Jonah 1
Notes
Transcript
As we begin our study through the OT books of the Major and Minor prophets it is important to note that we have already looked at a few prophets when we studied through the historical books of 1&2 Samuel as well as 1&2 Kings, such as Elijah and Elisha.
Tonight we will begin our journey through the books of prophets going in a mostly chronological order. I say mostly because some of these prophets ministered during the same time. For those particular cases we will try to go through by starting with the prophets that began their ministry first as best as we can.
Also understand that their is always some arguments from scholars about exact years with some scholars placing one prophet chronologically before or after others in comparison to what other scholars have dated their ministries.
We do also have one particular wildcard with Joel who some believe was the earliest on the list of the books of the prophet with the timing being between Elisha and Jonah with others place him much later near the time of the 70 year captivity. We simply do not know for sure so I will teach Joel towards the captivity prophets because his message matches up clearly to me with what the Lord was speaking through the prophets of those days with such an emphasis on the last days.
With all of that said we will begin our journey studying through the books of the prophets by opening up the book of Jonah.
Jonah is an interesting book because of the way so called scholars have attacked the accuracy or literalness of the book and have instead opted to view it as merely an allegory (a story meant to be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning).
We know the Author and the book itself are not meant to be allegory since the prophet Jonah and the events of Jonah are mentioned in the book 2 Kings, as well as in the gospels.
In the quick account of king Jeroboam II we learn about the prophetic ministry of Jonah...
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and reigned for forty-one years.
24 He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not abandon all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, into which he misled Israel.
25 He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
26 For the Lord saw the misery of Israel, which was very bitter; for there was neither bond nor free spared, nor was there any helper for Israel.
27 Yet the Lord did not say that He would wipe out the name of Israel from under heaven, but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
King Jeroboam II reigned from about 793-753 BC. In fact Elisha the prophet had just passed away just before Jeroboam II became king. The nation of Israel experienced a time of great prosperity financially and militarily during King Jeroboam II’s reign. They regained lost territory, expanded their borders and their influence, but that only caused the people of the nation to fall farther away from God and into greater idolatry. If you recall from our study through 2 Kings both Israel and Judah had become rebellious against God with Israel having a line of many wicked kings in a row with Judah having a mix of wicked and upright kings.
It was also during this time that God sent both Hosea and Amos which we will cover after Jonah. It is notable that both Hosea and Amos like Jonah show God’s love and concern for nations besides Israel and Judah.
Besides 2 Kings mentioning the person and ministry of Jonah we also know that Jesus mentioned Jonah and the events of this book in a very specific way when He prophesied about Himself by saying...
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign; and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet;
40 for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
41 The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
Notable differences in Jonah
Jonah is unique in that it is more of a narrative that tells the story of Jonah going to Ninevah (the Assyrian capitol) than a book filled with prophecy. In fact depending on your English translation Jonah only proclaims a 7-8 word prophetic message (warning) from God to the Ninevites.
While we do see Jonah speaking much to God and at times preaching to himself, we do not have a book with Jonah here preaching to Israel or Judah. Instead he preaches to a Pagan nation who soon after will conquer Israel and take them captive. God was being both gracious to Ninevah as well as Israel.
The basic overview of this book is
Chapter 1 - Jonah gets his marching orders from God but is rebellious instead. He gets tossed out of a ship and swallowed by a great fish.
Chapter 2 - Jonah repents and recounts who God is.
Chapter 3 - Jonah is now obedient and proclaims the word of the LORD in Ninevah. The Ninevites receive, believe, and respond to the word of the LORD.
Chapter 4 - Jonah sulks because of his anger that the Ninevites repented and God was gracious to them and confesses that he didn’t want to go to Ninevah to begin with because he knew God was a gracious God.
So with all of that said, let’s jump into Jonah chapter 1...
Verses 1-2
Verses 1-2
God spoke to Jonah in a way that was obviously clear to Jonah and told him what to do.
Go to Ninevah and give them a strong rebuke from God about their wickedness.
Ninevah was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire that was large in size and importance.
As we have already talked about Ninevah wasn’t a city of Israel or Judah, but rather the capital of the Pagan Gentile Assyrians. In fact historians tell us that Ninevah was the largest most influential city known to man at this time.
And God wanted Jonah to go to them to tell them to repent!
Why?
Because their evil and wickedness had come before God.
Never forget that God sees all things even the wickedness of those who always seem to get away with it and even thrive in it before men.
Verse 3
Verse 3
Now let’s not forget that there was great tension between the Assyrians and the Israelites at this particular time.
The Assyrians had grown to be a dominant power and the word had already gone out that the Assyrians wanted to conquer Israel just as they had already conquered Israel’s neighbors.
There are any number of possible reasons why Jonah would not want to go to Ninevah. He could have been angry at them, sacred of them, or even indifferent toward them.
The Assyrians were an incredibly wicked people and things were even worse in their capital city. In fact the prophet Nahum wrote this about Ninevah...
1 Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey does not leave.
2 The sound of the whip, The sound of the roar of the wheel, Galloping horses And bounding chariots!
3 Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many killed, a mass of corpses, And there is no end to the dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies!
4 All because of the many sexual acts of the prostitute, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her sexual acts, And families by her sorceries.
So we might imagine that Jonah didn’t want Ninevah to repent and be spared God’s judgement. He may very well have wanted the Ninevites to suffer for their wickedness.
Guzik put it like this...
“Imagine a Jewish man in New York during World War II hearing God say, ‘I’m going to bring terrible judgment on Germany. I want you to go to Berlin and tell Nazi Germany to repent.’ Instead of doing it, the man heads for San Francisco and then hops on a boat for Hong Kong.” (David Guzik)
Yet it doesn’t matter how Jonah FELT about the situation. He nor we are called to follow our feelings. We are called to follow the LORD.
He wanted to flee to Tarshish. There are many scholars with differing opinions on exactly where Tarshish was. What is clear is that Tarshish was in a completely different direction from Ninevah.
What is also clear is that Jonah in this moment had bad theology since he thought that going to a specific place could get him away from the presence of the LORD.
He had obviously forgotten what King David wrote...
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9 If I take up the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will take hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
Nevertheless, Jonah paid the money to board the ship.
You almost wonder if he justified this by saying to himself that God provided the money to board this particular ship so he must be doing the right thing…
Sometimes the Christian is so busy looking for signs that they make up signs to go along with their circumstances instead of simply being obedient to God’s word.
Verse 4
Verse 4
The second half of Numbers 32:23 says “you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out” “be sure your sin will catch up with you”. (CSB)
Verses 5-6
Verses 5-6
Look at these rough tough sailers who should be well used to such storms on the sea afraid and crying out to their various gods!
But, this wasn’t just another storm was it?
This was a storm brought on by the LORD for a purpose.
Since the LORD brought on this storm all the calling out to all their false gods and holding onto all their false idols would accomplish nothing. It would accomplish nothing anyway, but in this moment they were uniquely aware that this was a spiritual issue not a weather issue and so they all call out to all the various gods they can think of and will even go and wake up in and all sleeping passengers so that they too can call out to their gods/God until they can get the storm to calm down.
Isn’t it sad that all these pagan sailors with hundreds of possible gods to cry out to are acting all religious and yet those gods are useless and the one guy on the ship that can cry to the true and living God is sleeping!?
How interesting that the same God that Jonah is trying to flee away from is the very God that the captain of the ship demands that he pray to on everyone else’s behalf.
Verses 7-8
Verses 7-8
We already read in 2 Kings 14:25 the answers to their questions...
2 Kings 14:25 (NASB 2020)
25 He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
Verses 11-16
Verses 11-16
Even though Jonah should have been on his way to Ninevah to call the Assyrians to repentance the Lord used this event to call these sailors to repentance!