1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. 4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
We don't know much about Jonah, the son of Amittai—there is precious little background material about him in the pages of Israel's history. The tiny bit we do know is that he prophesied to King Jeroboam that, after many hard, bleak years in Israel, their borders would finally be restored—peace and prosperity would flow (2 Kings 14:25).
From this little snippet in 2 Kings, we learn Jonah had been a prophet with good news for Israel, but now he is tasked with bringing bad news to Nineveh, a city over 500 miles from Israel. In that past, he had a positive message for God's believing people, but now he is given a negative message for unbelieving people.
But the prophet did an uncharacteristic thing—at least for a prophet—he tried to run from God. Jonah decided to go to Tarshish, a city far away and in the opposite direction of his assignment (3).
After finding a boat that would take him as a passenger, Jonah paid the fair and settled in for the long journey (3). But God would not allow his man to run for long, and he hurled a great wind upon the sea (4). The tempest threatened to break up the ship, so all the sailors on board grew fearful and cried out to their gods (5). When there was no response, the captain woke Jonah so he could pray to his God (6).
Some wonder if a false sense of peace helped Jonah sleep through the storm. I wonder if he was simply a seasick land-lover and guilty prophet who could only cope with his mixture of sea-sickness and rebellion against God with mind-blocking sleep.
Why Did Jonah Run?
But why did Jonah run? This is the major question of this first movement and a key to understanding how this book applies to us today.
Some think Jonah was fearful about what would happen to him in Nineveh. This is a reasonable explanation because Assyria was one of the cruelest and most violent empires in the world, and Nineveh was its capitol. Their kings wrote boasts of atrocities and war crimes that would make you squirm in your seat. The ways they would humiliate opponents and torture their captives were legendary, so Jonah might've feared for his personal safety in a town like Nineveh.
But this reason overlooks the rest of the book of Jonah. Jonah—spoiler alert—eventually went to Nineveh, and everyone there repented of their evil. And God relented from the judgment he'd promised. When Jonah saw this, he confessed to why he ran from God's will. He said:
O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. (Jonah 4:2, ESV)
So Jonah's reason for rebelling against God had to do with what he knew about God. Other prophets had predicted judgment on surrounding nations—but from the safety of Israel. Their prophecies were about foreign nations but were mostly meant for Israel to hear so that they'd trust God in the face of massive opponents.
But if God was sending Jonah to Nineveh—since God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness—it probably meant God was going to show that grace, mercy, patience, and love to Nineveh.
And Jonah didn't like that. He was used to telling God's people that their borders would be restored. He didn't want to tell people far from God even a word of judgment, lest they repent and become God's people.
1. God Sends Because It's His Nature
This is where I want to point out that God is a sending God because it's his nature. He sends us into the world to declare his gospel. He sent Jonah to the Ninevites. He sent his only begotten Son. God sends because it is his merciful, gracious, patient, and loving nature to do so.
But, though Jonah's theology about God was accurate, though he believed the right things about God, though he knew God was gracious, he only liked it when it applied to him and his people—not when it applied to those people, the Ninevites. So Jonah decided to live out his own desires rather than allow his actions to flow from what he knew of God.
This is why I've called our brief study of Jonah Unhitched. Like a train car unhitched from the locomotive, Jonah was unhitched from God. God's heart and nature, what he stated himself to be to Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai and embedded in the Israelite Law itself, did not impact Jonah like it should. Jonah should have seen who God is and then lived in a way that represented God's nature well. Instead, he unhitched. I almost called this study The Caboose Is Loose, because Jonah is like the last train car, unhitching himself from following his God into the Ninevite territory.
Make no mistake: God is the main character of the book of Jonah. The book is primarily designed to teach us about him. He is mentioned twice as much as Jonah, and he is active throughout the whole story. In our passage today, he sent Jonah. In chapter two, after causing a storm and sending a great fish, God listened to Jonah. In chapter three, after seeing Nineveh's repentance, he responded to their prayers for mercy. And in chapter four, after tolerating Jonah's tantrum about it all, he trained his prophet. God is the one working in this book. His man is defective, but God is not.
And the big mission of God in this book was not to reach the Ninevites but to reach his people. Jonah knew the right things about God but didn't understand the magnitude of God's grace, so he hated the people of Nineveh.
And this book was originally written for an Israelite audience who had the same difficulty understanding grace that their prophet had. As God's people, they were called to be a light to the world, a kingdom of priests to a world in need of God, but they had become so insular and angry and entitled they couldn't fulfill their mission. They forgot how God's grace had reached them in the past and was meant to flow through them in the present. God's actions throughout the book of Jonah were meant to retrain them to let their actions better represent God's nature.
But now Christ has come and has fulfilled the Old Testament for us. The book of Jonah is now ours. We are God's people, and God's message is the same: Understand who I am. I am gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness. I sent my Son to save people from their sin, and I want you to deliver this message to all nations, even if it's scary.
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
In this next movement, the crew, along with Jonah, cast lots as a method to determine the cause of this obviously supernatural storm (7). They might have passed around a bag of black rocks; whoever drew the one white rock inside was the culprit. They might have done something else; the ancients had many similar methods to try to discern the will, thoughts, or intentions of the divine.
As he does all book long, the true God flexed his sovereignty and caused the lot to fall to Jonah. Immediately, the sailors interrogated Jonah with an avalanche of questions. And all the questions had embarrassing answers.
Q: What is your occupation?
A: I am one of God's prophets. We go wherever and say whatever God wants—except for this time.
Q: Where do you come from?
A: I come from Israel, the place the true God resides in his temple, the Promised Land, but I am leaving it.
Q: Who are your people?
A: We are Hebrews, God's specially called people, that we might demonstrate the true God to the lost world, but I don't want to.
But Jonah didn't back away from it. Leading with his identity as a Hebrew, Jonah revealed to them that he belonged to God but was trying to flee from his presence (9-10).
2. God Sends His People To Represent Him
I have already pointed out that God is a sending God and that this action flows from his nature. But I want to add that God sends his people—which is his nature—so that we might represent him well.
Jonah, of course, was not doing a good job of this. It is tempting to call a study of Jonah "What Not To Do: Studies in the life of Jonah." And here we have him, on the boat, amid his rebellion, telling everyone that he belongs to God. He was not a good representative for God. He had much to learn.
One major reason people give for refusing to believe in God and his gospel is hypocrisy in the church. It reminds me of a character in Moby Dick who sought to learn from Christian sailors but said that "the practices of whalemen soon convinced him that even Christians could be both miserable and wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father’s heathens."[^1]
What Should We Do?
What are we to do? None of us can expect to always and at all times represent Jesus without error. If you have trusted him, he has given you a new nature and heart. But though this is true, we still have a body of sin to contend with, and those appetites often lead us into hypocritical actions that are inconsistent with God and his gospel.
What must we do? Strive for perfection? We cannot. Instead, we must be humble and contrite when we fall short. Jonah had fallen short, yet God used even his rebellion to reach people. And God might use your stories of failure and weakness to reach others if you humbly repent and show godly contrition over what you've done.
But we are called to represent the Lord through our lives today by loving God and our neighbor (Luke 10:27). This love of neighbor begins with how we treat one another. Jesus said all people would know we are his disciples if we have love for one another (John 13:35).
It reminds me of a pastor friend of mine who has two elementary school aged sons. They are energetic boys who sometimes, as pastor's kids do, get tired of waiting around for their parents after church services. One Sunday, they began playfully warring against each other in the empty church sanctuary while their parents talked to people outside. One of them picked up a Bible and threw it at the other, and it hit him in a crucial spot just below the waistline. It necessitated a quick trip to the local E.R.!
It reminds me of how we often treat each other, using even the Bible to attack and devour. It must not be. Love must predominate among the church for the church because who wants to join a warring family?
We might resist this message a bit by thinking that the world has no business assessing the church. But Jesus said:
In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, ESV)
This seems to imply that people will assess our lives and are expected to do so. As Paul said of himself and his ministry team:
We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:20, ESV)
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
In this final movement of the opening story, the sailors, having determined Jonah is the cause of the worsening storm, asked him what they should do with him (11). Jonah told them to pick him up and hurl him into the sea (12). If they did, the sea would become calm for them.
But rather than behave as Jonah expected unbelieving Gentile sailors to behave, these men instead began rowing hard to get back to shore for Jonah (13). They were not bloodthirsty but instead did not want innocent blood to be on their hands (14).
But when it became obvious that they had no other choice, these men prayed to God, asked for mercy, and threw Jonah overboard (14-15). When the sea immediately stopped raging and peace came into their lives, these men did not forget God, as many do when trials subside, but instead worshipped God (15-16).
Though the story was over for the sailors, it was not over for Jonah. God had appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah (17). It was likely a large whale—ancient Hebrews kept their distance from the ocean's waters and used the same word as fish to describe whales. And Jonah—rather miraculously—was in the belly of the fish for at least part of three days and three nights (17).
Why Did Jonah Tell Them To Throw Him Overboard?
The great question of this movement is why did Jonah tell the sailors to throw him into the sea? Some think Jonah was still seething about his assignment to Nineveh, so he resigned himself to death. If this is true, Jonah is saying something like, "It would be better for me to die in the Mediterranean than preach to the Ninevites. I would rather die than see them converted."
Others think Jonah had a major change of heart through the events of the storm. The kindness of the sailors and the magnitude of the storm might've brought him to a place of compassion. If this is true, Jonah is saying something like, "I want you all to live, and there is only one way for that to happen. Throw me overboard. I will die instead of you."
This second view has appeal because it reminds us of Jesus—the One who died for the many—but it forgets Jonah's attitude in the second half of his book. Even in the end, Jonah was not happy about salvation for those outside the believing community.
The truth of Jonah's attitude likely lies somewhere in the middle. This was, after all, a messy moment in the midst of a tumultuous storm. Linear, tempered, or logical thought is long gone. Jonah is likely a mix of adrenaline and fear and regret and depression and anger, along with the recognition of what he has done to these poor sailors. He probably looked into their anxious faces and realized their humanity. But years of nationalistic enthusiasm probably also clouded his mind. Nevertheless, his conclusion was right—he had to go overboard.
True love is substitutionary. Jonah sacrificed himself, substituted himself for the sailors, and in doing so, became a picture of Jesus Christ, the One who substituted himself for all of humanity on the cross. Jesus even pointed this out, claiming Jonah as the perfect sign for what he was about to do:
...No sign will be given to (this generation) except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39–40, ESV)
3. God Sent Himself
This is where I want to conclude. Yes, God sends because it is his nature to do so. Yes, God sends us to represent him. But, ultimately, God sent himself. Like Jonah, One died so that we all might live. Jesus came to our storm-tossed world and threw himself into the waves of God's wrath so we might survive.
And though Jonah became like so many of the Old Testament characters—a picture pointing forward to Jesus—the differences between him and Jesus are staggering. Jonah was cast out for his own sins; Jesus was cast out for ours. Jonah only came near death when he went under those waters; Jesus passed under the true darkness of death. Jonah was an unwilling to participate in God's mission; Jesus eagerly came to earth in obedience to the Father.
For Christ, we rejoice. He is our better-than-Jonah-savior who spent three days and nights in death for us.
But our passage asks us to do more than rejoice. It wants us to go, to see ourselves as sent into a broken world where—yes—evil exists everywhere. The sending God who sent himself wants to send us.
Joppa
When Jonah ran from God, the first place he went was the coastal town of Joppa. There, he found a ship so he could head in the opposite direction of God's will.
Centuries later, a small group of Christians were gathered in a house in Joppa. Even though it had been ten years since Jesus rose from the dead, the church was still exclusively Jewish. As the group prepared lunch downstairs, the Apostle Peter was up on the rooftop portico praying to God. Then and there, he received a vision that told him to go up the coast to Caesarea and preach to a Roman army officer and his household. God was telling Peter to preach to the non-Jewish nations about Jesus.
Peter, there in Joppa, had a decision—do I run from God's mission or allow God to send me? Fortunately for most of us here today, Peter accepted God's invitation, and the gospel began to go to the whole world.
Joppa, the city known for Jonah's rebellion against God's plan to reach the Ninevites, became the launching pad for God's plan to reach the nations. And we are the recipients, as well as the conduits, of that mission, called to preach the gospel to our world. We are called to go, because our God sends.
[^1]: Melville, Herman. 2021. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Independently Published.