Jonah The Rebellious Prophet
Book of Jonah Chapters 1 and 2
One thing we should be very clear about in this Book of Jonah is that it was written as actual history and not some allegory, or fiction, or parable, and refers to real people in real places.
Ancient tradition in Israel considered Jonah and the Book of Jonah as historical facts, and we should too.
A lot is written about Jonah by Josephus and other church fathers, and they all accepted the Book of Jonah as a historical fact.
It would be best for us to accept the Book of Jonah along with the sixty-five other books of the Bible as the truth of God.
If God said Jonah was swallowed by a fish to be delivered to Nineveh, then I accept it as fact.
It does not actually say that this great fish delivered Jonah to Nineveh, and Assyria had no shore and no seaport.
Jonah was probably put to shore at Joppa, the place from which he had set out.
God wanted His message of “judgment” preached in Nineveh, and He chose Jonah to deliver that message.
God does not just choose people He knows might not like the ministry He chose them for.
God chooses His children who He knows can get the job done if their faith remains strong.
- We have a duty to bear witness to the true Lord of all people, Jesus Christ.
- God wanted Israel to know that God loved all people.
- Jonah was to be a picture of repentance from disobedience of a true man of God, written to all God’s people.
Another thing to consider that is not mentioned is the fact that it would be the Assyrian Empire that God would use in His “judgment” of the Northern Tribes named Israel, and the capital of the Assyrian Empire was the city of Nineveh.
The Assyrians were known as some of the cruelest people in the ancient world.
The children of Israel could be just as callous and hardhearted.
Even though most of the Ninevites returned to pagan worship later, God always, always has a remnant that stays with Him forever.
I believe that when Israel was taken to Nineveh, not everyone would be their enemy.
God has a purpose and a use for everyone upon the face of this earth.
God will use everyone who turns to Him, but God will also use the wicked to further His plan of “redemption” while not causing their wickedness.
The truth of God is that He desires mercy more than judgment, and every person who lives will get an opportunity to meet the God of the Bible.
God’s patience with our sin and wickedness, our false worship and rejection of Him as the only Living God and True God, is hard to understand, but it is real!
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
We must understand that God’s “judgment” will be real when the Lord Jesus returns in glory.
There is nowhere to run to escape the “Judgment of God”!
*****Jon 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jon 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
The Book of Jonah, the fifth book in the row of the twelve minor prophets, is a unique book.
It is another place where we are to learn about the ways of God.
Jonah, the prophet of God, tried to put his own importance above the importance of God’s message.
We must learn that if we belong to God, we cannot run away from the purpose He has for us without feeling His chastisement.
Jonah knew the power and the truth of God!
When the truth of God is preached to any people, some will believe and be saved.
Jonah hated the Ninevites, for they were cruel, war-mongering people, and Jonah did not want to see any of them turn to Jehovah for salvation.
Just like God always does, He will take something that started badly and turn it into good results.
Jonah was running away from his home and his country to avoid doing what God wanted him to do.
Jonah would suffer unimaginable things, but in the end, he would be glad to do what God wanted him to do.
Jonah was already a prophet of God in Judah and was obedient to the Word of God.
Amos and Hosea were also serving the Lord during the time of Jonah.
They were to warn Israel and Judah of the coming judgment unless they would repent of their evil ways.
God’s new commission to Jonah was clear and unmistakable.
Jonah was to go to the city of Nineveh to warn a pagan people of the coming judgment of God.
We will learn a lot about Jonah, but we must pay attention to the actions of our God and Jonah’s God, Jehovah.
Of course, we know Him as Jesus.
Nineveh was one of the great cities of ancient civilization.
For the Lord Jesus to mention Jonah, we know that these things are true.
It just makes sense for us to accept all the Word of God as the truth.
To the Jews, the Book of Jonah is important, and they read this great truth of God during the Day of Atonement.
To critics, it is just a fairytale, but we live by faith in the whole Word of God.
If the Lord Jesus said these things are true, then we should not question them.
Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mat 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
What do we recognize as the sign of Jonah?
The sign of Jonah refers to the three days that Jonah spent in the belly of a great fish, which symbolizes Jesus’ death and resurrection after three days.
This truth is mentioned in the Gospels, where Jesus uses Jonah’s experience as a type of His own future crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.
The miraculous survival of Jonah serves as a powerful reminder of God’s mercy and God’s call to repentance.
It is God who is in control of all the parts of nature He created. God loves all people.
And for those who think God just has His eyes on His own people, all the other people of this earth should know that God has His eyes upon all His creation and all people of every nation.
What did Jonah do? He tried to flee from God.
God knows what each of us are doing at any given time.
*****Jon 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
It is believed that Tarshish was a city of the Phoenicians in southern Spain.
This ship would have been an ocean-going ship and not a small fishing boat.
The Phoenicians were the dominant sea power at that time, and their ships traveled the world.
We should understand that we may not always like what God wants us to do.
We know He will never go against His own Word, so anything God asks us to do will be the right thing to do!
The people of Nineveh were evil and malicious, but as God had promised, the entire world must be warned of the coming judgment.
Nah 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;
Nah 3:2 The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
Nah 3:3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:
Nah 3:4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.
All sin is an abomination to the Lord, but God will sometimes point out a specific group of people who have become so wicked that He will issue a special call of judgment.
Archaeology has confirmed what God is teaching us in this Book of Jonah.
The Assyrians were wicked people!
In their judgment of people, lips were torn off, hands were cut off, people were flayed like you would a fish while they were alive, and there were great mounds of skulls everywhere.
Jonah made a tragic decision to deliberately disobey the Lord and run away.
We must clearly understand that God can save anybody, anywhere, at any time, and it is not up to us to decide who God will save or who God will reject.
Rom_14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
The Lord Jesus said: Mat_7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
The Lord God Jehovah could not allow His prophet to get away with these things, which means He understood the feelings of Jonah, but Jonah was not God, and Jonah could not select who God would save or not save.
God’s message is to all people!
Jonah was in open rebellion against the Lord and wanted to get as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could.
God loved the Ninevites, despite their wickedness, and wanted them to hear that there was hope for them if they would only repent of all that wickedness.
We can also see that when we disobey God, we can endanger others.
God did not want His prophet to destroy his ministry or his life.
God caused a great wind, so great that this mighty ship could be destroyed.
The mariners of the ship all called out to their false gods, and we know there was no help there.
Jonah was asleep below deck, and the captain told him to cry out to his God, who is Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew people.
The Lord God of the Bible is the only hope we have in this world!
*****Jon 1:7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Jonah may have thought for a while that he had successfully avoided going east to Ninevah by going west to Spain, but God was not through with Jonah.
Jonah knew why the ship was in such distress.
We should understand that God chastises those He loves, and sometimes a lot of chastisement is needed to bring us back to the right path.
While God was dealing with Jonah, He also took the time to demonstrate His power over the elements of this world.
This was the time of the year when the Mediterranean Sea would have been the calmest, and the crew, being polytheists, could only blame their distress on some false god.
They believed more in their false gods than many people believe in the true God, to our shame.
Ask a Muslim who believes in false gods or ask a Hindu about their faith.
God wants us to warn all people everywhere of His coming judgment, whether they believe it or not.
Jonah finally told them his God was the LORD, the God of Heaven, and that he was running away from Him.
It was obvious to the ship that it was Jonah’s fault that had caused this terrible storm.
They asked Jonah how they could save themselves from this storm, and Jonah told them to throw him overboard.
They did not want to do this at first but later decided that there was no other option and tossed Jonah out of the ship.
*****Jon 1:15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
These professional sailors got introduced to the God who is our Creator.
They asked that God not hold them accountable since it was because of Jonah that the storm was so powerful.
They were now afraid for their own lives and had admiration for the God of the Hebrew people, and they offered some sacrifice when they could have just said thank you and praised Him.
A vow would mean that these sailors made some kind of promise to God.
Only Jonah knew what happened next and lived to talk about it, and the Holy Spirit caused it to be written in the Bible we have today.
*****Jon 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
No one can outthink God! He knew exactly what was going to happen to Jonah, and He prepared a great fish to be ready to save Jonah from drowning.
If God can keep life in the womb before the birth of a child, why would He not be able to keep Jonah alive in the belly of a fish?
This great fish swallowed Jonah to protect him, and as my preacher says, Jonah became the first ever submariner.
Some say under these conditions, there was no way that Jonah could have known how many days he was inside this fish, but the Holy Spirit knows all things.
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
There was but one thing Jonah could do.
*****Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
This story of Jonah should confirm the fact that we can pray to God from anywhere but the grave, though we know that everyone in Hell is now a believer in the true God.
Wherever we find ourselves, we are never too far from God for Him to hear us.
Jonah had caused himself to be put into this precarious situation.
Jonah was in this situation because he had willfully disobeyed God, but God was still ready to hear from Jonah.
Had Jonah not prayed, he would have been lunch for this fish!
We must know that in our time of need, we should go to God, for He is always listening for our prayers.
Psa 120:1 In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
We are never truly in a desperate situation when we know we can pray to the God of all power, even when we are in disobedience to the Word of God, if we are willing to repent.
It would take a miracle for Jonah to survive and complete the work that God had given him to do.
The Lord used this huge fish to keep Jonah alive while He also gave Jonah a sense of being in Hell.
- Jonah was in pitch-black darkness, along with the unbearable smell of rotting fish, seaweed, and whatever else a fish would eat.
- The Lord used this fish to give Jonah a sense of what Hell would be like for those who never heard God’s message of salvation.
- God used this fish to deliver Jonah from death to demonstrate His great love and mercy. God will do almost anything to get His message to those who have never heard it.
- The Lord used this great fish to swallow and then expel Jonah as a type of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, as Jesus said Himself.
Luk 11:29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
Luk 11:30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
We should remember the Lord in everything we do, and He should never be the last thing that we remember in a time of need.
*****Jon 2:7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
Though Jonah was still inside this great fish, his heart began to change in his despair.
Jonah realized that the Lord had kept him alive inside this fish to give him time to repent.
Jonah could breathe while inside this animal, which causes many to believe this great fish was a whale, but we actually do not know for sure.
Jonah speaks with faith that the Lord could still save him if He chose to do so, and He did.
God intends that through situations such as the one Jonah was in, to show us His great mercy.
2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
Jonah did not know if he would truly be saved from his dilemma, but he did know that his relationship with his Heavenly Father had been mended.
Inside this fish, Jonah knew he could still reach into the throne room of God.
Jonah was not afraid to die!
*****Jon 2:10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
We do not know where Jonah was put out on dry land.
We do know that God has control of all His creation, and this fish was obedient to God.
We can ignore all those who suggest the first part of the Book of Jonah is allegorical.
Those are just people who have no respect for the Word of God nor the power of our Supernatural God.
God had humbled His servant, and His servant was now ready to serve Him.
Jonah revived his ministry from this beach where he was deposited.
He would now obey God and go to Nineveh to proclaim the Word of God to a doomed people.
This is the same job we have today!
It was Jonah’s three-day experience when he was given a new life and a new beginning.
So, it is with us!
Through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we too can receive a new life, a new beginning, a brand-new start, a second chance, and spend an eternity with the One who loves us the most.
Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. By Grace Through Faith.
We must never think that God is not working in this world to bring to full glory His plan of salvation, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen