Get Ready
Jonah is a most unusual prophet with a most unusual story. He refuses to obey God, tries to run away, repents, then gets mad at God for blessing an enemy. And his book is a “fish story” that Jesus believes is true. Do you?
Author
There is general agreement that the prophet, Jonah, wrote this book. He identifies himself as the “son of Amittai” [1:1]. We also know that he prophesied in the northern kingdom when Jeroboam II ruled Israel [2 Kings 14:25], and that he lived in Gath Hepher, a small Israeli village.
Some modern critics argue the book was written much later as an allegory against the strong exclusivity of the Jews following their return from captivity. They do so largely because they do not accept the miracles involved in Jonah’s story. But these miracles (primarily the “large fish” [1:17] and the “bush” that grew fast then withered just as quickly [4:7]) are no harder to believe than the other miracles by which God protected his chosen people.
Context
Jeroboam ruled Israel from 793 to 753 BCE, as a vassal state of the Assyrian empire, which controlled much of the region for more than 200 years. Nineveh was its capital. This at least partly explains Jonah’s attempt to avoid going to the capital city of a hundred-year-old enemy. Further, God wanted to give this city and its people a chance to repent and avoid judgment.
Nineveh was more than 500 miles north of Israel on the Tigris River. Its walls supposedly were 50 feet wide and 100 feet high and roughly eight miles across inside. This made it a large and imposing city for someone from essentially small-town Israel.
Structure
Unlike most prophetic books, Jonah is a narrative – the story of the prophet’s encounter with God. There are four primary sections:
- In chapter 1 God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and preach repentance to the people. Jonah tries to avoid this assignment by taking a ship in the opposite direction, but a violent storm leads to his being thrown overboard and then “rescued” by a giant fish.
- Chapter 2 is Jonah’s prayer of repentance and thanksgiving for the rescue.
- Chapter 3 recounts Jonah’s visit to Nineveh with his warning to repent within forty days or “Nineveh shall be overthrown!” [3:4]. The king leads the people in repentance and God “changed his mind about the calamity that he said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it,” [3:10].
- In Chapter 4 Jonah expresses his anger at God for blessing Nineveh and sulks outside the city. God responds by growing a bush to shade him for a day and then destroying the bush the next day and bringing wind and heat on Jonah. God reproves Jonah for being mad at the bush and having no compassion for the people of Nineveh.
Major Themes
This book presents two messages. The primary teaching is that God is the God for all the people of the earth, not just the Jews. The second message is that God can use people who resist him to demonstrate his power and his love (God can also use people who may not even be aware of him).
God chose Abraham and the nation of Israel to “be a blessing” so that “all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” [Gen 12:2-3]. He did not choose Israel because it was a righteous nation (it would demonstrate its unrighteousness many times), or because it was a strong or powerful nation. He chose Israel to be the example of his love for humankind. He wanted people to see his character in the character of Israel.
Even though Assyria ruled the entire region and had exacted tribute and taxes from Israel, God wanted to give the Assyrians one last opportunity to repent. Even today, God offers everyone an opportunity to repent. It does not matter what the person has done in the past; it only matters that God loves all people.
God chose Jonah to deliver his message to the citizens of Nineveh. But Jonah could not get past his experience as a Jew subjected to Assyria’s harsh rule, and he refused to do what God had asked. Which is the second great insight from this book: God can accomplish his purposes regardless of whether we agree with him or not, regardless of whether we cooperate or not, regardless of whether we obey or not.
Jonah initially refuses and tries to escape from God’s direction, then reluctantly obeys, then gets angry at God and at a plant. But God continues to demonstrate his power and his love.
There is another aspect of Nineveh’s repentance: the pagans responded to Jonah’s message and were saved from God’s judgment. The Israelites back in the northern kingdom were continuing to ignore God’s message and his laws.
Get into the Word
1. Who wrote this book? Where did he prophesy? Where did he live? What was the situation during his work and life? Why do some people question whether Jonah actually wrote this book? Is this book that much different than other Old Testament books?
2. When did the author do his ministry? Who was the king at this time? What was the political situation of Israel at this time? How might this explain the prophet’s response to God’s call? What else do we know about Nineveh? Would this affect Jonah’s actions?
3. How is this book organized? What are the major sections of Jonah’s story? What makes it unique as a prophetic book? Why do you suppose the author chose this format? Does it make it easier or more difficult to understand the book’s message?
4. What actions make Jonah stand out from the other prophets? What other figures in the Old Testament argued with God or tried to avoid doing what God had asked them to do? How did God respond to them? What were the consequences of their actions?
5. What are the major themes of this book? How is this different than most of the prophetic books? How does this book give us a “preview” of the Gospels? How do you suppose the Israelites felt about the message of God’s love for the Assyrians? How might you have felt if you had been involved?
6. How did Jonah first respond to God’s call? How did God react to this situation? How did God change the situation? How did Jonah respond the second time? How did he feel about the assignment God gave him? How did God deal with this response?
Bible Trivia:
Jonah is one of only two books in the Old Testament that is not about the Jewish people or nation of Israel. The other book is Job.
Bible Trivia – Part 2:
Jesus clearly accepted the story of Jonah in the large fish as true: he says “for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth,” [Matt 12:40].
43: Jonah tries to run away from God – Jonah 1:1 – 2:10
Get Ready
Do you ever compare your life to some one else’s? Do you feel you have received more blessings than the other person? Or perhaps more judgments? Or more difficult tasks to accomplish? Do you tend to focus on what you have received or what you have had to do?
The Word
1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid his fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. 6 The captain came and said to him, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.”
7 The sailors said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this calamity has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 “I am a Hebrew,” he replied. “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving
2Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God
from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight;
how shall I look again upon your holy temple?’
5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped around my head
6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.
7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord;
and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”
10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. NRSV
Get into the Word
1. Who is involved in this situation? What does God tell Jonah to do? How does Jonah respond to God’s command? Where does he try to go? Why do you suppose he reacted this way? How might you have reacted?
2. What happens to Jonah after he leaves Israel? How do the sailors react to the situation? How does the captain? What do they try to do? How well does this work? What does Jonah tell the sailors when the lot identifies him as the person responsible for the storm? How do they respond?
3. What does Jonah say the sailors must do? Why would they hesitate to do this? What causes them to finally act? How do they try to protect themselves from God’s anger?
4. How did God respond to the sailors’ action? What happened to the storm? How did the sailors feel about this?
5. What did God do to (or for) Jonah? How did Jonah respond to God’s actions? What did he say to God about his situation? How does he feel about what God did? How do you think you might have felt in Jonah’s place? What does he say about what happened to him? What does God do at the end?
Get Personal
Has God given you a task you really didn’t want to carry out? How did you respond to God at first? How did God help you understand the need to follow his direction? What happened when you carried out the task? How did it affect your walk with Christ?
Notes . . .
1:1. Jonah — a prophet during Jeroboam’s reign, which Amos and Hosea were also prophesying at that time. Both prophesied that Assyria would destroy the northern kingdom.
1:2. Nineveh — the capital of the Assyrian empire, more than 500 miles north of Israel.
Wickedness — Nineveh was the center for worship of the goddess Ishtar.
1:3. Tarshish — the location is not known for certain, some equate it with Sardinia while others believe it is in southern Spain or north Africa.
Fare — would have been a large amount of money, given the distance.
1:5. His own god — the sailors would accept “divine” help from anyone’s god. The captain even wakes Jonah so he can call on his deity [in v. 6].
1:7. Cast lots — a common method of discerning divine intent in the ancient world, including the Old Testament [for example: Lev 16:8; Josh 18:6; 1 Sam 14:42].
1:11. What shall we do to you? — since it is Jonah’s god who caused the storm, he would be the sacrifice to cause God to stop it.
1:17. Large fish — the Hebrew word can refer to any size creature of the sea. God saves Jonah from drowning.
Three days and three nights — Jesus called this the “Sign of Jonah” [Matt 12:39].
2:3. You cast — Jonah realizes that God, not the sailors, put him in the ocean.
2:7. I remembered the Lord — Jonah repents from his disobedience.
Memory Verse
Deliverance belongs to the Lord! [Jonah 2:9].
Next Lesson
Micah 5: The ruler and the remnant.
