Jonah Week 2
782 - 753 BC (763)? Who is the world power at this time? Assyria. Where is Jonah going to be sent? To Nineveh a major city of Assyria.
CONTEXT OF ISRAEL
Jeroboam II has extended Israel’s borders farthest of any Israelite king. He has the longest reign of any Israelite king. Israel remains very wicked, but is materially prosperous.
SATIRE
Satire is when you write in a way to intentionally expose absurdity to make a point. There’s so many things that are fishy - forgive that pun.
Lots of backwards things in Jonah.
The prophet disobeys God - “Jonah go up!” Jonah went down.
The pagans call out to God
God repents from evil
Beasts are wearing sackcloth and ashes
In normal life people eat fish, but in Jonah….
STRUCTURE
The first is 1:1-3 - God calls, Jonah runs
The second is 1:4-16 - Jonah with pagan sailors
The third is 1:17-2:10 - Jonah’s grateful prayer to live
Section 4 is 3:1-3a - God calls again, Jonah obeys
Section 5 is 3:3b-10 - Jonah with pagan Ninevites
Section 6 is 4:1-4 - Jonah’s angry prayer to die
Section 7 is 4:5-11 -
THEMES
Based in key verse - verse 1:2
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
4 Key words - Arise/go down, Great, Call Out, Evil/Disaster
I must make a retraction! In verse 3:3 there are not two greats, just one great.
Jonah should arise, but he descends. And it’s not until God saves him from his descent and makes him arise that he obeys.
God sends Jonah great things to get him to go to a great people and Jonah is greatly mad when he should have been greatly glad.
The pagans are all calling out for salvation, but Jonah only calls out for judgment.
Pagans are concerned about what is evil to God, Jonah is concerned about what is evil to him
Section 1
Read 1:1-3
Where is Tarshish, where is Nineveh? Hard to tell where Tarshish is. Maybe as far as Spain.
Section 2
Read 1:4-10
Is it not funny that he told them? “Why do you wanna get on our boat?” “Oh, I’m running away from my God.” “Cool. Hop on.”
He also points out that his God is the universal God of the land and sea. If he’s the God of the sea, what makes Jonah think he can escape him in the sea?
Read 1:11-14
Keep in mind that “The LORD” is God’s divine name - Yahweh. They are calling out specifically to Jonah’s God.
Read 1:15-16
There’s some interesting development of fear here
Jonah claims to fear the Lord but obviously doesn’t.
The sailors start afraid.
Then they become exceedingly afraid.
Then they become exceedingly afraid of the Lord.
Section 3
Read 1:17-2:2
Keep in mind it could be a whale, it could be a fish. Today’s distinctions are modern developments.
Jonah claims he called out, but the sailors called out.
Does Jonah actually die? What is Sheol?
Place of the dead - neither good nor bad. KJV often translated it Hell.
Which becomes confusing in the Apostle’s Creed.
“Jesus descended into hell”
Some scholars believe Jonah actually died and was resurrected and given the miraculous nature of this story already, there’s no reason that would be out of bounds.
Other scholars argue that the use of Sheol is poetic language in a poetic prayer.
Read 2:3-6
Remember he’s gone down as low as possible, now God will bring him up.
Read 2:7-9
Jonah says he will sacrifice and make vows, but the sailors sacrificed and made vows.
It’s almost like he’s imitating the sailors, the pagans.
Section 4
Read 3:1-3a - nothing significant here
Section 5
Read 3:3b
NINEVEH’S SIGNIFICANCE
Common misconception, Nineveh was not the capital city of Assyria at the time of Jonah. A nearby city named Nimrud was and had been for over a hundred years. Nineveh would later become the capital of Assyria, but not until around 700BC.
Noticeably there is no mention of Assyria in Jonah. The leader is referred to as the king of Nineveh, and this would have been a legitimate name for the governor or official of that single city.
Nineveh also a province so it could suggest that walking across the province would take 3 days. Such as New York state vs New York City.
Read 3:4-8
NINEVEH’S REPENTANCE
Nineveh really repents quickly!
While Israel was retaking territory from its former oppressors, the Arameans, things weren’t going so well for the Assyrians. Famines, plagues, revolts, earthquakes, and conflicts with the Arameans and Urartians threatened to overwhelm them. All the while, the Assyrian kings of this period were also steadily losing power to the governors of their own realm. In fact, during this period there were more kingly proclamations published by these officials than by the emperor himself. We know very little about the Assyrian rulers in these years, again, probably because they were weak and presiding over a realm that seemed to be falling apart.
Nineveh is actually not a threat, but is very wicked.
Major solar eclipse happens on June 15, 763BC - Nineveh is just outside the path of totality.
Solar eclipse along with weakened state of Nineveh may have contributed to readiness to repent.
Read 3:9-10
REPENTANCE AND GOD’S CHARACTER
“Who knows God may turn and relent” - Jonah 3:9
We’ve heard this phrase before in Joel 2:14 - same exact 4 Hebrew words
Why might God turn and relent? Because Joel 2:13 - quoting Exodus 34:6
You are a gracious God… relenting from disaster” - Jonah 4:2
Joel is likely quoting Jonah.
Section 6
“Who knows?” I knew!! Jonah 3:9
Jonah knows that God relents from disasters look at 1:12 - if you throw me in the sea, this disaster will end.
How much did Jonah’s knowledge about God help him? None, because he refused to turn and relent from his fierce anger.
Knowledge of God is so important, but it cannot replace a repentant heart.
Titus 1:1 - knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness
This is another part of the satire. Here’s a man that knows everything, but doesn’t live it. To expose the hypocrisy, these two are juxtaposed in Jonah.
Final section, Section 7
This is the climax of the story because the reason everything has been backwards is made clear. Jonah’s heart is exposed.
JONAH OUTSIDE GOD’S PRESENCE
Jonah goes EAST of the city. Don’t skip over details when the Bible gives them. They almost always carry some meaning.
In the Bible, consistently to go east is to leave God’s presence and to come from the East is to come towards God’s presence.
Gen. 3:24 - drives out man to the East
Gen. 4:16 - Cain goes east after murder of Abel
Gen. 13:11 - Lot chooses to go towards Sodom in the east
When Israel enters the land of Canaan they come in from the east.
The temple is built with its entrance facing east.
When the people go into exile they are sent to Babylon in the east.
Now Jonah leaves the city where God is working and goes to the east where he can mope.
GOD IS IN CONTROL
God appointed a fish (1:17), a plant (4:6) , a worm (4:7), a wind (4:8)
Lest you think any of this is coincidental. The book goes out of its way to assure you that God has appointed all of these things intentionally to teach Jonah, to expose his hypocrisy and to instruct us.
Why would God give something just to take it away? He gives a plant then destroys the plant.
In this story he does it because of how effective it is at exposing Jonah’s heart.
I will hesitate to say that every time God gives something and takes it away, it’s because his plan is to expose your heart. But I think it always tends to expose the heart.
JONAH IS SELF-CENTERED
Look at 4:6 - Jonah is exceedingly glad when he is saved from evil.
Look at 4:1 - Jonah is exceedingly mad when others are saved from evil.
Jonah wants to die when the pagans are saved (4:3)
Jonah wants to die when he is not saved (4:8)
God is so patient with Jonah and keeps asking him gentle questions. “Do you do well to be angry?” - the tone of this question just exudes gentleness and patience.
Jonah remains obstinate.
GOD’S COMPASSION VS. JONAH’S LACK
Here is the climax of the final section. The explanation for the whole book.
The key word in our final section is “pity”. God concludes the book with teaching Jonah about pity or it could also be translated as “have compassion on”.
God describes Jonah - you have compassion for yourself and what is immediate
Jonah is uninterested in whether people perish just his plant (4:10), but the pagans are (1:6; 14; 3:9).
God describes himself - I have compassion for others globally
This revelation challenges us to go back through the entire book and reinterpret everything we’ve read.
Why does Jonah do everything he does?
He runs, he sleeps during the storm, he asks to be thrown off the ship, he only prophesies destruction, he pouts outside the city, and he cries about a plant. Because he has no compassion for anyone but himself.
Why does God do everything he does?
He calls Jonah to Nineveh because he has compassion on Nineveh
He sends a storm to redirect Jonah because he has compassion on Nineveh
He calms the storm because he has compassion on the sailors
He sends a fish because he has compassion on Jonah
He sends Jonah again because he has compassion on Nineveh
He relents of his disaster because he has compassion on Nineveh
He sends a plant to shade Jonah because he has compassion on Jonah
He even sends a worm to eat the plant because he has compassion on Jonah and wants to expose his sin
Section 7 can be called - Jonah has no compassion, God is full of compassion.
Any questions about the book of Jonah?
JONAH IN THE NT
Turn to Matthew 12:41
Jesus says I’m not going to give you any signs (he’d already done many). He expects them to repent because Nineveh was able to repent.
Jonah was a bad prophet. He disobeyed. He ran. He only delivered his message because he was forced to. He had no pity. Yet pagans far from God repented.
Contrast that with Jesus. He obeyed. He goes to his people. He has compassion on everyone he encounters. He’s clearly greater than Jonah. Will the Jewish people repent?
Both the Ninevites and the Jews have their sign.
The one who was sent to them descends into Sheol (maybe Jonah dies, maybe not) and three days later he returns alive. This is a sign that you should repent.
What is God calling everyone to in both OT and NT? It’s always to turn from your sin and repent.