We ended chapter 2 with the fish vomiting Jonah on to dry land, probably to the relief of both of them! From there the story is relatively simple as we saw in the last post.  Jonah is given a second chance to go to Nineveh and preach the message that God has given him.  This he does with very unexpected results when the Ninevites repent.  The book ends with Jonah being an exceptionally angry prophet who resents God forgiving the Ninevites.   But now I want to focus on two things, one fairly briefly as it relates to the time spent inside the fish and the second in a bit more detail as it relates to his prayer in chapter 2.

Any time that Jesus mentions someone by name from the Old Testament we should always take note, and he does this twice concerning Jonah. In Matthew 12:38-40[1] he makes a reference to the three days and three nights Jonah spent in the fish.  Jesus compares this to his dying and resurrection three days later.  But what are we to understand from this?  Firstly, although some commentators make a case for Jonah dying and being resurrected I see no evidence for this.  Jonah compares his plight as being similar to dying, but that’s as far as he goes.  But there’s a sense that Jonah is suffering the Lord’s judgement but is not abandoned to the grave which is what he feared.  This has major parallels with Christ as the apostle Peter points out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:27 quoting Psalm 16:10).  This illustration is the sign Jesus gives to the unbelieving spiritual leaders of Israel.  The second (which I believe was another occasion) is in Luke 11:29-30 and seems to be aimed at those in the crowd who wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.  Jesus infers that he’s going to be a sign to that generation just as: ‘Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh’ (Luke 11:30).  There’s some speculation over what he means by this, but I think it’s relatively simple.  If Jonah, with his forthright disobedience could be forgiven, the Ninevites could be as well!  Salvation would truly come from the Lord!  In his commentary on Jonah Hugh Martin speculates that Jonah must have shared ‘the terrible death which he endured, and the blessed resurrection which he experienced – can we doubt that the mercy and   miracle of their prophet’s resurrection was at once the ground and the gleam of hope which they caught hold of, as an encouragement to repent and call upon the Lord?’[2]  Through Jesus’ death and resurrection anyone who seeks forgiveness can receive it as the Ninevites did!

This brings us to the second point in relation to Jonah’s prayer, and that’s how we relate his prayer to his later anger which is directed at the Lords compassion and forgiveness of the Ninevites. And my word, he was angry!  Verse 1 of chapter 4 can be translated: ‘To Jonah it was a disaster, a great disaster. He became angry.’  The phrase: ‘He became angry’ in Hebrew is expressed by the word: ‘harah’ which can be translated as: ‘burning as with fire’ or: ‘was inflamed.’[3]  How can I put this?  The book just shouldn’t end this way with Jonah red faced and foaming at the mouth or jumping up and down in a frenzy of what may have been uncontrolled anger!  Now we know that in a way it doesn’t, God has the last word!  But the book is left hanging concerning Jonah’s attitude towards the Lord’s compassion for the Ninevites!  So how do we understand this?

Firstly, there’s a danger in the writing off Jonah completely. Anyone who is as angry as he is ends up saying things that they will regret later and we would do well to remember that in relation to what he had prayed earlier.  But I believe it highlights a weakness in Jonah’s theology.  He had not understood the extent of God’s grace.  He could understand it when it was extended to him; after all he was one of the Lord’s covenant people, but the Ninevites weren’t.  They didn’t ‘know their right hand from their left’ (4:11) which probably means they were not acquainted with God’s law as Jonah was.  The point was that God was prepared to extend his love and forgiveness to them despite their limited understanding due to their genuine repentance (see 3:6-9).  But Jonah had his theology as to who the Lord should save and whom he shouldn’t.  He figured the Lord shouldn’t relent where the Ninevites were concerned, hence his anger!  In chapter 4 verse 2 Jonah pretty much quotes Exodus 34: 6-7.  He properly thought it was a wonderful verse when applied to Israel.  He had no problem with the second part of verse 7 about God’s judgement upon the guilty: ‘to the third and fourth generation’ as the Ninevites were well-qualified as those who deserved punishment.  But we should be beware of a theology that imposes what we wish on God’s Word and leaves no room for God’s infinite grace, mercy and compassion.  That’s Jonah’s mistake here!  Such an attitude will only damage our relationship with God as it does when Jonah declares that he would rather die than go on living (vs3 and 8-9), which is effectively declaring “I don’t want to be the prophet of a God like you!”  Maybe, as I said, it was said in a fit of anger but we should note how much damage it does to the prophet’s relationship with God as at this point in the book he is reduced to disapproving and angry prayers!

The question for us is can we go through tough times and during them acknowledge God’s goodness to us, just as Jonah did in his prayer, and yet not really understand fully that the Lord may have been teaching us a poignant lesson about ourselves? Just because the Lord has been gracious to us in the past and we have seen his help, does not mean that he should always act as we think he should.  We can end up like Jonah, disapproving of God’s character and even starting to think he owes us something. We then end up as ‘rollercoaster Christians.’  We are going through a good time and experiencing the Lord’s blessing, God loves us!  But then we dive down into the depths of despair and depression.  There are family troubles (the worst kind), or we start to struggle with economic hardship through the loss of a job, or a much loved family member or relative dies.  The danger is that then we can forget the extent of God’s grace at a time we should be remembering it.  We decide God hates us, or even if we don’t use such a strong words, we believe he just doesn’t care!

Yet, if we looking for consistency, it is only found in God and his concern for those he has created. The characteristic of God that is shown in 4:2 and throughout the book of Jonah occurs again and again in the Old Testament![4]  That’s what we see in the book of Jonah, God is the only constant throughout!  Even Jonah acknowledges this and we should acknowledge it too and look to one who is consistent and a real foundation when we face times of trouble.  It may be hard, due to our sinfulness, but we are not to put conditions on God!  Jonah had prayed: ‘Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love (2:8) but he had made an idol of his theology regarding Jews, Gentiles and sin!  He hadn’t learnt the right lessons from his experience.  The question for us is have we made, or are we in danger of making, idols of questionable personal beliefs about God that have little or nothing to with the Bible?  If so we need to repent and change.  Let’s pray that from this point on we are aware of, and avoid, Jonah’s mistake so it never becomes our mistake!

[1] Jesus references the: ‘sign of Jonah’ again to the Pharisees and Sadducees again in Matthew 16:1-4.

[2] Hugh Martin, Jonah, The Geneva Series of Commentaries, (London, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1870), 221-2.

[3]James Bruckner, The NIV Application Commentary, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2004), 109.

[4] See Exodus 34:6-7, Nehemiah 9:17 b, Psalm 86:15: Psalm 103:12, Psalm 145:8 and Joel 2:13.