The Story of Jonah

The Story of Jonah

The Book of Jonah

Part 1 Jonah and the Whale

One day the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jonah saying, “Get up and go to that great city Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has come up before me.”

But Jonah rose up and ran away from the presence of the LORD, he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and sailed to Tarshish away from the presence of the LORD.

So the LORD sent a great wind upon the sea, and the waves were mighty in the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken into pieces.

Then all the sailors were afraid and each one cried out to his god, and threw out boxes and crates to lighten the load.

But not Jonah, he was down inside the ship fast asleep.

So the captain of the ship came to Jonah and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not die.”

Then the sailors said to each other, “Come let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this evil that is upon us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they asked him, “Tell us, who caused this evil that is upon us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

This terrified them and they asked, “Why have you done this?” (For they knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them.)

The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What do we do to make the sea calm down?”

Jonah answered, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea and it will calm down for you. It is my fault that this trouble has come upon you.”

Instead the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even stronger than before. Then they cried out to the LORD, and said, “Please, LORD, we beg you, do not let us die for this man’s sake. Do not hold us responsible for this man.”

So they took Jonah and threw him overboard into the sea, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

In the meantime, the LORD had provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD out of the fish’s belly and repented, and the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land.

It’s a great lesson on the folly of trying to avoid the Lord’s call to warn others of their impending doom if they don’t turn from their sins. But the lessons we can learn from Jonah don’t end there. That was only the first one.

The Bible prophesies of a “great tribulation” that will be a time of great worldwide suffering – a time like no other before or after it (Matt. 34:21-22). As Christians we cannot be guilty of not delivering this message or we will be held accountable for that suffering. We are told in Ezekiel 33:8 that if we fail to warn the wicked from his ways, that they will die in their sins, and their blood will be required at out hand.

And that is a fate way worse than spending three days and nights in the belly of a whale!

Part 2 Jonah and the city of ninevah

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, “Go to that great city Nineveh and preach the message I gave you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. (This time he did what God asked.)

Nineveh was a very large city, and it took Jonah three days to go through the whole city preaching, “In forty days this city will be overthrown.”

The people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast for everyone, and put on sackcloth.

When word came to the king of Nineveh, he also got up from his throne, and laid aside his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he proclaimed it to be so with everyone, including all the animals, saying, “Let no one, man or animal have food or anything to drink.”

Everyone was to pray mightily to God, for the king said, “Who knows, maybe God will turn and repent, and turn his fierce anger away from us so that we will not die?”

When God saw their works (what they did), and how they turned from their evil ways, He repented of the evil that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Nineveh changed their behavior; God showed compassion, and judgment was averted. But notice the kind of repentance it took: “And God saw their works, that they turned away from their evil way…” God saw that they changed their lifestyle – they turned from doing evil.

We can learn a voluble lesson from Nineveh. We can avoid judgment for our evil ways if we turn from them. It is not merely enough to just say we are sorry for our sins… we are to turn from them.

This is what motivates me! The fact that – maybe you, a family member, a friend, a city, or even a nation could repent and turn to God! That’s why I persist in this warning. I don’t want to be guilty of writing off people or failing to deliver God’s urgent message to them. I want as many people as possible to turn from their sins and be spared the coming devastation described in the Bible as the worst time of suffering on this earth.

Part 3 Jonah’s anger

But Jonah was not pleased about any of this, and he became very angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? This is why I ran away to Tarshish. For I knew you were a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you would repent of the evil. Now, LORD, take my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be so angry?”

So Jonah went out of the city, and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in the shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city.

Then the LORD provided a plant and made it to grow up over Jonah to give him shade for his head, and to give him comfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant.

But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered and died. And when the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed down upon Jonah’s head until that he fainted. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “You have been so angry about that plant. Is it right for you to be so angry about the plant?” And Jonah said, “It is, I will be angry to my death.”

But the LORD said, “You have felt sorry for the plant, though you did not tend it nor make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.”

The LORD also reminded him, “Should I not be more concerned over the city of Nineveh and spare them, that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people, and also very many animals?” (In other words God was telling Jonah if you can feel sorry for the plant then it is even more important to feel sorry for the people and animals of Nineveh.)

This story does not end nicely and neatly with a “happy” feeling. Far from it. It ends with God being concerned about the wicked and Jonah’s self-righteous attitude. We are left somewhat suspended by the final words of God to Jonah, words of rebuke. We are never told that Jonah repented. The conclusion of the book of Jonah is fitting, for it portrays the stalemate between Israel and her God, which persisted till the time of Christ and indeed to the present moment.

We live in very troubled times, in a very wicked era, there is sin and ungodliness everywhere you turn. God says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”  It’s not too late to repent – a city, a nation, or just one person!

When people of Nineveh heard the voice of Jonah they responded immediately and although Nineveh’s destruction was foreordained, their generation was spared. The same is true today, but the appropriate response is different. Instead of being external, physical, and national… it’s internal, spiritual, and personal. The destruction of the world is foreordained. If you hear the voice of the Lord, respond immediately and you will be spared.

It’s our most important lesson from Jonah – please don’t let it be wasted.