Jonah 1

I’ve started having Hebrew tutorials with a brother from church, and this week we looked at Jonah 1. There are a couple of things to notice. There’s a chiasm in Jonah 1.3 which is actually translated very well by the ESV:

A Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD
B He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board,
A’ to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD

In contrast with vv. 1 and 2, where the LORD speaks to Jonah and commands him to go to Nineveh, this little chiasm emphasises the rebelliousness of Jonah’s actions, going to Tarshish, going from the presence of the LORD.

The second thing worth noting is that there is a downward progression throughout the chapter. The ESV picks it up pretty well.

In verse 2 we read, ‘He went down to Joppa.’ Having found a ship, we are told that he ‘went on board’, literally, ‘He went down into it.’ Jonah goes down into the inner part of the ship, where he lays down and is fast asleep (literally, ‘he lay down fast asleep’) (v. 5). Later on, we find Jonah going down even further, into the sea and then into the great fish.

In Jonah, we see the pattern of death, later followed by resurrection when he is vomited up. The belly of the great fish is the belly of Sheol for him. The sinner who dies because he rebels against the Lord and refuses to carry out his commission to preach to the unbelieving nation is raised up from the grave. And this of course foreshadows the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died, not for his own sin (for he had none) but for ours, and who was then raised up from the dead. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” - Matthew 12.40.

The cattle are lowing

Apologies for the sparseness of posts of late. Fifth year Medicine, while enjoyable thus far, is very, very busy.

A friend of mine was preaching in College chapel this evening and one of the lectionary readings was Jonah 3. These weren’t his points, but you know how it is when your eye wanders across the page and meets something interesting and…

First, justification by faith can be taught from this passage. In response to the Lord’s message through Jonah (a hellfire and brimstone sermon if ever there was one - judgment is proclaimed, but interestingly no mercy), the people of Nineveh believed God (v. 5) and so they repented and God relented of the disaster (v. 10).

Secondly, notice that it is man and beast which has to repent - man and beast are to fast. Man and beast are to wear sackcloth and call out mightily to God (vv. 7-8). Moreover, God pities Nineveh, in which are not only more than 120,000 people, but also much cattle (4.11). Now those verses have to mean something. I wonder if, alongside the idea of the Gentile mission that you get here, but you also have the idea of the redemption of the whole created order, animals included, something along the lines of “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtained the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8.21).

Just a thought.

Jonah

Peter Leithart’s interpretation of Jonah in A House for My Name is compelling. After floating it somewhat unconvincingly with some brothers and sisters last night and no doubt failing to do justice to what Leithart is saying, I’ll have another go at summing up what he says.

The word of Yahweh comes to Jonah, but he is sent to Nineveh, not Samaria and promptly heads off in the other direction. Jonah is a prophet during the last days of the Northern Kingdom, an idolatrous people devoted to worshipping golden calves. Jonah himself tells us why he ran away from acting as Yahweh’s prophet. He knows that Yahweh is compasionate and merciful and will have mercy on the Assyrians if they repent and this displeases him (chapter 4, verses 1 and 2).

What is happening is what Moses warned about in Deuteronomy 32.21:

They have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

Israel has provoked Yahweh to jealousy, so Yahweh is provoking them to jealousy, turning his attention to another nation, actually an act of mercy as Israel is stirred up to return to her true husband Yahweh (cf. Romans 11.11).

Like Israel, Jonah is provoked to jealousy and anger when Yahweh showers his attention and blessing upon another nation. He does not want to help them repent and so he runs away, but this is unsuccessful. Though he wants to avoid his prophetic office, the first thing that happens is the conversion of pagan sailors. This points head to the convesion of Nineveh.

In spite of his sin, the Lord is kind to Jonah, appointing a fish for him, delivering him from deaht in the waters and raising him up to dry land. The fish saves Jonah rather than destroying him. This is a picture of the Lord’s promise to Israel. Israel, like Jonah, has turned from the Lord, rejected his call and refused to be a witness among the Gentiles. The sea is frequently a picture of the Gentile nations in Scripture (cf. Psalm 65.7-8). Just as Jonah is thrown into the heart of the sea, so Israel will be taken captive by Gentile nations. Jonah being thrown into the sea is a picture of exile.

Sea monsters in the Bible are sometimes pictures of Gentile rulers (Psalm 74.12-17, Jeremiah 51.34). So Jonah tells us that Gentiles powers are appointed by the Lord to save God’s people. So the Lord’s protection of Jonah is a promise of protection during Israel’s exile. Once she returns to the Lord, she will be vomited back into the land. Moreover, many Gentiles will come to know the Lord.

I appreciate that this is relying strongly on the whole-Bible context to understand the book of Jonah. What do people think? It doesn’t seem to me to be at odds with the message of the text itself. Perhaps others who have studied Jonah in more depth (and more recently) than I could correct me. Even the Lord Jesus’ application of the sign of Jonah to himself doesn’t appear to be contradictory. Jonah’s salvation from the water, spending three days and nights in the fish and then being vomited out may be a picture of Israel’s ‘death’ and ‘resurrection’ as she faces exile and then restoration. Jesus is clearly portrayed in the NT as the true Israel, so why can’t Jonah’s experience, be rightly applied to the Lord Jesus, even within this interpretative framework?