Jonah 1:3-9
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Review
The book of Jonah is one of the most complex writings in all of Scripture!
To talk about Jonah is to talk about the Whole of the Hebrew Bible. In other words, Jonah is a microcosm of the entire Hebrew Scriptures.
Hebrew Hyperlinks
Hebrew Hyperlinks
Every page, nearly every paragraph of the Hebrew Bible contains hyperlinks to other stories in the Hebrew Bible. This is done in a number of ways.
Repeated words
Odd/rare words/phrases
Place names
Quotes
Literary form (Chiasm)
As we come across each of these in the text, we’ll address them (as well as others) so that hopefully we will have a better understanding of not only the truth of God revealed in Jonah, but a better understanding of the story of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, and have the skills to find these in other stories of the Bible.
1 And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Get up! Go to the great city Nineveh and cry out against her, because their evil has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. And he went down to Joppa and found a merchant ship going to Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
…evil has come up before me.
…evil has come up before me.
This phrase connects into an important biblical design pattern of the veil human city whose violence forms an outcry that rises up to God.
Remember the Cain & Abel connection from last week?
Who founded the first city? Cain!
Who founded Nineveh? Nimrod, the violent descendent of Cain!
We have another connection to Cain & Abel this week. This idea of violence, evil, and wickedness crying out to God!
10 And he said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth.
20 Then Yahweh said, “Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very serious,
21 I will go down and I will see. Have they done altogether according to its cry of distress which has come to me? If not, I will know.”
23 And then during those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the work, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the work went up to God.
In each of these stories, God raises up a deliverer/intercessor who either:
confronts the evil-doers and calls them to repent (Moses in Egypt)
an intercessor who will plead with God for mercy on behalf of the wicked (Noah’s sacrifice after the flood, Abraham’s pleading for Sodom & Gomorrah).
Jonah doesn’t do this!
What does Jonah do?
3 But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. And he went down to Joppa and found a merchant ship going to Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
“ …from before the face of Yahweh”
“ …from before the face of Yahweh”
This phrase appears 16 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let’s look at the first time. After Abel’s blood cries out to Yahweh, Cain is exiled to the east.
16 And Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh, and he settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
There is a huge parallel between Genesis 4 and Cain’s actions, and Jonah 4 and Jonah’s actions. These echo throughout the entire story.
Tarshish
Tarshish
4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 From these the coastland peoples spread out through their lands, each according to his own language by their own families, in their nations.
coastland or maritime peoples. They were sea-going peoples.
22 For the fleet of Tarshish belonged to the king and was on the sea with the fleet of Hiram; once every three years the fleet of Tarshish used to come carrying gold and silver, ivory, apes, and baboons.
These are Edenic items. Ezekiel associates these items with what made Eden a beautiful place.
What we find out with Solomon, and now with Jonah that Tarshish and their ships are what we use to source our own Eden apart from God.
When people want to grasp Eden apart from God, Tarshish is almost always involved.
So what does God think about Tarshish?
12 For there is a day for Yahweh of hosts against all of the proud and the lofty and against all that is lifted up and humble,
13 and against all the lofty and lifted up cedars of Lebanon, and against all the large trees of Bashan,
14 and against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty hills,
15 and against every kind of high tower, and against every kind of fortified wall,
16 and against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the ships of desire.
1 The oracle of Tyre: Wail, ships of Tarshish, for the house is destroyed so that no one can enter; it is announced to them from the land of Cyprus.
4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.
8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever.
Why did Jonah run away?
Why did Jonah run away?
What was Jonah running toward?
What was Jonah running toward?
4 And Yahweh hurled a great wind upon the sea, and it was a great storm on the sea, and the merchant ship was in danger of breaking up.
5 And the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they threw the contents that were in the merchant ship into the sea to lighten it for them. And meanwhile Jonah went down into the hold of the vessel and lay down and fell asleep.
6 And the captain of the ship approached him and said to him, “Why are you sound asleep? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps your god will take notice of us and we won’t perish!”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots so that we may know on whose account this disaster has come on us!” And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 So they said to him, “Please tell us whoever is responsible that this disaster has come upon us! What is your occupation? And from where do you come? What is your country? And from which people are you?”
9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Other prophets who resisted?
Other prophets who resisted?
What we will begin to notice is that Jonah becomes this caricature of a prophet ratcheted up to 11 on the absurdity scale. He is an exaggeration of everything the other prophets are, and in that exaggeration it’s easy to see our own flaws.
Have you ever tried to achieve your own “Eden” apart from God?
Have you ever run away from the calling God placed on you?
Have you ever found yourself the least godly person in a room full of godless people?