Book of Jonah Concise Study
Jonah is a fast-paced and straightforward book. It seems especially appropriate to read through the whole thing quickly. It also seems especially appropriate to keep the study on it concise.
Beginning in Jonah 1:1-2: “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
This reminds of Exodus 22:22-24: “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.”
Nineveh’s wickedness surely involved such oppression- and a lot more.
Jonah 1:3: “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.”
Jonah probably did not believe that he could literally escape from God’s sight. God did have a special presence in the nation of Israel which Jonah was aware of. God spoke several times in the Scriptures of casting Israel out of His sight for their transgressions against Him and their hardhearted refusal to repent. That was obviously a reference to casting them out of the land.
Jonah was certainly at least fleeing from his prophetic calling.
The location of Tarshish is not essential to know in order to understand the main points of the Book of Jonah. Some say Tarshish was a part of modern Spain. The Jewish historian Josephus equated it with Tarsus, the Apostle’s native city. This is in South Central Turkey, not a great distance from the Northwest of Syria.
Jonah 1:4-6: “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 (that is, likely) to be broken. 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. 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.”
Severe storms are a reminder of God’s omnipotence and a reminder that no person can prevail against God. They also can (and should) cause sin-loving, idolatrous people to re-examine whether they are really at peace with the true God and to consider how they ought to change. Ironically, in Jonah’s case, this was a reminder that he had indeed worshiped the right God- and yet had forsaken him.
Jonah 1:7-10: “And they said every one 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. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence (from where) comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? 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. 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.”
Seeing the foolishness of those with great light forsaking that light should cause those with less light to seek God and be faithful to the light of Him that they have. They will also thereby come to know greater light themselves. We’ll see with these sailors that this is indeed what they did. Sadly, many go the opposite direction and plunge into yet greater darkness.
Jonah 1:11-15: “Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought (that is, it was not at rest; it was raging), and was tempestuous. 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. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. 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. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.”
God proved His power by this calm as well. In the Book of Exodus, He showed His power in removing the plagues from the Egyptians as well as in bringing the plagues.
Jonah 1:16: “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.”
Learn from them.
Christ has now provided the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Don’t seek to add to His work in atoning for sin by offering additional sacrifices to attempt to make the atonement yourself. But do fear the Lord exceedingly and serve Him in spirit and truth. Christ died to the end of making people set apart, redeemed servants of the true God. There is no obtaining of redemption by Him in any other context.
To remove these things from the Gospel is to preach a false gospel which is humanism at its core.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”
Revelation 5:9-10: “And they (those in heaven) sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
Revelation 14:6-7: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
Jonah 1:17: “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.”
Anything in the sea that squirms with a tail could fit the Hebrew word used here. Sharks are fish who have tails. There have been a handful of people in modern times which have been swallowed whole by sharks and have lived to tell about it.
We’ll see that this fish actually accomplished something very important to help Jonah.
Jonah 2:1-4: “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell (a reference to the grave) cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.”
As Jonah was drowning in the sea and came to think God really had disregarded him, he truly repented and cast himself upon God’s mercy, with the hope of yet entering into God’s presence (in the sense that he had fled from His presence before). That is implied in his looking again towards God’s holy temple (which was in Jerusalem, which God had at that time, chosen to make the center of His worship where His name was placed and where He commanded prayer towards).
There is no true repentance towards God from sin where one does not change their mind regarding the evil course they’ve taken as far back as they can trace it and change direction to pursue the right they should have followed before.
Jonah 2:5-6: “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.”
Jonah is praying this while yet in the fish’s belly. It is clear then that the fish’s swallowing of Jonah saved him from drowning in the sea.
Jonah 2:7: “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.”
This is reiterating what was said in verse four of this chapter.
Jonah 2:8: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
The Bible says repeatedly in different ways that God’s mercy is only for those who fear Him and depart from what is evil in His eyes to pursue what is right in His eyes- in surrender to His authority- without self-imposed conditions.
The OSAS (Once Saved Always Saved) people will tell you not to believe what Jonah said here. The Apostles of Christ, and the Bible as a whole, repeatedly teach otherwise (that is, contrary to the Once Saved Always Saved people- covered in detail frequently in several of our other studies).
Jonah 2:9: “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
A true Biblical understanding of salvation being of the Lord involves understanding that man has obligations in the covenant which God has set forth as the means of man obtaining His grace.
Jonah thus proclaimed that salvation is of the Lord as he also spoke of his intent on doing things that he would need to do in order to faithfully keep his end of God’s covenant.
We’re about to see that even the utterly heathen Ninevites understood this better than most professing Christians do now and better than Israel (even then).
If the Ninevites had listened to many so-called Christian ministers, they would have concluded that turning from their evil way, thinking they had to do this to obtain God’s mercy, was frustrating the grace of God.
Jonah 2:10: “And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”
That is one interesting rescue.
Jonah 3:1-2: “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”
Many have such a twisted view of repentance that they think it actually relieves them of their responsibilities. Nothing though could be further from the truth. Many think that if they say they’re sorry, that allows them to transgress again. When someone is in a cycle of sin, you’re likely to find a mentality along these lines at its roots.
Jonah had to go and do what he should have done before. We’ll see by the end of the book that he eventually turns away from the right attitude which he came to while drowning in the depths of the sea. That right attitude caused him to go and preach in Nineveh like he should have done when God first told him to.
Jonah 3:3: “So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.”
It seems clear by the next verse that Nineveh took three days to walk through.
Jonah 3:4: “And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
This was really going to happen if the Ninevites did not repent.
There is no mention in Jonah’s preaching of possible mercy if the Ninevites were to repent and turn to God, putting away their evil deeds. Yet the Ninevites perceived that mercy for them might yet be possible. They also understood that they had to turn from their sins and cry mightily to God if this was going to happen.
It is a really good thing that the easy grace preachers who deny Lordship salvation in Christ, who deny the need to turn from one’s sins in order to have an interest in Christ, or treat that as a light thing, weren’t in Nineveh.
Those who run people through a “1-2-3 repeat after me” sinner’s prayer and then tell them they are saved and unconditionally eternally secure are proven to be deadly deceivers when placed in the context of Nineveh at its crucial hour.
If a preacher/teacher’s message wouldn’t have saved Nineveh, then it surely cannot save you nor anyone else on Judgment Day.
Jonah 3:5: “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”
It takes labor of the heart to root out sin; to really alienate oneself from it and renounce it wherever it can be known. Sin has a momentary pleasure to it though that makes that causes such alienation very bitter to experience. The Passover Lamb, an obvious foreshadow of Jesus Christ, had to be eaten with bitter herbs for the Israelites to keep the Passover according to God’s instructions.
Repenting from sin is no light thing and cannot just be done in a minute.
Many sermons and tracts feature sinner’s prayers at the end. Many pray those prayers but they do not obtain grace and peace from God. Of course. They did not dig deep. They treated repentance towards God too lightly (the sermon or tract may not have even made repentance a big deal, it may have defined repentance wrong (that is, not consistent with how the Ninevites repented here), and it might have even blatantly lied and said that you do not have to turn from your sins at all.
Consider though:
Luke 6:46-49: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock (my note- that’s what the Ninevites we’re doing here): and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great (my note- again, it is a very good thing that these false grace preaching deceivers which abound in the realm of professing Christianity now were not in Nineveh when Jonah came there).”
The Apostle Paul told the Church at Corinth the following in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death (my note- we’re going to see Jonah return to being an example of that by the end of this book). For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
Jonah 3:6-9: “For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”
It is possible that there was word about Jonah being swallowed by the shark and vomited onto dry land, and even something about his appearance now which gave evidence he had gone through an ordeal of that nature, which got the Ninevites’ attention. We’ll shortly see something Jesus said in the Gospels which gives very strong reason to believe that.
Perhaps there was also an eclipse over Nineveh when Jonah arrived or some other strange event then which got the Ninevites’ attention. We don’t know though. We know that the Ninevites’ took heed to Jonah’s preaching and acted accordingly.
There was surely something which gave credibility to Jonah’s message which has never ceased to be a witness to fallen, rebellious mankind. We can see what that something was (and is) in the following Scriptures.
Romans 1:18-21: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Psalm 19:1-4:a “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”
Eclipses happening are one relatively little aspect of the true God’s witness in the world. Some people were making a big deal about the eclipse which hit North America over 4 months ago (on April 8, 2024). It was being called “The Jonah Eclipse” by some because of all the states it passed through which had, or which allegedly had, a town in them called Nineveh. There is no need to base one’s faith on a subjective interpretation regarding the path of an eclipse. There is no need to get out a map of the eclipse’s path of totality, look at the states in the path, find out how many have a city or town in them called Nineveh, and then make a decision about whether the eclipse was a divine message.
We already have the witness which God has given to all men everywhere- and now we have something better yet.
Luke 11:29-30: “And when the people were gathered thick together, he (Jesus) began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”
Matthew 12:38-41: “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly (my note- the word in the Greek text could refer to any large predatory sea creature- it could have been a shark- without error in the Bible and without contradiction in the Bible); so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
We surely then ought to relate the response of the men of Nineveh to Jonah’s preaching to the way we ought to respond to Jesus Christ in order to inherit salvation through Him on Judgment Day.
And there, you’ve got your sign.
This is an example of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures foreshadowing Christ’s death and resurrection- along with the accompanying offer of redemption and warning to all people connected therewith.
Luke 24:44-47: “And he (the Risen Jesus) said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Jonah 3:10: “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil (my note- this is referring to destruction or calamity- not moral evil), that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
God didn’t change. The Ninevites rather changed in accordance with what God required of them. Therefore, God dealt with them differently than He would have had they persisted in their wickedness. God is not unstable nor a partial respecter of persons.
We read in Jeremiah 18:6-12 (well over a century after Jonah’s time): “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”
So God sent the Babylonians against the Jews of that time for their destruction or their calamity. He had spared them for a time before that in the days of King Josiah because of Josiah’s trembling at God’s Word and heeding it (not just regarding his personal life but also in his governing of the nation).
There are actually many, many who teach in Christ’s name which say that telling people that they ought to respond to God like the Ninevites did is opposing the mercy and grace of God. And yet, one of the most notable stories in the Bible of people obtaining mercy and grace from God is that of the Ninevites. They surely would have been destroyed in mass and sent to the fire of hell if they had not responded with the trembling, turning from their evil way, and crying mightily to God like we see that they did here.
Isaiah 66:1-2: “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
Jonah 4:1: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”
Now Jonah has gone back on his repentance and returned to his evil way which he was walking in when he was fleeing to Tarshish. He also sounds like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son.
Jonah 4:2: “And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.”
Jonah may have had bitterness towards the Assyrians (Nineveh was the capital of Assyria). He perhaps also didn’t want to look like a false prophet due to the judgment he had warned about not happening. That would be a matter of caring about his reputation before people who don’t know God’s ways. That is a common stumbling block now in the realm of professing Christianity too. Perhaps both of these things were issues. I would guess so. There could have been other issues with Jonah besides these or in addition to these.
Jonah 4:3-4: “Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?”
This is a good question to ask those who are angry at something that isn’t evil in God’s eyes and/or to ask those who are expressing anger by transgressing boundaries and/or being out of control.
We see here directly from God that sometimes the best rebuke is a rhetorical question.
Jonah 4:5: “So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.”
He was holding out hope that God would destroy it. If the Ninevites had chased him out or ignored him, Jonah’s hope that the city would be destroyed would not necessarily be sinful- if he was truly seeking God’s name to be vindicated by the destruction.
Psalm 97: “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods (that is, rulers or mighty ones). Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods (rulers or mighty ones). Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”
Jonah 4:6-9: “And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.”
This is a classic example of the carnal anger in man that is sinful. Since God accepted the Ninevites’ repentance, we can be sure that they put away such anger themselves. Anyone who would be truly repentant and authentically in God’s grace must do the same.
Jonah 4:10-11: “Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons (that is, 120,000 people) that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
God does have an intense, special care for His creation- particularly for people who are made in His image. However, with that factored into a degree which man cannot even comprehend, the answer to God’s question to Jonah that this book ends with would still be “no” if the Ninevites had not repented.
When innocent small children and animals die in acts of God’s judgment upon a people, it is not done out of God’s ill will towards those small children and animals. It is a demonstration of the horrid nature of sin and a consequence of the persistence in sin by those who knew better (or should have known better).
Another demonstration of that is the price God’s only Son paid on the cross to make a sufficient offering for sin in order for people to be redeemed to God out of their sins (not in their sins).
1 Peter 2:24a: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness…”
God had such great concern for the 120,000 small children in Nineveh, and the multitude of the small children in Nineveh were such a notable factor in why He was so eager to spare Nineveh- if He could do so without compromising His truth and letting rebellious man prevail. Consider then how great His wrath must be, and how fitting great calamity from Him must be towards a nation like America, which has, by its own laws, permitted the slaughtering of untold millions of babies?
Psalm 92:5-9: “O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity (lawlessness) do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.”
Psalm 94:7-10: “Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?”
Aaron’s email is: [email protected]
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