“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me” (v1,2)
We are very briefly told who Jonah was and what God told him to do. All we know is that he was the son of Amittai. He does get a few other mentions, particularly by Jesus, but in 2 Kings 14:25 we are told he was from Gath Hepher and clearly described as a prophet. Sounds a simple task for a man of God! There was more to it than meets the eye, of course. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, now in Northern Iraq, a large city. It took a day to cross it and was a wicked place. Jonah was told to point out their sin. It was one thing to go to a city of Israel but to go to a Gentile city and tell them of their wickedness and that God was offended by it, that was another matter. They could quite easily answer – Who’s God? The God of Israel, He is not our God so what has it got to do with you or Him? It was a scary job for Jonah and there is no doubt he felt intimidated by it.
Jonah had seen God at work (2 Kings 14:23-25) in an amazing way which Jonah had prophesied regarding Israel and King Jeroboam. He knew what God could do but he did not seem to think that it was possible in Nineveh.
Nothing is hidden from God whoever we are and whatever country we live in. He sees everything and as we saw in Numbers 32:2 “Be sure your sins will find you out.” All sin is against God and God will judge it all.
Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, perhaps he was afraid or perhaps he thought it wasn’t worth it, they were too wicked, so he went in the opposite direction to Tarshish, not only the opposite direction but from God’s presence (v3). He went down to Joppa (modern day Jaffa or Tel Aviv), found a ship going to Tarshish. Tarshish was at the western end of the Great (Mediterranean) Sea, modern day Gibraltar, thought by some to be the end of the world. Jonah, in his mind, was getting as far as he could from God. He paid the fare and went down into the ship to go from
the presence of the Lord. That final phrase is the key to this whole episode, Jonah was going from God, God’s presence, God’s will, and command. He did not want to obey by going to Nineveh because it was not the easiest of tasks. The people were exceedingly wicked and would have treated him very badly.
We may think that some wicked people are too far gone for God. The Bible says that ‘He is able to save to the uttermost, those who come to God, by Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them’ (Hebrews 7:25). We have all sinned (Romans 3:23), therefore we are all in need of His salvation.
The prophet Nahum enlightens us about Nineveh as he as instructed by God to prophesy against it. He describes it (3:1-4) as violent, immoral, brutal and they boasted of their brutality, pagan, full of deception, idolatrous. Its leaders were vicious, and they led other nations into their sinful behaviour. Little wonder Jonah was not happy with his lot!
One writer said, ‘Going as a one-man missionary to Nineveh may have been difficult, but running away from God was ‘mission impossible’.
Maybe things seemed to fall into place for Jonah, the ship, the destination, and the fare seemed easy, but it was still running away from God. He should have known that it was not possible to run away from God. Psalm 139 makes that abundantly clear. “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? …. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.”
God was not going to let Jonah go. In a way that is wonderful as we may think God does not care. God provided the way back, certainly not as he would have liked or even prayed for. But (v4) tells us how – “The lord sent a great wind, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.” Jesus can not only calm the storm, but He can cause them when needed. We usually think of God sorting a situation out but here He puts the ship and crew and passengers in danger all because a man of God was in the wrong place. It requires serious thought about where we go and what we do. Of course, there was nothing stopping Jonah from taking a trip to Tarshish when he wanted to. But there was a big, ‘but’, God had told him to go elsewhere to serve Him. We can often convince ourselves we are doing nothing wrong, but it does not make it right if we are disobedient and go against His will.
The storm was evidently very severe because even hardened sailors were afraid and cried out to their gods. Interesting that people turn to their god when in trouble! People even cry out to God in dire circumstances. They also threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship (v5,6). Where was Jonah? Asleep in lowest part of the ship. Note that not just any sailor, but the captain came to wake Jonah. He was seemingly going round urging passengers to call on their gods. Only the true God can help. Other gods cannot see, hear, or do anything so it is a waste of time and effort. We clearly see this when Elijah was contesting with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 when he tormented them about shouting louder, maybe he was asleep etc., but there was no answer except from the Living God.
There was only one who knew the True God even though he was in the wrong place, a state of disobedience – Jonah. How could he sleep when this was going on, knowing that he was more than likely to be the cause? Maybe he had convinced himself that it was nothing to do with him, but the time would come when he had to come clean about it. The devil can harden our hearts and consciences when we go against God.
C.H Spurgeon said, “Jonah was asleep amid all that confusion and noise; and, O Christian man, for you to be indifferent to all that is going on in such a world as this, for you to be negligent of God’s work in such a time as this is just as strange. The devil alone is making noise enough to wake all the Jonahs if they only want to awake… All around us there is tumult and storm, yet some professing Christians are able, like Jonah, to go to sleep in the sides of the ship.”
We can be guilty of sleeping when we should be awake. It can be dangerous, careless, and lazy. We are slumbering when we should be serving, when we should be worshipping and when failing to be involved in the work of the Lord. There is much to be done, the labourers are often few and how many are sleeping? The writer to the Hebrews says we should not forsake meeting together but in the days of lockdown (Coronavirus 2020/21) we had become used to sitting at home, sometimes not out of choice, but watching our services on media which has become more convenient than making a journey, and not only that, but we can do it in our pyjamas and make a cuppa at our convenience. Let us not give up but wake up and do what God wants us to do. There are lost souls needing the gospel, nurture, and friendship. We heard lots of people saying they cannot wait to go the restaurant, the pub, the sports event, but how many of us couldn’t wait to get back to church and to worship and service of our wonderful Lord?
Spurgeon said, “I want men of stern resolution, for no Christian is awake unless he steadfastly determines to serve his God, come fair, come foul.”
Seems interesting that the captain asked Jonah to call on his God when really, he was running away from the very same God.
The sailors, in desperation, said to each other that they should cast lots to find who was the cause of the trouble (v7,8). Jonah drew the short straw, and they asked him why he was the cause. He told them he was a prophet, which was correct and went on to tell them where he was from and what he had done (v9,10). He said “I fear the Lord “. Was this a sign of repentance? He had not shown it before. He recognised who God was and what He had done in creation. He even told them that he had fled from God, and it was his fault that this calamity had come upon them.
Even now the sea was growing more tempestuous (v11-16) so they asked Jonah what they should do to him. He told them to throw him into the sea and the sea will become calm. It seems that they were initially reluctant to do that and rowed hard to return to land. The sea grew even more tempestuous, so they cried out to the Lord, yes to the Lord! They cried, “O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood, for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.” It seems that they were trying to clear themselves, but eventually they threw Jonah into the sea, and the sea ceased raging. It obviously influenced them because the men “… feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice and took vows.” The raging ceased immediately showing the power of God and no doubt they realised that God was the true God. It reminds me of the reaction of the disciples when Jesus stilled the storm in Mark 4:35-41.
The last verse of the chapter 1:17 says, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” The Lord had sent a storm, now he sends a fish.
We are not told what sort of fish, may have been a whale. Whether or not some believe it to be true is immaterial, Jesus believed it and that should be enough – Matthew 12:40 “Jesus said, Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.” Jesus likened this to the fact that He would rise after being in the earth three days and three nights. It is inconceivable that Jesus would liken His death and resurrection to a myth. It gives great credence that this event really happened.
The power of God is shown amazingly in His rescue of Jonah. Maybe this was the only way to bring Jonah to repentance.
