Jonah: Down to the depths

We have spent a lot of time in the New Testament this past year.

I want to start looking at some of the old testament figures, and i figured where better to start than with the Minor Prophets

They are called minor not because they are less important, but because their books are smaller than Isaiah - Jeremiah etc.

There are 12 of them, each who lived during a different time and a had a different message

But they still seem to contain a consistent thread and theme behind each of their teachings

That God is just and will judge sinners, but if they repent from their sin then he is Merciful and gives them a second chance.

Now I am not going to go in the order given in the Bible, but rather I am going to try and stick to a chronological order with these, which will mix them up a bit And I am going to start with Jonah, who was one of the earliest, and his story highlights the main themes that all the rest of the prophets will point to.

Now Jonah was a prophet from the tribe of Zebulun, from the same area that Jesus would grow up in, the area that would be known as Galilee.

In John chapter 7, in an attempt to discredit Jesus, the Pharisees say “Search and see that no Prophet arises from Galilee.”

So the question is did they forget about Jonah?

well no, as we will see, Jonah was not a very good prophet, and is a way he never “arises”

Jonah 1:1–3 ESV

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 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.

God speaks to Jonah and says: Get up and go to Nineveh,

But Jonah gets up and goes down to Joppa, then down into the boat to sail to Tarshish as far away from nineveh as possible

He didn’t arise to go up to Nineveh, he got out of bed to go down to the furthest corner of the world.

God told him to go call out to warn nineveh of coming destruction, and Jonah decides to go the other way, and not give them a warning.

Nineveh was the capital of the assyrian empire, and they were a wicked people and the enemies of Israel and they would try to conquer Israel time and time again

So Jonah an israelite prophet is supposed to go to the capital city of his enemies and preach coming destruction,

that is a one way ticket to torture and execution.

Such as getting skinned alive

So i get why Jonah doesnt really want to head to Nineveh,

But he goes further and tries to run away from God’s presence

and God does not like that

Jonah 1:4–6 ESV

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. 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. 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.”

God sends a storm on the sea, and the sailors are throwing out cargo - which is how they make money, in order to not drown, and jonah had laid down - rebember he was told to get up, so now hes laying down, and sleeping, and the captian wakes him up and tells him to pray

Jonah 1:7–10 ESV

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

They cast lots to see who is in the wrong, and Jonah has to tell them, that he is fleeing from God.

The crew does not like this, because that means God is actively against Jonah here.

Jonah 1:11–17 ESV

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

So what are they to do to appease God, Jonah says “throw me down into the sea” - still heading downward. And they try to save Jonah by turning around and trying to sail back to land, but instead they have to trow Jonah into the sea.

Now in ancvient near eastern Mythology, the Sea is a place of Chaos and monsters, many of the cheif gods of the peoples are those that battle the seas

the God of Jonah is a God who created and rules over the seas, calms the strom as soon as jonah hits the water.

the crew sees this and devote themselves to the one true God.

And Jonah is swallowed by a great fish

Now ancient hebrew does not have a word for whale, and in their minds whales are just really big fish, so he could have been swallowed by a whle

WHat is more interesting is that the Hebrew uses the words “big Fish” rather than the word that usually refers to gargantuan sea creatures, the equivalent of the chaotic sea monster that every other ancient culture feared. THats because in the Hebrew mindset the sea monster is just another big fish, created by God.

Jonah 2 ESV

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Job cries out to the lord from the belly of Sheol - Sheol is the realm of the dead, a word for hell.

Jonah was cast into the waters of death

And God brought him back up from the depths and from the edge of death

Jonah repents and is brought out of the water, because Salvation belongs to the Lord

The Words here for salvation is Yeshua - the Hebrew name of Jesus.

And here in the middle of the book of Jonah we see the hope, that God is able to save even from the depths of Sheol,

And he goes through waters in this experience of death resurrection and salvation.

He is baptized!

Then the Fish spits him out onto dry land.

Jonah 3:1–5 ESV

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, and this time Jonah does what God commands,

and he preaches in this massive city, telling them that destruction is coming in 40 days

40 is a symbol of testing and re-creation.

And The People believe, and begin to fast and pray

Jonah 3:10–4:4 ESV

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

God sees the repentence of Nineveh and relents from judgement,

and Jonah, who knows God is gracious and merciful, reveals that this is why he tried to run away, because in seeing nineveh, his enemies, repent, he knows God will give them another chance, and Jonah wanted the to be destroyed

And He wants to die,

But then God asks him, “Do you have a right to be angry?”

God had given Jonah a second chance, God had been merciful and gracious to Jonah,

and God asks him this question at the very end:

Jonah 4:11 ESV

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Should God not pity the people of this great and terrible city, even if they are the enemies of his people.

God Warned Nineveh of Judgement, and they repented of their ways, and God gave them another chance.

And as we go through the rest of the Minor prophets we will see these themes

God warning the people of their wrong doing - leading to the coming judgement - and calling them to repentence, and sometimes they do, but sometimes they do not, and then judgement comes.

But God has also provided a way to endure his judgement, through Jesus, his Son.

And when Jesus talks about judgement coming he points to Jonah

Matthew 12:38–41 ESV

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Jesus was burried in the earth for three day, just like Noah was in the belly of the fish three days,

And Jesus told people to repent for the kingdom of Heaven is coming

Nineveh repented at the words of Jonah,

Will you repent and come to Jesus, Yeshua, The Salvation that God provides?