Deffinbaugh had some thought-provoking introductory comments: “I believe that Jonah, at virtually every point in this brief book, typifies Israel’s hardness of heart and unrepentant spirit. The book is not written to leave us with a warm, fuzzy, good feeling, but rather to leave us very discomforted, for just as the Book of Jonah closes with no solution to Jonah’s sin, so the Old Testament closes with no solution for Israel’s sin. Only the coming of Christ gives us the sense of relief, repentance, and restoration which God wants us to experience.”
Wiersbe: “Those who consider the Book of Jonah an allegory or a parable should note that 2Kings 14:25 identifies Jonah as a real person, a Hebrew prophet from Gath Hepher in Zebulon, who ministered in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC). They should also note that our Lord considered Jonah a historic person and pointed to his experience as a type of His own death, burial, and resurrection.”
Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Luke 11:29 & 32 “And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet….The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jonah 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Most of the commentators date Jonah’s ministry between 750-800 BC, after the time of Elijah and Elisha, but around the same time as Hosea and Amos. Jonah was a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel during the time of King Jeroboam, a time of great prosperity.
We are not told how Jonah received the word of the LORD, but Jonah had no doubt that the words were from YHWH, the God of Israel. The amazing thing about this word from the LORD was that He was directing a prophet to go to the people of Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. Other prophets were given messages concerning other nations, but they weren’t sent to those nations to deliver the message in person. The wickedness being practiced in the city of Nineveh had reached the point that God was going to intervene personally as He had at Sodom and Gomorrah.
I can’t help but wonder what the key is to crossing that point in the eyes of God and how much worse it can get in America before we reach that point. I don’t even like to think about it, because I believe it is going to get much worse.
Historical note: Nineveh is a very old city that was built during the time of Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah. In Jonah’s day it was significant for being the capital of the Assyrian empire.
Genesis 10:8–11 “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh….”
Courson tells us a bit more: “Located on the eastern side of the Tigris River, Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, was one of the greatest cities of antiquity. With 1200 two-hundred-feet high towers and surrounded by a hundred-feet-high wall whose foundation was made of polished stone and of such breadth that three chariots could drive abreast atop it, Nineveh was magnificent to behold….To this day, Assyrians are known as the cruelest, most sadistic people in world history. Furniture made of human skin and pyramids constructed of human skulls attest to their atrocities.”
Jonah 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
In contrast to most of the prophets we read about, Jonah did not immediately step up to obey. He had no desire to go witness to such a savage people. He ran away; he actually thought he could hide from God. He must have forgotten the words of King David:
Psalm 139:7-12 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee….”
The statement is made that he went down to Joppa to buy passage on a ship to Tarshish. Point could be made that when we are running away from the Lord, we are headed down—not up. He identified Tarshish as the farthest point he could hope to run away from the LORD.
Thought from Pastor Fidel regarding “paid the fare” – “There is a price to pay when we run from God.”
Jonah 1:4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Jonah 1:5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
The LORD had a mission for Jonah and proceeds to intervene in such a way as to cause Jonah to choose to complete that mission. God sends a great wind (i.e., a hurricane) that threatens to break the ship apart. The sailors on the ship’s crew were afraid and were making petitions to their gods for help—but we know their gods could offer no help. They also acted practically by throwing as much as possible off the ship to relieve the stress on the wood. Amazingly, Jonah had found a spot in a lower part of the ship and was sleeping through the whole thing. The word for sleep indicates to “stun or stupefy”—maybe Jonah had passed out from fright.
Courson: “God’s stormy winds upon our lives are meant not to destroy us, but to develop us….God is either using it to bring you back to His safe port or He’s using it to make your life into a beautiful trophy of His grace.”
Jonah 1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
The pilot or captain of the ship went to Jonah and woke him up. (“What meanest thou O” is not in the Hebrew.) He tells Jonah to pray to his God; maybe his God is the God who can rescue them from this awful storm.
Jonah 1:7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
Jonah 1:8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
Obviously, these men weren’t looking to YHWH for the answer, but YHWH chose to accomplish His purpose by causing the lot to fall upon Jonah. It’s interesting to me that they want to know more about Jonah before they make a decision regarding what to do.
Eerdman’s Dictionary has this to say about casting lots before the LORD: “In the Bible, however, the casting of lots was one of the few legitimate means of divine revelation (as were dreams and direct communication with the deity). Lot casting is not among the condemned mantic or divinatory practices such as soothsaying, magic, and necromancy (cf. Deut. 18:10-12). Lot casting, therefore, had divine sanction and control. Though the throwing of the lots was a human action, the revelation was a direct message from God. (Proverbs 16:33 - The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.)”
Jonah 1:9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
Jonah answers with the truth. He identifies himself as a Hebrew, a descendent of Shem through Eber, eventually more commonly identified with the descendants of Abraham, specifically the Israelites. Interestingly enough, he also identifies himself as one that fears YHWH, the God of Israel, the Creator of sea and land. If he truly feared God, it does not seem that he would have chosen to disobey Him. His actions contradicted his words.
Jonah 1:10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Jonah 1:11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
The men were extremely afraid but really didn’t want to harm Jonah. They seemed to be even more afraid to know that he had run away in disobedience to his God whom he credited as the Creator of sea and land. (I’m not sure who they identified as YHWH.) It’s interesting that they trust Jonah to tell them what to do to appease his God and cause the sea to be calm.
Jonah 1:12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
Jonah doesn’t hesitate. He tells them to throw him off the boat and into the sea. It is his fault that they are in such danger.
Pride is a very strange character trait. Jonah obviously knows the power of God, yet he chooses to disobey Him. He is not a coward, and he is not uncaring of other people. He is ready to be sacrificed to save these men, but he is not willing to share God’s message with the people of Nineveh. In his mind, he knows better than God on that particular issue.
Jonah 1:13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
Jonah 1:14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
Jonah 1:15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
The ship’s crew fought valiantly to bring their ship to land, but they could not; the wind was just too strong against them. They cried out to Jonah’s God, YHWH, and begged Him not to hold them accountable for the death of Jonah. If He is the Creator, He surely must have caused this storm to accomplish His own purposes. After absolving themselves of responsibility for Jonah’s death before God, they threw Jonah into the sea. As soon as they did, the sea became calm, affirming that Jonah had spoken the truth.
It’s always interesting to me that men think they can absolve themselves from guilt. Pilate did the same thing when he turned Jesus over to be crucified. That act in and of itself recognizes a higher authority in existence. God has revealed Himself through creation, and our spirit has an innate knowledge of His moral standards, even though we may refuse to acknowledge those facts.
Psalm 19:1-3 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”
Romans 1:19 “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse….”
Romans 2:14-15 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)….”
As I was reading through this section again, it stood out to me that these men valued life. They didn’t want to be the cause of Jonah’s death even if he was responsible for the danger they were in. Could they have been familiar with the commandments of the God of the Jews?
Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
As is the tendency when we are desperate, the sailors showed their fear of YHWH by offering up a sacrifice to Him and making solemn promises to Him. You know the type—LORD, if you will ___________, I promise to ___________.
Deffinbaugh: “We, like the sailors on board that ship, are in danger of divine judgment. We, like them, are saved by the death of another, a Jew. Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God so that we might be saved.”
Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The LORD was prepared; He already knew what was going to happen and when and where. He had a great fish (maybe a whale) ready to swallow up Jonah. I’m sure Jonah thought he was dead. Instead, he lived in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
Already the types or pictures of events to come in Jesus’ life are depicted in the life of Jonah.
Jonah was willing to give his life to save others, as was Jesus.
Jonah was kept in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights just as Jesus was kept in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights—and both were miraculously given new life.
The major differences being:
Jonah was punished for being guilty of sin; Jesus was sacrificed as the sinless Son of God to redeem us from sin.
Jonah was being disobedient to God; Jesus was being obedient to the Father even to the point of death.
It should be noted that Jesus declared Jonah’s experience to be a sign of his own death and resurrection.
Matthew 12:39–40 “But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Constable quoting Wilson and Harrison: “There are many types of fish capable of swallowing a human being whole. Two examples are the sperm whale and the whale shark. Occasionally today we hear of someone who has lived for several days in a fish or in some other large animal and has emerged alive.”
Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Jonah 2:3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
It must have been horrible to be in the belly of a great fish and still be alive. I can’t even imagine. As long as he is breathing and conscious, Jonah has the ability to pray—and he does. He prays to YHWH, the God of Israel and his God. He honestly admits that he is calling out to God because he is in trouble and needs His help. It’s interesting to note that even though he thought he could run away from God, he knew that God could hear his prayer. Jonah thought that he was just as good as dead, in the belly of hell (sheol/hades, the place of departed spirits). Jonah also recognizes that it was God who intervened with the wind and the seas to bring about his current condition.
Johnson: “There’s a great deal of difference between believing in God and believing in my God. There’s all the difference in the world between the Lord is a shepherd and the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….Mr. Spurgeon used to like to say, ‘I know there’s a bank, but that doesn’t make me rich. It’s only when I have money in that specific bank that I am well off.’”
Jonah 2:4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
Even in such awful circumstances because of his disobedience, Jonah was confident of his relationship with God; he was confident of again seeing God’s holy temple. At this point, I believe he must have been thinking of the heavenly temple.
Johnson: “When you pass through trials and troubles, if you will simply learn this, in the midst of them to cry unto the Lord, though everything may seem to be lost to you, it is not lost.”
Jonah 2:5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
Jonah 2:6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
After looking at the Hebrew, it would seem that Jonah is making a point that the water surrounded him to the point of taking away the air he breathed. Weeds were wrapped firmly around and bound his head. Jonah expresses his feeling of being at the very depths of the earth to be trapped forever, only to find that YHWH, his God, had delivered him to new life.
The wording here indicates Jonah is telling the story after the fact—which would make sense. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was recounting his experience for the benefit of the people of Israel as well as for those of us in future ages who could learn from his experience.
Whether Jonah actually died and was resurrected or was preserved through the experience, only God knows. It doesn’t really matter; it was a miracle of God either way.
Jonah 2:7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
In Jonah’s waning conscious moments, he called out to the LORD. He knew that God had heard him in his holy temple, His dwelling place. Just like David, Jonah knew that the LORD hears the prayers of his people.
Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.”
Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.”
Proverbs 15:29 “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Jonah seems to be saying that those who choose to follow false gods cannot expect to receive mercy. Jonah may have been disobedient (and haven’t we all), but he never abandoned his faith and trust in YHWH, the Almighty, the Creator of the universe.
Jonah 2:9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
The only sacrifice that Jonah was in a position to offer was a sacrifice of thanksgiving with his voice. It’s always interesting to me that God considers our expression of praise and thanksgiving a sacrifice.
Jeremiah 33:11 “The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.”
Hebrews 13:15-16 “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
Leviticus 22:29 “And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will.”
Psalm 107:22 “And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.”
Psalm 116:17 “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.”
I looked up these verses to see if they could shed a little light as to why.
In the verse in Jeremiah it is an expression of faith in God as the covenant-keeping God.
The verses in Hebrews indicate that it is our actions that are done in honor, reverence and obedience to God that He considers sacrifices.
Sacrifice is something we do willingly is the emphasis of the verse in Leviticus.
Sacrifices are to be offered as an expression of gratitude and joy for God’s work and provision on our behalf according to Psalm 107.
Psalm 116 emphasizes that sacrifice is expressed in gratitude to YHWH when we call upon Him in faith.
It’s our preconceived ideas that get in the way of understanding sometimes. Jesus made it clear in the Sermon on the Mount that the importance of obedience was in the attitude and intent of the heart. In Isaiah 58 the LORD makes it clear that acceptable fasting is more than abstaining from food, it is denying oneself by serving others. A sacrifice is more than a ritual involving the slaughter of innocent blood, it is an act meant to incur the favor of God, an expression of devotion, commitment and obedience to Him.
“I will pay that I have vowed” – I’m not sure what promise(s) Jonah is referencing here. The important thing is that Jonah is renewing his commitment to the LORD to follow Him in faith and obedience.
Jonah realizes that deliverance can only come from YHWH, the one true God. Jonah gives evidence of true repentance at this point, but goes on to respond with sulking and pouting when the people of Nineveh respond to his message. So it didn’t take him long to put himself in need of repentance once again.
Jonah 2:10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
Jonah had worked his way in prayer to a point of thanksgiving and rededication. Finally, he was ready to obey God, to make the right choice. Having accomplished His purpose, the LORD has the fish eject Jonah from its insides onto dry land.
How amazing—the LORD can speak with understanding to any creature of His creation.