Jonah: Fleeing From God's Will
Lessons From Jonah
- Plants or people? The importance of proper priorities and perspectives
- God's divine purpose will be accomplished regardless of the activities of man
- It is necessary for one to obey every command of God whether we agree with it or not or even if we do not completely understand it
- Failure in duty is rebellious disobedience
- It is possible for nationalism to be sin
- God's prophet must preach God's message
- God's people must develop a love for a ll peoples
- You cannot run from God
- God desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth
Purpose:
To show the extent of God's grace—the message of salvation is for all people. Author: Jonah son of Amittai Original Audience: All the people of Israel |
Date Written:
Approximately 785-760 B.C. Setting: Jonah preceded Amos and ministered under Jeroboam II, Israel's most powerful king (793-753 B.C.; see 2 Kings 14:23-25). Assyria was Israel's great enemy; it conquered Israel in 722 B.C. Nineveh's repentance must have been short-lived, for it was destroyed in 612 B.C. |
Key Verse:
"But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from heir left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (4:11). |
Key People:
Jonah, the ship's captain and crew Key Places: Joppa, Nineveh Key Themes: God's Sovereignty, God's Message to All the World, Repentance, God's Compassion |
Special Features:
This book is different from the other prophetic books because it tells the story of the prophet and does not center on his prophecies. In act, only one verse summarizes his message to the people of Nineveh (3:4). Jonah is a historical narrative. It is also mentioned by Jesus as a picture of his death and resurrection (Matthew 12:38-42). |
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"There are at least two known monsters of the deep who could easily have swallowed Jonah. There are the Balaenoptera musculus or sulphur-bottom whale, and the Rhinodon typicus or whale shark. Neither of these monsters of the deep have any teeth. They feed in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouths, submerging their lower jaw, and rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever is left. A sulphur-bottom whale, one hundred feet long, was captured off Cape Cod in 1933. His mouth was ten or twelve feet wide–so big he could easily have swallowed a horse. These whales have four to six compartments in their stomachs, in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the nasal sinus, often measuring seven feet high, seven feet wide, seven feet long. If he has an unwelcome guest on board who gives him a headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid of the offender as he did Jonah.
"The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently quoted an article by Dr. Ransome Harvey who said that a dog was lost overboard from a ship. It was found in the head of a whale six days later, alive and barking.
"Frank Bullen, F.R.G.S., who wrote, 'The Cruise of the Cathalot,' tells of a shark fifteen feet in length which was found in the stomach of a whale. He says that when dying the whale ejects the contents of its stomach.
"The late Dr. Dixon stated that in a museum at Beirut, Lebanon, there is a head of a whale shark big enough to swallow the largest man that history records! He also tells of a white shark of the Mediterranean which swallowed a whole horse; another swallowed a reindeer minus only its horns. In still another Mediterranean white shark was found a whole sea cow, about the size of an ox.
"These facts show that Jonah could have been swallowed by either a whale or a shark. But has any other man besides Jonah been swallowed and lived to tell the tale? We know of two such instances.
"The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America, was supposed to have been drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He was revived and has been enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure.
"Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. 'In the Literacy Digest we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the English channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London Museum at a shilling admittance fee; being advertised as ‘The Jonah of the Twentieth Century.’
"In 1926 Dr. Rimmer met this man, and writes that his physical appearance was odd; his body was devoid of hair and patches of yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin.
"If two men could exist for two days and nights inside of marine monsters, could not a prophet of God, under His direct care and protection, stand the experience a day and night longer–so why should we doubt God's Word?"
–The Bible Today by Grace W. Kellogg
"The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently quoted an article by Dr. Ransome Harvey who said that a dog was lost overboard from a ship. It was found in the head of a whale six days later, alive and barking.
"Frank Bullen, F.R.G.S., who wrote, 'The Cruise of the Cathalot,' tells of a shark fifteen feet in length which was found in the stomach of a whale. He says that when dying the whale ejects the contents of its stomach.
"The late Dr. Dixon stated that in a museum at Beirut, Lebanon, there is a head of a whale shark big enough to swallow the largest man that history records! He also tells of a white shark of the Mediterranean which swallowed a whole horse; another swallowed a reindeer minus only its horns. In still another Mediterranean white shark was found a whole sea cow, about the size of an ox.
"These facts show that Jonah could have been swallowed by either a whale or a shark. But has any other man besides Jonah been swallowed and lived to tell the tale? We know of two such instances.
"The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the Falkland Islands near South America, was supposed to have been drowned at sea. Two days after his disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He was revived and has been enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure.
"Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. 'In the Literacy Digest we noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the English channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark turned and engulfed him. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London Museum at a shilling admittance fee; being advertised as ‘The Jonah of the Twentieth Century.’
"In 1926 Dr. Rimmer met this man, and writes that his physical appearance was odd; his body was devoid of hair and patches of yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin.
"If two men could exist for two days and nights inside of marine monsters, could not a prophet of God, under His direct care and protection, stand the experience a day and night longer–so why should we doubt God's Word?"
–The Bible Today by Grace W. Kellogg
"See here the nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty. Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those back to their place who had deserted it. See the power of Divine grace, for affliction of itself would rather drive men from God, than draw them to Him. God's servants must go where He send them, come when He calls them, and do what He bids them: we must do whatever the word of the LORD commands. Jonah faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. ... Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to delay judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in it. And should it not awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that we cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days, as Nineveh then was that it should stand for forty days? We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live a month, yet we are careless though we are not sure to live a day." —Matthew Henry