Jonah 1
by Pastor David Groendyk

We continue our tour through the minor prophets with the book of Jonah. Jonah is actually the prequel to the prophecy of Nahum. Jonah and Nahum prophesied to the same city about 100 years apart. Nahum was all about the eventual destruction of Nineveh in the late-600s BC, but Jonah is a totally different story. Nineveh responds to Jonah’s message of repentance and begins worshiping the one true God (at least for a short time). But the prophecy of Jonah is not so much about Nineveh as it is about God and Jonah himself. There are two major themes in Jonah. Major theme #1 is God’s compassion. God is extending his compassion and forgiveness to the nations, not just Israel. And it’s not just Nineveh receiving God’s compassion, as you’ll notice in chapter 1. Major theme #2 is Jonah’s sin. Often what we remember about Jonah is that he didn’t obey God’s call to go preach at first. But his real sin is hatred. He hates the city of Nineveh, and he shows them absolutely no compassion, unlike God. The one verse that summarizes the whole book is the last line of Jonah 2:9: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” Salvation is God’s prerogative, not ours. We don’t have the right to withhold the saving message of the gospel from people we don’t like or who have wronged us. If we have so freely received God’s grace, should we not also have compassion on unbelievers and freely extend the message of salvation to them rather than condemn and hate?

The book of Jonah is filled with irony. In other words, the exact opposite of what you would expect to happen actually happens. Chapter 1 especially is filled with irony. Jonah is the prophet of God and part of God’s chosen Israel. He confesses that he fears the one true God (v. 9). But he’s the one who disobeys God’s call, runs away from God, and ends up coming under God’s wrath. Three times it says that Jonah “went down”. He “went down” to Joppa (v. 3), he “went down” into the boat (v. 3), and he “went down” into the inner part of the ship to sleep (v. 5). Jonah’s going down, down, down. That’s a pretty clear metaphor. And three times it says he ran “from the presence of the Lord” (vv. 3, 10). This is far more serious than Jonah simply not feeling like doing a job. His face is set like flint to do the exact opposite of what God wants. And on the other hand, we have a group of pagan sailors who worship all sorts of different gods (vv. 5–6, 8) who end up fearing the Lord and making sacrifices to him after experiencing his power and grace (v. 16). These sailors also refuse to throw Jonah overboard to his certain death even though he’s caused them so much distress (vv. 11–14). They have far more compassion on a sinner than Jonah does!

So now here’s the question: who is it that truly fears the Lord? The sailors! What a reversal! The sailors end up being the model of faith rather than Jonah. Being a Christian means confessing that salvation belongs to the Lord (2:9) and that God is the only one who does as he pleases (1:14). And praise God that it pleases him to show grace to such wicked sinners as us! Even before Jonah ever reaches Nineveh, there’s lots of that grace going around. The sailors are spared from death and converted from their false worship. Jonah is also spared from death in the form of being swallowed by fish even though he rebelled. What a wonderful thing God’s grace is! None of the people in this chapter deserved God’s mercy, and neither do we. But it pleases God to save, and for that we should praise and thank him continually.

How will the knowledge of God’s wonderful grace change the way you live today? Why should God giving grace to us lead us to have compassion on other people?