Jonah 1:1-6

Introduction

The name “Jonah” means “a dove.”  I guess the name fits him perfectly since he tried to fly away from the assignment the Lord gave him.  Jonah had prophesied around 760 B.C in the reign of Jeroboam II to the northern kingdom.  The length of his ministry is not known.  Jonah records only one sermon in 3:4.  Jonah 3:4 (KJV)   And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.  It was five words in the Hebrew and eight words in English.  It had the impact akin to Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” This book also reveals the total sovereignty of God when Jonah proclaims that “Salvation is of the Lord” in 2:9.  Jonah’s responsibility was to preach against Nineveh.  The only parallel event to this mission was the warning of destruction given to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim by two angels which God dispatched to bring the message inside the city walls as Jonah finally did when he brought the message to Nineveh.

Jonah 1:1 (KJV)

Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

Amittai was the father of Jonah and his name means “truth or truthful.”  Jonah was from the town of Gath-hepher which was a town located in the tribe of Zebulun that was a part of Galilee.  2 Kings 14:25 (KJV)   He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.  To show how bad the Pharisees were in Scripture, they had answered Nicodemus as follows:  John 7:52 (KJV)   They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.  If they knew their Scripture, they would have known that Jonah came out of Galilee. The mark of a true prophet of God was when they heard directly from the Lord.  As we see in the opening verse that the word of the Lord came unto Jonah.

Jonah 1:2 (KJV)

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

Jonah was given an urgent task.  This message is two-fold: first, he is to immediately arise and go to Nineveh; secondly, he is to cry against it for their wickedness.  The Hebrew word behind “cry” means “to proclaim, declare, or denounce.”  Nineveh was the capitol city of Assyria.  Assyria was one of the more cruel empires as they had no regard for human life.  The word “wickedness” carries with it the meaning of both “evil” and “disaster.”  Nineveh was located approximately 500 miles (805 km) east of Israel.  Nineveh was built by Asshur who was a son of Shem.  Genesis 10:22 (KJV)   The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.  Asshur had come out of the kingdom of Nimrod.  Genesis 10:11 (KJV)   Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,  The Assyrians eventually took their name from the name “Asshur.”  Nimrod was an evil man and it is probable that since the line of Shem which the Lord Jesus Christ came from was a good line, Asshur started a new kingdom and left Nimrod behind.  As with all earthly kingdoms, eventually evil begins to creep in until it permeates the land.

Jonah 1:3 (KJV)

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.

Jonah rising up means that this was a willful act of rebellion in his refusal to obey God’s command to go to Nineveh.  Some who God called in the past had cowered when the call came such as Moses who claimed he could not speak but Jonah’s response was an outright refusal.  Jonah tried to escape God’s call by fleeing unto Tarshish which is believed to be Tartessus in the south of Spain which would have been 2000 miles (3219 km) in the opposite direction.  If he was in Gath-hepher when the call of God came to him, then he had to travel by foot an additional 60+ miles (97 km) to get to Joppa.  The ship was probably a Phoenician ship headed to Spain.

Jonah must have forgotten the psalms.  Psalm 139:7-8 (KJV)   Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  {8} If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.  Whenever we try to disobey the Lord, there always seems to come a blindness upon us and this blindness happened to Jonah.  Did he actually think that he could escape from the presence of the Lord?  Notice in this verse it speaks about Jonah going down to Joppa and going down into the ship.  Any time we try to escape from the Lord, we do nothing but go down as Jonah did.  Not only did Jonah rise up and flee but he was also willing to pay money to help his escape.  God mentions the fact twice in this verse that Jonah tried to escape the presence of the Lord.

Now the question remains.  Why did Jonah refuse to go to the Assyrians and bring the message of God?  You would think, Jonah being a prophet of God would have a desire to bring the message and see people become saved.  This was not the case because Nineveh was an enemy of Israel and Jonah being a good Jew would not have been in favor of bringing the word to the evil Gentiles since they were heathens and outside the nation of Israel.  God was preventing disaster of the Ninevites because if they did not repent, then God may have destroyed them.  It was God’s plan to preserve them because in about 40 years God was going to remove the northern ten tribes to Assyria as punishment for disobedience and rebellion against Him.  The ten tribes would never return to the land but would have to assimilate into heathen culture.

Jonah 1:4 (KJV)

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.

Verse 3 begins with “But Jonah” and now here is God’s response to “But Jonah” and it is “But God.”  God had a specific plan for Nineveh and Jonah was to be the prophet who was to bring the message to them.  Couldn’t God have chosen someone else to bring the message after Jonah ran?   The answer is no for two reasons: 1) It was Jonah’s specific call and ministry to bring the message and, 2) if God did that, then everyone who has a call on their life from God may decide to reject it and stay in their comfort zone knowing that someone else will get the mission.

Once they got underway, the Lord then acted by sending a mighty wind into the sea.  It is described as a great stormy wind which may be the type Paul faced in Acts 27.  The word “sent” in the Hebrew is a very strong word which carries with it the meaning of “thrown or hurled.”  It was not just a breeze which morphed into a major storm, it started as a major storm. It was so bad, that the mariners on board had believed that the ship was going to be broken up and lost at sea along with all loss of life.

Jonah 1:5 (KJV)

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.

The words “were afraid” carries with it the meaning of “feared or terrified.”  These men were sailors and probably saw many types of storms but this one was especially severe because it was a storm of judgment on Jonah’s actions.  The sailors were all Phoenicians but from different parts of Phoenicia so they had called on their gods which were the ones they worshipped in their particular area where they lived.  So they were calling on many different false gods.  Their next move to try and save the ship was to cast the cargo overboard which caused the ship to be weighed down and would help it sink.  Here is another tenet of disobedience.  Jonah’s disobedience to God had caused the loss of all the wares they were transporting which means other people suffered loss because of Jonah’s disobedience.  The principle here is that our disobedience does affect the lives of others even if we are too blind to see it.  While all this was going on, Jonah continued to “go down” into the ship and then he went to sleep.  He must have been a sound sleeper to sleep through all that commotion.  Isn’t it something, the one who caused the problem is the one who sleeps the best?

Jonah 1:6 (KJV)

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.

It seemed that the Captain of the ship and all the crew had a better grasp on spiritual things than Jonah did.  Isn’t that the way it is today?  You will see those in false gospels and false churches and false religions more zealous for their organizations than Christians who should be the most active in this world.  Jonah sleeping is a good lesson for the church.  While the false religions are being called upon in the moment of calamity on board the ship, the prophet of God decides to sleep through it all.  While the false cults and religions of the world are going out and making disciples, the Christians are asleep doing nothing.  After World War 2 was over in the Pacific, General MacArthur told the churches to get their missionaries over to Japan.  So what happened, the cults sent their missionaries over to Japan and the church had meetings at home and thus lost a great opportunity.