WHO WROTE:  Jonah.

 

 

WHAT TIME PERIOD IS COVERED:  Sometime after B.C. 607.  See “WHEN WRITTEN.”

 

 

WHEN WRITTEN:  After the Babylonian Exile in B.C. 607, probably in the 5th or 4th centuries, since Jonah is listed among the Minor Prophets in the apocryphal “Book of Ecclesiasticus,” which was composed in about B.C. 190.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:  The meaning of the name Jonah is, “Dove.”

 

Because of the Book of Jonah’s emphasis on God’s grace and forgiveness, the Jewish people read it every year at the climactic point of the Day of Atonement; which celebrates God’s forgiveness for their sins.  The Book Itself is authenticated by our Lord Himself when He states, “For as Jonas was three days. . .”  Matthew 12:40.

 

According to verifiable archeological finds in the city of Nineveh, we can know that Dagon, the “Fish god,” was worshiped by the Ninevites, just as he was by the Philistines.  Thus, to the Ninevites, the “god” that saved Jonah via a whale was the “god” Dagon.  Jonah was there to teach them the true God that made the whale and all fish.

 

As you will see in my commentary on this Book, many ask, why was Jonah running away from God?  We will learn that the real reason Jonah wanted to run away from this mission of God, was because he did not want to be branded as a false prophet; knowing beforehand as a prophet, that the city would “repent,” making his prophecies “false.”  According to Jeremiah 18:7-8, “If that nation. . . turn[s] from their evil” ways, God “will repent” from afflicting it.

 

How did Jonah think he could escape from God?  It is lined out in the author’s specific phrase of “down.”  In Jonah 1:3, we have where he goes “down to Joppa” and “down into” the lower part of the “ship.”  Later, when “lightening” the provisions of the “ship,” Jonah goes “down into the sides of the ship,” Jonah 1:5.  And in Jonah 2:6, Jonah confesses to God that he “went down to the bottoms of the mountains [of] the earth” in an attempt to be dismissed from God’s mission for him.  Then comes the contrast, or better, God convincing Jonah of His mission, “yet Thou brought” Jonah “up,” Jonah 2:6.

 

Before reading this Book, people should better understand why the Assyrian city of Nineveh repented.  For this, here is my Genesis 10:11 Note:  “Out of that land went forth Asshur” = Asshur is the son of Shem (Gen. 10:22).  This is important to know, for Shem is from the line of “the sons of God.”  See my Bible Study, “SONS OF GOD, THE TRUE.”

 

Now then, Asshur “went forth” “Out of that land.”  Out of what “land?”  The “land” where “Nimrod,” verse 8, had built his kingdom.

 

Therefore, what is going on here is that the Word of God is pointing out to us that Asshur didn’t want anything to do with the corruptive influence of his father’s brother’s offspring; who would later build the famous “Tower of Babel,” in Genesis, Chapter 11.

 

In verses 11-14 we read of the cities he founded; one of them being “Nineveh,” verse 12.  It is from these verses that we learn that Asshur is the father of the Assyrians, i.e., a derivative of Asshur.  We learn from the Book of Jonah that “Nineveh,” a city of the Assyrians, repented when the Lord, through Jonah, spoke to them.

 

Notice that the Assyrians came from the Godly line of Shem and Asshur, but Asshur’s line continued to keep straying.  Let us not be Assyrians; but Shemites.

 

 

From RH, October 18, 1906 we read: “ ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.’  This is the special message that God bade His servant Jonah bear in the ancient and populous city founded by Asshur, the son of Shem, who ‘went forth’ from ‘the land of Shinar’ about the time of the dispersion from Babel, ‘and builded Nineveh’ along the fertile bank of the Tigris, over two hundred miles to the northward from Babylon.  Jonah was bidden to ‘cry against’ the city, but he was averse to bearing any such message.  Instead of obeying, he ‘rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish:’ so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.’  God in His providence taught Jonah, by severe affliction, the lesson of obedience that enabled him to fulfil God’s purpose in behalf of the inhabitants of Nineveh.  The record of his experience, as given in the first and second Chapters of Jonah, is worthy of most careful study.  [Jonah 3:1-9 Quoted].

 

“As the people of Nineveh humbled themselves before God, and cried to Him for mercy, He heard their cry.  ‘And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.’  But Jonah revealed that he valued the souls in that wretched city less than he valued his reputation.  He feared lest he should be regarded as a false prophet.  The compassion shown by God toward the repentant people ‘displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.’  ‘Was not this my saying,’ he inquired of the Lord, ‘when I was yet in my country?  Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish:  for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.’  When Jonah saw the Lord exercising His compassionate attributes in sparing the city that had corrupted its ways before Him, he should have co-operated with God in His merciful design.  But he lost sight of the interests of the people.  Again he yielded to his feelings, and, as the result, he was not grieved over the thought that so large a number must perish because they had not been taught to do right.  He felt as if he would rather die than live to see the city spared; and in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, [Jonah 4:3-6 quoted].

 

“Then the Lord gave Jonah an object-lesson.  He [Jonah 4:7-11 quoted].  Our God is a God of compassion.  With long-sufferance and tender mercy He deals with the transgressors of His Law.  And yet, in this our day, when men and women have so many opportunities for becoming familiar with the Divine Law as revealed in Holy Writ, the great Ruler of the universe can not behold with any satisfaction the wicked cities, where reign violence and crime.”

 

From PK:265-274 we read: “[265] In figurative language the prophet Nahum compared the Ninevites to a cruel, ravenous lion.  ‘Upon whom,’ he inquired, ‘hath not thy wickedness passed continually?’  Nahum 3:1, 19.  Yet Nineveh, wicked though it had become, was not wholly given over to evil.  He who ‘beholdeth all the sons of men,’ Psalm 33:13, and ‘seeth every precious thing,’ Job 28:10, perceived in that city many who were reaching [266]

 

“out after something better and higher, and who, if granted opportunity to learn of the living God, would put away their evil deeds and worship Him.  And so in His wisdom God revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner, to lead them, if possible, to repentance.  The instrument chosen for this work was the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai.  To him came the word of the Lord, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.’  Jonah 1:1, 2.  As the prophet thought of the difficulties and seeming impossibilities of this commission, he was tempted to question the wisdom of the call.  From a human viewpoint it seemed as if nothing could be gained by proclaiming such a message in that proud city.  He forgot for the moment that the God Whom he served was All-wise and All-powerful.  While he hesitated, still doubting, Satan overwhelmed him with discouragement.  The prophet was seized with a great dread, and he ‘rose up to flee unto Tarshish.’  Going to Joppa, and finding there a ship ready to sail, ‘he paid the fare thereof and went down into it, to go with them.’ Verse 3.  In the charge given him, Jonah had been entrusted with a heavy responsibility; yet He who had bidden him go was able to sustain His servant and grant him success.  Had the prophet obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and would have been blessed abundantly.  Yet in the hour of Jonah’s despair the Lord did not desert him.  Through a series of trials and strange [267]

 

“providences, the prophet’s confidence in God and in His infinite power to save was to be revived.  If, when the call first came to him, Jonah had stopped to consider calmly, he might have known how foolish would be any effort on his part to escape the responsibility placed upon him.  But not for long was he permitted to go on undisturbed in his mad flight.  [Verses 4 & 5 quoted].

 

“[268] As the mariners were beseeching their heathen gods for help, the master of the ship, distressed beyond measure, sought out Jonah and said, ‘What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.’  Verse 6.  But the prayers of the man who had turned aside from the path of duty brought no help.  The mariners, impressed with the thought that the strange violence of the storm betokened the anger of their gods, proposed as a last resort the casting of lots, [Verse 7 to 2:9 quoted]. [269]

 

“At last Jonah had learned that ‘salvation belongeth unto the Lord.’  Psalm 3:8.  With penitence and a recognition of the saving grace of God, came deliverance.  Jonah was released from the perils of the mighty deep and was cast upon the dry land.  Once more the servant of God was commissioned to warn Nineveh.  ‘The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.’  This time he did not stop to question or doubt, but obeyed [270]

 

“unhesitatingly.  He ‘arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.’  Jonah 3:1-3.  As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to ‘cry against’ it the message, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’  Verse 4. From street to street he went, sounding the note of warning.  The message was not in vain.  The cry that rang through the streets of the godless city was passed from lip to lip until all the inhabitants had heard the startling announcement.  The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins and to repent in deep humiliation.  [Verses 5-9 quoted].

 

“As king and nobles, with the common people, the high and the low, ‘repented at the preaching of Jonas,’ Matthew 12:41, and united in crying to the God of Heaven, His [271]

 

“mercy was granted them.  He ‘saw their words, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.’  Jonah 3:10.  Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and His Law was revered.  Not until many years later was Nineveh to fall a prey to the surrounding nations through forgetfulness of God and through boastful pride.  When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city that, notwithstanding its wickedness, had been led to repent in sackcloth and ashes, he should have been the first to rejoice because of God’s amazing grace; but instead he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet.  Jealous of his reputation, he lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city.  “The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites ‘displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.’  ‘Was not this my saying,’ he inquired of the Lord, ‘when I was yet in my country?  Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish:  for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.’  Jonah 4:1, 2.

 

“Once more he yielded to his inclination to question and doubt, and once more he was overwhelmed with discouragement.  Losing sight of the interests of others, and feeling as if he would rather die than live to see the city spared, in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, [Verses 3-6 quoted]. [272]

 

“Then the Lord gave Jonah an object lesson.  [Verses 7-11 quoted].

 

“Confused, humiliated, and unable to understand God’s purpose in sparing Nineveh, Jonah nevertheless had fulfilled the commission given him to warn that great city; and though the event predicted did not come to pass, yet the [273]

 

“message of warning was nonetheless from God.  And it accomplished the purpose God designed it should.  The glory of His grace was revealed among the heathen.  Those who had long been sitting ‘in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,’ ‘cried unto the Lord in their trouble,’ and ‘He saved them out of their distresses.  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.’  ‘He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.’  Psalm 107:10, 13, 14, 20.

 

“Christ during His earthly ministry referred to the good wrought by the preaching of Jonah in Nineveh, and compared the inhabitants of that heathen center with the professed [274]

 

“people of God in His day.  Matthew 12:40, 41 [quoted].  Into the busy world, filled with the din of commerce and the altercation of trade, where men were trying to get all they could for self, Christ had come; and above the confusion His voice, like the trump of God, was heard:  [Mark 8:36, 37 quoted].

 

“As the preaching of Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so Christ’s preaching was a sign to His generation.  But what a contrast in the reception of the word!  Yet in the face of indifference and scorn the Saviour labored on and on, until He had accomplished His mission.

 

“The lesson is for God’s messengers today, when the cities of the nations are as verily in need of a knowledge of the attributes and purposes of the true God as were the Ninevites of old.  Christ’s ambassadors are to point men to the nobler world, which has largely been lost sight of.  According to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, the only city that will endure is the city whose builder and maker is God.  With the eye of faith man may behold the threshold of heaven, flushed with God’s living glory.  Through His ministering servants the Lord Jesus is calling upon men to strive with sanctified ambition to secure the immortal inheritance.  He urges them to lay up treasure beside the throne of God.”

 

From RH, December 4, 1913 we read:  “Among the cities of the ancient world, one of the greatest was Nineveh, on the fertile bank of the Tigris, over two hundred miles to the northward of Babylon.  Founded about the time of the dispersion from the tower of Babel, it had become ‘an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.’  Jonah 3:3.  In the days of divided Israel it was the capital of the Assyrian realm.

 

“Nineveh, in the time of its greatest temporal prosperity, was a center of crime and wickedness.  Inspiration declared it to be ‘the bloody city. . . full of lies and robbery.’  Nahum 3:1.  Those in a position to know, acknowledged that one of the leading characteristics of its inhabitants was violence.  Jonah 3:8.  In figurative language the prophet Nahum compared the Ninevites to a cruel, ravenous lion, who ‘did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.’  Nahum 2:12.  ‘Upon whom,’ the prophet inquired, ‘hath not thy wickedness passed continually?’  Nahum 3:19.

 

“Notwithstanding this prevalence of iniquity, He who is ‘no respecter of persons’ (Acts 10:34) perceived in that city many who were reaching out after something better and higher, and who, if granted opportunity to hear messages of warning and entreaty, would gladly put away their evil deeds, and turn to the living God.  And so in His wisdom He revealed Himself to them in an unmistakable manner, to lead them, if possible, to repentance.

 

“The instrumentality chose of God for this work was Jonah, the son of Amittai, to whom came ‘the word of the Lord. . . saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.’  Jonah 1:1, 2.

 

“As the nature of this commission, with all its difficulties and seeming impossibilities, loomed up before Jonah, he began to question the wisdom of the call.  As he questioned, he forgot that the God Whom he served was All-wise and All-powerful, and he began to doubt whether he should undertake to carry out such a commission.  While he hesitated, still doubting, Satan overwhelmed him with discouragement.  Seized with a great dread, he ‘rose up to flee unto Tarshish.’  Going down to Joppa, and finding there a ship ready to sail, ‘he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish.’  Jonah 1:3.

 

“The responsibility placed upon Jonah, in the charge given him to warn the inhabitants of Nineveh, was indeed great; yet He Who had bidden him go was well able to sustain his servant and give him success.  Had he obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and would have been abundantly blessed. However, the Lord did not desert him in this hour of fearful despair, but led him through a series of trials that revived his confidence in God’s power to save, and renewed his determination to obey at any personal sacrifice.  [Jonah 1:4-17; 2:1-9 quoted].

 

“At last Jonah had learned that ‘Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.’  Psa. 3:8.  ‘Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.’ Jer. 3:23.  Men have sold themselves to the enemy of all righteousness.  They cannot redeem themselves.  Only by accepting Christ as a personal Saviour can human beings be delivered from the power of the enemy.

 

“Man’s pride would lead him to seek for salvation in some other way than that devised by God.  He is unwilling to be accounted as nothing, unwilling to recognize Christ as the only One Who can save to the uttermost.  But of Christ it is written, ‘There is none Other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.’  ‘In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.  For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.’  The one word written above the life that Christ lived in this world in behalf of the fallen race, is ‘Salvation.’

 

“With penitence and a recognition of the saving grace of God, comes deliverance.  Jonah was released from the perils surrounding him in the mighty deep, and cast upon the dry land.  [To be concluded]”

 

From RH, December 11, 1913 [Concluded] we read:  “Once more the servant of God was entrusted with the commission to warn Nineveh.  ‘The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.’  This time he did not stop to question or doubt, but obeyed unhesitatingly.  He ‘arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.’  Jonah 3:1-3. As he entered the great city, he began at once to ‘cry against’ it as he had been bidden.  Lifting up his voice in warning, he declared, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’  From street to street he went, all the while sounding this terrible note of warning.  God’s message was not given in vain.  The warning rang through the streets of the godless city, and was passed from lip to lip, until all the inhabitants had heard the startling pronouncement.  The Spirit of God pressed the message home to the heart, and caused multitudes to tremble because of their sins, and to repent in great humiliation.  [Jonah 3:5-9 quoted].

 

“As kings and nobles, with the common people, the high and the low, ‘repented at the preaching of Jonas’ Mat. 12:41, and united in crying to the God of heaven, His mercy was granted them.  He ‘saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.’  Their doom was averted, the God of Israel was exalted and honored throughout the heathen world, and His Law was revered.  In this crisis, Jonah should have been the first to rejoice because of God’s amazing grace; but, instead, he allowed his mind to dwell upon the possibility of his being regarded as a false prophet.  Jealous of his reputation among men, he lost sight of the infinitely greater value of the souls in that wretched city.  The compassion shown by God toward the repentant Ninevites ‘displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.’  ‘Was not this my saying,’ he inquired of the Lord, ‘when I was yet in my country?  Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish:  for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.’  Jonah 4:1, 2.  When Jonah learned of God’s purpose to spare the city that had corrupted its ways before Him, he should have cooperated heartily in this merciful design.  But he yielded, to his inclination to question and doubt, and, as the result, was once more overwhelmed with discouragement, and lost sight of the interests of others in his concern over himself.  He felt as if he would rather die than live to see the wicked city spared; and in his dissatisfaction he exclaimed, ‘Now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.  [Jonah 4:3-6 quoted].

 

“Then the Lord gave Jonah and object-lesson. He [Jonah 4:7-11 quoted].  Though confused, humiliated, and unable to understand God’s purpose in sparing Nineveh, Jonah nevertheless had fulfilled the commission given him to warn that great city.  The event predicted did not come to pass, yet the message of warning was none the less from God.  And it accomplished the purpose God designed it should.  The glory of His grace was revealed among the heathen, and when those who had long been sitting ‘in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron,’ ‘cried unto the Lord in their trouble. . .

 

“He saved them out of their distresses.  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.’  ‘He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.’ Psa. 107:10, 13, 14, 20.  The Saviour, while on earth, recognized the preaching of Jonah as a sign to the Ninevites, as Christ’s preaching was a sign to the Jews.  ‘The men of Nineveh,’ He declared, ‘shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it:  because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.’ Mat. 12:41.”