The Assignment Jonah Refused
Jonah’s assignment was Nineveh’s last chance. His God-given message?
“…Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:4 NIV)
But the angry prophet didn’t want to warn the Ninevites. So he ran.
Didn’t Jonah know Yahweh was the God of the whole earth? Yes, of course. But still he fled from God’s presence, by boarding a ship sailing in the opposite direction.
Jonah was a rebellious prophet fleeing from God’s will. The Lord could have afflicted him with leprosy or madness or even killed him with a lightning strike. But he chose not to. Instead, the Almighty gave him a 3 day time-out inside a fish.
Now time-outs are never pleasant. Parents take disobedient children who are acting badly and sit them down in a chair for a certain length of time. No toys. No TV shows. No social media, cell phones or iPads. Just a child sitting alone in a chair, invited by mom and dad to think about how they’d misbehaved. When I say Jonah was in a time-out, I’m not kidding.
A Supernatural Storm
4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 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. (Jonah1:4-5 NIV)
When the sailors found out Jonah was to blame for the storm, they asked him, “Who are you?”
“I am a Hebrew…” Terrifying words. Everyone had heard stories about the Jewish God’s power when stirred up..
Strangely enough, the sailors revered Jonah’s Master more than he did.
- Rather than callously pitch Jonah into a stormy sea, they tried to fight their way back to shore, but the storm got much worse.
- They prayed and asked God for mercy about causing Jonah’s certain death by throwing him overboard.
- After Jonah hit the water, the storm miraculously calmed.
- Finally reaching shore, the sailors sacrificed to the Jewish God and made vows to Him.
Jonah could have repented during the storm while still aboard; confessed his sin and bowed to God’s decree. He didn’t. Or the prophet could have asked Yahweh to spare the innocent captain and crew from His wrath. But it never occurred to him.
Yahweh’s prophet had no compassion toward the pagan sailors who tried to save him.
He may have loved his people, the Jews, but he showed no kindness or compassion to the foreigners he encountered.
What the Prophet Didn’t Do
Jonah’s attitude aboard ship was “It’s better to die than obey.”
- Why didn’t Jonah jump overboard? Well, he wasn’t that obliging.
- Why didn’t the Lord send a wave to wash his rebellious prophet overboard? No idea.
- Jonah’s words to the crew’s question “What should we do with you” was a clear prophesy.
- Not even the threat of certain death softened Jonah’s heart.
The wayward prophet’s life took an unexpected turn when the sailors finally tossed him overboard. Because Jonah spent the next 72 hours as reluctant, living “fish food.”
Because a large fish promptly swallowed him after he entered the water.
An Underwater Voyage
There are some unusual aspects of traveling in God’s swimming prison:
- Jonah remained conscious, although he probably slept.
- The fish’s belly would have been100% dark.
- As a human being, he needed oxygen and the Lord supplied it.
- The Scriptures don’t mention any teeth marks, so he must have been swallowed whole.
- God shut off the fish’s digestive track, because Jonah wasn’t burned by gastric juices.
- He also wasn’t excreted.
- Instead the fish vomited Jonah up onto dry land.
I suspect his fishy “host” didn’t enjoy those three days and nights either. What an unsatisfying meal!
Did it take three days before Jonah repented and decide to obey God? Maybe. His prayer is found in chapter 2. Interestingly, Jonah began rejoicing in Yahweh’s answer before being restored to the world of fresh air and sunshine.
Grumpy, Bad-tempered Obedience
His time in the fish made Jonah outwardly obedient. Yes, he went to Nineveh and preached. But his heart attitude? Still bad. Inside, he still hated the Ninevites. The Assyrians were extremely cruel conquerors. Divine destruction upon the capital city of Nineveh would crush this enemy nation, dealing a deathblow to Assyria’s military might. So secretly this prophet hoped no one would repent.
Jonah’s God-given message?
“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
The next day continued the countdown: 39 more days…38 more days…37 more days… Like the pagan sailors, the Ninevites had heard stories of Jonah’s God. The prophet didn’t announce he was Jewish or that he spoke for Israel’s God Yahweh, but the people knew.
Yet grumpy, bad-tempered obedience is still obedience. Jonah hated his assignment, but he shouted God’s message throughout the city for over a month. The Ninevites repented and God used Jonah’s reluctant warning to save 120,000 people from His wrath.
Which made His chosen prophet even grumpier.
These images came from Pixabay.com.
