We ended chapter 2 with the fish vomiting Jonah on to dry land, probably to the relief of both of them! From there the story is relatively simple as we saw in the last post.  Jonah is given a second chance to go to Nineveh and preach the message that God has given him.  This he does with very unexpected results when the Ninevites repent.  The book ends with Jonah being an exceptionally angry prophet who resents God forgiving the Ninevites.   But now I want to focus on two things, one fairly briefly as it relates to the time spent inside the fish and the second in a bit more detail as it relates to his prayer in chapter 2.

Any time that Jesus mentions someone by name from the Old Testament we should always take note, and he does this twice concerning Jonah. In Matthew 12:38-40[1] he makes a reference to the three days and three nights Jonah spent in the fish.  Jesus compares this to his dying and resurrection three days later.  But what are we to understand from this?  Firstly, although some commentators make a case for Jonah dying and being resurrected I see no evidence for this.  Jonah compares his plight as being similar to dying, but that’s as far as he goes.  But there’s a sense that Jonah is suffering the Lord’s judgement but is not abandoned to the grave which is what he feared.  This has major parallels with Christ as the apostle Peter points out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:27 quoting Psalm 16:10).  This illustration is the sign Jesus gives to the unbelieving spiritual leaders of Israel.  The second (which I believe was another occasion) is in Luke 11:29-30 and seems to be aimed at those in the crowd who wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.  Jesus infers that he’s going to be a sign to that generation just as: ‘Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh’ (Luke 11:30).  There’s some speculation over what he means by this, but I think it’s relatively simple.  If Jonah, with his forthright disobedience could be forgiven, the Ninevites could be as well!  Salvation would truly come from the Lord!  In his commentary on Jonah Hugh Martin speculates that Jonah must have shared ‘the terrible death which he endured, and the blessed resurrection which he experienced – can we doubt that the mercy and   miracle of their prophet’s resurrection was at once the ground and the gleam of hope which they caught hold of, as an encouragement to repent and call upon the Lord?’[2]  Through Jesus’ death and resurrection anyone who seeks forgiveness can receive it as the Ninevites did!

This brings us to the second point in relation to Jonah’s prayer, and that’s how we relate his prayer to his later anger which is directed at the Lords compassion and forgiveness of the Ninevites. And my word, he was angry!  Verse 1 of chapter 4 can be translated: ‘To Jonah it was a disaster, a great disaster. He became angry.’  The phrase: ‘He became angry’ in Hebrew is expressed by the word: ‘harah’ which can be translated as: ‘burning as with fire’ or: ‘was inflamed.’[3]  How can I put this?  The book just shouldn’t end this way with Jonah red faced and foaming at the mouth or jumping up and down in a frenzy of what may have been uncontrolled anger!  Now we know that in a way it doesn’t, God has the last word!  But the book is left hanging concerning Jonah’s attitude towards the Lord’s compassion for the Ninevites!  So how do we understand this?

Firstly, there’s a danger in the writing off Jonah completely. Anyone who is as angry as he is ends up saying things that they will regret later and we would do well to remember that in relation to what he had prayed earlier.  But I believe it highlights a weakness in Jonah’s theology.  He had not understood the extent of God’s grace.  He could understand it when it was extended to him; after all he was one of the Lord’s covenant people, but the Ninevites weren’t.  They didn’t ‘know their right hand from their left’ (4:11) which probably means they were not acquainted with God’s law as Jonah was.  The point was that God was prepared to extend his love and forgiveness to them despite their limited understanding due to their genuine repentance (see 3:6-9).  But Jonah had his theology as to who the Lord should save and whom he shouldn’t.  He figured the Lord shouldn’t relent where the Ninevites were concerned, hence his anger!  In chapter 4 verse 2 Jonah pretty much quotes Exodus 34: 6-7.  He properly thought it was a wonderful verse when applied to Israel.  He had no problem with the second part of verse 7 about God’s judgement upon the guilty: ‘to the third and fourth generation’ as the Ninevites were well-qualified as those who deserved punishment.  But we should be beware of a theology that imposes what we wish on God’s Word and leaves no room for God’s infinite grace, mercy and compassion.  That’s Jonah’s mistake here!  Such an attitude will only damage our relationship with God as it does when Jonah declares that he would rather die than go on living (vs3 and 8-9), which is effectively declaring “I don’t want to be the prophet of a God like you!”  Maybe, as I said, it was said in a fit of anger but we should note how much damage it does to the prophet’s relationship with God as at this point in the book he is reduced to disapproving and angry prayers!

The question for us is can we go through tough times and during them acknowledge God’s goodness to us, just as Jonah did in his prayer, and yet not really understand fully that the Lord may have been teaching us a poignant lesson about ourselves? Just because the Lord has been gracious to us in the past and we have seen his help, does not mean that he should always act as we think he should.  We can end up like Jonah, disapproving of God’s character and even starting to think he owes us something. We then end up as ‘rollercoaster Christians.’  We are going through a good time and experiencing the Lord’s blessing, God loves us!  But then we dive down into the depths of despair and depression.  There are family troubles (the worst kind), or we start to struggle with economic hardship through the loss of a job, or a much loved family member or relative dies.  The danger is that then we can forget the extent of God’s grace at a time we should be remembering it.  We decide God hates us, or even if we don’t use such a strong words, we believe he just doesn’t care!

Yet, if we looking for consistency, it is only found in God and his concern for those he has created. The characteristic of God that is shown in 4:2 and throughout the book of Jonah occurs again and again in the Old Testament![4]  That’s what we see in the book of Jonah, God is the only constant throughout!  Even Jonah acknowledges this and we should acknowledge it too and look to one who is consistent and a real foundation when we face times of trouble.  It may be hard, due to our sinfulness, but we are not to put conditions on God!  Jonah had prayed: ‘Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love (2:8) but he had made an idol of his theology regarding Jews, Gentiles and sin!  He hadn’t learnt the right lessons from his experience.  The question for us is have we made, or are we in danger of making, idols of questionable personal beliefs about God that have little or nothing to with the Bible?  If so we need to repent and change.  Let’s pray that from this point on we are aware of, and avoid, Jonah’s mistake so it never becomes our mistake!

[1] Jesus references the: ‘sign of Jonah’ again to the Pharisees and Sadducees again in Matthew 16:1-4.

[2] Hugh Martin, Jonah, The Geneva Series of Commentaries, (London, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1870), 221-2.

[3]James Bruckner, The NIV Application Commentary, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2004), 109.

[4] See Exodus 34:6-7, Nehemiah 9:17 b, Psalm 86:15: Psalm 103:12, Psalm 145:8 and Joel 2:13.

At the start of chapter 3 Jonah is given a second chance to carry out the Lord’s command.  This he does, and we get the gist of the message in verse 3.  The message is a simple message of judgment. This is not surprising when we consider that the Lord had commanded Jonah to go and preach in Nineveh because: ‘their evil has come up before me’  (1:2) and historically we know the atrocities that the Assyrian nation was capable of.  Yet there is a subtle difference here as the verb that is used for the word: ‘call’ infers that he is to preach ‘to’ the people of Nineveh rather than: ‘against’ them as in chapter 1.  It could be argued that this subtle change is in the light of Jonah’s experience in chapter 2.  But it is also possible it is to prepare the reader for a change of emphasis from the judgement of God to his compassion that we see at the end of this chapter and in chapter 4.[1]  Some commentators feel that Jonah must have shared with the Ninevites his judgment and deliverance by the hand of God, and this is not unlikely as we have almost certainly only been given a summary of his message.[2]  In this sense, as Jesus makes clear, Jonah acted as: ‘a sign to the people of Nineveh’ (Luke 11:30).  The point maybe that now Jonah should have a new understanding of the depths of God’s compassion and forgiveness when it comes to those who rebel against him and then repent, and this should be reflected in his preaching!

The proclamation of Jonah’s message is very thorough.  Some scholars have tried to make the case that the book of Jonah is a parable rather than an actual historical account.  One of the reasons given for this is the: ‘three days’ (v3) mentioned in relation to the city being improbable as archaeological discoveries do not suggest a city of that size.  However, it is more likely that Nineveh was made up of a large central city and the many towns and villages that surrounded it.  That being the case the indication is that Jonah’s proclamation soon spreads around the region reaching everyone whether that is by first-hand or by people passing it on to others.

However, whatever the case, the Ninevites believe his message and the equivalent of ‘revival’ breaks out with mass repentance.  But what caused such a reaction?  The answer is clearly spelt out in verse 5: ‘And the people of Nineveh believed God.’  There’s nothing to make us doubt that this was genuine repentance and belief as their attitude exhibits the ‘Ancient Near East’s’ culture of mourning!  Their repentance is summed up by the words of the King of Nineveh which illustrate the Ninevities acceptance of their sinful attitude.  The phrase: ‘Let everyone turn from his evil ways and from the violence that is in his hands’ (v8) being particularly appropriate to them as a nation!  There’s an understanding that they are completely dependent on God’s mercy as there is no reason why he should forgive them (v9).  The chapter ends with the Lord relenting from the disaster that he had threatened to bring upon them.

Jonah must be in the running as possibly the most successful prophet’s of the Old Testament era in terms of his message being believed and people repenting, so his anger might surprise us!  But his dodgy theology (which we will take a look at in the next part) does give us an opportunity to explore and understand the character of God.  In verse 2 of chapter 4 Jonah gives us the summary of Exodus 34:6-7: “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.”  His summery of the Lord’s compassion is illustrated by the plant that God cause’s to grow and give him shade.  Much has been written about this, but essentially the lesson is very simple.  Jonah had benefited from the plant, but the point was the Lord had caused it to grow, not Jonah, so why was he so cut up about it when it died?  Likewise, if the Lord decided to spare Nineveh, then that was his business, not Jonah’s.  After all, it was his message that had caused them to repent not Jonah’s.  What he was doing now only illustrated his character and that being the case, Jonah really had no say in it as whether he approved or disapproved had no bearing on what the Lord did, or, as Jonah saw it, should do!

Yet in the unquestionable compassion and mercy of God there is a real sense that Jonah is as much a beneficiary as the Ninevites.  O. Palmer Robinson points out that in chapter 3 verses 1-2 it’s pretty much as if God says: “Let’s start from the first. – Let’s forget about the past and act as though it never happened.”[3]  If he has applied the same principle to the Ninevites then who was Jonah to question him as he too has been the beneficiary of this aspect of God’s nature?  The point, and it’s a very simple one, is that in God there is nothing remotely akin to our human temperament.  When true repentance is expressed, he, unlike us, feels no need to revisit the former misdemeanours of that person.  This is something that Jonah has only really understood on one level, and that is when it applied to him.

Secondly, it is worth noting that the phrase in verse 6: ‘the LORD God’.  This combination of the names of God (Yahweh, Elohim) is first found in reference to God placing Adam in the Garden of Eden.  ‘Yahweh’ is the covenant name for God whereas as ‘Elohim’ is a reference to his creative power.  So it demonstrates his special care for Adam by placing him in a special environment with the command that he is to serve God (the Hebrew verb illustrates this), as well as stipulations he is to follow and keep if he is to prosper (Genesis 2:15-17).  The use of this combination of names shows that the Lord will extend the same love and care towards Jonah, who has gone as far as to have to question the rightness of his actions towards the Ninevites!  The Ninevites had been ignorant of God’s Law, but repented, but Jonah, who could probably recite it perfectly, needed to be educated to understand that it was a reflection of God’s love and compassion.  So God continues to instruct Jonah despite his anger and stubbornness.

The book ends with the Lord questioning Jonah about the rightness of his compassion towards Nineveh.  We are left hanging as to how Jonah answered the question.  O. Palmer Robinson asks how we should answer it in the light of the Lord’s compassion towards us.  ‘Should not you have the compassion that reflects your Lord’s?  Considering how graciously he has had compassion on you and yours, should you not show the same compassion towards others?  Should not you have compassion even towards sinners that in some ways (but not in all ways) be worse than yourself?’[4]

Coming Soon: A Successful but very Bitter Prophet!   Another look at Jonah 3-4.

[1] T Desmond Alexander, Jonah (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1988). 118.  (As part of a commentary on Obadiah and Micah by David W.  Baker and Bruce K.  Waltke respectively).
[2] Hugh Martin, Jonah, The Geneva Series of Commentaries, (London, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1870), 221-2.
[3] O.  Palmer Robinson, Jonah, A Study in Compassion (Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 41.
[4] Robinson, Jonah, 63-4.