Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. Say the name “Jonah,” and most people think of a storm at sea and a prophet in the belly of a whale. With such an exciting plot, readers can easily miss the central point of the story, the reason for Jonah’s misadventures in the first place: He is rebelling against God’s mercy toward a cruel enemy.
Throughout its history Israel lived in fear of vast empires such as Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Jonah offers a true-life study of the difficulty in following Matthew 5:44 where Jesus commands us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. Commanded by God to preach against the city of Nineveh (Jonah 1:2), Jonah is shocked. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, an empire notorious for its cruelty. The Assyrians were known for their “scorched earth” policy. Typically, after destroying an enemy’s fields and cities, they would slaughter the conquered peoples or hammer iron hooks through their noses or lower lips and lead them away as slaves. Jonah wanted no part in preaching to these people and giving them a chance at repentance.
Most people know about Jonah’s flight and his encounter with a giant fish, but chapters 3-4 fill in the lesser-known details. The reluctant prophet has run away in fear that God will forgive His archenemies. And that is exactly what happens. Jonah’s simple announcement of judgment sparks a revival among the pagans of Nineveh and they repent. In fact, the city repents with an eagerness that God’s own people often lack. Jesus will later use Nineveh as an example of repentance to the unrepentant Judeans of His day (Matthew 12:41).
Most preachers would be delighted when Godless people accept God’s Word and repent, but not Jonah. In Jonah 4 he admits that he has suspected God’s compassion towards the Ninevites all along. He cannot trust God – cannot, that is, trust God to punish the Ninevites the way Jonah feels they should be punished. In other words, Jonah cannot trust God to get His will in line with Jonah’s will. The book ends with a pointed question: Jonah 4:11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left…
If you’ve ever thought that some people are beyond hope – so evil that they are incapable of change – the book of Jonah may upset your thinking. Consider murderers, rapists, drug lords, or terrorists; it’s not unnatural to wish that such violent, hate-filled individuals would be punished. But the book of Jonah shows us that God wants to extend His grace and mercy to even the worst of people. 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Jonah 1:1-2 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” Despite their wickedness,God sends Jonah on a mission to warn the Ninevites saying in Jonah 3:4, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” At first blush, this message sounds simple and sweet, yet bleak. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord (Jonah 1:3). Instead of doing what God said Jonah runs to Tarshish, the opposite direction from Nineveh.
Why did Jonah run from God? Perhaps he was afraid of the wicked Ninevites – known for their ruthless cruelty. But he may also have been influenced by his own prejudice and wanted God to favor Israel alone. In other words he wanted mercy for his people and justice for everyone else (are we like that sometimes?). But what Jonah was really doing was attempting to flee from the presence of the Lord. As we will see Jonah’s attempt failed miserably because as Psalm 139:7 reminds us “Where can I go from your Spirit?Where can I flee from your presence?”
As Jonah would find out there was no place he could go to escape the Lord’s presence. Jonah 1:17 tells us that the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. This was symbolic of Jesus and the tomb and Jesus mentions this in Matthew 12:40.
Jonah 2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. The next 8 verses record this prayer and in Jonah 2:10 the Lord commands the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land. In Jonah 3, Jonah obeys God’s command (Jonah 3:3), and finally delivers the message to Nineveh. Amazingly, the Ninevites repent, and God relents. Slide 11 Jonah 3:5 The Ninevites believed God. But how does Jonah respond? You would think that a preacher of the Word would rejoice, but that wasn’t the case.
Jonah 4:1 tells us the opposite: “But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.” Why was Jonah angry? The next verse gives us the answer: Jonah 4:2 …Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Jonah was angry because God forgave them. Jonah didn’t run because he feared the Ninevites killing him; he feared God forgiving them. For Jonah, Nineveh didn’t represent danger to his body as much as his will. In other words Jonah wanted justice for them and mercy for himself, he wanted God to get His will in line with Jonah’s. Do we have this problem today?
The book of Jonah has a lot to teach us and today we are going to focus on 5 things we can take and apply to our lives today. (1) Jonah points to Jesus; (2) Have a proper view of God; (3) God’s will is sovereign; (4) You cannot run from God; and (5) The message is simple.
1. Jonah points to Jesus. The New Testament picks up on Jonah as a type of Christ who illustrates Jesus going down and being swallowed by death before being raised up to life demonstrating victory over the chaos that separates man from God. Jonah was all but dead when he was thrown into the sea, but God gave him a second chance at life. Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ…
Jonah and Jesus gave their lives to save sinners. Jonah 1:12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Jonah argued that by sacrificing him the storm would subside and the sailors would be saved. Of course, the irony of ironies is that Jonah’s running from God’s will to save those sinful Ninevites actually led to the salvation of even more Gentiles—the sailors he hoped would help him escape God.
Contrasting Jonah with Jesus helps us exalt Christ. Jonah’s request to be thrown into the sea appears almost suicidal, and nothing leads us to think that his death wish pictures a surrendering to the will of God to preach to the Ninevites. In fact, his depression in response to the Ninevites repentance confirms that while Jonah’s heart toward God may have changed in Jonah 2, he didn’t fully embrace God’s will from his heart.
Matthew 12:39-41 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. Three days after His death on the cross Jesus came back to life, just as Jonah was given a new chance at life after three days in the belly of a fish (Jonah 1:17). In contrast to the Ninevites, pagan Gentiles who repented at the preaching of God’s Word from someone who really did not want them to; when Jesus came to His people, God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, they refused to repent. Jesus used the Ninevites repentance as an example to those in His day who were resistant to the truth of God’s Word.
Of course, Jesus is greater than Jonah (Matthew 12:41). The sea Jonah faced looks so small as we consider Jesus standing on the shore looking out upon the seemingly unending sea of God’s wrath, as we consider him in the Garden of Gethsemane when he asked if this cup might be removed from his lips even as he proclaimed, “yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
2. We need to have a proper view of God? What was Jonah’s view of the Lord? Jonah 2:7-9 “When my life was ebbing away,I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you,to your holy temple. 8 “Those who cling to worthless idolsturn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good.I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” Jonah had a somewhat deficient view of God and His presence. The prevailing opinion among many Israelites in Jonah’s time was that God was somehow restricted to the temple in Jerusalem or, at most, to the territory of Israel. At the same time, however, Jonah had begun to envision a broader scope to God’s power: He knew God’s grace was available to idol worshipers who turned from their idols (verse 8), and he knew that salvation came from the Lord (verse 9). Though the Israelites had a keen sense of being God’s chosen people and evidently wanted to keep God all to themselves, Jonah was beginning to discover that God is the God of all peoples. Jonah found God in the belly of a fish and again later in a wicked, pagan city – in both cases far from the “holy land” of ancient Israel. Jonah learned that God wanted to make Himself known to all people everywhere – even the despised Ninevites. What is your view of God?
3. Jonah shows us there is nowhere to retreat from God. In Psalm 139:7, David asks God: “Where shall I flee from your presence?” Jonah answers David’s question in a vivid, punctuated fashion. God speaks and Jonah runs away. As he runs, God runs alongside him, even providing a boat to help him think he’s escaped. But just to highlight that God’s not impressed by how hard and how far Jonah ran, God awakens him from his victory nap only to carry him to the utter depths of the sea, as deep as the realm of the dead (Jonah 2:2).
There, Jonah discovers his flight was booked by God; God carried him to the depths so he’d learn that he can’t escape the presence of God. God was still there; pursuing him preparing him, and sending him to do His will, not Jonah’s will. God never lost sight of his prophet, and God never lost sight of Nineveh, the wicked Assyrian city that Jonah was sent to preach to.
Does God always pursue those who run from Him? The short answer is no. Apparently in Jonah’s case, God had a particular mission in mind for a particular person. Thus God hounded Jonah until the reluctant prophet obeyed. In other cases, God may not pursue those who run (though He still is aware of everything we do and think), perhaps because He knows that running away will eventually result in their coming back to Him. For instance, in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, the father allowed the son to leave home. Though the father did not chase after him, the hardships of the son’s own choices later brought him to his senses and caused him to return home to his father (Luke 15:11-32). Whether by pursuing someone or choosing not to, God’s goal is the same: He works to firmly, lovingly reach out to those who run from Him.
4. Jonah confronts all of us with God’s sovereign will. In other words we better focus on getting our will in line with God’s will. Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. The pattern of this world is to have others get in line with what we want, so we need to change the way we think. If we are going to get in line with God’s will we have to allow Him to transform us through humbly submitting to His Word. James 1:21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
The book of Jonah reveals a lot about God’s will. Consider how different this is from Jonah himself. God said go but Jonah said no. Jonah was conforming to the ways of his world. God seeks the good of his enemies while Jonah seeks their destruction. Jonah functions as the inverse of Isaiah, the prophet who tells God in Isaiah 6 “Here am I; send me” and God responds by telling him no one will listen. Here, God sends Jonah to those who seem furthest from God. Jonah preaches, the wicked repent, God relents, and Jonah gets mad? Jonah didn’t run due to his fear of Nineveh, but his hatred of them. They were cruel and wicked and Jonah saw them as less than human. In short, Jonah wasn’t in line with the sovereign will of God. He didn’t view others with the heart that God did. Jonah anticipated God’s mercy, and he hated it. The book of Jonah asks us if our will is truly in line with God’s will.
A true follower of God will eagerly seek to understand the will of God and get their will in line with God’s will. However this was not the case with Jonah. Jonah wanted God to get His will in line with Jonah’s will. God reveals his will to Jonah, and he runs away from it, not after it. While Jonah’s message and mission was unique, the ebb and flow of his wrestling with the clearly revealed will of God is common to all of us. One of the striking contrasts in this book is the dichotomy between how Jonah responds to God’s Word, and the way that the Ninevites respond. Jonah runs, but Nineveh repents. Do we gladly anticipate God saving people quite different from us, even our enemies, that he might glorify himself with an open display of his grace and mercy? 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God was patient with the people of Nineveh, He is patient with you and me.
Likewise we need to be patient with others, even the wicked because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23. God did not want any of them to perish and God has not changed. He sent Jonah with a message. What exactly was that message that led the people of Nineveh to repent?
5. The message is simple. Jonah 1:2 Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” God told Jonah to go and preach against the wickedness. He did not tell Jonah to go and start a support group, He did not tell Jonah to go and hold a VBS, he did not tell Jonah to go and plan a “Big Event” Sunday, He didn’t say go to Nineveh and organize a block party and have fun and maybe some people will accept God’s Word. No, He told Jonah to go and preach against the wickedness because it isn’t about gimmicks it is about truth. Now we don’t have a complete transcript of all that Jonah preached but we have a summary in Jonah 3:4 “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”. The message was simple: repent or perish. It’s basically the same thing Jesus preached to His own people in Luke 13:1-5. But unless you repent, you too will all perish (Luke 13:3, 5). How did the people of Nineveh respond to someone preaching against them? Jonah 3:5 says “The Ninevites believed God.” Their belief led to repentance and that repentance was evident by their actions (read Jonah 3:5-9). Like John the Baptist told the Judeans in Matthew 3:8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and this is what the Ninevites did. And what did God do? Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
It’s the same God; He does not change (Malachi 3:6). God was not tolerant of their sin but he was patient with them not wanting anyone to perish. Like the people of Nineveh, people today are destined to perish if they do not repent and believe God and submit to His ways that work. Those who are living in opposition to God that fail to repent have only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God (Hebrews 10:27). This is what will happen to all who do not repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. That’s the message, pure and simple.
As we leave today let us focus on Christ, let’s get a proper view of whom God is. He does not tolerate sin but he is patient and compassionate with everyone. Don’t try and flee from God and His ways that work, but instead seek to get your will in line with God’s will. And remember, the message of salvation is pretty simple: Repent or perish. Acts 2:38 does not just say be baptized it says Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins… God’s Word goes on to say in Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. Those who repented were baptized (they produced fruit in keeping with repentance Matthew 3:8).