8/7/2019 MMW Jonah Reluctant Fisherman

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Jonah Reluctant Fisherman

Where does one start with Jonah? Even the Book of Jonah is scarcely full of abiography; we are told he was the son of Amittai.  Elsewhere Chapter fourteen of Second Kings confers on Jonah the calling of prophet who came from Gath Hepher during the reign of King Jeroboam.

The only actual prophetic service in the Book of Jonah has to do with when God senthim to call upon the people in the Cit y of Nineveh to repent of their sin or bedestroyed.

What the Book of Jonah lacks in detail it makes up for in hints to Jonah¶s character and relationship with God.

It is very obvious that Jonah¶s relationship with God is extremely close, when Godsends him to Nineveh he runs off to the farthest part of the known world to what isnow known as Spain.  It is revealed; in the dialogue between Jonah and God that thereason he ran was that Jonah knew that God would not destroy Nineveh if they didrepent.

Further that he was prepared to die rather than obey God¶s wishes and convey amessage of salvation to a people who were not members of the nation of Israel.  Thissuggests that Jonah was more interested in the people of God than those outsidethe Covenant; strangers and aliens.

The other part of this short book is the way God¶s plan is not thwarted by Jonah¶sdisobedience but in fact it adds to the narrative.  Jonah goes the opposite direction tothat God wants and boards a ship bound for Tarshish only to be c aught in one of themother and fathers of a storm where the vessel was bound to founder.  To savethemselves and their ship the sailors eventually throw Jonah over the side.

In the sea Jonah is swallowed by a large fish and stays inside the fish for three daysbefore he is regurgitated by the fish at the edge of the ocean, with seaweed wrapped

around him, but only after Jonah had returned to God.

God sends Jonah again to Nineveh and he goes. It is not recorded whether hestopped to get changed nor is it wri tten how long it took for Jonah to get to Ninevehbut it would have been a long journey from the coast to the Tigris River.  If he didn¶tstop to clean up, the sight as well as the stench of this man who had spent 72 hoursin a fish presumably having been marinated by the fish juices would have beenextremely dramatic for the Nineveh residents.

Of course the people repented, wouldn¶t you if he had appeared as I have justdescribed.  Even the king of Nineveh donned rags and fasted, and of course God didforgive these aliens and idolaters which lead to Jonah¶s outburst in Chapter four 

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Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, "God! I knew itwhen I wasback home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you

were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat 

to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!  

God accepts the outburst by pointing out to Jonah how small minded he is beingabout the situation.  That Jonah¶s comfort was of little consequence compared withthe lives of 120,000 residents in Nineveh.

This is our God let us praise Him that He cares about all of us, not just the insiders.