Jonah Simplified

Jonah is Probably the Minor Prophet that All of Us are Most Familiar With

We Typically Don’t Study the Minor Prophets Very Much

But This One We’ve Been Talking About Since We Were Little Kids

In Fact, VK Can Tell You About Jonah

She Has a Soft Fish that is Hollow in the Middle

And its Mouth Can Open and Swallow the Jonah Toy

And She Learns About Jonah in Her Bible Class

She Has the Cutest Explanation of the Story of Jonah

We’ll Find that Jonah was Supposed to Go to Nineveh

But Instead, He Goes the Opposite Direction to Tarshish

VK’s Explanation is “Jonah Went Dis Way and Dis Way!”

The Book of Jonah is Different Than the Other Minor Prophets

The Focus of Jonah is Not On the Prophet’s Words But On His Life

Title & Author

The Title of Jonah is After the Books Main Character

But We Don’t Know Who the Author is

Jonah Could Have Written This Story About Himself

Or Possibly Some Anonymous Author Wrote This Story of Jonah

Date

Jonah Prophesied During the Reign of Jeroboam II, King of Israel

2 Kings 14:23–27 (NASB)

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.

For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, which was very bitter; for there was neither bond nor free, nor was there any helper for Israel.

The Lord did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

Something that We Also Learn From This Context…

Is that Jonah was Sent By God to Give Good News of God’s Grace to the King of Israel

That Good News was that God Would Use Assyria to Attack Syria, North of Israel

This Would Allow Israel to Recapture Some of Their Territory that Had Been Taken From Them By Syria

God Showed Grace to a Wicked King and Nation Like Israel…

By Using Assyria as Their Savior

Why is That Important for Us to Know When Studying Jonah?

Because We See Jonah is Just Fine With Delivering a Message of Mercy and Grace to His Own Wicked People

But in the Book of Jonah, He Does Everything He Can to Keep From Delivering a Message of Mercy and Grace to Wicked Assyria

We Don’t Have an Exact Date

But We Know Assyria is Not Yet an Immediate Threat to Israel

But at this Time, Israel is Experiencing Peace and Prosperity Because of God’s Compassion

Purpose

The Primary Purpose of the Book of Jonah is to Cause its Readers to Do Some Self-Examination

God is a Compassionate God

He Loves to Show Mercy to All People

But Jonah was Not Compassionate

He Didn’t Want Any Mercy Shown to His Enemies

We are to Look in the Book of Jonah as if We are Looking into a Mirror

What Do We See?

Do We See Ourselves as Being Like God?

Do We Love to Show Mercy and Compassion to All, Even Our Enemies?

Or Do We See Ourselves as Being Like Jonah

Praising God for His Compassion On Us, But Hating God for Showing Compassion to Others

Key Themes

The Overall Theme is:

Our God is a God of Boundless Compassion For All People, Not Just Us

Other Key Themes Are:

God’s Determination to Get His Message to the Nations

The Need for Repentance From Sin

Including the Sins of Self-Centeredness and Hypocrisy

The Full Assurance that God Forgives All Those Who Repent

Genre

Scholars Debate the Genre of Jonah

Some Believe it is Allegorical

Using Fictional Figures to Symbolize Some Other Reality

Jonah Being the Symbol of Israel in its Refusal to Carry Out God’s Mission to the Nations

But We Already Know that the Bible Presents Jonah as an Actual Historical Prophet

Some Believe it is a Parable

A Story to Teach Believers Not to Be Like Jonah

But Parables are Also Based Upon Fictional Characters

The Book of Jonah is Just Like the Prophetic Narratives of Elijah and Elisha in 1 & 2 Kings

The Events in the Lives of Elijah and Elisha are Counted as Historical Events

There’s No Reason to Believe Jonah is Not a Historical Prophetic Narrative as Well

But Jonah is Different in that it is Not Just a Historical Story

It is Didactic in Nature

It is a Story Told for the Purpose of Teaching the Reader Key Lessons

Literary Features

Jonah as a Book is a Literary Masterpiece

It is Simple Enough for a Child to Understand it

But at the Same Time it Has an Amazing Degree of Literary Sophistication

It Has Structure

We’ll See That When We Look at the Outline in Just a Minute

It Has Humor and Hyperbole

We are Meant to Laugh When Reading Jonah

The Things that Happen are So Outlandish that it is Meant to Bring Out a Chuckle

Example: After the Preaching of Jonah to Nineveh, Even the Animals are Told to Fast and Wear Sackcloth

It Has Irony

It Has Double Entendre

A Word or Phrase that is Meant to Have 2 Interpretations/Meanings

Example: Look at Jonah’s Message

Jonah 3:4 (NASB)

Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

The Word for “Overthrown” Could Also Be Translated:

“Overturned”, “Changed”, “Transformed”

Nineveh Would Be Overturned, Changed, and Transformed…

But Not in the Way Jonah Hoped

They Would Be Changed and Transformed, Not By Destruction…

But By Repentance

The Main Category for the Book is Satire

Satire is the Use of Humor, Irony, Exaggeration, or Ridicule to Expose and Criticize Someone’s Non-Sensical Actions

Or as Google’s Definition Put it…Stupidity

Jonah is Obviously the One in the Story We are Meant to Laugh at and Ridicule…

Because of His Non-Sensical Decisions, Bigotry, and Ways of Thinking

2 Other Sylistic Techniques in the Book are:

The Giantesque Motif Throughout the Story

There is a Giant Fish that Swallows Jonah

Nineveh is Described as a Giant City that Takes 3 Days to Walk Through

Jonah’s Short Little Message Caused a Giant Repentance Throughout the Entire City

A Pervasive Irony Throughout the Story

The Person We’d Expect to Be the Good Guy is Worst Guy in the Story

The People We’d Expect to Be the Bad Guys (Pagan Sailors & Assyrians) Worship God

He Tries to Run From the God of Land and Sea By Crossing the Sea

It’s Easy to Read the Short Book of Jonah and Enjoy it

But Knowing All of These Fascinating Features Helps Us to Enjoy it Even More

This is Not Just the Telling of a Historical Event

It is a Carefully Constructed Tale of a Historical Event that is Meant to Be Enjoyable and Teach Us Very Important Lessons

Outline

The Book of Jonah is Structured in Parallel Format

A - Jonah’s Commission and Flight (1:1-3)

B - Jonah and the Pagan Sailors (1:4-16)

C - Jonah’s Grateful Prayer (1:17-2:10)

A’ - Jonah’s Recommission and Compliance (3:1-3a)

B’ - Jonah and the Pagan Ninevites (3:3b-10)

C’ - Jonah’s Angry Prayer (4:1-4)

D - Jonah’s Lesson About Compassion (4:5-11)

Jonah in the New Testament

Jesus Mentions Jonah

Matthew 12:38–41 (NASB)

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;

for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

“The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

The Pharisees Were Trying to Get a Miraculous Sign Out of Jesus

But He Told Them They Would Receive the Sign of Jonah

Just as Jonah was Buried in the Fishes Belly for 3 Days and Night…

Jesus Would Be Buried in the Earth 3 Days and Nights

Jesus’ Resurrection Would Be Their Sign

Even Nineveh in Jonah’s Day Will Be Saved in the Day of Judgement…

But the “Righteous” Jews of Jesus’ Day Will Be Lost

The Ninevites Believed the Sign and Repented

The Pharisees Refused to Believe the Sign

Another Place We See Jonah, But Where He Isn’t Mentioned is in the Life of Peter

Like Jonah, Peter Had a Temper and Acted in Foolish Ways

In Acts 10, Peter is in a Town Called Joppa

Jonah 1:3 (NASB)

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

In Joppa, God Called Peter to Take a Message of Grace to a Gentile

Peter was Reluctant at First

But God Sent a Vision 3 Times to Him

In Joppa, God Called Jonah to Take a Message of Grace to a Gentile Nation

Jonna was Reluctant at First

But God Put Him in a Fish’s Belly for 3 Days and Nights

In Both Cases, Gentiles Were Saved and the Jewish Messengers Learned a Lesson:

That God is Not Just the God of the Jews, But Also of the Gentiles

Active Reading

Map of Jonah’s Travels