(Study No. 1) Introduction:
Jonah was one of the Minor Prophets whose prophecy does not consist of what he said apart from a very brief proclamation to the people of Nineveh being “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed!”(3:5). Rather, the emphasis of the book is related to the prophets own experience with God. His experience portrays the past, the present, and future of the nation of Israel. It is also a book prophetic in nature.
The LORD intended Israel to be a witness to Him for the Gentile nations. God was jealous that a message of grace was to be extended to the Gentiles, a desire that He always had when, He created the nation to be exclusively His and to spread His glory and salvation to them. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Jonah (who can also represent the nation of Israel) was thrown into the sea (representing the Gentile nations in turmoil) and the people of Israel by and large were swallowed up by the Gentile nations yet not assimilated by them, but kept distinct from them, even when in exile from Israel.
When Jonah was cast upon the dry land it depicts the Jewish people in exile being restored to their Land Israel and ultimately being made a blessing to the Gentiles. Jonah prophesied during the days when Assyria was threatening the Northern Kingdom, Israel. God did not send Jonah to preach repentance but to announce coming judgement. In the Bible God always proclaims judgement before mercy.
If wicked men and women are not confronted with their violation of God’s commandments revealed in His Word and His impending judgements they will never appreciate His grace and mercy. In the case of Jonah the LORD made no promise to the people of Nineveh of restoration. He arranged things in such a way that the people of Nineveh would believe in Him and obey Him and prove it by their actions towards Him. A rebellious spirit of pride and arrogance always brings consequences! Of course God wanted to bring about Assyria’s spiritual restoration as a nation, but would they repent? This was the deciding factor for the inhabitants of that great city of Nineveh!
In scripture repentance always precedes spiritual restoration, not the other way around, as many assemblies are preaching today within wider Christendom (Acts 3:19-20). Now Jonah, knowing the terrible atrocities that the Assyrians committed when they invaded other countries, and that the people of Nineveh were very wicked and violent, he did not want to go there because he knew what they would do to the Jewish people once they invaded the Holy Land.
There are historical inscriptions from Assyria that reveal the Assyrians flayed their enemies alive, made heaps of their skulls, and committed other horrific deeds. This malevolent violence is seen when the haughty and blasphemous words of the Rabshakeh, the Assyrian spokesman of Sennacherib are recorded in 2 Kings 18:19ff when the Assyrian army were gathered outside the walls of Jerusalem. Instead of obeying the LORD Jonah fled to go to Tarshish and ended up in the belly of a huge fish while on route.
After the Fish vomited him up Jonah obeyed, if somewhat reluctantly, but obeyed the LORD’s commission by proclaiming God’s ultimatum to the Assyrians in Nineveh. The whole of the city repented, from the throne to the common citizens in the city and there were spared, much to Jonah’s displeasure. Possibly he thought that fire might descend from heaven and wipe out the city, instead the people repented. Sometimes there are people we think deep down on the inside of us are so wicked that they could never be saved.
However if God could spiritually reform King Manasseh, of whom we are told in the Bible shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with that bloodshed from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD by leading the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites, then the LORD can save the worst of sinners!
Manasseh even sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. Today we can call them the altars in abortion clinics! He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger, yet when confined in a very dark dungeon in exile he repented and God had mercy on him (2 Kings 21:16) (2 Chronicles 33:9) (2 Chronicles 33:6, 10-13). Now Jonah’s sacrifice saved the sailors, and his message brought conviction of sin and repentance to the Ninevites, and the city was spared. The Messiah our Lord Jesus used Jonah as a sign of His death, His burial and His resurrection (Matthew 12:40:16:4).
The Book of Jonah is a commentary on Romans 3:29 which reads; “is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.” As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!.. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Prophetically, like Jonah who was running away from God and not wanting to obey His commandments and do his will, Israel as a nation will experience a crisis that will cause them to look only to the LORD to deliver them (Jeremiah 30:1-10) (Matthew 24:15-22).
Once God has accomplished His purposes for the nation having spiritually refined them in the furnace of affliction afterwards in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom He will use them to bless the Gentile nations that survive the Messiah’s Second Coming (Jeremiah Chapters 30-31) (Isaiah 2:1-5). Indeed in that day for every Jewish man and woman and child that are still alive on earth it will be “Life from the Dead!”
While all of the genuine prophets in Israel were not perfect is some way they all were types of the Messiah who would come, the perfect and supreme prophet, priest and king being our Lord Jesus. When Jonah was cast into the sea, it resulted in the salvation of a boatload of Gentiles. But when he was physically resurrected and cast onto dry land, it resulted in the salvation of a city of with more than 120, 000 who could not tell their right hand from their left spiritually. So the fall of Israel over the centuries has resulted in riches to the Gentile nations, but how much more blessing will flow to the world through the restoration of Israel?
