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Of all of the stories contained in the Bible, perhaps none is so memorable as the story of Jonah and the whale. Certainly the telling of it creates a mental picture and takes our imagination into places that are hard to forget.
Of course, there is always a lot of debate about this book. Or, rather, lots of talk about a whale, or was it a fish?
Those, on one extreme side, who would like to discredit the Bible, ridicule God and religion by laughing at the unlikelihood of a whale swallowing a man and then, three days later, producing that man, alive.
On the other side are those who would not doubt the accuracy of the most minor point of biblical history, believing that the Bible has come to us direct and inerrant from God, and that all of the stories and accounts contained therein actually occurred just as they were recorded.
Arguments about fish just detract from the value of the book. Whether or not there was such a fish is not the point of the Book of Jonah. Many papers and indeed, books have been written trying to prove or disprove the likelihood of this fish story. These kinds of zoological studies keep us from looking at the real reason God gave us this book:
1) To teach us spiritual lessons.
2) To teach us what God expects from us.
3) To teach us just how much God loves us.
I have no doubt, that the God who created you and me and this world of ours is capable of rustling up a fish of whatever specifications are needed to perform exactly the kind of job that needed to be done to good old Jonah.
Jonah was actually a historical character, and he is mentioned in other places in Scripture. The book of Second Kings refers to him as a historical prophet, a prophet ministering to Israel in the days of Jeroboam. He is referred to by Jesus Christ himself, who said, "as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," (Matt 12:40 RSV).
But Jonah was a prophet unlike any other.
Jonah was the only prophet in the Bible to REJECT God’s call.
Isaiah’s response to God’s call was: “Here I am Lord, Send me!”
Jonah didn’t want to go!
This book is a parable. Like the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the Good Samaritan is a picture of neighborliness and caring, Jonah is a picture of bigotry and intolerance with seemingly no capacity for human sympathy.
Let me paint the picture. Jonah lived in an age just after the rebuilding of Jerusalem. After Ezra and Nehemiah had instilled in the Jewish settlers the necessity of staying pure and keeping away from the godless, unclean Gentiles who surrounded them. Many had the mistaken notion that God was for them ONLY, and that the heathen nations could not benefit from a benevolent God. The writer of Jonah is challenging this view.
So, God says to Jonah: “Arise go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”
Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Although Israel was not at war with Assyria, the Assyrians represented everything that disgusted Israel. They were godless, wicked and violent. From Jonah’s point of view, they were hopeless, beyond God’s care. Jonah had probably grown up learning to hate the Ninevites. He knew God had good reason to judge Ninevah. He also knew, that if Ninevah didn’t repent, God would destroy it. He wanted God to destroy Ninevah!
So how does Jonah respond to God? He tries to run away, to the furthest point he would have known to exist, Spain.
Maybe he thought that if he got away from Israel, he could get away from God. Like people who don’t want to deal with God today stay away from Church.
So Jonah buys passage on a ship to Tarshish. God won’t let Jonah get away that easily. God sends a storm and the heathen humane sailors, as a last resort, throw Jonah overboard, where he is swallowed by a fish, and has a few soggy days in the fish’s belly to reconsider his choices. And Jonah prays to God and God listens. Jonah gets another chance.
When God approaches Jonah a second time, in chapter 3. Jonah relents and accepts the call. The people of Ninevah not only listen to Jonah, they believe him and they repent and God spares the city. This should be wonderful news.
But not for Jonah. He didn’t care in the least for these people. He wanted them destroyed. Jonah was upset and angry, so he prayed: “Our Lord, I knew from the very beginning that you wouldn’t destroy Ninevah. That’s why I left my own country and headed for Spain. You are a kind and merciful God, and you are very patient. You always show love, and you don’t like to punish anyone, not even foreigners.”
The lesson comes at the very end of the book. “In that city of Ninevah there are more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot tell right from wrong (meaning children) and many cattle are also there. Don’t you think I should be concerned about that big city?”
Even though the current religious thought was that these people of Ninevah were hopeless cases. With God, there are no hopeless cases. No one is so bad that they are hopeless. No one is so bad that they can’t change. No one is so bad that God doesn’t love him or her and want to help them change. With God, all things are possible, right?
What can we learn about God from the Book of Jonah?
God is Sovereign…His plan cannot be derailed by disobedience
God is patient…He gives second chances
God is omnipresent…you can’t hide from Him
God is the Creator…Jonah 1:9
God responds to our prayers…Jonah 2:2
God is relenting…He can change his mind.
God is salvation…Jonah 2:9
God is gracious…4:2
God is merciful…4:2
God is slow to anger…4:2
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