Lessons from Jonah

Sin and judgement

The Book of Jonah in the Old Testament is of particular interest to Christians, not only because our Lord referred to it during his own ministry (Matthew 12:38–41; Luke 11:29–32), but also because it reveals God's attitude towards sinners.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.' (Jonah 1:1–2)

God's destruction of the world by a flood in Genesis 6 & 7; his destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 and his threat to destroy Nineveh, shows that there's a limit to the sin that God will allow on the earth.

The fact that Nineveh's sins had become so severe was confirmed by its king when he heard Jonah's message:

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

'By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.' (Jonah 3:6–9)

Jonah tries to flee

But, before that happened, Jonah disobeyed God.

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)

Bible scholars are not sure where Tarshish was located, but they think it was on the southern coast of Spain (which was in the opposite direction to Nineveh).

Why was Jonah so opposed to preaching to the Ninevites? There may have been two reasons:

Nineveh was a Gentile city and the Jews had no dealings with the Gentiles.
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which was growing in power at the time and may have posed a military threat to Israel.

Whatever the reason for Jonah's actions, the message is clear: God's desire for repentance to be preached to sinners is far greater than man's desire to preach it. And even though Jonah didn't want to preach to Nineveh, God made sure that Nineveh was preached to.

A miracle happens

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard and the raging sea grew calm. (Jonah 1:15)

Jonah knew he was the cause of the storm that was engulfing the ship so he told the sailors to throw him overboard (v12). They refused to do it initially but, when the storm grew worse, they obeyed.

The sea became calm and the sailors were so amazed that they feared the Lord, offered a sacrifice to him and made vows to him. That shows how effective miracles can be in turning people to God—a fact that we often overlook, but which the Old and New Testaments make abundantly clear.

Jonah's second chance

But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)

Christians often wonder whether Jonah was alive or dead inside the fish. Both are true. He was alive initially—and praying (Jonah 2:7)—but then he died.

Jesus likened himself to Jonah in Matthew 12:40.

'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.'

Jonah was an Old Testament type of Christ. Jesus was dead for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, just as Jonah was dead for three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. Then God raised Jonah from the dead (Jonah 2:10), as he raised Jesus from the dead. And this time Jonah did obey the Lord.

The heart of God revealed

When the people of Nineveh heard the message Jonah preached, all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth, symbolizing repentance (Jonah 3:5).

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:10)

That displeased Jonah, who became angry.

He prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee 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 4:2)

It is obvious that God was more willing to forgive Nineveh's sins than Jonah was. That was because God is gracious and compassionate; he is slow to anger and abounding in love. He does relent from sending calamity—if people repent.

God is so full of love that he will forgive people's sins—even if their sins are as bad as Nineveh's—providing they repent. In fact Jesus used the repentance of Nineveh as an indictment against the Jews:

'The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.' (Matthew 12:41)

Nineveh repented at the preaching of a mere man, but the Jews refused to repent even when God sent his Son to preach to them.

Getting our priorities right

Chapter 4 tells us that Jonah sat down to the east of Nineveh to see what would happen to the city and God provided a vine for Jonah that grew up to give him shade. But the next day God provided a worm that chewed the vine so that it died, and when the sun rose it blazed down on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. This displeased him and he became angry again. God said:

'Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?'

'I do,' he said. 'I am angry enough to die.' (Jonah 4:9)

Why does the Bible give us these details? The point God is making is that Jonah was more concerned about his own comfort than the fate of the people of Nineveh—which reminds us of the message of Haggai. In Haggai, we read that the people of Israel were busy panelling their own houses while God's house lay in ruins (Haggai 1:3–4). That means they were more concerned about their own homes than the house of God.

There is nothing wrong with having a nice house to live in, but what is more important? God is more concerned that sinners come to repentance and avoid the flames of hell than how beautiful our homes are.

Paul tells us that:

'…godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.' (1 Timothy 6:6–8)

God's Word says that Christians should be content with food and clothing. Houses and cars are a bonus! What is far more important in God's eyes is that the gospel of repentance is preached to sinners.

God's concern for the lost

God said to Jonah:

'You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?' (Jonah 4:10–11)

God was so concerned for the one hundred and twenty thousand people of Nineveh, whose wickedness, evil and violence had made them ripe for judgement, that he made sure, by a series of miracles, that a man who was totally opposed to the idea preached the gospel of repentance to them. If that does not convince us that God wants all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30), then nothing will.

Is it that Nineveh occupied a soft spot in God's heart so that he sent Jonah to preach to them? No, not at all! The Bible says that God has no favourites when it comes to salvation (Romans 2:9–11).

Is it that God is less compassionate, loving, or willing to forgive today than he was in Jonah's day? No, God says: 'I the Lord do not change (Malachi 3:6).'

The fact is that God is as concerned that the people of London, Paris, Delhi, New York, San Francisco and everywhere else on the face of the earth come to repentance now, as he was for the people of Nineveh. Let us encourage ourselves with that fact as we intercede for our towns and cities and for the places where we live.

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22)

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Michael Graham
November 2003

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