When I was in my late teens I attended a job interview for a TV rental firm. The interviewer was quite aggressive and plied me with all kinds of questions.  I don’t know quite what he expected, as by the time we were about 10 minutes into the interview I was convinced I didn’t want the job and no doubt he was convinced he didn’t want to give me the job!  However, one particular question has stuck in my mind.  What were my expectations of working for him?  I’m not sure he’d have appreciated me saying: “well I expect in six months I’ll have your job.”  On the other hand, I don’t think he would of have been impressed if I’d said: “well if I end the month with a few bucks in my pocket I’ll be happy.”  But it raises the question of what our expectations in life are, and in particularly, what they are in our Christian life.  You see I believe, a bit like my imaginary answers at my job interview, there are two extremes.  Some expect the Christian life to be a continual experience of near miraculous blessing!  On the other hand, some are happy to experience whatever blessing God gives them, whereas others would say such an approach lacks faith!  So what’s the right answer?  Although there are other examples in the life of the prophet Elisha, this particular episode is one that can help us understand how God might choose to work or what we might expect.

At this point in Elisha’s career as a prophet things are going pretty well. Firstly he’s recognised as Elijah’s successor.  People can see: “The spirit of Elijah” rests on him (2 Kings 2:15).  Secondly the Lord’s worked some amazing miracles through him.  So it makes sense that the widow of one of the: ‘sons of the prophets’ approaches him due to her desperate situation, and desperate it is!  The creditor was at her door and seems to be a pretty heartless individual!  Okay, he’s within his rights (see Exodus 21:1-11, Leviticus 25:39-41 and Deuteronomy 15:1-11) but without her sons and no social security she’s in a desperate state both now and then later in her old age.  So she approaches Elisha, for help as he clearly knew her husband and his godly character.

But this raises a question. Why is the Lord letting it happen to the family of someone who was such a faithful servant in his cause?  It’s the old chestnut, why do bad things happen to good people?  But this proves that Christians are not spared from being caught in the crossfire of living in a fallen world!  There are many examples of the Lord’s people suffering in Scripture!  Jesus himself told his disciples: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).  God’s people suffer and this is just another example to help us be realistic about the subject, but also to ultimately encourage us!  So how can it encourage us and help us when life, to put it bluntly, can sometimes seem to be unfair!

Well firstly we can learn a lot from the attitude of the widow. She’s desperate, but, as Dale Ralph Davis highlights: ‘hers is a faithful desperation.’[1]  How can we tell that?  Because, by approaching his prophet, she cries to the Lord for help.  In other words she seeks a word from the Lord, which, in its modern context means turning to Scripture!  If we want to hear the Lord speak, that’s where we should look first.  The Bible’s called God’s Word for a reason, he speaks through it!  The rather encouraging thing for her is Elijah’s response.  He is immediately concerned and seeks to be compliant in helping her as he recognises genuine faith that seeks an answer from the Lord!  We might think: “well he’s a prophet, isn’t he supposed to go around helping people and being compliant with their requests?”  Yet we only have to look back at 3:13 where the godless King Jehoram, who was living up to his parents Ahab and Jezebel’s legacy, is basically told by Elisha: “why should I talk to you, if you want help in this situation why don’t you go to those prophets your father and mother used to employ” (the prophets on Baal in his mother’s case or false prophets in his father’s case).  Elisha’s attitude is different here because this is genuine faith as opposed to the: “can you get us out of a tricky situation that we’ve got into because we haven’t consulted the Lord” attitude of King Jehoram!

This being the case, we might expect to see, in the light of Elisha’s ministry, an impressive miracle. So verse 2 comes as a bit of a surprise as Elisha asks her what she’s got around the house.  Her reply doesn’t seem to hold a lot of promise as all she’s got is: “a jar of oil” demonstrating her poverty!  Elisha seems completely unfazed by this and instructs her to go to her neighbours and get as many jars and utensils as possible (v3).  Jesus himself acted in the same way when he fed the 5000.  When his disciples come to him with a question as to how they were going to deal with the crowd. After throwing the question back at them he then asks them how much food they’ve got (Mark 6:38), that being the prelude to an amazing miracle!  But that’s often the way the Lord’s deals with us.  You may be praying for family or friends to come to know Christ.  Well who’s the best person to invite them to an evangelistic event at your Church?  It’s you!  By all means pray, after all, we’re dependent on Lord, but the answer is you’re the Lord’s instrument in that time and place!  Sometimes, even when we don’t think we got many skills to use in the Lord Service there may be a good number of ‘jars of oil’ that are available, but not being used!  Just as Elisha starts with what the widow has, the Lord often starts with the most basic gifts we possess and uses them for his service!  I’m sure the widow could have thought that that jar of oil was completely insignificant and hardly worth mentioning, but she trusted Elisha and he was able to use it in a remarkable way to solve her problems.

The widow, obeying Elisha’s instructions, shuts herself in her house, just as Elisha has told her to. She then carries out his instruction concerning her jar of oil which is to: “pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside” (v4).  After all the vessels are full she asks her son to bring another vessel, but he replies that all have been used.  At this point the passage makes it clear that then, and only then, is the oil used up (vs4-6)!  Some commentators suggest that the Lord’s blessing was limited by lack of faith in not getting more utensils.  However, this seems to be based on conjecture of what isn’t there!  It assumes there were more utensils around the village or town, but there seems no indication that she didn’t follow the Prophet’s instructions to the letter.  Indeed, when she reports back to Elisha he simply gives the instruction to: “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest” (v7).  It appears that he sees the mission as accomplished![2]  The point seems to be that the Lord has sufficiently provided.  But let us note it is sufficiently, not luxuriously!

So how should we understand this? Is there any evidence that she could have experienced a great deal more blessing if she’d only had more faith?  I’m in the camp that says no there isn’t and I’d go even further and say that to pursue such thinking misses some very important points concerning this woman’s faith and the wonderful miracle that the Lord brought about through Elisha!  Firstly, the Word of the Lord is always enough!  Now if we grasp that, it makes a major difference to us as Christians.  Very sadly there is teaching around that suggests that the Lord always works through the miraculous supernatural works and if those things aren’t happening in your Christian life then you’re missing out as you lack the sufficient faith to experience them.  Some Christians become dependent on this kind of experience.  So what happens when there’s an absence of such an experience?  Having counselled such people I find often depression and doubts set in as they don’t have the foundation, which incidentally, the Holy Spirit provides.  The Bible is a book inspired by the Holy Spirit, therefore, it is logical to draw the conclusion that he speaks through it!  In that sense it’s his greatest work!  In Hebrews 4:12 writer describes the nature and action of God’s Word in this way: ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing the division of the soul and of the spirit, of joint and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’ A sword like that slices and penetrates the human body!  Likewise God’s Word cannot be stopped from going anywhere or exposing anything, it’s that powerful!  But then we get a key phrase in the next verse: ‘And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account’ (v13).  Rendered in the original Greek this phrase contains a wrestling term which means to force ones opponents head back or throwing one’s opponent down and proving one’s dominance.[3]  This is if describing literally coming face-to-face with God in his Word each time we open the Bible. The Word of the Lord was sufficient for this widow and her two sons.  She could have said: “that’s the most ludicrous suggestion I’ve ever heard” in relation to Elisha’s remedy for her problems.  But she recognised this was the Word of the Lord and she took it seriously!  The question is do we?  Do we see the Bible as God’s Word and therefore sufficient for each situation we find ourselves in?  If we do we will never have an ordinary or routine Bible study again!

Secondly, God’s grace is always sufficient. The widow was able to pay off her debts.  I stress again this could be termed adequate or sufficient blessing, no more, no less!  But that can often be the way the Lord blesses.  In 2 Corinthians we find Paul under attack from false teachers who liked to give themselves the title of ‘Super apostles’.  One criticism was he wasn’t very impressive as a speaker.   Another (which turns out to be wrong) was he never had extraordinary revelations from the Lord.  Paul defends his ministry, incidentally commenting on an extraordinary revelation that he had experienced, but then refers to what is referred to as ‘Paul’s thorn’.  What exactly he’s describing in 2 Corinthians 12:7 is not clear.  Some think it was a physical problem or a temptation of some sort.  Paul prayed it would be taken away but received this answer from the Lord. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8).  And do you know what?  He was content with that answer!  It was enough to know God’s grace kept him going.  He didn’t have the luxury of having the problem taken away, rather he experienced the grace and blessing of being able to continue in the work of the Gospel despite it.  That’s sufficient blessing!  There’s no indication the widow and her sons became rich through this miracle, but they were definitely provided for!

Lastly, God often works in miraculous ways which remain practically invisible. How many people do you think realised a miracle had taken place?  The neighbours probably had an-inkling something was going on, but the miracle unfolded behind closed doors so it’s likely only Elisha, the widow and her sons had any indication something miraculous had happened.  So what we need to ask is do we recognise this kind of thing as a blessing?  We must never neglect to thank God when we see sufficient blessing and grace in our lives or as a Church.  I think there’s a real danger that we can forget to thank God for his sufficient blessing and grace day-to-day.  We often make the mistake of the assuming the Lord owes us as Christians or Churches.  But to quote the verse that I partially quoted earlier Jesus, responding to the worried disciples in the upper room said: “I have said these things to you, that in me may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  As that comes from the lips of Jesus we would do well to see it as summing up the Christian experience.  Sometimes the Lord chooses to bless us well beyond what is normal.  But let’s not forget to thank him for his amazing and sufficient day-to-day blessing!

Would you like to hear a sermon on this passage? Sufficient, not Luxurious, Grace! 2 Kings 4:1-7.

[1] Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Kings, The Power and the Fury, (Fearn, Christian Focus Publications, 2005), 55.

[2]Elisha had no problems pointing out that his instructions have not been followed to the letter as we see later in 2 Kings 13:19 where King Jehoash does not show sufficient faith in his excursion of Elisha’s instructions!

[3] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, The New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1993), 264.

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.

At the start of chapter 3 Jonah is given a second chance to carry out the Lord’s command.  This he does, and we get the gist of the message in verse 3.  The message is a simple message of judgment. This is not surprising when we consider that the Lord had commanded Jonah to go and preach in Nineveh because: ‘their evil has come up before me’  (1:2) and historically we know the atrocities that the Assyrian nation was capable of.  Yet there is a subtle difference here as the verb that is used for the word: ‘call’ infers that he is to preach ‘to’ the people of Nineveh rather than: ‘against’ them as in chapter 1.  It could be argued that this subtle change is in the light of Jonah’s experience in chapter 2.  But it is also possible it is to prepare the reader for a change of emphasis from the judgement of God to his compassion that we see at the end of this chapter and in chapter 4.[1]  Some commentators feel that Jonah must have shared with the Ninevites his judgment and deliverance by the hand of God, and this is not unlikely as we have almost certainly only been given a summary of his message.[2]  In this sense, as Jesus makes clear, Jonah acted as: ‘a sign to the people of Nineveh’ (Luke 11:30).  The point maybe that now Jonah should have a new understanding of the depths of God’s compassion and forgiveness when it comes to those who rebel against him and then repent, and this should be reflected in his preaching!

The proclamation of Jonah’s message is very thorough.  Some scholars have tried to make the case that the book of Jonah is a parable rather than an actual historical account.  One of the reasons given for this is the: ‘three days’ (v3) mentioned in relation to the city being improbable as archaeological discoveries do not suggest a city of that size.  However, it is more likely that Nineveh was made up of a large central city and the many towns and villages that surrounded it.  That being the case the indication is that Jonah’s proclamation soon spreads around the region reaching everyone whether that is by first-hand or by people passing it on to others.

However, whatever the case, the Ninevites believe his message and the equivalent of ‘revival’ breaks out with mass repentance.  But what caused such a reaction?  The answer is clearly spelt out in verse 5: ‘And the people of Nineveh believed God.’  There’s nothing to make us doubt that this was genuine repentance and belief as their attitude exhibits the ‘Ancient Near East’s’ culture of mourning!  Their repentance is summed up by the words of the King of Nineveh which illustrate the Ninevities acceptance of their sinful attitude.  The phrase: ‘Let everyone turn from his evil ways and from the violence that is in his hands’ (v8) being particularly appropriate to them as a nation!  There’s an understanding that they are completely dependent on God’s mercy as there is no reason why he should forgive them (v9).  The chapter ends with the Lord relenting from the disaster that he had threatened to bring upon them.

Jonah must be in the running as possibly the most successful prophet’s of the Old Testament era in terms of his message being believed and people repenting, so his anger might surprise us!  But his dodgy theology (which we will take a look at in the next part) does give us an opportunity to explore and understand the character of God.  In verse 2 of chapter 4 Jonah gives us the summary of Exodus 34:6-7: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,  keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”  His summery of the Lord’s compassion is illustrated by the plant that God cause’s to grow and give him shade.  Much has been written about this, but essentially the lesson is very simple.  Jonah had benefited from the plant, but the point was the Lord had caused it to grow, not Jonah, so why was he so cut up about it when it died?  Likewise, if the Lord decided to spare Nineveh, then that was his business, not Jonah’s.  After all, it was his message that had caused them to repent not Jonah’s.  What he was doing now only illustrated his character and that being the case, Jonah really had no say in it as whether he approved or disapproved had no bearing on what the Lord did, or, as Jonah saw it, should do!

Yet in the unquestionable compassion and mercy of God there is a real sense that Jonah is as much a beneficiary as the Ninevites.  O. Palmer Robinson points out that in chapter 3 verses 1-2 it’s pretty much as if God says: “Let’s start from the first. – Let’s forget about the past and act as though it never happened.”[3]  If he has applied the same principle to the Ninevites then who was Jonah to question him as he too has been the beneficiary of this aspect of God’s nature?  The point, and it’s a very simple one, is that in God there is nothing remotely akin to our human temperament.  When true repentance is expressed, he, unlike us, feels no need to revisit the former misdemeanours of that person.  This is something that Jonah has only really understood on one level, and that is when it applied to him.

Secondly, it is worth noting that the phrase in verse 6: ‘the LORD God’.  This combination of the names of God (Yahweh, Elohim) is first found in reference to God placing Adam in the Garden of Eden.  ‘Yahweh’ is the covenant name for God whereas as ‘Elohim’ is a reference to his creative power.  So it demonstrates his special care for Adam by placing him in a special environment with the command that he is to serve God (the Hebrew verb illustrates this), as well as stipulations he is to follow and keep if he is to prosper (Genesis 2:15-17).  The use of this combination of names shows that the Lord will extend the same love and care towards Jonah, who has gone as far as to have to question the rightness of his actions towards the Ninevites!  The Ninevites had been ignorant of God’s Law, but repented, but Jonah, who could probably recite it perfectly, needed to be educated to understand that it was a reflection of God’s love and compassion.  So God continues to instruct Jonah despite his anger and stubbornness.

The book ends with the Lord questioning Jonah about the rightness of his compassion towards Nineveh.  We are left hanging as to how Jonah answered the question.  O. Palmer Robinson asks how we should answer it in the light of the Lord’s compassion towards us.  ‘Should not you have the compassion that reflects your Lord’s?  Considering how graciously he has had compassion on you and yours, should you not show the same compassion towards others?  Should not you have compassion even towards sinners that in some ways (but not in all ways) be worse than yourself?’[4]

Coming Soon: A Successful but very Bitter Prophet!   Another look at Jonah 3-4.

[1] T Desmond Alexander, Jonah (Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1988). 118.  (As part of a commentary on Obadiah and Micah by David W.  Baker and Bruce K.  Waltke respectively).
[2] Hugh Martin, Jonah, The Geneva Series of Commentaries, (London, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1870), 221-2.
[3] O.  Palmer Robinson, Jonah, A Study in Compassion (Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 41.
[4] Robinson, Jonah, 63-4.

 ‘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.