JONAH: THE PROPHET WHO FLED AND THE SON WHO WENT DOWN

Scripture presents Jonah as a prophet who heard the word of the LORD and ran from it, and in that running, in the storm, in the fish, in the preaching to Nineveh, and in the anger at mercy, the text traces a shadow that only Christ Himself interprets (Jonah 1:1; Luke 24:27,44-45; John 5:39). The book reveals a God who appoints wind and fish and plant and worm, who gives repentance to a pagan city, and who points to a Prophet greater than Jonah who did not flee but went down into death and rose on the third day (Jonah 1:4; Jonah 1:17; Jonah 4:6-8; Matt 12:39-41). From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36). The arrangement is the argument: flight, descent, burial, rising, preaching, mercy, and rebuke declare the gospel as the spirit of revelation (Rev 19:10).

GOD COMMANDS, AND THE PROPHET FLEES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, commanding him to arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it because its evil had come up before God (Jonah 1:1-2). Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the city of violence and bloodshed (Nah 3:1-4). The command was to preach judgment to enemies, not to comfort friends. Jonah arose, but not to go to Nineveh. He rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD (Jonah 1:3). He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it (Jonah 1:3). Tarshish lay opposite Nineveh, as if distance could remove the prophet from the God who fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:24; Ps 139:7-12). Man cannot flee the presence of the LORD, and the heart is deceitful (Jer 17:9).

The descent that begins at Joppa does not stop. Jonah went down into the ship, then down into the hold to sleep, then down into the sea, then down into the belly of the fish, then down to the roots of the mountains (Jonah 1:3; Jonah 1:5; Jonah 1:15; Jonah 2:6). Rebellion does not ascend; it descends toward Sheol, toward the pit, toward death (Jonah 2:2,6; Ps 16:10). Jonah's flight pictures fallen man descending under judgment, unable to return by his own will, for men are slaves either to sin or to God, not free from both (Rom 6:16-22).

THE STORM IS HURLED BY THE LORD, AND THE PAGANS FEAR WHILE THE PROPHET SLEEPS

The LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and a great storm arose, so that the ship threatened to break apart (Jonah 1:4). The text assigns the storm to God, not to chance. The sailors feared, and each cried out to his own god, and they threw cargo into the sea (Jonah 1:5). Their gods were silent. Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had fallen into a deep sleep (Jonah 1:5). The captain commanded him to arise and call upon his god (Jonah 1:6). The pagans feared and prayed; the prophet slept in the middle of the judgment his rebellion had brought.

The lot fell on Jonah (Jonah 1:7). He confessed that he was a Hebrew and feared the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land (Jonah 1:9). The men were exceedingly afraid when they learned that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD (Jonah 1:10). Jonah told them to hurl him into the sea, and then the sea would quiet down (Jonah 1:12). They rowed hard to return to land, but they could not (Jonah 1:13). Then they cried to the LORD, hurled Jonah into the sea, and the sea ceased (Jonah 1:14-15). Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice and made vows (Jonah 1:16). Salvation belongs to the LORD alone (Jonah 2:9; Ps 3:8).

THE FISH IS APPOINTED BY THE LORD, AND THREE DAYS BECOME THE SIGN

The LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17). The fish was not accident, but divine appointment. The belly was both judgment and preservation, both grave and ark. Jonah prayed from the belly (Jonah 2:1), describing being cast into the deep, driven away from God's sight, yet looking again toward God's holy temple, going down to the land whose bars closed upon him forever, yet God brought up his life from the pit (Jonah 2:3-6). The prayer reaches its center in the declaration that salvation is of the LORD (Jonah 2:9). The LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land (Jonah 2:10). Deliverance came by the word of the LORD, not by the will of the prophet.

The three days and three nights are the hinge of the book. Christ Himself interprets them. When an evil and adulterous generation sought a sign, Jesus answered that no sign would be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matt 12:39). Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40). As Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man would be to that generation (Luke 11:30). The sign is burial and rising. The men of Nineveh would rise up at the judgment and condemn that generation, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah was present (Matt 12:41; Luke 11:32). Jonah is the shadow, Christ is the substance.

NINEVEH HEARS, REPENTS, AND LIVES BECAUSE GOD GIVES REPENTANCE

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, commanding him to arise, go to Nineveh, and call out the message God would tell him (Jonah 3:1-2). Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD (Jonah 3:3). He called out that yet forty days, and Nineveh would be overthrown (Jonah 3:4). The people of Nineveh believed God (Jonah 3:5). They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least (Jonah 3:5). The king arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes (Jonah 3:6). He proclaimed that every one should turn from his evil way and from the violence in his hands (Jonah 3:7-9). God saw how they turned from their evil way, and God relented of the disaster He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it (Jonah 3:10).

Scripture does not teach that Nineveh earned mercy by fasting. Repentance itself is a gift of God. God grants repentance leading to knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 2:25). God granted repentance that leads to life even to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18). God exalted Christ to give repentance and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31). No one comes to the Son unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). God showed mercy according to His own purpose, for He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy (Ex 33:19; Rom 9:15). Nineveh's repentance was real, and it was given.

THE PROPHET RAGES AT MERCY, AND GOD TEACHES BY A PLANT

When God relented, it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry (Jonah 4:1). Jonah said that this was why he had fled to Tarshish, for he knew that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster (Jonah 4:2). The confession repeats the revelation of God's name given to Moses (Ex 34:6-7). Jonah knew the doctrine of mercy. He hated its application to his enemies. He asked the LORD to take his life (Jonah 4:3). The LORD answered by asking whether anger was fitting (Jonah 4:4).

Jonah went out of the city, made a booth, and sat under it, waiting to see what would become of the city (Jonah 4:5). The LORD God appointed a plant for shade over Jonah, and Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant (Jonah 4:6). Then God appointed a worm that withered the plant (Jonah 4:7), and a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah so that he was faint (Jonah 4:8). God asked whether anger over the plant was fitting, and Jonah answered that anger even to death was fitting (Jonah 4:9).

The LORD then spoke the final word of the book. Jonah pitied the plant, for which he had not labored, which came into being in a night and perished in a night (Jonah 4:10). Should not God pity Nineveh, the great city, in which there were more than 120,000 persons who did not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle (Jonah 4:11). The book ends without Jonah's answer. The silence is the judgment. Jonah wanted mercy for himself and justice for his enemies, while God shows mercy according to His own will, a justice satisfied elsewhere, in the Lamb who would bear it (Isa 53:4-6; 1 Pet 2:24). God appointed the storm, the fish, the plant, the worm, the wind (Jonah 1:4; Jonah 1:17; Jonah 4:6-8). Nothing happens outside appointment.

THE SON GREATER THAN JONAH DID NOT FLEE BUT WENT DOWN INTO DEATH

Christ is the Prophet greater than Jonah, and the contrast is the center of the exposition. Moses promised that the LORD would raise up a prophet like Moses, and would put His words in his mouth (Deut 18:15,18-19). That Prophet is Christ, as Peter and Stephen declared (Acts 3:22-23; Acts 7:37). In these last days God has spoken by His Son, who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature (Heb 1:1-3). Christ opens the Scriptures, for beginning with Moses and all the Prophets He interpreted in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27). The Scriptures bear witness about Him (John 5:39). The only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known (John 1:18). Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

Jonah fled from the presence of the LORD. Christ came from the Father and returned to the Father, having done the will of the Father (John 8:42; John 6:38). Jonah went down to Joppa to escape the mission. Christ came down from heaven to accomplish the mission (John 6:38; Phil 2:6-8). Jonah slept in the storm in rebellion. Christ slept in the storm as its Lord, and when awakened He rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm (Mark 4:38-39). The LORD who hurled the storm is the LORD who calms it, and Christ calms it because He is that LORD in flesh (Jonah 1:4; John 1:1,14).

Jonah was thrown into the sea to quiet the storm, and the sea ceased (Jonah 1:15). Christ was cast into death to quiet the wrath, for Christ bore sins in His body on the tree (1 Pet 2:24; Isa 53:5). Jonah's casting was the removal of the guilty to spare the ship. Christ's casting was the offering of the innocent to save the guilty, for He laid down His life of His own accord (Mark 10:45; John 10:17-18). Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights as a sign. Christ was in the heart of the earth three days and three nights as the reality (Matt 12:40). Jonah came up from the fish by the word of the LORD (Jonah 2:10). Christ rose by the glory of the Father, delivered up for trespasses and raised for justification (Rom 6:4; Rom 4:25). Jonah descended because he fled. Christ descended because He came. Jonah rose because God preserved a disobedient prophet. Christ rose because death could not hold the Holy One (Acts 2:24; Ps 16:10). Jonah sat east of the city waiting to see its destruction. Christ sat at the right hand of God after accomplishing salvation (Heb 10:12-13).

SCRIPTURE TEACHES THAT CHRIST GIVES REPENTANCE AND PRESENTS HIS SPOTLESS BRIDE

The book of Jonah ends with a question about pity. The answer is Christ. The pity of God for Nineveh is the early display of mercy poured out at the cross, where Christ, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for His people, so that in Him they might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). The same God who appointed the fish appointed the Lamb (Rev 13:8; 1 Pet 1:20). The same God who gave repentance to Nineveh gives repentance now (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim 2:25).

Faith in Scripture is present possession, not future hope alone. He who believes has eternal life (John 6:47). He who hears Christ's word and believes Him who sent Him has eternal life, and has passed from death to life (John 5:24). These things are written to those who believe in the name of the Son of God, that they may know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). The Ninevites believed God and lived (Jonah 3:5,10). Repentance is not a work that earns life. It is the turning God gives, the fruit of a heart made new by the Spirit (Ezek 36:26-27; John 3:3-8).

The end toward which all of this moves is the wedding. Scripture teaches that Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish (Eph 5:25-27). This is a great mystery, and Paul declares that it refers to Christ and the church (Eph 5:32). The bride is not presented spotless because she made herself spotless. She is presented spotless because the Bridegroom washed her, clothed her, and kept her. The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready, for it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure (Rev 19:7-8). The clothing is granted. The readiness is given. The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev 21:2).

Jonah fled, descended, and raged at mercy. Christ did not run, but went down into death, slept in the storm as its Lord, rose on the third day, and gives repentance and eternal life. The book that begins with a prophet running from the presence of the LORD ends with the LORD asking about pity for a great city, and the answer is found in the Son greater than Jonah, who presents to Himself a spotless bride at the wedding (Matt 12:41; Eph 5:27; Rev 19:7-9). All Scripture, including Jonah, testifies to Him, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36; Luke 24:27).