“Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.”
Paul writes his beloved Timothy these instructions that we would do well to adhere to in 1 Timothy 6:11-16 (NIV):
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:11-16 (NIV)
Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Jude 1:22-23 (NIV)
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15 (NIV)
The Book of Jonah is an exciting invitation to meet a God that surprises, moves, challenges, and changes us in new and powerful ways. It is a story about a compassionate, merciful, and powerful God.
Jonah, whose name means “dove,” was a servant of the Lord, a prophet from Gath Hepher - as we are told in 2 Kings 14:25 - a town which was in the tribe of Zebulun about two miles NE of Nazareth. Jonah was a Hebrew, the son of Amittai (which means “[my] true one”).
Jonah lived and prophesied during the time when Jeroboam II was king of the Northern Kingdom. Jonah’s prediction that Israel’s boundaries would extend under Jeroboam came true making Jeroboam the greatest of all the kings of northern Israel. This prophecy come true also made Jonah a very popular prophet at the time – everyone always wants to hear good news, right? It was also in Jeroboam’s reign that Israel experienced a time of great prosperity yet sadly along with that came a time of moral and spiritual decay. Unfortunately, the two often go hand in hand – Amen???
The nation was rapidly moving away from God and into idolatry. Hosea and Amos, Jonah’s contemporaries, both courageously denounced the wickedness of the rulers, priests, and people. Yet, in Jonah, God’s task for His prophet was quite different. It was not to promise new military victories or announce the wickedness of the Israelites rather repentance for Israel’s enemies. This did not settle well with Jonah, who has the claim to fame of being the only Old Testament prophet to attempt to run away from God. On a brighter note, Jonah was also one of four Old Testament prophets whose ministries were referred to by the Lord Jesus both in Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32 – both saying the exact same wording:
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:41 (NIV)
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. Luke 11:32 (NIV)
The others Jesus referred to were Elijah (Matthew 17:11-12), Elisha (Luke 4:27), and Isaiah (Matthew 15:7). I’d say Jonah was in pretty good company!
Jonah’s ministry had some parallels to his immediate predecessors, Elijah and Elisha, who ministered to Israel and were also called to Gentile missions in Phoenicia and Aram. It is vastly important for us to note that God cares about all people. In the well-known verse of John 3:16 Jesus tells us:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV
Some have suggested that Jonah was not the author of the book because he is referred to in the third person (Jonah 1:3, 5, 9, 12; 2:1; 3:4; 4:1, 5, 8-9). This, however, is not a strong argument. Moses, author of the Pentateuch – the first five Books of the Bible - often used the third person when describing his own actions. Also Isaiah and Daniel sometimes wrote of themselves in the third person (Isaiah 37:21; 38:1; 39:3-5; Daniel 1:1-7:1). However, since all of the Book of Jonah is in the third person some scholars believe this book was written by a prophet other than Jonah soon after the events. The Book was written after Jonah’s return from his mission and there had been sufficient time to reflect on its great significance. It graphically demonstrates that God is willing to have mercy on all who seek Him in humility and sincerity. We cannot go too low or too far for His Hand to reach.
“There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.” Corrie ten Boom
Since 2 Kings 14:25 relates Jonah to the reign of Jeroboam II, the events in the Book of Jonah took place sometime in Jeroboam’s reign (793-753 b.c.). Jonah’s prophecy about Israel’s boundaries being extended may indicate that he made that prophecy early in Jeroboam’s reign. This makes Jonah a contemporary of both Hosea and Amos (Hosea 1:1; Amos 1:1).
Nineveh was one of the cruelest, vilest, most powerful, and most idolatrous Assyrian cities in the world. For example, writing of one of his conquests, Ashurnas Irpal II (883-859 BC) boasted, “I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wool.... The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire” (Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia). Regarding one captured leader, he wrote, “I flayed [him], his skin I spread upon the wall of the city...” (ibid., 1:146). He also wrote of mutilating the bodies of live captives and stacking their corpses in piles.
Shalmaneser II (859-824) boasted of his cruelties after one of his campaigns: “A pyramid of heads I reared in front of his city. Their youths and their maidens I burnt up in the flames” (ibid., 1:213). Sennacherib (705-681) wrote of his enemies, “I cut their throats like lambs. I cut off their precious lives [as one cuts] a string. Like the many waters of a storm I made [the contents of] their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth.... Their hands I cut off” (ibid., 2:127).
Ashurbanipal (669-626) described his treatment of a captured leader in these words: “I pierced his chin with my keen hand dagger. Through his jaw... I passed a rope, put a dog chain upon him and made him occupy... a kennel” (ibid., 2:319). In his campaign against Egypt, Ashurbanipal also boasted that his officials hung Egyptian corpses “on stakes [and] stripped off their skins and covered the city wall(s) with them” (ibid., 2:295).
No wonder Nahum called Nineveh “the city of blood” (3:1), a city noted for its “cruelty”! (3:19). And no wonder Jonah did not want any part of going to that city seeking their repentance. He was likely hoping that God would do what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah and destroy the city and its inhabitants. Sadly, left to our own devices we can all spiral unbelievably low and left wondering how we got there in the wake of the surety of the consequences.
The Assyrian leaders were also very egotistic. Ashurbanipal boasted: “I [am] Ashurbanipal, the great [king], the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria.... The great gods... magnified my name; they made my rule powerful” (ibid., 2:323-4). Another, Esarhaddon was even more boastful: “I am powerful, I am all powerful, I am a hero, I am gigantic, I am colossal, I am honored, I am magnified, I am without equal among all kings, the chosen one of Asshur, Nabu, and Marduk” (ibid., 2:226).
Most of us know what God does with pride – He brings it low. You think you’re looking quite sassy and you go home only to discover pepper in your teeth – right??? I am reminded of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s words in Daniel after God made him graze in the grass for a time:
At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Daniel 4:34-37 (NIV)
Gross idolatry was also practiced in Nineveh and throughout the Assyrian Empire. The religion of Assyria was Babylonian in origin but in Assyria the national god was Assur, whose high priest and representative was the king.
After crushing the Arameans, the Assyrians suffered a temporary decline because of internal dissension. It was in this temporary setback of Assyrian imperialistic hopes that Israel’s Jeroboam was able to expand his nation’s territories to their greatest extent since the time of David and Solomon by occupying land that formerly belonged to Aram (northeast toward Damascus and north to Hamath). This is what Jonah had prophesied and it came true.
Sadly though, the religious life of Israel was such that God sent both Hosea and Amos to warn of their impending judgment. Because of Israel’s stubbornness, the nation would fall under God’s chosen instrument of wrath, a Gentile nation from the east. Amos warned that God would send Israel “into exile beyond Damascus” (Amos 5:27) and Hosea specifically indicated the ravaging captor as Assyria: “Will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?” (Hosea 11:5). So Assyria, then in temporary decline, would awaken like a sleeping giant and devour the Northern Kingdom of Israel as its prey. This prediction was fulfilled in 722 b.c. when Sargon II carried the Northern Kingdom into captivity (2 Kings 17). Again, the prophecies of Hosea and Amos may very well explain Jonah’s reluctance to preach in Nineveh. He feared he would be used to help the enemy that would later destroy his own nation.
Nineveh was located on the east bank of the Tigris River, about 550 miles from Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom. Nineveh was large and, like Babylon, was protected by an outer wall and an inner wall. The inner wall was 50 feet wide and 100 feet high. Before Jonah arrived at this seemingly impregnable fortress-city, two plagues had erupted there (in 765 and 759 b.c.) and a total eclipse of the sun occurred on June 15, 763. These were considered signs of divine anger and may help explain why the Ninevites responded so readily to Jonah’s message, around 759. God often uses tribulations to get us to look up. When things are going swimmingly well we feel no need Amen?
This record of Jonah’s episode and mission to Nineveh was addressed to Israel. The book was written not simply to record a historical narrative; in addition it conveyed a message to the Northern Kingdom. Also in one sense Jonah is not the principal person in the book; God is. To be sure, He is the Principal in all of Scripture. The Lord had the first word (Jonah 1:1-2) and the last (4:11). God commanded the prophet twice (1:2; 3:2); He sent a violent storm on the sea (1:4); He provided a great fish to rescue Jonah (1:17); He commanded the fish to vomit Jonah onto dry land (2:10); He threatened Nineveh with judgment and relented in compassion (3:10); He provided a vine to shade His prophet (4:6); He commissioned a worm to destroy the plant (4:7); and He sent a scorching wind to discomfort Jonah (4:8).
These are Beth’s personal notes, due to this fact sources are not often stated.