Introduction

In one sense, Jonah is pretty familiar. People otherwise ignorant of the Bible know about “Jonah and the whale”. And yet what people usually know about Jonah stops after chapter 2, maybe through chapter 3. This is a shame, because the key to the entire book is in the ending. Jonah is true history, but the account in the Bible is also told in a masterful way. The author deliberately withholds key information until the very end to maximize the teaching impact, to throw the reader a twist, to maximize the shock value.

Like classic short stories—”The Open Window” by Saki, or “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (anyone remember those stories?)—or perhaps less classic but more familiar—movies like The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects. Jonah uses similar dramatic technique. The information revealed at the very end casts the events of the previous chapters in an entirely different light, causing the reader to stop and say, “I didn’t see that coming.” And to reflect, and learn.

OK, so let’s go through Jonah.

Jonah 1:1-3

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me.” However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the LORD’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the LORD’s presence.

Let’s stop right here and ask, “Why did Jonah flee?” The most common answer is that he was afraid of the Ninevites. That seems reasonable, doesn’t it? God Himself just said how wicked they were. Their cruelty was notorious. Nineveh was part of the Assyrian empire. Historians note that the Assyrian army would do things like erect pyramids of chopped-off heads in front of an enemy’s city, or stack corpses of the dead like firewood at the gates of defeated cities. These guys were bad news. In fact, there is an entire book of the Bible written to condemn their wickedness. Really! The book of Nahum (although addressing a slightly later time period) is entirely an oracle against Nineveh’s brutality and wickedness. An excerpt:

Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey. The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot! Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end —they stumble over their dead. Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft, I am against you —the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. (Nahum 3:1-5)

It would be entirely reasonable to conclude that Jonah refuses to go to Nineveh because he fears for his safety. It would be entirely reasonable, but it would also be entirely wrong. We’re told exactly why Jonah flees … at the end of the story. Right now all we know is that that Jonah is disobedient. What is the consequence of his disobedience? Let’s keep reading.

Jonah 1:4-17

Then the LORD hurled a violent wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.

The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.”

“Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. Then we will know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us who is to blame for this trouble we’re in. What is your business and where are you from? What is your country and what people are you from?”

He answered them, “I am a Hebrew. I worship Yahweh, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

Think about this. Jonah and these sailors are perishing out in the middle of sea, their only hope being to reach dry land. And Jonah has just told them that his God—the God he worships, the God whom he has disobeyed—is the One who made the sea and the dry land. Almost certainly these sailors were syncretists—they would have worshipped all kinds of gods, mashing them all together and trying to appease whichever one they wanted to curry favor with at any given time. So when Jonah tells them his God is the creator of the sea and dry land, their reaction is understandable:

Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What is this you’ve done?” For the men knew he was fleeing from the LORD’s presence, because he had told them. So they said to him, “What should we do to you to calm this sea that’s against us?” For the sea was getting worse and worse.

He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so it may quiet down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this violent storm that is against you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not because the sea was raging against them more and more.

So they called out to the LORD: “Please, Yahweh, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For You, Yahweh, have done just as You pleased.” Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. The men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

As a consequence of his rebellion against Yahweh, Jonah finds himself in a world of hurt. We’ll get more details as we go through chapter 2, but basically Jonah is drowning.

Jonah is disobedient > Jonah in distress

And yet in his distress, Jonah cries out to the Lord (as we’ll see in chapter 2) and what is the result? Verse 17:

Then the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah is disobedient > Jonah in distress > God shows Jonah mercy

Jonah 2:1-10

What is Jonah’s reaction to God’s mercy? Understandably, it is gratitude and praise. In the midst of the great fish, Jonah composes a psalm of praise to his God:

Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish:

I called to the LORD in my distress, and He answered me. I cried out for help in the belly of Sheol; You heard my voice. You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me. But I said: I have been banished from Your sight, How I will look once more toward Your holy temple? The waters engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. I sank to the foundations of the mountains; the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever! But You raised my life from the Pit, LORD my God! As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer came to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forsake faithful love, but as for me, I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!

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

Now, I know this is difficult to do, but try to imagine for a minute that you don’t know the rest of the story. Try to put yourself in the position of the original reader or hearer. Think about what you know up to this point:

Jonah disobedient > Jonah in distress > God shows mercy > Jonah praises God

It should be obvious how the story is going to proceed, right? Jonah has learned his lesson, and will now submit joyfully to the ways of the Lord. Jonah will go to disobedient Nineveh, God will display His grace toward them, and Jonah will give thanks to God for showing the Ninevites the same grace that he (Jonah) was shown, right? Of course, you know this is not how it ends, but it’s important to consider Jonah’s actions so far, and especially his thanksgiving at his own deliverance. We’ll come back to this later. Let’s continue the story.

Jonah 3 / Sovereignty of God

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.” So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’s command.

So far so good, right?

Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three-day walk. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown!” The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh:

By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.

Then God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways —so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.

This is some serious repentance! From the greatest to the least, they are expressing remorse with as much sincerity as they know how: fasting, turning from their evil ways and violence, even putting sackcloth on their animals! I mean, we can debate whether that was really necessary and what cultural thing was going through their head, but the point is that they repent in earnest—they believed God!

And—this is important—the Ninevites had good theology in terms of God’s willingness to show mercy. This is bunny-trail, but an important one. Is there any explicit mention of the possibility of mercy in Jonah’s message? Nope. How about in chapter 1 or 3 when God is telling Jonah what to do? None! But the Ninevites believed—correctly—that the very act of God announcing coming judgment implicitly contains the possibility that they can even yet turn to God and be shown mercy.

This demands that we pause at this point in the story and reflect on one of the mega-themes in this book, and, indeed, in all of Scripture: the sovereignty of God and how that sovereignty is exercised. It is unmistakable in this book.

Look at what has happened so far:

(Jonah 1:4) God causes the storm
(Jonah 1:7) God directs the lots (Now there’s an interesting topic … maybe for after church discussions)
(Jonah 1:17) God appoints the fish to rescue Jonah
(Jonah 2:10) God orders the fish to vomit Jonah
(Jonah 4:6) God arranged for the plant
(Jonah 4:7) God “appointed” the worm (same word as 1:17 when God appoints the fish)
(Jonah 4:8) God appoints the scorching hot winds.

The book should cause us to glory in the sovereignty of God. Truly he can—and does—work out all things for his glory and the good of those who love him. Right? Romans 8:28, you know it:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

His sovereignty knows no limits. It extends to all of creation—the elements of nature obey him, the heavens declare his glory, he can arrange for an animal to be in the exact location and do exactly as He pleases: to be a mode of transport or even to speak if he chooses. His sovereignty extends into our very souls. We just read about it in Romans; Philippians tells us that he is at work within us both to will and work for His good pleasure. His rule is eternal—stretching from decisions made before the foundation of the world, right through the time of Jonah, right through the 21st century, through the appointed events of the end times, and on into eternal state, forever and ever, Amen!

And yet, taking nothing away from that, we are not talking about deterministic fatalism here: look at verse 10: “he changed his mind.”

This is not an isolated example. In fact, turn to Exodus 32, a passage that is eerily similar to Jonah. This is a familiar passage—Moses has been talking with God on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments, and what is the nation of Israel doing? Worshipping a golden calf. Starting at verse 7:

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’” The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

But Moses interceded with the Lord his God: “Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from Your great anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for Your people. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—You swore to them by Your very self and declared, ‘I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever.’” So the Lord relented concerning the disaster He said He would bring on His people.

What’s going on here? What is going on is a very important principle concerning God’s pronouncements of blessing and cursing. The principle is spelled out explicitly in Jeremiah 18, the parable of the potter—a passage full of declaring the sovereignty of God. Look at verses 7-10:

At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it. At another time I announce that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom. However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.

This also applies at an individual level. Turn to Ezekiel 33, starting at verse 13:

When I tell the righteous person that he will surely live, but he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteousness will be remembered, and he will die because of the iniquity he has committed. So when I tell the wicked person: You will surely die, but he repents of his sin and does what is just and right—he returns collateral, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without practicing iniquity—he will certainly live; he will not die. None of the sins he committed will be held against him. He has done what is just and right; he will certainly live.

Don’t ask me how to make this into a coherent system because I can’t. I am persuaded, however, that we must affirm all of what Scripture says even if we don’t quite understand how it all fits together. Didn’t God already know that Nineveh was going to repent? Yes, of course, we know that! In fact, didn’t God already know that Israel was going to commit idolatry and that Moses was going to intercede? Yes, of course, we know that too. Are we really supposed to be asking those questions? Maybe there’s a time and place for that, but usually it would seem that Scripture is content to leave the tension and force us to wrestle with our personal response before a completely sovereign and holy God.

That God should choose to place the option of obedience and disobedience before the nations—indeed, before individuals—does not limit His sovereignty. It does not make God dependent upon man; it makes man dependent upon God, which brings Him glory.

That was somewhat of a bunny-trail, but I think a relevant and fair one. It is a theme that the author Jonah is clearly trying to teach. The language of God orchestrating all the dramatic events of the book in his sovereignty is unmistakable. And yet, the story pivots on the repentance of the Ninevites as they turn to God and allow Him to demonstrate his grace and mercy.

The Ninevites understood this—that God, in His sovereignty, is always willing to show mercy. And, as we will see next, Jonah understood it as well. The difference is that the Ninevites embraced it as a good thing. And Jonah hated it—at least, when applied to his enemies.

You see, Nineveh has followed through the exact same stages as Jonah:

Jonah disobedient > Jonah in distress > God shows mercy > Jonah praises God

Nineveh disobedient > Nineveh in distress > God shows mercy > ???

After what Jonah has just been through, it is obvious how the story will end right?

Jonah 4:1-4

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.

This language used here in the translation isn’t nearly strong enough. I can’t read a line of Hebrew, but from what I gather from trustworthy scholars, the Hebrew used here is about as strong as you can get to express disgust. We might say, “This was absolutely disgusting to Jonah; it made him sick.” He is angry and disgusted by God’s actions. It’s meant to be shocking. Why was Jonah angry? Is it because he’s embarrassed that he delivered a message of judgment that never come to pass? No; keep reading—it gets worse:

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. He prayed to the LORD: “Please, LORD, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to become angry, rich in faithful love, and One who relents from sending disaster. And now, LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” The LORD asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Why did Jonah flee from God in the first chapter, third verse? Was it because he feared the Ninevites? No. Was it because he had a faulty view of the character of God? No again. The scandal is that Jonah ran away precisely because he had a correct understanding of the merciful and compassionate nature of God, and he hated it. He was a racist. Oh, it was OK for God to show mercy and withhold His wrath from Israel. And it was OK for God to show mercy to him after he disobeyed. But not the Ninevites! God can’t possibly be on their side! Jonah hated the Ninevites and desired to see them suffer and die under the wrath of Yahweh. Jonah knew what the Ninevites knew—that implicit in any message of judgment is the possibility of repentance—and he didn’t want them to have that opportunity!

Nineveh disobedient > Nineveh in distress > God shows mercy > Jonah angry

With this information, the whole story “clicks”. The previous chapters, particularly Jonah’s thankful heart in the fish, are seen in an entirely different light. Chapter 2, thought by many to be a highlight, is in fact a low point. Jonah is perfectly willing to receive God’s mercy himself, but can’t stomach the thought of it being extended to his enemies. That’s why he fled from God.

Now before we’re too hard on Jonah, let’s look at our own history. It’s common for us to presume God to be on our side and against our enemies. Read diaries from the civil war: both sides slaughtering hundreds of thousands of their brothers, all the while fully persuaded that theirs was the just cause and that God was fighting on their side. It’s insanity. Or the Revolutionary War—we all know that God was for the Americans, right? Or that God loves capitalism but hates communism. Or God is for Republicans but against Democrats. I’m just saying, be careful with Jonah. “In the same way you judge others you will be judged, and by your standard of measure it will be measured back to you.” We’ll talk more about application in a minute; let’s finish the book.

Jonah 4:5-11 / Application

It’s time for God to teach Jonah a lesson.

Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God appointed a plant, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“Yes,” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”

So the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

The lesson of the plant provokes the exact same reaction in Jonah that he showed throughout the rest of the story: self-absorption. Jonah displays great affection for the plant that gives him comfort, and incredible anger when it is removed. Meanwhile, the souls of 120,000 people are in the balance, and Jonah couldn’t care less. In fact, he wishes their suffering. It’s a lesson about how one’s self-absorption can lead to incredibly warped priorities and imbalanced concerns. We might call it tunnel-vision. An insignificant plant consumes the emotions of Jonah, and he is deaf to the souls in Nineveh.

The application of the book is pretty simple: “Don’t be a Jonah.” We all have a little Jonah in us; it’s very easy for us to become consumed in our own little worlds. I’ll speak for myself. Like Jonah, I find it relatively easy to be grateful for the good things God has done for me—my salvation, my family, health, my house, my car, job going well, financial stability, etc. But as soon as things go bad in my personal world, I can get angry. Maybe even small things … and I’m irritable, sometimes even angry with God, “What did you make this happen?! Can’t it just be fixed already?!” I know it sounds stupid, but I’m just saying, it’s my natural tendency, and I suspect we can all relate to some degree.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that it’s wrong for us to give thanks for the spiritual and physical abundance we enjoy—for the big things and for the little things. It was a good thing for Jonah to thank the Lord for his deliverance in the fish. It’s a good thing for us to praise God for our deliverance. It was a good thing for him to take delight in the plant which gave him comfort. It is a good thing for us to thank God for the blessings He gives to us. James tells us that “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above…” (James 1:17)

But when I am unable to find similar concern for others, I have gone seriously astray.

Am I praying as fervently for others as I am for myself? For my family, for my governing authorities, for the leaders in the church, for those in the body who are suffering, for my enemies? Am I showing concern in tangible ways—showing hospitality, spending time, listening?

See, when all is said and done, what is the message of Jonah? Surprise, surprise: love your neighbor—love your enemies—as much as you already love yourself. Imagine that. I know we’ve heard it over and over and over again, but we need to. Instead of focusing inward on our own problems, and being thankful only for our own blessings, may our thoughts be aligned with the thoughts of God, who desires to show his compassion and mercy to all, even the wicked. In fact, God seems to delight especially in showing mercy to the wicked, to those we would mostly consider to be outside the possibility of grace, like the great city of Nineveh with 120,000 people in spiritual darkness … or the great cities of Los Vegas / New Orleans … or Cuba … or Iraq … or those crazy corrupt politicians … or whomever you consider to be your enemy.

I’ll conclude with a quote from a commentary on Jonah, which I think captures the message well:

Every hearer / reader may have some Jonah in him or her. All need to reflect on the questions God asks, including the final, specific, “Should I not spare Nineveh?” (4:11). Anyone who replies “Why is that such an important question?” has not understood the message. Anyone who replies “No!” has not believed it.¹

Actually, I lied. I’ll conclude with an even better quote about the message in the book of Jonah. I think you’ll recognize the author.

You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)

Douglas Stuart, Word Biblical Commentary: Hosea–Jonah, ed. Bruce M. Metzger (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987), 435 ↩