A voice for the word of God
Jonah
Jonah is the prophet who ran the other way. Sent to preach to the great enemy city of Nineveh, he fled by sea, was swallowed by a great fish, and learned the hard truth that God's mercy is wider than his own. Jesus pointed to Jonah as a sign of His own death and resurrection.
“And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”Jonah 3:4
His life and calling
His life and calling. Jonah, son of Amittai, was a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, roughly in the eighth century before Christ. His book is unusual among the prophets, a narrative of the prophet himself more than a collection of oracles. God's call was clear: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it" (Jonah 1:2). Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a feared and violent enemy, and Jonah wanted no part in its rescue. So he fled toward Tarshish, but a great storm arose, and Jonah, admitting he was the cause, was thrown overboard. God "prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah," and he was in its belly "three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17), where he prayed and was delivered onto dry land. Given the command a second time, Jonah went and preached, and the whole city, from the king down, repented in sackcloth. Yet Jonah was angry that God spared them. His story is a mirror held up to every heart that resents God's grace toward others. He was a reluctant covenant messenger who had to learn the breadth of God's compassion.
His message
His message. Jonah's spoken message to Nineveh was brief and stark: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4). But the deeper message of the book is God's mercy toward those we might think unworthy of it. Jonah confessed the reason he had fled: "I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil" (Jonah 4:2). He knew God would relent if Nineveh repented, and he did not want them spared. The book ends not with the prophet's triumph but with God's question, defending His compassion for a city of many souls who "cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand" (Jonah 4:11), and even for their cattle. The message is that God's mercy reaches beyond Israel to the nations, even to enemies, and that His servants must learn to share His heart. It exposes the narrowness of a religion that wants grace for itself but judgment for others.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Jesus made Jonah a direct sign of Himself: "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). Jonah's descent into the deep and his emergence prefigure Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus also pointed to Nineveh's repentance to shame His own generation: "the men of Nineveh... repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here" (Matthew 12:41). Where Jonah went reluctantly and resented the mercy shown to outsiders, Christ came willingly and gave His life so that mercy could reach all nations. Jonah preached and hoped his hearers would be destroyed; Christ preached and gave Himself so his hearers might live. The book's wideness of grace anticipates the gospel going to every people. God spoke through this reluctant prophet, and has spoken fully in the greater than Jonah (Hebrews 1:1-2).
Questions people ask
What is the sign of Jonah?
Jesus said that just as Jonah was three days and nights in the fish, so the Son of man would be three days and nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). Jonah's descent and deliverance became a sign pointing to Christ's death and resurrection.
Is the book of Jonah mainly about the fish?
No. The fish is only part of the story. The book is chiefly about God's mercy reaching even to the enemy city of Nineveh and about Jonah's struggle to accept that grace. Its final question defends God's compassion for a whole city of people.