Jonah 1 – 4

Jonah, like James, is one of my favorite books in the Bible because the message is short, sweet and poignant. Verse 1:3 has Jonah responding to God’s calling:

In hearing those instructions, Jonah got up and ran toward Tarshish from the Eternal’s presence. He went down to the port at Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. He climbed aboard, paid the fare, and made himself comfortable in the hold of the ship.

I always think of a song by Flock of Seagulls called “I Ran” that says “I ran so far away.” We read this and say “no way would we do that” yet we do it daily. Sure if it may be easier if there was a booming voice from heaven that spoke our name, but that is never the case for most of us. No we hear that little small voice that says “help that poor person and take him to dinner” or “donate your car to a needy single mom” or “correct someone’s theology in an anonymous internet chat room” and run. Well maybe the last one is not God, but we hear the other two and quickly justify them away as having no lasting impact. The eternal impact on someone giving their life to God because of a kind deed is unmeasurable in human terms, so don’t try and stop running.

Verse 1:15 is the resulting reaction from the crew on the ship once they realize this storm is because of Jonah not listening to God:

At that, they grabbed Jonah by his arms and legs and threw him overboard. And when they did, the raging sea grew calm.

Be very thankful we don’t have a crew toss us overboard every time we run from God. The one thing I do notice is things don’t go as “rosy” as I would like them when I disobey God. I think back to my borrowing problem and how God kept bailing me out until I would not stop. So the storm came, the seas of debt over came our boat, yet we braved the storm and continued to bail out the boat. In the end we are debt free and learned how to manage money better. Now it appears even though the seas are rough we are sailing where we need to go for the future.

Back to Jonah who was swallowed by a fish and spent three days in the belly much like the three days Jesus spent in the tomb before rising. Was this a coincidence or another bread crumb Jesus IS the “Messiah”? When you read the OT with the perspective of Jesus it all points to HIM!!

Back to Jonah who prophesized and then went to a hill to watch the destruction that never came. Why? Because Nineveh repented for their evil to God. Verse 4:1 is Jonah’s response:

The mercy God extended toward Nineveh upset Jonah terribly. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

How many times has God “blessed” someone we felt did not deserve it? What was our response, did you get mad? We need to work on this since it is Satan working on us trying to make us believe something is unjust. Heck, be happy if someone is “blessed” and not worry about the source, just praise God! Anyway chapter 4 is God doing a number on Jonah to show the importance of His grace and mercy. Interestingly it doesn’t say Jonah got it, but rather the last statement is God’s explaining how Jonah should think and not Jonah having a “V-8 Moment”.

This story packs a bunch into a short book and takes time to digest and understand. Just seeing Jonah being entombed for 3 days like Jesus is cool and seeing his human response to God’s unnatural request is a great study.