The book of Jonah is a compact book with four short chapters that tells an encapsulated story of a prophet (Jonah) who is given a task, yet refuses to complete the task. In that, God takes Jonah through a trial of discovery, to bring him back to the place he should have been in when God initially commanded him to go to Nineveh.
The most famous part of this story is that of the whale, or great fish, that swallows Jonah. The fish, a metaphor for God’s trials, is far less important than what it does for Jonah. The book gives us a great concept to learn: how God administers to us even when we are not willing to follow.
The book of Jonah was written probably in the time frame of 750-725 BC. This is after Jonah’s time as a prophet (during the reign of Jeroboam II, 793-753 BC). As we get into the story, remember that there are two storylines: one is of God’s love for Jonah, and His love of all people.
1 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.” 3 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.
The first question that may occur is this: is this Jonah’s first assignment? We do see a mention of Jonah in another part of the bible, 2 Kings 14:25, where he is doing God’s work, again during the reign of Jeroboam. So this is not Jonah’s first mission in listening to God.
God’s desire is for Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach against the great city’s wickedness. God’s reason is clear: Nineveh is close to judgment. God’s intention here (it will be made clear later in the story) is to spare Nineveh. God wants to bring the people of the city into relationship with him. It is Jonah’s job to alert the Ninevites to God’s judgment.
But what is Jonah’s response? He runs away. He doesn’t just run away, but he runs as far as he can! The city of Nineveh is an eastern city, located in what is present day Northern Iraq. He runs to a place named Tarshish, which is located in Southern Spain, one of the farthest places west in the known world. He is running this far in order to escape God’s sight. He runs because, and we’ll find this out a little later too, that he did not want God to show his mercy on Nineveh.
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
First, why is the storm there? The storm is there because God brought it up, due to Jonah’s actions. The sailors aboard the boat that Jonah is taking to Tarshish all cry out to their own gods. But Jonah, the only one who has a relationship to the true God, is asleep. Because he is asleep, he cannot be effective.
When Jonah was asleep, he can’t be effective to those around him. He can’t stop the storm, he can’t pray with the men, he can’t show them who the true God is and he can’t contribute to the work needing to be done.
This is important, because when we, as Christians, are asleep, we can’t be effective in the situations or people around us. It is important for us to be actively seeking God, to care and administer to people with the right motives, to yearn for God’s word. We also have to “be present,” and not just “show up”. As we look at this story, we can see that Jonah, due to his being asleep, was completely cut off from the needs of those aboard and that great storm God raised.
Being present is very important for a Christian. Isaiah 26:9 and Psalms 63:1 both tell us where we should be in our dependency with God:
My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. Isaiah 26:9
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Psalms 63:1
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
The difference is striking: God wants us to yearn, to thirst, for that dependency on Him. When we drop into a lukewarm spirit, it simply puts us asleep to the relationship. We may believe we’re doing the work of God, but if asleep inside, we can easily go through the motions and be asleep in the relationship.
7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” 9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” 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.” 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Jonah is the source of the problem. Jonah says he fears the Lord, but is it true? He knows of the Lord, obviously, but is he following Him? Jonah has let his circumstances dictate his actions, and his action was to run, to deny God His plan, and supersede it with his own. He seems to realize this and asks the sailors to throw him overboard. Does he do this out of compassion, dependence on God for deliverance, repentance, suicide? The men reluctantly do so and the ocean ceases its rage.
Jonah’s Prayer 17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The last moment in this first chapter sets up the prayer of the second chapter. Jonah may have believed that death was an easy way out of this situation. We’ll see later that Jonah prefers death to the heat. If this is the case, God sends a fish to swallow him up, for three days and three nights.
There are many theologians who like to discuss what type of fish this could be in order to validate this story. There’s an equal amount of detractors who claim it impossible. Whether it is a fish or a whale, real or metaphor, we have to understand a very simple truth: this is God’s word, and there is a teachable concept here. As we move along in the story, we’ll see that this event is meant to show us the trial Jonah goes through in order to understand God’s deliverance.