The Magnanimity of God-The story of the Forgiving God-the book of Jonah

To err is human, to forgive is Divine

Jonah 4:2; I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

Jonah 4:4; But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah 4:9-11; But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Notes

Prophet Jonah was also mentioned outside the book of Jonah in 2 Kings 14:24-25 (Prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, during the reign of King Jeroboam II).

The book was claimed to have been written in postexilic period. However, the reference in 2 Kings 14, suggests the prophet lived in the pre-exilic period.

2 pillars near Alexandretta, Turkey mark the place where the fish supposedly vomited Jonah onto dry land.

A mosque near the oil fields of Mosul in northern Iraq, pilgrims can still view what is advertised to be the physical remains of Jonah’s whale.

The major theme in the book of Jonah is FORGIVENESS (especially towards foreign people).

Some critics argue that the genre of Jonah is neither prophecy nor history, but rather Midrash, a Hebrew term meaning “investigation”. A midrash is a typically rabbinic form of instruction that employs Holy scripture as a peg upon which to hang additional observations or fanciful discussions.

The book of Jonah is considered as a commentary on Exod.34:6 (giving God’s characteristics) and 2 Kings 14:25 (mentioning Jonah as Jeroboam’s prophet).

Roguish sense of humour is present in the book, such as animals fasting in chapter 3.

In the book of Jonah, comedy and tragedy are both present, as are parable and allegory, midrash and legend, wisdom, literature and prophecy. It is a moral narrative containing elements of several literary types, and the book with its theme of Forgiveness need not be restricted to any specific genre.

Date

Generally considered to be one of the oldest parts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

No clear reference to time – no indication of who was on the throne of Israel, or how many years it had been before or after the great earthquake mentioned by Amos and Zechariah.

Nonetheless the notion of Jonah’s composition being contemporary to Jeroboam II (782 – 753 B.C.E has its supporters).

In 612 B.C.E, the Babylonians and Medes destroyed Assyria’s capital city of Nineveh which was never rebuilt. A commonsense analysis of the exaggerated description of Nineveh and its inhabitants suggests that the book of Jonah’s composition considerably postdates the razing of the city. Probably, Nineveh had long since assumed mythical proportions when the book of Jonah was composed.

Convincing internal evidence demonstrates that the book of Jonah is postexilic. Exile is seventy years. Began in 586 B.C.E, continued until 539 B.C.E, defeat of the Babylonians by King Cyrus of Persia.

Structure

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 develop a clear: crisis àprayer àdeliverance structure. The fourth chapter’s open ending makes it more complex. But the book’s overall architecture of division into four chapters is generally thought to enhance the literary quality of the whole.

Dorsey’s analysis is consistent with a view of the book having 2 cycles and an epilogue rather than 4 chapters. The first cycle consists of Jonah’s flight from God, followed by the ordeal and prayer in the fish. Transition scene when Jonah is vomited onto dry land. Story seem to start up again. Second cycle commences with Jonah’s prophecy to Nineveh, the Heathen people’s repentance and the concluding conversation between God and Jonah.

There is a tripartite structure to the activity in each section (when the book is considered to be structured into 2 sections: in part one, a Hebrew sinner is saved, he is disobedient and punished for his transgressions, but God creates a fish to preserve Jonah’s life and then unceremoniously dumps him back on shore. Part two; Jonah goes to Nineveh, heathen sinners are saved, Jonah complains bitterly to the Lord over Nineveh’s salvation, though the prophet has a reasonable explanation for his distress. God then delivers a brief sermon to the recalcitrant prophet, a lesson in forgiveness that he may not fully grasp. The anguish sailors in part one and the distraught citizens of Nineveh in part two are similar, pagans all). Salvation is for all. God does not show favouritism (Acts 10:34-35; Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.).

The tripartite structure:

• Impending disaster that
• Leads to repentance that
• Leads to deliverance and forgiveness

The name Jonah, stems from the Hebrew word “oppress”, which might give a clue to his personality and mission. The prophet’s dangerous mission to distant Nineveh makes him an oppressed person. His name is typically translated as “dove”. A dove is a representative of an undiscerning person, a birdbrain. The son of Amittai, a word derived from the Hebrew root “truth”. So, Jonah’s name may be broadly interpreted as either “peaceful bird, son of human truthfulness” or “Birdbrain, son of God’s enduring truth in the face of human capriciousness”.

In Hebrew theology; people have free will, but fate cannot be avoided when equated with the will of God.

This is a summary on the Biblical account of the Jonah and the big fish. God called to Jonah one day and told him to go preach to Nineveh because the people were very wicked. Jonah hated this idea because Nineveh was one of Israel’s greatest enemies and Jonah wanted nothing to do with preaching to them!

Jonah tried to run away from God in the opposite direction of Nineveh and headed by boat to Tarshish. God sent a great storm upon the ship and the men decided Jonah was to blame so they threw him overboard. As soon as they tossed Jonah in the water, the storm stopped.

God sent a big fish, some call it a whale, to swallow Jonah and to save him from drowning. While in the belly of the big fish (whale), Jonah prayed to God for help, repented, and praised God. For three days Jonah sat in the belly of the fish. Then, God had the big fish throw up Jonah onto the shores of Nineveh.

Jonah preached to Nineveh and warned them to repent before the city is destroyed in 40 days. The people believed Jonah, turned from their wickedness, and God had mercy on them. Jonah now became angry and bitter because God did not destroy the Ninevites who were Israel’s enemy! When Jonah sat to rest God provided a vine to give him shade. The next day, God sent a worm to eat the vine. Jonah now sat in the hot sun complaining and wanting to die. God called out to Jonah and scolded him for being so concerned and worried about just a plant while God was concerned with the heart condition and lives of 120,000 people who lived in the city of Nineveh.

Introduction to Jonah 1

Jonah has run from God, but God has not abandoned Jonah. Caught in a violent storm at sea, Jonah has been thrown into the Mediterranean by the terrified sailors. Jonah expected to drown, but instead was swallowed by a great fish that God had miraculously prepared to deliver his prophet.

Jonah 1:1-17. JONAH’S COMMISSION TO NINEVEH, FLIGHT, PUNISHMENT, AND PRESERVATION BY MIRACLE.

 

1. Jonah–meaning in Hebrew, “dove.” Compare Genesis 8:8 Genesis 8:9, where the dove in vain seeks rest after flying from Noah and the ark: so, Jonah. GROTIUS not so well explains it, “one sprung from Greece” or Ionia, where there were prophets called Amythaonidæ.

Amittai–Hebrew for “truth,” “truth-telling”; appropriate to a prophet.

 

2. to Nineveh–east of the Tigris, opposite the modern Mosul. The only case of a prophet being sent to the heathen. Jonah, however, is sent to Nineveh, not solely for Nineveh’s good, but also to shame Israel, by the fact of a heathen city repenting at the first preaching of a single stranger, Jonah, whereas God’s people will not repent, though preached to by their many national prophets, late and early. Nineveh means “the residence of Ninus,” that is, Nimrod. Genesis 10:11, where the translation ought to be, “He (Nimrod) went forth into Assyria and builded Nineveh.” Modern research into the cuneiform inscriptions confirms the Scripture account that Babylon was founded earlier than Nineveh, and that both cities were built by descendants of Ham, encroaching on the territory assigned to Shem (Genesis 10:5 Genesis 10:6 Genesis 10:8 Genesis 10:10 Genesis 10:25).

great city–four hundred eighty stadia in circumference, one hundred fifty in length, and ninety in breadth [DIODORUS SICULUS, 2.3]. Taken by Arbaces the Mede, in the reign of Sardanapalus, about the seventh year of Uzziah; and a second time by Nabopolassar of Babylon and Cyaxares the Mede in 625 B.C.

cry–(Isaiah 40:6, 58:1).

come up before me–(Genesis 4:10, 6:13, 18:21, Ezra 9:6, Revelation 18:5); that is, their wickedness is so great as to require My open interposition for punishment.

3. flee–Jonah’s motive for flight is hinted at in Jonah 4:2 : fear that after venturing on such a dangerous commission to so powerful a heathen city, his prophetical threats should be set aside by God’s “repenting of the evil,” just as God had so long spared Israel notwithstanding so many provocations, and so he should seem a false prophet. Besides, he may have felt it beneath him to discharge a commission to a foreign idolatrous nation, whose destruction he desired rather than their repentance. This is the only case of a prophet, charged with a prophetical message, concealing it.

from the presence of the Lord–(Compare Genesis 4:16). Jonah thought in fleeing from the land of Israel, where Jehovah was peculiarly present, that he should escape from Jehovah’s prophecy-inspiring influence. He probably knew the truth stated in Psalms 139:7-10, but virtually ignored it (compare Genesis 3:8-10, Jeremiah 23:24).

went down–appropriate in going from land to the sea (Psalms 107:23).

Joppa–now Jaffa, in the region of Dan; a harbor as early as Solomon’s time (2 Chronicles 2:16).

Tarshish–Tartessus in Spain; in the farthest west at the greatest distance from Nineveh in the east.

4. sent out–literally, caused a wind to burst forth. COVERDALE translates, “hurled a greate wynde into the see.”

 

5. mariners were afraid–though used to storms; the danger therefore must have been extreme.

cried every man unto his god–The idols proved unable to save them, though each, according to Phoenician custom, called on his tutelary god. But Jehovah proved able: and the heathen sailors owned it in the end by sacrificing to Him (Jonah 1:16).

into the sides–that is, the interior recesses (compare 1 Samuel 24:3, Isaiah 14:13 Isaiah 14:15). Those conscious of guilt shrink from the presence of their fellow man into concealment.

fast asleep–Sleep is no necessary proof of innocence; it may be the fruit of carnal security and a seared conscience. How different was Jesus’ sleep on the Sea of Galilee! (Mark 4:37-39). Guilty Jonah’s indifference to fear contrasts with the unoffending mariners’ alarm. The original therefore is in the nominative absolute: “But as for Jonah, he,” &c. Compare spiritually, Ephesians 5:14.

6. call upon thy God–The ancient heathen in dangers called on foreign gods, besides their national ones (compare Psalms 107:28). MAURER translates the preceding clause, “What is the reason that thou sleepest?”

think upon us–for good (compare Genesis 8:1, Exodus 2:25, Exodus 3:7 Exodus 3:9, Psalms 40:17).

7. cast lots–God sometimes sanctioned this mode of deciding in difficult cases. Compare the similar instance of Achan, whose guilt involved Israel in suffering, until God revealed the offender, probably by the casting of lots (Proverbs 16:33, Acts 1:26). Primitive tradition and natural conscience led even the heathen to believe that one guilty man involves all his associates, though innocent, in punishment. So, CICERO [The Nature of the Gods, 3.37] mentions that the mariners sailing with Diagoras, an atheist, attributed a storm that overtook them to his presence in the ship (compare HORACE’S Odes, 3.2.26).
8. The guilty individual being discovered is interrogated so as to make full confession with his own mouth. So, in Achan’s case (Joshua 7:19).
9. I am an Hebrew–He does not say “an Israelite.” For this was the name used among themselves; “Hebrew,” among foreigners (Genesis 40:15 , Exodus 3:18 ).

I fear the Lord–in profession: his practice belied his profession: his profession aggravated his guilt.

God . . . which . . . made the sea–appropriately expressed, as accounting for the tempest sent on the sea. The heathen had distinct gods for the “heaven,” the “sea,” and the “land.” Jehovah is the one and only true God of all alike. Jonah at last is awakened by the violent remedy from his lethargy. Jonah was but the reflection of Israel’s backsliding from God, and so must bear the righteous punishment. The guilt of the minister is the result of that of the people, as in Moses’ case (Deuteronomy 4:21). This is what makes Jonah a suitable type of Messiah, who bore the imputed sin of the people.

10. “The men were exceedingly afraid,” when made aware of the wrath of so powerful a God at the flight of Jonah.

Why hast thou done this? –If professors of religion do wrong, they will hear of it from those who make no such profession.

11. What shall we do unto thee? –They ask this, as Jonah himself must best know how his God is to be appeased. “We would gladly save thee, if we can do so, and yet be saved ourselves” (Jonah 1:13 Jonah 1:14).
12. cast me . . . into the sea–Herein Jonah is a type of Messiah, the one man who offered Himself to die, in order to allay the stormy flood of God’s wrath (compare Psalms 69:1 Psalms 69:2 , as to Messiah), which otherwise must have engulfed all other men. So, Caiaphas by the Spirit declared it expedient that one man should die, and that the whole nation should not perish (John 11:50). Jonah also herein is a specimen of true repentance, which leads the penitent to “accept the punishment of his iniquity” (Leviticus 26:41 Leviticus 26:43), and to be more indignant at his sin than at his suffering.
13. they could not–(Proverbs 21:30). Wind and tide–God’s displeasure and God’s counsel were against them.
14. for this man’s life–that is, for taking this man’s life.

innocent blood–Do not punish us as Thou wouldst punish the shedders of innocent blood (compare Deuteronomy 21:8). In the case of the Antitype, Pontius Pilate washed his hands and confessed Christ’s innocence, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” But whereas Jonah the victim was guilty and the sailors innocent, Christ our sacrificial victim was innocent and Pontius Pilate and all of us men were guilty. But by imputation of our guilt to Him and His righteousness to us, the spotless Antitype exactly corresponds to the guilty type.

thou . . . Lord, hast done as it pleased thee–That Jonah has embarked in this ship, that a tempest has arisen, that he has been detected by casting of lots, that he has passed sentence on himself, is all Thy doing. We reluctantly put him to death, but it is Thy pleasure it should be so.

15. sea ceased . . . raging–so at Jesus’ word (Luke 8:24). God spares the prayerful penitent, a truth illustrated now in the case of the sailors, presently in that of Jonah, and thirdly, in that of Nineveh.
16. offered a sacrifice–They offered some sacrifice of thanksgiving at once and vowed more when they should land. GLASSIUS thinks it means only, “They promised to offer a sacrifice.”

 

17. prepared a great fish–not created especially for this purpose, but appointed in His providence, to which all creatures are subservient. The fish, through a mistranslation of Matthew 12:40, was formerly supposed to be a whale; there, as here, the original means “a great fish.” The whale’s neck is too narrow to receive a man. BOCHART thinks, the dogfish, the stomach of which is so large that the body of a man in armor was once found in it [Hierozoicon, 2.5.12]. Others, the shark [JEBB]. The cavity in the whale’s throat, large enough, according to CAPTAIN SCORESBY, to hold a ship’s jolly boat full of men. A miracle in any view is needed, and we have no data to speculate further. A “sign” or miracle it is expressly called by our Lord in Matthew 12:39. Respiration in such a position could only be by miracle. The miraculous interposition was not without a sufficient reason; it was calculated to affect not only Jonah, but also Nineveh and Israel. The life of a prophet was often marked by experiences which made him, through sympathy, best suited for discharging the prophetical function to his hearers and his people. The infinite resources of God in mercy as well as judgment are prefigured in the devourer being transformed into Jonah’s preserver. Jonah’s condition under punishment, shut out from the outer world, was rendered as much as possible the emblem of death, a present type to Nineveh and Israel, of the death in sin, as his deliverance was of the spiritual resurrection on repentance; as also, a future type of Jesus’ literal death for sin, and resurrection by the Spirit of God.

three days and three nights–probably, like the Antitype, Christ, Jonah was cast forth on the land on the third day (Matthew 12:40); the Hebrew counting the first and third parts of days as whole twenty-four-hour days.

Introduction to Jonah 2

Jonah 2:1-10. JONAH’S PRAYER OF FAITH AND DELIVERANCE.

This chapter contains the prayer of Jonah, when in the fish’s belly; the time when he prayed, the person he prayed unto, and the place where, are suggested in \\#Jon 2:1\\; and the latter described as a place of great straitness and distress, and even as hell itself, \\#Jon 2:2\\; The condition he was in, when cast into the sea, and when in the belly of the fish, which is observed, the more to heighten the greatness of the deliverance, \\#Jon 2:3-6\\. The different frame of mind he was in, sometimes almost in despair, and ready to faint; and presently exercising faith and hope, remembering the goodness of the Lord, and resolving to look again to him, \\#Jon 2:4,7\\. The gracious regards of God to him, in receiving, hearing, and answering his prayer, and bringing up his life from corruption, \\#Jon 2:2,6,7\\. His resolution, let others do what they would, to praise the Lord, and give him the glory of his salvation, \\#Jon 2:8,9\\; and the chapter is concluded with the order for his deliverance, and the manner of it, \\#Jon 2:10\\.

1. his God–“his” still, though Jonah had fled from Him. Faith enables Jonah now to feel this; just as the returning prodigal says of the Father, from whom he had wandered, “I will arise and go to my Father” (Luke 15:18).

out of the fish’s belly–Every place may serve as an oratory. No place is amiss for prayer. Others translate, “when (delivered) out of the fish’s belly.” English Version is better.

2. His prayer is partly descriptive and precatory, partly eucharistical. Jonah incorporates with his own language inspired utterances familiar to the Church long before in Jonah 2:2 , Psalms 120:1 ; in Jonah 2:3 , Psalms 42:7 ; in Jon 2:4 , Psalms 31:22 ; in Jonah 2:5 , Psalms 69:1 ; in Jon 2:7 , Psalms 142:3 , 18:6 ; in Jonah 2:8 , Psalms 31:6 ; in Jonah 2:9 , Psalms 116:17 Psalms 116:18 , 3:8 . Jonah, an inspired man, thus attests both the antiquity and inspiration of the Psalms. It marks the spirit of faith, that Jonah identifies himself with the saints of old, appropriating their experiences as recorded in the Word of God (Psalms 119:50). Affliction opens up the mine of Scripture, before seen only on the surface.

out of the belly of hell–Sheol, the unseen world, which the belly of the fish resembled.

3. thou hadst cast . . . thy billows . . . thy waves–Jonah recognizes the source whence his sufferings came. It was no mere chance, but the hand of God which sent them. Compare Job’s similar recognition of God’s hand in calamities, Job 1:21, 2:10; and David’s, 2 Samuel 16:5-11.
4. cast out from thy sight–that is, from Thy favorable regard. A just retribution on one who had fled “from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). Now that he has got his desire, he feels it to be his bitterest sorrow to be deprived of God’s presence, which once he regarded as a burden, and from which he desired to escape. He had turned his back on God; so, God turned His back on him, making his sin his punishment.

toward thy holy temple–In the confidence of faith he anticipates yet to see the temple at Jerusalem, the appointed place of worship (1 Kings 8:38), and there to render thanksgiving [HENDERSON]. Rather, I think, “Though cast out of Thy sight, I will still with the eye of faith once more look in prayer towards Thy temple at Jerusalem, whither, as Thy earthly throne, Thou hast desired Thy worshippers to direct their prayers.”

5. even to the soul–that is, threatening to extinguish the animal life.

weeds–He felt as if the seaweeds through which he was dragged were wrapped about his head.

6. bottoms of . . . mountains–their extremities where they terminate in the hidden depths of the sea. Compare Psalms 18:7, “the foundations of the hills” (Psalms 18:15).

earth with her bars was about me–Earth, the land of the living, is (not “was”) shut against me.

for ever–so far as any effort of mine can deliver me.

yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption–rather, “Thou bringest . . . from the pit” [MAURER]. As in the previous clauses he expresses the hopelessness of his state, so in this, his sure hope of deliverance through Jehovah’s infinite resources. “Against hope he believes in hope,” and speaks as if the deliverance were actually being accomplished. Hezekiah seems to have incorporated Jonah’s very words in his prayer (Isaiah 38:17), just as Jonah appropriated the language of the Psalms.

7. soul fainted . . . I remembered the Lord–beautifully exemplifying the triumph of spirit over flesh, of faith over sense (Psalms 73:26, 42:6). For a time, troubles shut out hope; but faith revived when Jonah “remembered the Lord,” what a gracious God He is, and how now He still preserves his life and consciousness in his dark prison-house.

into thine holy temple–the temple at Jerusalem (Jonah 2:4). As there he looks in believing prayer towards it, so here he regards his prayer as already heard.

8. observe lying vanities–regard or reverence idols, powerless to save (Psalms 31:6).

mercy–Jehovah, the very idea of whom is identified now in Jonah’s mind with mercy and loving-kindness. As the Psalmist (Psalms 144:2) styles Him, “my goodness”; God who is to me all beneficence. Compare Psalms 59:17, “the God of my mercy,” literally, “my kindness-God.” Jonah had “forsaken His own mercy,” God, to flee to heathen lands where “lying vanities” (idols) were worshipped. But now, taught by his own preservation in conscious life in the fish’s belly, and by the inability of the mariners idols to lull the storm (Jonah 1:5), estrangement from God seems estrangement from his own happiness (Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13). Prayer has been restrained in Jonah’s case, so that he was “fast asleep” in the midst of danger, heretofore; but now prayer is the sure sign of his return to God.

9. I will sacrifice . . . thanksgiving–In the believing anticipation of sure deliverance, he offers thanksgivings already. So, Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:21) appointed singers to praise the Lord in front of the army before the battle with Moab and Ammon, as if the victory was already gained. God honors such confidence in Him. There is also herein a mark of sanctified affliction, that he vows amendment and thankful obedience (Psalms 119:67).
10. upon the dry land–probably on the coast of Palestine.

Chapter two of Jonah graphically describes Jonah’s plight as he sank deeper into the waters. It also tells of Jonah’s recommitment to the Lord. The steps that Jonah took in turning back to the Lord outline a path than any of us who have strayed can follow. Note that Jonah:

• remembered the Lord (v. 7a)
• prayed to the Lord (v. 7b)
• praised and thanked the Lord (v. 9a)
• committed himself to obey the Lord (v. 9b)

Jonah’s concluding words, “Salvation comes from the Lord,” are as true for us and our family as they were for Jonah. Praise the Lord!

It took a life-threatening situation to move Jonah to recommit to the Lord. Jonah’s experience reminds us that God will bring us back to him whatever it takes!

We tend to lionize those who have been redeemed after committing some terrible crime or being delivered from drugs. And it’s true that their experiences do exhibit the grace and power of God and glorify him. Yet how much better it is to remain close to the Lord all our lives. We may never be featured on Christian radio or in magazines. But in the end a life of quiet faithfulness will bring God even greater glory and praise.

Let’s learn from Jonah, the runaway prophet. But let’s never suppose that his experience depicts the normal Christian life. How much better to pray that our children will remain faithful than to later pray that they might turn back from God after their own runaway experience.

 

\\INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 3\\

Jonah 3:1-10. JONAH’S SECOND COMMISSION TO NINEVEH: THE NINEVITES REPENT OF THEIR EVIL WAY: SO, GOD REPENTS OF THE EVIL THREATENED.

This chapter gives an account of the renewal of Jonah’s message to Nineveh, and of his faithful execution of it, \\#Jon 3:1-4\\; and of the fruit and effect of it, the conversion of the Ninevites, their faith in God, repentance of their sins, and reformation from them, \\#Jon 3:5-9\\; and of God’s approbation thereof, by revoking the sentence he had pronounced upon them, \\#Jon 3:10\\.

 

2. preach . . . the preaching–literally, “proclaim the proclamation.” On the former occasion the specific object of his commission to Nineveh was declared; here it is indeterminate. This is to show how freely he yields himself, in the spirit of unconditional obedience, to speak whatever God may please.
3. arose and went–like the son who was at first disobedient to the father’s command, “Go work in my vineyard,” but who afterwards “repented and went” (Matthew 21:28 Matthew 21:29). Jonah was thus the fittest instrument for proclaiming judgment, and yet hope of mercy on repentance to Nineveh, being himself a living exemplification of both–judgment in his entombment in the fish, mercy on repentance in his deliverance. Israel professing to obey, but not obeying, and so doomed to exile in the same Nineveh, answers to the son who said, “I go, sir, and went not.” In Luke 11:30 it is said that Jonas was not only a sign to the men in Christ’s time, but also “unto the Ninevites.” On the latter occasion (Matthew 16:1-4) when the Pharisees and Sadducees tempted Him, asking a sign from heaven, He answered, “No sign shall be given, but the sign of the prophet Jonas,” Matthew 12:39. Thus the sign had a twofold aspect, a direct bearing on the Ninevites, an indirect bearing on the Jews in Christ’s time. To the Ninevites he was not merely a prophet, but himself a wonder in the earth, as one who had tasted of death, and yet had not seen corruption, but had now returned to witness among them for God. If the Ninevites had indulged in a captious spirit, they never would have inquired and so known Jonah’s wonderful history; but being humbled by God’s awful message, they learned from Jonah himself that it was the previous concealing in his bosom of the same message of their own doom that caused him to be entombed as an outcast from the living. Thus, he was a “sign” to them of wrath on the one hand, and, on the other, of mercy. Guilty Jonah saved from the jaws of death gives a ray of hope to guilty Nineveh. Thus God, who brings good from evil, made Jonah in his fall, punishment, and restoration, a sign (an embodied lesson or living symbol) through which the Ninevites were roused to hear and repent, as they would not have been likely to do, had he gone on the first commission before his living entombment and resurrection. To do evil that good may come, is a policy which can only come from Satan; but from evil already done to extract an instrument against the kingdom of darkness, is a triumphant display of the grace and wisdom of God. To the Pharisees in Christ’s time, who, not content with the many signs exhibited by Him, still demanded a sign from heaven, He gave a sign in the opposite quarter, namely, Jonah, who came “out of the belly of hell” (the unseen region). They looked for a Messiah gloriously coming in the clouds of heaven; the Messiah, on the contrary, is to pass through a like, though a deeper, humiliation than Jonah; He is to lie “in the heart of the earth.” Jonah and his Antitype alike appeared low and friendless among their hearers; both victims to death for God’s wrath against sin, both preaching repentance. Repentance derives all its efficacy from the death of Christ, just as Jonah’s message derived its weight with the Ninevites from his entombment. The Jews stumbled at Christ’s death, the very fact which ought to have led them to Him, as Jonah’s entombment attracted the Ninevites to his message. As Jonah’s restoration gave hope of God’s placability to Nineveh, so Christ’s resurrection assures us God is fully reconciled to man by Christ’s death. But Jonah’s entombment only had the effect of a moral suasive; Christ’s resurrection assures us God is fully reconciliation between God and man [FAIRBAIRN].

Nineveh was an exceeding great city–literally, “great to God,” that is, before God. All greatness was in the Hebrew mind associated with GOD; hence arose the idiom (compare “great mountains,” Margin, “mountains of God,” Psalms 36:6 ; “goodly cedars,” Margin, “cedars of God,” Psalms 80:10 ; “a mighty hunter before the Lord,” Genesis 10:9 ).

three days’ journey–that is, about sixty miles, allowing about twenty miles for a day’s journey. Jonah’s statement is confirmed by heathen writers, who describe Nineveh as four hundred eighty stadia in circumference [DIODORUS SICULUS, 2.3]. HERODOTUS defines a day’s journey to be one hundred fifty stadia; so three days’ journey will not be much below DIODORUS’ estimate. The parallelogram in Central Assyria covered with remains of buildings has Khorsabad northeast; Koyunjik and Nebbi Yunus near the Tigris, northwest; Nimroud, between the Tigris and the Zab, southwest; and Karamless, at a distance inward from the Zab, southeast. From Koyunjik to Nimroud is about eighteen miles; from Khorsabad to Karamless, the same; from Koyunjik to Khorsabad, thirteen or fourteen miles; from Nimroud to Karamless, fourteen miles. The length thus was greater than the breadth; compare Jonah 3:4, “a day’s journey,” which is confirmed by heathen writers and by modern measurements. The walls were a hundred feet high, and broad enough to allow three chariots abreast, and had moreover fifteen hundred lofty towers. The space between, including large parks and arable ground, as well as houses, was Nineveh in its full extent. The oldest palaces are at Nimroud, which was probably the original site. LAYARD latterly has thought that the name Nineveh belonged originally to Koyunjik, rather than to Nimroud. Jonah (Jonah 4:11) mentions the children as numbering one hundred twenty thousand, which would give about a million to the whole population. Existing ruins show that Nineveh acquired its greatest extent under the kings of the second dynasty, that is, the kings mentioned in Scripture; it was then that Jonah visited it, and the reports of its magnificence were carried to the west [LAYARD].

4. a day’s journey–not going straight forward without stopping: for the city was but eighteen miles in length; but stopping in his progress from time to time to announce his message to the crowds gathering about him.

Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown–The commission, given indefinitely at his setting out, assumes now on his arrival a definite form, and that severer than before. It is no longer a cry against the sins of Nineveh, but an announcement of its ruin in forty days. This number is in Scripture associated often with humiliation. It was forty days that Moses, Elijah, and Christ fasted. Forty years elapsed from the beginning of Christ’s ministry (the antitype of Jonah’s) to the destruction of Jerusalem. The more definite form of the denunciation implies that Nineveh has now almost filled up the measure of her guilt. The change in the form which the Ninevites would hear from Jonah on anxious inquiry into his history, would alarm them the more, as implying the increasing nearness and certainty of their doom, and would at the same time reprove Jonah for his previous guilt in delaying to warn them. The very solitariness of the one message announced by the stranger thus suddenly appearing among them, would impress them with the more awe. Learning from him, that so far from lightly prophesying evil against them, he had shrunk from announcing a less severe denunciation, and therefore had been east into the deep and only saved by miracle, they felt how imminent was their peril, threatened as they now were by a prophet whose fortunes were so closely bound up with theirs. In Noah’s days one hundred twenty years of warning were given to men, yet they repented not till the flood came, and it was too late. But in the case of Nineveh, God granted a double mercy: first, that its people should repent immediately after threatening; second, that pardon should immediately follow their repentance.

5. believed God–gave credit to Jonah’s message from God; thus, recognizing Jehovah as the true God.

fast . . . sackcloth–In the East outward actions are often used as symbolical expressions of inward feelings. So, fasting and clothing in sackcloth were customary in humiliation. Compare in Ahab’s case, parallel to that of Nineveh, both receiving a respite on penitence (1 Kings 21:27, 1 Kings 20:31 1 Kings 20:32, Joel 1:13).

from the greatest . . . to the least–The penitence was not partial but pervading all classes.

6. in ashes–emblem of the deepest humiliation (Job 2:8, Ezekiel 27:30).
7. neither . . . beast . . . taste anything–The brute creatures share in the evil effects of man’s sin (Jonah 4:11, Romans 8:20 Romans 8:22); so, they here according to Eastern custom, are made to share in man’s outward indications of humiliation. “When the Persian general Masistias was slain, the horses and mules of the Persians were shorn, as well as themselves” [NEWCOME from PLUTARCH; also, HERODOTUS, 9.24].
8. cry . . . turn–Prayer without reformation is a mockery of God (Psalms 66:18, Isaiah 58:6). Prayer, on the other hand, must precede true reformation, as we cannot turn to God from our evil way unless God first turns us (Jeremiah 31:18 Jeremiah 31:19).
9. Who can tell–(Compare Joel 2:14). Their acting on a vague possibility of God’s mercy, without any special ground of encouragement, is the more remarkable instance of faith, as they had to break through long-rooted prejudices in giving up idols to seek Jehovah at all. The only ground which their ready faith rested on, was the fact of God sending one to warn them, instead of destroying them at once; this suggested the thought of a possibility of pardon. Hence, they are cited by Christ as about to condemn in the judgment those who, with much greater light and privileges, yet repent not (Matthew 12:41).
10. God repented of the evil–When the message was sent to them, they were so ripe for judgment that a purpose of destruction to take effect in forty days was the only word God’s righteous abhorrence of sin admitted of as to them. But when they repented, the position in which they stood towards God’s righteousness was altered. So, God’s mode of dealing with them must alter accordingly, if God is not to be inconsistent with His own immutable character of dealing with men according to their works and state of heart, taking vengeance at last on the hardened impenitent, and delighting to show mercy on the penitent. Compare Abraham’s reasoning, Genesis 18:25, Ezekiel 18:21-25, Jeremiah 18:7-10. What was really a change in them and in God’s corresponding dealings is, in condescension to human conceptions, represented as a change in God (compare Exodus 32:14), who, in His essential righteousness and mercy, changeth not (Numbers 23:19 , 1 Samuel 15:29 , Malachi 3:6 , 1:17 ). The reason why the announcement of destruction was made absolute, and not dependent on Nineveh’s continued impenitence, was that this form was the only one calculated to rouse them; and at the same time, it was a truthful representation of God’s purpose towards Nineveh under its existing state, and of Nineveh’s due. When that state ceased, a new relation of Nineveh to God, not contemplated in the message, came in, and room was made for the word to take effect, “the curse causeless shall not come” [FAIRBAIRN]. Prophecy is not merely for the sake of proving God’s omniscience by the verification of predictions of the future but is mainly designed to vindicate God’s justice and mercy in dealing with the impenitent and penitent respectively (Romans 11:22). The Bible ever assigns the first place to the eternal principles of righteousness, rooted in the character of God, subordinating to them all divine arrangements. God’s sparing Nineveh, when in the jaws of destruction, on the first dawn of repentance encourages the timid penitent, and shows beforehand that Israel’s doom, soon after accomplished, is to be ascribed, not to unwillingness to forgive on God’s part, but to their own obstinate impenitence.

 

\\INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 4\\

Jonah 4:1-11. JONAH FRETS AT GOD’S MERCY TO NINEVEH: IS REPROVED BY THE TYPE OF A GOURD.

This chapter gives us an account of Jonah’s displeasure at the repentance of the Ninevites, and at the Lord’s showing mercy unto them.

\\#Jon 4:1\\; the angry prayer of Jonah upon it, \\#Jon 4:2,3\\; the Lord’s gentle reproof of him for it, \\#Jon 4:4\\; his conduct upon that,

\\#Jon 4:5\\; the gourd prepared for him; its rise, usefulness, and destruction, which raised different passions in Jonah, \\#Jon 4:6-8\\; the improvement the Lord made of this to rebuke Jonah, for his displicency at the mercy he showed to the Ninevites, and to convict him of his folly, \\#Jon 4:9-11\\.

1. angry–literally, “hot,” probably, with grief or vexation, rather than anger [FAIRBAIRN]. How sad the contrast between God’s feeling on the repentance of Nineveh towards Him, and Jonah’s feeling on the repentance of God towards Nineveh. Strange in one who was himself a monument of mercy on his repentance! We all, like him, need the lesson taught in the parable of the unforgiving, though forgiven, debtor (Matthew 18:23-35). Jonah was grieved because Nineveh’s preservation, after his denunciation, made him seem a false prophet [CALVIN]. But it would make Jonah a demon, not a man, to have preferred the destruction of six hundred thousand men rather than that his prophecy should be set aside through God’s mercy triumphing over judgment. And God in that case would have severely chastised, whereas he only expostulates mildly with him, and by a mode of dealing, at once gentle and condescending, tries to show him his error. Moreover, Jonah himself, in apologizing for his vexation, does not mention the failure of his prediction as the cause: but solely the thought of God’s slowness to anger. This was what led him to flee to Tarshish at his first commission; not the likelihood then of his prediction being falsified; for in fact his commission then was not to foretell Nineveh’s downfall, but simply to “cry against” Nineveh’s “wickedness” as having “come up before God.” Jonah could hardly have been so vexed for the letter of his prediction failing, when the end of his commission had virtually been gained in leading Nineveh to repentance. This then cannot have been regarded by Jonah as the ultimate end of his commission. If Nineveh had been the prominent object with him, he would have rejoiced at the result of his mission. But Israel was the prominent aim of Jonah, as a prophet of the elect people. Probably then he regarded the destruction of Nineveh as fitted to be an example of God’s judgment at last suspending His long forbearance so as to startle Israel from its desperate degeneracy, heightened by its new prosperity under Jeroboam II at that very time, in a way that all other means had failed to do. Jonah, despairing of anything effectual being done for God in Israel, unless there were first given a striking example of severity, thought when he proclaimed the downfall of Nineveh in forty days, that now at last God is about to give such an example; so when this means of awakening Israel was set aside by God’s mercy on Nineveh’s repentance, he was bitterly disappointed, not from pride or mercilessness, but from hopelessness as to anything being possible for the reformation of Israel, now that his cherished hope is baffled. But GOD’S plan was to teach Israel, by the example of Nineveh, how inexcusable is their own impenitence, and how inevitable their ruin if they persevere. Repenting Nineveh has proved herself more worthy of God’s favor than apostate Israel; the children of the covenant have not only fallen down to, but actually below, the level of a heathen people; Israel, therefore, must go down, and the heathen rise above her. Jonah did not know the important lessons of hope to the penitent, and condemnation to those amidst outward privileges impenitent, which Nineveh’s preservation on repentance was to have for aftertimes, and to all ages. He could not foresee that Messiah Himself was thus to apply that history. A lesson to us that if we could in any particular alter the plan of Providence, it would not be for the better, but for the worse [FAIRBAIRN].
2. my saying–my thought or feeling.

fled before–I anticipated by fleeing, the disappointment of my design through Thy long-suffering mercy.

gracious . . . and merciful, &c.–Jonah here has before his mind Exodus 34:6; as Joel (Joel 2:13) in his turn quotes from Jonah.

3. Jonah’s impatience of life under disappointed hopes of Israel’s reformation through the destruction of Nineveh, is like that of Elijah at his plan for reforming Israel (1 Kings 18:1-46 ) failing through Jezebel ( 1 Kings 19:4 ).
4. Doest thou well to be angry? –or grieved; rather as the Margin, “Art thou much angry,” or “grieved?” [FAIRBAIRN with the Septuagint and Syriac]. But English Version suits the spirit of the passage and is quite tenable in the Hebrew [GESENIUS].
5. made him a booth–that is, a temporary hut of branches and leaves, so slightly formed as to be open to the wind and sun’s heat.

see what would become of the city–The term of forty days had not yet elapsed, and Jonah did not know that anything more than a suspension, or mitigation, of judgment had been granted to Nineveh. Therefore, not from sullenness, but in order to watch the event from a neighboring station, he lodged in the booth. As a stranger, he did not know the depth of Nineveh’s repentance; besides, from the Old Testament standpoint he knew that chastening judgments often followed, as in David’s case (2 Samuel 12:10-12 2 Samuel 12:14), even where sin had been repented of. To show him what he knew not, the largeness and completeness of God’s mercy to penitent Nineveh, and the reasonableness of it, God made his booth a school of discipline to give him more enlightened views.

6. gourd–Hebrew, kikaion; the Egyptian kiki, the “ricinus” or castor-oil plant, commonly called “palm-christ” (Palma Christi). It grows from eight to ten feet high. Only one leaf grows on a branch, but that leaf being often more than a foot large, the collective leaves give good shelter from the heat. It grows rapidly and fades as suddenly when injured.

to deliver him from his grief–It was therefore grief, not selfish anger, which Jonah felt will often turn the mind away from its sorrowful bent.

7. a worm–of a particular kind, deadly to the ricinus. A small worm at the root destroys a large gourd. So, it takes but little to make our creature comforts wither. It should silence discontent to remember, that when our gourd is gone, our God is not gone.

the next day–after Jonah was so “exceeding glad” (compare Psalms 80:7).

8. vehement–rather, “scorching”; the Margin, “silent,” expressing sultry stillness, not vehemence.

I do well to be angry, even unto death–“I am very much grieved, even to death” [FAIRBAIRN]. So, the Antitype (Matthew 26:38).

10, 11. The main lesson of the book. If Jonah so pities a plant which cost him no toil to rear, and which is so short lived and valueless, much more must Jehovah pity those hundreds of thousands of immortal men and women in great Nineveh whom He has made with such a display of creative power, especially when many of them repent, and seeing that, if all in it were destroyed, “more than six score thousand” of unoffending children, besides “much cattle,” would be involved in the common destruction: Compare the same argument drawn from God’s justice and mercy in Genesis 18:23-33 . A similar illustration from the insignificance of a plant, which “to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven,” and which, nevertheless, is clothed by God with surpassing beauty, is given by Christ to prove that God will care for the infinitely more precious bodies and souls of men who are to live forever ( Matthew 6:28-30 ). One soul is of more value than the whole world; surely, then, one soul is of more value than many gourds. The point of comparison spiritually is the need which Jonah, for the time being, had of the foliage of the gourd. However, he might dispense with it at other times, now it was necessary for his comfort, and almost for his life. So now that Nineveh, as a city, fears God and turns to Him, God’s cause needs it, and would suffer by its overthrow, just as Jonah’s material well-being suffered by the withering of the gourd. If there were any hope of Israel’s being awakened by Nineveh’s destruction to fulfil her high destination of being a light to surrounding heathenism, then there would not have been the same need to God’s cause of Nineveh’s preservation, (though there would have always been need of saving the penitent). But as Israel, after judgments, now with returning prosperity turns back to apostasy, the means needed to vindicate God’s cause, and provoke Israel, if possible, to jealousy, is the example of the great capital of heathendom suddenly repenting at the first warning, and consequently being spared. Thus, Israel would see the kingdom of heaven transplanted from its ancient seat to another which would willingly yield its spiritual fruits. The tidings which Jonah brought back to his countrymen of Nineveh’s repentance and rescue, would, if believingly understood, be far more fitted than the news of its overthrow to recall Israel to the service of God. Israel failed to learn the lesson, and so was cast out of her land. But even this was not an unmitigated evil. Jonah was a type, as of Christ, so also of Israel. Jonah, though an outcast, was highly honored of God in Nineveh; so, Israel’s outcast condition would prove no impediment to her serving God’s cause still, if only she was faithful to God. Ezekiel and Daniel were so at Babylon; and the Jews, scattered in all lands as witnesses for the one true God, pioneered the way for Christianity, so that it spread with a rapidity which otherwise was not likely to have attended it [FAIRBAIRN].

11. that cannot discern between their right hand and their left–children under three of four years old (Deuteronomy 1:39). Six score thousands of these, allowing them to be a fifth of the whole, would give a total population of six hundred thousand.

much cattle–God cares even for the brute creatures, of which man takes little account. These in wonderful powers and in utility are far above the shrub which Jonah is so concerned about. Yet Jonah is reckless as to their destruction and that of innocent children. The abruptness of the close of the book is more strikingly suggestive than if the thought had been followed out in detail.

I’ve sometimes felt like I was in the belly of a big fish. I had decided to do something my way instead of first seeking the Lord’s guidance and leading.

You, whoever you are, God has a plan for your life. Maybe you feel like you are wasting your time at a dead-end job. Or perhaps you have no job but would desperately like one. Maybe you think you have the dream job, but the Lord has been speaking to you in a still small voice to give it up for something else. Like Jonah, you may not particularly like the mission God has for you, but He has the intention of making you ideally suited to carry that plan out.

Will you follow His plan, or will you turn your back?

Maybe you’ve already chosen to turn your back and feel that there is no way out now. If that is the case, I’ve got good news for you. The Bible has this to say about Jonah, “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (Jonah 2:1). God is the God of second, third, and fourth chances.

Commit your way to the Lord today.