Jonah 1
McGeeCHAPTER 1THEME: Call and commission of Jonah; Jonah goes west; the great wind; Jonah arrives in the fish
Jonah 1:1
CALL AND COMMISSION OF JONAHJonah is identified for us as a prophet and as the son of Amittai. (See the Introduction for a detailed discussion of the evidence that Jonah was a historical character.)
Jonah 1:2
This is God’s call and commission of Jonah to go to Nineveh. The city of Nineveh is called “that great city.” It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was located on the Tigris River. It was the world power in that day. Later on, we will deal with the matter of the size of the city, because it is emphasized two more times in this book. Here the emphasis is actually upon the wickedness of the city. It is a great city but great in wickedness. Its wickedness is so great that it has come up before God, and He has now determined that He will judge the citythat is, if the city does not turn to Him.
Jonah 1:3
JONAH GOES WESTJonah leaves his hometown of Gath-hepher in the northern kingdom of Israel and, with this call and commission from God, you would think that he plans to head for the city of Nineveh. Jonah would have had to go east from Israel to get to Nineveh. Instead of going in that direction, he does a very strange thing. He goes down to Joppa and buys a ticket on the first boat for Tarshish. Tarshish was a city founded by the Phoenicians on the southern coast of Spain. It was the jumping-off place of the west. What we have before us is a greater problem that the problem of Jonah in the fish. The problem in the Book of Jonah is not the fishit’s Jonah. God asks him to go to Nineveh, but he buys a ticket for Tarshish. God tells him to go eastJonah decides not to obey God, and he goes west. The question naturally arises: Why did Jonah do this? There are several reasons:
- Jonah hated the Ninevites, and he did not want them saved. There was a basis for his hatred. Assyria was one of the most brutal nations of the ancient world. They were feared and dreaded by all the peoples of that day. They used very cruel methods of torture and could extract information from their captives very easily. One of the procedures was to take a man out onto the sands of the desert and bury him up to his necknothing but his head would stick out. Then they would put a thong through his tongue and leave him there to die as the hot, penetrating sun would beat down upon his head. It is said that a man would go mad before he died. That was one of the “nice little things” the Assyrians hatched up. As an army, the Assyrians moved in an unusual manner. One of the reasons the Babylonians were able to overcome them was the slowness of the march of the Assyrian army. They took their families with them and had very little order in the army. They moved as a mob across the countryside. It is very easy to see that their disorder would militate against them. However, when they moved down like a plague of locusts upon a town or village, it is said that they were so feared and dreaded that on some occasions an entire town would commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the brutal Assyrians. You can see that they were not loved by the peoples round about. We also know that at this time the Assyrians were making forays into the northern kingdom of Israel. For a long time, it was Syria and the northern kingdom that fought against each other, but they finally came to an alliance because of the threat of Assyria to the north and east of them. However, Assyria eventually took both Syria and Israel into captivity. When the Assyrians were beginning to penetrate into a nation they hoped to conquer, they would make a surprise attack upon a city, take captive the women, and then brutally slay the men and the children. We don’t know this for sure, but it is reasonable to conceive that the Assyrians had come down against Jonah’s hometown of Gath-hepher at one time. They may have come even to his home, and he may have seen his own father and mother cruelly, brutally slain before his eyes.
Or he might have seen his sisters raped by the Assyrians. At least we know that Jonah hated the Assyrians, and he did not want them saved. Therefore, he goes in the opposite directionhe’s not going to carry God’s message to them. 2. There is a second reason that Jonah went west. Somebody might point out that Jonah’s message was one of salvation. His message was to be one of judgment. Although it is true that it was to be a message of judgment, Jonah knew God, and it was because Jonah knew God that he went in the opposite direction. He knew that if he went to Nineveh with a message of judgment and if the people of the city turned to God in repentance, God would not judge them but would save the city! Jonah didn’t want that city saved. It just wasn’t something he looked forward to. And so he went in the opposite direction. 3. A third reason that Jonah went in the opposite direction was because he was a disobedient prophet of Godthere is no question about that. He was out of the will of God, very much like the prodigal son. The prodigal son ran away from home. He didn’t want to live under the will of his father, and so he went to the far country. Jonah was out of the will of God. He was a prophet who is certainly not in step with God. We will find that the entire fourth chapter deals with his rebellion and how God brought him back into step with Himself. 4. Here is a fourth and final reason that Jonah disobeyed God. Have you ever noticed that in the Old Testament God never sent His messengers as missionaries to other countries? The method that God used in the Old Testament was really the opposite of His method today. Israel was to serve and worship God as a nation that was located at the crossroads of the world, where the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa meet. The nations of that day, if they were not traveling by water, would take the route through the land of Israel.
God took the people of Israel, put them there at the crossroads, and had them build a temple to worship Him in order that they might witness to God by serving Him. Their witness was to a world that was looking in on them. The invitation was, “Come, and let us go up to the house of the Lord and worship Him.” Israel witnessed by serving God at the crossroads of the world, and the world came to them. For example, the Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to Israel. Why did she come? She had heard how they worshiped and, when she got there, she found that there was an altar there for sinners. That was the thing which brought her to a saving knowledge of God. If you read the historical record, you will find that not only did she come but also the kings of the earth came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. During that brief period, Israel did witness to the world; they witnessed not by going out as missionaries but by the world coming in to them. We are given only the one example of the Queen of Sheba in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have the examples of one son of Ham, one son of Japheth, and one son of Shem who were convertedthe Ethiopian eunuch, Saul of Tarsus, and Cornelius, the Roman centurion. Although we are given only these examples, there were literally thousands and, later, millions who were led to Christ. However, for the church today the method is the opposite of that in the Old Testament. I think it was rather startling for the twelve disciples, all of whom were Israelites brought up on the Old Testament, when the Lord Jesus said to them, “…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel …” (Mar_16:15). I imagine they looked at each other and said, “My, this is something brand new! We did not know that it was to be done this way.” Instead of, “Come up to Jerusalem,” the Lord Jesus said, “Beginning at Jerusalem, you are to go now to Judea, Samaria, and on to the ends of the earth” (see Act_1:8). That is the method today. We often criticize Israel for their failure, but we build a church on the corner and expect the world to come to us, when instead we are supposed to be going out to the world.
It took me years to learn that, but that is why the burden of my ministry today is to get the Word of God out to the world via radio. We believe that this is God’s method today. But that wasn’t the method in Jonah’s day, and Jonah was surprised when God said to him, “Arise, go to Nineveh.” I think Jonah was the same kind of man as Simon Peter, and he probably talked back to the Lord. I think he said, “Wait a minute here! You never sent Elijah down to Egypt, and You never sent Elisha over into India. Why are You asking me to do something You’ve never asked a prophet to do before?” I have great sympathy for Jonah. He didn’t understand why God would want to change His method. However, this book reveals that God is the God of the Gentiles.
Paul wrote in Rom_3:29, “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” Jonah could say amen to that statement but not at this point in time. It wasn’t until after the experiences related in this book that he realized that God is the God of the Gentiles also. “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.” Jonah’s experience may be helpful to you if you are having a difficult time and wonder if you are in the will of God. Although I cannot tell you whether or not you are in God’s will, I can say this to you: The fact that you are having a difficult time is not a proof that you are out of the will of God. Rather, it may be a proof that you are in the will of God. If you are having it too easy today and things are breaking just right for you in every direction, and if that is all you are using to interpret that you are in the will of God, then you are leaning on a poor, broken reed, and it will not hold you up in time of a crisis. Let’s look closely at the illustration of Jonah. Here is a man who hears God’s call and heads in the opposite direction. He is definitely out of the will of God. He goes down to Joppa, and when he goes down there, he encounters no problems. He finds a ship. He buys a ticket. He gets on board the ship, and he goes to sleep! Everything is lovely. I’m of the opinion that Jonah could give a testimony, the kind of which I have often heard. Jonah went down to buy the ticket, perhaps wondering if he were in God’s will or not. (He should have known he wasn’t. But a lot of us say that we wonder whether we are or not.) He was standing in line to buy a ticket, and the ticket agent said to the man right ahead of Jonah, “I’m sorry, but all space is sold.” Jonah was about to turn away when the phone rang and the ticket agent answered it. A Mr. Goldberg was calling to say that he was in the hospital, having suddenly taken sick, and he would not be able to make the trip. So Jonah waited, and the ticket agent turned to him and said, “Brother, are you lucky!
I’ve just had a cancellation.” Jonah must have thought, I sure feel lucky. I feel more than thatmaybe this means I’m in God’s will. How many Christians think like that today? If they are having a difficult time, they say, “Oh, I am out of the will of God.” If things are going easy and everything works out well, they say, “Oh, I must be in the will of God.” My friend, I am of the opinion that if you are having problems, it may be that the Devil is getting a little uneasy because you are growing and proving effective for God. I have found this to be true in my own ministry. Just because you are having trouble does not mean you are out of the will of God. Everything seemed to be propitious for a very pleasant journey for Jonah. Everything had worked out so well. Someone has called this “the fortuitous occurrence of circumstances.” But we know that Jonah is going in the wrong direction and that God will have to put him inside a fish in order to turn him around. God’s men down through the centuries, both in the Bible and out of the Bible, have not found the going so easy. It hasn’t always been so propitious. Things have been difficult. I have thrilled at the story of David Livingstone, but that man really suffered. If I had been penetrating dark Africa as he did, after a few of the rough experiences that he had, it would have been very easy to say in a very pious voice, “I think it is the will of God for us to turn around and go home.” Likewise, John G. Patton, a missionary in the New Hebrides, met disappointment on every hand. He had to overcome handicaps daily, but this is the way God leads. We read in the Book of Hebrews, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb_11:36-38). We read also in Hebrews that some escaped the edge of the sword by faith, but others by faith were slain by the sword. Therefore, you cannot always interpret the good circumstances as being God’s will and the unfavorable circumstances as not being God’s will. Jonah is on shipboard now; and, as the ship pulls out, I imagine that Jonah stands on the top deck, smiling as the land fades away in the distance. He may be saying to himself, “My, what a beautiful journey this is going to be!” But we will find that this man is not going to have it quite that easy.
Jonah 1:4
THE GREAT WIND"But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea." God was responsible for this storm. I call your attention to that at the very beginning. This storm is supernatural. The storm on the Sea of Galilee, during which our Lord was asleep in the boat, was such that those men on board knew that they were going to perish. They were experienced with that sea and knew that it was a storm which they could not weather and that their boat soon would be at the bottom of the sea. It was a supernatural storm also, but Satan was responsible for that one in an attempt to destroy the Lord Jesus. Peter came to Him and said, “…carest thou not that we perish?” (Mar_4:38)for that is what would have happened had He not intervened. Here in the Book of Jonah, God is using a storm, and He is using it for a good purpose. He is going to save a city with this storm. He is going to turn around a prophet who has been going the wrong way and start him going the right way.
Jonah 1:5
These “mariners” are sailors accustomed to the Mediterranean, and they detect that this is no natural storm. “But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.” I once entertained the popular viewpoint that if a man gets out of the will of God and into sin, he will be tormented with a bad conscience and will simply be in misery. Is that true of Jonah? Jonah is definitely out of the will of God, going the opposite way, actually running away from the presence of God. He wants to get as far from Nineveh as he possibly can, and he is headed for Tarshish. Yet he is confident that everything is all right. He can sleep in this storm when even the sailors are frightened, and these sailors are a bunch of pagans, worshiping all kinds of gods.
Jonah 1:6
In effect, the shipmaster says, “You sleepy-head, you! Do you mean that you can sleep in a storm like this?” Jonah could. In fact, he is the only one on board who could sleep! The shipmaster goes on, “Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” So Jonah now comes up on deck, and he sees this great storm they are in which is threatening to send the ship to the bottom.
Jonah 1:7
On other occasions when I have taught the Book of Jonah, some folk have misunderstood me at this point and have thought that I approved of gambling. I hope you will follow me very carefully at this time. I think that gambling is an awful curse. I believe that the use of the lottery and of gambling in order to raise revenue for the government will ultimately corrupt our people and our nation. In the end it will be more destructive than it could possibly be helpful. Other folk are quick to point out that this was a superstitious thing the sailors were doing, casting lots to see why this evil had come upon them. They cast lots, and it fell on Jonah. Apparently God was in this and used this, but that does not mean that God approved of it. These sailors cast lots. Can God use something like that? I want to share with you an experience that I had in my first pastorate. The very wonderful pastor whom I followed there told me about a certain family in the church. The wife and the little girl, a beautiful, redheaded little girl, were both believers and attended the church, but the pastor had not been able to reach the father, the head of the home. At Christmastime that year, the father came to church.
I whispered to several people to be friendly to him, and they all shook hands with him and greeted him. His criticism was that we overdid it! We were too friendly. So at Eastertime when he again came to church, I simply told the folk that he didn’t want us to shake hands with him and be friendly. So they didn’t, and I just barely shook his hand at the door. His criticism of the church then was that we were too cold.
Now there was a fellow you couldn’t please at all! When I went to visit him, he practically ordered me out of the househe didn’t want me to talk to him about the Lord. About six months later, as I was getting ready for bed one nightin fact, I already had on my pajamasthe doorbell rang. I opened the door, and there stood this man with a very frightened look on his face. I let him in, and we sat down to talk. He told me that he ran a dry cleaning place and had a woman working there for him at the desk as a cashier. One morning she had come to work and told him, “I went to a fortune-teller last night, and the fortune-teller told me that I’m going to die suddenly.” Both he and the woman had laughed about it. Then she went on to say, “The fortune-teller also said that the man I am working for is going to die suddenly.” They laughed again because they thought it was all preposterous and ridiculous. But about two days later, as she stepped off the streetcar, that woman was hit by a car and was killed almost instantly. I want to tell you, when he heard it, he really became frightened. It was the very night when he came and knocked on my door. He said to me, “I must be next.” I told him, “Well, I think I can relieve your fear there. The fortune-teller had nothing in the world to do with her deathshe had no prior knowledge of it. This is just one of those strange circumstances of life which we call a coincidence. This doesn’t mean that you will die.” He said, “But I want to be prepared. Would you explain to me the plan of salvation?” I got down on the floor in my pajamas, with some wrapping paper and a piece of crayon, and I outlined the plan of salvation for him. I explained to him how God had sent Christ into the world to die for our sins. That man was ready that night, and he accepted Christ as his Savior. I have always thought that the Devil had pushed that fellow a little too far, because he was responsible for the man getting saved. Very frankly, God can use things like that. He says that He will make the wrath of man to praise Him, and He can also make the superstition of man to praise Him. Those sailors on board with Jonah were superstitious fellows. God used their superstition. They cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Notice what happens
Jonah 1:8
Jonah apparently has had some time to talk to these sailors, but he hasn’t told them much about himself. He certainly is no witness for God. A man out of the will of God can never be an effective witness for God. That is something very important for us to keep in mind. Notice what Jonah did not tell them. First of all they say to him, “We want to ask you some questions since this evil has fallen on us. What is thine occupation?” Jonah hasn’t told anybody he is a prophet; he’s kept quiet on that. “And whence comest thou?” Jonah hasn’t told them he is from Gath-hepher in the northern kingdom of Israel. He hasn’t said anything about his hometown. “What is thy country?” He hasn’t said that he is a citizen of Israel. “And of what people art thou?” He hasn’t said that he belongs to the Israelite people who have a revelation of the living and true God. He hasn’t explained that he is a prophet who represents the living God and who has been called to go to Nineveh to bring a message of hope and salvation. Jonah hasn’t said any of that.
Why? He is entirely out of the will of God.
Jonah 1:9
“I am an Hebrew"that meant a lot. The Hebrews were known to be monotheistic; that is, they worshiped one God, never an idol. They had no other gods before them but worshiped the God who is the Creator. Jonah says, “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.” Jonah tells them that he worships the God who made the ocean which they could see right before them being so stirred up by the storm. He made the sea, and He made the dry land also. I think these sailors knew about Israel, but they were pagan and had no knowledge of the living and true God.
Jonah 1:10
Although he could sleep with it very nicely, without question Jonah had a bad conscience. Jonah tells the sailors, “The reason I am taking this trip is for a pleasure trip. Actually, I had business over in Nineveh, but I decided not to go over there. I know that I am getting away from my God in making this trip.” But Jonah hasn’t divulged too much information to them. These men say to Jonah, “Why hast thou done this?” May I say to you, that is the good question that the unbeliever sometimes asks of the believerand can be an embarrassing one. When I was a pastor of a church in Los Angeles, an unsaved man who had visited the church came to see me. I had met him before in a business in downtown Los Angeles and had invited him to come to church. He said to me, “Is So-and-so a member of your church?” I said, “Yes, and he’s an officer in the church.” He said, “I’ve known that man for several years, and I’ve done business with him. I never would have dreamed that he is a Christian. If I were a Christian, I would not do the things that man does.” You know, it’s embarrassing when an unbeliever says to a Christian, “Why are you doing this? I thought you were a child of God.” I think Jonah must have turned three or four different shades of red at this particular time.
Jonah 1:11
JONAH ARRIVES IN THE FISHThese men recognize that they are up against a very hard decision, and they want Jonah to make that decision. They ask him, “What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?” And Jonah gives them a very straightforward answer
Jonah 1:12
Jonah recognizes that the hand of God is in all of this and that God is moving in his life at this time. He knows that the only solution to the problem of the storm is to get him off the ship going to Tarshish. God has determined that this man is not going to Tarshish but to the place where He wants him to go.
Jonah 1:13
These pagan sailors certainly stand in a good light at this point. Although they are pagan and heathen, they do not want to throw him overboard. They try their best to get the ship out of the storm. They row as hard as they can to bring the ship to land, but they cannot do it. At this particular point in the book, these pagan sailors stand in a better light than Jonah does and prove to be rather outstanding men.
Jonah 1:14
Notice the change that is taking place in these men’s lives. They are turning now to the living and true God. Of course, they are turning in their desperation. They call upon God to forgive them for what they are going to do, because they have no other alternative.
Jonah 1:15
This reveals very definitely that it was a supernatural storm under God’s control.
Jonah 1:16
The fear of the Lord, we are told in Scripture, is the beginning of wisdom. “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly.” Did they fear their god? No. They feared the one who is the Creator of the sea and of the land. “And offered a sacrifice unto the LORD.” That sacrifice points to Jesus Christthere is no alternative. “And made vows.” What vows do these men make? They vow to the Lord that they will now serve Him. Through this experience, they now turn to the living and true God. So something good is accomplished by the storm, by Jonah’s being on board the ship, and by his being cast overboard. Notice now what happens to Jonah
Jonah 1:17
The Greek word translated as “whale” in Mat_12:40 is k$Lxetos, meaning “a huge fish.” It is called here “a great fish.” I do not think it was a whale, but the thing that is important is the fact that the fish was prepared by the Lord for this special event. I am of the opinion that we have a miracle in this fish in the sense that it was a specially prepared fish to swallow up Jonah. “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Notice that it does not say that Jonah was alive inside the fish. A review of my timetable for the Book of Jonah shows that in chapter 1 Jonah leaves Israel, his destination is Nineveh, but he arrives in the fish.