Eternal Perspectives

A Pew(ny) Commentary

Preface:

The Minor Prophets, so named because of their brevity rather than their importance, are timely reading for Christians today. These dozen men spoke powerful messages to their nations and leaders during times not too dissimilar from our own: materially prosperous, the countries of Israel in the north and Judah in the south were floundering spiritually.

It is profitable, therefore, to understand (1) what the message was to the people at the time and (2) to glean what these prophets may be saying to us thousands of years later. Their messages are generally disturbing; we, being comfortable, are in desperate need of disturbance.

The Book of Jonah is somewhat unique among these records. First, Jonah’s ministry in this book is to a foreign nation and not to either Israel or Judah. Second, instead of the focus being on the message God entrusted to him, this book examines the behavior and attitudes of the prophet himself. It is a valuable lesson, therefore, for Christians living in a time of national pride and patriotism.

Chapter One

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

To understand Jonah’s behavior it is necessary to understand the times in which he lived. According to 1 Kings 14.23-27, Jonah was a prophet in Israel during the time of Jeroboam II. Though a wicked king, Jeroboam II was successful in expanding the territory and restoring prosperity to the nation to an extent not seen since the days of Solomon. This was a good time to be an Israelite.

It had not always been so. Under the rule of Jehu, Assyria had posed an imminent threat to the northern kingdom. Israel had been part of a coalition that opposed Shalmaneser III’s efforts to dominate the region; when the alliance failed, Jehu accepted Assyrian control and agreed to pay tribute to the northern invaders.

Shortly, however, Assyria began to weaken (albeit only briefly) and Jeroboam II was able to exploit the power vacuum to expand Israel. Most significantly (at least for our purposes), he had done this in fulfillment of the prophecy of Jonah (2 Kings 14.25). A sense of safety and national pride returned to the country, and the people enjoyed considerable luxury and ease.

It was not pleasing to Jonah, therefore, to be told by God to go to Nineveh – the capital of Assyria – to preach a message of judgment. Jonah hated the Assyrians and hated both the past oppression and the present threat they represented to his country. Jonah, it seems, was more committed to his country than he was to the purposes of his God.

Nineveh was located on the opposite side of Tigris River from modern day Mosul, approximately 600 miles north of the Persian Gulf in Iraq. At the time of Jonah, it was a major metropolitan area with a circumference of just under three miles. The surrounding countryside, however, yielded a total population of roughly 120,000 people (Jon 4.11).

In choosing to go to Tarshish, the patriotic prophet was not only heading in the wrong direction but was also going as far away from Nineveh as possible for as long as he possibly could. Tarshish was the outer limits of the known world for the Israelites, likely somewhere on the eastern coast of Spain. Since ships made only two to four knots, the round trip would take him roughly three years to complete.

4 The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
5 Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.

Many times people, after making a decision, proclaim that God has given them “peace” about their decision and thus believe that they are doing the right thing. Jonah stands – or lies – as a corrective to that assumption. In order to sleep soundly in a small ship during a huge storm, Jonah must have had some measure of peace about the decision he had made to disobey God. Psychologically, we know that making a decision – even a wrong or bad decision – results in a feeling of peace and contentment. To use inner feelings or states as a measure of God’s will is thus a very risky proposition. Worse, if we invoke God’s approval of the decision we have made, we risk taking His name in vain.

The crew, undoubtedly from various countries and cultures, began pleading with their own gods for help. At the time, gods were more provincial than universal, which resulted in practical polytheism: every country, city, and citizen had their own gods to pray to for help.

6 So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
7 Each man said to his mate, “Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, “How could you do this?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

Not having any success by beseeching their own gods, the captain awakens Jonah and orders him to call upon his God. Any ol’ god in a storm was worth seeking.

By casting lots, the crew was likely seeking to find out what each individual might have done to cause his god to bring this storm upon them. Their distress is apparent as they bombard Jonah with questions in hopes of discovering why their lives were being threatened. They already knew that he was fleeing from his god but, since gods were local, they assumed there was little danger or risk involved in taking him along. Surely his god’s reach did not extend far out to sea!

Jonah’s response was extremely upsetting to the crew. Many may have heard of Yahweh, the national god of Israel, but the prophet’s description struck terror in the men. Jonah worshiped (but did not obey!) the God of heaven who was the creator of the land and the sea. Yahweh, unlike the gods of the crew, was powerful beyond their imaginations and they now found themselves – travelling on a sea created and controlled by Yahweh – with a prophet who had stirred His anger.

11 So they said to him, “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?” —for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.
12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.”
13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.
14 Then they called on the LORD and said, “We earnestly pray, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased.”
15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

The gods of other nations were not like Yahweh: not only were they fickle and petulant at times, but they also had to be appeased in order to gain their favor. The captain’s request is reflective of this concept. Jonah’s solution, however, was unacceptable to them. Believing his God to be similar to their own, they assumed that Yahweh would be fiercely protective of His prophet and would punish severely anyone who sought to do him harm.

It is tempting to see the captain and crew as more compassionate than Jonah – especially given the latter’s callous disregard for the safety of others – but it is more probable that they were fearful of making a bad situation worse. If this God was upset enough with His own prophet to send the storm, what would He do to those who were not His but who harmed His prophet? Thus, they sought to save God’s servant by their own strength.

When it became apparent that their efforts were in vain, they relented and tossed Jonah over the side. Before they did, however, they pleaded with God not to do them in; afterward, seeing the sea immediately made calm, they feared Him, sacrificed to Him, and made vows. This is not saying that they became Yahwehists or converts to Judaism: they simply added Yahweh to their bag of gods to be sought when trouble beset them.

17 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

It is unnecessary to seek for other historical accounts of people being swallowed by large fish and surviving: what happened with Jonah was a miracle, plain and simple. If one can believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the penultimate miracle – then sustaining Jonah by means of a fish is not a problem.

Furthermore, to find other examples is to lessen the miracle itself: if others have done it and survived, what’s so special about it having happened to Jonah? At the very least, God performed a miracle here as a type of that miracle which was to come:

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.