JONAH: The Fearful Prophet

     In the early 8th century B.C. lived the prophet Jonah. A great blessing awaits all who read and take to heart the grand lesson of this little book in the Bible. It begins with GOD commanding Jonah to accomplish a great work for the salvation of men who were not his countrymen but who lived outside the land of Israel:

“Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Jonah 1:1-3.

     To Jonah, this command of the LORD was a death sentence. Nineveh was famous for its brutal and unjust laws. The ancients tell of the mounds of skulls placed at its gates as warning to all who enter. The city was rife with sin. So much so that its cup of iniquity was nearly full. And GOD determined to turn them from their destruction by sending the one prophet who alone could accomplish the task of calling the Ninevites to repentance.

     So, fearing for his life, Jonah boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction of GOD’S command. “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. 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.” The shipmaster found Jonah below decks and demanded him to call on his God. But when the storm increased its fury the men drew lots to see who had brought this great calamity upon them. And the lot fell to Jonah.

     Jonah then confessed, “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid.” All knew of Israel and of its history, and of Israel’s GOD. So they asked Jonah what they should do. It was at this moment that Jonah knew he had to die to save the lives onboard that ship. So he said, “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.” The sailors, not wanting to take Jonah’s life worked to bring the ship to shore. But to no avail. “So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.”

     What a moment in the life of a man! Knowing he was about to die for the sake of others. But as soon as Jonah was cast into the sea, with the waves breaking over him, and unable to breathe sufficiently to keep from drowning, behold, a great whale was there at the LORD’S command waiting for Jonah, and swallowed him and held him in his belly filled with air. Unlike men, animals always obey the voice of GOD. It is as when the father of every man living today, Righteous Noah, had completed building the ark, and GOD commanded the animals, by sevens and by pairs, by "clean" and "unclean" to march single file into the ark that Righteous Noah had prepared for their survival.

     Jonah spent three days in the whale’s belly, praying to GOD in both repentance and thanksgiving: “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. 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. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 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. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Jonah 2:2-10.

     Jonah was now ready to do the LORD’S work to save the souls of men regardless of the cost to himself. Jonah once again received the call of GOD to go to Nineveh. Jonah went and spoke what the LORD bid him speak—for them to turn from their sins and live. But the Word of the LORD was a declaration of destruction: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” This was the forcefulness that GOD knew was needed to get their attention. Fortified cities were often under siege, and this Assyrian city was not exempt from the threat of its neighbors. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.” The king commanded the people to humble themselves before the GOD of the Hebrews, for they well knew the history of GOD’S mercy with His own chosen people. In this, the king specifically commanded: “But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

     Herein lies one of the most profound lessons of man’s salvation and of the prophetic guidelines in the Bible. The LORD defined this principle through His prophet Jeremiah: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jer.18:7-10. King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged this after learning this lesson for himself: “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.” Dan.4:37. The dynamics of GOD’S ways in dealing with the sin problem will not be overruled regardless of man’s belligerence against them.

     Nineveh’s reputation of brutality was such that Jonah believed they wouldn’t repent and so he waited the forty days to see the destruction that was foretold. He waited for a destruction that would never come. And when it didn’t, Jonah was angry and offended, even to the point of wanting to die. This is the last lesson that the LORD now had to show Jonah: how the same mercy that was shown to him in the sea, needed to be likewise shown to the Ninevites. Jonah needed to learn “that God is no respecter of persons” Acts 10:34.

     The LORD ended the book of Jonah with these words: "And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" Jonah 4:11. In this righteous judgment, GOD said: “I…will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” Ex.33:19. In defining the boundaries of GOD’S Grace and Mercy all men are called to look to Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Heb.13:8.