A study through the book of Jonah

A study through the book of Jonah Prepared and taught By Dr. John Birley

Bible study The book of Jonah Introduction I'm sure you have read the book of Jonah many times. It is a popular OT book particularity with Sunday school teachers and as a result almost everyone knows something about Jonah and his adventure with the Great fish. As with many things that are frequently taught or read there is a danger that in our familiarity we overlook or miss some of the important things that a more detailed study reveals. In this study therefore we will be looking in detail at this book and using it to ask some serious questions regarding, Obeying God, having a heart for evangelism and accepting God's sovereignty. Problems with the book The book of Jonah has in recent years been the subject of much controversy. With the rise of critical scholarship in the 19 th century many writers, scholars and teachers have rejected its historicity, preferring to view it as an allegory or parable. The problems these people have centre on the credibility of the story and can be summarised in two ways. 1. The problem regarding the supernatural elements most notably the great fish 2. The improbability that one man could change the hearts of an entire city. Two quotes demonstrate how liberal scholars view Jonah. Surely this is not the record of actual historical events nor was it ever intended as such. It is a sin against the author to treat as literal prose what he intended as poetry. This story is poetry, not prose. It is a prose poem, not history. (Julius Brewer International Critical Commentary p4) The story of Jonah is neither an account of actual happenings nor an allegory of the destiny of Israel or of the Messiah it is fiction, a short story with a moral. (Robert H Pfeiffer Introduction to the Old Testament p587) The recent interpreters have tended to see the book as either; allegory or parable. Allegory The book is seen as a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. So for example in such a view Jonah whose name means dove (a symbol of peace), represents the Jewish nation. Their mission as a nation is to bring peace.

An extended parable The book is seen as a simple moral story intended to teach an important lesson. In this case the story teaches Israel (God's chosen people) to not be mean spirited or introverted but to have a heart to other people groups. To be missional in their thinking. Our perspective In our study we are taking the traditional conservative position that the events recorded in Jonah took place to real people in historic settings as outlined in the bible. This was the view held by almost everyone prior to the 19 th century. Our question is therefore how do we answer these objections to the supernatural/historical character of Jonah? How do we respond to people who say that it's nonsense to suggest a whale can swallow a man whole and that he can live in its belly for several days. Answering the critics A) Firstly we might argue that the historic view of both Jews and Christians until fairly recently has been that the book is historic. The Jewish historian Flavious Josephus for example records Jonah's details in his Antiquities of the Jews (chapter 10, paragraph 2). For him it was a matter of historic record, not a parable. B) Secondly we have evidence from the book itself. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying... Jonah 1:1 It seems unlikely the writer would have given us this information regarding Jonah's father if he were not a real person. In an allegory or parable such unnecessary detail is deemed surplus to requirements. C) Thirdly we might point to how other people in the bible refer to Jonah and what happened to him. Most notably we have Jesus speaking about him. 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. 39 But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 40 for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:38-41

4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah. And He left them and went away. Matthew 16:4 29 As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Luke 11:29-32 The Lord Jesus Christ clearly understood that Jonah had been a real prophet sent on a mission by God to a real people and place in history. He used the Jonah story as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection, itself a miraculous event. We see in scripture that Jesus did refer to other prophets; Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah but Jonah is the only Old Testament character with whom Jesus Christ compared Himself directly. Towards a naturalistic explanation The stumbling block for most people is the WHALE. The Bible doesn t actually specify what sort of marine animal swallowed Jonah. Most people assume that it was a either a cachalot (Sperm whale) or a white shark. Both are capable of swallowing a man whole and both are known to live in the Mediterranean. They have been known to Mediterranean sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his 4th-century B.C. Historia Animalium. Sperm whale White shark What does the bible say The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gaw-daw literally means great fish. The Greek used in the New Testament is kaytos which simply means sea creature or huge fish. Therefore we are not necessarily saying it was even a whale.

Historical precedent Do we have any other historical accounts of people being swallowed by large fish and surviving? Well actually we do. The Princeton Theological Review of 1927 mentions a case similar to that of Jonah. James Bartley (1870-1909) was a member of the crew of a whaling ship called the Star of the East. The ship was hunting sperm whales in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. When they saw a whale the men left the larger ship in smaller boats to chase down the whale and harpoon it. Bartley was in a small boat with three other men when the sperm whale came up underneath their boat and tipped the men out. Three of the men were rescued but Bartley could not be found and was recorded by the ships captain as missing, presumed drowned. Sometime later they caught a large sperm whale and began to cut it up. Inside its belly they found the unconscious Bartley. He had been inside for approximately 18 hours. He was revived with salt water and made a full recovery from his ordeal. The only lasting impact was that the powerful gastric juices of the whale's belly had bleached any skin that it had touched white. Bartley returned to the UK and lived another 43 years. His tombstone in Gloucester had the words engraved upon it, A modern Jonah We see here that even with a purely naturalistic explanation it is possible for a man to survive inside a whale for a considerable period of time. This of course ignores the supernatural intervention of a sovereign God. An overview of the book of Jonah A) Date and writer Jonah lived during Jeroboam II's reign over the Northern Kingdom of Israel (793-753 B.C.). Given this a probable date for the writing of the book of Jonah would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 780 B.C. We do not know who the writer was. Some have claimed that only Jonah would know the things detailed. However the book does not name him as the writer and also it is written in the third person rather than in the first. B) Historic background Jonah is the fifth of the 12 minor prophets. It is unique amongst this group as it is almost entirely narrative. Jonah is also unique in being the only OT prophet we have recorded who God sent to a pagan nation with a message of repentance. Jonah then was Israel's first foreign missionary.

Jonah was from Gath Heper in Galilee (See appendix 1). He appears in two different books in the OT, Jonah of course and also 2 nd Kings. Jonah was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Israel's King Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.; 2 Kings 14:23-25). Second Kings 14:25 records that Jonah prophesied that Jeroboam II would restore Israel to her former boundaries, which the king did. What do we know about Nineveh? The city is mentioned 18 times in the bible and two whole books; Jonah and Nahum are devoted to its fate. The city is first mentioned in Genesis 10. From that land he (Nimrod) went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah. Genesis 10:11 Here we get the account of Nimrod son of Cush who himself was the son of Ham (Noah's son) going out and founding Nineveh. Until the 19 th century sceptics thought it was a mythical place and denied it had ever existed. However in 1849 the city was rediscovered by British archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard close to Mosul in modern day Iraq. This ended 2,500 years of obscurity. It is now believed to have been the largest city in the world at the time of its demise. According to Sir Austen Henry Layard, who chronicled the rediscovery of Nineveh in his book Discoveries at Nineveh, the circumference of Greater Nineveh was exactly three days' journey, as recorded in Jonah 3:3 (p. 314)

Nineveh was a great city in the Assyrian Empire (see appendix 2). Later it would become one of the empire's capital cities and later still its sole capital. Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. It was said to stretch for some 30 miles along the river with an average breadth of 10 miles. It had walls that were 100 feet high and 50 feet thick. The main wall contained 15 gates and was over seven and a half miles long. The total population was probably about 600,000 including the people who lived in the suburbs outside the city walls. The Assytrians - a threat to Israel Assyria was a threat to Israel's security. The Assyrians were a fierce and cruel nation who showed little mercy to those they conquered (2 Kings 19:17). Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 2 Kings 17:19 Below are two accounts recording how they handled their prisoners. I destroyed, I demolished, I burned. I took their warriors prisoner and impaled them on stakes before their cities. flayed the nobles, as many as had rebelled, and spread their skins out on the piles [of dead corpses]? many of the captives I burned in a fire. Many I took alive; from some I cut off their hands to the write, from other I cut off their noses, ears and fingers; I put out the eyes of many of the soldiers. (TimeFrame 1500-600 BC by Time-Life Books) Assyrian War Bulletin (1000 B.C) I slew two hundred and sixty fighting men; I cut off their heads and made pyramids thereof. I slew one of every two. I built a wall before the great gates of the city; I flayed the chief men of the rebels, and I covered the wall with their skins. Some of them were enclosed alive in the bricks of the wall, some of them were crucified on stakes along the wall; I caused a great multitude of them to be flayed in my presence, and I covered the wall with their skins. I gathered together the heads in the form of crowns, and their pierced bodies in the form of garlands." There are many similar records of how they would skin alive their captives, impale them on poles, burn men, women and even babies, gouge out eyes and sever hands and feet. This is partly why Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. Can you blame him? Religion in Nineveh The residents of Nineveh were pagan idolaters who primarily worshipped the gods Asur (male) and Ishtar (female).

The people in Nineveh also worshipped another god. The fish god The Assyrian's in Nineveh worshipped the fish god Dagon. In their mythology they believed that Dagon had emerged from the sea as a half man half fish creature. They also worshipped the female fish goddess whose name was Nanshee. They were then a people acutely tuned to a marine deity. This is given weight when we consider the fact that they paid great attention to Jonah, who came to them not only from the sea but from inside a fish. Dagon Purpose Why did God through the Holy Spirit give us the book of Jonah? The book is a revelation to all of God's people of His sovereign power and loving concern for all His creatures, even cattle (4:11). This revelation came first to Jonah personally, and then through him to the Jews. Foreshadowing That Jonah is a type of Christ is clear from Jesus own words. In Matthew 12:40-41, Jesus declares that He will be in the grave the same amount of time Jonah was in the whale s belly. He goes on to say that while the Ninevites repented in the face of Jonah s preaching, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who rejected Jesus were rejecting One who is far greater than Jonah. Just as Jonah brought the truth of God regarding repentance and salvation to the Ninevites, so too does Jesus bring the same message (Jonah 2:9; John 14:6) of salvation of and through God alone (Romans 11:36). Divisions / outlines There are various ways in which we could outline the book of Jonah. The NIV study bible breaks the book into two parts. Part 1: Jonah flees his mission: Chapters 1,2 Part 2: Jonah reluctantly fulfils his mission: Chapters 3,4 In our study we will divide Jonah into four parts. Chapter 1 Jonah's Disobedience Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Jonah's Prayer Jonah's Obedience Jonah's Anger

Jonah's disobedience Jonah chapter 1 (NASB) 1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. 5 Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. 6 So the captain approached him and said, How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish. 7 Each man said to his mate, Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? 9 He said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. 10 Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, How could you do this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 So they said to him, What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. 12 He said to them, Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you. 13 However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. 14 Then they called on the Lord and said, We earnestly pray, O Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man s life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O Lord, have done as You have pleased. 15 So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Chapter 1 Commentary and explanation (information taken from Thomas Constable) The story opens with God commissioning His prophet and Jonah rebelling against His will. Verse 1 - The expression "The word of the LORD came to" occurs over 100 times in the Old Testament. Jonah's name means "Dove." We do not have any knowledge of "Amittai" ("Truthful"), other than that he was Jonah's father. The recording of the name of an important person's father was common in Jewish writings, and the presence of Amittai's name in the text argues for the historical reality of Jonah. Verse 2 - "Nineveh" was indeed a "great city," its history stretching back as far as Nimrod, who built it as well as Babel and several other cities in Mesopotamia (Gen. 10:8-12).34 The word "great" occurs frequently in this book (1:2, 4, 12, 16, 17; 3:2; 4:1, 6, 11). Nineveh occupied about 1,800acres, and stood on the east bank of the Tigris River across from the modern Iraqi city of Mosul. Jonah was to "cry against it" (NASB) or "preach against it" (NIV), in the sense of informing its inhabitants that God had taken note of their wickedness. He was not to identify their sins as much as announce that judgment was imminent. God apparently intended that Jonah's condition as an outsider would have made the Ninevites regard him as a divine messenger. The Lord did not send him to be merely a foreign critic of that culture. Verse 3 - "Tarshish" was the name of a great-grandson of Noah through Noah's son Japheth and Japheth's son Javan (Gen 10:1-4). From then on in the Old. Testament, the name describes both the descendants of this man and the territory where they settled. The territory was evidently a long distance from Israel and is usually identified as being in southwest Spain (see appendix 3). The Hebrew word tarshishu means "smelting place" or "refinery." Joppa stood about 35 miles southwest of Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Nineveh lay about 550 miles northeast of Samaria. Why did Jonah leave Israel? He seems to have concluded that if he ran away, God would select another prophet, rather than track him down and make him go to Nineveh. By going in the opposite direction from Nineveh, as Jonah seems to have been trying to get as far away from the judgment he thought the Lord would bring on that city as he could. In short, he seems to have been trying to run away from the Lord's calling and to preserve his own safety at the same time. This is the only instance in Scripture of a prophet disobeying God's call Verse 4 - Jonah subjected himself to dangers, when he launched out on the sea. For the people of Israel Israel the sea was thought to be under divine control. It embodied the chaotic forces that humans could not control or tame. God used the "wind" to bring the prodigal prophet to the place He wanted him to be Verse 5 - The sailors appeared to be of mixed religious convictions. Some of them were probably Phoenicians, since Phoenicians were commonly seafaring traders. Phoenicia was a center of Baal worship then. For a cargo vessel to throw their cargo overboard, thus destroying their livelihood demonstrates how serious the storm was. Jonah's ability to sleep under such conditions seems very unusual. The same Hebrew word (radam) describes Sisera's deep sleep, that his exhaustion produced (Judg. 4:21), and the deep sleep that God put Adam and Abram under (Gen 2:21; 15:12). Perhaps therfore Jonah was both exhausted and divinely assisted in sleeping.

Verse 6 - Jonah should have been praying, instead of sleeping, in view of the imminent danger that he and his companions faced (Luke 22:39-46). The normal reaction to danger, even among pagans, is to seek divine intervention, but this is precisely what Jonah wanted to avoid. Jonah did not care if he died. Verse 7 - It appears to have been common practice "cast lots" to determine who was responsible for some catastrophe (cf. John 19:24). Saul resorted to this when he could not get a direct response from the Lord (1 Sam. 14:36-42). Casting lots was a divinely prescribed method of learning God's will in Israel (Lev. 16:8-10; Num. 26:55-56; 33:54; 34:13; 36:2-3; Josh. 14:2; 15:1; 16:1; et al.). However, as practised by pagans, it was a superstitious practice. Typically the lot were marked sticks or stones or sometimes dice. They were thrown and then their outcome was thought to show an answer or the divine will of God. Verse 8 The sailors subject Jonah to an interrogation. They imagined that in some way he had brought the misfortune on the ship. Verse 9 It was probably no surprise to learn he was a Hebrew. He had joined the ship in Joppa after all. He tells them that he worships Yahweh Elohim, the heavenly God of the Hebrews. It was obvious to them that Jonah's God was after him, and had sent the storm to put him in His hands. Ironically, what was so clear to these pagans was obscure to the runaway prophet. When God sovereignly selects someone for special service, that person cannot run and hide from Him. Jonah had not yet learned this lesson. Verse 10 - The sailors' exclamation expressed their incredulity at Jonah's naïveté in trying to run away from the God who created the sea, by taking a sea voyage! Surely Jonah must have known, they thought, that Yahweh would make their journey perilous. Evidently Jonah had previously told them that he was "fleeing from the Lord In the polytheistic ancient Near East, people conceived of a multitude of gods, each with authority over a particular area of life. A god of the mountains, for example, would have little power on the plains. Verse 12 - Jonah's answer reveals the double-mindedness of the prophet. He could have asked the sailors to sail back to Joppa, if he really intended to obey the Lord and go to Nineveh. His repentance surely would have resulted in God withholding judgment from the sailors, just as the Ninevites.' Still, Jonah was not ready to obey God yet. Nonetheless, his compassion for the sailors led him to give them a plan designed to release them from God's punishment. It would also likely result in his death, which he regarded as preferable to obeying God. His heart was still as hard as ever toward the plight of the Ninevites, even though he acknowledged he knew God was disciplining him. Verse 13 - The sailors initially rejected Jonah's advice and compassionately chose to drop him off at the nearest land. They strained every muscle for Jonah's sake, literally digging their oars into the water. They demonstrated more concern for one man than Jonah had for the thousands of men, women, and children in Nineveh. Verse 14 - The voice their belief in God's sovereignty, which Jonah had denied by his behavior. They requested physical deliverance and forgiveness from guilt, since they anticipated that Jonah would die because of their act. They believed that God's sovereignty was so strongly obvious that He might forgive them. Jonah's innocent death seemed inevitable to them, try as they did to avoid it. Still, they could not be sure that they were doing God's will, and feared that He might punish them for taking the life of His servant.

Verse 15/16 - The immediate cessation of the storm proved to the sailors that Yahweh really did control the sea. Therefore they "feared" (respected) Him, "offered a sacrifice" to Him (when they reached shore?), and "made vows" (perhaps to venerate Him). These mariners were almost certainly polytheists, so we should not conclude that they abandoned their worship of other gods and "got saved" necessarily. However, their spiritual salvation is a possibility. The fact that they made vows to God may point to their conversion. Verse 17 - The identity of the "great fish" remains a mystery, since the only record of what it was is in this story, and that description is general. The Hebrew word is simply translated "fish," describes a variety of aquatic creatures. The text does not say that God created this fish out of nothing (ex nihilo), nor does what the fish did require such an explanation. There are many types of fish capable of swallowing a human being whole. Significantly, God saved Jonah's life by using a fish, rather than a more conventional method, such as providing a piece of wood that he could cling to. Thus, this method of deliverance must have some special significance. The Jews were familiar with the mythical sea monster (leviathan), which symbolized both the uncontrollable chaos of the sea and the chaotic forces that only Yahweh could manage For Jonah to relate his experience of deliverance in this ancient Near Eastern cultural context would have impressed his hearers (particularly in Nineveh) that a great God indeed had sent him to them. It is probably for this reason that God chose to save Jonah by using a great fish. Jonah was able to calculate how long he was in the fish only after he came out of it. Obviously he lost all track of time inside the fish. Ancient Near Easterners viewed the trip to the underworld land of the dead as a three-day journey. Original readers of this story would have concluded that the fish gave Jonah a return trip from the land of the dead to which Jonah, by his own admission, had descended (2:2, 6). The three-day time was also significant because Jonah's deliverance became a precursor of an even greater salvation that took three days and nights to accomplish (Matt. 12:40). God restored Jonah to life so he would be God's instrument in providing salvation to a large Gentile (and indirectly Jewish) population under God's judgment for their sins. He raised Jesus to life so He would be God's instrument in providing salvation for an even larger population of Gentiles and Jews under God's judgment for their sins..

Jonah's disobedience Jonah chapter 1: discussion time 1. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a nation that was a fierce and powerful enemy of Israel's to the northeast. How does Jonah respond to the Lord's command to preach there (v. 1-3)? 2. Tarshish, traditionally identified as being in Spain, was over two thousand miles in the opposite direction. Why did Jonah head to Tarshish? 3. While Jonah was journeying to Tarshish, what kinds of thoughts and feelings might he have experienced? 4. How do you think Jonah felt when the captain urged him to call on God for help (v. 6)? 5. Why do the sailors become even more terrified after they hear Jonah's story (v. 7-10)? 6. The sailors on the ship cast lots (v. 7). Why do we as Christians today not need to cast lots to find out things? 7. Jonah acknowledges his guilt in verses 11-12. Do you think he is repentant at this point? Explain why or why not? 8. Is Jonah a fearful man? Explain why or why not? 9. How does God use this calamity to demonstrate his grace and mercy (v. 15-17)? 10. How does chapter 1 illustrate the futility of running from God? 11. Sometimes we run from God in ways that can be as obvious as Jonah's actions. However more often we run from God in much more subtle ways. In what area of life are you currently running from God? 12. What can you do to make things right with God and come under His will?

Jonah's Prayer Jonah chapter 2 (NASB) 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said, I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. 3 For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. 4 So I said, I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple. 5 Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord. 10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

Chapter 2 Commentary and explanation This is the first mention of Jonah praying. In both this verse and 4:2 the usual Hebrew word hitpallel, "to pray," appears. In 1:5 and 3:8 the Hebrew word qara', "to call," occurs. Until now Jonah had been fleeing from God and hiding from Him. Now in his great distress he finally sought the Lord. The prayer or psalm of chapter 2 is mainly one of thanksgiving for deliverance from drowning. It is not thanksgiving for deliverance from the fish or a prayer of confession, as we might expect. Jonah prayed it while he was in the fish. Evidently he concluded after some time in the fish's stomach that he would not die from drowning. Drowning was a particularly distasteful form of death for an ancient Near Easterner, such as Jonah, who regarded the sea as a great enemy. Jonah's ability to thank God in the midst of his black torture chamber, which must have pitched him uncontrollably in every direction, shows that he had experienced a remarkable change in attitude. Jonah could have composed the core of this psalm, which contains his prayer, while he was inside the great fish. He may have composed or polished the whole psalm sometime after he was safely back on dry land. It bears many similarities to other psalms in the Psalter. Clearly Jonah knew the psalms well, and he could have spent much time reflecting on them during his three days in the fish. Verse 2 Jonah, as with many others, called to the Lord whilst in a distressing situation asking for help, and the Lord responded to his cry with deliverance (cf. Ps. 3:4; 120:1). The second part of the verse is a parallel restatement of the first part. The prophet compared the fish's stomach to a burial chamber from which he could not escape. "Depth" is literally the "belly" of Sheol, the place of departed souls that the Hebrews thought of as under the earth's surface. Jonah thought that he had gone to join the dead. Verse 6 The prophet "descended" in the sea to the "roots" (bases) of the mountains, their very foundations. There he felt caged as a prisoner unable to escape. However, even though human deliverance was hopeless, Yahweh, Jonah's strong God, lifted him up out of Sheol's pit (cf. Ps. 49:15; 56:13; 103:4). Look at Jonah's downward journey - from Jerusalem down to Joppa (1:3) down into the ship (1:3b) down into the cargo hold (1:5) and ultimately down into the bottom of the sea, pictured as down to the very gates of the netherworld (2:7). This downward journey does not end until he turns back to God who brings him 'up' from the brink of death (2:6-7)." Verse 9 Jonah's desperate condition had brought him to his senses. He would return to the source of loyal love and express his worship of Yahweh with a sacrifice. His sacrifice would have to be "thanksgiving," though, because he despaired of being able to offer an animal or vegetable offering. He also promised to "pay" his vow to God. This probably refers to his commitment to serve the Lord faithfully, from which he had departed, but to which he now returned The end of this psalm shows Jonah doing what the sailors had done earlier, namely: offering a sacrifice and making vows (1:16). "Jonah deserved death, not deliverance. And yet Yahweh graciously delivered him by special intervention so that Jonah could not but recognize the greatness of Yahweh's compassion, praise him for it, and recognize his reliance on Yahweh alone.

Jonah's Prayer Jonah chapter 2: discussion time 1. What caused Jonah to pray from the belly of the fish? (v. 2) 2. What is Jonah thankful for, after all he's in the belly of a fish? 3.When have you felt like you were in a deep, dark pit (v. 6), either physically, emotionally or spiritually? 4. Why do you think we sometimes have to sink so low before we remember God? 5. What important lessons do we or can we learn from despair or very difficult circumstances? 6. What do you notice about what both the sailors (1:16) did and what Jonah (2:9) did? 7. Some commentators have claimed that Jonah was dead when swallowed by the fish. What evidence from chapter 2 argues against this view?

Jonah's obedience Jonah chapter 3 (NASB) 1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you. 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. 4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day s walk; and he cried out and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown. 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9 Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish. 10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

Chapter 3 Commentary and explanation The second half of this book chapters 3 and 4 record Jonah's obedience to the Lord following his initial disobedience in chapters 1 and 2. However, he was not completely obedient in his attitudes even though he was in his actions. God gave Jonah a second chance to obey Him, as He has many of His servants Verse 2 Jonah was fortunate, God does not always give His servants a second chance to obey Him after they refused to do so the first time. Often He simply uses others to accomplish His purposes. In Jonah's case, God sovereignly chose to use Jonah for this mission The sovereignty of God is a strong revelation in this Book. Verse 3 Nineveh had already become a great city when Jonah visited it. The Hebrew syntax favors this view. Roland de Vaux estimated that Israel's largest city, Samaria, had a population of about 30,000 at this time. Nineveh was at least four times larger (4:11). The meaning of "a three-days' walk" remains somewhat obscure. The Hebrew phrase is literally "a distance of three days," Verse 4 The essence of Jonah's proclamation was that Nineveh would be overthrown in only "40 days." This word overthrown in Hebrew is haphak,meaning overthrown or destroyed. The same word is used for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Periods of testing in Scripture were often 40 days long (Gen. 7:17; Exod. 24:18 ; 1 Kings 19:8 ; Matt. 4:2) Note that Jonah's message was an announcement of impending doom, not a call to believe in the God of Israel Verse 5 Jonah's proclamation moved the Ninevites to humble themselves and seek divine mercy. Although Nineveh was not overturned, it did experience a turn around. The people "believed" and repented (evidenced by their genuine contrition), apparently after only one day of preaching (v. 4), because of the message from God that Jonah had brought to them. Fasting and wearing "sackcloth" involved self-affliction, which demonstrated an attitude of humility in the ancient Near East. Sackcloth was what the poor and the slaves usually wore. Thus, wearing it depicted that the entire population viewed themselves as needy (of God's mercy in this case) and slaves (of God in this case). This attitude and these actions marked all levels of the city's population. Verse 6 Even "the king" responded by repenting. The "king of Nineveh" would probably have been the king of Assyria, since Nineveh was a leading city of that empire. Verse 7 This verse further describes how seriously the king and his nobles regarded their situation and to what extent they went to encourage citywide contrition. They did not regard their animals as needing to humble themselves but viewed them as expressing the spirit of their owners.

Chapter 3 Commentary and explanation Verse 8 Clearly the Ninevites connected the impending judgment with their own conduct. They felt that by abandoning their wickedness they could obtain some mercy from God. The Hebrew word translated "violence" hamas refers to the overbearing attitude and conduct of someone who has attained power over others and misuses it (Gen. 16:5). Assyrian soldiers were physically violent (Nah. 3:1), 3-4 ;.2 Kings 18:33-35), but so were the Chaldeans (Hab. 1:9) and others who, because of conquest, could dominate others. Discrimination against minorities because they are less powerful manifests this sin. Verse 9 The Ninevites lived in the ancient Near East that viewed all of life as under the sovereign control of divine authority, the gods. Even though they were polytheists and pagans, they believed in some deity of justice who demanded justice of humankind. They also believed that their actions affected their god's actions. Verse 10 God noted the genuineness of the Ninevites' repentance in their actions. These fruits of repentance moved Him to withhold the judgment that He would have sent on them had they persisted in their wicked ways. Repentance is essentially a change in one's thinking. Change in one's behavior indicates that repentance has taken place, but behavioral change is the fruit of repentance and is not all there is to repentance (Matt. 3:7-10) 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father ; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 10 The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Nineveh were spared on this occasion but they were overthrown in 612 B.C., about 150 years later.

Jonah's obedience Jonah chapter 3: discussion time 1. If you were Jonah, how would you feel when the word of the Lord came to you a second time (v1-2)? 2. Assyria was one of the most powerful nations on earth, known especially for its military might and brutality. How would this make it difficult for Jonah to proclaim: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned" (v. 3-4)? 3. What evidence is there that the Ninevites were sincere in their repentance (v. 5-9)? 4. How and why does the Lord respond to the Ninevites (v. 10)? 5. What view of God do the Ninevites express in this chapter? 6. If a genuine turning to God were to occur in Korea, what results would you expect to see? 7. Where do you feel a call to evangelize or share the gospel? 8. What prevents or stops you from going? 9. Describe one area in your life where you feel a need for repentance. 10.What actions can you take to demonstrate the sincerity of your repentance?

Jonah's anger Jonah chapter 4 (NASB) 1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life. 4 The Lord said, Do you have good reason to be angry? 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, Death is better to me than life. 9 Then God said to Jonah, Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant? And he said, I have good reason to be angry, even to death. 10 Then the Lord said, You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?

Chapter 4 Commentary and explanation The reader might assume that the Lord's deliverance of the Ninevites from imminent doom is the climax of the story. This is not the case. The most important lesson of the book deals with God's people and specifically God's instruments, not humanity in general. Although Jonah hardly comes across as a hero anywhere in the book, he appears especially selfish, petty, temperamental, and even foolish in chap. 4 Verse 1 Why is Jonah so angry? The people of Nineveh have been spared. He should be joyful. We need to look back to Jonah's experiences in Judah. In 2 Kings 14:23-25 we read that Jonah was sent to the wicked king Jeroboam and told him that God despite his wickedness would bless him by expanding his borders. Despite these blessings and God's mercy Jeroboam became more wicked and evil. Jonah therefore seems to have come to the conclusion that offering mercy to wicked people was not the best way to deal with them. His anger therefore seems to come from an attitude that God is not dealing with these people in the right way (according to Jonah). They should be rightly punished and yet God is showing them mercy. This is the first clue, after Jonah's initial repentance and trip to Nineveh, that his heart was still not completely right with God. One can do the will of God without doing it with the right attitude, and that is the focus of the remainder of the book. The repentance and good deeds of the Ninevites pleased God, but they displeased His representative. They made God happy, but they made Jonah unhappy. Verse 2 To his credit, Jonah told God why he was angry. He did not murmur or complain about God. Many believers try to hide their true feelings from God when they think God will not approve of those feelings. Even though the prophet had been rebellious, he had a deep and intimate relationship with God. Jonah's motive in fleeing to Tarshish now becomes known. He was afraid that the Ninevites would repent and that God would be merciful to this ancient enemy of God's people. By opposing the Israelites, her enemies were also opposing Yahweh. This is why a godly man such as Jonah hated the Assyrians so much, and why the psalmists spoke so strongly against Israel's enemies. Some dismiss biblical references to God 'relenting' from judgment as anthropomorphic (giving something in this God human traits or characteristics), arguing that an unchangeable God would never change his mind once he has announced his intentions. But both Jonah 4:2 and Joel 2:13 list God's capacity to 'change his mind' as one of his fundamental attributes, one that derives from his compassion and demonstrates his love." Verse 3 Jonah felt so angry that he asked God to take his life. Elijah had previously voiced the same request (1 Kings 19:4), but we must be careful not to read Elijah's reasons into Jonah's request. Both prophets obviously became extremely discouraged. Both evidently felt that what God had done through their ministries was different from what they wanted to see happen. Elijah had wanted to see a complete national revival, but Jonah had wanted to see complete national destruction. Verse 4 God did not rebuke Jonah, nor did He ask what right he had to criticize Him. Rather, He suggested that Jonah might not be viewing the situation correctly. God also confronted Job tenderly by asking him questions (cf. vv. 9, 11; Job 38 39). The Jerusalem Bible translation, "Are you right to be angry?" captures the intent of the Hebrew text. Jonah had condemned God for not being angry (v. 2), but now God challenged Jonah for being angry. Jonah was feeling the frustration of not understanding God's actions in the light of His character, which many others have felt (e.g., Job, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, et al.).

Chapter 4 Commentary and explanation Verse 4 God did not rebuke Jonah, nor did He ask what right he had to criticize Him. Rather, He suggested that Jonah might not be viewing the situation correctly. God also confronted Job tenderly by asking him questions. The Jerusalem Bible translation, "Are you right to be angry?" captures the intent of the Hebrew text. Jonah had condemned God for not being angry (v. 2), but now God challenged Jonah for being angry. Jonah was feeling the frustration of not understanding God's actions in the light of His character, which many others have felt (e.g., Job, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, et al.). Verse 5 We might have expected Jonah to leave what so angered him quickly, as Elijah had fled from Israel and sought refuge far from it to the south. Why did Jonah construct a shelter and sit down to watch what would happen to Nineveh? The same Hebrew word for "shelter" (sukka) describes the leafy structures that the Israelites made for themselves for the Feast of Tabernacles. Did Jonah think that judgment might fall anyway, or was he waiting for God to clarify His actions? Perhaps Jonah hoped that the Ninevites' repentance would evaporate quickly, and that God would then call him to pronounce the judgment that he so wanted to see. Verse 6 The Lord proceeded to teach Jonah His ways and to confront him with his attitude problem. God continued to manifest compassion for Jonah by providing him with a shading plant that relieved the "discomfort" (Heb. ra'ah) of the blistering Mesopotamian sun. This is the only time that we read that Jonah was "happy," and it was because he was physically comfortable. His anger grew out of his personal discomfort resulting from God's mercy on the Ninevites. It is impossible to identify the exact "plant" that God provided, and it is inconsequential. Some commentators speculate that it was probably the castor bean plant, which in Mesopotamia grows rapidly to 12 feet tall and has large leaves. Verse 7 Clearly God was manipulating Jonah's circumstances to teach him something. He uses large things such as the fish, and small things like the worm. Verse 8 The "scorching east wind" that God provided was the dreaded sirocco. The following description of it helps us appreciate why it had such a depressing effect on Jonah. "During the period of a sirocco the temperature rises steeply, sometimes even climbing during the night, and it remains high, about 16-22 F. above the average... at times every scrap of moisture seems to have been extracted from the air, so that one has the curious feeling that one's skin has been drawn much tighter than usual. Sirocco days are peculiarly trying to the temper and tend to make even the mildest people irritable and fretful and to snap at one another for apparently no reason at all." Dennis Baly, The Geography of the Bible, pp. 67-68.

Chapter 4 Commentary and explanation Verse 9 God's question here was very similar to His question in verse 4. Was Jonah right "having a good reason" or justification "to be angry" about the plant, God asked? Jonah's reply was a strong superlative.[136] He felt that strong anger was proper. Evidently Jonah believed that God was not even treating him with the compassion that He normally showed all people, much less His chosen servants. The story now reaches its climax. God revealed to Jonah how out of harmony with His own heart the prophet, though obedient, was. He contrasted Jonah's attitude with His own. Verse 10 "Compassion" (Heb. hus, concern [NIV], be sorry for [NEB], pity [RSV, RV]) is the key attitude. Jonah had become completely indifferent to the fate of the Ninevites. He knew His God well (4:2). Nevertheless, his appreciation for God's love for Israel had evidently so pervaded his life, that it crowded out any compassion for these people who lacked knowledge of, and relationship with, Yahweh. Furthermore, Jonah had announced that Israel's borders would expand under King Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25) To reveal Jonah's lack of compassion to himself, God dealt with him as any ordinary person. He exposed him to the pleasures and discomforts that everyone faces, and made him see that his theology made him no more compassionate than anyone else. It should have. Knowledge of a sovereign, compassionate God whom He feared should have made Jonah more submissive to God's will, more compassionate toward other people, and more respectful of God. Verse 11 God had invested much work in Nineveh and had been responsible for its growth. This is why it was legitimate at the most elementary level for God to feel compassion for its people. Jonah's compassion extended only to a plant but not to people. We normally have compassion for those with whom we can identify most closely, but God also has compassion on people who are helpless. Spiritually they are those who do not know God, those who are "lost." The reference to "animals" concludes the book, and is the final climax of God's lesson to the prophet, and through him to God's people in Israel and in the church. If God has compassion for animals, and He does, how much more should we feel compassion for human beings made in God's image, who are under His judgment because of their sins (cf. 3:8)! We must never let our concern for the welfare of God's people keep us from reaching out with the message of hope to those who oppose us.

Jonah's anger Jonah chapter 4: discussion time 1. Why do you think that Jonah was greatly displeased and angry (v. 1-3)? 2. Did these things give him any right to be angry (v. 4)? Explain. 3. Evidently the forty days had already passed (3:10). Why then do you think Jonah still waited to see what would happen to the city (v. 5)? 4. How does the Lord use the plant as an object lesson for Jonah (v. 6-11)? 5. In what ways are we sometimes more concerned about petty things than about those under God's judgment? 6. What do we learn from chapter 4 about God's attitude to people? (v.11) 7. What do we learn about God's sovregnity in chapter 4? 8. Can you think of a time when you were angry with God? 9. What did you do? 10. In your life, how have you seen God demonstrate the qualities Jonah mentions in 4:2? 11. How does God's treatment of you motivate you to reach out to those who don't know him?

Appendix 1 Replica's of the main Gates of Nineveh Appendix 2 the city of Nineveh Royal palace of Nineveh

Appendix 3