Jonah

This is a pretty cool book....the Sunday School stories are all about "the fish"...this book is full of so much more....

Now, for a little background....check out Genesis 10:10....everything can be traced back to Genesis.  Nineveh is the capital of Assyria....they are going to be a huge enemy of Israel's particularly when we get to Isaiah...Remember how Noah  had 3 sons?  Ham mocked his father for being naked and drunk...Noah cursed him and his descendants and from that line we see all the enemies to Israel...woah!

Jonah is a prophet...we read this in 2 Kings under the rule of Jeroboam II.
This book doesn't talk much about the actual prophecy which is "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"(3:4), but of Jonah, the prophet's flight, prayer, obedience and anger.

Jonah can represent the Jewish people....they kept God to themselves and didn't proclaim him to the Gentiles/pagans.....God intended for the Jewish people to be the light of salvation and to proclaim Him as the way.....God wanted Jonah to go into some huge enemies land and preach.....according to the Blue Letter Bible commentary...

 But Jonah arose to flee: Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh and do what the Lord told him to do?

i. It may have been because he was given a difficult job to do. Nahum 3:1-4 gives us a good idea of how wicked the people of Nineveh were. Jonah had every reason to expect that at the very best, he would be mocked and treated as a fool. He might be attacked and killed if he did what the Lord told him to do.

ii. It was also because Jonah didn’t want the Assyrians in Nineveh to escape God’s judgment. Imagine a Jewish man in New York during World War II hearing God say, ‘I’m going to bring terrible judgment on Germany. I want you to go to Berlin and tell Nazi Germany to repent.’ Instead of doing it, the man heads for San Francisco and then hops on a boat for Hong Kong.

iii. It is easy to discuss Jonah’s reasons for not doing what God told him to do, but what is our reason? God told Jonah to go and to preach; every Christian has the same command in Matthew 28:19-20. With Jonah’s example before us, we have even less reason than Jonah for our disobedience.

Perhaps you laugh inside, because you know that there is no way anyone can escape God and this proves to be true....God stirs up a storm...the mariners/sailors are terrified and somehow due to how God had the lots fall, they knew that Jonah was the cause of it......Jonah tells them to throw him overboard....note that in 1: 13, they didn't want Jonah to perish, so they rowed ....They cried to the Lord (they had their own gods, but knew at this point that God was real!)   and "made vows" (many commentators think this is where the sailors became believers) and tossed Jonah over.....God provided the fish to save his life....he was in the fish 3 days and 3 nights....this represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ before it happens!!!  Jonah prays, the fish throws him up onto land, Jonah preaches and Nineveh repents..... Jonah is hating this.....perhaps he is embarrassed because his prophecy didn't come true...perhaps he didn't want the pagans to be delivered.  God provides him shelter with a plant, and then when Jonah's comfort is destroyed by the worm, he is ticked again....this reluctant prophet has attitude big time........  Here is a little chart that I picked up from Patricia...

Jonah and the Mariners

Jonah	Mariners
He is a Hebrew with a rich history of God’s faithfulness	They were Gentiles with no history of God
He is monotheistic, believing in one true God	They are polytheistic, worshiping many false Gods
He is rightly related to the true God	They had no relationship with the true God
He was spiritually insensitive, going in the wrong direction	They are spiritually sensitive, going in the right direction.  They prayed.
He is indifferent toward God’s will in spite of knowing him	They were concerned before God in spite of little or no knowledge of him
He was uncompassionate toward Nineveh	They were compassionate toward Jonah
Jonah was rebellious and therefore disciplined, but not destroyed	They were brought to worship and commitment

Jonah and the Plant

God and Nineveh	Jonah and the Plant
God cares for the people of Nineveh	Jonah cared for a plant
God was concerned for the welfare of others	Jonah was concerned for himself
God created all that was in Nineveh	Jonah did not create the plant
The people of Nineveh are of eternal significance	The plant was temporal
God’s concern was and is for human life	Jonah’s concern was for comfort and selfish personal interest
God’s concern for Nineveh is proper and displays his love	Jonah’s concern for a plant rather than for people is improper; it displays selfishness and an improper perspective on life