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The Twelve Minor Prophets: Jonah

Dr. James Smith
Jonah
2 October 2005

Listen to this sermon.

The Book of Jonah is a literary gem and absolutely unique in the entire Bible. It is filled with satire, irony, interesting chiasms and important theological truths for our own personal lives.

This morning, I thought it would be useful and fitting to read through the entire book together and highlight some of the significant points.

Irony begins with the very first verse of the book. We are told that God’s word clearly came to Jonah, son of Amittai. Jonah, whose name means “dove” and who was the son of “truth or faithfulness,” clearly doesn’t live up to his name.

Throughout the book, his actions are not pure or innocent as a dove, nor do they represent truthfulness or faithfulness on his part.

In fact, we are told in 1:3 that Jonah arose and went in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh and he spoke to the sailors who were the wrong people.

This is cleverly displayed in a chiasm. (Take a look at a look at the handout.)

And from this chiasm, we can see the important descent imagery of chapter 1 that continues into chapter 2. Jonah is told to “arise and go.” But in his disobedience, his descent spirals out of control.

Jonah goes “down” to Joppa. Jonah goes “down” into the “belly” of the ship, which is an image of the grave. And Jonah lays “down” and falls asleep, which is an image of death.”

God had called Jonah to preach His word in Nineveh. One of the great ironies is that the word, “Nineveh,” actually means something like “fish house.”

Jonah foolishly decided to flee from the “fish house” (Nineveh), only to find himself in yet another fish house . . . the belly of a large fish.

And to add to this irony, the fish seems to be more willing to obey God’s commands then Jonah himself.

Now much has been made of the fish in the book of Jonah. In fact, when adults as well as children think about the Book of Jonah, their minds invariably turn to the “whale.”

But you’ll notice that it is only mentioned 3 times in the whole book in 1:17, 2:1 and 2:10. After all, much more could have been said about the fish, but it was never meant to be the main subject.

Instead it helps to frame the Psalm of chapter 2. Obviously, chapter 2 is very different from the rest of the book. It is a kind of poetic prayer while chapters 1, 3 and 4 comprise the narrative story.

And just as we noticed a chiasm in 1:3, we notice that these 3 verses form their own orderly chiasm. (Take a look at the handout in your bulletin.)

As we discovered in past studies on the Psalms, different Psalms have different orientations depending on the seasons of our lives. Here in chapter 2, we have a composite psalm.

Verses 3-7a function as a psalm of disorientation, that is, a psalm that is uttered to God by a person whose life has “fallen apart.”

Verses 7b-10 function as a psalm of new orientation, that is, a psalm that is uttered by a person who has been surprised by God’s goodness and grace, when it was least expected. Psalms of new orientation are frequently songs of thanksgiving.

If we look a little closer at verses 3-7a, we will find that Jonah’s descent into sin and disobedience finds it completion, which began in chapter 1.

Again, Jonah ran away from God’s clear will for his life by going down to the port city of Joppa in Israel, buying a ticket and then going down to the ship.

Once on board, he went down into the belly of the ship and then he laid down and fell into a “death-like” sleep. Jonah was thrown down into the water by the sailors only to be swallowed by a large fish going down its throat and down into its belly.

Here in chapter 2, Jonah declares that he sank down into the depths of the sea and even down to the very “roots” of the mountains themselves. In short, he went down to the grave and knew that he was as good as dead because of his sin.

The good news though is found in verses 7b-10. In fact, verse 7 functions as “the psychological center” of chapter 2 and it tells us that just when his life was almost over, Jonah finally remembered God and his prayer rose up to the Lord.

Chapter 3 actually begins the 2nd scene found in the book of Jonah, and you will notice that same word from the Lord that began the book in chapter 1 is repeated at the beginning of chapter 3.

And while Jonah physically goes to Nineveh, his heart is far from truly submitting to the will and purposes of God.

In fact, we notice several important things about Jonah’s short proclamation to the Ninevites.

The first thing is that this is one of the shortest prophetic utterances in the whole Old Testament. The second is that it doesn’t begin with the standard prophetic formula, “Thus saith the Lord” or “This is what the Lord says.”

And this has led some Bible scholars to suggest that maybe Jonah was preaching God’s word, but maybe not all of God’s words for Nineveh.

Notice that Jonah doesn’t even tell the Ninevites why God was going to judge them, which seems somewhat unreasonable and unfair, doesn’t it?

But, Jonah’s preaching and prediction will ultimately mock him and the sinful Ninevites will undermine him as well.

Remember that in Hebrew, the word that is translated as “overturned” or “overthrown” has a wonderfully ambiguous meaning. It can also mean that in “40 days, Nineveh will overturn or overthrow itself.

This means that despite Jonah’s mean spirited preaching, the Ninevites heard the message and accepted it as God’s word for them.

You will notice 3:9, how even the king, had “overturned” himself, by removing himself from the throne, changing his dress and denying himself his royal dignity.

In short, the Ninevites had changed inwardly and been “overturned,” but not as Jonah had intended or hoped.

Chapter 4 begins by telling us that Jonah was angry. Unfortuately, the word “angry,” doesn’t give us the whole picture and misses some of the greatest ironies as well as surprises in the entire book.

The word here that is translated as “anger,” has this idea of “burning” or “seething.”

Jonah is “red hot” about all of this and you will notice that it is only here at the end of the book that Jonah finally gives a reason why he ran away from God in the first place.

Verse 2 says, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

And to add to this, we should note that when ancient near eastern peoples thought of anger, the image of “burning nostrils” to mind . . . or when people became so upset and mad that they breathed hard and quickly through their nostrils while they clinched their teeth.

But Jonah’s declaration that “God is slow to anger” only highlights his own frustration and lack of loving kindness toward others.

And here behind Jonah’s recitation of this divine attribute is the idea that God has “long nostrils” . . . meaning that it takes a long time for God to burn with anger and to get mad.

The “burning” Jonah finally and directly confronts this God who is not given to the fires of anger.

Notice, however, that the Lord does not issue any commands to his “steaming” prophet, but being the “long nostriled” God that He is, He poses some simple and yet devastating questions to Jonah.

“Jonah, is it right or good for you to burn with anger and for your nostrils to become inflamed?”

And even while Jonah is “burning,” the Lord provided cooling in the form of a plant. And if Jonah had only seen the plant as a sign of God’s “long nostrils” toward him, the book may have ended quite happily . . . but such was not to be the case.

Jonah doesn’t bother answering God’s third and final question. This question of the “long nostriled” God is formed chiastically. (see bulletin handout by Dr. Phillis Trible).

And God said,

To summarize, some of the important theological truths that we find in the book of Jonah include:

That “you can run from God, but you can never hide from God” and when we choose to directly disobey God it always sends us on a downward spiral into sin.

Nevertheless, we have a God “who gives 2nd chances” despite ourselves and when we turn our hearts back to Him and remember Him, He will pull us out of the pit that we have dug for ourselves.

Our God is a God of surprises who would much rather see people “overturn” or “overthrow” themselves and unlike us, our God is slow to anger. He has “long nostrils” and He desires to have mercy on the merciless if only they will see themselves for what they really are.

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