JONAH 1
Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD
came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jonah was
the son of Amittai, which means “faithful” and Jonah was called to be a
faithful, obedient prophet of peace to deliver a message of repentance which
brings about peace, but Jonah bucks this all the way to the bitter end as we
will see.
We had
already mentioned in the introduction how his name means “dove,” and this
reminds me of words of our Messiah to his old talmidim (disciples) which I
think is applicable to Jonah’s was to conduct himself and his mission for the
LORD.
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves.
Jonah was
also a resident of Gath Hepher, meaning, “The winepress of the well” which was
border town in the territory of Zebulon located about three miles or five
kilometers from Nazareth.
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3 Growing
up, Jonah was one of my favorite books of the Tanak. As a kid there’s just
something “cool” about a guy getting swallowed up by a giant fish and lived to
tell about it!
But Jonah
rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to
Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and
went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
As I got
older I liked the book of Jonah because it showed that even though the Jews are
His Chosen People, He loves and has mercy upon the Goyim (Gentiles) too. After
all, we all are His creations, and we all are made in His image.
Many people
accuse God of being a blood thirsty tyrannical deity in the Torah, especially
when the Israelites conquer Canaan and begin to wipe out the peoples of that
land; Men, women, children and even animals. But what people don’t realize is
that all the years prior, just as with the Noach’s flood, HE gives people
PLENTY of room and time to truly repent. The Flood didn’t happen without
warning; the destructions of the peoples in Joshua’s time also didn’t come
without ample warning. God gave these people plenty of time to see the error of
their ways and repent. And when a city or a nation is ripe for repentance, God
will make one last ditch effort to give the peoples a change to repent before
he sends His Judgment. This was God’s plan with Jonah.
The
reluctant prophet visited Nineveh during the golden era of the Assyrian Empire
(885-625 BCE). Assyria constantly harassed and warred with Israel and Judah
doing horrific things comparable to the German Holocaust. Assyria eventually
ended up taking the 10 tribes of Israel off into captivity and they have yet to
return to this day. It is recorded that King Jehu of Israel had to pay tribute
to Shalmaneser III (II Kings 17-18). So with this knowledge one can see why
Jonah was so opposed to his call to Nineveh; the Assyrians, a people who were
the enemies of Israel and have done very cruel things to them. So no wonder
Jonah was a reluctant missionary, he was most likely very prejudice towards the
Ninevites. It would be like telling a Jew of today to go and deliver a message
of repentance to a Nazi or a Palestinian Terrorist! After all who really wants
to see Hitler or Yaser Arafat forgiven!? Especially if you had a dear family
murdered as a result of one of these guys!? It’s as if we as Jews are
Anti-Goyite (Gentile) because they are Anti-Semite, it’s a vicious useless
circle of bigotry and unforgiveness.
“You want me
to tell them Divine Judgments coming and actually give them a chance to
repent!? They dashed our babies against the walls, they raped our women, and
they have taken our children as slaves! No way God, after what they have done
to my people they deserve for You to rain hell, fire and brimstone on them and
turn them all into crispy critters!”
The Key Word
Study Bible says, “Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire at various
times during its history, including the time of Jonah’s visit in the eighth
century B.C. Within a few decades, Assyria became dominate in the Land of the
Philistines, Israel was carried into exile (722 B.C.), and Judah was nearly
conquered (701 B.C.). This domination proved to be at the peak of Assyrian
power. By 612 B.C., the great city of Nineveh was in ruins, and by 609 B.C.,
the Assyrian Empire had vanished forever. Both Zephaniah (Zeph. 2:13) and Nahum
(Nah. 3:5-7) prophesied the final destruction of Nineveh.”
So you can
see why Jonah wanted to board a boat in Joppa which in the Brit Chadasha we
find is the home town of Dorcas or Tabitha (Acts 9:6) and Simon the Tanner
(Acts 10:32). Joppa is about 40 miles away from Jonah’s home town and 35 miles
from Jerusalem, and sail in the opposite direction toward Tarshish, which is
modern day Tartessus in southern Spain. Tarshish would have been 2,500 miles
away from Israel, just about the farthest that one could go in the known world
at that time.
Legends of
the Bible says when Jonah arrived in Joppa that there was no ship and so to
test Jonah G-d sent storm was so strong that it pushed the ship back to Joppa
when it had already made a two day journey away from the port, which Jonah
interpreted as God approving of his refusal to go to Nineveh. The ticket was
said to be 4,000 gold denarii, and the Brit Chadasha refers to the denarius as
a day's wage for a common laborer (Matthew 20:2; John 12:5).
The last
half of verse three, “so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go
with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD,” tells us of the
ancients belief that gods were territorial and if Jonah runs as far as he can
in the opposite direction of where God wanted him to go, he would be escaping
from the Presence of the LORD. We know and deep down Jonah that was a farce:
Psalm 139: 7-10 Whither shall I go
from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take
the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even
there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Rashi says
that Tarshish is a distant sea and Ibn Ezra says it was a city. The Targum says
it is a generic term for the sea.
Anyway,
regardless of what Tarshish was, what was Jonah thinking!?
Legends of
the Bible compiled by Louis Ginzberg tells us that Jonah knew Nineveh would
repent and he would be deemed a “false prophet” just like when he was sent by
his teacher Elisha to proclaim the destruction of Jerusalem and they repented
and the destruction never occurred and so the people ended up labeling him a
false prophet. So to escape disgrace is another reason he choose to flee to
Tarshish.
I think God
choose Jonah to deliver this message of Judgment to bring repentance to the
people of Nineveh just as much as it was to teach Jonah that God is not a bigot
and neither should he.
Well, we all
know what happened next, God sent a storm, the boat was about to sink, it was
determined Jonah was the reason for the storm, Jonah tells the people to throw
him overboard, the people pleads for God not hold them accountable for this,
they toss him, the seas calm for the people, and Jonah gets the first three day
submarine ride in history.
“Okay God,
you got my attention! Okay God ‘Uncle!’ I’m sorry; I’ll do what You say now!”
4 But the LORD sent out a great wind
into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was
like to be broken.
Eph. 2:2 tells us that satan is the prince and the power of
the air, but ADONAI always trumps satan and is in complete and utter command of
His creation, and it ALWAYS does His bidding.
Let this be a lesson to us, that because of Jonah’s
disobedience, he put innocent bystanders in danger. Just as we do, whether we
realize it or not, when we are disobedient to God. The wind is symbolic of the
Ruach (Spirit) of God that nagged and convicted Jonah and would let him alone.
It also tells us that when we disobey God we actually take two steps back to
every step we think we are taking forward.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and
cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship
into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of
the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
Jonah hated
the Assyrians so much he didn’t lose sleep over refusing to deliver the message
of repentance to them, and if what Legends of the Bible said was true, he
actually thought G-d now approved of his refusal to go to Nineveh.
There are
two ways one can sleep during a storm; either their conscious is seared (I Tim.
2:4) which describes Jonah at this time, or if one totally trusts in God as
Yeshua did when He slept during a storm on a sea (Mark 4:35-41).
The Full
Life Study Bible says, “While the lives of the sailors were in great danger,
God’s servant was sleeping. Today some within the church are asleep and
unconcerned, even though all around them people are perishing spiritually in
the storms of life.”
Despite the
shame of sinning and attempting to run away from the will of God upon his life,
God nonetheless used Jonah to witness to pagan heathens about ADONAI the One
True God! The verse says everyman was crying out to his god(s), and Legends of
the Bible says that there was a representative from all the 70 nations aboard
the vessel. Jonah was the only one fast asleep and not calling out to his God
and so the Captain of the ship wondered who Jonah’s God was. All the other gods
have failed them; maybe Jonah served one that they hadn’t called upon yet.
Jonah was worried about shame, he was about to face it here.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and
said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be
that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 7 And they said every one to
his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this
evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
They
concluded the storm was so freakish and unexpected that someone must have
ticked off their god; someone must be to blame for this misfortune. They most likely
drew straws or cast stones and as divine fate would have it Jonah was pointed
out to be the guilty one. This shows that God is in control of the roll of the
die so to speak. Even in Israel they cast lots by the Umim and Thumim which the
Priest carried as a means of casting lots, as a way for God to communicate
something specific to Israel; this was how Achan was chosen as the one who
sinned when Joshua asked God why his troops were defeated by Ai.
Now Jonah
would be interrogated.
8 Then said they unto him, Tell us,
we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation?
and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? 9 And
he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which
hath made the sea and the dry land. 10Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and
said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the
presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Legends of
the Bible have the Captain speaking on behalf of the 70 nations on the boat
saying, “We have heard that the God of the Hebrews is the most powerful. Cry to
Him for help. Perhaps He will perform such miracles for us as HE did in days of
old for the Jews at the Red Sea.”
11 Then said they unto him, What
shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought,
and was tempestuous. 12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth
into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake
this great tempest is upon you.
Jonah
admitted he was to blame. Jonah took responsibility. He saw it was his life for
theirs; otherwise both would needlessly be taken. Here I think of Spock, off of
Star Trek, his famous saying, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the
few.”
The sailors
saw this as crazy talk, suicide! They would not have Jonah’s blood on their
hands.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to
bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was
tempestuous against them.
“The sailors
were honorable people. Despite the lots and Jonah’s own admission, they tried
to row to safety without throwing him overboard.” – Stones Tanak
14 Wherefore they cried unto the
LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for
this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast
done as it pleased thee.
Nevertheless
it got to the point where those on the ship had no choice but to cast him
overboard. They have exhausted all their options, they threw cargo overboard,
prayed to their gods, rowed and things only got worse, so as crazy as it
sounded they were ready to toss Jonah over, what could it hurt? But first they
asked forgiveness for what they were about to do, for this was to them a certain
death sentence. To them it’s as if they cut his head off.
Legends of
the Bible records they first lowered him in the water up to his knees and the
storm stopped and so they raised him back up into the boat and the storm was
fiercer than ever. They then lowered him up to his navel, then his neck and
brought him back up with the same results, finally, after praying for
forgiveness of this man’s blood they threw him overboard into the sea and this
time the storm ceased for good.
Jonah by his
word from the LORD and the sailor’s obedience to that word the storm ceased,
just as Yeshua spoke the word and the storm stopped.
Mark 4:35-41 And the same day, when
the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the
ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And
he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him,
and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and
rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how
is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to
another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Who was
this? None other than the one who spoke this world into creation (Gen. 1, John
1).
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast
him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
This
testified to the truth of Jonah’s words and the power of His God, ADONAI; a
testimony despite him currently running from what God had told him to do.
16 Then the men feared the LORD
exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
They pledged
to offer sacrifices to ADONAI when they arrived on land, says the Targum. Rashi
says this meant that they vowed to convert to Judaism. Radak says that vowed to
help the poor when they got back home.
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great
fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights.
Legends of
the Bible tells us that this fish that was made to swallow Jonah was created at
the foundation of the world for just such a purpose and this is what is meant
by the word “prepared a great fish.” We know that God uses what is already in
existence and in this realm to carry out his will, but the Hebrew word would
almost make one think that God created this creature before time and put it in
existence in this realm to swallow Jonah.
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