We begin our study with a little more background on the Book of Jonah. As you read through it, notice that most of it is a narrative, a story of what happens with Jonah and God and the people of Nineveh. It is like the stories of earlier prophets like Elijah and Elisha. There are prophecies, but most of them come through the events in the lives of these real and true prophets, like Jonah. Contrast that with later prophetic books like Isaiah, where there are many direct prophetic passages and fewer stories of events. This ties Jonah in more with earlier prophets and their true stories.
I mention this because many modern commentators say that Jonah was written very late in Old Testament times and is not a true story, but only a parable to make a point, sort of like Aesop’s Fables. Such thinking is entirely wrong and comes because too many people today deny that there can be miracles or anything that cannot be proven in a scientific way. These people reject many other things in the Bible, too, on the same faulty basis.
As Christians we believe that God is God and with Him, nothing is impossible, including the miracles in the story of Jonah and in the rest of the Scriptures. It is very important that our Lord Jesus also speaks of Jonah as a real person who experienced what is said of him in the Book of Jonah. In fact, as we will see in a later lesson, Jesus spoke of Jonah’s experience as prophetic of His own in a very special way.
Every Word of Scripture is important, and that is evident as the Book of Jonah begins, as well. Turn again to Jonah, Chapter 1. In the original Hebrew language, the first word is one that is usually translated, “Now.” Unfortunately, that word is omitted in the NIV and other modern translations. It is in the ESV translation of Jonah 1:1 : “Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah…” But the ESV is not consistent in translating this word, either. The only translation that seems to include it regularly, from the Hebrew, is the old King James translation from hundreds of years ago. If you looked at a King James Bible, you would find the word “Now” in Joshua 1:1, Judges 1:1, Ruth 1:1, 1 Samuel 1:1, and others places.
One commentator (Keil) says, “This was the standing formula with which historical events were linked on to one another.” The historical events of the five books of Moses are given, “and now” the historical book of Joshua follows, and so forth. The fact that Jonah starts with this same Hebrew word indicates that it is also one of the same “historical books,” following those of earlier days. It is not a fable or parable, but true history.
Jonah 1:1 continues: “the Word of the Lord came to Jonah.” This is a phrase used 100 times or more in the Old Testament when God had something to say to one of the prophets. His Words are recorded in verse 2, as He communicates with Jonah, the son of Amittai. This is clearly the same Jonah we heard about last week in 2 Kings 14:25, who had the same father. Jonah is called to “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city.”
Nineveh was truly a “great city,” about 500 miles to the East of Jerusalem and the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and the largest city of the known Western world of that time, according to ancient historians. Three other cities were very close and were often considered part of Nineveh. Together, the length of the city was about 25 miles and the breadth about 15 miles.
Jonah was to “call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me,” the Lord said. We are not told in this book what the nature of their evil was, but other Biblical prophets tell us much. The prophet Nahum speaks of the Assyrians “plotting evil against the Lord,” great cruelty and plundering in the way they treated conquered people, prostitution and forms of witchcraft, commercial exploitation, and of course, false gods and idols that they worshipped. There was much evil to warn against.
Jonah did “arise,” but to flee “away from the presence of the Lord,” to Tarshis (Jonah 1:3). It is possible that Jonah was trying to go to the city of Tarsus, to the Northwest, the city where much later Saul (Paul) was born. More likely, Jonah was trying to go as far to the West as one could go in the ancient Western world, to Tartessus, a port in Spain, at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea.
As a prophet, he stood before the Lord to do His will. (See what Elijah said in 1 Kings 18:15. He had to obey the Lord, “before whom he stood,” and go to see King Ahab, who wanted to kill him.) Maybe Jonah imagined that if he was far away from God’s presence, he would no longer be obligated to do what God wanted.
That was foolish thinking, of course. Jonah surely knew of the Psalms of David, already written and used for a long time among God’s people. In Psalm 139, David had spoken of how the Lord knew all about him and that there was no place he could go to get away from Him. See Psalm 139:2-5 and 7-10. Jonah was determined to get away from God, no matter what, though. So, he went to Joppa, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and paid for a fare to go by boat to Tarshish. (This was likely a cargo ship, not a passenger ship, as we will hear, but Jonah takes this opportunity to get far away from God.)
Why was Jonah so unwilling to go to Nineveh? Look ahead to Jonah 4:2. The Assyrians were the most dangerous enemies of Israel, even though in Jonah’s time they were preoccupied with other things and were not such trouble. The Jews greatly feared them, though, and they were obviously not part of God’s chosen, special people. Jonah did know the truth about the Lord’s love and mercy for people, but seemed to want it just for the Jews. He did not want to help the Assyrians, just in case they would listen and repent of their evils and receive mercy if he went to them as God wanted. Some think that he was even fearful that if God paid too much attention to Gentiles, to non-Jews, He might forget about His own people.
God would not do that, but He did give and would continue to give strong warnings to His chosen people that if they kept resisting Him and His will, judgment could come for them, too. See, for example, God’s Word of warning through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 18:7-11, to the people of Judea, See also their evil response, which would eventually lead to the Babylonian Captivity for the Jews.
Already this early in the Book of Jonah, we can begin to see, from a New Testament perspective, what the prophesy of this Book of Jonah was about. God did care about all people, and if the Jews, like Jonah, kept resisting and rejecting God’s plans, there would only be more trouble for them, but more blessings for the Gentiles, many of whom would listen to the Lord.
This is seen in a New Testament story in Acts 10:5ff. The early Christian leader, Peter, was in Joppa, the same city from which Jonah fled so long before. Peter is a Jew who is now following Christ the Savior, but even he is having trouble reaching out to non-Jews. God gives him a vision of many animals that Jews considered unclean and would never eat. God tells him to kill and eat some of this food, because He has made all foods clean. About this time, people come from a Gentile, non-Jewish, Roman centurion, who wants Peter to come and talk with him. Peter goes, though it is very hard for him, because it had been “unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit anyone of another nation.” Peter said, “God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:27-28). Peter preaches the Good News of Jesus to these non-Jews and many came to faith and were baptized. The Good News really was for everyone of every nation, not just for the Jews.
God was teaching this message to the Jew, Peter, even as He had been trying to teach it to Jonah, so long before. If you look back to Jonah 1:4, then, God had not given up on the Jews or Jonah. He is not going to let Jonah get away, but “hurls a great wind“ that stops the ship that Jonah is on from making progress.
We will pick up with the story next week. The Lord “is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” even for rebellious Jonah (Jonah 4:2). That means there is hope for us, too, even in our struggles and for others we are concerned about.
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