DAY 188: Jonah

Jonah in Israel’s History and the Setting of the Book

Welcome to 5-Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's July the 7th and we'll be looking at the book of Jonah. Now yesterday in 2 Kings 14 we met Jonah, the son of Amittai, during the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel.

And through Jonah the Lord showed mercy to the northern tribes of Israel by restoring some of her borders, even though the northern kingdom remains spiritually bankrupt. Now today we step into Jonah's own book.

And this is not a random interruption in our Bible reading plan. Jonah actually belongs here because he is one of the prophets active during this particular season of Israel's history. He fits right into the exact same time period of 2 Kings 14, which is why we are examining his book today.

Jonah’s Flight, the Storm, and the Great Fish

Now instead of sending Jonah only to the northern tribes of Israel, the Lord does something astounding. He sends him to the pagan city of Nineveh, the great city of Assyria. And that matters because Assyria is soon in the near distant future going to cast a long terrifying shadow over the nation of Israel.

They are Israel's greatest threat. In fact, they're going to be the ones that utterly destroy them. The prophet who announced mercy for Israel must now confront the mercy of God when it's aimed at God's enemies.

And in that way the book opens with the word of the Lord coming to Jonah. Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city. But Jonah rises to flee in the opposite direction, to run from the word of the Lord.

He boards a ship to Tarshish and then attempts to run from the presence of God. But then the Lord hurls the sea into a great storm and the pagan sailors cry out to all of their different various gods while Jonah sleeps in the deck below.

And eventually Jonah confesses that he's been fleeing from the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. And the sailors reluctantly, at the bidding of Jonah, throw him into the sea. The storm stops and they all fear the Lord.

Now meanwhile, the Lord appoints a great fish to swallow up the prophet Jonah who thought that he had escaped the mission with death. But after three days and three nights, Jonah prays from the belly of the fish, confessing that salvation belongs to the Lord.

Meaning that whoever God wants to save, God will save. And then the fish vomits him out onto dry land. And then the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time. And this time he goes to Nineveh and he preaches judgment.

Nineveh’s Repentance and God’s Relenting Mercy

And it's a really short sermon. It's basically the equivalent of repent or die. And astonishingly, the city repents. From the king down to the lowest commoner. They humble themselves, they fast, and they turn from their evil.

And God relents from the disaster that he had announced. But instead of rejoicing, Jonah is angry. He's furious. He admits that this is exactly why he fled from the presence of the Lord. Because he knew that the Lord was gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.

So he ran. And now he's angry that he knew that God would save them and God did. So the book ends with God confronting Jonah's hardened heart through a plant, a worm, and a scorching wind. And one final question about the nature of mercy.

So as you read today, I want you to ask the following question. Do we love God's mercy only when it reaches us? Or do we love it also when it reaches people that we would rather see come under judgment?

Jonah understands God's character. The problem is not bad theology. The problem is that he resents grace when it actually is applied to his enemies. And in that way, the central tension in Jonah is that everything obeys God except the prophet.

The storm obeys. The fish obeys. The sailors, the pagan sailors, respond with fear and obey the Lord. The Ninevites repent of all people. The plant grows. The worm destroys. The wind blows. All of these things are obeying God, but Jonah resists.

And he flees, and he complains, and even sulks. And that contrast is intentionally humiliating, because at the beginning of the book, pagan sailors show more reverence to God than Jonah. In the middle of the book, violent Ninevites show more repentance than Jonah.

And by the end of the book, the prophet who knows the Lord best appears to love mercy the least. And this is where the personal application cuts deeply into our life as well, because Jonah exposes the part of us that wants grace to have borders.

We want God to forgive people like us, but not people who've harmed us, opposed us, embarrassed us, or even threatened our security. In the same way, Jonah shows that orthodoxy without love can actually become monstrous.

Jonah can recite the attributes of God quite accurately. He knows the Lord is gracious and compassionate. He knows that God is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. But instead of worshiping God for that mercy and rejoicing in who God is, he's angry that God would show those characteristics of his nature to the Ninevites, those ugly, dirty Ninevites.

And this also fits the larger story, the book of Kings, because Israel has received mercy again and again while remaining hard-hearted. Jeroboam II's reign brought relief and restored borders not because Israel deserved it, but because the Lord saw their affliction and was gracious to them.

And yet now Nineveh, this enemy city, repents it. One prophetic warning. And the contrast exposes Israel's guilt and reveals the wideness of God's mercy. So the question is not merely whether we believe in mercy.

The question is whether we rejoice when mercy reaches the undeserving. Because if we can't rejoice over mercy shown to sinners, then we've forgotten that mercy is the only reason that we stand as well.

Jonah as a Shadow of Christ and the Gospel to the Nations

And in that way, Jonah points us directly to Jesus Christ, but mostly by contrast. Jonah is sent to enemies and he flees, where Christ is sent to enemies, but he comes willingly. Jonah is thrown into the depths because of his own rebellion, and Christ descends into death because of ours.

Jonah spends three days and three nights in the fish and comes out alive. Jesus calls this the sign of Jonah, pointing to his own burial and resurrection on the third day. But Christ is also greater than Jonah.

Jonah preaches reluctantly in Nineveh repents. Christ preaches faithfully, and many in Israel reject him. Jonah's angry when Gentiles receive mercy, but Christ sheds his blood to gather Gentiles from every tribe, tongue, and nation into his kingdom.

And unlike Jonah, Jesus doesn't merely announce that judgment may be avoided. He bears the judgment on his own body himself. At the cross, the holy wrath that we deserved fell upon him so that mercy can come righteously to sinners from every nation.

Jonah therefore prepares us for the gospel going beyond Israel to the nations. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and that means that he gives it freely, sovereignly, and to anybody that he has chosen, regardless of what they look like or act like.

God can save anyone, even the Ninevites. And that same mercy that offended Jonah becomes the very mercy that saves the world and us through our Savior Jesus Christ. So as you read Jonah today, notice that the real scandal is not the fish, but the mercy of God.

And tomorrow we will return to Kings and Chronicles where Uzziah's strength will turn into pride, Israel's throne will shake through assassinations and instabilities, and the shadow of Assyria will begin growing darker and darker over the northern tribes.

But with that, read your Bible carefully, devotionally, and joyfully, and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely, and we will continue our journey tomorrow. God bless you.