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About Jesus Steve Sweetman
written
2022 Biblical
text used and quoted in Part Two of this commentary is the Christian
Standard Bible (CSB) as seen in the authorization statement below.
Scripture
quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.
Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks
of Holman Bible Publishers. Table Of Contents Other
Books By Stephen Sweetman I
dedicate this book to my pastor, brother in the Lord, and just as
important, my friend, Trevor Hoskins.
It was over coffee one day at a local coffee shop when he asked
me my thoughts about Jonah and the big fish.
Was Jonah really swallowed by a big fish?
Is that the important lesson we are to learn from the Book of
Jonah? They were interesting
questions, and for the life of me, with all of the Bible study that I
have done over the decades, I cannot ever remember being asked these
questions, let alone giving serious thought to their answers. Maybe,
at some point, the subject of Jonah and the big fish must have come up
somewhere in conversation with someone over the last fifty years, but if
it had, I probably just thought of it as one huge miracle, and why?
Our God is the God of miracles.
He can do what He wants and when He wants.
He certainly doesn't have to ask feeble me for my permission.
Trevor's
questions and comments intrigued me.
As I have just written, I had never given his questions and
comments much consideration, but in my recent study of the Old
Testament, including ancient near-eastern culture, history, language,
and literary genre, in which the Old Testament was written, his
questions and comments have come to mind many times.
They have now caused me to think further about the Book of Jonah,
and thus, the reason for this commentary.
Before
you read any further, I tell you in advance that due to the fact I have
been legally blind since birth, because I am not a professional editor,
and, because this book has not been edited by an outside source, you may
find a few grammatical or spelling errors.
I have tried to keep them to a minimum, but knowing myself, I
have surely, without any doubt, missed some mistakes.
Hopefully you will not find many, but most importantly, I hope
those you do find will not detract from what you read. I
also admit that I do not have all of the answers when it comes to the
study of the Bible. The more
I learn, the more questions I have.
I also admit that there are more detailed and scholarly
commentaries than mine, and I have learned from them.
My heart in any book I write is to help us all understand the
Bible better, especially to those who are new to the Christian faith.
The message of the Bible is expected to impact our lives in a
positive way. Bible study is
more than an intellectual endeavour.
As dramatic as this might sound, it is a matter of life and
death. Not
that I consider myself in the same spiritual league as the apostle Paul,
because I don't. I pass on to you what Paul passed on to Timothy.
2 Timothy 2:7 reads: "Consider
what I say,
for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."
May
Jesus bless you in whatever way He sees fit as you read through this
book. Like
everyone else, over the years there are various sources that have
increased my knowledge base of the Bible.
There are too many to mention here.
The following resources have been helpful as I have attempted to
write this commentary on the Book of Jonah.
I would suggest they would be extremely helpful for anyone who
wants to increase their knowledge of the Bible, and especially the Old
Testament. Expositor's
Commentary on Jonah, published in e-book format by Zondervan Academic in
2017, and written by John Walton. The
Israelite Conquest by John Walton, published by IVP Academic, in 2017.
A
Survey Of The Old Testament, written by John Walton, published by
Zondervan Academic in 2010. Ancient
Near Eastern Thought And The Old Testament, written by John Walton,
published by Baker Academic in 2018.
Did
God Really Command Genocide, published by Baker Books in 2014, and
written by Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan. Blue
Letter Bible, found on the internet at;
https://www.blueletterbible.org/ is always a great help to me.
Within this website can be found various commentaries, Bible
dictionaries, lexicons, a concordance, Greek and Hebrew definition of
words and grammatical helps, maps, devotionals, and much more.
I visit this site on a daily basis.
For me, it is a fundamental resource. At
times, I have searched Wikipedia for definition of words and needed
statistical information.
Beyond
the above books and web sites, for me, it is just a matter of a life of
learning from various sources over the last fifty years.
There are way too many of these sources to mention here. Anyone
who was raised in the tradition of the "When
I was a child, I spoke like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things." One
problem that inflicts us as Christians is that we do not mature into
Biblically literate Christians because we have not graduated from our
Sunday school understanding of Scripture.
We have failed to follow Paul's example, as stated in 1
Corinthians 13:11. Much of
all we know, especially from the Old Testament, are the stories we
recall from our childhood. Our
Biblical education, then, is limited to simple Sunday school stories.
I call this the "Sundayschoolization of Scripture."
I realize the word "Sundayschoolization" is not a real
word, but I'm sure you get my point.
The
Sundayschoolization of Scripture, along with our postmodern culture's
dumbed-down mentality concerning details, has led many of us to be
Biblically illiterate. It
is, thus, important to throw off any hesitancy to dig deep into the
Biblical details. To the
degree that these details enter our brains and then sink into our souls
where they become the conviction whereby we live, will be the degree to
which we will mature as Christians.
There is little to no Christian maturity apart from the serious
study of God's Word. Remember,
it is our spiritual food. Matthew
4:4 reads: "He
[Jesus] answered, 'It is written: Man must not live
on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God.'" Hebrews
4:12 also becomes important at this point. "For
the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." If
we are to mature as Christians, it will be through a Holy Spirit led,
balanced hermeneutical approach to Scripture.
Sundayschoolizing Scripture will not cut it.
Such hermeneutical principles as, understanding the culture, the
language, and the genre of the book as understood by those in the
culture in which it was written, for example, is basic to Biblical
literacy. If you are neither
capable of such study, nor have the needed resources, I suggest you
learn from credible Bible scholars who do have such capabilities and
resources. Your growth as a
Christian depends on it. One
of the big questions people ask these days about the Book of Jonah is
this. Was the big fish
really a big fish? I will
address this issue in the chapter entitled "The Big Fish."
I
am departing from my usual verse by verse, even word by word, commentary
for the Book of Jonah. That
is because much of the book is narrative and narrative does not need an
exhaustive, verse by verse, or word by word, explanation.
I will, however, comment on certain important words, events, and
issues that arise in each of the four chapters of the text.
Webster's
online dictionary of words defines the word hermeneutics as "the
study of the methodological principles of interpretation."
Okay, I'm sure you didn't quite get that definition, so I'll
define hermeneutics in my own simplistic way.
Maybe then you will understand what this big word actually means.
I
define hermeneutics as the attempt to understand what another person
says as he wants it to be understood, not as I think it should be
understood or as I want to understand it.
You might actually say, then, that hermeneutics is the "art
of common communication," because it is just that.
I use the word "art" because our communication skills
have much to be desired. Good
communication is something we must learn and then put into practice.
Biblically speaking, we as human beings are sinful, and being
sinful and far from perfect, we don't always do well with communicating
with others.
Upon
hearing my definition of hermeneutics one wife told me that she really
wanted to hermeneutic with her husband over lunch the next day.
She seemed quite anxious in this matter.
Obviously, she had something she wanted to communicate to her
husband that he apparently had not quite understood as yet.
Some wives might suggest that is just the nature of a typical
husband. Whatever the case,
this wife wanted her husband to hear and understand something from her
point of view, not from his point of view.
That would require him to listen very intently to his wife and
maybe even ask some questions for the sake of clarification.
It sounded like this couple had a bit of a communication problem,
don't you think? So what's
new about that? Well,
there's nothing new about that. It
is just the way life is in the world of imperfect human beings.
The
most common mistake we make in attempting to understand others is that
we put words into their mouths, something none of us like others doing
to us. We do this by
defining their words and statements based on our thinking and our
definition of words, not on their thinking and their definition of
words. Whether we
intentionally do this or not, it is something we often do.
In the long run, then, we just don't understand what others
intended us to understand. At
this point the attempt to communicate fails and could easily present a
relational problem. In
Biblical terms, hermeneutics is the process whereby we attempt to
understand the Bible as it wants to be understood, not as we want to
understand it or think we should understand it.
If we fail to understand the Bible in the way it wants to be
understood, we do damage to the Bible's content, its authors, our
understanding of the Bible, and those to whom we teach and preach.
Biblical hermeneutics, therefore, employs common sense rules to
help us interpret the Bible in the way it is meant to be interpreted.
It's not an easy process at times but it is an important and most
necessary process if we are to ever mature as Biblically literate
Christians.
Another
point to consider when thinking of interpreting the Bible is that the
Bible is not a person to whom we can ask questions of clarification.
The Bible can't talk to me. If
I don't understand what my wife is telling me, I can ask her to explain
what she is saying in more detail, which she can certainly do.
I cannot ask that of the Bible.
Some may suggest that is why the Holy Spirit is available in our
lives. We can ask Him the
needed questions and He will explain and provide the answers to our
questions. That is easier
said than done, because, being both human and sinful, we often do not
hear the Holy Spirit correctly. We
tend to get His voice mixed up with our own inner voice.
We, thus, must not be overly dogmatic in our interpretation and
understanding of the Bible. We
can be wrong. There is no
doubt about that. If
you are a serious student of the Bible, and you have been for several
years or decades, maybe you will agree with me.
The more you learn, the more questions you have.
Also, the more you interact with other serious students of the
Bible, the more you realize that others have some valid opinions and
interpretations that may not be in sink with your opinions and
interpretations. You must
hear them out, if you are ever to learn beyond your present
understanding of the Biblical issues.
All this being said, a good hermeneutical approach to Bible study
is necessary in our attempt to understand the Bible.
Studying
the Bible in a logical, systematic, and methodical way is becoming a
lost skill in today's postmodern, western-world church.
The western-world church, in my opinion, is fast becoming a lazy
church when it comes to Bible study.
Many Christians these days are simply Biblically illiterate.
I believe we are paying the price for our laziness in that real
spiritual growth and our representation of Jesus to the world is being
hindered. There is no growth
as a Christian or a church apart from the Holy Spirit led, and a proper
hermeneutical approach, to the study of the Biblical text.
The
apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 2:2, encouraged us to "crave pure
spiritual milk," as the New International Version (NIV) of the
Bible puts it, or, "desire the sincere milk of the Word," as
the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) puts it.
The NIV states: "Like
newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up
in your salvation," The
KJV puts it this way. "As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby:" Beyond
what Peter wrote, Jesus said this In Matthew 4:4. "Jesus
answered, 'It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on
every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Whether
it is the Word of God that is penned on the pages of the Bible or the
Word of God spoken to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, it must be digested
into our lives in order for us to mature as the believers we are to be.
It is what Hebrews 4:12 is all about.
"For
the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Some
Christians read the Bible purely as a devotional book.
They hope that the Holy Spirit will simply drop Biblical
understanding into their hearts. I
do believe in what I would call "Biblical revelation" where
the Holy Spirit hits us with a truth we have never seen before, but that
does not discount our responsibility to seriously study the Bible.
There is nothing inherently wrong with viewing the Bible as a
devotional book to be inspired by, but, it's also a book of instruction
to educate us in the ways of our Lord.
That requires study, not just reading.
Few
churches teach Biblical hermeneutics these days and that is to the
detriment of both the church and the Christian.
You would think any kind of help to understand what God wants us
to know would be important, but apparently it's not that important in
many Christian circles today. I
once asked the pastor of a church I was involved in as a teacher if I
could teach a class on hermeneutics.
He answered by saying "no."
That was it. There
was no explanation for his answer. That
I could never understand. Maybe
he saw my request as a challenge to his teaching of the Bible.
So,
here we go. Let us see if we
can learn some common sense things from the Book of Jonah, but before we
do, there are still a few other things I must comment on.
For
more information on the hermeneutical approach to Bible study, you can
read my books entitled, "Clarifying Biblical Interpretation,"
and "How To Understand The Old Testament As New Testament
Christians." First
of all, I understand what I write in this chapter will not necessarily
convince the critics of my position concerning the Book of Jonah.
They may still consider my thoughts to be invalid, or maybe even
way too liberal for their liking. On
the other hand, maybe some readers will rethink their views concerning
the Book of Jonah after reading what I have to say.
Understanding
the genre of a Biblical book, or any book, as far as that is concerned,
is important when attempting to understand what is being said in the
book. Jonah is no exception
to this hermeneutical rule. Second
of all, literary genre is the category any piece of literature falls
into. For example, a book
can be either fiction or nonfiction, fantasy or factual.
A nonfiction book, for example, can fall into many categories,
like, journalistic history, literary exegeses, commentary, or a
documentary. Attempting
to figure out the precise genre of the Book of Jonah in its ancient
context has been a debate for centuries, and is still a debate to this
very day. What you read in
this chapter is my view of the literary genre of the Book of Jonah, that
I am sure, will not end this debate. You can take my position or you can
leave my position, but it is my position.
It is also the position of many other people.
It will be my position until I can be proven wrong, and who
knows, maybe some day I will be proven wrong.
Like everyone else, I am always in the process of learning, or
relearning. The same should
apply to you, the reader.
There
are a number of hermeneutical issues to consider when attempting to
understand all passages of the Bible, and that certainly includes the
Book of Jonah. One of these
considerations is the genre of the text at hand.
In the case of the Book of Jonah, it is clearly understood to be
narrative history. That is
to say, it sets forth the history of a certain event in the form of a
narrative, a story. With
this in mind, it is important, even necessary, to understand how those
living in the time period in which the book was written understood
narrative history. It is a
mistake to think the authors of the Old Testament understood narrative
history in the same way we understand it today in our twenty-first
century western-world culture. The
culture in which the Book of Jonah was written is so far removed from
our twenty-first century culture that there are few similarities between
the two cultures. Interpreting
the past with the present is one huge mistake, but it is a common
mistake among Christians today. When
much of the Old Testament was written, people in those days did not view
and understand historical writing as we do today, in our twenty-first
century, western-world thinking concerning historical documentation.
When we watch, for example, a historical documentary on
television, we expect historical accuracy.
We expect the facts that are presented to us to be factual, with
no adaptations, no hyperbolic exaggeration, and no slanted commentary. We
want the facts and just the facts. That
was not the situation with historical writings during much of the period
of the Old Testament in the ancient near-eastern world.
Those
who penned historical writings, like the narrative of Jonah, were not as
obsessed with historical accuracy as we are today.
What they wrote was intended to make a point, or, more than one
point, for their readers to know about.
The point to be understood was the main focus of the writing, not
the facts of history. For
this reason, an author could use literary creativity to make sure his
point was understood by his readers.
One such literary creative, or artistic, device is hyperbolic
exaggeration. This was
somewhat commonplace in ancient near-eastern culture, and no one had a
problem with such exaggeration. This
fact alone should help us in our pursuit to understand the books of the
Old Testament, which includes the Book of Jonah.
Without
getting into the details, for example, the Jewish invasion of I
realize that I have opened a jar of worms here without further
explanation, but further explanation of the Jews advance on The
first book is entitled the Lost World Of The Canaanite Conquest by John
Walton, published IVP Academic, in 2017.
Another of John Walton's books is entitled A Survey Of The Old
Testament, published by Zondervan Academic in 2010.
Yet another book written by John Walton that is important to
these issues is Ancient Near Eastern Thought And The Old Testament,
published by Baker Academic in 2018.
Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan's book entitled Did God Really
Command Genocide, published by Baker Books in 2014 is an excellent book
to read concerning the Jewish invasion of Understanding
the Book of Jonah in terms of what I have just written, how then, should
we view this book of narrative history, or as some call it, narrative
art? We should understand
that the author, whoever he was, was not interested in an accurate
portrayal of an historical event. His
concern was not to tell his readers of every last little detail.
He was interested in providing just as much history as was
necessary to make sure his point got across to his readers.
Hyperbolic exaggeration in his mind would have been helpful to
reach this goal. This did
not discredit the points he wanted to convey, and, it should not
discredit these points in our minds as well.
Failure to present all of the facts in detail also did not
invalidate what he wrote. Telling
a story in an interesting way, including some exaggeration, to make his
point would also not have presented a problem in his day.
I
realize at this point many questions concerning inspiration of Scripture
arise. Inspiration of
Scripture simply means that the original authors were inspired by the
Lord to write what they wrote. The
words they penned were not dictated to them by God.
This inspiration must be understood in terms of the one
originally writing a given text. I
will explain that. Inspiration
must be thought of in terms of the culture in which any given book was
inspired to be written. Take,
for example, what we read in Joshua 10:13.
There we read that the sun stood still, meaning, it did not move
across the sky as it usually did. Well,
we now know that it is the earth that moves, not the sun.
The sun does not really move across the sky as those in Joshua's
day thought. The way in
which Joshua and his contemporaries understood the sun moving across the
sky is not scientifically accurate, and God would have understood that.
So, does that make Joshua 10:13 not inspired?
Does the author's view of the sun in relationship to the earth,
which is clearly incorrect, make Joshua 10:13 not inspired by God?
The answer to these questions is clearly, "no."
God
inspired the original author of Joshua 10:13, but God did not step
beyond the author's understanding of the universe to make a point.
If God would have inspired the author of Joshua to write
something that only we understand today, it would have been useless to
the original audience of the historical book of Joshua.
It would have added unnecessary confusion that would have
detracted from the point of the passage.
God, by His own choice, chooses to work within the confines of
our human boundaries, and concerning the sun in relation to the earth,
the human boundary in Joshua's day was that the sun moved across the
sky. This does not nullify
the Christian doctrine of Biblical inspiration.
It actually helps clarify the doctrine. Many
Bible scholars have used the terms narrative history and narrative art
to describe the genre of the Book of Jonah.
I like both terms, and so I used them in this commentary.
I especially like the term narrative art to help describe the
genre of the Book of Jonah because it is my opinion that is what it is.
Having painted many oil paintings over the years, I understand
the nature of creativity in painting, and really, creativity in all art
forms. Art, no matter the form it takes, is a personalized creative
expression of something the artist wants to portray in his art form.
A painting may portray a simple pretty picture of a landscape,
or, it may tell a story. The
Book of Jonah, at least for me, is like an oil painting.
The author has taken a real historical event, and painted his way
through the event with his words. Some
call such a writing style a word picture, that is to say, words paint a
clear picture the reader is to see and understand in his mind.
This being the case, the author becomes creative. He
paints a mental image in the mind of the reader with his words to get
his point across without destroying the validity of the historic event.
This is how I view
the Book of Jonah. In
closing this chapter, I am reminded of what my pastor and friend to whom
I have dedicated this book once said in a Sunday morning message.
He was using his wife's grandmother's old age to illustrate a
point. He could have said
she was eighty five years old. That
would have made us think that she was old, but when he told us she was
two hundred and fifty years old, that really drove home the point.
Hyperbolic exaggeration, indeed, is a helpful literary device,
even in our day.
With
this in mind, then, we must ask, what is the big fish in the Book of
Jonah all about? Beyond
that, we also must ask what the plant that grows up over night in Jonah,
chapter 4, all about? I will
address these questions in the chapter entitled "The Big
Fish." I
have incorporated this chapter into my commentary because it is
important to understand the meaning of the words we read.
So, I have chosen certain words we will encounter in the Book of
Jonah to define God Our
English word God is translated from the Hebrew word "elohim"
in the Old Testament. We see
the word "God" in the very first verse of the Bible.
Genesis 1:1 reads" "In
the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth."
In
terms of the old Jewish language and culture, it was Elohim who created
all things. The noun "elohim"
is a plural Hebrew noun. Being a plural noun has much theological
significance. It suggests
that God, who He is, His essence, is some kind of plurality.
Although many see the Trinity in this plurality, the concept of
Trinity was unknown in Old Testament times, which must be taken into
consideration when interpreting the Hebrew word "elohim"` as
New Testament Christians.
Elohim
was just a generic word for God in the Old Testament Hebrew language.
It is not His name. His
name is seen in our English word "LORD" as defined below.
LORD It
is important to distinguish between the word "LORD," with all
capital letters, and the word "Lord," with only a capital
"L." Both words
are seen in the Old Testament. The
first time you read the word "LORD' in the Bible is found in
Genesis 2:14, where it is associated with God, as in "LORD
God." That verse reads:
"These
are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation.
At the time that the LORD
God made the earth and the heavens," Our
English word "LORD" (all capital letters) is translated from
the Hebrew word "yahweh," which you would say is the personal
name of God. After
God gave Moses instructions for "Then
God spoke to Moses, telling him, 'I am the LORD.'" Our
English words "I am" are translated from the Hebrew word
"yahweh." From
this we derive the name of the LORD God to mean "I am," and
that speaks to the very essence of God.
Simply put, God's name is, "I am." The
word "Lord," with only a capital "L" is a general
word for a king, a governor, or anyone who has authority.
It could be in reference to God, or anyone else in authority.
Jonah In
the Hebrew language, the name Jonah means dove.
Some people believe the meaning of Jonah's name, if understood in
metamorphic terms, is significant to how we should view and understand
the Book of Jonah and his mission to preach to I
will write more about Jonah in the chapter entitled "Who Was
Jonah?" The
city of In
701 BC All
of the above beings said, depending on what time period in history you
are considering, Nineveh was also a province, and that becomes an
important factor in determining when the Book of Jonah was actually
written. Backing
up a bit, the first mention of "From
that land he [Nimrod] went to Assyria and built From
Genesis 10:11 we learn that I
believe We
also see "But
he [God] will completely destroy The
historical fact of the matter is that the prophecy of Nahum concerning
the fall of "Get
up! Go to the great city of In
the ninth century BC After
745 BC Depending
on when you believe the events of the Book of Jonah took place, will
tell you if Jonah's contemporaries lived during this period of Assyrian
history. If this was Jonah's
knowledge of Assyria, you can certainly see why Jonah was so reluctant
to go and preach repentance to Tarshish First
of all, the name Tarshish is a Phoenician name, and in Jonah's day, There
has been much speculation over the location of Tarshish, or, if it even
existed in the first place. The
most speculative location of Tarshish seems to be in If
Tarshish was in We
see the city of The
fact of the matter is that much of what we think we know about Tarshish
is pure speculation. John
Walton, in his commentary on the Book of Jonah suggests that the
equivalent to Tarshish in our day would be Joppa Joppa
is an ancient city on the far east end of the Sheol The
word "Sheol," as understood by the Jews and by Old Testament
theology, was the place of the departed dead.
It was the place deep in the centre of the earth where the
spirits of dead people, both the righteous and unrighteous existed.
We will see Sheol mentioned in Jonah 2:2, that reads: "I
called to the LORD in my distress,
and he answered me. I
cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; you heard my voice." Isaiah
14:9 is one of many references to Sheol in the Old Testament.
It reads: "Sheol
below is eager to greet your coming, stirring up the spirits
of the departed for you —all the rulers of the earth —making
all the kings of the nations rise
from their thrones." In
Christian New Testament theology, Sheol became Hades.
Hades is a first-century Greek word that is in reference to the
place of the dead, somewhere deep within the centre of the earth.
New Testament theology states that once Jesus died on the cross,
He descended into Hades and released the righteous dead and sent them to
heaven. The apostle Paul
alludes to this in Ephesians 4:7 through 10, that reads: "Now
grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s
gift. For it says: When
he ascended on high,
he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people. But
what does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the lower
parts of the earth? he one who descended is also the one who ascended
far above all the heavens, to fill all things." Paul
believed that Jesus descended into Hades, or Sheol, and when He ascended
out of Hades, He took those who were captive with Him. For
the record, we should know that Hades is hell.
Hell is not the "And
death and hell were cast into the lake of
fire. This is the second death."
All
newer versions of the Bible do not use the word "hell" in
Revelation 20:14. Here is
the Christian Standard Bible's version of the verse. "Death
and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death,
the lake of fire." Our
English word "hell" that we read in the KJV is translated from
the Greek word "hades," and thus, is best transliterated as
Hades and not hell in the New Testament.
Beyond that, simple logic confirms that Hades is hell, not the Sheol,
as we read it in the Old Testament is the place of the departed dead,
the spirits of both the righteous and unrighteous.
The Hebrew word translated as "Sheol" is often
translated into English as the word "grave" as well.
Much
could be said about In
722 BC, Jeroboam ll Although
you do not see the name Jeroboam in the Book of Jonah, he is important
because according to 2 Kings 14, he was the king of
Relent We
see the word "relent" in Jonah 3:10.
The meaning of relent is similar, but not exactly the same, as
the meaning of the word "repent."
When the Old Testament speaks of God relenting of something, that
simply means He changed His mind.
Salvation We
see the word 'salvation' once in the Book of Jonah.
It is found in chapter 2, verse 9, that reads: "...
but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I
will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation
belongs to the LORD." It
is a mistake to understand the Old Testament Jewish meaning of salvation
in New Testament terms. As
New Testament Christians we understand salvation as the process whereby
our sins have been forgiven, our righteous status before God confirmed,
the residence of the Holy Spirit within us, and, our entrance into
heaven when we die. That was
not the concept of salvation in the Old Testament.
For the Jews of old, salvation meant deliverance.
The Hebrew word translated as salvation in the Old Testament can
also be translated as deliverance. For
the most part the Jews back then, salvation meant deliverance from their
national enemies. It did not
mean salvation as Evangelical Christians think of salvation today. We
do not know the exact date when the Book of Jonah was originally
written, or, when its final version was written.
There has been much speculation concerning this.
The speculative dating runs anywhere from the mid 700 BC to 200
BC. The majority opinion
seems to be that the book was written, or at least its final edition was
written, after the Jews were released from Babylonian captivity in 538
BC. That would be a couple
of hundred years after the events of Jonah actually took place, which
should be taken into consideration as we attempt to learn the lessons
from the book. We
do know that the Hebrew canon of Scripture as we presently know it was
completed in and around 90 BC. Some
suggest that it was around this time when the Book of Jonah's final
edition came into existence, and that due, at least in part because
there are a couple of non-canonical books that mention the Book of
Jonah, and these books were written in the postexilic period, anywhere
between 538 BC and 200 BC.
Since
we cannot verify the exact date that the original Book of Jonah was
penned, the next obvious question is this. "When
did the events we read about in the Book of Jonah take place?"
The answer to this question seems to be found in 2 Kings 14:23
through to 25. That passage
reads: "In
the fifteenth year of To
figure out the dating of the events in the Book of Jonah you would have
to know when Jeroboam ll was king of Jonah
was a Jewish prophet. We
know this because that is what he is called in 2 Kings 14:25. "He
restored Jesus
Himself confirmed that Jonah was a prophet, as seen in Matthew 12:39 "He
answered them, 'An evil and adulterous generation
demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet
Jonah.'" As
previously stated, Jonah lived somewhere around 800 BC to somewhere
around 740 BC. As 2 Kings
14:25 makes clear, he was from the town of Beyond
this we know little about Jonah. We
know that Jesus mentioned him, as seen in Matthew 12:39 through 40,
Matthew 16:4 and 17, and Luke 11:29 to 32.
I will write about Jesus' references to Jonah in the chapter
entitled "Jesus And Jonah." Bible
scholars separate Old Testament prophets into two categories.
Those prophets, like Elisha and Elijah, are prophets dated prior
to Jonah's day. Classical
prophets, as they have been called, are those like Isaiah and Jeremiah
who lived after Jonah. Jonah
seems to be the last of the pre-classical prophets.
Although
there is some controversy over how we should understand and interpret
certain Biblical numbers, this issue is important when it comes to our
understanding of the Book of Jonah.
There are two significant numbers we read in Jonah, and they are
the number three and the number forty.
I will not involve myself in a detailed accounting of Biblical
numbers, but I do believe they have some significance when it comes to
the interpretation of a Biblical text.
I also believe that the symbolic use of numbers has often been
abused over the years. Take
the number seven as an example of an important Biblical number.
Among many Biblical references, we see the seven days of creation
in the Genesis account, seven lambs in Genesis 21:28, seven days in
Exodus 12:19, seven lamps in Exodus 25:37, seven spirits of God in
Revelation 1:4, seven churches in Revelation 1:11, seven seals in
Revelation 5:1, seven horns in Revelation 5:6, seven trumpets in
Revelation 8:6, seven thunders in Revelation 10:3, seven thousand people
in Revelation 11:13, seven heads in Revelation 12:3, seven angels in
Revelation 15:1, seven bowls in Revelation 15:7, seven kings in
Revelation 17:9, and seven plagues in Revelation 21:9. On and on it
goes. You can do the rest of
the research for yourself. I
have left many of the references to the number seven out of this list.
I
believe that the number seven does have a symbolic meaning, especially
in Biblical prophecy as seen in the Book of Revelation.
I am just very careful when I interpret a passage based on the
symbolic meaning of numbers.
Due
to the symbolic meaning that is often significant when it comes to
Biblical numbers, I suggest that the numbers three and forty might well
have metamorphic meanings to them in the Book of Jonah and not the
normal numerical value you might think.
Jonah
1:17 reads: "The
LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah,
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights." Was
Jonah in the belly of the big fish for three literal days and three
literal nights? I suggest,
as many do, that three days and three nights do not necessarily mean
three literal days and three literal nights.
It might well mean the predetermined time, no matter its length,
that God planned for Jonah be within that huge fish, and, I will address
the big fish later. I
make this conclusion, at least in part, because of the word
"appointed" in the above verse.
This whole event was appointed by God.
Besides that, I take into consideration the common metamorphic
understanding of the number three, which is, completion, whether the
completion of time, the completion of an event, the completion of a
task, or the completion of whatever.
Jonah
3:3 reads: "Jonah
got up and went to Now Either
you understand a three-day walk, as we read above, in literal terms or
in symbolic terms as being a completed action.
I consider the three-day walk not in literal terms.
I view it as a symbolic way to say that Jonah's walk took as long
as it was needed to complete the task at hand.
There
is a debate whether this three-day walk was from the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea where Jonah was vomited out of the mouth of the fish
to Like
the number seven that I partially detailed above, the number forty is a
very popular Biblical number. I
won't detail all of the appropriate references.
Here are just a few relevant passages.
We see the number forty in forty days and forty nights of rain in
Genesis 7:4. After forty
days Noah opened the window of the ark as seen in Genesis 8:6.
We see forty years in Genesis 25:20, forty days and nights of
Jesus testing in the desert as seen in Matthew 4:2.
This is just a brief sample of the number forty in the Bible.
I'll let you search out the rest for yourself.
Then, in the Book of Jonah the number forty is found in Jonah
3:4, that reads: "Jonah
set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, 'In forty
days For
all of the above-stated reasons concerning the symbolic meaning to
numbers found in the Bible, I suggest that the number forty, and most
agree, in its symbolism, stands for a period of testing.
That certainly seems to be the case with the events surrounding
the city of In
the culture in which the Book of Jonah was written, numbers were often
used to symbolize something. You
and I might not catch the symbolic meaning of any given number, but
those in that era certainly would have.
The
Book of Jonah is not a complicated narration.
Jonah heard the Word of the Lord to preach repentance to That
is the story in a nutshell. One
thing I should point out at this point is that
There
have been many themes suggested concerning the Book of Jonah by various
Bible teachers over the years. If
you ask twenty people what the theme of the book is, you'll probably get
twenty different answers. I'll
just add my theme to the list. In
my estimation, the Book of Jonah is about Jonah and his struggle with
God and with the task he was called to perform.
This is just typical human nature.
As Christians, we struggle with the Word of the Lord.
We struggle with God's call on our lives.
We struggle, really, with God Himself.
In
New Testament terms, this is the flesh waging war against the Spirit.
It is the constant conflict we have with complying with the ways
of God. We hear what He says
and our souls are conflicted. All
this being said, our Lord still loves us despite our inner conflict, and
thus, the theme of this book and its title, "Conflicted."
We
have three passages in the gospel accounts where Jesus makes reference
to Jonah. Matthew 12:39 to 41 reads as follows.
"He
answered them, 'An evil and adulterous generation
demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah
was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the
Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three
nights. The men of Matthew
16:4 reads: "'An
evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given
to it except the sign of Jonah.'
Then he [Jesus] left them and went away." Luke
11:29 through 32 reads: "As
the crowds were increasing, he began saying: 'This
generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be
given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to
the people of Sometimes
I think we make too much of how we should understand the Book of Jonah
and the life of Jonah from the little that Jesus said in the above
passages. At times we apply an interpretation that means more than what
Jesus meant. We, then, go
back into the Book of Jonah to find its deeper meaning, when in fact, it
might not have such a deeper meaning.
Jesus
first compared the generation of Jews in which He lived with the
generation of people living in The
other comparison that Jesus made on this particular occasion was between
Him and Jonah. He mentioned
two similarities. The first
was that as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three
nights, so He would be in the centre of the earth for three days and
three nights. Again, as I
have previously stated, three days, as I believe, is symbolic of a
completed period of time. It
took three symbolic days for Jonah's compliance with God to be completed
in his life. It took three
symbolic days for Jesus to accomplish, or complete, God's specific plan
for Him while in the centre of the earth.
I
used the word "symbolic" in the last paragraph concerning
Jesus being in the grave for three days.
I have done that because three days in the centre of the earth
has always been an unresolved problem among Bible scholars.
Whether Jesus was literally in the grave for three days and
three nights is questionable. Attempting
to figure out the timing details of Jesus' last week on earth, which
would include the time of His death to the moment He was raised from the
dead, is more difficult than the average reader of the Bible realizes.
I will not get involved in that discussion here.
The point is, if you study all of the necessary passages, and do
the math, people have come up with various conclusions concerning the
time line of Jesus death, burial and resurrection.
Although I understand the problem, it does not have to bother me
if I understand three days and nights in the centre of the earth to be
the needed time for Jesus to accomplish all that He needed to
accomplish. The
other comparison that Jesus made here between Him and Jonah is that both
were prophets, but He, obviously, was more important than Jonah.
That being said, those in We
should also note that the texts quoted
above state that both Jesus and Jonah were a sign to their
respective generation. They
themselves were the sign. What
might that mean? A sign
points to something. That
would suggest that both Jonah and Jesus were signs that pointed to
something that their respective generation needed to know about.
I would suggest that in both cases those who followed the sign,
either Jonah or Jesus, would find deliverance in which each was in
desperate need.
The
words "types" and "shadows," along with the word
"allegory," are words that many Bible teachers use when
interpreting any given Old Testament passage.
These words suggest that certain historical events, or people, in
the Old Testament have certain secondary, New Testament significance or
meaning. Types, shadows, and
allegories are similar to Biblical prophecy in that respect.
In
terms of the Book of Jonah, types, shadows, and allegories, are seen by
many. For example, as Jonah
was thrown into the sea, or Sheol, so Jesus was thrown into Sheol or
Hades upon His death. Jonah's
experience, then, foretold Jesus' experience.
I can see how people can arrive at this conclusion because of
what Jesus said, as quoted above. He
actually allegorized Jonah's descent into the sea.
Some
Bible teachers, in my opinion, take types, shadows, and allegories, to
an extreme. They turn most
all of the Book of Jonah, in every last little detail and spiritualize
these details to be significant for us today.
There is a problem with this.
Sooner or later, all allegories, types, and shadows, fall apart,
but there is more. When
it comes to types, shadows, and allegories, there are a variety of
explanations of the historical events or people under investigation.
One Bible teacher will interpret the types and shadows one way,
while another will interpret them another way.
Who is correct in his interpretation?
Simply put, when interpreting any Old Testament passage with the
use of types, shadows, or allegory, almost anything goes.
Our over-active imaginations can invent all sorts of things any
given passage might mean beyond the obvious.
I have seen this many times over the decades.
One
thing I believe we can do is look further into how Jesus compared His
descent into Hades with Jonah's descent into the sea.
We can do this because Jesus Himself did allegorize this.
Beyond that, I'd be careful to allegorize the rest of the Book of
Jonah. Because Jesus made
this allegory, my comments on Jonah being swallowed by the big fish
include allegory.
The
apostle Paul used allegory in Galatians 4:22 through 26.
"For
it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by
a free woman. But the one by
the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free
woman was born through promise. They represent two covenants. One is
from
In
Galatians 4, Paul took two literal women in history and portrayed them
in present-day spiritual terms. He
allegorized these women to be something they never were, and that was to
make one particular point. This
is what Jesus did when He took Jonah's descent into the sea and applied
it to His descend into the grave. Here
is the question? Are we to
allegorize every last detail of the Book of Jonah?
Are we to use types and shadows to crate a New Testament meaning
to the life of Jonah? I
would be very careful about doing that.
As a matter of fact, I personally stay away from types and
shadows and allegorizing Scripture.
Jesus and Paul could do that, but I am not in the same league as
Jesus and Paul. This
we know from what Jesus said. Both
Jonah and Jesus was a sign to their respective generation.
It was important for those two generations to follow the sign
provided them. What
I will do in this commentary, is to take the events of Jonah, chapter 2,
and compare them with Jesus death. I
do that because Jesus Himself made that comparison.
Beyond that, I will not make allegorical comparisons on too much
more.
The
big fish is the big elephant in the room, so to speak, when it comes to
understanding the Book of Jonah. Did
Jonah really get swallowed by a whale or was this big fish just a
metamorphic symbol that is meant to paint a mental picture for us?
Here is our choice in the matter.
The big fish is either a real big fish or it is a metaphor for
something else. Most
of us who were raised in the Sunday schools of the Evangelical church
believe the big fish was a literal big fish.
We, therefore, have no problem with a whale swallowing up Jonah
because we believe God can do anything He wants.
He is God, and He is the God of the miraculous, no matter how
foolish the miraculous might look. God
is not bound by our human limitations, that is, unless He chooses to be
so bound. If He wanted a big fish to swallow Jonah, that's no big deal
for Him. He can do as He
pleases. There is no doubt
that God is God and He is quite capable of having Jonah being swallowed
by a big fish. I get that.
All
of the above being said, once we understand the language, the culture,
and the genre of the Book of Jonah that I have previously set forth, it
is not illogical to conclude that the big fish was not a literal big
fish, but a symbol of something even more than a big fish.
If indeed, the Book of Jonah is historical art, or a creative
historical narrative, that makes some important points through literary
devices like word pictures, then, the big fish being understood in
metamorphic terms should not be a problem for us.
It certainly is not a problem for me. You
can decide for yourself how you view the big fish.
I would not spend a lot of time arguing the point with anyone.
It's not really the main concern in the Book of Jonah , although
we seemed to have made it
the big concern over the years. So,
this is how I personally view the big fish, until my mind can be changed
on this matter. The big fish
is a metaphor. It is a
symbol. It is a sign,
pointing to the lesson we are to learn from the Book of Jonah.
I will address this further when I come to the big fishswallowing
Jonah in chapter 1, verse 17.
The Text 1 -
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Get up! Go to the great city of 4 But the Lord threw a
great wind onto the sea, and such a great storm arose on the sea
that the ship threatened to break apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They
threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile,
Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched
out and fallen into a deep sleep. 6 The captain approached him and said, "What are you doing sound
asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and
we won’t perish." 7
"Come on!" the sailors said to each other. 'Let's cast lots. Then
we’ll know who is to blame for this trouble we're in." So they
cast lots, and the lot singled out Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, "Tell us who is to blame for this
trouble we're in. What is your business, and where are you
from? What is your country, and what people are you from?" 9 He answered them, "I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the
God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land." 10 Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him,
"What have you done?" The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord's presence because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, "What should we do to you so that the sea
will calm down for us?" For the sea was getting worse and worse. 12 He answered them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea so
that it will calm down for you, for I know that I'm to blame for
this great storm that is against you." 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they
couldn't because the sea was raging against them more and more. 14 So they called out to the LORD, "Please, Lord, don't let us perish because of this man's
life, and don't charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased." 15 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea
stopped its raging. 16 The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 The Lord appointed
a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights. My Commentary Verses 1 through 3 "1
- The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 'Get up! Go to the great city of I
don't believe it is greatly significant, but for the record, the name
Jonah in the original Hebrew means dove.
The name Jonah would often be used in terms of endearment during
Old Testament times. Jonah's
father's name was Amittai. We
know nothing about this man. He
is only mentioned here and in 2 Kings 14:25, where, he, like here, is
said to have been Jonah's father. The
term "Word of the Lord" is an often used Biblical phrase to
express whatever one would hear from God.
Most of the time when this phrase is used in the Old Testament,
the message heard from God was expected to be proclaimed to those the
message concerned. Most, but
not all, Words from God were to be proclaimed to the nation of God
told Jonah to go to the evil city of In 701 BC, The evil spoken of by God concerning The Assyrians would kill those they captured, but before they
did, they would severely torture them.
For example, they would cut out the testicles of men, or balls as
they are often called today. They
would then, throw them around as if they really were balls. They
would put human bodies on poles to stretch the bodies so they could skin
those on the poles alive. They
would chop the heads off people; parade them around on long sticks for
all to see. They would cut
the tongues out of people. They
would cut the penis off of a man. On
and on it went. Every evil
thing you might conceive, they would do.
No wonder this evil bothered God, and especially, when and if
this evil was done to His people, It might also be for the above evil that Jonah was so
reluctant to go to The words "preach against" tells me that the content
of what Jonah was to preach concerned God's judgment on When it comes to divine judgment of nations and empires, most
of the judgment talk that came from the mouth of God concerned I hold to the view that God does judge all nations, and the
Book of Jonah makes this clear to me.
Besides that, Daniel 2:21 also makes this clear in my estimation.
That verse reads:
"He
[God] changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who
have understanding." Also,
Daniel 4:17 reads: "This
word is by decree of the watchers, and the decision is by command
from the holy ones. This
is so that the living will know that
the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms.
He gives them to anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people
over them." Jeremiah
18:7 through 10 also states God's sovereignty over the nations, and, it
does not only apply to "At
one moment I [God] might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that
I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.
However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement
turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned
to do to it. At another time
I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and
plant it. However, if it
does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent
concerning the good I had said I would do to it." The
notion that God might either cause a nation to rise or fall is a serious
matter for us to consider, even, as I believe, in these New Testament
days. If
you study Old Testament prophecy concerning Gentile empires, you will
note that prophecies directed towards them concerned their relation to "I
[God] will bless those who bless you [ Here
is my point, and it is speculative.
Yes, God was about to judge
In
response to the Word of the Lord, Jonah went the opposite direction to
the command of the Lord that was given him.
Instead of going north east to Jonah
then proceeded to board a ship that was heading for Tarshish, which, as
I have mentioned earlier, much is unknown about that city.
It might actually be a fictitious city, as some scholars suggest.
It might have been in The
text states that Jonah was attempting to flee from the presence of God,
but we know, that is an impossibility.
One of the divine attributes of God is that He is everywhere at
all times. There is no place
where we can hide from God. It
is just not possible. Psalm
13:7 through 13 is one Biblical passage that makes this clear.
"Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you
are there. If I fly on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the western
horizon, even
there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If
I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will
be night'— even the darkness is not dark to you." Amos
9:2 and 3 says the same thing. That
text reads: "If
they dig down to Sheol, from
there my [God] hand will take them; if they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down. If they hide on
the top of from
my sight on the sea floor, from
there I will command the
sea serpent to bite them." Note
the word "Sheol" in the above two passages.
We see Sheol in the Book of Jonah.
I will comment on this later, but Sheol is important when it
comes to the Book of Jonah, especially concerning the sea in which Jonah
was thrown into. Did
Jonah really think he could run away from the presence of God?
I sincerely doubt that he really thought that he could pull this
escape off. What I believe
is that Jonah was human, and like all humans, including you and I, Jonah
tried to run from God even though he knew that would be impossible.
You can probably think of situations in your own life when you
wanted to hide from God, despite the fact that you know there is no
place to hide from Him. It
was just the conflict deep within his soul that was waging war between
him and God. Such conflict
is common to us all and just due to our sinful human nature.
Verses 4 and 5
"But
the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea, and
such a great storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break
apart. 5 The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They
threw the ship's cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile,
Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched
out and fallen into a deep sleep." The
text states that the Lord threw a great wind onto the sea.
The wind storm was so bad that the sailors believed the ship
would break apart and all would be lost, including themselves.
I could only imagine, or maybe I can't, the fear that overwhelmed
these sailors, who, probably would have experienced many storms at sea
before, but I would not be surprised that this was the worst storm they
had ever encountered. The
stormy season on the The
word "threw," or the word "hurled," as some versions
state it, suggests a violent throwing down.
This violent throwing down was straight from the Lord.
He did not just toss the storm down to earth.
No, it seems to me that with great emotion, He threw the storm
down to the sea for a specific reason.
It would sort of be like a fast-ball pitcher who throws a fast
ball to home plate as violently as he could.
The
throwing down of this storm to the sea, that is metaphorically speaking,
by the Lord suggests to me that He was not very happy with Jonah.
That might well be an understatement.
He might well have been quite angry, and we should know, that the
Lord does get angry at times. Of
course, His anger is not like our human anger that has mixed emotions
and mixed motivations. The
anger of God is pure, righteous, just, and well founded.
It is based on justice.
The
Biblical text clearly states that the storm originated from the Lord
Himself. That being said, we
should realize that all ancient near-eastern cultures, not just Hebrew
culture, would have believed this storm was divinely thrown down to the
sea. The reason for this is
that all ancient near-eastern cultures believed that the gods were in
charge of the weather. If it
was a sunny day, a certain god made it sunny.
If it was a cold day, some god made it cold.
If it was a stormy day, some god created that storm.
So, it would have been a natural thought process that determined
this storm to be divinely orchestrated. This
question, thus, arises. As
Christians, should we believe that every aspect of our weather, no
matter the intensity or lack thereof, is divinely orchestrated?
This is a difficult question to answer.
If
you are a Pantheist, you believe that God is the universe.
That is to say, all that is material and spiritual was not only
created by God, it is God Himself. All
of creation, then, is God. That
being the case, you would have to believe that every aspect of our
weather is divinely orchestrated. Pantheism,
though, is not Biblical. Christians
are not Pantheists. No
matter how you view the creation account of Genesis, Christians believe
that God created the material universe.
That being so, He is separate and distinct from that which He
created. On
the other hand, if you are a Deist, you believe that God created the
material universe, and then, He stepped back from His creation and
allowed it to evolve as it wills. The
Bible does not teach Deism. The
very fact that Jesus entered this world, and, His Spirit enters the true
Christian makes this clear.
Fifty
years ago I might have called myself a Deistic Christian, if there
really is such a thing. By
that I mean I believed that God created the material universe, but did
not step back from His creation. That
being so, I also believed that God does not involve Himself in every
little fine detail of the outworking of creation.
That would mean that I did not believe that every drop of rain
that fell from the sky originated from the hand of God, but maybe, a
severe thunderstorm did. I
have now come to believe that God is more active or involved in all
aspects of creation more than we can ever know.
He might well, then, be active in every little aspect of
creation, although I admit, that is a bit speculative.
I cannot say that for sure, at least not yet.
I will know the answer to these types of questions in the next
life.
The
storm we see in Jonah must have been one powerful storm.
Maybe you might have called it a once in a life time storm.
I say this because these were probably professional sailors who
were consumed, or so it seems, with fear.
Jonah on the other hand, didn't seem so concerned or fearful.
He was asleep down below. Either
Jonah was a very heavy sleeper, or, he was fearless. I don't know which
way to think. He doesn't
seem to be fearless to me. The
fact that Jonah was sleeping through this bad storm seems strange to me.
I can't believe his apparent lack of fear, if that was really the
case, was because he was trusting His God.
I do not see him trusting God because he was running from Him.
One can't trust God in a given situation, like the one Jonah was
in, if he was running from God. Maybe
Jonah really was a heavy sleeper and not a light sleeper, as I am.
We
see the word "sea" in the above verses.
This is an important word, although you might not have guessed
that to be the case. It has
been well documented that in ancient near-eastern cultures, large bodies
of water, like the Unlike
land, there was much unknown about the depth of an ocean or sea.
Seas and oceans were that part of the planet that had not yet
been placed in any kind of order, and order was important to all
cultures in these ancient civilizations.
They viewed a sea and an ocean as being something to fear.
It was an underwater place of chaos, full of unknown exotic chaos
creatures. In other words,
the seas and oceans had not yet been ordered by the gods.
We will see a hint of this when we encounter the word
"Sheol" in Jonah 2:2. The
seas were often thought of as the entrance to the Netherworld, Sheol,
Hades, the dwelling of the dead, or whatever other term you want to use. It
seems that Jews felt even more strongly about the chaotic culture of the
sea than other cultures. The
Jews seemed okay with smaller bodies of water, like the Sea of Galilee,
but the Mediterranean Sea is much larger than the Verses 6 through 8 "6 The captain
approached him and said, 'What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call
to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won't
perish. 7 Come
on!'the sailors said to each other. 'Let' cast lots. Then we'll
know who is to blame for this trouble we're in.' So they cast lots, and
the lot singled out Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, 'Tell us who is to blame for this trouble
we're in. What is your business, and where are you from? What
is your country, and what people are you from?'" Like
me, the captain of this ship could not figure out just why Jonah was
able to sleep during this massive storm.
He, full of fear himself, must have been beside himself when he
saw Jonah fast asleep, seemingly without fear.
I'm sure the sailor would have used every swear or curse word
available to his tongue when he approach Jonah.
The
captain told Jonah to call out, more literally, cry out, to his god.
The ancient near-eastern cultures were polytheistic.
That is to say, they believed in a multitude of gods.
There was a god for this and a god for that.
The captain just wanted to know what god was causing this storm.
It might well have been Jonah's god.
Little did he realize at the time that he was correct on this
count. The captain of the
ship just had to figure out what god was responsible for the storm, and
then, how to appease that god so the storm would dissipate.
Everyone on the ship would have had to approach his personal
family god to see if he could learn anything from his god that would
calm this storm.
Those
polytheistic people in Jonah's day did not believe in kind, gentle,
loving gods that had their best interest in mind.
It was just the opposite. Most
all ancient gods were selfish, easily angered, and demanded obedience,
or else. This would have
been the frame of mind the captain and the rest of the sailors would
have had. Some god needed to
be pleasured and he wasn't getting his needs met, and so now he or she
was mad at the sailors.
Against
all hope, the captain hoped that Jonah's god could help them out.
It was obvious that none of the other gods could get them out of
this disastrous situation. Just
maybe, Jonah's god could calm the sea and remove their fear. In
typical ancient near-eastern religious fashion, someone had to be blamed
for this storm. Someone
irritated one of the gods that made this god furiously angry.
So, everyone had to find out which person made the god angry.
Time was at a premium. They
had no time to waste, so they drew lots.
This too was done in typical ancient fashion.
It was something the disciples of Jesus did in Acts 2 where they
drew lots to find a replacement for Judas. Concerning
this Acts 2 drawing of lots, I suggest that it was a pre-Pentecost
action. This was a common
way to make a decision back then. I
do not believe the disciples made their decisions this way after the
Holy Spirit came into their lives, as seen in Acts 2.
It was the Spirit of God who led them to do what they did, not
some kind of luck of the draw. When
it came to the luck of the draw, so to speak, Jonah was the one who
irritated a particular god. Jonah
was the culprit. It was he
who made his god angry, and thus, the horrific predicament the sailors
found themselves in. Was
it really the luck of the draw that pointed to Jonah being the problem?
The pagan sailors would not have thought so, and Jonah wouldn't
either. The soldiers would
have understood this in terms of Jonah's god causing him to be exposed,
and really, those pagan sailors were right this time.
I'm convinced God had His hand on zeroing in on Jonah through the
casting of these lots. It
was not the luck of the draw that exposed Jonah.
It was the Lord, the very Lord who wanted Jonah to go east to Now
knowing who was the source of the problem, the sailors wanted to know as
much about Jonah as possible. Who
was he? What business was he
involved in? Where was he
from? The questions probably
went on and on for a while until they thought they had Jonah figured
out. The way Jonah was
behaving would have made it difficult to figure him out.
Verses 9 through 13 "9 He answered
them, 'I'm a Hebrew. I worship the Lord, the God of the heavens, who made
the sea and the dry land.' 10 Then the men were seized by a great fear and said to him, 'What
have you done?' The men knew he was fleeing from the Lord's presence because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, 'What should we do to you so that the sea will
calm down for us?' For the sea was getting worse and worse. 12 He answered them, 'Pick me up and throw me into the sea so that it
will calm down for you, for I know that I'm to blame for this great
storm that is against you.' 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they
couldn't because the sea was raging against them more and more." After
being asked who he was, Jonah answered by saying that He was a Hebrew.
The origin of the word "Hebrew," although it is a bit
debated, seems to mean or suggest, "one from beyond," as in,
Abram was originally one who lived beyond the "One
of the survivors came and told Abram the Hebrew, who lived near the oaks
belonging to Mamre [east of the Abram,
or Abraham, as he became to be known, originally lived to the east of
the Jonah
proclaimed that his God was the God who created both the land and the
sea. This would suggest,
then, that Jonah's God was the supreme God over all other gods, and
there was such a concept of a supreme God, yet unknown to all, in many
parts of the ancient near-eastern world. The
notion that Jonah's God was the creator of the seas would surely have
captivated the sailor's attention. At
that very moment, they were caught in a bad storm at sea.
Surely, Jonah's God could help them out, assuming Jonah's God
really did create the sea. If
Jonah's God was indeed the supreme God over all gods, then the sailors
would have taken serious note of this.
For this reason, I believe, at least in part, this was the cause
of the sailors' great fear of Jonah's God. It
is interesting to me that pagan sailors would have such great fear for
Jonah's God, but once again, the fear was motivated by their religious
concepts of the day. You or
I could repeat Jonah's exact words to non-Christians today, and unless
the Holy Spirit speaks to their hearts, he or she will not be filled
with great fear. This is the
case because our western-world culture is far removed from the culture
of Jonah's day. Most people
in the West today have a very low view of God, if they have any view at
all. God, to them, is not
one to be feared today as He was, even in the pagan culture of Jonah's
day.
Note
the word "seized" in this passage.
These sailors were seized, as in, violently grabbed with fear and
horror. I view this as a
sudden shock of fear that blasted its way into their very souls.
The thought of Jonah's God was an earth-shaking revelation for
these sailors, who in my opinion would have been rough and tough men. The
sailors asked Jonah some questions.
"What have you done?"
"What should we do to you so that the sea
will calm down for us?" The
second question is a product of the sailors' polytheistic pagan
religious thinking concerning the gods.
In those ancient near-eastern religions, adherents to the gods
who suffered tragedy believed they were being punished by a god.
They would have done something very wrong that angered the god.
One way to rectify the situation was for them to punished
themselves in one way or another. For
this reason, their first reaction to Jonah was that Jonah must do
something to appease his god. Only
then would the sea be calm once again. Appeasing
a god may well have been the way of the pagan world back then, but it is
not the way of the Christian world here in these New Testament times.
Christians cannot appease God.
Christians should not even attempt to appease God.
Concerning the Christian, God has already been appeased, and that
due to the cross of Christ. It
was Jesus' sacrifice of His earthy life that has appeased God on our
behalf. Our job now, as the
old hymn puts it, is to trust and obey Jesus.
Jonah's
response was typical for that time in history.
He told the sailors to throw him overboard into the sea.
If he was drowned, everything would return as normal.
He, the problem, would be done away with.
That would have made some kind of sense to the pagan sailors.
Drowning the problem would appease Jonah's God.
Whether Jonah had this mindset or not is speculative.
I would think, at least, Jonah might have felt that he needed to
be punished, but again, that is speculative.
On the other hand, maybe he didn't feel this way.
It does appear from what we red in the text that he felt somewhat
justified for the actions he took. Besides, he wanted to die anyway, and
drowning was an easy way to die at the moment. Just
why Jonah suggested that the sailors throw him overboard instead of him
just jumping into the sea on his own is unknown to me.
There has been much speculation about this. You
will recall, as I mentioned earlier, that Jesus compared His death to
Jonah, especially Jonah's time spent in the sea.
It is interesting to note, then, that Jonah was willing to be
thrown overboard because of his sin, his rebellion against God.
With that in mind, it is also interesting that Jesus was willing
to be thrown overboard into Sheol, so to speak, because of our sin.
Remember, He, the righteous one died on behalf of us, the
unrighteous ones. Jesus'
earthly death was all about our sin.
Concerning
Jonah being in the belly of the big fish for three days and Jesus'
comment on that; three days in ancient culture was important.
It was understood that it would take three days to find your way
into the netherworld, or Sheol. Instead
of throwing Jonah overboard, the sailors tried once again to row their
way to dry land, but with no success.
They attempted to do the human thing before they did their
religious thing.
Verse 14 through 17 "14 So they
called out to the LORD, 'Please, Lord, don't let us perish because of this man's
life, and don't charge us with innocent blood! For you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.'
15 Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea
stopped its raging. 16 The men were seized by great fear of the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 The Lord appointed
a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights." The
sailors now recognize the existence of Jonah's God and that He was the
one where this storm originated. With
the insertion of the words "please" and "called
out," or "cried out," we note the intensity of their
prayer to the Lord. They
certainly did not want to perish, especially since they were innocent.
They had done absolutely nothing to cause this great storm to
come upon them. They were
pleading for mercy. The
sailors finally gave into Jonah's request.
They threw him overboard, and immediately, the sea grew calm.
No wonder they were seized with fear once again.
Jonah's God came threw for them.
Jonah was the problem, and, his God has now solved the problem.
This would have been one huge miracle, one God-fearing event.
The sailors proceeded to offer sacrifices to the Lord.
I would suggest that these sacrifices would have been the type of
sacrifices they would have normally presented to their gods.
They would have known little to nothing about how Jews offered
their sacrifices to their God.
The
sailors also made vows to the Lord.
What these vows were, we have no clue.
Again, I suggest these vows would have been similar to the vows
they would have made to their pagan gods, because, they knew little to
nothing about Jonah's God. I
think it is important to conclude that just because these sailors
expressed some kind of worship to the Lord, worship that was on their
terms, this did not make them right in the sight of God.
Neither should we conclude that these men became Jewish
proselytes. We certainly
cannot conclude that they were saved, as we understand being saved in
new Testament terms.
Now,
we come to Jonah 1:17 and the big fish.
The first thing we note here is that this big fish was appointed
by the Lord. The Lord
provided this big fish, and as many suggest, it was a place of safety
for Jonah, the very one who was running from God.
It goes to show that even when we run from God, He can provide
protection for us, if that is His will.
This is one Biblical truth we can learn from the Book of Jonah.
Beyond
this, we need to address two things here, which, I have addressed in an
earlier chapter. The two
issues are, the meaning to the big fish, and, the meaning of three days
and three nights Jonah spent in the big fish. When
it comes to this big fish, you have two choices how to view the fish.
The first choice is that this fish is a literal fish that was big
enough to swallow Jonah. Many,
if not most, Evangelical Christians take this stance concerning the
fish. To think otherwise,
would be considered liberal by most Evangelical Christians.
On the other hand, as I have detailed earlier, this big fish
could be understood in metamorphic terms.
The fish could be viewed symbolically.
It could be a word picture that creates the needed mental image
to help us understand the point of the narrative. This is my position.
I believe the big fish is symbolic of God's protection in the
sea, which is symbolic of Sheol. I
will address this further when we come to chapter 2. I
lean towards viewing this big fish in metamorphic, symbolic terms.
I do so, because, as I have detailed earlier, the culture of the
day in which the Book of Jonah was written, actually wrote their
historical documents in symbolic terms in order to make a point.
A systematic setting forth of historical facts, which would have
included all of the facts, was not the way those in ancient near-eastern
cultures viewed historical documentation.
They did not view history as we do today.
When we watch a documentary on television, we want all of the
detailed facts and we want them documented in a systematic way that
provides the absolute factual truth of the history being presented to
us. We do not want any
hyperbolic exaggeration or unnecessary commentary.
Again, that was not the case in ancient near-eastern world of
narrative history. I don't
believe it was the case with the Book of Jonah.
I
am not saying that we do not use such things as hyperbolic exaggeration
today to make a point, because we do.
I am not saying that we never use commentary to stress a point,
because we do that as well. That
being said, what we don't want journalists to do is to exaggerate the
historical facts or confuse the facts with their personal commentary.
The sad fact of the matter is that this is not always the case
these days. Journalists are
often confusing the facts of the news with exaggerated personal
commentary. We are becoming
more like the ancient cultures than we think.
Beyond
not providing all of the facts to the reader, ancient near-eastern
cultures would often use hyperbolic statements to drive home a point
that the reader or listener needed to know.
Again, I believe this is the case with the big fish that
swallowed Jonah. The fish
was a hyperbolic word picture that was meant to bring home a specific
point concerning a historical event.
I
now turn to the number three that I also commented on earlier.
Was Jonah really in the belly of the metamorphic fish for three
literal days and three literal nights?
That might well have been the case, but, now understanding the
Bible's use of the number three throughout its pages to mean the
completion of something, I suggest that Jonah was in the symbolic fish
for a sufficient period of time to accomplish, or complete, God's will
for Jonah at the particular time in his life.
The same might well be the case why it is said that Jesus was in
the grave, or Sheol, for three days and nights, which I have previously
stated, is well debated among Bible scholars.
The Text 1 - Jonah prayed to the Lord his
God from the belly of the
fish: and he answered me.
My Commentary Verses 1 and 2 "1
- Jonah prayed to the Lord his
God from the belly of the fish: 2 I called to the Lord in my distress, Chapter
2 is a poetic psalm, much like the Old Testament Book of Psalms.
In other words, it is an explanation of what transpired in
Jonah's life after he was thrown overboard into the sea in the form of a
poem that was often meant to be sung.
Chapter
2 is interesting in a number of ways.
One thing that I note is that Jonah's poetic explanation seems to
apply more to Jesus than it does Jonah, and maybe, that is why Jesus
mentioned it while talking to the Jews of His day.
I will comment more on this as I work my way through this
chapter. I intend to compare
Jonah's descent into the sea with Jesus' descent into Sheol or Hades,
because Jesus Himself made that comparison. It
is interesting to note how certain Old Testament passages are
interpreted in New Testament times.
I will not spend lots of time on this point because it is a
separate and very involved issue. Take
Psalm 22, for example. It is a psalm of David and those in David's day
would have understood that. It
would not have had any prophetic significance, but just read the psalm.
It is obvious that as New Testament Christians we read that
psalm, and right away, we see the crucifixion of Jesus.
The very first verse clues us in on this.
It reads: "My
God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far
from my deliverance and from my words of groaning?" I
am sure you recall Jesus saying these words while dying on the cross.
If you read the rest of Psalm 22, you will get more insight into
the death of Jesus. I
believe that Jonah 2 is like Psalm 22.
Although both have an historic element to them, both speak to
Jesus and His human death. Matthew
27:46 reads: "About three in the
afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Elí, Elí, lemá
sabachtháni ?'
that is, 'My
God, my God, why have you abandoned
me ?'" Another
thing I note from this psalm is that Jonah really does not show any kind
of remorse or repentance in his explanation.
That may be, because, I do not see this poetic explanation in
terms of repentance. I
really don't think Jonah repented, even after he was thrown up on dry
land. I will discuss this
issue later as well.
In
verses 1 and 2 we note that Jonah prayed, and, he cried out to the Lord
in distress. I am sure that
would have been the case. You
or I would cry out to God in distress as well.
We usually do when we find ourselves in a rough place in life.
I
almost drowned as a young boy in a deep part of a creek, and I was in
much fear as a couple of friends attempted to rescue me.
They were in such fear as well, because frantic me, was pulling
them down into the water as they were trying to save me. Verse
1 states that Jonah cried out from the belly of the fish.
Verse 2 states that he cried out from Sheol, the place of the
dead, the netherworld as some historians put it.
I believe that many Bible students miss the point of these two
verses. I will explain. Although
I understand the sea to be a real sea, as in the We
should, then, understand the big fish to be part of this metamorphic
word picture. It was a place
of protection in the midst of Sheol, a place of chaos and torment.
The big fish, then, as I understand it, is not a literal big
fish. It is a word picture,
a metamorphic representation of God's protection in the midst of chaos,
uncertainty, confusion, and other such things, that is Sheol.
I
remind you at this point of Jesus' descent into Sheol, or Hades, the
place of the dead, as seen in Ephesians 4:8 through 10.
I will quote that passage again.
"For it
says: When
he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he
gave gifts to people. But
what does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the lower
parts of the earth? he one who descended is also the one who ascended
far above all the heavens, to fill all things."
The
lower parts of the earth seen in the above passage is Sheol, or, in New
Testament terms, Hades. It
is where Jesus went after He died on the cross.
It was then that He released the righteous dead of old and sent
them to heaven. You can
refer back to my chapter entitled "Defining Words" for more
explanation of Sheol or Hades.
The
text of Jonah says that Jonah cried out to the Lord while in the belly
of the fish. This would
certainly apply to Jesus as well. We
know that He cried out to His Father, both in the Verses 3 and 4 "3 When you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, the
current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me. 4 And I said, 'I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look once
more toward your holy temple." Jonah
clearly understood that despite the fact that the sailors threw him
overboard into the sea, it was really God who threw him into the sea,
into Sheol. Jonah did seem
to understand the sovereignty of God, even though he was running from
Him. The
breakers and billows might be a word picture that paints the picture of
judgment, something Jesus went through while on the cross.
Jonah
felt as if he was banished from the sight of God.
We can certainly understand that, even though as we earlier saw,
that would be impossible. God
is everywhere at all times. There
is no place that He is not. In
theological terms, this is called the omnipresence of God.
So, Jonah probably did not feel the immediate presence of God,
but God surely saw him in his distress.
It is the same way when we attempt to run from God.
We may not sense His immediate presence, but He has not left us.
Nevertheless, Jonah was now looking towards God in His temple for
help. There
is no hint here that this was an act of repentance on the part of Jonah.
More than anything else, it was his cry for help. There
has been a debate over the word "temple" in this passage.
Was Jonah thinking of the temple in I
can easily see how what is expressed in these two verses was experienced
by Jesus while on the cross and then in Sheol, or Hades.
The breakers and billows of God's wrath would have swept over
Him. Remember, part of what
was accomplished by Jesus in His death was that He experienced the wrath
of God on our behalf. When
the text states that Jonah was banished from the presence of the Lord,
that reminds me of what Jesus said while on the cross. I
am sure you recall Jesus asking His Father why He had forsaken Him. Mark
15:34 reads:
"And at three Jesus cried
out with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni? '
which is translated, 'My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?'" What
we should know about Jesus' cry to His Father while on the cross is that
God, His Father, did not forsake Jesus in the sense that He left Jesus
all alone to die. God, the
Father cannot leave Jesus because they are a unified plurality.
Although separate in one sense of the word, they are inseparable
in another sense of the word. It
is impossible for Jesus to be apart from God, His Father.
There is what I call a heretical teaching that states Jesus lost
His divinity at His death and regained it at His resurrection.
That is an illogical impossibility and should not be believed.
What
happened on the cross was this. God,
His Father, was right with Jesus all of the way.
God never left Jesus alone, although I can understand, in His
humanity, why Jesus might have thought this. "Why have you forsaken
me" should be understood in terms that God did not rescue Jesus
from the cross because that was the plan all along.
God was right there with Jesus, but He did nothing.
He did not save Jesus from His human death.
In that sense of the word, you could say that God forsook Jesus
while on the cross.
Like
Jonah, Jesus would have been praying out to God, in the heavenly temple.
That is where the centrality
of the essence of God is, if I can actually say it that way.
By this I mean that, yes, God is everywhere at all times, but,
there is also one place where He also is.
Verse 5 "5 The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame
me; seaweed was wrapped around my head." All
of the sea, or Sheol, had totally engulfed Jonah.
All that Sheol is, overwhelm him to the point that it became
unbearable. He was on
death's door, with no human way to escape.
The chaos of the Netherworld was ready to due Jonah in.
Without help from his God, it would all be over for Jonah. I
can only imagine, and maybe I really can't imagine, how Jesus felt when
all that Sheol is, engulfed and overtook Him. We have no clue what it
was like for Jesus. What we
read about here in the Book of Jonah only provides a bit of the picture.
That's it. Verses 6 and 7 "6 I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth's gates shut
behind me forever! Then you
raised my life from the Pit, Lord my
God! 7 As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy
temple." The
author of Jonah painted a bit of a picture of how the people in the
ancient near east viewed Sheol. The
text states that Jonah fell to the very foundations of the mountains in
the sea, where, the earth's gates were shut behind him.
Were there really gates deep in the bottom of the Once
in the deep of the sea, Jonah was raised to life, and this resurrection
was a miracle of God. When
one dies and finds himself in Sheol, as I have said, there is no escape.
You don't return to earth. You
don't get resurrected, but this time, Jonah did.
Although
Jonah did not literally die, he viewed his time in the sea as death from
which he was resurrected. Again,
this tells me that the time spent in the sea was more about death and
Sheol than the sea and a big fish. This
is all metamorphic word pictures, literary creativity of an historical
event to make a point. It
is quite obvious that these verses give us a bit of a hint of Jesus'
descent into Sheol, or Hades, as it is understood in New Testament
terms. Jesus was definitely
in the Pit of Hades. I am
sure, as He cried out in the The
response from heaven was timely. Jesus
rose from the grave, from Hades, and found Himself once again on dry
land, so to speak, walking the streets of Verse 8 through 10
"8 Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, 9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of
thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation] belongs
to the Lord.
10 Then the Lord commanded
the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." After
being raised from the depth of the sea, Jonah admitted that those who
cling to worthless idols forsake their love, and I believe their love
for the true God. That is
definitely a true statement. As
humans, we tend to cling to our homemade idols, and in the process we
exchange our love for God for the creation of our own hands.
This was what those in What
Jonah said next is a bit ironic. He
found himself in his present situation because he was disobedient.
He was attempting to run away from God.
He seemed quite conflicted here.
Although he said that he would worship his God, sacrificed to
Him, and spoke words of thanksgiving about Him, his actions were telling
us a different story. Even
as he spoke these words, we know that he was not in full compliance with
God. He was still conflicted
over what God had called him to do.
He was still very argumentative, as we will see later.
We clearly see this in chapter 4 where he argues with God.
Note
the words "salvation belongs to the Lord."
As western-world Evangelical Christians we understand the word
"salvation" in New Testament terms.
That is to say, salvation is the process whereby God has forgiven
our sins, given us His Spirit, views us as being righteous, and on our
way to heaven. That is not
the Old Testament's view of salvation.
That would not have been Jonah's understanding of the word
"salvation." Another
English word that we could use for the word "salvation," which
would be applicable in both Old Testament times and New Testament times,
is the word "deliverance."
Salvation, in New Testament terms means the deliverance from
God's wrath, from punishment due to our sin, and from an eternal
existence in the In
verse 10 we see that the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah to dry
land. Here is yet another
intervention into the life of Jonah from God, despite the fact that
Jonah was so conflicted. The
word "vomit" in my opinion suggests a violent throwing of
Jonah onto dry land. This
was not a simple spit. It
was an explosion that I think is relevant when we think of Jesus'
resurrection. This
reminds me of Jesus' resurrection because there was an earthquake that
accompanied His rising from the dead and finding His way out of the
tomb. Matthew 28:2 reads: "There
was a violent earthquake, because an angel
of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled
back the stone and was sitting on it." I
would, thus, associate the vomiting of Jonah from the belly of the big
fish, from Sheol, with Jesus being vomited out of the tomb.
Both actions were at the hands of God Almighty.
Remember, Jesus did compare the three days of death to Jonah's
three days in the belly of the wale, or symbolically speaking, in Sheol.
The
text does not say where this dry land was located.
It would be obvious to conclude that the dry land was somewhere
on the eastern shore of the Jonah
said that those who cherish worthless idols forsake their love, and I
think love for God. When
Jesus was in Sheol, Hades, as He would have looked over both the
righteous and unrighteous dead, this very thought might well have gone
through His mind. Whether
right or wrong, I imagine Jesus shaking His head and thinking,
"those who have cherished worthless idols, certainly have no love
for God." Upon thinking
such a thought, He would have opened those closed gates of Sheol to free
the righteous dead so they could relocate to heaven. Of
course, Jesus would have understood that salvation is of the Lord
differently than Jonah. Salvation,
especially as Jesus was releasing the righteous dead from Sheol, would
have understood salvation in New Testament terms.
Salvation would have included deliverance from God's wrath, the
forgiveness of sin, freedom from the Jonah
said that he would sacrifice to the Lord.
Would Jesus have ever thought such a thought while He was in
Sheol? I believe He could
have thought such a thought, or at least, a similar thought, and here is
why. We
often think of Jesus' death on the cross as his supreme sacrifice, and
it was a sacrifice. There is
no doubt about that. That
being said, His very entrance into humanity in a human body would have
been a supreme sacrifice as well. He
was leaving the sinless perfection of heaven to live in a sinful human
world. I would say that is
one major sacrifice, but, the sacrifice did not end at His birth or His
human death. His descent
into Hades would have been a sacrifice, but there is more.
He, is in fact, an eternal sacrifice.
His very existence, right now, as He sits at the right hand of
God is a life of sacrifice. If
you study 1 John 2:1 and 2 you will notice that to be the case.
Those verses read: "My
little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the
Father — Jesus Christ the righteous one. He
himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours,
but also for those of the whole world." The
apostle John wrote about something that I believe many Christians miss
or just do not understand. I
will explain. John
was encouraging his readers not to commit sin, but he knew they would.
It is just our sinful nature, as Paul taught in Romans 7.
We sin because we are sinners by nature.
Despite the fact that a Christian's sins are forgiven, and that
includes present and future sins, God still sees our sin.
John portrays Jesus in 1 John 2:1 as our lawyer that represents
us to God, the Eternal, Universal Judge.
John
wrote that if we sin, and he knew we would sin, we have an advocate who
sits beside God, His Father. We
know this advocate is Jesus. Another
word for the word "advocate" is the word "lawyer."
I don't think that the majority of Christians sees Jesus as their
present-day lawyer, but He is. The
writer of the Book of Hebrews called Jesus our High Priest instead of an
advocate or a lawyer. Like a
lawyer, a priest would represent the Christian to God.
So,
how does Jesus, our lawyer, represent us to God when we commit a sinful
act? 1 John 2:2 provides us
with the answer. Jesus is
our atoning sacrifice. This
is important. We often think
that Jesus was our atoning sacrifice while hanging on the cross.
He was that, but, He is still our atoning sacrifice, right now in
present time. He is in fact,
a living sacrifice. Who
Jesus is right now, that is, His very essence, is pure sacrifice.
The
Greek word "hilasmos" is translated into the Christian
Standard Bible in 1 John 2:2 as atoning sacrifice.
In short, both in the English and the Greek, the atoning
sacrifice, who, Jesus Himself presently is, means that He sacrifices
Himself by reflecting the wrath of God away from us due to the sins we
commit as Christians. This
is what I believe many Christians just don't understand these days.
In theological terms, this is called "propitiation."
In
short, Jesus is our eternal sacrifice.
He is that right now. He
is our lawyer, our atoning sacrifice, deflecting God's wrath away from
us when God sees us sin, and He does see us sin.
Our sins may be forgiven, but I believe that God still sees them,
and He does not feel very good about that.
Those feelings change as soon as He glances over to see Jesus at
His side. Since Jesus
represents us as a lawyer, you might say that God sees us inside Jesus,
and His anger departs. This
is what the term "in Christ" is all about.
I don't think that Jesus as to say one word in our defense.
His very presence at the side of God, the Judge, is our defense.
If
you do not think that God sees the present sins we commit, that are
already forgiven, just read the first two chapters of the Book of
Revelation. There, we see
that Jesus, and thus God, saw the sins of those in the seven listed
churches. Jonah
was right. Salvation, or
deliverance, really does come from the Lord.
He has saved us. He
is saving us, and, He will save us.
In New Testament terms, salvation is an ongoing process.
We see salvation in all three verb tenses in the New Testament,
and here they are. I
was saved is seen in Romans 8:24. "Now
in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because
who hopes for what he sees?" I
am being saved is seen in 2 Corinthians 2:15. "For
to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved
and among those who are perishing." I
will be saved is seen in Romans 5:10. "For
if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death
of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved
by his life."
The Text 1 - The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 "Get up! Go to the great city of 3 Jonah got up and went to Now 5 Then the people of 6 When word reached the king of 10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil
ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them
with. And he did not do it. My Commentary Verses 1 and 2 "1 - The
word of the Lord came
to Jonah a second time: 2 'Get up! Go to the great city of In
verse 1 we note that the Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.
The first time would have been Jonah's original call to go and
preach to the residents of We
really do not have the details to the exact message that Jonah was to
preach. I will address this
in a couple verses down the way. Most
Bible teachers conclude that it was a message of judgment that was
intended to lead to repentance, and they get that from the response of
those living in The
question to be asked here is, "Where was Jonah when he heard God
call him for the second time? This
is an important question because wherever he was, would help us
understand the three-day walk, as seen in verse 3.
Verses 3 and 4 "3 Jonah got up and went to Now Verse
3 states that Jonah got up and went to The
next phrase in the text states that The
words "a three-day walk" have intrigued Bible scholars for
years, and that is because, there is no specific mention where Jonah was
when he heard the Word of the Lord for the second time.
The only thing we can do is speculate.
If Jonah was somewhere around Joppa, at the east end of the
Mediterranean Sea, then, it would not have been a three-day walk to
Nineveh. It would have been
more like a five to seven-week walk to In
my chapter on Biblical numbers, I suggested that in Biblical symbolic
terms, the number three could easily mean the completion of something,
instead of the literal number three.
If the author of Jonah was thinking in these metamorphic or
symbolic terms, which he could well have been, due to the culture of his
day and the genre of his text, then, a three-day walk simply means a
period of time to complete the walk.
It would not mean a literal three-day walk.
It could be that five to seven week walk. If
on the other hand, Jonah was close to Nineveh at this point in the
narrative, we might be able to understand a three-day walk to be a
literal three days. Some
Bible scholars suggest a different scenario altogether.
The three-day walk has nothing to do with Jonah getting to Whatever
scenario to which you adhere, and there are more, most are somewhat
speculative and we cannot build a case on speculation.
Nevertheless, Bible teachers must address this issue if they, and
we, are to seriously deal with this text.
That being said, however you believe about this makes no real
difference to what the author wants us to learn from his book. Verse
4 is the only verse in the Book of Jonah, other than verse1, of chapter
1, that hints at just what the message was Jonah was to preach.
All that we know is that Jonah told the residents of the city of Understanding
the cultural writings of history back in the day this book was penned,
not filling in all of the historic details was no real problem to anyone
back them. As a matter of
fact, as I have been saying, not providing all of the historic details
was commonplace. It does,
though, inhibit our attempt today to completely understand the text, as
we in our culture like to understand history.
We want to understand it from our cultural frame of reference,
that being; we want to know all of the details.
We want them all out in the open in a systematic format, with
nothing added or nothing taken away.
That simply was not how people wrote and thought back in the
ancient near east when it came to historical narrative.
Verses 5 through 9 "5 Then the people of 6 When word reached the king of Verse
5 states that the people of I
believe we should understand this new-found belief in the God of the
Jews this way. Being
polytheistic pagans, these people would have simply added the Jewish God
to the list of gods they believed existed.
This would have been the ancient near-eastern, cultural thing to
do in the eight century BC. I
grant you that these people might have had a higher estimation of the
Hebrew God at this point in their lives, but I sincerely doubt if they
converted to Judaism. If
these people had really given themselves to the God of Abraham and
Moses, according to the Law of Moses, they would have had to join the
Jewish community by obeying the Law of Moses.
The men would have had to have been circumcised and they would
have had to denounce all other gods.
I suppose it is a bit speculative, but I don't think that
happened in this situation, and neither do most Old Testament scholars.
These people would have simply added the Jewish God to their long
list of gods, who, were ranked in order of power and responsibility.
They might well have ranked the God of the Jews near the top of
the list, but that would have been all there was to it. You
might think, because these people fasted and dressed themselves in
sackcloth and ashes that they genuinely repented of their sin.
First of all, fasting and dressing in sackcloth was somewhat
commonplace in most all near-eastern, pagan religions in those days.
So, this alone does not suggest true repentance as defined in Old
Testament Judaism. I
do acknowledge a measure of repentance on the part of those residing in When
the king pronounces a fast, this put the repentance into a political
place, although it is not a national repentance, because You
might think that making the animals fast and dressing them in sackcloth
is a bit extreme, and it might have been, but, there is some historical
evidence that such things were done in the ancient near-eastern
religions, although it was not routine. Each
man, according to this passage, must turn from his wrong doing.
I think the word "man" here is a gender neutral word
that would include women as well. If
not gender neutral, then, we realize this was an all-encompassing
repentance, although once again, we must understand the word
"repent" in its ancient pagan context. Verse
9 expresses hope, not faith, on the part of the king.
The hope was that if the people of The
word "relent" means to change your mind.
The hope here was that God would stop being angry, and anger, was
central to ancient, near-eastern god worship.
The people of Verse 10 "10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil
ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them
with. And he did not do it." The
hope of deliverance from God's anger was realized.
God relented. He
changed His mind. He did not
destroy Note
the word "threatened" here in verse 10.
This suggests that the destruction of The Text 1 - Jonah was greatly displeased and became
furious. 2 He prayed to the Lord, "Please, Lord, isn't this what I said while I was still in
my own country? That's why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I
knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger,
abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord,
take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to
live." 4 The Lord asked,
"Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made
himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to
the city. 6 Then the Lord God
appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head
to rescue him from his trouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the
plant. 7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the
plant, and it withered. 8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The
sun beat down on Jonah's head so much that he almost fainted, and
he wanted to die. He said, "It's better for me to die than to
live." 9 Then God asked Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about
the plant?" "Yes, it's right!" he replied.
"I’m angry enough to die!" 10 And the Lord said,
"You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did
not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of My Commentary Verse 1 through 3 "1 - Jonah was greatly displeased and became
furious. 2 He prayed to the Lord, "Please, Lord, isn't this what I said while I was still in
my own country? That's why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I
knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger,
abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord,
take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to
live." Here
in Jonah, chapter 4, we see clearer than ever how conflicted Jonah was.
We've seen this throughout the last three chapters, but we really
see it here. He is so
conflicted that he is angry at God and wants to die. Verse
1 states that Jonah was both displeased and furious.
I suggest that this is pretty strong language.
The word "conflict," at this point in the narrative,
might well be a real understatement.
He was down right mad at all that had transpired, and, he had no
problem expressing his anger to God.
This presents us with an important thought, and that is, should
we really express such anger, or really, any negative emotion to God as
Jonah did here? Many
of us would not dare to verbalize our inner thoughts or feelings of our
hearts to God, and we would do so out of fear or reluctance to show our
real selves. The fact of the
matter, though, is this. God
knows the very thoughts that pass through our minds.
He knows the intent and feelings of our hearts.
He sees it all. Nothing
is hid from Him, so, verbalizing your thoughts and emotions to God is
probably not as problematic as we think.
Yes, it is one step beyond just thinking these thoughts, but
still, God sees it all anyway. None
of the good, bad, or the ugly, is hid from his eyes.
Verbalizing
negative thoughts and feelings might actually have a beneficial affect
in our relationship with God. It
might well get these thoughts and emotions out into the open where we
can find answers and relief from the negativity.
I conclude, then, that neither Jonah, nor us, verbalizing such
thoughts to God is a problem. The
problem arises when after we do our verbalizing, we fail to deal with
the negativity. Verse
2 tells us that this was not the first time that Jonah had argued with
God. He did the same in the
very beginning, when he first heard the Word of the Lord, and, he
reminded God of this, just in case God might have forgotten.
Of course, God would not have forgotten.
It just goes to show our human feeble thought processes before an
all-knowing God. Jonah
had thought this whole situation out in his mind.
He believed he knew what the results of his mission would be.
He was no different than any of us today.
We cannot put him down for this.
You and I do the same all of the time.
We believe we hear the instruction of the Lord, and then we think
it all through. Sometimes we
concur with the Lord and sometimes we don't.
It is just our human tendency.
It
is also notable that we see the word "please" in verse 2.
Jonah was not just arguing with God.
He was pleading with him, and again, I am sure you have pleaded
with God as well. This was
one intense conversation that Jonah had with God.
The
fact that Jonah believed that God was gracious and loving, something
those in At
this point in Jonah's dialogue with God, as seen in verse 3, he was
totally despondent, discouraged, and fed up with God and life.
He just wanted to die. In
today's secular terminology, he just wanted to get the hell off this
planet. He might as well
have drowned in the Verse 4 "4 The Lord asked,
'Is it right for you to be angry?'" In
response to Jonah's complaint and argument, God asked a simple question.
"Is it right for you to be angry?"
I would think that the answer to God's question is simply,
"no." What real
right would Jonah have to be angry with God?
Do any of us have a right to be angry with God? It
has often been said that God is God and we are not.
If that is true, which it is, then none of us have a right to be
angry with God. Besides, it
has always been in the heart of God to work alongside man, who He
originally created. The God
of the Bible did not create all that we know and don't know and then
step back from His creation to let creation evolve on its own.
However you view the first three chapters of Genesis, the very
fact that God, Adam, and Eve, were in some kind of communication tells
me that God wanted to be involved in the lives of those He created.
He wanted to administer His will on earth in conjunction with us.
This isn't just Old Testament thinking.
It is New Testament thinking as well, as seen in Mark 16:20. "And
they [the apostles] went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord
worked with them and confirmed the word by the accompanying signs." I
understand the controversy over the last few verses of Mark 16, but I do
believe verse 20 addresses a Biblical truth, and that is this.
It is God's intent, and specifically Jesus' intent as seen in
Mark 16:20, to work alongside His people to accomplish God's plans on
earth. In Mark 16:20 we note
that the apostles performed the manual labour of preaching, while Jesus
worked with them, performing the spiritual work that would carry the
Word of God to the hearts of the people to whom the disciples preached.
It is all about collaboration, that is, you, I, and Jesus working
together as a functioning unity.
I
say all of the above, because I believe it was God's will to work
alongside of Jonah in the proclamation of a specific message to Verses 5 and 6 "5 Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made
himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to
the city. 6 Then the Lord God
appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head
to rescue him from his trouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the
plant." I
don't know for sure how long Jonah's conversation with God took.
Maybe it was just a couple of minutes, an hour, or maybe it took
place over a couple of days. Whatever
the case, it appears to me that Jonah got fed up with everything and
just walked out on God. Can
you believe that? Walking
out on God, what a travesty. After
making himself a shelter, Jonah just sat back to watch. Would God really
do anything, about At
this point another miracle took place.
God provided some kind of a plant for Jonah that would shelter
him. It actually grew up
over night. Apparently God's
shelter was better than the shelter Jonah made for himself, but what
could we expect. Anything we
build for ourselves is nothing compared to that which God builds for us.
We see Jonah sitting around in his stubborn rebellion.
He made a feeble attempt to build a shelter that would protect
him from the elements, but God provided a better shelter, and that
despite Jonah's nastiness towards Him.
Talk about a loving and graceful God, we certainly see that here.
Most of us would have just left Jonah on his own to deal with all
of his problems. The pagan
gods of Jonah's day would have clobbered him.
Jonah could face the elements for himself, would be our attitude.
He doesn't deserve any assistance from anyone, let alone God.
This
was a miracle plant. It just
grew up in minutes. This is
not natural. I suggest,
then, that we might think of this miracle plant in the same way that I
have portrayed the big fish. Was
this really a big plant that could protect Jonah, or was this plant a
metaphor for something else? I
would suggest that if I believe the big fish was not really a big fish,
then, to be consistent, I think I should think that this miracle plant
is a metaphor for God's divine protection over Jonah.
The
text then tells us that Jonah was pleased with the plant.
Of course he would be pleased with the plant.
Why would he not be pleased with better protection?
It is somewhat speculative, but it appears to me that Jonah,
despite being pleased with God's protective action, was still not
pleased with God. How human
Jonah was? In our humanity,
we are pleased with all that God gives us, but still, that does not
necessarily change our negativism about God and His ways.
We will take all we can get from God and just keep on doing our
own thing.
Verse 7 and 8 "7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the
plant, and it withered. 8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The
sun beat down on Jonah's head so much that he almost fainted, and
he wanted to die. He said, 'It's better for me to die than to
live.'" We
had just seen that God provided a plant as a shelter for Jonah, and as I
think, Jonah did not seem to appreciate God.
Yes, he was pleased with the plant, but still not pleased with
God. For this reason, or so
it looks, God provided a worm to eat the plant and a scorching wind to
inflict Jonah. I see this as
God's discipline in the life of Jonah.
We do know that those God loves, He does discipline.
Proverbs 3:12 reads: "...
for the LORD disciplines
the one he loves, just as a
father disciplines the son in whom he delights." Hebrews
12:6 seems to be a direct reference to Proverbs 3:12.
Hebrews 12:6 reads: "...
for
the Lord disciplines
the one he loves
and
punishes every son he receives." Then
there is Revelation 3:19 that is a well known, but a little understood
verse. "As
many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent." We
see God relenting in the Book of Jonah, but we don't see Jonah
relenting. He might well
have had a change of heart, but we just don't read it in the Book of
Jonah. We
note here that the sun got so hot that it almost caused Jonah to faint.
Once again, Jonah just felt like giving up.
He wanted to be dead. If
we are honest, sometimes that is how we feel when we are being
disciplined by the Lord. You
might have felt the same way, when as a child your father or mother
disciplined you. God's
discipline is not something to get all happy and joyous about.
We can all agree on that. Discipline
is just part of a godly life.
The
problem with God's discipline in my opinion is that many who call
themselves Christians do not give being disciplined by God much thought.
Many don't think in terms that God can, or would, discipline
them. That, in turn, would
mean that if God does discipline them, they don't even realize it.
They may blame the discipline; however it is administrated, as
being from the devil, when in fact it wasn't.
They may even blame another person.
The logical conclusion to not recognizing God's discipline is
that you do not learn the lesson you are to learn.
The discipline has no redemptive value in your life, and as the
old saying goes, "you end up walking around the same old mountain
again." What a waste.
Verse 9 "9 Then God asked Jonah, 'Is it right for you to be angry about the
plant?' 'Yes, it’s right!' he replied. 'I'm angry enough to
die!'" For
the second time in this chapter we see that God asked Jonah this
question. "Is it right
for you to be angry ...." This
time God addressed Jonah's anger towards the plant that died.
How typical Jonah was. God
provides the plant of protection for him.
He is pleased, but still not pleased with God.
God, then, takes away the plant of protection as a means of
discipline, and Jonah fails to see he is being disciplined.
He gets mad instead. Again,
it's typical human nature. Humanity
never changes. It remains as
sinful today as it ever has.
Just
in case you think I'm over doing the sinfulness of our human nature, I
quote from Jeremiah 17:9. Surprisingly,
it is one of my favourite verses, and that because; it shows us the
fallen state in which we find ourselves.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells me how God feels about human nature, a human
nature that the apostle Paul stated still inflicts us, even as
Christians. See Romans,
chapter 7. Jeremiah 17:9
reads: "The
heart is more deceitful than anything else, and
incurable — who can understand it?" Now
read the very next verse in Jeremiah, because I think it is applicable
to our discussion at hand. Jeremiah
17:10 reads: "I,
the LORD, examine the mind, I
test the heart to give to each according to his way,
according to what his actions deserve." Let
me quote that verse again, but this time, I will personalize it by
inserting Jonah's name into the text. "I,
the LORD, examine
Jonah's mind, I test Jonah's heart to give him
according to his way, according to what his actions
deserve." Does
Jeremiah 17:10 clue us in on what God was doing in His conversation with
Jonah? I think so.
The thoughts of Jonah's mind were being examined by the Lord.
His heart was being tested, and thus, God would act accordingly.
Isn't this also what God was doing with those in the city of I
agree with all of the commentators that suggest God was giving Jonah an
object lesson here. Jonah
criticized those in Out
of spite and anger, Jonah maintained that he had the right to be angry.
It was his prerogative. That
sounds so familiar. How
often have we gotten angry for no valid reason but still feel justified
in our state of anger. It is
so easy for us to justify ourselves.
We can't criticize Jonah for something we do all of the time.
All this being said, when it comes to the word
"justification," we must be exceedingly thankful that through
the cross of Christ, God has justified us. Verse 10 and 11 "10 And the Lord said,
'You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not
grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of Jonah
4, verses 10 and 11 end this account of Jonah.
In my estimation, it seems to end kind of abruptly.
Nothing seems to get resolved between God and Jonah, at least,
not that we know of. Jonah
is still angry. He still
wants to die. God still
questions Jonah. Life goes
on. What transpired next in
Jonah's life is unknown to us. God
responded to Jonah by saying that he cared for, or was pleased with, the
plant of protection that he did not make.
It was God's gift to Him, because even in Jonah's rebellion, God
still cared for Jonah, who was, one of His own.
Even in Jonah's rebellion, God disciplined Jonah so he could
learn a lesson from the whole experience.
God
then presented Jonah with a bit of heavenly logic.
If God cared for Jonah in his state of rebellion, what was wrong
with Him caring for a whole city in their state of rebellion?
Of course, there was nothing wrong with that.
Everything has been created by God.
He is actively involved in His creation.
He is the one who causes kings and nations to both rise and fall,
as Daniel 12:21 states. "He
[God] changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who
have understanding." It
is God, who is the Most High over every empire, every nation, every
province or state, and every city, and really, every human being.
Daniel
4:17 reads: "This
word is by decree of the watchers, and the decision is by command
from the holy ones. This
is so that the living will know that
the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms. He gives them to
anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people over them."
It
is the Sovereign God, as described above, who has authorized Jesus to
exercise all authority over all things material and all things
spiritual. Matthew 28:18
reads: "Jesus
came near and said to them, 'All authority has
been given to me in heaven and on earth.'" It
is Jesus, who has the final word over all universal issues.
In the long run, Jesus has no real competition or rivals, and
that includes Satan himself. More
than anything else, Satan is a tool in the hand of the Almighty Creator
God." It
is Jesus, that has asked us to join with Him in accomplishing God's will
on earth. Just as God called
Jonah to work with Him concerning those living in It
is the God of the universe who will bring every last nation down at the
end of this age, as seen in Revelation 18 and 19.
Yes, God is God. We
can, and He will, do as he pleases.
When it comes to the city of It
is God who is ultimately in control of our nations.
He will do as He pleases. If
he wants to raise a nation or a city up and bless it, that is His
prerogative. If He wants to
shut down a nation or a city, that is His prerogative as well.
He is God. The
Book of Jonah ends with God's pronouncement about those who lived in the
city of Our political world is locked in deadlock,
as both the right and the left spew nonsensical nastiness across the
political isle. Is not our
Christian world beginning to follow the same nastiness?
Christians have become divided over social and political issues,
to the degree that now, we argue and fight in the public square, for all
to see. We must admit to it.
We are no different than The apostle Paul warned us against this
unrighteous behaviour I have been talking about in 1 Corinthians 6:1.
"If
any of you has a dispute against another, how dare you take it to court
before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" In the words of Paul; "how dare
we" take our disputes before the unrighteous public.
It nullifies the reason for our very existence.
Despite all of the above, including our
confused and conflicted souls, Jesus still has great concern for us and
our nations. He really does.
He has not left us alone to die in a state of misery on our
streets. He will birth one
revival after another until the day comes when He replaces revival with
world wide judgment. Let us,
then, be unified with each other and with our Lord in proclaiming
repentance and faith to a confused and conflicted world. There
are many things we can learn from our study of the Book of Jonah.
The following are some that come to my mind. Conflicted but still saved To
one degree or another, I would suggest that all of us have suffered from
some kind of mental or
emotional conflict over something. That
something, at least as Christians, might concern God's will for our
lives. Attempting to figure
out God's will for our lives is difficult enough at times, but
implementing His will, as was the case with Jonah, can, and often does,
cause some conflict within us. It
is just part of being a Christian to which we must admit, and if we
don't admit to the conflict, we will not mature as Christians.
Admitting to our human frailties is the first step in maturity.
It is that simple. It
is something that Jonah did not do, at least not that we know of from
the text of Jonah. That
being said, I am sure there is more to the life and story of Jonah than
what we know. It would not
surprise me in the least that he did eventually recover from his
conflicted soul. Despite
the conflict that rises up within us that can easily get us angry with
our Lord, He still loves us. It's
one of the lessons we learn from the Book of Jonah.
God loves the sinner as seen in those living in Arguing with God Jonah
is seen arguing with God throughout this account.
You might think that this is one very horrible sin.
How can a mere human being even consider arguing with the
Almighty Creator God who is capable of
blowing us all off the face of the earth with a mere thought?
Is this not pure stupidity on our part? If
we are honest, each one of us has argued with God in our own way.
Our problem is that we just do not want to admit to our
argumentativeness. Our
self-righteous mentality refuses to admit to such a thing, but our
self-righteous behaviour, in the long run, will do us in.
You can count on that. We
must admit that we do not always agree with God, and in one way or
another, we argue with Him. This
may not be as bad as a sin as you might think.
If the argument causes us to come to our senses, then our arguing
is redemptive, and redemption is part of what the Christian life is all
about. If, however, we keep
arguing, and never come to God's side of the argument, then we will fail
to be the Christians we are called to be.
As a matter of fact, I think we will be useless Christians,
accomplishing nothing for Jesus in our lives.
Hiding from God Some
of us attempt to hide our negativity from God because we think that if
it gets exposed we will be in much trouble with the Lord.
Jonah certainly did not hide any of his negative thoughts or
emotions. He just let them
all fly out of his mind and soul. He
didn't seem to care where they landed.
We
must admit that we cannot hide anything from God.
He sees it all. Attempting
to hide things from God will not produce the mature life of a Christian
that is expected of us. Sooner
or later, we must come out of our hiding place, our closet, so to speak,
and admit to that which we are trying to hide.
At that point, we can work with Jesus on a redemptive solution to
fix our compulsion to hide from God.
I
do not know what happened to Jonah beyond chapter 4 of the text, but I
speculate that he learned his lesson from all that had transpired in his
life concerning his call to preach to Trusting God It
is the combination of valid repentance and true faith that eventually
saves us. Faith is trust.
When you read the word "faith" or the word
"believe" in the New Testament, it is translated from the
Greek word "pistis." Pistis
simply means trust. If,
then, you claim to have faith in Jesus, you claim to trust Him with your
life. I wonder how many
people who call themselves Christians understand faith in these Biblical
terms. Faith is not merely
giving mental assent to the existence of Jesus, as I think, many people
believe. True
repentance and faith gets us saved, but faith, or trust, is something
that grows after we are saved. It
grows through relationship. As
in marriage, or any kind of friendship, trust grows as the relationship
matures, and that is a difficult process at times.
Nevertheless, as my relationship with Jesus matures, my ability
to trust Him will mature. In
turn that will make me the mature believer I am do be. Jonah
was struggling with trust issues. Like
Jonah, each and every one of us, none excluded, struggles with trusting
our entire lives with Jesus. We
may hand part of our lives over to Him one day, and then take it back
the next day. When we are
first saved, we tell Jesus we trust our lives with Him.
From that moment on, the trust we claim to possess is worked into
our lives one day at a time. Exhibiting
faith, or trust, is certainly a process.
There is no doubt about that.
I'm sure that this whole miserable experience Jonah went through,
would in the end, have caused his trust in God to mature.
God calls us The
Biblical fact is that God, as old time Evangelical Christians have said,
has a call on our lives. That
is just a way to say that God chooses to invite us, first to Himself,
then to others in the Body of Christ, and then, to ministry.
Each
Christian has a part to play in the implementation of God's will on
earth. We all, no one
excluded, have been called to certain tasks, just like Jonah was called
to preach to a sinful city. The
problem many Christians have is that they get saved, so to speak, and
that's it. They do not think
in terms that they have been saved to work for, and work with, the Lord
Jesus. Without the
understanding of being called to ministry, and I'm not just talking
about ministry as in a paid pastor, you will never mature as an
effective Christian. It was
part of the conflict we see with Jonah.
Yes, he was numbered among the people of God.
He was a chosen prophet of God, but it was a struggle for him to
fulfil the calling God had placed on
his life. If
you are a real Christian, you must realize that Jesus has a job for you
to do, both for Him and with Him. It
is all about you, Jesus, and those He has placed you alongside in church
to do this job. Self-centeredness Jonah
seemed very self centered. Life
was all about him. Now
doesn't that sound familiar. It
seems to be the essence of our present hedonistic, western-world
culture. Self-centeredness
is basic to our sinful human nature, and it certainly detracts is from
being mature Christians.
It does hinder us from the ministry calling God has placed on our
lives. It was that way with
Jonah, and it is that way with us. We
are to follow, not in Jonah's footsteps, but in Jesus' footsteps.
I am sure you will agree with me that there was not one hint of
self-centeredness in the life of Jesus while He was on earth, and, there
isn't any hint of it today either, as He sits at the right hand of God
on our behalf.
Generational Revival We
note that those in the city of The
revival in It
is a struggle for us to pass our godly revived lives onto the next
generation, and thus, as each subsequent generation arrives on the
scene, the effects of revival, little by little, disappear.
For this reason, we always need to pray that God would send
revival to the next generation.
Revival through Politics Here
in the twenty-first century, at least in the West, many Christians have
become very active in the world of politics, and that, because they want
to implement Christian living into their nation.
This may sound like an admirable goal, but it does have its
problems. In
the Book of Jonah, we note that the revival that took place in The
greatest example of what I am saying took place in the fourth century
when the Roman emperor Constantine, Christianize the Simply
put, attempting to Christianize a culture through political means, and
again, it has been tried many times over the centuries, is futile.
You may pass laws and legislation banning certain sins, but those
laws and legislation never change the sinful hearts of men and women who
commit the sin. The sin will
express itself one way or another. History
has proven that to be true as well. What
changes the heart of the sinner is the gospel of Jesus and the Holy
Spirit entering the sinner's life. Only
then can we even begin to think of any cultural change towards Biblical
Christianity.
Self-justification It
is our sinful human nature that causes us to justify ourselves when we
are clearly in the wrong. We
see this in the life of Jonah. It
is just difficult for us to admit that we are really wrong sometimes.
It's hard for us to apologize.
Saying "I am sorry," and really meaning it, is far from
easy. If we can end our
self-justification, we will be the better for it.
It will produce a maturity in our lives that most other things
can never produce. To
the degree that we can end justifying ourselves might just be the degree
to which we can more fully comprehend and appreciate the fact that God
has justified us. What Jesus
did on the cross for you and I is just utterly amazing if you really
think it through. Jesus,
who knew no sin, who had no need for self-justification, admitted, not
to His sin, but our sin. He
had no sin to admit. He
confessed our sin, and, He was punished for it.
God now views us who have benefited from the cross of Christ as
being sinless, just as He Himself is sinless, and that despite the fact
that we still sin. With this
in mind, how can we live a life of self-justification?
Self-justification
was one of Jonah's struggles, and it is one of our struggles as well.
God over the nations We
learn many things from the Book of Jonah.
One thing we learn is that it is God, or as Matthew 28:18 now
states, it is Jesus, who has the final authority over all nations.
He has the last word over your nation, and really, over you as
well. Think about that for a
while. Far
too often we get all bent out of shape over what we see our godless
nations are doing these days. We
get caught up in all sorts of emotions that have no constructive value.
We should not be surprised when we see such sinfulness around us.
It was that way in In
part, Jonah was bent out of shape over the evil city of Being
overly occupied with the world around us to the degree we fail to
accomplish God's will in our lives, shows a lack of maturity on our
part. We may fight hard as
we can to make our national culture more Christian, but more often than
not, that backfires. It
backfires because we're using humanistic methods to perform a divinely
mandated job. God
called Jonah to preach to God's Judgment on nations We
also must know that God will end up judging every nation in this world.
He, as seen in Revelation 18 and 19, will bring every last nation
down to its knees in divine judgment.
No nation, not even your nation, will be left standing.
At that point, the If
I were you, I'd have my feet firmly planted in the God still protects when we run Jonah
tried his best to run away from the presence of God, and that despite
the fact that he had to have realized that was impossible.
Still, God protected Jonah as he ran.
If, then, you have been called by God to be His, which makes you
a real Christian, He will protect you in His own way.
Even if you attempt to run from Him, or, even just avoid him,
there is still divine protection available.
On
the other hand, as God removed that plant of protection from Jonah's
life to discipline him, He can do the same with you and I today.
We all must acknowledge the fact that God does, and will,
discipline His people, whom He loves.
Then, once disciplined, we must learn from those times of
discipline, and if we don't, we're wasting God's time and energy in our
lives. God's
discipline is always redemptive. Be
redeemed and learn the lesson from being disciplined by your heavenly
Father who loves you.
Jonah
was one of God's chosen people, that being, the Jews.
God called Jonah to both a prophetic ministry, and as recorded in
the Book of Jonah, to one specific prophetic task.
Jonah fought God every step of the way concerning God's call for
him to preach to an evil city. He
was not much different than any of us today. Despite
the fact that Jonah, a called of God prophet, was deeply conflicted, he
was still loved by God and he still had a ministry calling to perform.
In like fashion, as Christians today, we may find ourselves
mentally and emotionally confused and conflicted at times.
We may question our relationship with Jesus and His ministry
calling on our lives. At
times we might feel that life is one huge futile endeavour.
We, and our ministry, take a few steps forward, and then, we find
ourselves falling back a step or two, or maybe, even starting all over
again. You
might consider the life of the great apostle Paul.
It ended as a Roman soldier's sword sliced his head from his
shoulders. Was that it for
Paul? Where was God?
Where was His protection? A
most valuable apostle's life ends in a pathetic pool of blood.
It defies human logic. You sit and ponder over what might pass
through your mind in that last transient moment of your life.
Will that last fleeting thought be as glorious as you now hope it
will be?
All
of the above negativity being said, we are still love by our Lord.
We are still saved. We
still have a ministry calling to perform.
So, we carry on. Our
lives are not as futile as we might think at times.
We consider the life of Paul.
His life may have ended in a pathetic pool of blood, but we
benefit from his life to this very day.
Like Jonah, as conflicted as he was, we certainly benefit from
his life, some two and a half thousand years later.
Our lives can be as Paul's and Jonah's.
We can leave a legacy of hope in the midst of a world of chaos,
confusion, and conflict, and that we will certainly do.
Confused,
but still saved. Conflicted,
yet still loved. How
thankful I am. It motivates
me to take up my personalized ministry calling, despite any pitfall that
may cross my path of my life and ministry.
Like Paul and Jonah, my life is in the hands of the Sovereign
Lord God of the universe, and that is where I expect my life to stay.
May
our Lord Jesus Christ bless you in whatever way He may see fit.
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