A Pew(ny) Commentary

In the first installment of this study, I looked at the first chaper of the Book of Jonah and provided some of the historical and cultural background necessary to properly understand this remarkable member of the collection we call the Minor Prophets. Before beginning this second post, I will summarize the first and include a few additional observations.

Before God called Jonah to a ministry in Nineveh, Assyria, the prophet had enjoyed success and (undoubtedly) some fame as a prophet in the land of Israel. It was Jonah who announced that, under the leadership of Jeroboam II, the nation would expand and once again enjoy great prosperity (2 Kings 14:23-27). This, of course, came to pass as the Assyrians weakened in power and withdrew their military influence from the region.

Told to preach a message of judgment to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Jonah ran - and sailed - in the opposite direction. He boarded a ship to Tarshish only to be tossed overboard and to become chum for a large, man-swallowing fish. Chapter One ends with our anti-hero swimming in the digestive juices of this fishy agent of God.

As will be revealed more fully in Chapter Four, Jonah ran because of his love for his country and his hatred of its enemies. We see in Jonah’s disobedience the same root we find in our own: it is not because we do not understand what God wants from and for us that we run away, but because we understand quite clearly what He desires. Like Jonah, we knowingly and willfully disobey God.

Living in a democracy, as many of us do, lures us into having the same sort of inflated, grandiose view of ourselves and our beliefs as Jonah seemed to have entertained. God, however, does not ask for either our opinion or our agreement: He tells us what He desires, gives us the grace and power to do it, and then promises to reward us if we obey. But I - and you - sometimes choose not to do so.

Paul discusses this struggle in his first letter to the church in Corinth. Reflecting on his own ministry, he says, “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me” (1 Cor 9:17). Either way, Paul is saying, our obedience to God is reflected in what we do and not merely in what we say or how we feel. Grudging obedience is better than honest disobedience.

Chapter Two

This chapter is a record of Jonah’s prayer and psalm to God from inside the fish that God prepared and sent to save him from certain drowning. Many commentators find a cry of repentance in these words, believing that the prophet has learned his lesson and is now willing to follow God no matter where the path might lead.

I, for one, have never understood Jonah’s petition in this manner.

At best, he seems to be illustrative of our Lord’s words, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me” (Mk 7:6; cf. Isa 29:13). True biblical repentance has substance to it: it involves turning away from one thing and to another; it has some of the same attributes as confession. The latter word translates the Greek word homologeo, which literally means to say (-logeo) the same (homo-) . Repentance is agreeing with God about a matter plus turning away from it and to God.

Such repentance is lacking in Jonah’s prayer, as a closer examination reveals.

1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish,
2 and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, and He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.
3 “For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.”

Obviously, Jonah had had better days. Sinking deep into the murky, storm-churned waters of the eastern Mediterranean, the prophet cries out in desperation to God. With the seaweed beginning to wrap itself around him, Jonah knows that only Yahweh can save him now.

Two things are noteworthy. First, that it is never too late for any of us to cry out to God, even if our suffering and situation are of our own doing. Jonah needed to be saved from his own foolishness - he knew he was the cause of the storm that had endangered the ship and crew (Jon 1:12) - and he knew that his situation was hopeless from a human perspective. He rightly calls out to his Redeemer.

Second, it is highly likely that the form of his deliverance was other than what he might have expected. Perhaps Jonah hoped for a sudden transportation out of the depths and onto the dry land, or - better yet - into the presence of God as Elijah had been years before!

But instead there came a very large, very hungry-looking fish that proceeded to gulp down the prophet. We can only imagine both the terror and suprise Jonah must have felt as he saw this beast approaching him. God’s actions do not always - actually, rarely - conform to the expectations we have of how He will work in our lives. We do well to broaden both our vision and our understanding of Him.

4 So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.
7 While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.

Deffinbaugh, who also fails to find repentance in Jonah’s prayer, offers the following insights while comparing this psalm with some found in the psalter:

  • Jonah’s ‘psalm’ employs the poetic form of the biblical psalms, as well as the terminology of many of these psalms.
  • Jonah’s ‘psalm’ focuses on his physical deliverance from death by drowning.
  • Jonah’s ‘psalm’ is self-centered.

Unlike the psalmists, Jonah focuses on his own plight and suffering but fails to turn to focus on God and to praise Him for who He is. There are at least 24 references to himself (”I,” “me,” “my”) and approximately a dozen to Yahweh. Many of the references to God, however, seem to be ascribing fault or blame to Him for Jonah’s predicament:

- “You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.” Jonah is crying out to gave, but he is also pointing out to Him who knows all that it is His “fault” that he’s where he is right now!

- “I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.” I know that You have rejected me, Jonah seems to be saying, but I have not rejected You. Jonah did not leave God’s presence but was instead passively “expelled” from before Him.

8 Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness,
9 But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.

Deffinbaugh identifies three additional pieces of evidence from these verses:

  • Jonah’s psalm reveals his disdain for Gentiles and a smug self-righteousness as an Israelite.
  • The only promise which Jonah makes is the promise to offer a sacrifice to God at the temple.
  • Jonah’s psalm contains no repentance and no confession of sin, even though chapter 1 makes it clear that such was needed.

Is it unfair to read so much - or so little - into Jonah’s cry? Given the rest of the book and the continuing attitude of patriotism and petulance he displays in the book’s final chapter, such a reading seem necessary. Jonah is reminiscent of Paul’s declaration to the Corinthians:

I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. - 2 Cor 7:9-10

The chapter ends with yet another miracle, that of Jonah being spit out of the fish onto the dry land. His deliverance from his own rebellion and foolishness is now complete.

10 Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

Jonah was certainly sorrowful, but not to the point of repentance. Perhaps even the fish found his lack of sincerity to be extremely distasteful.


2 Cor 1.13