‘It’s going to get worse, before it gets better’ is a phrase that Jonah would have probably nodded his head ruefully in agreement with as he would undoubtedly testify to the truth of that statement!  We very often think of the book of Jonah as the stuff children’s talks are made of, an absolute gift from heaven for the speaker to do their stuff and provide vivid and exciting illustrations!  After all, isn’t that the book that has all that stuff about the prophet being swallowed by a whale?  The problem with that kind of thinking is it really misses the point of the book.  Besides that, the Hebrew renders our precious whale as a ‘big fish’ ‘or sea monster.’  And I’m not going to get into debates over what the fish was anyway as to do so is to miss the point of what the book teaches![1]  Jonah has much more to teach us other than that!

Put yourself in Jonah’s shoes. You’re a successful and popular prophet, and believe you me that wasn’t usually the case where most prophets were concerned!  After all, you’ve made a prophecy that has come to pass and more to the point it was a good prophecy not one of those ones about war, famine and pestilence due to covenant curses (Deuteronomy 28:15-68) which was the usual run of things where the rebellious people of Israel were concerned.  Jonah’s only other mention in the Old Testament is as a prophet to the northern kingdom around about 793-753 BC and is concerning this prophecy.  The interesting thing is that when he makes his prophecy King Jeroboam the second is on the throne and he, to be honest, was a lousy King!  Yet it is at this time that the word of the Lord comes to Jonah concerning Jeroboam’s actions in restoring large areas of land to Israel.  Despite being a thoroughly wicked King this was: ‘according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath-helper’ (2 Kings 14:25).  Now let’s face it, that’s the kind of prophecy that people want to hear especially as it hasn’t required any great change in their devotion, or more to the point, their lack of it, to the Lord!  So before we encounter him here, Jonah is that unusual thing for a prophet, the flavour of the month or year in this case due to his prophecy.

But just when Jonah starts to think “I could get used to this” or “being a prophet isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be” his next assignment from the Lord is, to put it mildly, not as crowd-pleasing and certainly wasn’t going to make Jonah flavour of the month with the people who the prophecy concerns. We read in 1:1-2: ‘Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”’ Nineveh![2] How Jonah’s spirits must have sunk when he heard the location for his next prophecy.  These were Israel’s enemies (and just about everyone else’s) who were making life a misery for the surrounding nations.  Their atrocities that they carried out on those they captured would probably turn the stomach of those who produce R rated movies or photographers hardened by working in war zones!  I suppose the closest we could get to Jonah’s situation today would be a missionary receiving a call from the Lord to go to downtown Tehran in Iran and preach the Gospel there.  Surely no one in their right mind would go!  But there’s one major hitch where Jonah is concerned, the Lord has commanded him to go!

But Jonah is having none of it and promptly takes a ship heading in the other direction towards Spain! However, he has temporarily forgotten one thing.  The Lord is sovereign over all of creation, not just the nation of Israel.  To quote boxer Joe Louis: ‘you can run but you can’t hide’,  so if Jonah thinks one reluctant prophet can escape the Lord he’s got another thing coming!  The Lord sends a storm that is so bad that the pagan sailors turn to their gods in prayer and in a panic throw the cargo into the sea.  Jonah, in the meantime, having thought he’d given the Lord the slip and more than comfortable with his actions decides to take 40 winks down below until a panicking Captain comes down to wake him up and alert him to the danger that they face.  In desperation the sailors turn to casting lots and the lot falls on Jonah.  Finally Jonah owns up realising he can run but he can’t hide where God is concerned and, from what we can gather in chapter 1 verses 9-10, confesses to the sailors who he is and what he has done.  Not surprisingly this terrifies the sailors because they can see the proof of it all around them, so they ask him what they are to do.  Jonah tells them there is only one thing they can do and that is throw him into the sea as it’s his fault that the storm has come upon them and he basically thinks drowning is a lot better than going and preaching to Israel’s enemies.  Instead, showing a lot more consideration than he had shown them they try to row back to land, but the storm is so severe it gets them nowhere.  In the end they reluctantly do as Jonah has said, pleading with the Lord not to hold it against them (after all they are probably reasoning if the Lord is mad at his prophet for running away from him he might be even madder with them if they drown him by throwing him into the sea).  The storm ceases and ironically Jonah’s success as a prophet continues as the sailors turn to the Lord and offer sacrifices to him and, more significantly, make a vows to him (1:16).  But the Lord has provided for Jonah in a most surprising way!

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (v17).

To be continued….

[1] In my opinion speculation and about the kind of fish involved and if it is scientifically possible is a waste of time!   Although it is possible that a large sperm whale could swallow a man there would have to be an element of the miraculous for a man to survive three days and three nights as Jonah did.  But that shouldn’t be a problem when we believe in a God can do the miraculous!  As Wiersbe notes: ‘It was a “prepared” fish” (1:17) ‘designed by God for the occasion, and therefore quite adequate for the task.’ Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Amazed, Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship, (Illinois, Victor Books, 1996) 81.

[2]‘A principle city, and the last capital of Assyria.’ J. D. Douglas, Editor, The illustrated Bible dictionary, part 2, Goliath – Papyri, (Leicester, Inter-Varsity-Press, 1980), 1089.