The prophet Obadiah shows Edom’s gloating over Israel’s defeat. Jonah, on the other hand, speaks of the displeasure of an Israelite at the merciful sparing of the heathen in Nineveh. There is joy at the disaster; here, sorrow that no disaster will come.
The Messenger
The prophet Jonah came from Gath-Hepher in Galilee, north of Nazareth. As can be seen from 2 Kings 14:25, he prophesied in the time of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC) or shortly before. His book contains hardly any prophecy; rather, the focus is on the experiences of Jonah himself. However, these have a prophetic dimension – Jonah is, in a sense, a “lived prophecy.” For example, Jonah points to the Lord Jesus Himself, as Matthew 12:39-41 makes clear.
The Message
The book of Jonah shows an interesting alternation between “speech and answer”: in chapter 1, God speaks to Jonah. The prophet does not listen to Him and runs away. In Chapter 2, Jonah speaks to God, who answers his prayer. Chapter 3 shows how Jonah speaks to the Ninevites. They listen to his preaching and repent. In chapter 4, Jonah speaks to God again. God doesn’t answer Jonah’s plea to die, but instead He just speaks to him. This concludes the book. God, who has the first word in this book, also has the last.
Glimpses from Jonah’s prophecy
- “And Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying: I cried to the LORD out of my affliction … You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea … Then you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD … But I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving … Salvation is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:2-4, 7, 8, 10).In the beginning, the book of Jonah shows the prophet Jonah’s unconventional path, which leads him downward step by step. We read three times in Chapter 1 that Jonah goes down: to Joppa, there into the ship, and finally into the lower hold of the ship (1:3.5). But that is not all. Jonah is thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish. Which goes down with him to the “mountain bottom” (2:7). During the first stages on the way down, Jonah acts on his own, but in the end, he is dealt with: He is thrown into the water and unceremoniously swallowed by a fish.
Who threw Jonah into the sea in the first place? Sure, the sailors, of course – that’s what it says in chapter 1:15. And yet Jonah prays to God: “You cast me into the deep …” (2:4). A remarkable view of things! Jonah is not preoccupied with the storm, the sailors, and the big fish. He is not talking about cruel fate and blind chance. Jonah remembers that God is above everything. This knowledge gives him courage in his hopeless situation: if God, in His wisdom, has led him into the depths, then He can also lead him out again. So, the words of his prayer in the eerie darkness of the fish’s belly are characterized by confidence and praise of God.
We, as Christians, can know that all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). The big and the small events, the pleasant and the unpleasant, everything is part of God’s plan for our lives. And God means well to us. How calm and confident we could remain even in difficult situations if we had this more in mind!
Back to Jonah: God used a very large animal to instruct His servant, but He also used a very small one: a worm.
- “But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself and said, ‘I should die than to live.’ Then God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, ‘It is right for me to be angry, even to death!’” (Jonah 4:7-10).Another uncomfortable situation for Jonah. This time, it is not wet and dark—quite the opposite. The sun is giving him a hard time. What does Jonah do now? Does he think about God and His good intentions? We don’t read anything about it. He prays, but he only expresses his resignation. Jonah wants to die, and while he is still alive, he wants to be angry! How completely different his words sounded in the belly of the fish!
Does Jonah’s language under the withered miracle tree sound familiar to us? Do we also get upset easily when something goes wrong? It may be that we often do as the prophet did: In major difficulties, we realize that nothing happens by chance and think of God (like Jonah in the fish); in minor difficulties, we lack this focus – with the corresponding consequences that were shown here with Jonah.
Incidentally, the whole book of Jonah emphasizes that God has the circumstances in His hands: God casts a violent wind on the sea (1:4), lets the lot fall on Jonah (1:7), orders a large fish (2:1), commands the fish to spit Jonah out (2:11), orders a miracle tree (4:6), a worm (4:7) as well as a sultry east wind (4:8). It all looked like a coincidence – but God was behind it. Should it be different for us?
Comments (0)
No comments yet.