Jonah-Chapter 1
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Before we read chapter one of Jonah, I want to share a story with you all.
In 1890, a New Yorker named Eugene Schieffelin took his intense love of Shakespeare’s Henry VI to the next level.
Most Shakespeare fanatics channel their interest by going to see performances of the plays, meticulously analyzing them, or reading everything they can about the playwright’s life. Schieffelin wanted more; he wanted to look out his window and see the same kind of birds in the sky that Shakespeare had seen.
Inspired by a mention of starlings in Henry VI, Schieffelin released 100 of the non-native birds in Central Park over two years. (He wasn’t acting alone – he had the support of scientists and the American Acclimatization Society.) We can imagine him watching the starlings flutter off into the park and hoping for them to survive and maybe breed. Which they did. In fact, the birds didn’t just survive; they thrived and bred like weeds.
Unfortunately, Schieffelin’s plan worked too well. Far, far too well. The starlings multiplied exponentially, spreading across America at an astonishing rate. Today, we don’t even know how many of them live in the U.S., with official estimates ranging from 45 million to 200 million. Most, if not all, of them are descended from Schieffelin’s initial 100 birds. The problem is that as an alien species, the starlings wreak havoc because they were introduced into an ecosystem they were not naturally part of and the local species had (and still have) no defense against them.
The whole reason I share this story with you is that sometimes there are unintended costs in our calculated decisions. Our actions can deeply impact the lives of those around us.
The book of Jonah tells of how one decision will affect many.
Let’s read Chapter 1 of Jonah.
1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold.
6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit.
8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”
9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned.
11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”
12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”
13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it.
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”
15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!
16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.
17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.
Let’s get some quick background:
The northern Iraqi city of Mosul sits on the western bank of the River Tigris. Across the river on the opposite bank lie two mounds. These mounds mark ancient Nineveh, much of which is buried beneath them. Nineveh was once a glorious city, the capital of Assyria and center of a proud and militaristic empire.
Nineveh was a major city of the Assyrians, a cruel and warlike people who were longtime enemies of Israel. Assyrian artwork emphasizes war, including scenes of execution, impalement, flaying the skin off prisoners, and beheadings. This explains Jonah’s reluctance to preach to the infamous city of Nineveh.
But now all that remains are these ruins.
Another piece to share with each of you is the continued debate as to whether the book of Jonah is a parable or is it history.
Five considerations suggest taking the book of Jonah as genuine history.
First, Jonah was a real historical figure, said to be a prophet in 2 Kings 14:25.
25 He restored Israel’s border from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word the Lord, the God of Israel, had spoken through his servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher.
The book of Jonah portrays Jonah as a flawed character. Were the book of Jonah a piece of fiction, it would be guilty of slander, saying something derogatory and untrue about a real person who is elsewhere presented positively.
Second, Jonah is part of the collection of twelve Minor Prophets. All the other books of this collection convey prophecies by genuine, historical prophets. By placing Jonah in this collection, the compiler of the Minor Prophets signaled that he considered Jonah to be an historical account.
Third, the miracles in Jonah are not impossible for the God of the Bible.
Fourth, Jesus in Matthew 12:39–41 and Luke 11:29–32 spoke of Jonah being in the fish and preaching in Nineveh as if these were real events. In particular, Jesus’s statement that “the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching” makes little sense if the people of Nineveh never actually repented due to Jonah’s preaching. Unless one is willing to affirm that Jesus was wrong, it is best to say that the book of Jonah is historical.
29 As the crowds were increasing, he began saying, “This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
31 The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look—something greater than Solomon is here.
32 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and look—something greater than Jonah is here.
Finally, the historical difficulties in Jonah can largely be resolved.
Friends, Kerry and I feel there is little reason to treat it any differently from the way in which the book itself is presented to us—as sober history. Certainly that is how the Lord himself took it.
So let’s continue....
Jonah means ‘dove’.
We usually think of a dove as a symbol of peace. Bearing in mind how desperate Jonah was to watch Nineveh receive the devastating punishment he felt she so richly deserved (4:5), he seems more of a hawk than a dove. But a dove is also a home-loving bird, and in that respect Jonah was well suited to his name. More than anything he loved his own nation and people. The trouble was that it excluded everyone else. This fierce and narrow nationalism is the key to his stubborn disobedience. It is also the character trait that God addresses throughout the book.
Let’s again look at the first 3 verses:
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”
3 Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.
The Word of the Lord
Get Up! Go to the Great City.
Johan got up to “flee” to Tarshish
He went Down to Joppa
Went Down into it to go with them to Tarshish
Word of the Lord
The book opens with the Lord directing Jonah to get up. Nineveh is over 600 miles away, but its inhabitants must hear what God wants to say to them. The Lord could use means other than people, but he chooses not to do so. He could also use methods other than preaching, but again he chooses not to do so. So Jonah is directed to go and preach against the city. He is hardly what you would call an outstanding example as a prophet. Surely there were better men God could have raised up and used? Indeed, yes. But the Lord is determined not only that Nineveh is to hear his word through human lips, but also through the lips of a flawed and failing believer like Jonah. The Lord has his own plans for this important mission, and personnel are at the heart of it
Get Up! Go to the Great City
God’s word to Jonah is to ‘get up and go’. Is there an implied criticism here? Is he idling away his time when he should be on his feet already? Certainly the ship’s captain later on had cause to think so in verse 6. In any event the Lord is calling him to immediate service. Jonah is to go to Nineveh and he is to go now.
Nineveh was great in size, great in power and great in military prowess. There were around five times as many people living there as lived in Jerusalem. A more impressive city could not be found. From God’s perspective she was also great in wickedness. It was this which literally came up before his face. The God who sees all, hears all and understands all, also smells all. And Nineveh stank.
The reaction of the Lord to such wickedness was unwavering. He was against it. Many will come to the book of Jonah and have a fairly good idea as to how things will turn out. They know beforehand that Nineveh will repent of her wickedness and that the Lord will turn from the judgement he had promised. This is set out for us in chapter 3. But we should not let prior knowledge deflect us from grasping verse 2 in its stark awfulness.
In reality Nineveh was against the Lord, whether she realized it or not. That in itself was dangerous enough. But their situation was actually far worse—the Lord was against them. Notice that it is not a case of ‘hating the sin but loving the sinner’. The Lord is certainly against the wickedness of Nineveh, but he is also against Nineveh herself—the perpetrator of the sin.
Nonetheless, even in these bleak words, there is a strong ray of hope. Forty is often the period of testing (the number of years the Israelites spent in the wilderness, the number of days the Lord Jesus Christ was tested, and so on). Here was a period of testing for the Ninevites—would they heed what God said through Jonah and turn from their wicked ways?
As well as that, Jonah’s task was not just foretelling the future. If the destruction of Nineveh had been written in concrete without any chance of being revoked, what was the point of sending someone to tell them? If there was nothing the people of Nineveh could do to avoid the predicted disaster, telling them would be mockery rather than a warning. Also, what would it say of the character of God? As it was, Jonah knew God better than that (4:2).
Johan got up to “flee” to Tarshish
He went Down to Joppa
Went Down into it to go with them to Tarshish
The word flee in Hebrew is bah RACK. Bahrach often portrays stealthy flight like a slave running away. It is deceptive and hidden.
Having been told to get up, Jonah gets up. But instead of going north and east, he chooses west. He does not argue with God about the mission; he simply runs from it.
It is an in-your-face act of disobedience. Why? It was not because he was frightened, even though he had good reason to be. Neither did he fear ridicule, although a lone figure shouting out that Nineveh, with its massive walls and military might, was about to be overthrown would certainly invite it.
No, Jonah’s problem was the message itself. God told him to say, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned’ (3:4). He was perfectly comfortable with prophesying judgement and destruction. In fact he warmed to it. But he choked on the forty days. It meant that there was just a possibility that God could be persuaded to relent. As we will see his fears would be realized.
So he buys his one-way ticket and runs from the Lord—or at least tries to. You would have thought Jonah ought to have known that nobody can ever escape from God. Indeed he did know it. Telling the sailors about fearing the Lord, the God of heaven who has made the sea and the dry land in verse 9 shows that at one level he believed it.
But sin warps the thinking. What he knew in his head was distorted by a mind set on disobedience. He was also running from before the face of the Lord—the place of service.
It was a case of resigning his calling.
But as Jonah makes his way to the dock at Joppa, there was probably very little hint of what was to come. The day may have dawned bright and sunny. Everything seems to work out well: a ship is there; it happens to be going just where Jonah is headed and Jonah has the right money. There is even a possibility that he may have financed the entire voyage. The thought of leaving family and friends was perhaps submerged beneath the exciting prospects of a new life beckoning.
As the ship left port, conditions for Jonah, both within and without, were set to change.
Question:
Question:
It is tempting to think that circumstances fitting together well proves that a course of action must be the will of God. Why would Jonah have been wrong to have reached such a conclusion when everything worked together to help him run away?
And so Jonah sails for Tarshish. Commentators speculate about where Tarshish might be and usually suggest a destination in southern Spain. Since he never got there it hardly matters now.
Of greater significance is the Tarshish of Jonah’s dreams—the place where he sought peace and fulfilment away from the presence and service of the Lord. In God’s grace he failed to arrive. The reality is that Tarshish does not exist; it is only the place of disobedient dreams
Question:
Question:
Are there situations from which we wish to run? Are we harboring dreams of our own little Tarshish—a place where we disengage from the Christian battle or the place of service? Do we imagine it to be a place of peace and rest? If so, what does the message of Jonah have to say?
Let’s continue in verses 4-16
So here we are, the original language continues with this “downward” motion of Jonah.
In 1:3 he goes down to Joppa and then down to the ship. In 1:5 he goes down into the hold and, finally, in 2:6 he sinks down into death itself.
Not so much a record of his geographical location, this is a chart of his moral decline.
What may have begun as a small hesitant step as he set off for Joppa has quickened into a purposeful stride.
God sends a storm to reroute Jonah; however, caught in the crosshairs, the weathered crew becomes so frightened that they begin to throw the cargo overboard, hoping to withstand the waves (v. 5).
5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.
Jonah’s rebellion has now cost these unsuspecting sailors their precious goods—and threatens their very lives.
Remember what I read about Eugene Schieffelin and the starlings?
Many times, our rebellion against God proves devastating for others around us—our friends, family, coworkers, neighbors.
In the midst of this turmoil Jonah is fast asleep, hiding in the belly of the ship (v. 5). When his part in the storm is revealed through the casting of lots, Jonah finally begins to admit to his true identity and calling (vv. 7, 9–10).
7 “Come on!” the sailors said to each other. “Let’s cast lots. Then we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we’re in.” So they cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah.
9 He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord’s presence because he had told them.
Jonah then offers his life in substitute for the safety of the crew (v. 12).
12 He answered them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it will calm down for you, for I know that I’m to blame for this great storm that is against you.”
In this, the redemptive nature of this narrative begins to emerge. Though reluctantly, Jonah begins to proclaim the true nature, power, and intention of his God.
The storm, though terrifying and costly, is an act of God’s grace.
He commands the seas, which obediently confound the reluctant prophet from attempted abdication of his calling.
Think on this...God often allows storms into our lives in order to redirect our course. However, his actions are always corrective, never punitive.
Question:
Question:
When storms come our way, how can we look at them from a divine perspective? What should we ask from God in them?
We must never forget; Jesus paid the full price for all our rebellion against God.
There is no punishment left for us—only grace, forgiveness, and redemption.
We can rest assured that the storms God allows our way are always for our good and His purpose.
Let’s look at verse 14…
14 So they called out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, don’t let us perish because of this man’s life, and don’t charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.”
Before they commit the deed, they commit themselves to prayer. When the storm first broke in verse 5 we find them desperately crying out to their pagan idols. As the events of the chapter have unfolded, those idols have been abandoned. It is Jonah’s God to whom they now pray.
They plead with the Lord not to blame them for what they are about to do—take Jonah’s life.
Here’s the irony that struck me...Usually we ask forgiveness after sinning. Here the request is ahead of time.
With no other options the sailors reluctantly throw Jonah overboard and immediately the seas become calm.
Taking Jonah and throwing him overboard may have been all that was left to the sailors, but it was still an act of faith.
Seriously, this is huge...There could be no going back now.
Not only were they casting Jonah into the deep, but they were casting themselves upon God at the same time.
There must have been immense anxiety among them as they tossed Jonah over the side.
Would God answer their prayer not to hold them accountable for Jonah’s life?
They did not have to wait long. The raging sea grew calm the instant Jonah hit the water.
Throughout chapter 1 the fear of the sailors has grown.
It is a steady progression, not merely in intensity but in the focus of its direction.
In verse 5 they are afraid at the storm.
In verse 10 they are terrified at their plight as they realize from Jonah’s answer that, in the storm, they have come face to face with Jehovah.
But at the point where the sea becomes as smooth as glass and it would appear the crisis is over, they are seized with a very great fear.
This time it is for the Lord Himself.
They are not seeking something from Him; they are seeking Him.
Without apparently waiting until the ship finally limps home, they offer a sacrifice and make their vows.
The vows look ahead to what is to come as they promise to serve the Lord.
Their experience is nothing less than a wholehearted conversion, having abandoned their idols during the course of the storm, and sought the face of Jehovah as the turbulent waters are subdued.
Jonah had unintentionally converted and entire crew of Gentile sailors.
Question:
Question:
Consider the poor and compromised example of obedience and service that Jonah set before the sailors. Why then were they were still drawn to the God Jonah purported to serve?
Closing
Closing
In Closing, let’s each take time this week to meditate and ponder this lesson.
How is God speaking to you right now?
Consider this week the questions we posed:
-Are you manipulating God’s direction for your life, His commands to you, for your own agenda and calling it His Will?
-What situations are in your life that you are choosing to run from. Can you identify your Tarshish?
-How are you seeking God during the “storms” in your life?
-Are you reflecting Christ’s genuine love to those who do not know Him?
**Remember Eugene Schieffelin - Our actions can deeply impact the lives of those around us.
Next week, we’ll read and apply God’s love of redirecting our thoughts and actions.
Let’s pray…
Let’s pray…
Next Week.
Next Week.
Please read Chapter 2 of Jonah, Psalm 18, Matthew 12:38-41.