but kings and people often did not listen. God still kept reaching out to them, though, wanting them to awaken to Him and wanting to show His mercy to them.
Turn now in your Bibles to 2 Kings 14:23-29, after the Books of Moses and just after 1 and 2 Samuel. In verse 23, we hear that Jeroboam II had become king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and reigned for 41 years (from about 793-753 BC). Notice what kind of king he was, in verse 24 - “evil in the sight of the Lord” and sinning in ways, like kings before him, that “made Israel to sin,” too.
Now read verses 26-27. It was a terrible situation for the Northern Kingdom; and yet God still had care and mercy for His people, in such bad times, and with no one to help them. God was not ready to give up on them and chose to use evil King Jeroboam II to assist them by giving them more prosperous times, at least for a while. In verse 25, we hear that God sent the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, to prophesy that Jeroboam II could and would expand the Northern Kingdom all the way to Damascus to the north and to Hamath to the south. (See also v. 27-28, where it is said that the Lord “saved” the people through what Jeroboam II did in a military way. The Assyrians were the great power in the Middle East at this time, but became preoccupied with other enemies and troubles and left Israel alone during Jeroboam’s reign, for the most part. This made for better and more peaceful and prosperous times in Israel for a while, and for an expanded kingdom.)
Unfortunately, underneath better times, spiritual rot continued in both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. God sent other prophets, too - Amos to Israel and Isaiah to Judea, and they spoke very much to these spiritual concerns and rebellion against God and His will, in both kingdoms. (Clearly, the 2 Kings passage also indicates that Jonah was prophesying during this time in the Northern Kingdom, too.) Likely Jonah was also sharing God’s warning to His own people, but we have no record of that in the Old Testament. What we do have is a surprising call from God to Jonah, recorded in the Book of Jonah.
Turn to Jonah, Chapter 1, verses 1-3 now, near the end of the Old Testament. God did not send Jonah to the chosen people of Israel and Judah, but to their enemies, the Assyrians and to their capital city of Nineveh, far to the east, to confront them about their great evil. That God could care also about the Assyrians was a shock to many Jews, including Jonah, it seems. Verse 3 tells us that he headed west, not east, farther away from the Assyrians and the voice of God. That is the real issue of the Book of Jonah, and what we will be studying more, next week.
Could we be like Jonah at times, ourselves - running away from God and His will for us? How does God respond and what does He do? The Book of Jonah is short enough that you could read it all by next week and be thinking about what all of this book means also for us.
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