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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
Jonah means “Dove” while Amittai means “truthful.” Jonah is also mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 prophesying to King Jeroboam II of Israel (753-712BC). He was from the tribe of Zebulon.
Nineveh was a city founded by Nimrod shortly after The Great Flood and was made the capitol of the Assyrian Empire by Sennacherib who made it one of the most beautiful cities of the time. The wall surrounding the city was 40-50 feet high and ran two-and-a-half miles along the Tigris River and eight miles around the inner city. It had fifteen main gates. It fell to the Chaldeans and Medes, in about 529BC.
Chapter 1- Go Preach!
1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.
Jonah is the only minor prophet written in the third person. It is believed that he penned it after his return to Israel.
God is not only concerned with Israel, but with the salvation of all people. Here, Nineveh’s wickedness was so great a just God will have to destroy them. But since He loves them, He wants them warned and given a chance to repent.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Joppa is one of the oldest port cities in the world and has been incorporated into modern day Tel Aviv.
Tarshish is not known for certain. Some believe it could have been in Spain (The Septuagint translated it as Carthage). Others note that when Solomon traded with Tarshish, the items he received were all natives of India. It may also have been a city in Asia Minor (possibly the same city the Apostle Paul was born in; Tarsus, on the southern border of Turkey). Tarshish is also a term describing large trade ships that traveled long distances. All of these would have the same meaning in the book of Jonah; “Take me as far away as possible.”
4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
This was some storm to scare the seasoned sailors so much! They did everything in their power to survive and it wasn’t working. Yet Jonah is sound asleep. He may have been in deep depression, one symptom of which is excessive sleep. Running form God is a common cause of such depression.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
These people believed in a multitude of gods, with each person worshiping his own favorite. They don’t know which god is doing this, but they hope Jonah’s is the one since all of theirs have failed.
7 And they said everyone to his fellow, “Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8 Then said they unto him, “Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou?”
The lots only told them who could give them an answer, not who the gods were actually mad at. God made sure the lot fell on the one who could answer their questions.
9 And he said unto them, “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”
Jonah’s God was THE God. He was more powerful than any other “god” because He had made the whole universe.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. “Why hast thou done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11 Then said they unto him, “What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?” For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
They were willing to do whatever it took to save their own lives.
12 And he said unto them, “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for My sake this great tempest is upon you.”
Was Jonah nobly sacrificing himself? Or was he still running from God? Would the storm have quit if he had said “Take me back to Joppa so I can go to Nineveh?” Probably.
He appears to have a death wish. However he can’t just jump overboard because that would be murder (of himself) and he would go to hell. If he talks the sailors into murdering him by throwing him overboard, he can still go to heaven. This is rather silly since he is already in rebellion to God, heading him straight to hell no matter how he dies.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
They were going to take him back anyway, but God knew Jonah wasn’t ready to obey yet.
14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, “We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.”
They finally get it right. They pray to the One and only true God.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
They now believed on God. These sailors were Jonah’s first converts in this story.
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
The word rendered “great fish” comes from a Hebrew word that is translated as whale, dragon, or sea monster elsewhere in the Old Testament. Jesus called it a whale or sea monster in the New Testament.
The idea that the whale is not a fish is fairly modern and part of man’s classification of animals, not necessarily God’s. God appears to classify animals more by their habitat than their physical characteristics. Thus, any creature in the sea would be a fish. Any very large creature would be a sea monster.
This particular animal could have been a whale as we know it. There is a story of an 18th century whaler falling overboard and disappearing. The next day his shipmates caught a whale and cut it open to find the man inside, still alive; totally insane, but still alive. And since whales are air breathing animals, a whale would have the oxygen Jonah needed to stay alive.
Or he could have actually died and God brought him back to life later.
This great fish could also have been a basking shark, whale shark, or some creature that is now extinct (short neck plesiosaur?). It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that God gave this particular animal the special job of catching and preserving Jonah.