Jonah-quotes/notes(May 18, 2025)

Jay Sklar:

whether historical narrative or parable, we do well to read Jonah with hearts attentive to what the Lord wants to teach his people through this book.

Jonah is not against the Lord showing such compassionate grace; he is against the Lord showing such compassionate grace to those outside the Israelite nation.

Thomas R. Schreiner, The King in His Beauty (pg 408-409)

The book of Jonah takes us in a different direction. Reading the prophecies of judgement upon the wicked could sow in Israel a wrong understanding. So it is significant that Jonah comes after Obadiah, correcting a false conclusion that might be drawn from Obadiah. After all, the promise of Abraham was that the nations would be blessed through him, and we have seen in the prophets many examples of Israel being judged for its own wickedness. There is no inherent delight in the judgement of those who give themselves to wickedness. Jonah, in wanting to see Nineveh destroyed, represents a natural inclination in Israel, but it is an inclination that must be repudiated. As a reading of the entire book demonstrates, Yahweh’s reason for calling Jonah to proclaim judgement upon Nineveh was so that Nineveh would repent.

What he should have seen, and , as the preservation of the book suggests, eventually did see, is that Yahweh’s graciousness to him was no different from his graciousness to Nineveh. As Childs says, ‘Jonah is thankful for his own deliverance, but resentful of Nineveh’s inclusion within the mercy which has always been restricted to Israel.’

We learn from Nahum that Yahweh is a mighty and just king who inflicts righteous judgement upon those who persist in evil, but Jonah reminds readers that Yahweh is good, that he longs to save, and that his salvation extends to the ends of the earth. ‘The final form of the story does seek to address the issue of God’s salvation being extended to the nations as well as to Israel. Jonah and all the people of God should rejoice in such a salvation.

on Assyria:

Jay Sklar: Few Israelites would have doubted Nineveh’s evil was great. Not only were its people idolators, but the Assyrians were also known for their brutality. Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC), an Assyrian king who reigned in the century before Jonah, made this boast after defeating a city: “I felled 3,000 of their fighting men with the sword . . . I captured many troops alive: I cut off of some their arms [and] hands; I cut off of others their noses, ears, [and] extremities. I gouged out the eyes of many troops. I made one pile of the living [and] one of heads. I hung their heads on trees around the city.”3 Israelites would thus not be surprised to hear that an Assyrian city like Nineveh was guilty of great wrong.

Jonah & Micah Reasons for Jonah’s Flight

To understand Jonah’s situation, Boice asks us to imagine “the word of the Lord coming to a Jew who lived in New York during World War II, telling him to go to Berlin to preach to Nazi Germany.” We should not be surprised if such a Jew went west to San Francisco instead, in order to board a boat headed to Hong Kong, just as Jonah fled for Tarshish.