Please read the book of Jonah it is just 4 short chapters long.
God gave Jonah a commission to go and preach and prophesy against the metropolis of the Assyrian monarchy, Nineveh, a religious heathen city without the knowledge and worship of the true God. Jonah’s name means “a dove” a proper name for God’s prophet. His father’s name was Amittai which means “my truth” for God’s prophets should be sons of truth. To him the word of the Lord came. To him this word was substance it wasn’t imagination. It is apparent therefore that he was acquainted with the word of the Lord and knew His voice from that of a stranger. Jonah was a prophet in the reign of Jeroboam II ,we meet him in II Kings 14:25 as God’s prophetic servant. Jonah was God’s man.
Unfortunately Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh to cry out against their wickedness and to call them to repentance. Instead he chose to go as far away as possible, he rose up to flee to Tarshish to get away from the special presence of the Lord, from the spirit of prophecy. He consulted with his own flesh and blood and foresaw that the Ninevites would repent and God would forgive them and take them into favour (ch 4:2) which Jonah did not want.
So he fled to the famous seaport of Joppa where he found a ship bound for Tarshish. Providence seemed to favour him and give him the opportunity to escape from God’s design, he paid the fare and boarded the ship and set sail. Jonah went DOWN into the bottom of the ship and went to sleep on his way from the presence of the Lord.(Or so he thought).
He obviously thought himself safe enough but he wasn’t, we find him pursued and overtaken, discovered and convicted as a deserter from God. God sends His pursuer, a mighty tempest in the sea, when the winds rose so did the sea. This wind was sent after Jonah to bring him back again to God and his duty. It is a great mercy to be reclaimed and called back when we go astray. Amen.
Moving on, the ships crew were alarmed by this mighty tempest, but Jonah seemed unconcerned he was asleep.Neither the noise outside or the motion of the ship or the guilt within awoke him. Sin is of a stupifying nature. The crew lightened the ships cargo over the side, it appeared the ship was about break apart so being in such a condition they did the last thing possible and prayed to their gods. The crew were astounded that they prayed but then found Jonah sleeping and not praying, the chief sailor woke him up. and told him to pray perhaps His God would have mercy upon them and they wouldn’t perish, as it appeared that their gods were powerless against the tempest.
The crew concluded the tempest was a messenger of divine justice against someone and they resorted to the sacred casting of lots appealing to the judgement of God and the lot fell upon Jonah. Jonah is brought under examination before the master and His mariners. He readily admits that he is on the run from his God, the God of the sea and the dry land! What kind of a fool was Jonah to think he could get away from his God. The crew were fearful for their lives and asked him what they should do to him. Jonah told them to throw him overboard and the storm would cease as he well knew the storm was because of him. Never the less the crew rowed hard to try to get to the land but failed as the sea was against them?? (Jonah here can be seen as a type of Christ that he gives his life a ransom for many and the storm would cease which Christ did when He died on the cross a ransom for many the storm of sin being overcome.)
The mariners quit rowing, threw Jonah overboard, the storm stilled and they went to praying to Jehovah the true God. In the midst of judgement God remembers mercy. For the lost crew and for Jonah.
In chapter 2 we read of Jonah’s prayer of distress. Studying it we find that Jonah actually drowned and sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean seaweeds clinging to His head. His prayer tells us he is in Sheol, the abode of the dead. Many people would find it easier to believe that Jonah was swallowed by the whale and remained alive in the belly of the whale. However scriptures tells rather of his death and resurrection. This I believed is confirmed when Jesus said “for as Jonah was three days and 3 nights in the whales belly; so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. (Matt 12:39-41).What was the condition of the Lord in the tomb he was dead for 3 days and 3 nights then He arose, resurrected. So where did Jesus’s spirit go whilst he was entombed, the apostle Peter tells us in ch3:18-19 ‘quickened by the spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;’ Sheol. In ch2:3 of our text where did Jonah’s spirit cry for help from, the belly of Sheol.Jonah is dead in the belly of the whale for 3 days and 3 nights (like Jesus). So the whale does not lead to Jonah’s safe entombment alive in the whale’s belly but to His resurrection, (like Jesus). When the whale spewed him out God reunited his body soul and spirit from a dead man to a resurrected man on his way to Nineveh.
Nineveh was a massive city, Jonah being obedient to God entered the city and preached for them to repent or suffer the judgement of God and they repented in sackcloth and ashes. As seen in that 1.they believe God, 2.they brought word to the king, 3. the king set the good example, 4.the people confirmed to the kings example, 5.a fast was proclaimed and followed by decree. For those who have difficulty in believing the whole city repented Jesus certainly believed it check out Matt 12:41, Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites. (As it was to the Jews see Luke 11: 29,30).
Upon their repentance God relented from the calamity He said He would bring. In chapter 4 we see Jonah’s displeasure at God’s mercy. Reading verse 3 it tells us Jonah had spoken to the Lord before he’d ran away that if he went to Nineveh and preached they would repent and He would forgive because it was who God is. And so it happened. This why he fled to Tarshish. From His experience with king Jeroboam of Israel (2 kings 14:23-25) he had concluded that mercy does not change wicked people so why bother, Jonah is angry, fleshly Jonah is telling God that he knows God’s business better than He does. So angry,fleshly Jonah whilst being jealous for the Lord does not want to see the Assyrians escape punishment for their wickedness. He did not understand God’s compassion or His grace and who it extended to. God is patient but in God’s time His patience can run out as seen in the prophecy of Nahum against Assyria 150 years later..
May we think about God’s grace, God’s compassion, God’s patience in our lives and look to Him.
God bless
Michael Whitehouse