What Jonah's Disobedience Can Teach Us Today, Part 1
Jonah and the Whale (actually a “great fish) is one of those Old Testament stories that likely captured your imagination as a young child. It’s full of excitement and suspense – so much so that it was featured in a full-length VeggieTale motion picture!
However, the story of Jonah is often overlooked by adults seeking to study the Word. In fact, some people even try to discredit it saying that it is really an allegory and not meant to be taken literally. (We should take it literally because Jesus did in Matthew 12:38-41).
The story of Jonah has a lot to teach us and is way more than a fanciful story. When I took the time to really dig into the Book of Jonah in the Bible, I discovered many new things that I had not understood when I heard the story as a child. Here are some key things you might not know about the story of Jonah.
We don’t know for sure who wrote it.
Written probably sometime between 793 and 758BC, Jonah takes place after the Kingdom of Israel has split into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms after the death of Solomon, and neither Kingdom is following God. It is likely that Jonah wrote the book, or someone he recounted his story to may have written it.
Jonah was the spokesman for defeating the Assyrians.
Jonah was a true prophet of God (2 Kings 14:25) who served as God’s mouthpiece in leading the Northern Kingdom of Israel to push back against the Assyrians. He was celebrated by the people of Israel for his prophesies which led to Israel pushing north and reclaiming their territory. Jonah was fiercely nationalistic for Israel—so much so that Jonah had intense hatred for the Assyrians who were the enemies of Israel.
Jonah means “dove.”
The dove is the symbol of Israel and is used throughout the Bible to signify peace and hope. Remember the dove that signaled the existence of dry land to Noah and that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism. This is an important symbol in the story of Jonah.
The word “down” is frequently used in Jonah.
God speaks to Jonah and tells him to rise “up” and go to Nineveh, a hated Assyrian enemy of Israel, to call them to repent of their wickedness. But what does Jonah do? He goes “down” to Joppa and then boards a ship headed “down” to Tarshish a city in the opposite direction of Nineveh. The word “down” is used throughout the book of Jonah to show that when you flee from God, you are going down. Furthermore, Jonah frequently ignores calls to “get up.” In fact, when the sea captain calls Jonah to wake up from his sleep in the bottom of the ship and arise to call on Jonah’s God to save them from the storm (remember Jonah was a prophet of God, and the ship captain and sailors were pagan Gentiles who worshipped many gods), it is the same Hebrew word that God used to call Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh.
The point is not just Nineveh’s wickedness – it’s Israel’s too.
Jonah hates Nineveh, an Assyrian enemy of Israel, because of their wickedness and rebellion towards God and Israel, but Israel had fallen far away from the Lord as well. The condemnation that awaited Nineveh also awaited Israel. However, as we will see later in the story, only one country turned from its sin – and it wasn’t Israel.
Jonah’s heart did not match his outward appearance.
Amid the storm, Jonah proudly tells the crew members, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.” He is arrogant and boasts of his status as one of God’s chosen people of Israel, yet Jonah’s heart is in full rebellion against God. How often do we put on airs to show ourselves to be moral, upstanding people in our outside appearance, when inside we are running from God or telling God No to what He is asking us to do?
Jonah would rather die than obey God to help the Ninevites.
Jonah asks the men on the ship to throw him into the sea to stop the storm. Jonah knew if he had just softened his heart and agreed to obey God to go minister to Nineveh, then the ship would not be about to wreck in the storm. However, Jonah is so full of hatred for the Ninevites that he would rather drown than see them repent and find forgiveness of their sin by God working through Jonah’s ministry to them! Are there people in our lives that God is telling us to love that we refuse to offer them forgiveness for the wrongs they have done to us?
Jonah is a foreshadowing of future events.
After Jonah is thrown down into the sea, he is down in the belly of the great fish for three days which is a foreshadowing of the three days Jesus would lie in the grave before He arose from the dead. Furthermore, Jonah does not even begin to pray during the storm and seek God until he finds himself in the belly of the great fish. This is a foreshadowing of how the nation of Israel will not repent and return to God until the Tribulation in the End Times.
Jonah doesn’t show true repentance in the belly of the fish.
Most of the prayers that Jonah prays while in the belly of the fish are straight from Psalms. As a prophet, he had knowledge of the Scriptures, and he is reciting what he’s been taught, but the way he appears to just go through the motions of reciting rote prayers doesn’t indicate a true heart change. He somewhat begrudgingly agrees to complete the will of God, but his heart had not been truly transformed nor has he confessed his sin before God. Jonah truly deserves death, but God in his mercy gives him a second chance causing the whale to vomit him on dry land in Nineveh. How many times do we just use rote prayers to God instead of truly pouring our hearts out to Him, communicating our love for Him, seeking His will for our lives, and thanking Him for how many second chances He has given to us?
I hope you learned something new about the story of Jonah and are inspired to study it deeper in your quiet time this week. Stay tuned for next week when I’ll share some observations from Chapters 3 and 4 of the Book of Jonah!
If this blog has piqued your interest in learning more about the Story of Jonah, you can listen to more discussion in the podcast episode this blog is based on at: https://spotifyanchor-eb.app.link/e/YBCpvNxKYAb!