Text: Jonah 1:1 (CSB) – “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”
Today we begin the study of the book of Jonah! I have entitled our study JONAH – THE PERVERSE PROPHET. This little book is only 4 chapters long, but filled with spiritual truths!
There has also been more controversy over this little book more than any other in the Bible. The bottom line is that critics have a hard time with the miracles of the Lord. Therefore, any book that contains miracles, they try to explain away. They just can't get their "brain" around Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and burped up on the shore of Nineveh. But the reality is that the "core" of the book of Jonah isn't about a fish at all.
It is about:
· The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
· Salvation by faith not works.
· God's unstoppable grace.
· The Lord's faithfulness - even when we are unfaithful.
· The fact that the Lord is good all of the time!
· And, Yahweh is the Lord of the Gentiles as well as the Jews!
Is it any wonder then that critics have tried to discredit it and explain the miracles away?? To accept it as a divinely inspired history would mean that they would have to accept the spiritual truths contained within also!
Lest you think that there is no historical evidence for the book of Jonah or even the man Jonah, let me give you some scripture to back it up – 2 Kings 14:23 – 25 – “In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher.”
History proves that Jeroboam was a real king and he ruled over the real nation of Israel for 41 years. Hamath and Arabah were real places and we see from this record - Jonah was also very real! Jonah was a prophet, yet the book of Jonah does not contain prophecy in the traditional sense.
This book is a narrative. Jonah tells us of an event that took place in his life and how he responded to that event. This is the same Jonah mentioned in the 2 Kings 14 passage we read - Jonah the son of Amittai!
Jonah makes it very clear that it was the Lord's voice that he heard and the message was equally as clear, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city." (verse 2) Indeed it was a great city and at the time Jonah is called to go there - it is in its prime!
Nineveh (located on the Tigris River) was built by Nimrod and was the capital city of the great Assyrian nation. The walls around the city were almost the size of a 10-story building - some 100 feet high. The width, at the top of these walls was close to 40 feet - that would be the equivalent of a 2-lane highway. It has been said that you could run two fully equipped chariots side-by-side with room to spare - on the top on these walls.
Nineveh was indeed a great city! But as with many "great cities" - sin seems to grow with the wealth and opulence, and that is the real reason the Lord wants Jonah to go to Nineveh. The Lord wanted Jonah to cry against it, “for their wickedness has come up before Me."
This would seem a simple task for a man dedicated to the Lord and called as His prophet - wouldn't you think? Oh, how naïve we can be concerning the things of the Lord and even serving the Lord! Why is it that we assume that everything the Lord asks us to do is going to be "easy?" Let's be honest, isn't there "something" that lies within each child-of-God that believes if we are in the will of the Lord and doing what He requires of us that there will be no pain involved - only blessing?
So, surely this prophet of the Lord knows that and will be quick to do the Lord's will. Right?
Tomorrow we will consider the question – “To Obey or Not to Obey?”
Today, start praying that God will speak to you through this Old Testament account of a prophey who rebels against His God. We would never do that – would we?
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