The man Jonah is a mystery. First alluded to in 2 Kings 14:25, all that is recorded of him there is that he prophesied concerning the restoration of the “territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah”; he was the son of Amittai and was from Gath Hepher. Nothing else is recorded of him until we get to the book which bears his name. That he was a real, historical person, there can be little doubt. Jonah would have lived and prophesied just before or during the reign of Jeroboam II circa 820 BC. As we turn to the book of Jonah, it seems that sometime after the prophecy of the restoration of the territories of Israel, the Lord commissioned Jonah to go and deliver a message to Nineveh, a city of the Assyrians. Jonah’s task, as given in Jonah 1:2, was a simple one: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it…” It seems that he had no problem being God’s prophet so long as he, himself, liked the prophecy but when he did not agree with God or did not like God’s plan, he decided to remove himself from God’s service. Herein, is our introduction to the man, Jonah.
As Jonah fled “from the presence of the Lord,” we must not take that as he felt that he could get away from the presence of God. As a prophet of God, he knew better. But rather, Jonah sought to remove himself from God’s service and his responsibility of obedience to God’s words. Jonah’s plan was to go to Tarshish which would have most likely been Tartessus in Spain as the Phoenicians had a great trading partnership with that city (Clarke, Adam; e-Sword). Now, from there has been much debate as to whether the rest of the book is an allegory or whether it is actually factual. The difficulty that most have with the book being factual is a man surviving within the throat or belly of a fish (whether it be a whale or any other marine animal). However, let us not miss the fact that scripture (the wholly and holy inspired Word of God) states that the Lord Himself “prepared a great fish” to carry out this mission (Jonah 1:17). That verse alone should tell me that this fish, whatever type of fish or marine animal it may have been, was like no other fish before or since this episode. Think about what Jonah describes in 2:3-6; it seems that Jonah was able to see the bottom of the oceans from the belly of this fish. Having experienced all of this and seeing now what the Lord has allowed him to see and being reminded of the mercy of God, Jonah prays and the Lord forthwith causes His fish to vomit out Jonah on dry ground.
Now resolute to carry out his mission, Jonah goes to Nineveh and cries out against that great city as he had been originally commissioned. Nineveh repents, God relents, and Jonah vents.
While many lessons can be learned from Jonah, let us learn these three: 1) To remove oneself from the service of God is foolhardy. Just because we may try to remove ourselves from our God-given responsibilities does not mean that the responsibility is not still mine. 2) God’s Word is powerful. At the hearing of the preaching of Jonah, Nineveh repented and God did not destroy them. It would not be until 150 years later that Nineveh would be destroyed. 3) God’s ways are better than man’s ways. Jonah would have had this great city destroyed that included 120,000 innocent children but God would have the entirety of the population come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Let us all remember… be of service to our God and fellowman, that God’s Word is powerful, and adhere to the way of God and not man.
-Josh Romo
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