Jonah part 1

JONAH 1

Jonah 1:1-2
The word of the Lord came to Jonah[1] son of Amittai[2]: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”



What is unusual about a prophet being sent to Nineveh?
Nineveh is not a city of Israel, it was built by the descendents of Ham encroaching on the territory assigned to Shem (Gen 10.5, 6,8,10,25). This is the only case of a prophet being sent to gentiles. Possibly the relationship drawn in the NT is in someway related to this. Part of the reason for sending a Prophet to gentiles in this case could be seen as shaming Israel. It took just one prophet to call on Nineveh to repent, and they did, whereas God’s people, despite all the prophets and teachers, refused to repent?

Does “its wickedness has come before me” mean that God hadn’t noticed up till then?

Gen 4:10; 6:13; 18.21 seem to suggest that a point comes where God directly intercedes because the suffering caused by someone/a nation is so great. This is not to say that God doesn’t notice until then, but that there comes a point where God directly intervenes.


3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Why Did Jonah Run Away?
Jon.4:2 tells us that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew they would repent. Of all the prophets in the Hebrew Bible, the only one who is actually successful, whose message results in people turning their lives around is Jonah, yet Jonah was not happy about this. The people of Nineveh had made the lives of the Israelites a misery, and given the choice between them facing God’s judgment, or receiving His mercy, Jonah wants them to face His anger.

In running from God, Jonah ran from the community of God, he left Jerusalem and instead of going towards Ninevah which was the east, he went in the opposite direction to Tarshish (Tartessus) which is in Spain and to the West. This is significant because this was a place that did not know about God at all, as far as Jonah was concerned this was a place that God wasn’t at, it was a God free zone. Of course, there is nowhere that God is not present as we see in Psalm 139.

When you struggle to follow God do you try and avoid Christians? When are you tempted to run from God?


4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

Sent out here literally means caused a wind to burst forth. This gives an incredible image of God throwing a wind towards the sea.

5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

When you think of sailors, what kind of people do you picture?

Sailors tend to be a strong, dedicated group of people who are used to working long hours. They know the sea, and are used to storms. When weather conditions turn bad its “all hands to the deck” The description we have here is of a group of sailors that is terrified, this must have been the mothers of all storms. The heathen sailors responded to this in a sensible manner, they called on their gods, and they took practical measures. They asked for help and at the same time they helped themselves. This is contrasted with Jonah, instead of trying to help Jonah goes below the deck and goes to sleep. Jesus is described as being asleep on the Sea of Galilee (Mar.4:37-39) but with Jesus we get the impression of him sleeping peacefully from a position of complete peace and security, with Jonah we get the feeling that his sleep is that of someone who has given up, someone who sees no point in trying to do anything, someone who has just curled up and accepted its all other.

6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”

Such is the likelihood that the ship will sink the captain takes control of the situation by asking everyone to pray to there own gods. This is a situation where no-one is certain in his own god, no one is sure that his own gods can save him, but that they need whatever help they can get. The captain wants saving, and he doesn’t care where that comes from, any god will do! Jonah, who has the God who can save them even in the face of this disaster seeing not only his own life in danger but everyone on the ship doesn’t call on God (Psa.107:28)

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have done something you know you shouldn’t have, and you don’t want to admit that you need help, you don’t want to give in even though you are in a terrible situation?

7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

Lots where often used as a method for finding out what God wanted (Pro.16:33) even in Acts 1.26 we see the disciples after praying, casting lots to decide who should join the disciples as one of twelve. In this case, the lots where right in identifying Jonah as the root cause of the danger they where in.

Is this a valid method for finding out what God wants? Should we use this method in choosing church leaders today?

8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”
9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

It can’t have come as a shock to the sailors that the lot fell to Jonah. Jonah was the only one who didn’t call out to his god, understandably they want to know who it is who has managed to anger the gods so much that they are all facing death. Jonah’s answer is that he is a Hebrew, and that the God he worships is not like the gods they have. The gods that people had where normally responsible for a small area, so a separate god of sea, land, heaven, wine, dance, etc. Jonahs answer is that his God is the God of heaven, he is in charge, in control of everything that exists in the heavenlys, and he created everything that is physical, he is God of sea and of Land. This is a huge claim, and one which would seem ridiculous to the sailors, if it wasn’t for the fact that they where facing death, they had not received an answer from any of the gods they had put there trust in, and by casting lots they knew that this man had upset a god.

10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)


The sailors don’t worship the same God as Jonah, but they know that Jonah must have messed up seriously to have brought about this state of affairs. As Christians we sometimes find ourselves challenged by non Christians, with the line “Call yourself a Christian”. That statement is one that says, what you say you believe doesn’t match up to how you are behaving. This is the situation that Jonah finds himself in, there is a group of people who did not know about his God, but on seeing how powerful he is are sure they would not be stupid enough to do anything to upset such a God. This is a rhetorical question, they already know he has run from God, and they are saying what are you playing at, why on earth would you do such a thing?

Have you ever found yourself challenged by a non-Christian about behaviour that doesn’t match up to your professed faith?


11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

The sailors in seeing the power of God, ask the question, so what do we do to get this to stop. They are in danger of there lives, and they know the answer lies with Jonah. I think if I was in the same situation I would want to give Jonah a really good kicking. I would be furious that he had brought this on me, but they simply ask him what needs to happen, this may in part show there exhaustion, there good nature, and also the fear that hold this God they are for the first time aware of.

I wonder how we would react to the questions of the sailors, when we know that its because of us that God has sent the storm. The answer I expect would be, I will pray to God and tell him that I will do what he wants, that when we reach land I will take the next ship to Nineveh, this is the time for Jonah to face up to God, it’s the time for Jonah to finally get on his knees, and pray.

When you realise that you have done something wrong, and that everything has gone wrong as a result of it, how easy do you find it to say sorry to God?



12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

Some people (Jamieson Faust and Brown) argue that this is an indication that Jonah is a typology of the Messiah in that he offered himself up to die for his companions, and that he has now reached the stage where he has repented and is ready to face his fate. I find this explanation unlikely. At this point Jonah still has not prayed, he has still not even called on God, but believing all is lost he thinks the only way he can now escape from God and what he wants of him is if he gets of the boat and dies. Even then he hasn’t the courage to jump from the boat and save his companions; instead he tells them that they should throw him of the boat!

13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.”

The sailors made a valiant attempt to save Jonahs life, even with the lot having fallen to him, even knowing that he caused this to come on them all, they tried to save him, and themselves from the storm. Pro. 21.30 says that no plan of men can get in the way of God’s plan, and despite there attempt they where not successful. The sailors still don’t really know what Jonah has done, if he is someone who is innocent they don’t want to have his death on their hands, and so in throwing him over board you can understand there fear, if he hasn’t done anything wrong this God may be angry with them, and there is of course the human element of it just not being nice to have to send someone to there death! Yet the lot identified him as responsible, he is the only one who hasn’t called on his God, he has said that its this God who is angry with him, and Jonah has himself said that the only way to end the storm and save themselves is to throw him into the sea.

The sailors having seen the power of God don’t pray to there gods now, they call on the LORD, note Jonah still hasn’t called on God! Here we have a group of sailors who have effectively been converted by someone who is in a seriously bad relationship with God!

Do you know people from different religions, or no religion who behave in a way that’s more Christian than the Christians you know?

15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.

When the sailors did what they felt sure God wanted, even though they knew so little about him, the sea went calm. They where saved and there immediate response was to promise to make him a sacrifice when able to. (the Hebrew seems to refer to a vow to make a sacrifice as opposed to making a sacrifice and vows). For the sailors this encounter with God was a transforming one, which moved there loyalties from the gods they had believed in, to God. At crisis point seeing the power of God and realising that the things they believed in could not save them they put there trust in the God who had shown himself to be more powerful than anything they had ever come across.

In calming the storm God gives us a glimpse of his power, that even the sea obeys him. This makes Luke 8.24 particularly significant, when we see Jesus calming the storm we are seeing his divinity.

17 But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

Up until now the story of Jonah has been things we can deal with fairly easily. Believing that God asked Jonah to do something is fine, believing that he run away is fine, even believing he sent a storm is fine, but believing he was swallowed by a huge fish is really hard!

Some people have suggested that this Miracle is so hard to believe that the story of Jonah must be a parable that it can’t have actually happened. There is some difficulty with this theory though, in that if Jonah was a completely made up character it would be unlikely that we would be told his mother and fathers name. Another difficulty with this view for Christians is that Jesus appeared to view Jonah as a historical character (Mat 12.38-42; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32).

We have no great explanation of this as much have people have tried to come up with them and work out if there is a fish that could do this etc[3], what we have is a miracle. We have to choice how we react now.

Does whether or not it is biologically possible for someone to survive in the stomach of a fish effect how likely you are to believe that this happened?

We can either say the whole story of Jonah is a parable, that it’s a story to make a point and it never actually happened, or we can say some parts of the story are parable, or we say the whole story is true and God just did something miraculous that we don’t understand. Do you think Jonah was actually swallowed by a fish?

What Miracles do you find hardest to believe and why?

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus relates the three days and night that Jonah spent in the belly of a fish to his own death and resurrection: "No sign shall be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" Mat 12:3,40









[1] Meaning dove in Hebrew.
[2] Meaning “truth” or “truth-telling” in Hebrew
[3] A.J. Wilson, “The Sign of the Prophet Jonah and its Modern Confirmations.” PTR 25 (1927). pp. 630-642, suggested that a James Bartley fell into the sea while working on the whaling ship “Star of the East” in 1891 and survived for a day and night in the belly of a sperm whale which had swallowed him. The captain’s widow however stated that no sailor fell overboard during the period he was captain raising serious doubts about the account.