The book of Jonah is a lesson on the mercy of God. It begins in typical fashion: Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah (1).1 Usually, those words are followed by the messages that the LORD gave the prophets to speak. Uniquely, what follows in Jonah is the story of Jonah’s commission to go to Nineveh and cry out against it (2).
The book of Jonah then is teaching history,2 a historical story that teaches theological truth.3 Jonah’s life teaches us something about God, in particular about the mercy of God. The key text in the book is 4:2 (cf. 2:9b), which is taken from 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.
Exodus 34:6-7 is a lens through which we should read the OT.4 God works in salvation and judgment to accomplish his redemptive purpose. Salvation is his primary work, keeping steadfast love for thousands, and judgment is his alien work, visiting iniquity to the third and fourth generations.
If we think it odd in 1:2-3 that Jonah rose and fled to Tarshish when the LORD commanded him to rise and go to Nineveh, to learn his reason for fleeing is even more shocking.
We travel through the entire narrative—Jonah fleeing from God, being swallowed by a fish, preaching in Nineveh, and the repentance of the Ninevites—before we are told the reason Jonah fled in the first place (4:2). He fled because of the merciful character of God. He would have rather died than seen the Ninevites saved.5 And save them is exactly what God did. Jesus said the men of Nineveh would rise up in judgement against his generation in Israel because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and one greater than Jonah was preaching to them.
How did Jonah come to be so antagonistic to the Assyrians that he would flee from God’s commission to go to Nineveh? The Book of Jonah is not the first time we meet Jonah in the biblical text. He had already had an illustrious prophetic career in the Northern Kingdom (NK). The NK had been idolatrous since its inception around 150 years earlier.6 When Jeroboam II ascended to the throne, he inherited a vassal state that had suffered constant invasion from both Syria and Assyria. For the last 60 years, they had paid tribute to Assyria. The LORD’s discipline of them had escalated to the point that they were teetering on collapse (cf. 2Kgs. 14:26-27). Out of sheer mercy, the LORD sent Jonah the son of Amittai with the prophecy that their borders would be restored to those of Solomon’s time (2Kgs 14:25). At that time, Assyria fell into a steep decline, opening the way for Jeroboam’s prosperous reign.
Jonah was not in the Assyrian fan club. He had watched his countrymen experience indignity at the hands of the Assyrians for years. Now out of nowhere, with Assyria on the ropes, God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against it.
Why would Jonah oppose that? Jonah knew the character of God. He was a good reader of his OT, reading it through the lens of Exodus 34:6-7. He understood that if God was sending him to preach to Nineveh, he had a gracious purpose for the Ninevites. This was unacceptable to Jonah. He would have nothing of it, no part in the preservation of Nineveh.
With that background in mind, I don’t want us to look down on Jonah. Remember Jesus had a positive assessment of his ministry, and Jonah experience is an OT sign pointing the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jonah was a good prophet who struggled with God’s character. We struggle with God’s mercy too. Jonah helps us grapple with the character of God, the universal reach of divine mercy, his concern for people for whom, perhaps, we have no concern, and to remind us of our own need for mercy.
In our own way, in some way, perhaps, we struggle with God’s mercy in our lives or in the lives of others. You may be like Jonah right now, running from mercy.
Jonah did the exact opposite of what he was commanded to do. Verse 3 is Jonah’s resignation letter as a prophet. The LORD told him to Arise and go to Nineveh (2). Jonah said, I quit. But he rose to flee to Tarshish (3a). He went in the exact opposite direction than God told him to go.
Verse 3 is a chiasm that shows the anatomy of disobedience. At the beginning and end of the verse, we are told that Jonah was running from the presence of the LORD to Tarshish. Next, we are told that such an endeavor is a downward journey. Then Jonah found a ship and paid his fare. In the middle is Tarshish for the third time as the place where Jonah feels he can escape God’s presence.
To move away from God is always downward. Jonah’s downward journey is emphasized: down to Joppa (3), down into the ship (3), down into the inner part of the ship (5b), he lay down (5c). Before he knows it, Jonah will find himself down at the bottom of the sea (2:6). At the bottom, he still had not escaped the presence of God.
The presence of God is that sacred place before the face of God. Every time he would gather with the people of God in the house of God, he would hear the call of God, Arise and go. Jonah wanted the voice of God to stop, so he fled from the presence of God.
His life was a contradiction. Jonah was so happy to prophesy to Israel that God out of sheer mercy was going to end their oppression and expand their borders, even though he knew better than anybody that Israel was idolatrous and deserved the judgment of God.
They were not less guilty or more deserving than the Assyrians. Those categories are meaningless when we are talking about relating to God. Jonah was so happy to see his wicked and rebellious people prosper. He, however, could not stomach that God might also want to take the sin of the Assyrians away and give them eternal life and blessing.
We can be under the impression that what determines whether we do what God wants us to do is whether or not we like it or agree with it. Sometimes, God gives us things to do we love. Sometimes he bids us do things we would simply rather not do. God is into making his character known and developing ours. You must trust his wisdom not yours. At the end of the road you don’t want to travel, you may find the greatest treasure of your life.
Stop running from God. Mercifully, it’s a race you cannot win.
A lot of things are going to get hurled in this text, starting with the LORD hurling a great wind upon the sea (4). The sailors hurl the cargo of the ship (5b). And last of all, most famously, Jonah is hurled into the sea (15, cf. 12). Amidst all the of the hurling, God is pursuing Jonah, and even intends to extend his mercy beyond Jonah.
The storm God hurled on the sea was not like ordinary storms.7 You can see how dire the situation is in the sailors’ reaction. They are afraid and rightfully so. What they don’t know is this storm is filled with divine mercy, not anger. Out of their pagan fear, each one cried out to his god. Each culture had its own gods of the sea and the sky and the dry land. They did not know who might have offended which god, so they ran through their rolodex of gods hoping to hit on the right one who might calm the storm. While they are praying, they lighten the ship. In case the one does not work, perhaps, the other will. A picture of less concern could not be drawn, than the sailors crying out each to his own god and Jonah soundly sleeping.
I don’t think I am pressing the text too far when I say the desperation of the sailors is the common characteristic of the world without God. Everybody in the end wants to be saved. The world is filled with people who are perishing and crying out, and yet, at the same time, are antagonistic to the gospel.
Our culture is desperate. This desperation manifests itself in a multiplicity of ways. We are the culture that invented the selfie. Since the advent of social media, teen depression is up 78%. The people who developed it will not let their kids use it. People will make videos of themselves all alone talking, even having a come apart, and post them for others to watch. This psychological culture is posting its mental breakdowns for public consumption.
Our narcissism has reached the point that we think we can choose our sex and go so far as to mutilate confused children. A mom was waiting in a waiting room with her young son. He looked up at her and asked, “Mom, am I a boy?” The mom answered, “Honey, you just be you.” We confuse kids in our ignorance and mutilate them in our arrogance. A woman who seeks to abort her child is desperate. Our culture is desperate, and the gods they are calling on cannot save. They cannot even satisfy a single longing.
What the captain’s question to Jonah is sobering: What do you mean, you sleeper (6)? Yes. What do you mean, you sleeper? The prophet of God is asleep, acting as though he does not have the answer, while the world around him is perishing. We have the good news. We have something to say to the desperate, perishing world in which we live.
In the captain’s words to Jonah you can hear the echo of God’s words to the prophet. The LORD had told Jonah, Arise...and call out against Nineveh (2). The captain tells Jonah, Arise and call out to you God (6b). I wonder if Jonah thought, I’ve heard that before. Do you think Jonah is feeling pursued?
The captain’s further words are clarifying, Perhaps the god will give thought to us that we may not perish (6c). He did not say, the gods but the God (ha elohim). Because the verb will give is singular, the subject the god is referring to the one, true, and living God. At sea, we have an exodus type showdown between the gods. The captain is saying, The god who answers is the true God. Is Jonah feeling pursued?
Jonah knows the truth. He knows the answer. But he does not, and he will not pray at this point. Oh, he’s going to pray, but not now. He gives no hint at this point that he knows and represents the God. But he has to feel the pressure by now. Fleeing the face of God is not working for him.
Do you see God’s gracious pursuit of Jonah?
Perhaps, Jonah really thought if he left place of God’s call, that sacred space and buried his life in the heart of the world without God, he could escape the voice of God.
When Jonah went on deck, the sailors decided to cast lots to determine on whose account this evil had come upon them (7). Jonah knew what would happen before the lots were cast. The lot fell on him. God overruled the sailors’ divination to uncover Jonah’s rebellion (cf. Pr. 16:33).
Jonah, the sailors realize, is the key to knowing why this evil had come upon them. So they pepper him with diagnostic questions (8). Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is you occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you? Many pagan cultures today still look at relationships and place of origin to determine the cause of catastrophe.
When they heard Jonah’s answer, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land (9), they were all the more afraid. At first, they feared the storm (5). Now, they fear even more because they know Jonah has offended the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.
In narrator’s note in verse 10b we learn that in his confession Jonah had told the sailors he was fleeing from the face of the LORD. They exclaim, What is this you have done (10a)! You can’t flee from the God who made the sea on the sea. If Jonah’s God is the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, it is not possible to flee from him. Wherever you run, you run into him (Ps 139:7-12).
God has graciously uncovered Jonah’s rebellion.
Jonah knows that his refusal to go to Nineveh will not stop God from being gracious to the Ninevites. He is simply determined not to be the one that carries them the message of grace. Death for him is a better option.
The question of the sailors again is telling, What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us (11)? The situation was getting worse by the moment. Doing nothing was not an option. Jonah’s solution was, Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you (12). On the one hand, this is commendable. Their choices seem to be they all die, or Jonah dies. But, by choosing the nuclear option, Jonah is still acting in his rebellion.
There is a third option. Jonah could repent. That would calm the sea. Does Jonah really think that, if God wants him to go to Nineveh, being cast into the sea will get him off the hook? Does he think he can so easily escape doing the bidding of the God of the earth, sky, and sea?
The sailors found Jonah’s solution to be unacceptable, so they tried harder to get back to land (13). The sailors show he mercy of God to Jonah. They are what he should have been. They were afraid of further offending Jonah’s God. Jonah had no such fear at this point. He would rather offend the God of heaven, than be a messenger of God’s grace to Nineveh.
Jonah had no thought that God’s purpose to save extended beyond the commonwealth of Israel and even far exceeded the Ninevites. We dwell in orthodoxy so long that lose sight of what is being said. Jonah needs to listen to his own confession (9). The whole world belongs to God, and he rules it. God chose Israel to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests among the nations to make his merciful character known (Ex. 19:5-6).
Now the sailors do exactly what Jonah had not yet done, they cry out the LORD, the God of covenant love and mercy (14). The God who declared his name to Moses, The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness … forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Ex 34:6).
Notice their reasoning in faith, LORD, don’t hold us accountable for his life, because you are doing what pleases you (14; cf. Pss 115:3; 135:6). God had closed off every avenue of escape for the sailors, except throwing Jonah overboard. Perhaps, they reasoned, The LORD is LORD of all, even the sea, he has countered all our efforts (13), we’re all dead, so what difference does it makes if we do what God’s prophet told us to do? So, they hurled Jonah into the sea and the storm ceased (15). Did Jonah not know the LORD does as it pleases him? Our task is not to evaluate his doing but simply submit to it.
The result is the sailors feared the LORD exceedingly and offered a sacrifice and made vows (16). They moved from fearing the storm and fearing the fact that Jonah offended his God to fearing the LORD himself. They gave expression to rightly fearing the LORD in worship and committing their future to him. This language is loaded. We are meant to see that they repented and were converted. We are meant to see that they received God’s mercy. Jonah in his opposition to seeing God be gracious to those outside of Israel has been used of God to preach the gospel to pagan sailors, so that they were converted.
God will accomplish his purpose, in you and in the world, despite our rebellion. Some might reason, Good so it does not matter what I do. That’s Jonah’s position. It matters greatly what you do. God will accomplish his purpose in you. I want to say that is a great mercy, even if it causes you to look like you’ve been swallowed by a fish.
We need to learn from Jonah that it is foolish to run from God’s presence, he pursues those who flee from mercy, he uncovers our rebellion, and he will accomplish his purpose of grace in us.