JONAH
Although many consider the story of Jonah to be a allegory (story created to reinforce a point) or a legend, Jesus referred to it as a real event. Also there has long been a monument atop the ruins of ancient Nineveh called Jonah’s Tomb (Nabi Yunus, destroyed by ISIS in 2014 in the hope of looting artifacts to sell) which lends weight to the story having been a real event.
JONAH 1:1-5
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.
Jonah was either a sound sleeper, or was exhausted to be able to sleep through such a storm!!!!
Ancient Nineveh was the capital city of the brutal Assyrian Empire for over 1,400 years before finally being destroyed in 609 B.C. by rising competitor Babylon to the south. Scholars think the prophecy of the book of Jonah was written between 800 - 700 B.C.
However, in 720 B.C. Sargon II finished destroying the 10 northern tribes of Israel (known collectively as ‘Samaria’) which had been started by his father Shalmaneser V in 722 B.C.. Thus it would be more likely that Jonah preached to the Ninevites closer to 800 B.C.
It is unknown who the king of Assyria was when Jonah preached to them, but the following rulers lived during 800 - 700 B.C.
Adad-nirari III 811–783 B.C.
Shalmaneser IV 783–773 B.C.
Ashur-Dan III 773–755 B.C.
Ashur-nirari V 755–745 B.C.
Tiglath-Pileser III 745–727 B.C
Shalmaneser V 727–722 B.C.
Sargon II 722-705 B.C.
Sennacherib 705-681 B.C.
It is ironic that Assyrian ruler Sennacherib had destroyed Babylon in 689 B.C. after their refusal to be vassals under his rule. Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon rebuilt Babylon after his father’s death in 681 B.C.and in 612 B.C. the vengeful Babylonians in turn destroyed Nineveh.
The location of Tarshish is unknown but is spoken of in many ancient records (including Scripture) as a place which exported metals. Some ancient records seem to indicate that Tarshish was a place where raw ores were smelted and refined into pure metals for export.
God, speaking of the Phoenician city of Tyre’s upcoming destruction by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, said of Tarshish;
EZEKIEL 27:12
12 “Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. They gave you silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods.
Joppa (present-day Jaffa) is on the Mediterranean seacoast and in ancient times was a major shipping hub for Israel. In fact, cedar logs were imported from Lebanon to Joppa to build the Second Temple after the Jews returned from 70 years of captivity in Babylon.
EZRA 3:7
7 They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the permission which they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
In ancient times when ships were caught in storms the crew in desperation would throw their cargo overboard to lighten the ship and reduce stress on the hull seams which could open and fill the ships with water. It was also customary for sailors and their passengers to fast and pray to their gods for deliverance during bad storms.
Luke, the apostle Paul’s travel companion, in the book of Acts describes such a situation;
ACTS 27:13-20
13 When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete.
14 But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called Euroclydon.
15 So when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her drive.
16 And running under the shelter of an island called Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty.
17 When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and so were driven.
18 And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship.
19 On the third day we threw the ship’s tackle overboard with our own hands.
20 Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.
ACTS 23:33-34, 38
33 And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing.
34 Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.”
38 So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.
The Euroclydon was what we would call a ‘Nor’easter’ a gale-force storm usually coming from the Northeast, hence the name. Many ships have been lost to such storms in the Atlantic ocean and the Great Lakes.
JONAH 1:6-11
6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
Sailors, especially in ancient times, were extremely superstitious and with crews and passengers from differing countries aboard, each with their own gods, and they would pray to the god(s) they worshiped for safety. And just to be sure, each man prayed to his god hoping that one of them would hear and answer.
Casting of lots was a common practice during ancient times among many cultures, used to determine decisions or show what the will of God was. There are many examples in Scripture of this, the latest reference being when the apostles of Jesus put forth two men voted to replace Judas Iscariot after Judas’ suicide. Only one could be chosen, so they cast lots to determine God’s will in the matter;
ACTS 1:23-26
23 And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen
25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.”
26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
God used the lots to point to Jonah. The crew knew that he was running from God and the storm and the casting of lots showed them what was happening and why. But they were still pagan in their thinking, believing that punishing Jonah would appease his God.
JONAH 1:12-16
12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.”
15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.
Jonah’s pronouncement put the ship’s crew in quite a quandary!!! They didn’t want to throw Jonah overboard and be guilty of manslaughter or murder, so they tried to save all of their lives by trying to row to shore. (Most ships traveling in the Mediterranean hugged the shorelines as deep-sea navigation wasn’t well developed yet.) But they soon realized that either they did as Jonah said or they would all perish.
When the storm stopped after throwing Jonah over the side, they understood that the Lord truly was God, and worshiped Him and made vows of service and worship.
JONAH 1:17
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
God was giving Jonah time to think about the consequences of running away. Jonah was now headed to Nineveh - the hard way.
Many scholars believe the story of Jonah was a fable, but Jesus referred to it as a real event;
MATTHEW 12:38-41
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
JONAH 2:1-7
1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
2 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.
3 For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple.
Jonah uses illustrative speech in his prayers, very much like the Psalms of king David. He was in the stomach of the fish for 72 hours and it must have seemed to him that he had gone to Sheol, sometimes called The Pit, the place the dead went to await their Judgment before God.
Being in the fish, he spoke truly of waves and billows passing over his head and being surrounded by the floods and in an amusing note speaks of his head being wrapped in seaweed.
JONAH 2:8-10
8 “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Jonah’s repentance is complete in verse 9 when he vows to go and do what God has called him to do. The fish then spits Jonah out, unharmed, onshore.
Many people scoff at this story, saying such things are impossible, that he couldn’t survive in such an environment, and so on. It is ironic that these people believe that God spoke the universe into existence and created Man from the dust of the ground, yet they can’t believe that He could perform a miracle like the Jonah story. But as God told Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 32:27
27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
JONAH 3:1-4
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.
4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
Chances are very good that someone had seen Jonah vomited out of the fish and had reported it, so that the Ninevites were frightened, probably thinking that Jonah was a messenger of one of their gods. One of those gods was Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines which would fit with what had happened to Jonah.
JONAH 3:5-10
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water.
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Sackcloth in ancient times was an itchy, coarse, goat-hair fabric, usually worn as a sign of mourning or humility and was often worn by prophets and the bereaved. The garment was usually a shapeless bag with holes for the arms and head and was worn with a belt around the waist, much like that described of John the Baptist;
MATTHEW 3:4
4 Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Sitting in ashes was a sign of humility and was also a sign of sorrow. People would sit in ashes from a fireplace in sackcloth or would put dust and ashes on their heads as a public expression of sorrow. When God prophesied of the destruction of the Phoenician seaport of Tyre by the Babylonians, He said;
EZEKIEL 27:29-31
29 “All who handle the oar, the mariners, all the pilots of the sea will come down from their ships and stand on the shore.
30 They will make their voice heard because of you; they will cry bitterly and cast dust on their heads; they will roll about in ashes;
31 They will shave themselves completely bald because of you, gird themselves with sackcloth, and weep for you with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
The Ninevites must have been frightened by what they had heard about Jonah. Nineveh had been wracked by internal strife and factionalism, and increasingly aggressive moves by their surrounding neighbors worried them. That could have made Jonah’s prediction quite credible to them, therefore the king wisely understood the need for repentance in hope of God’s mercy on the city.
This also shows God’s mercy toward sinners who heed His call to repent and who turn from their wicked ways.
JONAH 4:1-11
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.
2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!”
4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.
6 And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.
7 But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered.
8 And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”
10 But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.
11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”
East winds were usually very hot, dry desert winds that withered everything they touched.
This is a interesting contrast in that Jonah knew of God’s mercy and kindness, yet Jonah’s hatred for the Assyrians was so great that he was willing to see them all perish rather than have them turn from their wickedness.
God in turn rebukes Jonah in that he felt sorry for the plant and was angry with God for sparing the city to the point of where he would rather die than see the city be spared. God pointedly shows Jonah’s hypocrisy in that he considered a plant to be of more value than a city full of people and livestock.
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