(Kent Heaton)
Every child who has listened to the stories of the Bible well remembers the man who was swallowed by the "whale." The Bible never reveals the kind of fish that swallowed Jonah and refers to it as only a "great fish." (Jonah 1:17) Critics of the Bible discount the story as a myth but Jesus refers to Jonah in His teaching. (Matthew 12:38-41; Luke 11:29-32) The book of Jonah is preserved by God for all men to read and to learn that we may have hope. (Romans 15:4)
The character of Jonah is not one of sterling character. It is easy to see the story from the child's view of a preacher who spent three days in the belly of a great fish and then went to preach to the city of Nineveh. What may be missed is the deep anger felt by Jonah for a people who needed desperately the word of God. Details surrounding the life of Jonah are limited to the book. From these details, it is learned that Jonah was a man filled with anger and prejudice.
"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’ But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." (Jonah 1:1-3)
Jonah was told by God to make the long journey to Nineveh with a message of salvation. The city was given over to wickedness and by the grace of God had been given opportunity to find hope through the preaching of the man of God. The choosing of Jonah may have been more than trying to save the people of Nineveh as much as it was to try to save Jonah. Who would not know the power of the word of God upon a people given over to wickedness? How could a man of God turn down an opportunity to go and preach to a city of "one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left." (4:11)
Jonah was a man filled with prejudice and anger to a city that needed to hear what he had to say. He was a powerful preacher and able to persuade men to change their lives. "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, 'Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.' So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them." (3:3,4)
For three days Jonah preached the word of the Lord to the people. As he made his way through the vast city, the hearts of these wicked people turned to the Lord. They were not hopeless people who could not understand the message of a loving God. The wickedness of the people was great but their hearts were tender. Even the king responded to the preaching of Jonah. He laid aside his robe and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. The power of the good news of salvation was changing a city of 120,000 lost souls to a city given over to repentance and worship of God.
What a joy it would be today to enter a city of that size, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and witness the turning hearts of thousands of people to the obedience of Christ. How wonderful to be met in the town square by the mayor of the city and have an ordinance proclaimed for all men to repent and obey God - and the people respond to this cry of mercy! It is difficult to imagine the change that can take place in the lives of those whose lives are filled with evil and violence. What a glorious thought. Such would have been what Jonah felt - but he did not.
Remarkably, the Holy Spirit tells us the reaction of Jonah was not like anything we could have imagined. "Then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry." (3:10-4:1) How or why would a man of God become angry at the repentance of wicked people? It seems the message of the book of Jonah is more about Jonah than Nineveh.
Jonah tells God the reason he fled in the first place was that he did not want to preach to Nineveh and to have the people repent. After Nineveh repented, Jonah became angry and said to the Lord, "Was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm." (4:2) The reason of Jonah's anger was that he knew that God would be so loving and generous that God would give the people of Nineveh a change to repent.
What motivated the anger of Jonah? What caused such a deep prejudice of a people who needed God? It is impossible to know the motive of Jonah as God does not reveal them to us but what we see is a man filled with anger. There was a torment going on the mind of Jonah. He had a heart of devotion to God. He knew the truth of the one true God. His life was dedicated to the salvation from God. But he allowed prejudice to mar his good name.
Jonah knew the tempest in the sea was because of him. He had fled from the presence of God and the Lord had sent a great wind to create a mighty tempest. "The mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. So the captain came to him, and said to him, 'What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.'" (1:5,6) Casting lots they discovered the problem seemed to rest upon Jonah. Jonah told them he was "a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." (1:9)
Jonah told the men to cast him into the sea and the storm would end. (I wonder why he did not jump.) They refused but finally picked Jonah up and "threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging." (1:15) God had prepared a great fish that swallowed Jonah and he remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. It is here we find the other side to the character of Jonah. Jonah prayed to God and recognized his need for deliverance and hope. It is impossible to imagine what it must have been like for Jonah to spend that time inside a fish. "The waters encompassed me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head." (2:5)
He realized that "salvation is of the Lord." (2:9) When preaching to the people of Nineveh, this message seemed to have been lost again. There is a proverb that says, "Once on shore, pray no more." Could this have been the mind of Jonah? God came to him the second time telling him to go to Nineveh and "preach to it the message that I tell you." (2:2) Jonah responds this time and goes to Nineveh. What were his thoughts on the journey there? As he traveled each day, how did he view his mission of salvation? What preparation did he seek before coming to the city? When he first stepped into the city, what did he say? Again, revelation does not tell us.
He did his job through the power of God and as God directed him. How powerful the message was as people turned to the Lord. The work God had sent him to do was bearing fruit upon fruit. Through the agency of his words, the people changed their lives such that "God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon [the city], and He did not do it." (2:10) And Jonah became angry.
The book of Jonah ends abruptly. The final picture of this great story is God rebuking Jonah for his anger over the death of a plant created to shade him from the heat of the day. The message of the book seems to be 4:10,11 - "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh?" Jonah had his priorities misplaced. How could a man be so angry at the repentance of such a great city as Nineveh?
Preaching the gospel is the greatest blessing given to man. Through the action of the words of God, lives are changed from a power that can only be from God. (Romans 1:16,17) Hearts that are hardened with sin can be broken with the soothing message of salvation. God is the one who gives increase, not man. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7) No man has a right to prejudge the heart of any man who needs the gospel.
The case of Jonah is not unusual as there are men who constitute their own merits of salvation. The hill over Nineveh is filled with men who are angry that wicked people would dare turn to the Lord and be given a chance of salvation. Prejudice and hatred may not be seen in the eyes but the heart is overwhelmed with the evil produce of its wrath. Justification is not from the word of God but from the merits of their own opinion of righteousness.
The book of Jonah is more than just a child's story of the "whale." It is a dark story of what happens when men take upon themselves the rule of God to determine who has a right to be saved and who does not. When we see men arise who set themselves up as the judges of men's souls and establish their own rules of conduct, the voice of God says, "Is it right for you to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4)
The true heroes of the book of Jonah are the people of Nineveh. They were wicked and God had viewed them for destruction. But their souls were tender for the preaching of the word of God, they repented and turned to Him. Who can we say today that does not need the gospel of Jesus Christ? Remember who Paul described as washed, sanctified and justified - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
Every heart and every soul and every person is a candidate for the blood of Jesus Christ. He died for all men - men of every color, every tongue, and every station in life. He died for our enemies and for our friends. The Son of God came to save the Jew and the Gentile. "Come to Me, all you..." (Matthew 11:28) Jonah was an angry man. Our prayer would be that Jonah 4:12 would read.....