The Book of Jonah, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Jonah chapter by chapter. In our Obadiah study we saw God promise to bring down a proud nation that hated Israel. Jonah is different. God sent a prophet to a proud nation that hated Israel. And he did not bring them down. He forgave them. And his prophet was angry about it. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Most people know Jonah as the man swallowed by a big fish. But the fish is not the main point of the book. The main point is the heart of God. And the heart of Jonah. God loved people Jonah hated. Jonah wanted God’s mercy for himself. But not for his enemies. The book ends with God asking Jonah a question. And Jonah never answers. The question is left for us.

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Jonah is about running from God. “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD” (1:3). Jonah is about the mercy of the one God for all people. “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful” (4:2). And Jonah points to Jesus Christ. Jesus said “as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). And “a greater than Jonas is here” (Matthew 12:41). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai” (1:1). Jonah was a real prophet in the days of Jeroboam II king of Israel. Around 780 to 760 BC. We met him in our 2 Kings study. He had prophesied that Jeroboam would win back the land Israel had lost (2 Kings 14:25). That word came true. Jonah was from Gathhepher. A town in Galilee. When the Pharisees said “out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52) they forgot about Jonah. His name means dove.

Nineveh was the great city of Assyria. Assyria was the most cruel empire of its day. They were known for skinning their enemies alive and stacking up heads.¹ And they were the enemy of Israel. About 40 years after Jonah they would destroy the northern kingdom. So when God said go preach to Nineveh Jonah knew what would happen if they repented. God would spare them. And they would come back and destroy his people.

Jonah is different from the other prophets. It is mostly a story about the prophet. Not a book of his sermons. His whole message to Nineveh was 7 words in our English Bible (3:4). Critics will say the book is a parable or a myth.² Because of the fish. But Jesus talked about Jonah as a real man. He said the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment (Matthew 12:41). Real people do not rise up from a parable. We believe Jonah happened just like it says.

The book has 4 chapters. In chapter 1 Jonah runs from God. In chapter 2 Jonah prays to God. In chapter 3 Jonah preaches for God. And in chapter 4 Jonah is angry with God. Notice also the word prepared. God prepared a great fish (1:17). God prepared a gourd (4:6). God prepared a worm (4:7). God prepared an east wind (4:8). God is in control of everything in this book. The sea. The fish. The plant. The worm. The wind. Everything obeys God except his prophet. We will go through the book one chapter at a time. Then we will look at the sign of Jonah. Then we will put together what Jonah teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

Nineveh was east. Tarshish was west. Probably in Spain.³ The other end of the known world. Jonah went as far the other way as he could. Notice the word down. He went down to Joppa. He went down into the ship. Later he went down into the sides of the ship (v.5). Then down into the sea. Then down to the bottoms of the mountains (2:6). When you run from God the only way you can go is down. And notice. He paid the fare. Running from God always costs you.

Notice also where he went. Joppa. About 800 years later another man stayed at Joppa. Simon Peter. Jesus called him “Simon Bar-jona” (Matthew 16:17). Which means son of Jonah. At Joppa God gave Peter a vision and told him to go to the Gentiles. Peter went. He preached to Cornelius and the Gentiles were saved (Acts 10).⁴ Jonah ran from Joppa to keep from going to the Gentiles. Peter left from Joppa to go to the Gentiles.

“But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea” (v.4). The ship was about to break apart. The sailors were scared. “And cried every man unto his god” (v.5). Many gods. None of them could help. And Jonah was asleep in the bottom of the ship. The captain woke him up. “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God” (v.6). A pagan had to tell the prophet to pray.

They cast lots to find out who caused this. The lot fell on Jonah (v.7). They asked him who he was. He said “I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land” (v.9). Notice. He said the LORD made the sea. And he was trying to run away from him on the sea. The sailors were terrified. They asked what should we do. He said “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you” (v.12).

The sailors did not want to. They rowed hard to get back to land. They could not (v.13). So they prayed to the LORD. Not to their gods. To the LORD. “We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood” (v.14). Then they threw him over. “And the sea ceased from her raging” (v.15). “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows” (v.16). Notice what happened. Jonah ran from preaching to Gentiles. And the Gentile sailors got saved anyway. God used even his running.

Now think about another storm. Jesus was asleep in the back of a boat. The storm was beating the boat. The disciples woke him up. “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38). Jesus stood up and said “Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39). The disciples said “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41). We saw in our Psalms study that the LORD “maketh the storm a calm” (Psalm 107:29). Jonah said the LORD made the sea. Jonah had to be thrown in to calm it. Jesus just spoke to it. The man who commands the sea is the LORD who made the sea. A greater than Jonas is here.

God did not send the fish to kill Jonah. He sent it to save him. It looked like the end. It was a rescue.

“Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly” (v.1). Notice. He did not pray in the ship. He prayed in the fish. Sometimes God has to take us all the way down before we will pray.

“I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice” (v.2). The word for hell is sheol. The grave. The place of the dead. Jonah felt like he was already dead and buried. “For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas … all thy billows and thy waves passed over me” (v.3). Those words come from Psalm 42:7. Jonah’s prayer is full of the Psalms.⁵ He knew his Bible. Even in the belly of the fish it came back to him. “Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple” (v.4).

“The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head” (v.5). Seaweed around his head. “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God” (v.6). Down to the bottom. Locked in. Then yet. God brought him up from corruption. David said “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). Peter said that was about Jesus rising from the dead (Acts 2:27, 31).

“When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD” (v.7). “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (v.8). People who hold on to idols let go of the mercy God wants to give them. Then the last words of the prayer.

Salvation is of the LORD. Not of Jonah. Not of the sailors. Not of good works. Of the LORD. The word for salvation here is yeshuah. We saw in our Exodus and Isaiah studies that it is the word the name Jesus comes from. The angel told Joseph “thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Salvation is of the LORD. And the name of the LORD who saves is Jesus. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Then God spoke to the fish. And the fish obeyed. Faster than Jonah did.

“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time” (v.1). The God of a second chance. Jonah ran. God did not give up on him. He gave him the same job again. Peter denied Jesus 3 times. And Jesus gave him the job again too (John 21:15–17). This time Jonah went.

“Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey” (v.3). Jonah walked one day into the city and preached. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (v.4). That was it. In Hebrew it is only 5 words. No call to repent. No promise of mercy. Just judgment. And it was enough.

They believed God. The whole city. From the greatest to the least. Then the king heard. He got up from his throne. Took off his robe. Put on sackcloth. And sat in ashes (v.6). He made a law. No man or animal could eat or drink. Everyone had to wear sackcloth. Even the animals. “And cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands” (v.8). Notice. Not just sorry. Turn from the violence. That is real repentance. “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” (v.9).

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (v.10). God saw their works. Not just their sackcloth. Their changed lives. And God turned from the judgment. Jeremiah said the same thing. If a nation turns from its evil God will turn from the judgment he planned (Jeremiah 18:7–8). We saw that in our Jeremiah study at the potter’s house.

Some will ask how God can repent if he does not change. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent” (Numbers 23:19). But notice. God’s character never changes. He always judges sin. He always shows mercy to those who turn. When Nineveh changed God’s response to Nineveh changed. Because God did not change. The word repent here means God was moved to pity.⁶

Jesus said “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here” (Matthew 12:41). Nineveh heard 5 words from an unwilling prophet and repented. The people of Jesus’s day heard the Son of God himself. They saw his miracles. And they did not repent. The pagans of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment and condemn them.

This should be the happy ending. A whole city spared. The greatest revival in the Old Testament. “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry” (v.1). Now we find out why he ran.

Jonah did not run because he was afraid of Nineveh. He ran because he knew God. He knew God would forgive them. And he did not want them forgiven. Notice those words. Gracious. Merciful. Slow to anger. Great kindness. That is what God told Moses about himself (Exodus 34:6). Joel used the same words to call Judah to repent (Joel 2:13). We saw that in our Exodus and Joel studies. Jonah quoted the most beautiful words in the Bible about God. And he was mad about them. He wanted that God for Israel. Not for Assyria.

“Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live” (v.3). He would rather die than see his enemies saved. God asked him one question. “Doest thou well to be angry?” (v.4). Jonah did not answer. He went outside the city and made a little shelter on the east side. He sat there to see what would happen (v.5). Maybe he still hoped God would destroy them.

Then God prepared 3 things. A gourd. A vine with big leaves that grew up over Jonah to shade him. “So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd” (v.6). The first time in the book Jonah is happy. Then God prepared a worm. It ate the gourd and it died (v.7). Then God prepared a vehement east wind. The sun beat on Jonah’s head until he fainted. And he said again “It is better for me to die than to live” (v.8). God asked again. “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death” (v.9).

Jonah cared about a plant. He did not make it. He did not water it. It lived one day. And he was upset when it died. Because it made him comfortable. God made the people of Nineveh. 120,000 who could not tell their right hand from their left. Many believe that means the children.⁷ And God cared about them. Even the animals. Should not I spare them.

And that is how the book ends. With a question. Jonah never answers. Because the question is for us. The question is whether we care about the people God cares about. Or only about our own comfort. The church can be like Jonah. Happy to be saved. Not happy to see our enemies saved. Jesus said “Love your enemies … pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). And he prayed for the men who nailed him to the cross (Luke 23:34).

The Pharisees wanted Jesus to prove himself with a sign. Jesus said you will get one sign. The sign of Jonah. There are three things we want to point out.

First Jesus said Jonah was a picture of his death and resurrection. Jonah went down into the sea. Jesus went down into the grave. Jonah was in the fish 3 days and 3 nights. Jesus was in the heart of the earth 3 days and 3 nights. Jonah came up alive. Jesus rose again. Some ask how Jesus could be in the grave 3 days and 3 nights if he died on Friday and rose on Sunday. The Jews counted any part of a day as a whole day.⁸ We saw that in our Esther study. Esther said fast for me 3 days night or day (Esther 4:16). And then “on the third day” she went in to the king (Esther 5:1).

Second notice the word greater. Jonah was thrown into the sea because of his own sin. Jesus went into death because of our sin. Jonah ran from God. Jesus said “not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Jonah preached judgment and was angry when people were saved. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and died to save his enemies. Jonah could not save himself. He said salvation is of the LORD. Jesus is the LORD who saves. That is why he is greater. Not just a greater prophet. The God of the prophet in the flesh.

Third notice who raised him up. Jonah said “yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God” (2:6). Jesus said “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up … But he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21). Paul says God the Father raised him (Galatians 1:1). And Paul says the Spirit raised him (Romans 8:11). Trinitarians will say this shows three persons each doing part.⁹ But notice. Jesus said I will raise it up. Not someone else. The one God who dwelt in Christ raised up the body of Christ. The Father is that God. The Spirit is that God. And Jesus is that God manifest in the flesh. Not three working together. One God. Salvation is of the LORD.

Jonah is a small book about a big God. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First there is one God over the sea and the land. The sailors each cried to his own god. None answered. Jonah said “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land” (1:9). That God sent the wind. He prepared the fish. He spoke to the fish and it obeyed. He prepared the gourd and the worm and the east wind. And when Jesus spoke to the wind and the sea they obeyed him (Mark 4:41). The LORD who made the sea is the man who walked on it.

Second the one God is God of the Gentiles too. Jonah wanted God for Israel only. But the sailors feared the LORD and offered sacrifice. And Nineveh believed God and was spared. Paul says “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith” (Romans 3:29–30). Notice why Paul says God saves Gentiles. Because it is one God. There is not one God for the Jews and another for everyone else. One God. One way of salvation for all.

Third salvation is of the LORD. Jonah said it from the belly of the fish (2:9). And the LORD came to save us himself. His name is Jesus. Because he shall save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). He is the greater than Jonah. He went into the heart of the earth and rose the third day. And he sends us like he sent Jonah. Go to the nations. One God. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Jonah chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Jonah is about running from God. Jonah went down to Joppa. Down into the ship. Down into the sea. Down to the bottoms of the mountains. You cannot outrun God. The storm will find you. But neither can you sink too low for God to bring you up. He prepared a fish. And he gave Jonah a second chance.

Second Jonah is about the mercy of the one God for all people. Pagan sailors. A violent city. Children who could not tell their right hand from their left. Even the cattle. God cared about all of them. Jonah knew God was gracious and merciful and slow to anger. He just did not want God to be that way to his enemies. The book ends with God’s question. And we have to answer it.

Third Jonah points to Jesus Christ. The man who calmed the sea that Jonah could only calm by being thrown in. The one who was 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth and rose again. The greater than Jonah who preached to his enemies and died for them. Salvation is of the LORD. And the LORD who saves is Jesus.

Nineveh repented under Jonah. But it did not last. Assyria went back to its violence. The next prophet stood in Judah and said God would judge the nations. But he also named the little town where the ruler of Israel would be born. Bethlehem. That is where Micah begins.