Bible Commentaries
Jonah

JONAH, THE RUNAWAY PROPHET

Perhaps the best known of all the prophets is Jonah, the man swallowed by the fish. Proverbs, songs, and stories have popularized Jonah and made his name a common household word. Wherever the Scriptures have gone men know about Jonah.

Introduction:

Some have considered the book of Jonah as a myth due to its fanciful story of a prophet being swallowed by a great fish and surviving. Jesus’ use of Jonah’s experience at Matthew 12:39-41 stamps a factual approach to the book. Jonah was a prophet of Israel during the days of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23-25). The II Kings passage leaves us with the impression that Jonah’s work was at the beginning of Jeroboam’s reign and the middle of Amaziah’s (i.e., the 15^th plus year). The date of the book was thereby around the year 790 to 780 BC. Historical evidences point out that Joash, the father of Jeroboam, had been paying tribute to the Assyrians (see ISBE V. 1, pp. 335). During the days of Jeroboam, Assyria was having internal problems yet continued, under king Adadnirai III, to conquer lands to the West and Southwest (i.e., Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon). The weakening of Syria, ruled by Ben-hadad, gave Israel a chance to recover much of its lost land (cf. 2 Kings 13:22-25). The historical facts regarding Assyria, a ruthless nation that was bent on conquest, forms the background for this study. Assyria worshipped a multitude of deities. The father of all Assyrian deities was known as Anu. Latter, Ashur became the national God of the Assyrians. Ashur came to be believed in as the creator and god of Assyrian war that gave them victory (ISBE, vol. 4, pp. 86-87).

Jonah

Jonah was God’s prophet. The Lord had given His prophet a command to speak to the people of Nineveh; however, Jonah disobeyed (Jonah 1:1 ff). Jonah tells God that he did not want to preach to Nineveh because he knew that God is “merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah clearly had feelings of animosity toward the Assyrians. Jonah’s anger against the Assyrians likely stemmed from their Gentile pagan practices, control over Israel, and threats of world conquest by ruthless means (see intro.). The prophet wanted no part of Nineveh’s repentance and God’s favor bestowed upon them. Jonah’s disobedience brought immediate trouble to not only himself but others. The prophet experienced troubles at sea and troubles on land. The book ends with Jonah still angry that God would save thousands of people from destruction. Jonah was to learn that God is the Lord of all flesh (Jeremiah 32:27).

The Mariners in the Book of Jonah

The Gentile heathen mariners of Jonah 1 were men who shared only in flesh and blood with Jonah (see Hebrews 2:14). A peculiar difference between the mariners and Jonah was their value of life. While the seas churned by God’s wrath for Jonah’s sake they feared for their life yet Jonah slept (cf. Jonah 1:5-6). When Jonah told the mariners that God was responsible for the agitated sea the men grew further fearful. Jonah instructs the men to throw him into the sea that they may be saved; however, the mariners’ value of human life would not allow them to do so. The mariners display great qualities of character. They valued human life (Jonah 1:5-6), were compassionate (Jonah 1:13), and came to believe in the power of Jehovah (Jonah 1:14). Jonah proves to be just the opposite in character even though he is a prophet of God.

The People of Nineveh

The people of Nineveh were “evil and violent” (Jonah 3:8). When Jonah preached to the great city the people repented of their evil and violent ways. They displayed the character traits of the mariners in that they valued their lives (Jonah 3:9), feared Jehovah God (Jonah 3:9), and developed faith through Jonah’s preaching (Jonah 3:5). God saw the “works” of Nineveh’s repentance as they humbly mourned in shame for their sin and thereby the Lord determined not to destroy them (Jonah 3:10).

Practical Applications

Sometimes God’s people are actually worse in behavior and character than those they condemn. Jonah cared nothing for the people of Nineveh because they were heathens, wicked, violent, and worshiped other deities. That which distinguished the people of Nineveh (and the mariners) from Jonah was their concern for human life and spirit of humility. Jonah would have rather died then submit to God’s will for the people of Nineveh (cf. Jonah 4:3; Jonah 4:9). Jonah prayed to God saying, “They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy;” however, he did not follow through with his own conviction. Jonah put his will before the will of God. God’s will only anger in the prophet (cf. Jonah 4:1; Jonah 4:4; Jonah 4:9). Furthermore, the prophet displayed a spirit of coldness toward the thousands of inhabitants of Nineveh in that his desire was their destruction (Jonah 4:11). He was also selfish in that he was only concerned about things that would cause him discomfort or threaten his own life (cf. Jonah 4:8-9).

The book of Jonah causes us all to look deep within. Am I one who is only concerned about my personal well-being yet cold toward others who have needs? Am I one who would harden my heart against God’s will because it does not fit my desires? Do I value human life and the souls of even those who mistreat me? Am I compassionate toward others? Am I the type of person who would rather follow my own or another man’s will than God’s? The book of Jonah ends abruptly without telling us if Jonah changed his heart. We can only hope that he did. If there are spiritual deficiencies that you or I need to change why not take care of it now rather than remaining hardened in sin?

About the Man

Jonah preached during the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Northern Israel. Jeroboam’s reign began in 782 B.C. The prophet’s home was in Gath-hepher in the district of Zebulon in Northern Israel (2 Kings 14:25). This was just a few miles northeast of present day Nazareth. The record tells us his father was Amittai (Jonah 1:1). Thus he would have been known as Jonah ben Amittai. An unproved Jewish legend says he was the son of the widow of Zarephath whom Elijah restored to life (Compare 1 Kings 17:17-24). His name, "Jonah," meant "dove" in the Hebrew; a name strangely inappropriate for a man of his hostile temperament.

As a preacher, Jonah was powerful and successful, especially in bringing men to repentance. But his greatness as a preacher was marred by his stubborn, strong will and his refusal to yield even to God. He was a fierce patriot who would rather die than be found lending aid or comfort to the enemies of his nation. In him we see revealed the worst degree of narrow Jewish exclusivism towards Gentiles.

Jonah was not the only preacher in Israel in that day. Amos and Hosea both served along with him in the Northern Kingdom, while Isaiah and Micah served in the South a little later.

There were several unique things about Jonah. He was the only one of the minor prophets who preached to a foreign nation on foreign soil. Likewise he was the only Old Testament personage reported to have traveled the Mediterranean. Of the twelve minor prophets he alone was involved in the miraculous in a substantial way. He was the only Old Testament character to which the Lord Jesus likened himself (Matthew 12:38-41). Jonah has the distinction of being the only preacher in recorded history who hoped he would fail.

The Times

The eighth century B. C. was a perilous time for the little nations of the Middle East. Mighty Assyria was the aggressor nation of day. She was an expansionist nation, willing to use aggression against weaker nations in order to expand her boundaries. Her warrior kings were casting lustful eyes toward the strategic land of Israel. Following the death of Jeroboam II, King Menahem and the Israelites became tributaries to Pul, King of Assyria (2 Kings 15:19).

The Assyrians used terror to intimidate and gain control over their neighbors. The program of King Ashur-nasir-pal II was typical. "His usual procedure after the capture of a hostile city was to burn it, and then to mutilate all the grown male prisoners by cutting off their hands and ears and putting out their eyes; after which they were piled in a great heap to perish in torture from sun, flies, their wounds and suffocation; the children both boys and girls, were all burned alive at the stake and the chief (ruler) was carried off to Assyria to be flayed (skinned) alive for the king’s delectation" (Hall’s Ancient History of the Near East, p 445).

Nineveh

This great city was situated on the Tigris River, 250 miles north of Babylon, some 500 miles east of Jonah’s home. She was highly fortified with five walls and three moats surrounding her. Her chief wall was 100 feet high with the top broad enough for four chariots to race around abreast. Her administrative district is thought to have been between 30 and 60 miles in diameter. Some 216 square miles were enclosed within her walls. The population in Jonah’s day is estimated to have been 600-650,000. This is based on the fact that there were 123,000 who could not discern their right hand from their left (Jonah 4:11). The center piece of the city was a grand temple built as a pyramid. Her library was said to contain some 10,000 tablets in 860 B. C.

King Ada-Nirari III ruled Nineveh from 810-783 B.C. The Urartu nation threatened Nineveh in Jonah’s day. National repentance helped them survive the Urartu threat but soon they reverted to their wicked ways and in 612 A. D. God delivered the mistress of the world into the hands of Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians. So great was her overthrow that three hundred years later Alexander’s Macedonian troops searched for but could not find a trace of her ruins. In fact some skeptical historians doubted there had ever been an actual Nineveh until archeologists unearthed her ruins in the nineteenth century. Today, thanks to their labors, we know a great deal about this illustrious city. No trace however of Jonah’s work has been found in the Assyrian record.

About the Book

The author is not named. It is written from the view of a third person about Jonah’s trials and labors. Ancient Jewish tradition ascribed it to Jonah himself, as do most contemporary conservative scholars. It was likely written following his experience, thus the date would be somewhere between 780-750 B.C. Liberal scholars prefer to date it 430-400 B.C.

Purposes

At least three purposes are easily discerned in studying Jonah.

1. It declares God’s great love for all men; Gentiles as well as Hebrews, and his desire that all be saved.

2. It illustrates God’s providential concern for all nations of the world, while rebuking the narrow intolerance of the Hebrews who thought God only cared for them.

3. From Jesus we learn that it typified his coming and that he, like Jonah, would spend three days and nights in the tomb for the benefit of mankind (Matthew 12:40-41).

Jonah and the New Testament

The book has no specific Messianic promise. However, the prophet’s experience with the fish was typical of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (Matthew 12:40). The repentance of the Ninevites is cited as a condemnation of those who do not repent at the call of Christ (Matthew 12:41). The proud Pharisees, in rejecting Jesus, because of his Galilean background, overlooked the fact that Jonah had also come from Galilee (John 7:52).

Interesting Facts About the Book

Of the Minor Prophets, only Jonah is written in narrative form. It contains no specific predictive lessons about Israel’s future or Messiah’s kingdom. Jonah’s powerful sermon that brought the world’s mightiest nation to her knees is recorded in only eight words. Rather than a history of the prophet and his ministry, this book should be styled a spiritual biography. The Jews read Jonah in their synagogues annually on the Day of Atonement.

Jonah and the Liberal Scholars

The historical truth and factuality of the book of Jonah was never questioned in Jewish rabbinic tradition. Even Philo of Alexandria, the great allegorist, treated it as factual. It’s no secret that modern liberal scholarship uniformly denies the miraculous story of Jonah. We should be reminded that "the denials of the book’s historicity was in the first place the results of the dominant rationalistic view of the world, in which there was no room for miracles or for divine interference in things physical" (H. L. Ellison). The testimony of Jesus in Matthew 12:40-41 fully satisfies us as to the factuality of Jonah’s record. "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Those wishing to see a good defense of Jonah’s record should see Gleason Archer’s Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Jonah has rightly been called "the testbook of the Bible." It challenges our faith and our response reveals our attitude toward God. Whether one can believe the record of Jonah with its miracles depends on whether he spells the name of his God with a large or a small "g"!

Five Approaches to Interpretation

Perhaps here would be the best time to notice the varied attempts of men to explain the book.

Fictional. Some liberals view it as simply a religious novel, thus none of the strange events should be considered as actual history.

Parabolic. Others understand the book to be an imaginary story to illustrate a spiritual lesson to the Jews. Typical of this view, would be the approach that sees Jonah as the Jewish nation, the Babylonian Captivity as the fish’s belly, the restoration as the prophet’s expulsion, the mission to Nineveh as the Jews’ mission to the Gentile world.

Symbolic. In this approach no specific application is offered. Each interpreter is left free to assert his own application so long as it rejects the historicity of the story.

Mythical. Some liberals have treated Jonah’s story just as we would the myths of the Greeks and Romans.

Historical. With faithful believers over the ages, we accept Jonah as a historical record of what actually happened to the prophet. Since Jesus put his stamp of approval on this understanding we are on safe ground.

Supernatural Events in Jonah

The average person tends to think only of the miracle of the fish swallowing Jonah, but this is only one of several divine acts in the record. All of the following were the result of God’s action:

1. The sudden storm that threatened the ship wherein the prophet was (Jonah 1:4).

2. The lot which identified Jonah as the cause of their misery (Jonah 1:7).

3. The immediate stilling of the storm when Jonah was cast overboard (Jonah 1:15).

4. The great fish which swallowed Jonah (Jonah 1:17).

5. The prophet’s preservation in the fish’s belly (Jonah 1:17)

6. The expelling of Jonah on the coast rather than in the depths of the sea (Jonah 2:10).

7. The vine that grew up over night to shade Jonah (Jonah 4:6).

8. The worm that destroyed the vine (Jonah 4:6).

9. The sultry east wind that tormented the prophet (Jonah 4:8).

The Fish that Swallowed Jonah

The Hebrew word is dag; the Greek is ketos. The meaning is, a monster of undefined fish-species. Our English translators gave us the word "whale" probably because it was the largest creature of the sea they knew to be capable of swallowing a man. Skeptics have ridiculed Jonah’s story as a "fish tale." The facts show that such an event could easily happen. The great white shark inhabits the Mediterranean. This creature grows up to 70 feet in length and up to 50,000 lbs. in weight. Cases have been documented of these sharks with throats 12 feet wide. Specimens have been taken with men, horses, sea-calves and reindeer in their stomachs, swallowed whole. A white shark was taken off of Knight’s Key in Florida in 1912. It weighted 30,000 lbs. and was 45 feet long. In its stomach was a 1500 lb. black-fish. This monster was displayed by the Smithsonian Institute.

James Bartly fell overboard and was swallowed by a large sperm whale in 1891, near the Falkland Islands. The whaling ship, Star of the East, captured the whale the following day. Bartly was found alive and fully recovered. The story was carefully researched and verified by M. deParville, scientific editor of the Journal des Debats, Paris, France.

A white shark swallowed a man in the English Channel. Forty-eight hours later the shark was killed and the man found unconscious but alive. Harry Rimmer reports an interview with the victim (See Harmony of Science and Scripture by Rimmer p. 188-189).

Why should we doubt God’s ability to prepare a sea-monster capable of swallowing and accommodating a man for three days. Even men have made sea monsters able to host 125 or more men for up to 90 days beneath the seas and then to deliver them alive on dry ground. We call them submarines!

Exposition

As we study this short record of Jonah, the Runaway Prophet, we will see him:

Running away from God in chapter 1;

Running back to God in chapter 2;

Running with God in chapter 3 and;

Running ahead of God in chapter 4.

Jonah One - Running Away From God.

The prophet heard God say "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:2). He responded by going down to Joppa and booking passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, hoping to flee "from the presence of Jehovah" (Jonah 1:3). Nineveh was 500 miles east of Galilee. Tarshish, in Spain, was at the opposite end of his world, some 2,000 miles away.

Running away from an omnipresent God is an impossible task. Two hundred years earlier David had written"

"Whether shall I go from the Spirit?

Or whether shall I flee from they presence?

If I ascend up into heaven thou are there:

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there.

If I take the wings of morning,

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me" (Psalms 139:7-9).

It is not unusual for the man who runs away from God to run into a storm. And so: "Jehovah sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest so that the ship was like to be broken" (Jonah 1:4). How can one resist the mighty Jehovah "who maketh the winds his messengers" (Psalms 108:4) and when "Stormy winds" fulfill his word (Psalms 148:8).

So great was the danger that the heathen "mariners were afraid and cried everyone to his god" (Jonah 1:5). But Jonah had repudiated his claim on his God. The poor pagans had to urge the Hebrew prophet to call on his God for salvation (Jonah 1:6). How embarrassing!

As was common in those days, they cast lots hoping to determine who was to blame for their distress. "And the lot fell on Jonah" (Jonah 1:7). Solomon had noted that "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing there-of is of Jehovah" (Proverbs 16:33).

The fear-stricken sailors began to press their passenger, tell us "For whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou?" (Jonah 1:8). Red-faced and humiliated, the derelict man of God confessed in muffled tones: "I am a Hebrew; and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land" (Jonah 1:9). To this they replied, "What is this that thou hast done?" (Jonah 1:10).

When they asked what would he advise for their preservation, he thought of only one thing: "Take me up and cast me into the sea" (Jonah 1:12). With his misconception of God as a stern Lawgiver and Judge who wanted all sinners destroyed, what else could he hope for himself?

The heathen mariners were more humane than God’s prophet. Rather than sacrifice Jonah to the angry sea, "the men rowed hard to get them back to the land" (Jonah 1:13). He would have let them perish in God’s wrath just as he would allow the Ninevites to be destroyed. They risked their lives and labored mightily to save their Hebrew passenger. Finally it was obvious that they could not win against the elements and no option was left but to dump the offending prophet. Even then, "they cried unto Jehovah, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood" (Jonah 1:14).

To their amazement "the sea ceased from its raging." The trembling sailors "offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah and made vows" (Jonah 1:16). It is remarkable that these benighted heathen showed more respect and reverence for the Lord than did his own prophet. This is surely one of the great lessons of Jonah, that honest men will worship Jehovah if only his children will share their knowledge with them!

"And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17). Having already discussed the possibility of there being a fish of such size as to swallow down a man whole, we will only observe that the God who "created the great sea-monster" (Genesis 1:21), would surely have no difficulty in appointing one of them to house Jonah for three days. If you spell your God’s name with a capital "G" you will have no problem with this fact. However, if you spell yours with a small case "g," I can understand your problem.

Jonah Two - Running to God.

When the prophet came to his senses he was in an awful situation. It was totally dark, hot and steamy. The air was foul with contents of the fish’s stomach. Surely he was obsessed with thoughts of death. How could he escape such a chamber? There was nothing to do but pray. And pray he did and that mightily. As never before, he saw his undone condition and he prayed for all he was worth. "Then Jonah prayed unto Jehovah his God out of the fish’s belly...When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Jehovah..." (Jonah 2:1; Jonah 2:7). Not only did he pray for forgiveness and deliverance, he made a sacred vow to obey God in whatever he asked (Jonah 2:9).

The key of chapter two is "Salvation is of Jehovah" (Jonah 2:9). Jonah knew that his only hope of salvation was God’s intervention on his behalf. And slowly it began to dawn on him that the same merciful God who might be moved to save a disobedient Hebrew prophet just might be willing to save a repentant Nineveh.

"And Jehovah spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land" (Jonah 2:10). I imagine the poor fellow lying there on the beach the slime of the fish’s belly covering him, the water lapping about him. He was totally exhausted from his harrowing experience. Yet he was so thankful to be alive that he was ready to run in obedience to any command from the Lord.

Jonah Three - The Prophet Running With God.

"And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee" (Jonah 3:1-2). It was the same voice he had heard before but this time the prophet saw things from a different perspective. "So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah" (Jonah 3:3). No more running away, God is not to be trifled with. He must be obeyed.

The Sermon that Saved a Nation.

"And Jonah.....cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4). We have here only a summary of Jonah’s great lesson but the response of the people demonstrates how effective it was. He spoke of the great Jehovah against whom they had sinned - for they "believed God" as a result of it (Jonah 3:5). He spoke of judgment for sin for he warned "Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4) He preached repentance "for they repented at the preaching of Jonah" (Matthew 12:41).

"And the people of Nineveh believed God and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. And the king.... laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation.....saying, let neither man nor beast, herd, nor flock taste anything’ .... and let them cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn everyone from his evil ways, and from the violence that is in his hands, who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away his fierce anger, that we perish not" (Jonah 3:5-9).

Oh the power of the word of God, boldly proclaimed by a faithful preacher! Like Micah he was "full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might," to declare unto Assyria his transgression, and to Nineveh his sin (Micah 3:8). Then as now, "it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching that saved them that believe" (1 Corinthians 1:21). How many cities could be saved in our day if we had Jonahs to go and preach God’s message unto them. How many millions of precious souls would gladly heed the Master’s call if they could but hear it. "What the world needs most" is not "love sweet love," but God’s sweet truth faithfully proclaimed from every house top and on every corner. The tragedy of our age is that many of the sermons preached from our pulpits have absolutely nothing to do with the salvation of man. As useful as lessons on social graces, friendship, parenting and self-esteem may be, they will not snatch even one soul from the fires of hell (Judges 1:23) only the gospel of salvation will do that. Never was there a greater need to hear it than today!

"And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil which he said he would to unto them; and he did it not" (Jonah 3:10). All of God’s warnings of judgment are conditional. Through Jeremiah he said; "At what instant shall I speak concerning a nation... if that nation... turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them" (Jeremiah 18:7-8). This tells us there is hope for our nation’s future. If the people can be brought to repentance, God will yet spare us.

Jonah Four - Running Ahead of God.

This is surely one of the strangest chapters in the Bible. Jonah is the only preacher in recorded history who wanted to fail! When he saw the people contrite and penitent and when he knew God’s plan to forgive and spare them, "it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry" (Jonah 4:1). Finally it all came out. He didn’t want the Ninevites to be saved. He wanted them destroyed one and all! They were his nations’ chief enemy. How could he face the folks back home if he had been the instrument to preserve the cursed Ninevites. Oh the shame and humiliation it would bring him.

"O Jehovah, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3). Simply said, he would rather be dead than to face his fellow Hebrews under these circumstances.

"Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city" (Jonah 4:5). No doubt he was hoping that God would change his mind and turn loose his fury on them.

The Episode of the Vine.

Nineveh sat on the edge of the desert. Irrigation from the rivers made her habitable. The hot burning sun slowly baked the stubborn prophet, making his life miserable. "And Jehovah God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his evil case" (Jonah 4:6). We can imagine the joy Jonah felt as the leafy vine spread its refreshing shadow over him. Thank God for gourd vines, he no doubt prayed.

"But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered" (Jonah 4:7). Just when he was getting a little relief, the sorry thing died on him! We can see his disgust. "And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die" (Jonah 4:8). He was angry, frustrated and upset about the loss of his gourd vine. Never mind the hundreds of thousands of Ninevites who were there before his eyes; let them perish but not his vine! As the worm ate the heart of the vine, so selfishness ate at the heart of Jonah. While we stand amazed at his ruthless selfishness and calloused indifference, we should look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s word. A world of nearly eight billion souls is marching a straight path to judgment and we fret about our gourd vines, our houses, our careers, our cars, our entertainment and our toys.

"And Jehovah said, Thou hast regard for the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it to grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night; and should not I have regard for Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4:10-11). I can see the pouting prophet melting with burning shame under the divine rebuke. How wrong he had been. How narrow was his view of God’s grace. How selfish his thoughts. I like to think that he hung his head and cried out, "God, be thou merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13).

LESSONS TO REMEMBER

1. Men have looked so long and hard at the great fish of Jonah that they have failed to see the God who made the fish and the purpose of the book.

2. Jonah learned that it is impossible to run away from God.

3. The path of self-will always leads to disaster.

4. It is tragic to face the storms of life without God.

5. We see the necessity of obedience to God’s commands, no matter how distasteful.

6. No place is so remote or desolate that it cannot be made a house of prayer by a praying saint.

7. God had sent numerous prophets to the Hebrews yet they had not repented. He sent one prophet to the heathen Ninevites and they repented en masse.

8. Jonah’s experience impressed upon Israel the fact that God’s blessings were not for them alone; they were to be shared with all nations.

9. We see in this record the evil and danger of a false, narrow patriotism such as possessed Jonah. Such bigotry towards other nations has always been contrary to God’s will.

10. No man can be a true herald of God’s righteousness who is not also a herald of his mercy. Even today, too many preachers are like Jonah, in that they are afraid of God’s grace.

11. The penitent sinner will condemn the nominal professor of Christianity. "The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here" (Matthew 12:41).

12. We learn that God’s threats are conditional. If we will repent, he will forgive.

Conclusion

Having surveyed this remarkable book we can agree with Charles Reade that "it is the most beautiful story ever written in so small a compass."

The Choice

Jonah 1:1-16

Brent Kercheville

Today we are kicking off a four week study on the book of Jonah. Jonah is an interesting book because it has come under fire for not being believable. Most people know the story of Jonah like they know the story of Noah’s flood. Everyone has heard of a guy named Jonah who was swallowed by a fish. Since being swallowed by a fish and living to tell about it is a pretty fantastic story many have relegated Jonah to just that, a story, not a historical event. Many take the book as a myth and that nothing in the book actually happened. As we go through this four week study we will note the many reasons why we must accept the events in Jonah has actual historical events. The first piece of evidence we must consider is that Jonah the prophet is not only mentioned in this book in the scriptures.

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. (2 Kings 14:23-25 ESV)

Notice that Jonah is a real person who prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II. This puts the time of Jonah’s prophetic ministry between 782-753 BC. If we do not accept the historical life of Jonah based on 2 Kings 14:25 then we cannot accept anything in the scriptures as historically true and the whole Bible must therefore be discarded. The scriptures do not present Jonah as a fairy tale but as an actual man who was a prophet whom God dealt with in amazing ways.

The Call (Jonah 1:1-3)

The word of the Lord comes to Jonah giving him the mission to go to the great city of Ninevah and preach against it because its evil has come up before the Lord. Ninevah was the capital city of Assyria, which during the time of Jonah was the world power. Unexpectedly, Jonah does not obey God’s command to go preach to the city of Ninevah. Rather, Jonah goes to Joppa to get on a ship going to Tarshish. It is accepted by most that Tarshish was likely a city in Spain. What Jonah does is equivalent to God telling us to go the New York City only to get on a plane in Miami and flying to San Diego. Everything about Jonah’s movement shows he is going to opposite direction. Going to Joppa is the opposite direction of Ninevah and going to Spain is going as far from Ninevah as a person could go at that time. The scriptures are emphasizing that Jonah is going the wrong way by naming Jonah’s destination, Tarshish, three times in one verse.

Twice the verse tells us what Jonah is doing. Jonah is going away from the presence of the Lord. The idiom has led to some confusion. Some think that Jonah thought he could run away from God. But Jonah is a prophet of God and knows that God is rules over all the earth. Jonah is not thinking that by running away that he is going to a place where God is not. Rather, going away from the presence of the Lord is a way of saying that Jonah has quit his prophetic work. To stand before the presence of the Lord meant that you were acting in the official capacity of prophet (1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:15; Jeremiah 15:19). Therefore, Jonah is declaring his unwillingness to serve God. Jonah is quitting his prophetic office. Going to Tarshish likely indicates that he is desiring to go where God’s people are not (cf. Isaiah 66:19).

Jonah was placed in a moment of decision. Will he obey the voice of the Lord or not? Will Jonah follow his desires or will he follow God’s will? All of us attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord as Jonah did. We do not get on a boat and try to move to the far reaches of the earth. However, in heart and in spirit we make the same declaration. We decide to ignore God. We think that God will not see what we are doing. We act like God will leave us alone if we ignore him. We do the exact same thing. We may come to services, but we have no interest in listening to God’s word and letting God’s word change our lives. We have quit on God. Some make this declaration more pronounced by no longer coming to services. When it comes to our desires and God’s will we often choose our will. Sometimes our will matches God’s will so we think we are obeying God when we are still obeying our desires. We read Jonah and wonder how he could act in such rebellion yet we act with the same degree of rebellion when the word of God falls on deaf ears and stony hearts.

God’s Corrective Hand (Jonah 1:4-6)

Jonah 1:3 began with the words, “But Jonah.” Jonah 1:4 begins with the words, “But the Lord.” The Lord is not going to leave Jonah alone. God brings up a great wind causing a violent storm on the sea. The storm was so violent that the ship was about to break apart and the mariners were pitching their cargo overboard. When you have seasoned, professional mariners fearing for their lives, then you know the severity of the situation.

God can use events in our lives to try to wake us up from our spiritual blindness and spiritual lethargy. We read in many places in the scriptures that Satan can use things in this life to try to pull us away from God, especially seen in the book of Job. God can use things to try to wake us up to cause us to seek after him.

5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:5-6 ESV)

26 He will pray to God, and God will delight in him. That man will see His face with a shout of joy, and God will restore his righteousness to him. 27 He will look at men and say, “I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved. 28 He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will continue to see the light.” 29 God certainly does all these things two or three times to a man 30 in order to turn him back from the Pit, so he may shine with the light of life. (Job 33:26-30 HCSB)

What we are seeing with Jonah is not God’s wrath but God’s mercy. God is trying to awaken Jonah from his spiritual rebellion and foolishness. Often we are like Jonah. We are asleep in the boat. The whole crew is panicking, aware of the danger. Jonah is asleep, not aware at all of the danger. We think we are safe in our rebellion, unaware of the spiritual danger we are in. Further, we fail to recognize the harm we are causing others in our rebellion. The lives of every person on this vessel is in danger because of Jonah’s rebellion. How often we fail to see the damage we are causing in the lives of others because of our sins! Further, we so easily forget that much of our suffering comes from the sins of others.

Stubborn Against God (Jonah 1:7-16)

Jonah’s full blown stubbornness against God is fascinating. The storm is about to kill everyone as the boat is about to break apart. Jonah admits that these things are happening because of his disobedience to the Lord. Jonah’s solution is his death. I don’t know that we read the story and understand what Jonah is saying that he must do. When he tells the mariners to throw him overboard, they are going to throw of him overboard to his death. To be thrown overboard in a powerful storm is to drown in the sea. There is no reason to think that God is going to deliver him. With this in mind, isn’t it interesting that this is Jonah’s solution? Jonah does not decide to pray to God for deliverance. Jonah does not turn in repentance to the Lord. Jonah does not confess his sins to the Lord. Jonah does not tell the captain to turn back to Joppa. Jonah’s answer is simply to throw him to his death. This is why we see the mariners trying another way in verse 13. They row hard to try to get to land but they are unsuccessful. Jonah is done with God. Jonah is stubborn against the Lord. God is mercifully trying to save Jonah’s eternal soul who has given up on God completely. Jonah’s answer is to be cast into the sea to his death.

It is sad to see the spiritual condition of this rebellious prophet. It is also sad to see us in the same spiritual condition of rebellion. God is trying to save us. God has sent his Son to redeem us from our slavery to sin and set us free from our sins. God has given us the lifeboat to avoid the eternal punishment due to each of us for our rebellion. What is our response? Often we just dig in our heels like a stubborn mule and refuse the salvation God is offering. We would rather sink to our spiritual death than receive the grace and mercy of our Lord. We would rather remain in our spiritual prison cell then come out into the sunlight of freedom in Christ. We read Jonah and wonder what is wrong with him. We should look at ourselves and wonder what is wrong with us! Why are we stubbornly choosing our desires rather than choosing life in Christ? Our rebellion is destroying ourselves and destroying others around us, yet we still refuse to choose the Lord. We stay in spiritual blindness and remain cold in heart. In doing so we are choosing the destruction of our lives and destruction of our eternal souls. What a poor choice we are making! God is trying to save and we keep swimming back into danger.

Parents correct their children to save them from destruction. We tell our children not to go into the street because they will be hit by a car. The child rebels because the parent is being oppressive and will not give us our freedom. We want to play in the street even though it is to our peril. God is not trying to constrain us or limit our freedom. God is giving us his laws and correcting us to save us from destruction. Yet like rebellious children we want to run back into danger not understanding that God is trying to protect us. God’s word is for our good so that we can have life now and eternal life to come. What choice will you make? Will we continue to stubbornly resist God, pretending to be a Christian, but choosing our will and desires? Or will we submit to the hand of God that is trying to warn us and bring our souls back from destruction? God is trying to save you. Will you let him or will you push back into danger?

Lessons From The Belly of the Fish

Jonah 2:1-10

Brent Kercheville

In the first chapter of Jonah (Jonah 1:1-16) we read about a wayward prophet. Jonah was told to go and preach to Ninevah because of their sins but Jonah has rejected God’s call. He decides to quit being God’s prophet and takes passage to Tarshish rather than going to Ninevah. Jonah’s stubbornness was so great that he tells the sailors to cast him into the raging sea to preserve the crew and ship. He refuses to turn to God, refuses to pray for forgiveness, and refuses to turn back to Joppa. He would rather drown than do any of these things. This is where we left Jonah in chapter 1.

The last verse of chapter 1 and the whole of chapter 2 present two amazing events. Verse 17 records the first stunning development. The Lord appoints a great fish to swallow Jonah. It is important to notice that a large fish does not by random swallow Jonah. The Lord appointed for this fish to swallow Jonah. Just as God appointed a storm in his graciousness to try to bring Jonah back from his destruction, so now God appointed a great fish in his graciousness to spare Jonah from death. Many efforts have been made to try to prove that it is possible for a human to live inside of a fish a a few days. In my opinion these efforts are useless and pointless. A random fish did not swallow Jonah. All of this was God’s doing. God appointed a fish of sufficient size and God kept Jonah alive while in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. This event is a miracle and it is important to classify this event as a miracle. We will note the reason later in the lesson.

We noted in our last lesson that everyone is praying to their gods but Jonah. Jonah refuses to pray to God. Chapter 2 begins with Jonah praying, but notice his location. He is in the belly of the great fish. What follows is the recording of Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish.

Jonah’s Prayer

The prayer begins by recounting what happened once he had been thrown off the ship into the sea. Jonah 2:3 says that he was cast into the deep, into the heart of the sea. Visualize the progression of Jonah as he struggles in the sea. Jonah 2:3 shows Jonah in the sea and the waves of the storm are crashing over his head. One can visualize Jonah on the surface of the water being battered by the waves. Jonah 2:5 reveals Jonah sinking into the sea. “The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me” (Jonah 2:5). As Jonah is sinking the seaweed wraps around his head as he is engulfed by the waters. Then, in Jonah 2:6, Jonah reaches the sea floor. He is at the root of the mountains and describes the sand bar as bars of a prison closing on him. Finally, in Jonah 2:7, Jonah is drowning. His life is fainting away. He is about to die.

Seek the Lord (Jonah 2:4)

Sitting in the belly of the fish for three days and nights causes Jonah to finally get it. The light bulb clicks on and he has a dramatic turn. In verse 4 Jonah decides that he will look again to God’s holy temple. Jonah is not expressing a confidence that he is going to live through this and will go to Jerusalem and see the physical structure of the temple again at some point. Turning toward the temple was an expression used to speak of a person turning toward the Lord, praying to the Lord, and seeking the favor of the Lord (cf. 1 Kings 8:44). What Jonah is concluding is that he will seek the Lord. Jonah was unwilling to do this on the boat. But after his near death experience and now sitting in the belly of the fish, Jonah realizes that he must seek the Lord. Jonah is the one who ran from the Lord and did not want to have a relationship with God any longer. Now Jonah recognizes that he has ran from the Lord and needs a relationship with God.

What was it that brought Jonah to this point? Jonah 2:2 reveals that Jonah called out to the Lord in his distress. Jonah 2:7 tells us that Jonah remembered the Lord when his life was fading away. Going through a life-changing experience is not going to bring you back to the Lord unless you recognize the distress and danger you were in spiritually. Jonah understood that he was separated from the Lord. “Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight’” (Jonah 2:4). This is the realization that one must makes to experience a true turning point in one’s life. Only when we understand the depths to which we have sunk will we be ready to seek God’s help and deliverance. We must see the devastating reality of our spiritual situation before we will seek the Lord. I believe this is an important reason why God is always telling us about our condition without God and what God has done.

Sometimes it takes a Jonah-like event to wake us from our spiritual blindness. Sometimes it is a very serious, life-changing event that will rattle our spirituality so that we will consider seeking the Lord. For many it requires a near-death experience to cause us to reconsider our ways. But I want us to notice an important message. It is not too late to turn back to God. Jonah has utterly rejected God’s call. He has rejected God to the point that he would rather die than obey. God has used a variety of events to try to call Jonah back to a relationship with the Lord. It was not too late for Jonah to return and it is not too late for any of us to return. It is not a matter of how rebellious you have been. It is a matter of how much God loves his people and does not want any to suffer eternal punishment. Jonah recognizes that is not too late, even though his life is passing before his eyes. He knew that there was still a way of hope. God’s promise of grace remains even though we plunge ourselves in the folly of sin. Jonah had deserted God, but the fact that Jonah had not drowned proved that God had not deserted him.

Salvation belongs to the Lord (Jonah 2:9)

Once we see our condition, then there is only one place to turn. Salvation is from the Lord. People have so many false notions of how to appeal to their inner sense of conscience. Some try to appease that feeling by trying to do good, be spiritual, give money, or some other act. These things are not done to the glory of God but in an effort to quiet their conscience that tells them they have done evil and are not righteous. All our deeds do not negate all the evil that we have done. It does not take much life experience to realize that our evil deeds are like a waded piece of paper. We cannot open that ball of paper and smooth it out to the degree that the paper was when new. In the same way we cannot fully fix what we have said and done to others and what we have done to God. We have offended God and that cannot be taken back. What has occurred to Jonah is a great metaphor for us in our spiritual condition. What is Jonah going to do? He was dead in the sea. Only God could save him. We are dead in our sins. Only God can save us. God, who has the power to speak to a fish and tell it to vomit Jonah, has the power to save you for eternal destruction.

Christ, the Savior (Matthew 12:38-40)

At the beginning of the lesson I pointed out that we must see the story of Jonah as a miraculous event. In our final minutes we are going to look at why. Turn to Matthew 12:38-40. The sign of Jonah was an expression used by Jesus to refer to Jonah’s three days and three nights in the belly of the fish (Jonah 1:17). The sign is that a place of death had become a place of deliverance. No one expects a person to survive inside a fish. Jonah was cast into the sea and did not drown. When Jesus pointed to the sign of Jonah as a sign for his own work, he was pointing out that God is at work to save those who rebelled against him.

The greatness of the sign is that is symbolized the impossible. What happened to Jonah was not possible. But God delivered Jonah from the belly of the fish after three days and three nights. In the same way, what would happen to Jesus was not possible. God would deliver Jesus from the belly of the earth after three days and three nights. Jesus is not merely connecting the timeframe (three days and three nights). Jesus is connecting the miracle of salvation/deliverance. The place of death has become the place of deliverance. His death is going to bring deliverance to the world. Salvation is from the Lord. God has saved the world through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.

34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:34-43 ESV)

Turn From Sin

Jonah 3:1-10

Brent Kercheville

In the first chapter we saw Jonah reject the command of the Lord. This rejection brought about a great storm and Jonah was thrown overboard into the sea. The second chapter records the descent of Jonah through the sea to the sea floor. As his life was fainting away and great fish swallows Jonah and he remains in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. After three days, the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out on to the dry land.

Second Chances

The third chapter of Jonah begins the way the first chapter began. The word of the Lord came to Jonah telling him to go to Ninevah and preach against the city. The first time Jonah heard those words, Jonah decided to quit his prophetic call, board a ship, and go to a place where God’s people were not living. God comes to Jonah a second time and essentially says, “Let’s try this again.” This time Jonah goes. Jonah arose and went to the exceedingly great city of Ninevah, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. God gives Jonah the same call. The question is will Jonah obey God now. Two points about how God deals with his people become evident.

The first thing we learn about the nature of God’s grace is God gives another chance. God is most certainly the God of second chances. In fact, he is the God of third chances, tenth chances, and hundreds of chances. God’s grace tells us to get up and try again. Just because you have failed the Lord does not mean that your run with God is over. God extends his grace. Get up and let’s try again. God gives another chance.

The second thing we learn about the nature of God’s grace is that we are still accountable to God’s commands. God does not say that since Jonah did not like the command given to him that he could ignore it. Jonah does not receive a loophole or a pass on the command given to him. God gives him the very same command that he rejected in the beginning. God’s commands do not change just because we do not like them. God gives us another chance to obey the command rejected at the first.

The Model of Repentance

After Jonah preaches the message of destruction an amazing thing happens. The people of Ninevah obeyed God (Jonah 3:5). The appropriate response to God’s word is repentance. There is only one right response. We must change our ways at the hearing of God’s word. Please notice the urgency of their repentant response. All the people begin to fast and put on sackcloth. Even the king gets off the throne, removes his robe, wears sackcloth, and sits in ashes. These acts were public expressions of repentance, mourning, and humility. The people are showing a sorrowful mourning over sin. True repentance convicts the heart. What does your repentance look like? Are we cut to the heart by sin? Do we see the wrath we deserve because we have demonstrated rebellion against God?

Second, they call out urgently to the Lord. With our sorrow we must turn our hearts to God calling out for mercy. Notice in their prayer they are seeking mercy. They do not know if God will turn from the disaster about upon them in 40 days. Notice what the king decrees. “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish” (Jonah 3:9). The apostle Paul speaks the same way about our turning to God.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)

This is what repentance looks like. Notice again the decree of the king. “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.” Repentance is more than being sorrowful. Repentance is more than praying to God, though both of these things are included. Repentance also includes stopping the sinful activity. The apostle Paul says we are being trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. We are turning from that life so that we can live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.

This teaches us the third point about the nature of God’s grace. God’s warning of his impending judgment is grace. Telling us of the coming disaster for our souls is a display of God’s lovingkindness. If you are sitting on the railroad tracks and a train is coming, you need to be told that the train is coming or you are going to be killed. It is lovingkindness and gracious to scream at you, “A train is coming! Get off the tracks!” God is screaming at us through his holy apostles and prophets as well as through his Son that destruction and wrath are coming. Repent before it is too late! Yet we take God’s lovingkindness to tell us about the impeding destruction as God being harsh. We don’t want to hear messages that there is a hell. We don’t want to hear about eternal punishment. We don’t want to think about the wrath of God. We don’t want to listen about the coming judgment of our souls. This is like the person sitting on the railroad tracks with a train coming saying that he does not want to hear about the disaster of sitting on the tracks. We claim its a harsh message and want to talk about how pretty the sky is today. God is showing us his love by telling us what will happen. We want to complain about the message. But the message of judgment is the truth. Can you imagine if the people of Ninevah had complained that Jonah was being too harsh with the message? Preach on something we want to hear! We need to hear the message of judgment and keep in mind that judgment is promise on the wicked and disobedient. God lovingly has given us time to hear the message and get out of the way of disaster before it is too late.

Just as God commanded Jonah, we can only proclaim the message God has given us. Many will proclaim a message that everything is fine and you can keep living how you want. Many will proclaim that there is no judgment coming at all. A book came out a few months ago called “Love Wins” that declares that there is not eternal punishment. Some will never proclaim that there is such a thing as God’s wrath. We must proclaim the message that is found in the scriptures. We must teach the very words of God and not alter that message just because we might receive a negative reaction. We are not loving the world if we are not with great urgency proclaim that a train is coming and you are sitting on the track. J.I. Packer rightly stated, “The faithful servant of God must take care to make clear that what he offers is not his own ideas, but God’s message from God’s book… to let the text talk through him.” We have no right to proclaim any other message. We have no right to preach our own ideas. We must open God’s word and learn God’s message for our lives so that we can heed God’s warning before it is everlastingly too late. As we teach, we remember how we experienced God’s grace as we preach God’s grace.

The fourth point about the nature of God’s grace is he forgives when we turn to him. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10 ESV) God saw their heart. God saw them decisively turn from their evil acts. Their actions revealed that their compliance was from the heart. In the same way God is looking for a change of heart that leads to a change of actions. Too often people think that coming to a church building is their act of worship or that God is pleased by this. So many pick a holiday to come to church as if now everything is all better. Singing a few songs, offering a prayer, giving some money, and listening to a sermon is not what God is looking for in your life. God wants you to do these things from a heart that desires and loves him.

When we turn to the Lord with our heart, we have the grace of God to forgive us from our sins. Did God have to relent from the disaster that was coming? No, the people were worthy and deserving of wrath. Just as Jonah was given an opportunity to turn back to God, the people were also given the opportunity to turn back to God. We also have the opportunity to turn back to God before the day of judgment.

Death Before Deference

Jonah 4:1-11

Brent Kercheville

One would expect the third chapter of Jonah to be the end of the book. Jonah has turned back to God and has preached to the city of Ninevah. The city of Ninevah has repented from their evil ways and the Lord has relented from the disaster due to them. This is a great success for the Lord. Jonah seems to have turned to God. The people of Ninevah have turned back to God. This should be the end of the story. However, Jonah 4:1 states, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” This should be time of celebration, reveling in the spiritual victory that the Lord has obtained. Instead Jonah is very angry.

Jonah’s Anger (Jonah 4:1-5)

Notice what Jonah prays to the Lord.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:1-3 ESV)

The motivation for Jonah not going to Ninevah the first time is now revealed. Jonah knew that the Lord is a gracious and merciful God. Jonah knew that the Lord was slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Jonah knew that the Lord would relent from the disaster predicted to Ninevah if they repented. Jonah is outraged at the character of God. Jonah says that he knew this would happen. He knew that these Assyrians would be spared by God’s grace and mercy and he hates that about God. Jonah uses scripture against God, quoting Exodus 34:6-7.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 ESV)

What a complaint against God! You are so gracious and merciful and I hate that about you! You are slow to anger, Lord, and I hate that about you! Jonah is so upset that he would just as soon die. Now we might think that this is a unique complaint. But this is a common problem for God’s people. In Matthew 20 Jesus told a parable about laborers in the vineyard. The laborers were hired by the master at various times throughout the day. However, at the end, each laborer is paid the same wage. Rather than exclaiming the goodness and generosity of God, the laborers who worked longer complain that the master has given the laborers hired at the end of the day the same as those who were hired in the early morning. Listen to the master’s response: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matthew 20:15 ESV)

As ridiculous as it sounds for us to hear what Jonah says, we can think similarly about God. Have you ever said it was too late for someone to repent? We may look at the life of a wicked person and consider that this person can never find God’s mercy. God must judge that person with fury. Yet we forget the repentance of Manasseh who was declared to be the worst king over the nation of Judah because of his violence, injustice, and wickedness. Yet Manasseh turned to the Lord at the end of his life. We balk at the idea of deathbed repentance. Yet we have read in this story a case of a deathbed repentance in the life of Jonah. Jonah was about to die as he sunk to the sea floor. The Lord is a gracious God. The Lord is a merciful God. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster. Do we truly understand the words of the apostle Peter? “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)

How quickly we forget that the grace extended to save us is the same grace extended to others. Grace had been dispensed to Jonah, but Jonah is angry that grace has been dispensed to Ninevah. We are happy to receive the grace of God ourselves, but our angry when grace is dispensed toward those who we see as undeserving or worthy of God’s wrath.

I love what God does here because God is now going to show grace to this ungracious prophet. God simply asks the question, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah, you need to think about what you are doing. You need this about how off the mark you are about this. Are you right to be angry when God is merciful to others considering how merciful God has been toward you? How quickly we forget God’s grace toward us because if we remembered it, then we would not act toward others in the judgmental, ugly ways that we often act! Friends, never forget that we only stand by grace. But this is not in Jonah’s mind. He goes out of the city, builds a shelter, and waits to see what will become of the city. It seems that Jonah is hoping to see the city destroyed or hoping to learn an explanation from God about him relenting from the prophesied disaster.

Jonah’s Comfort (Jonah 4:6-9)

The Lord is going to use a plant as an object lesson to try to teach Jonah about the God he serves. Please carefully notice the language. The Lord appointed a plant. This is not a random plant. Just as the Lord appointed the great fish to swallow Jonah (Jonah 1:17), he appoints a plant to shade Jonah. The disposition of Jonah completely changes. Now Jonah is exceedingly happy because of the plant. However, carefully read the language again. God appointed a worm that attacked the plant causing the plant to wither. Then, notice the language again, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so severely that Jonah is about to faint from the heat. This causes Jonah to revert back to his previous disposition. “It is better for me to die than to live.” This is a common reaction of Jonah. He said this when the city was spared (Jonah 4:3). He acted upon this reaction when he told the sailors to cast him into the sea (Jonah 1:12).

We can often have the same overreactions with God like Jonah has. We are unwilling to listen to God. We are unwilling to learn from our difficult circumstances. Our answer to God is if this is the way life is going to be just kill me. Or if this is the way life will be then I quit on God. Overreacting rather than enduring patiently with the Lord. The writer of Hebrews speaks to his audience about the hard struggle of suffering by which they were afflicted. He instructed them, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:36 ESV)

The problem is that we are so self-centered that we are unwilling to reflect on our lives. We are unwilling to consider what can be learned from what we are experiencing. We are unwilling to reflect on our error. Jonah is in this very position. God is trying to get Jonah to consider his ways. For the second time God asks Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry?” First, are you right to be angry about God sparing the city because of their repentance? Then, are you right to be angry about the plant? In each case Jonah thinks he is right in his anger, angry enough to die. If this is the way it is going to be, then just kill me, Lord.

Notice what God is trying to teach Jonah. When is Jonah happy? Jonah is happy when God gave him his comforts. He was happy when the plant was appointed by God. But Jonah was unhappy when the people repented and unhappy when the plant died. Jonah found more joy in his comforts than in saving people. What a horrible reality! Jonah finds more joy in his comforts than in the saving of people. Yet how often this is the reality for us. God gives us these comforts and joys only for us to turn and live for the physical blessings rather than living for God who gave us these comforts. We are so swallowed up in this physical world and our personal comforts that we will not extend ourselves to save this city. We put our comforts above gathering with other believers to hear the word of the Lord and to encourage one another. We want to sit under our plant (our air conditioned homes and cars) and do what we want to do rather than get out in the world and invite them to church or even go to worship ourselves. What makes us happy? Is our happiness found in spiritual life or physical life?

God’s Compassion (Jonah 4:10-11)

This is what God is trying to get Jonah to understand. You pity the plant that God gave you but you do not have compassion for lost souls. To move this into our language today, we pity ourselves when we lose our home, lose our air conditioning, lose our wealth, lose our possessions, and lose our comforts but we have no compassion for the lost in this city. Where is our compassion for people? A compassion for lost souls in this city will lead to a number of life changes.

1. Godly compassion for this city will lead us to reach out. We will see lost souls and we will invite them. We will speak about God. We will do more than just live a godly life. We must open our mouths and declare our love for Jesus, share the good news about Jesus, and invite them to talk about the Bible with us and come to worship with us.

2. Godly compassion for this city will mean we will give others latitude. We must understand that people we do not know will come here. People will come who do not know the decorum. People will come who do not know how we do things or the “rules” we think we have. We must remember a very important point. This is not your church. This is God’s church. This is one tool God has given us to reach this city. When we stop thinking about the way things should go and how people are dressing a certain way or doing certain things and start thinking about having compassion for the soul, then we will afford more latitude as we try to reach people. We will teach people the God-given laws of modesty and order. But we will not impose our personal judgments on people who need to hear the gospel. We cannot drive people away because someone is not dressed the way we think they should dress or does not act the way they ought to act. Compassion gives time to the lost to learn God’s truth and come to repentance.

3. Godly compassion for this city means we will understand that grace is for all. Too often we think that we are sinners, but they are SINNERS. We think that we can have grace but others are too evil for grace. We may not think it but it can be reflected in our actions. Grace is for all, regardless of how morally filthy a person may be. We must proclaim the message of repentance to all. We will disregard our comforts, let our presuppositions and prejudices go, and we will have compassion for this city.

Are You Merciful? (See Jonah 4:1-11)

LESSONS FROM JONAH

by Mark W. Garner,

Northland Church of Christ, Columbus, Ohio

The book of Jonah is a short one, but it teaches some significant lessons about accepting and rejoicing in God’s plans. Jonah had no confidence in what God told him to do, so God found it necessary to take strong measures to teach Jonah some needed lessons.

1) Excuses & Disobedience (Jonah 1:1-8)

When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, he was giving him a difficult and frightening job. At the time, Nineveh was the center of the powerful and feared Assyrian empire, and the Assyrians were known for their violent attacks on other nations as well as the cruelly imaginative tortures they inflicted on their enemies. So it is understandable that Jonah would not wish to go. But God had given him the job as part of an important plan, not as a whim, and not to make Jonah feel bad, and so God took measures to ensure that Jonah would go after all. Jonah headed in the direction exactly opposite from where God had sent him, and thought he could hide. But God knew where he was, and sent a powerful storm in the path of Jonah’s ship. While the crew tried desperately to save the ship, Jonah slept below deck, trying to hide his responsibility from humans as well as from God. But soon God revealed Jonah’s responsibility. (Jonah 1:1-8) Some lessons from this part of Jonah:

(i)God’s commands are clear, and no excuses are sufficient to disobey them. God speaks with perfect clarity and complete authority. Whether the command is "Go to Nineveh and preach", "Repent and be baptized", "Not even a hint of sexual immorality", or any other, God’s Word speaks clearly, without vagueness, and it comes with authority, as God proved to Jonah. It is not relevant whether God’s plans agree with our wishes, nor whether we think God’s commands are "fair". Here, no one else was required to go to Nineveh, but this neither justified Jonah’s disobedience nor exempted him from punishment for that disobedience.

(ii)Disobeying God will not lead to happiness. Jonah did not gain in the long run by his disobedience, and neither will we. Whether God chooses to expose our sin immediately (as he did with Jonah), or to wait until a later time (as he did when David committed adultery), we will never "get away with it". And while we wait, vainly hoping that the sin will remain hidden, our relationship with God is superficial, distant and joyless, even if this is hidden from other humans. Worse, others can suffer. Jonah’s one sin not only brought fear and danger to a whole ship full of persons, it deprived many souls in Nineveh of hearing the Word of God.

(iii)Accepting responsibility becomes more difficult as disobedience is prolonged. Many believers rationalize a delay in acting on God’s commands because they convince themselves that waiting will make it easier to accept a command that is now unattractive. This is always a delusion, because deferring obedience to God always makes it easier to have a hardened heart and attitude, as Jonah did, and makes it harder for God to tell us what he wants. Note how Jonah is able to sleep peacefully, while the crew is suffering danger and terror because of his sin!

2) Consequences of Sin (Jonah 1:9-16)

Now the crew knows that the storm is Jonah’s fault, and must decide what to do. In questioning him, they find that he is a worshiper of Yahweh (the Lord) but that he has disobeyed Yahweh’s instructions. Note that many ancient pagans had a fear of the living God, even if they worshiped their own idols, because they had often heard of some of the more spectacular Old Testament miracles. God says that, because of Jonah’s disobedience, they must throw him overboard for the storm to stop. They are reluctant to do this, and try desperately to row even harder against the wind. But the harder they try, the worse the sea gets. Finally they realize that there is no alternative; they throw Jonah overboard, and immediately the storm stops. This makes a great impression on the sailors, who offer sacrifices and vows to the true God. (Jonah 1:9-16) Important lessons:

(i)Confessing sin doesn’t always exempt us from sin’s consequences. Jonah finally confessed his sin, but God still disciplined him further. When we have permitted disobedience to persist over time, we may have to accept further discipline even after confessing the sin. Often disobedience creates negative consequences that cannot be avoided. At other times, as with Jonah, God must discipline us further to fully impress upon us what we have done. This is another reason to repent of disobedience to God as soon as we see a hint of it; it also shows how serious it is to God that we truly understand the importance of obeying him.

(ii)Trying to get out of sin’s consequences only makes matters worse. The crew, though Jonah had endangered them, really wanted to avoid hurting him. They did their best to get to shore without throwing him overboard, even though God had told them to, but this only made things worse. When we try to shield either ourselves or others from sin’s consequences, whether this is out of self-interest (wanting the sinner to "like" us), or out of mistaken compassion, we do no one any favors. Too many people today want to avoid ever "making someone feel bad", and have a misplaced pity towards those who suffer for their own sins. God is the one who gave us the capacity to feel guilt, and guilt (properly channeled) is important in keeping us from wandering away from God.

(iii)God is able to use any situation in some positive way. God can always adapt his plans when humans resist him. God wanted to use Jonah to proclaim his message to Nineveh, but since Jonah resisted, God used him in a different way. The unbelieving sailors who saw God’s disciplining hand at work were moved to worship. Of course, it is in our own interest as well as God’s to be ready to submit to God’s "Plan A", rather than forcing God to use us in an alternative way as he did with Jonah, but it is encouraging to know that God is willing and able to use even our mistakes in a constructive way.

3) Genuine Repentance (Jonah 1:17 to Jonah 2:5)

The crew feared that Jonah would drown in punishment for his disobedience, but God had a better plan. God had prepared a giant fish to swallow him. God never intended to destroy Jonah, but at the same time was going to make sure he learned something. While inside the fish, Jonah begins to realize what has happened, and begins for the first time to communicate directly with God through prayer. He expresses the despair and fear he now feels. Among his fears is that he shall not again be able to live in God’s presence. (Jonah 1:17 to Jonah 2:4) Lessons from this portion:

(i)The aim of God’s discipline is repentance and renewed closeness, not punishment for its own sake. Certainly God could have let Jonah drown, and then could simply have picked someone else to go to Nineveh. God’s goal, though, was not to hurt Jonah, but to help Jonah repent. So his further discipline in the fish, though surely not pleasant for Jonah, was to enable Jonah, who had already come to a partial acceptance of his responsibility, to come to a full repentance and to rededicate himself to God. When we are convicted of our own disobedience, it is important to remember that God only disciplines us as far as is necessary to bring us to full repentance. God never enjoys punishment, no matter how bad the sin is.

(ii)The way to truly repent or to change spiritually is to communicate directly with God. Jonah has finally learned this lesson. Real repentance does not consist of outward acts, but of change in our relationship with God, our attitude and perspective. That is why God put Jonah in the fish: Jonah needed to communicate with God, so God created a situation that encouraged Jonah to do so. Whenever you have spiritual difficulties, seek out a place without distractions (it doesn’t have to be inside a fish!) and talk openly to God. Express what you really feel (even negative thoughts, since he knows you have them) so that you can realize his presence, and realize that he wants you to know him better. No amount of activity or of discussing your problems with other humans will ever replace personal communication with God.

(iii)Our one real need is to live in God’s presence. When Jonah was tossed into the sea and sank to the waiting fish, many things went through his mind. But the greatest of his fears was that he might not again be able to live in God’s presence. Worse than the physical fear and pain, and even worse than his humiliation before the sailors, was the thought that he might have had his last chance to see God’s temple or to serve God. At last he remembers what his life is about! Whatever else we may value can be ruined, lost or stolen, but when our desire is to know God and to serve him, Satan himself cannot take that away.

4) Jonah’s Time of Refreshing (Jonah 2:6-9)

As Jonah continues to pray, his thoughts turn from the horrors he has experienced to the deliverance that God brings. He acknowledges God’s ability to save from even the deepest pits, and also realizes that his prayers have reached God in spite of his sins. The arm of the Lord is never too short to save! Jonah also considers the future: he has learned that clinging to idols, or vain earthly objects and desires, brings disappointment and eventual disaster. Jonah pledges himself to a life filled with hymns of praise, with sacrifices and vows to God, and with victories dedicated to God. He has regained a godly perspective on his life and, having changed inside, is ready to resume his ministry. (Jonah 2:5-9) Lessons to remember:

(i)No earthly pain or fear compares with God’s power or the joy of knowing God. (See also Romans 8:18-25.) Life is not about avoiding negative things. To make life worth living, we must have positive goals. We should not seek God merely in the hope that he will bail us out of our earthly troubles. The joy we feel when we see God a little more clearly, or when God does help us out of some difficulty, is a glimpse of the greater and more lasting joy that we will feel when we go home to be with him forever. All our experiences here should be viewed in this light, and we should submit to God’s eternal plans even when our worldly plans conflict with them.

(ii)We must choose between our vain idols and God’s grace. Jonah says this in Jonah 2:8; whenever we cling to a vain earthly possession or goal we are missing out on the more eternal blessings God has to offer. Since worldly things are right in front of our eyes, we often grab them without thinking, but the real blessings are the eternal ones. Like Jonah, we often don’t think preaching the Word or ridding our lives of sin will make us happy, so we instead fight to get worldly distinctions or temporary comforts. Satan will give you as many of these as you’re willing to take, but in taking them you’re missing out on fully knowing God. Humans have many ways of deluding themselves into thinking that they can have both, but instead we should accept that all we need is God’s grace (2 Corinthians 12:9).

(iii)When we submit to God’s plans, everything else is a joy. Notice Jonah’s new positive perspective on everything. He is ready to accept responsibilities and to make vows to God, fully intending to fulfill them. He wants to sacrifice to God and wants to share in victories for God’s sake, not his own. All these changes come from one root change he has made: he has accepted that God is the Master and that God’s ways are right. Jonah now has the closeness to God and the confidence in God that will enable him to face outward challenges.

5) A Solid Foundation For Ministry (Jonah 2:10 to Jonah 3:4)

God now commands the fish to release Jonah, and the fish spews him onto land. God gives the same command to Jonah that he gave in Jonah 1:2, but this time Jonah is ready to obey. Without hesitation, he not only goes to Nineveh to preach, he makes a whole day’s journey into Nineveh itself and begins to preach exactly as God intended him to. Jonah fearlessly walks into the most powerful, violent and wicked city of his day and proclaims loudly that the city is to be destroyed! (Jonah 2:10 to Jonah 3:4) Important lessons from this portion of Jonah:

(i)God will not change his commands for us, but we have to adapt ourselves to God’s commands. After all that Jonah had been through, and after all the changes he made in his attitude, God comes back with exactly the same command that started Jonah’s rebellion. Everything that had happened didn’t change what God wanted. So too for us, if there is a command or principle in the Scripture that we don’t want to deal with now, it will never go away. Even if we diligently make other changes, obey other commands, or go through other trials, God is not going to rescind any of his commands just because someone doesn’t like one. A principle or instruction you don’t like will always be there, so the most beneficial thing in the long run is just to accept God’s authority right away. If you don’t, God will have to use discipline as he did with Jonah, and after that is done, he will give you the same instruction over again.

(ii)With the right foundation, dramatic outward change is possible. Jonah not only does something he previously refused to do, he does it with energy and without delay. He made this dramatic outward change because of the inward changes he worked through in his time with God. Merely trying to be outwardly obedient to God will not result in true, lasting change, whereas a genuine spirit of reverent submission in our hearts enables us to do all that God asks, even if our physical bodies resist or struggle.

(iii)Preach the message just as God gives it to us. Even Jesus said "I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself commanded me what to say and how to speak." (John 12:49) Jonah neither watered down the message God gave him nor added his own opinions to it, but preached exactly what God told him to. Of course we know that this achieved a favorable response, but Jonah didn’t know at the time what would happen. For all he knew, he might get imprisoned or tortured by the violent, pagan Assyrians. It is never up to us to try to decide what message will get the best response, or what message will be the most popular. Whether we are speaking to other believers or to the lost, we should resolve to "know nothing but Christ and him crucified".

6) A Victory For God’s Grace (Jonah 3:5-10)

Jonah’s stern message to the cruel, wicked Ninevites drew a dramatic and surprising response. They all repented, humbled themselves by fasting and wearing sackcloth, and begged God not to carry out the threatened punishment. The king himself, when he heard about Jonah’s preaching, humbled himself in the same way, and decreed a city-wide repentance. It is hard to grasp the magnitude of this event - here was the world’s most powerful, ungodly city, with the most ruthless leader of the time, crying out to God in complete conviction of their sin, just because of one preacher! It was a greater conversion than if one Christian were to walk into Baghdad or Teheran and convert the whole city, including Saddam Hussein or the Ayatollah, without resistance. Because of the depth and sincerity of the Ninevites’ repentance, God did not destroy the city. Jonah, because of his obedience, was able to share in one of God’s most striking victories. (Jonah 3:5-10) Key applications:

(i)God wants everyone to be saved. Just as the punishment God gave to Jonah was not for punishment’s sake itself, but to bring Jonah back to God, God didn’t threaten Nineveh with destruction for destruction’s sake either. It was in the hope (slim though it may have been) that Nineveh would repent. God did not decide for himself whether or not the Ninevites would repent; he just gave them the chance and let them decide. Once they repented, they had a fresh start with God. God has this attitude towards everyone, so we should never decide that anyone cannot possibly be saved. You should never think this about yourself, either. No matter what horrible shortcomings you have, one genuine repentance is enough to give you a fresh start.

(ii)Immediate repentance is the easiest way for us, and the most pleasing to God. The Ninevites’ prompt response contrasts sharply with Jonah’s own resistance to God’s Word. In so responding, they saved themselves the kind of extended discipline (or, possibly, quick annihilation) that Jonah subjected himself to. Certainly the actions the Ninevites took must have felt humiliating, but the sincerity in these actions showed a response from the heart, which God will always appreciate.

(iii)God’s forgiveness cannot be earned. Take a look at what the king and the others did. God did not forgive them because they did something wonderful, nor even because they promised to do so. It wasn’t because they said just the right words, or because they had a good explanation of why they had sinned. The only way to receive God’s forgiveness is simply and humbly to accept that we are sinners, and acknowledge this before God. These people showed with their actions that their repentance was genuine, and we also should "prove our repentance with our deeds", but always remember that the outward actions, even confession, do not earn forgiveness.

7) A Step Backwards (Jonah 4:1-5)

But Jonah does not rejoice in this victory. He instead becomes depressed and angry, because he was actually hoping to see God destroy Nineveh (either out of hatred towards them as Israel’s enemies, or out of desire to see a spectacle). Jonah even turns this against God, saying that he knew this would happen all along, so why was it necessary for poor old Jonah to have to go through so much? Jonah rationalizes his past disobedience, and at the same time questions God’s need to send him to Nineveh. Jonah goes outside the city to sit and mope, still hoping that something exciting or interesting will happen. (Jonah 4:1-5) Some applications:

(i)Submission to God is not once-for-all, but must be an ongoing attitude. We have seen how Jonah underwent a genuine, root repentance from his earlier poor attitudes, and how he had come to rejoice in submission to God’s plan. But now here he is again with an even worse perspective: before he had just neglected his duty, but now he actively wants to see penitent sinners get destroyed. A dramatic repentance is only guaranteed to last until the first trial. To remain submissive to God’s plans, we must constantly be ready to deal with a new challenge or command, and must not ever think that we are immune to even the most base of sins. Look how quickly Jonah changes!

(ii)Great achievements are not necessarily a sign of great faith or a good heart. This is one of the most dramatic events in the Bible, a mass repentance of "unconvertible" pagans. It came about, though, not because of a human’s great faith or good heart, but because of God’s will that they have a chance to repent, and because of the Ninevites’ own humble response. Do not ever think that, because God allows you to share in his victories, you have done something to earn it. God leads people to him for the converts’ own sake, not to show certain Christians his favor.

(iii)We must let God’s will reign in order to enjoy his intended blessings. God and Jonah had both decided what should happen to Nineveh. God intended to give a blessing not only to the penitent citizens, but also a smaller one to Jonah, who could enjoy participating in God’s victory. But Jonah already had determined in his mind that he would get to see a show of God’s power against the city, so his response to the change of plans was not joy, but anger. When we have set in our minds that God must act in a certain way, we are probably not only going to be disappointed in our desire, we’re also likely to miss out on something better. Let God decide what to do! The blessings he has planned for us are probably a lot better than the ones we desire for ourselves.

8) Open Your Eyes (Jonah 4:6-11)

God does do something - he teaches Jonah another lesson. This time, at least, it doesn’t have to be so extraordinary. God sends a gourd vine that grows around Jonah’s shelter, and gives him some pleasing shade, but then he quickly takes away the vine. Jonah now feels even sorrier for himself, and wants to die, feeling he has nothing to live for. God uses Jonah’s feeling of loss over a mere plant to explain why God himself was right to be so concerned for humans, made in his own image. (Jonah 4:6-11) Some final applications from our study of Jonah:

(i)Self-centeredness leads to unhappiness. We put ourselves first so often because we think it will make us happy. We think that our self-pity will force both God and other humans to do something for us. But instead, self-pity results in making us unhappy and unappreciative of what we have. Look at Jonah’s situation objectively - was there any real reason for such depression? Neither is there usually any real reason for our own self-centeredness or self-pity. The challenge is to see ourselves objectively, as God always does.

(ii)God disciplines us out of love and a desire that we understand him. Once again, here is God "making Jonah feel bad" by disciplining him. God does not desire us to be unhappy, but neither does he consider it a tragedy. We humans, on the other hand, are so self-centered that we often assume that any time we’re unhappy it is a calamity that must be addressed immediately. Temporary pain or unhappiness is often necessary for God to lead us to greater faith and devotion. If we weren’t so short-sighted and rebellious, he wouldn’t have to use so much discipline, but he is not going to give up trying to get through to us. We often moan and whine about God’s discipline, but the real disaster for us would be if God ever gave up and stopped disciplining us!

(iii)We must submit not only to God’s plans, but also to his priorities. The main reason Jonah had so much trouble obeying God was that he never accepted all of God’s priorities; he never learned to see things from God’s viewpoint. If he had seen the Assyrians with God’s eyes, he would not have struggled so much with accepting God’s plans for them. If you ever struggle with doing something God wants you to do, consider carefully the way you look at it and feel about it. God wants not only outward obedience, but wants us to rejoice in his plans, to put his interests (which are really yours, in the long run) ahead of what you (usually mistakenly) think will make you happy this very moment. And there are many reasons to rejoice in obedience to God, if we open our eyes and hearts to understand God’s ways a little better.

Jonah Forsakes His Mission - Jonah 1:1 to Jonah 2:10

Open It

1. What is your idea of the perfect "get away from all your troubles" location?

2. What good or bad thoughts do you associate with fish?

3. When have you been rescued from a difficult situation?

Explore It

4. What did God tell Jonah to do? (Jonah 1:1-2)

5. How did Jonah respond to God? (Jonah 1:3)

6. What happened at sea? (Jonah 1:4-5)

7. What was Jonah’s condition as the storm raged? (Jonah 1:5-6)

8. What did the sailors do? (Jonah 1:7)

9. How did Jonah respond to the sailors’ barrage of questions? (Jonah 1:8-9)

10. What made the men terrified? (Jonah 1:10)

11. How did the sailors appeal to Jonah? (Jonah 1:11)

12. Why did Jonah tell the sailors to throw him into the sea? (Jonah 1:12)

13. What happened following Jonah’s penitent admission? (Jonah 1:13-16)

14. What miraculous provision did God make for Jonah? (Jonah 1:17)

15. Once inside the fish, how did Jonah respond to God’s rescue? (Jonah 2:1-9)

16. What was Jonah’s attitude toward God? (Jonah 2:7-9)

17. How did God finally deliver Jonah? (Jonah 2:10)

Get It

18. When have you not wanted to obey God?

19. When has God called you to serve Him in ways that were unattractive or unpleasant to you?

20. What rebellious attitudes have you ever had toward the Lord?

21. What opportunities do you have to tell others about faith in Christ?

22. What are your feelings toward the unbelievers around you?

23. How has God pursued you when you have tried to avoid Him?

24. When have bad circumstances turned out for your good?

25. How do you feel when you know that you are being obedient to the Lord’s call?

Apply It

26. What can you do to respond with obedience to God the next time you must do something good but unpleasant?

27. How can you share the gospel with others at work? among your family? among your neighbors?

28. How do you want to thank the Lord right now for all the remarkable ways He has delivered you?

Jonah Fulfills His Mission - Jonah 3:1 to Jonah 4:11

Open It

1. If you were offered a trip to the city of your choice anywhere in the world, what city would you choose? Why?

2. When things don’t go your way, how do you tend to respond?

3. What most easily moves you to compassion?

Explore It

4. What did God command Jonah to do? (Jonah 3:1-2)

5. How did Jonah respond to God’s instructions? (Jonah 3:3)

6. What did Jonah tell the Ninevites? (Jonah 3:4)

7. How did the people respond to Jonah’s message? (Jonah 3:5)

8. What did the king do? (Jonah 3:6)

9. What did the king decree? (Jonah 3:7-9)

10. What action did God take? (Jonah 3:10)

11. How did Jonah respond to God’s goodness to the Ninevites? (Jonah 4:1)

12. What was the attitude of Jonah’s prayer? (Jonah 4:2-3)

13. What did God say to Jonah? (Jonah 4:4)

14. What did the distraught prophet do? (Jonah 4:5)

15. How did God deal with Jonah? (Jonah 4:6-11)

16. What did God want Jonah to understand? (Jonah 4:9-11)

Get It

17. When have you experienced a surprising, undeserved measure of God’s mercy in your life?

18. Why do you think that fasting might be a useful part of repentance?

19. In your view, which culture, nation, or special interest group is undeserving of God’s mercy?

20. God was very gracious to Jonah, a pouting, reactive type. How does God deal with your prickly side?

21. How does the story of Jonah affect your view of cross-cultural ministry?

22. Jonah wanted Nineveh, Israel’s enemy, destroyed. When have you wanted revenge rather than restoration in a relationship?

23. What hard lesson have you had to learn from God?

Apply It

24. What is one way you can extend God’s love and mercy toward others, particularly those who don’t deserve it?

25. How can you express thanks to the Lord this week for all the love and mercy He has given to you and others?