Jonah
Notes
Transcript
The book of Jonah
The book of Jonah
We’ve made it to Jonah and we’ll likely spend a bit of time here. There is a lot to unpack in this book. First we’ll notice how different this book is from all the other books of the minor prophets that we’ve read so far. This doesn’t start with a time period like some have. But we know from 2 Ki 14:25
He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.
He was a prophet during the time of Jeroboam II from the Northern Kingdom where Gath-hepher is located a couple miles northeast of Nazareth. This puts us in the early 8th century BC. We also don’t know the writer of this book. It could be Jonah but that isn’t ever claimed, there is never a first person account, and no phrase in the bible indicates that Jonah wrote it. So he might have or someone else later wrote of it, but it is a book of the Bible so we recognize that it is inspired, and true.
Let’s get into it unless there are questions before we start reading.
We do start similar to other minor prophets with the first verse.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
And we’ll talk about the message but the message is usually the focus of the whole book. It becomes clear very quickly that this book focuses on the prophet Jonah and just happens to include the message he was given.
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Okay, we have another message of damnation. This people group has been so evil that they have come to the attention of God. Not that God doesn’t know all things but it’s a way to emphasize their evil that it has come up before him.
Now things get interesting...
But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
First… the obvious thing here is that Jonah does not do what God has asked. He literally does the most opposite thing he could think of. Ninevah is approximately 500 miles north east. Jonah heads west and buys passage to the place that is likely the thing furthest to the west he knows of. We are not sure entirely where Tarshish is I’ve heard it’s on Britain and I’ve heard it’s a port in Spain. Both are about 2000 miles west of where he’s starting from. It’s like me living in Los Angelos hearing from God that I need to give a message to the people of Flagstaff, AZ and then I go down to San Diego to get passage on the slow boat to China. It’s just the farthest journey I could think of. But also notice how much emphasis gets put on Tarshish. It shows up 3 times in this verse. It’s in the first part, the middle part, and the end. You know how we’ve talked about Hebrew structure to point out the important part? This time they didn’t want you to miss it, it’s “HE WENT TO FREAKIN’ TARSHISH Y’ALL!”
Question, did Jonah think he could get away from God? Is that what this verse is telling us? NO
This is a clear indication that Jonah just outright does not want to obey God. This is open rebellion. He didn’t just forget to give the message to them, he rejected God’s command. God’s command was to RISE in verse 2 and in shock he did RISE in verse 3 but to flee.
We don’t know why Jonah does this until chapter 4. But if we pretend we’re reading this for the first time as an ancient Israelite an immediate guess comes to mind. Jonah is scared. The Assyrians are scary people. This message of doom will get me killed. Why not run, worst thing that happens is I die, which doing this will also most certainly cause my death anyway so why not.
Now, we get onto the boat the problems begin. Jonah will learn his lesson here.
But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
The word for threatened implies a bit of planning or consideration as if the ship was determined to break up. The wind and the storm, even the ship does the will of God, in contrast here to Jonah who was not. This part reminds me of the story of Jesus in the boat with the disciples.
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
An early clue to the disciples that Jesus is the LORD. I think verse 5 also helps to make me think of this story with Jesus.
Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
This was the kind of storm that even the veteran mariners were afraid. So afraid they called out to their gods, and did everything earthly they knew of to avoid disaster. St. Augustine said it this way. “Pray like everything depends upon prayer, and work like everything depends upon work”
Jonah in contrast is just asleep in the depth of the boat!
So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
The captain comes and brings in Jonah to the pleading of the gods.