Bible Study
Studies in Jonah by Neil Foster
Lesson 1


    • Jonah 1:1-5
    • Jonah 1:1-2
      • 2 Kings 14:25
      • Genesis 18:20
      • Genesis 10:1, 6, 8-11
    • Jonah 1:3
      • Genesis 3:7-8
    • Jonah 1:4
      • Matthew 8:23-27
    • Jonah 1:5

Why should it be thought incredible that God should do the things it is said that HE did in the book of Jonah?

Jonah is a little book. It is placed in time at about 800 B.C. It is really hard for us to comprehend how far back that was even in Jesus' day.

If you think back to the time of the Civil War (days of Abe Lincoln) that was a long time ago, but it has been just a little over 130 years since that time. But then, think on back to the Revolutionary War -- 1776 -- the days of Paul Revere, Washington. That's just a little over 200 years ago. If we go back in time to the day of Columbus, when this land was nothing but Indians, and we are back to 1492, and this is just over 500 years ago.

So 800 years back from our time is into the year of 1100 -- the time of the middle ages. Any way you look at it, it is a long time ago.

So, Jonah the prophet lived and prophesied and wrote this little book that kind of time distance back, before Jesus was born.

Jonah, the son of Amittai (Ah-met'-tai). These words give us a pretty sure way of tying Jonah into Bible history.

And so we are told indirectly that Jonah was a prophet to Israel, and that he had spoken some prophecies concerning Israel before their actual occurrence during this reign of Jeroboam, at around 826 B.C. These prophecies are not recorded anywhere for us -- only the outcome -- or results.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, possibly sometime later than the prophecy referred to in Kings, and the word was: "Jonah, arise and go to Nineveh that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness is come up before me" -- In other words, "their wickedness has come to the time of needing something done." Their "bad" or "evil" or their "wickedness" is not elaborated upon but simply implied to be ungodliness and all that goes with it. (They might have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.)

Nineveh was located way up on the Tigris River about 500 miles NE from Israel. The city was originally founded by Nimrod who was a great grandson of Noah.

By the way, Nineveh was much closer to Mt. Ararat where the ark settled after the flood than to the land of Palestine. I also might mention that according to the "order of things" given in the Bible, Nimrod founded the city of Nineveh before the time of the building of the Tower of Babel and therefore before God's confusing of the tongues because of it (2347 B.C.)

So Nineveh was a very old city. It was inhabited by the direct descendants of Noah's son Ham.

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Like the little book of Obadiah, the book of Jonah tells us (along with the Jews) that when God chose Abraham and his descendants for a special purpose, he did not forsake nor forget the rest of the people. He was, and still is, the creator and the God of all people -- Jew, Gentile, believer and unbeliever -- to reward, punish and to have mercy on all who will believe.

Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish. Jonah was a prophet of God but he thought like the Jews have nearly always thought. He thought he could flee from the presence of God by leaving Palestine.

This is a common human trait, for all people, even now. We think we can get away from God. Believers think (though they will not usually admit it even to themselves) that if they do not "feel" God's presence, then he is not around -- and therefore, somehow, does not know our acts and thoughts.

Non-believers convince themselves that even if there might be a God, if they do not believe in Him, then He wont be, or at least He won't hold them accountable.

The Jews knew better, but they continued to try to believe that God was only their God, the God of their land, and so Jonah somehow seemed to think that if he went to Tarshish, he would be out of God's presence.

By the way, the best indication seems to be that Tarshish was (even in those days) in the area we know as Spain.

This feeling that one can somehow get away from God's presence is indicated to have existed as early as Adam and Eve.

To get to Tarshish, Jonah went to a seaport of Israel, Joppa, to catch a ship.

Joppa was on the Mediterranean coast and was the same city where Peter was, nearly 900 years after Jonah, when Cornelius, the Roman sent for him (as recorded in the book of Acts.)

There at Joppa, Jonah found a ship going to Spain -- So he paid his fare "to go with them from the presence of the Lord." Because --

Why do you suppose Jonah wanted to get away from God -- ?? -- Because he didn't want to go to Nineveh, that wicked city? Maybe, but why didn't he want to got to Nineveh??

Well, we really learn the answer to that question at the end of the book instead of here at the beginning, but we will turn over there and take a quick look.

By the way, we might contrast the difference between Jonah and Cain. You know that Jonah tried to flee from God's presence, but he never got away.

I will never be able to convince anyone that God can and does control the elements of nature when He want to. Only God can convince them, and generally, He will not until they are ready to let Him.

But I can point out that the Bible simply presents this truth "in actions," not as an argument, but as a fact.

The account here in Jonah is just one example. Here the Lord sent out (literally "cast forth") a great wind into the sea.

A New Testament account is in:

Another thing we find taught by factual presentation is God "interfered" or "intervened" in the life of people, of Jonah and He did it by "interfering" with the normal laws of nature which he had originally instituted.

The book does not seem to imply at all that God continually "directs" the winds by pulling strings, nor does it imply that He continually directs every act of life, but that He does interfere when He wishes. And so likewise, it is in this same way that God seems to relate to the lives of all men.

But the Bible does say that God knows what is going on all the time -- He "lets" the rains fall on the wicked and the good. He "lets" men choose to believe or not to believe.

But he does not let His plans be undermined. That is why His Word is true and His promises sure, even in the light of freedoms of choices and even when confronted with the great powers and forces such as those of Satan.

Just as God's rain falls on the wicked as well as the just, so likewise, God's storm affected the lives of the sailors as well as of Jonah.

Notice I did not say "the just and the unjust." It's hard to say, but if we had to pick a "just" person, we would have to pick Jonah.

The mariners cried each to his own god, and the implication is that they were not crying to the GOD. Jonah knew who is, of course, the only God.

Jonah was asleep, but there is no question but that he knows GOD, the one and only God.

Remember, you may have trouble with it, but the whole theme of the Bible is that man deserves the very worst that GOD could ever send upon him. God gave His Son because of love, not because of Justice. Salvation thru Christ is a gift of mercy, not an act of justice.

This "tempest of the sea" is not presented as being any different from any other great storm, except that the scripture says this one was "cast forth" by the Lord at this time and it is evident that the Lord sent this storm because of Jonah.

There is no indication that the mariners acted any different in this storm from what they did in all the storms -- "They were afraid" -- They prayed to their gods. They cast out the cargo to lighten the ship (as was done 900 years later when Paul was in a ship).

All of their efforts were to no avail, just as they probably would be in any other storm. Storms of nature would blow until the natural elements changed which might or might not coincide with prayers to many gods.

But the scripture presents this storm as one for a purpose, sent forth by the Lord regardless of the natural elements, and stopped by the Lord, also without regard to the elements.

While the mariners feared, Jonah slept. I don't know whether there is any significance intended, but it is true that knowing the Lord is like that. One who really knows Him can sleep while those who do not know him, Fear.

We who have put our trust in Jesus Christ really have nothing to fear.

© 1979
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