CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:1:  “Jonah the son of Amittai” = Second Kings 14:25 tells us that Jonah lived in the northern part of Israel and ministered during the Eighth Century B.C.  The same text reveals that Jonah predicted a territorial expansion of Israel’s kingdom.

 

1:3 & 5 & 2:6:  “down” = It is interesting to note that Jonah goes “down to Joppa,” then he goes “down into” a ship, then he goes “down into the sides of the ship,” or into the lowest part of the ship, then he goes “down to the bottoms of the mountains,” or by the power of the whale which took him there he went “down” into the whales belly.  What we want to take note of is that the more we try to run from God, the lower we go, to the point of where, like Jonah, we might even want to die (Jon. 4:3 & 8).

 

1:6:  “call upon thy God” = Even the ungodly knew -- being the experienced sailors that they were -- that this was no normal earthly storm.

 

Thus, by the time we get to verse 10, we come across the word, “exceedingly.”  The Hebrew word for “exceedingly” is, “gawdole,” and basically means “greater” in any sense.  Such as, “older, loader, mightier,” implying greater than what was before.  For example, in 1:4, it is translated as “great” and “mighty.”  Here we can see that although the Lord may have gotten the mariners attention at the beginning of the storm, they were apparently not concerned enough until the storm was increased even more to “mighty,” or “greater than before.”

 

This is why when we come to verse 10 that we can learn that they are not just afraid, but even more fearful than before.  Jonah himself affirms that the tempest is greater than it was before by the next use of this word in verse 12, speaking of the tempest being “great” or rather, “greater than before.”  Then we come to verse 16, where “gawdole’s” use is quite overwhelming, in that the mariners didn’t just fear the Lord “exceedingly,” but with their new knowledge of Him, feared Him “even more than before.”  Than we come to the last verse, verse 17, where the Lord just does not prepare any fish, but a “gawdole” fish, or “great” fish, or rather, “a greater fish than [maybe has ever been] before,” or a “Bigger Whale than has ever been seen before.”

 

1:12:  “cast me forth into the sea” = Here is my Judges 9:54 Note:  “Draw thy sword, and slay me” = The Romans and the Greeks were sanguine about suicide.  They believed that the human body belonged to the gods.  Thus, killing oneself was an offence against them.  They were not far off from the truth.

 

Now consider that Jonah was a prophet, and just like Moses who struck the rock, thus giving credit to himself instead of God (the reason he was not allowed into the promised land), so Jonah did not want the calming of the sea to be credited to himself instead of God.  It is in hopes for the salvation of the sailors after seeing the sea calm, that he requested to be thrown into the sea by them instead of jumping in himself.

 

1:13:  “Nevertheless the men rowed hard” = These men wished to dismiss Jonah’s instruction.  Jonah could have learned right here just how honorable even heathen men can be and that the Ninevites were in no less a position than these heathen sailors that needed to learn about the True God.  But that is not Jonah’s main concern sadly.  His main concern, knowing His God to be a merciful God, would forgive the repenting Ninevites, thus making Jonah’s prophecies against Nineveh (in his mind) false; making him a false prophet.  This is Jonah’s reason for his disobedience.

 

1:16:  “Then the men feared the [True] Lord” = Surely now we can see God’s full orchestration and purposes of the Book of Jonah.  We think Jonah’s fleeing was bad.  But God saw it for good (and knew Jonah would).  God wanted to save not only Nineveh.  But these sailors and merchants also.

 

1:17:  “Now the Lord had prepared” = Wouldn’t it also stand to reason that our Lord, working all things together for good (Rom. 8:28), that our “Lord had prepared” this particular ship, and this particular crew to be going to Tarshish, at this particular time, to reveal His glory (by calming the sea, verse 15) and bring about the salvation of these sailors (verse 16)?

 

“a great fish” = Here is my Matthew 12:40 Note:  “whale’s belly” = Some argue that Jonah’s account states it as a “fish,” Jonah 1:17; 2:1, &10, and therefore the Bible is contradicting Itself, because a whale is a mammal.  However, a “whale” was not classified as a mammal until the 19th century.  Therefore, we must understand that in Bible language, a “whale” and “dolphin” are considered to be a “fish.”  And “fish” and “whale’s” do not care how we humans classify them.

 

What is interesting is that Jesus did not use the Hebrew term or word for a “shale.’  He used the Hebrew word “ketos,” meaning, “huge fish.”  Ancient Greek literature describes “ketos” as a “dog headed sea serpent.”  Homer in B.C. 800; Euripides in B.C. 400; Aristophanes in B.C. 400; Claudius Aelianus, in his book, “De Natura Animalium, B.C. 175.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

2:2 & 5 & 6:  “belly of hell [Sheol] & “weeds were wrapped about my head & “Thou brought up my life from corruption” = The symbolism to Christ’s death is pictured here.  Christ was surely dead for “three days and three nights,” Jonah 1:17; Matthew 12:40; 16:4; Luke 11:30; i.e., in “Sheol.”  While His head was also wrapped and God raised Him up form “Sheol.”

 

It is also possible that Jonah likewise may have literally died and God raised him from the dead:  “it vomited out Jonah,” Jonah 2:10.  This would argue against those who say that Jonah did not die; therefore neither did Christ.

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

 

3:4:  “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” = Here proves my point that Jonah believed he would be branded as a false prophet.  For even in his God given call and prophecy to the Ninevites, there is no call for repentance.  Yet, as in the verses that follow, they did.

 

Jonah 3:10 & 4:2 Exodus 32:14; Judges 2:18; First Samuel 15:11, 35; First Chronicles 21:15; Jeremiah 42:10; Joel 2:13; Amos 7:3:  “repented” = This is not a change of mind (Num. 23:19; 1Sa. 15:29).  For God allows Himself to take either course of action in that Divine warnings (and that is precisely what this is -- a warning) are always conditional based upon the response of the people (Jer. 18:8).  While His judgments are sure (Gen. 6:6), “His mercy endures for ever,” First Chronicles 16:34.  For God even “repents” of the warnings forecasted events despite the desired response of the people (Deu. 32:36; Hos. 11:8).

 

“It should be remembered that the promises and the threatenings of God are alike conditional.”  EV:695.

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

 

4:1:  “[Jonah] he was very angry” =  Why would Jonah be displeased over thousands of people that he caused to repent?  The reason is simple.  Jonah 3:10 and 4:2 (“for I knew that Thou art gracious God”) explain that Jonah knew his prophecy would fail; and as such, he would be labeled a “False Prophet.”

 

4:3:  “take my life from me” = He now sees himself as being labeled as a false prophet and would rather die than face that label.

 

4:10:  “Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured” = In this lesson, God teaches Jonah that He is the One who laboured for the “gourd,” not Jonah.  Why should you not have the same pity for the Ninevites whom you along with God laboured for?

 

4:11:  “sixscore thousand persons” = Here, counting also the sailors and merchants, up to this point in time, makes Jonah the greatest evangelist who ever lived.

 

“cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand” = With the understanding of this verse, it may be that God will spare those mentally incapable, but righteous in their sphere, to attain Heaven.  Compare with Deuteronomy 1:39; Isaiah 35:6; Obadiah 1:16.

 

“right hand and left hand” = The use of the phrase “right hand and left hand” is also found in Babylonian texts as a synonym for “truth and justice” or “law and order.”  Jewish tradition teaches that God takes note of those who are kind to animals, because animals cannot return the favor, as humans can.

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