Historical background
Jonah was one of the two Old Testament prophets called by God to proclaim his word on a foreign land. Jonah had prophesied at the same time that Amos and Hosea did. His full name is Jonah Ben Ammitai ( ben ammitai means “son of faithfulness”) and he was from the land of Gath-hepher situated in the Galilean mountains about fifteen miles from the Sea of Galilee in the territory in the tribe of Zebulun. He was a prophet of the Lord in the 8th century during the reign of the evil king Jeroboam II (784-743 B.C.E) in the northern kingdom of Israel.
At this time, the northern kingdom of Israel is enjoying a long period of peace and prosperity because of the power vacuum created by Assyria’s political strife within its empire. The strife had afforded Jeroboam II the opportunity to reclaim the territory lost during the reign of Jehu and expand its borders from the Dead Sea to the entrance of Hamath.
Jonah the missionary
With the exception of Elisha who was sent to proclaim a message to an enemy’s camp, Jonah was the only prophet chosen by God to bring a message to a foreign territory. Some scholars have claimed that Jonah was the nameless son of Zarepath’s widow mentioned in I kings 17 who was raised from the dead by the prophet Elijah while others have believed he was a disciple of Elisha after Elijah ascended to heaven.
Only one thing is certain though, that the word of Yahweh came to him one day saying, “Go at once to Nineveh, that impressively large city, the city of empire, and denounce it for their evil which has come up before me”. The city of Nineveh is the capital of Assyria located on the east bank of the Tigris River some five hundred miles to the east of the Israelite territory. It was the mighty Nimrod who built Nineveh as stated in Genesis 10:11-12. As an empire, Assyria experienced unprecedented growth, prosperity and power during the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.E.) and Shalmaneser III (858-824 B.C.E).
However, by the time of Jonah, Assyria was in a post-golden age wherein the state was clearly in decline as a result of internal rebellions caused by its provincial rulers. Even so, Assyria’s lust for power had helped him developed an effective and efficient military organization in which all others become subordinate to its military industrial complex. As a powerful empire in the region, Nineveh was the center of savagery and often sadism, horribly mutilating and slaughtering the population of defeated nations especially if it resisted surrender during the siege. They would burn houses and towns and display the corpses on stakes.
Those who survived were used to amuse the Assyrians by leading them with a leash attach to a ring inserted through their lip. Nineveh’s lust for power and oppression was often compared to the debauchery of a whore. This just shows that Jonah was called to proclaim a message of judgment and hope to an evil empire, to a city that symbolizes violence and cruelty.
In fact, Nineveh was Israel’s mortal enemy, for Assyria had destroyed the Israelites (especially the southern kingdom) and seeks to ruin its way of life. Israelites contempt for Nineveh spanned several generations and Zephaniah had dreamed of the day when Nineveh fall like a wasteland while Nahum was overjoyed to prophecy that Nineveh will be destroyed.
Conflict in Jonah
Jonah served as a theological counselor and adviser of Jeroboam on political and military matters. Jonah knew, as a prophet who works for the Lord, that God loves all people including the non-Israelites. But he does not want to go to Nineveh and proclaim God’s message there, that they will be destroyed unless they repent.
Like all of Israel, Jonah too, had longed to see Nineveh destroyed for the sins that it had committed . In addition, as an astute military adviser, he is fully aware of the threat that Assyria poses to the Northern kingdom of Isarel. Besides, his contemporary, Hosea, had prophesied that Isarel would be conquered by this cruel nation. Therefore, Jonah did not like the message that God wants him to proclaim in Nineveh. Interestingly, it was only Jonah of all the Old Testament prophets that actually disobeyed God by action (for Moses, Gideon and Jeremiah protested to God in words only) by going to Tarshish.
Tarshish was considered at that time to be situated at the other end of the world. It is located at the estuary of river Gudalquiver, beyond Gibraltar, in the southwest coast of modern day Spain. Therefore, instead of going east to Nineveh, Jonah sailed for the west. Instead of choosing to arrive in Nineveh by walking in three days, Jonah opted to go to Tarshish which will take him a full year of sea travel.
Turning points and letdowns
God did not allow Jonah to sail to Tarshish. He could not allow Jonah to mess his plan of salvation for the people of Nineveh. Scholars had claimed that God may have been preparing the Assyrians for Jonah’s message for years. A few years before Jonah came, He hit the city with two different plagues, caused the city to experience solar eclipse ( considered a bad omen for the Assyrians), and threatened Assyria with invasions from the North.
God sent a storm, and when Jonah was cast to the sea, God provided a whale to eat him up alive. Inside the belly, for three days, Jonah repented, thanked the Lord for saving him, and then recommits his life to the Lord. When the whale spits him out in a dry land, God reiterated his call once again to Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah obeyed and proclaimed the message of judgment and hope to the populace.
The people heeded and repented, causing God to withdraw his judgment. However, the people’s repentance and God’s withdrawal of judgment to Nineveh did not please Jonah, casting a doubt in his sincerity. He had camped outside the city and waited for God’s fire to come down to the city in 40 days. He was still hoping that God would not relent. However, he was disappointed so he became angry with the Lord and wished for death. He still felt that Nineveh deserved to be punished. It was also ironic that he had just been rescued from death by the mercy of God and now he would rather die than see others receive that same mercy .
God rebuked him by causing a plant to grow to provide Jonah with a shade and then letting a worm eat and destroy it. Jonah was unhappy that the plant died and God told him that he had compassion for a plant but he does not have any compassion for the 120,000 people that lived in Nineveh.
Accomplishments and Impact
Aside from being a successful political and military adviser of King Jeroboam, Jonah was also instrumental in bringing the inhabitants of Nineveh to repentance causing God to withdraw his judgment to the city. As a missionary, he was also instrumental in causing many pagan sailors to come to know Yahweh when he sailed to Tarshish after they cast him to the sea.
Jonah and the mission of Christ
Jonah typifies Christ mission in the earth in the sense that Christ too was sent by God to proclaim his message of repentance and salvation not only to Israel but also to foreign nations who are deep in sin. But unlike Jonah who wishes his enemies to be punished by its sin, Christ was here to proclaim that God was loving and compassionate, eager to show mercy to those who repent, Israelites or not.
The experience of Jonah in the whale’s belly for three days also typifies Christ death, burial and resurrection in three days. Just as Jonah’s experience in that belly ensures the proclamation and eventual freedom from judgment of the Ninevites (for he recommitted himself to the mission), so was Christ death, burial and resurrection ensures the salvation of all who believed in Him.
Bibliography
- De La Torre, Miguel. Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethics of Reconciliation. New York: Orbis Books, 2007.
- “Jonah”. Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary. (Electronic File 2006. Accessed July 21, 2008 from http://jonah.bmk.ee/mystory.htm)
- “Jonah”. Survey of the Old Testament: The Prophets. Grace Institute for Biblical Leadership. Electronic File 2005. Accessed July 21, 2008 from http://www.gcfweb.org/institute/prophet/jonah.html
- Thompson, Frank Charles. The Thompson-Chain Reference Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1983.
