Jonah
A classic example in Scripture of a believer being out of the geographical, the viewpoint and
operational will of God is that of Jonah. The Lord wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach the
Gospel for their salvation, but instead because of Jonah’s personal hatred of the Ninevites, he
went deliberately disobeyed the directive from God. Jonah was out of the geographical will of
God in that he went to Tarshish rather than to Nineveh…Tarshish was in the exact opposite
direction from that of Nineveh. He was out of the viewpoint will of God in that his attitude
toward the Ninevites was not according to divine viewpoint, where 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God
desires all men to be saved…Jonah did not desire the Ninevites to be saved. Jonah was out of the
operational will of God because he did not do what the Lord had commanded him, which was to
preach the Gospel to the unsaved Ninevites. He was out of the geographical and operational will
of God because he was out of the viewpoint will of God.
You will be in the wrong place and doing the wrong thing if you do not have divine
viewpoint which is acquired by learning and applying the Word of God, which is the mind or
thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jonah is called by many theologians, “the Disobedient Prophet.” Some commentators call
him the “Prodigal Prophet.” Like the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul, Jonah was a called to be
a missionary to the Gentiles and specifically to the Ninevites, which was located in Assyria. The
geographical will for Jonah’s life was to preach the Gospel to the Ninevites, yet Jonah because of
his hatred for the Ninevites goes in the opposite direction. As in the case of the apostle Paul and
Abraham the story of Jonah demonstrates the directive, permissive and overruling will of God in
action. In the book of Jonah we have an example of the directive, permissive and overruling will
of God in action.
The directive will of God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach the Gospel to them for
their salvation. The permissive will of God permitted Jonah to reject God’s directive will for his
life and head to Tarshish. But the overruling will of God went into action, and overruled Jonah’s
negative decision which put him out of the geographical will of God for his life. God brought in
a storm and a whale to overrule Jonah’s negative decision and get Jonah back on track and back
in the geographical will for his life.
The book of Jonah was the 5th book of the Minor Prophets and only 4 chapters long. Many
have attacked the authenticity of this book because of the account of Jonah being swallowed by a
whale. The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, confirms the historicity of the book by
making mention of Jonah’s encounter with the whale. Matt 12:39-41, “But He answered and
said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be
given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND
THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with
this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the
preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” Matt 16:4, “An
evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the
sign of Jonah." And He left them and went away.”
The Outline for the Book of Jonah: (I) Jonah and the Directive Will of God (1:1-2). (II)
Jonah and the Permissive Will of God (1:3). (III) Jonah Out of the Geographical Will of God
(1:4-2:10). (IV) Jonah’s 2nd Encounter with the Directive Will of God (3:1-2). (V) Jonah’s
Obedience to the Directive Will of God (3:3-5). (VI) The Result of Jonah’s Obedience to the
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
1
Directive Will of God (3:6-10). (VII) Jonah’s Lack of Compassion for the Ninevites (4:1-5).
(VIII) The Lord’s Rebuke of Jonah (4:6-11).
The name “Jonah” means “dove.” Jonah does not live up to his name since he was not a man
of peace which the dove signifies but rather he is a “hawk.” Jonah wants God to make war
against Nineveh and not peace. Jonah’s father’s name was “Amittai” which means “truthful.”
Jonah was a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel, whose predecessors were Elijah and
Elisha. Hosea and Amos would likely have been Jonah’s contemporaries. The Gospels record
the Lord Jesus Christ making mention of the prophet Jonah in Matthew 12:29-41; 16:4 and Luke
11:28-32. Nothing is known of the prophet Jonah apart from this book and the historical
statement in 2 Kings 14:25. 2 Kings 14:23-25 states that Jonah lived during the reign of
Jeroboam II approximately 793-753 B.C. 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. He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not
depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He
restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah,
according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant
Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.”
So according to 2 Kings 14:23-25 Jonah lived when Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom of
Israel was king. The Prophet Jonah’s prediction that Israel’s boundaries would extend under
Jeroboam II came true. Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet to attempt to go AWOL and run
from performing his duty as a prophet of God. He was 1 of 4 Old Testament prophets whose
ministries were referred to by the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Mt. 12:41; Lk. 11:32). The others were
Elijah (Mt. 17:11-12), Elisha (Lk. 4:27) and Isaiah (Mt. 15:7). Jonah’s ministry had some
parallels to his immediate predecessors, Elijah (1 K. 17-19; 21; 2 K. 1-2) and Elisha (2 K. 2-9;
13) who ministered to Israel and also were called to Gentile missions in Phoenicia and Aram. He
was a contemporary of both Amos and Hosea who were sent by the Lord to the nation of Israel
to warn them of the impending 5th cycle of discipline upon the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Assyria was the nation used by God to execute His judgment upon the Northern Kingdom of
Israel. The prophecies of Amos and Hosea were fulfilled in 722 B.C. when Sargon II carried the
Northern Kingdom into captivity (2 K. 17). These prophecies of Amos and Hosea may explain
Jonah’s reluctance to preach in Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. He feared he would be used to
help the enemy that would later destroy his nation.
Now, Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was mentioned for the 1st time in
Genesis 10:11. It was the ancient capital of Assyrian Empire. The city was located on the eastern
bank of the Tigris River about 550 miles northeast of Samaria. That distance required from Jonah
a journey of more than a month, if Jonah traveled the normal distance of 15-20 miles a day.
Nineveh was built by Nimrod (Gen. 10:11). It was 2nd in size only to Babylon. Nineveh was in
modern-day Iraq opposite the modern town of Mosul. After Jonah’s day it was made the capital
of Assyria by Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.), the successor of Sargon II (722-705 B.C.) who
destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The city of Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C. by the
Medes and the Persians. Its great size is mentioned in Jonah 3:3 which states, “Nineveh was an
exceedingly great city, a three days' walk.” Ancient Greek and Roman writers state that it was in
the shape of a trapezium and was the largest city in the world in that day. The accounts of these
ancient Greek and Roman writers have been confirmed by modern archaeological excavations.
Jonah 1:1-2, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, ‘Arise,
go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
2
Me.’ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went
down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down
into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”
It was a great privilege and responsibility for Jonah to be selected for this mission. The
importance and urgency of Jonah’s task concerning Nineveh are perhaps emphasized by the fact
that the Lord’s very words are recorded here. Jonah is spoken to directly by the Lord. The reason
the Lord directed the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh is mentioned in verse 2. The prophet
Zephaniah mentions their attitude. Zeph 2:12-15, “You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by
My sword. And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and He
will make Nineveh a desolation, Parched like the wilderness. Flocks will lie down in her
midst, All beasts which range in herds; Both the pelican and the hedgehog Will lodge in the
tops of her pillars; Birds will sing in the window, Desolation will be on the threshold; For
He has laid bare the cedar work. This is the exultant city which dwells securely, who says in
her heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’ How she has become a desolation, a
resting place for beasts! Everyone who passes by her will hiss and wave his hand in
contempt.” “Exultant” is the adjective `alliz, “gloating, bragging, arrogant.” They were an
arrogant, evil, violent and cruel people. Nineveh was well-known in the ancient Near East for the
brutal atrocities it inflicted on its war captives. Nineveh’s wickedness comprised, besides her
idolatry, her inordinate pride (cp. Is. 10:5-19; 36:18-20), and her cruel oppression of the
conquered nations in deporting the entire populace to distant lands (2 Kings 15:29; 17:6; Is.
36:16, 17), her inhuman warfare. Nineveh was also known for its idolatry. It had temples
dedicated to the gods of Nabu, Asshur, and Adad. The Ninevites also worshipped Ishtar, a
goddess of love and war.
The crimes of the Ninevites are condemned by the Lord through the prophet Nahum. Nah
3:1-7, “Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs.
The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of the wheel, Galloping horses and bounding
chariots! Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many slain, a mass of
corpses, and countless dead bodies -- They stumble over the dead bodies! All because of the
many harlotries of the harlot, the charming one, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations
by her harlotries and families by her sorceries. ‘Behold, I am against you,’ declares the
LORD of hosts; ‘And I will lift up your skirts over your face, and show to the nations your
nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace. I will throw filth on you and make you vile,
and set you up as a spectacle. And it will come about that all who see you will shrink from
you and say, 'Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her?' Where will I seek comforters
for you?’”
So here we have the prophet Jonah commissioned by the Lord to preach against the city of
Nineveh because of its great sin and corruption. Now, the question that begs to be asked is “why
did Jonah disobey a direct command from God to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the city
of Nineveh?” The answer is given in Jonah 3:10-4:3. Jonah refused to go to Nineveh because he
was afraid that the Ninevites would respond to God’s message and be saved. Jonah 3:10-4:3,
“When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented
concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did
not do it. But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD
and said, ‘Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious
and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
3
relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for
death is better to me than life.’”
Now, why didn’t Jonah want the Ninevites saved? He did not want them saved because
Assyria, the nation in which Nineveh was the capital, was one of the most brutal nations of the
ancient world. They were feared and dreaded in the day of Jonah. They employed cruel methods
of torture of prisoner’s of war.
One of the procedures was to take a man out in the desert and bury him up to his neck in the
sand, nothing but his head sticking out. Then they would put a thong through his tongue and
leave him there to die as the hot, penetrating sun would beat down upon his head. It was said that
a man would go mad before he died with this method of torture. Another fun thing that they did
was to have men on two horses having a rope attached to each wrist of a man and then have the
horses go in opposite directions tearing the man’s arms off and in two. The Assyrians militarily
moved in an unusual manner. They took their families with them and had very little order in their
army. They moved as a mob across the countryside. When they moved like a plague of locusts
upon a town or a village, it is said that they were so feared and dreaded that on some occasions
an entire town would commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of these butchers. So you can
see what Jonah who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, not more than 500 miles away from
Nineveh hated the Ninevites.
We know from archaeology that the Assyrians were making forays into the Northern
Kingdom of Israel. Eventually, both Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into
captivity by the Assyrians. So we must have some sympathy for Jonah here…he is being asked
to a people who are in effect enemies of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The heart of Jonah
preferred that God judge the Ninevites and have them destroyed, but the heart of God was one of
compassion and mercy.
Ex 33:18-19, “Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory!’ And He said, ‘I
Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the
LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show
compassion on whom I will show compassion.’” Matt 9:11-13, “When the Pharisees saw
this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and
prostitutes?’ But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need
a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE
COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but
sinners.’” Rom 9:15, “For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I
HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE
COMPASSION." Rom 11:30-32, “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now
have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been
disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.
For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” Eph 2:4-7,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you
have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of
His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis
of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing
of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
4
Jonah lacked the divine viewpoint toward the unbeliever; therefore, he lacked compassion
and mercy. He did not possess the attitude that God has toward all men. John 3:16-17, “For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge
the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” 1 Tim 2:4, “God desires all
men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not
slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for
any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Jonah 1:3 “But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he
went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went
down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” He fled “from
the presence of the LORD”: To stand in the presence of someone is often used in the sense of
acting as one’s official minister. (Cp. Gen. 41:46; Deut. 1:38; 10:8; 1 Sam. 16:21f. 1 Kings 17:1;
18:15; 2 Kings 3:14, etc.). This phrase does not mean that Jonah was hiding from the Lord since
Jonah knew full-well that God is omnipresent meaning that He is everywhere present but rather
it means Jonah fled from his service-commission as a prophet which he received from the Lord
Himself. To flee from His presence means that Jonah refused to serve the Lord in his office as
prophet. He was in effect going AWOL meaning Absent Without Official Leave. If you recall,
the city of Joppa is the exact same city where the apostle Peter received his vision from the Lord
to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles in Caesarea in Acts 10 and 11. The city of Tarshish was in
the exact opposite direction of Nineveh. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Tarshish
was Tartessus, in southern Spain, near Gibraltar.
So Jonah hated the Ninevites so much that he was willing to travel all the way across the
Mediterranean Sea to get away from them. Tarshish was famous for its ships (Ps 48:7; Isa 2:16)
which carried gold, silver, iron, tin, lead, ivory, apes, and monkeys (1 Kings 10:22; Jer 10:9). So
here we have Jonah disobeying a direct order from the Lord to go to Nineveh and preach the
Gospel and instead going in the exact opposite to Tarshish in Spain that was located across the
Mediterranean ocean.
Jonah is out of the geographical will of God because he does not want the Ninevites to get
saved. He has a great prejudice against the Ninevites and the nation of Assyria as a whole
because they were a great enemy of Israel.
You have to admire Jonah for his honesty. He is actually a great patriot. He hates the enemy,
namely the Ninevites. Jonah’s absolute rejection of God’s directive is another instance of Jonah’s
uniqueness as a prophet of God and where Moses and Jeremiah shrank from their assignments,
Jonah flat out refuses. This command from the Lord to Jonah to go to the Ninevites would be
tantamount to an American missionary being told to go to the Nazis, or the Iraqi’s or the Taliban
in our day and age. So we can have compassion for Jonah here. He is a patriot but his view of the
world is not God’s view of the world.
So now we are about to see the Lord intervene. The Lord permits Jonah to disobey His
directive but the Lord also overrules Jonah’s decision and humbles Jonah in the belly of a whale
so that Jonah will get back in the geographical will that He has for Jonah’s life. To accomplish
His purposes, the Lord sovereignly controlled various events recorded in the book of Jonah,
overcame Jonah’s rebellion and like the Roman centurion unbeliever who Peter gave the Gospel
to, prepared the hearts of the Ninevites for the presentation of the Gospel to them by Jonah.
Jonah 1:4, “The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on
the sea so that the ship was about to break up.” Here we have the sovereignty of the Lord
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
5
over all creation. Jer 31:35, “Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day and
the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its
waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name.”
Jonah 1:5, “Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they
threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had
gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.” “Fast asleep” is the
3rd person masculine singular niphal imperfect form of the verb radham, “to lie in a deep, stuporlike sleep.” This reveals the contentment of Jonah knowing that he going in the exact opposite
direction away from the Ninevites.
Jonah 1:6, “So the captain approached him and said, ‘How is it that you are sleeping?
Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not
perish.’” Jonah is conspicuous here by his sleeping through a hurricane, which is breaking up
the ship. He could care less about the storm that is about to kill them all, he is just happy to be
going in the opposite direction of Nineveh.
Jonah 1:7-8, “Each man said to his mate, ‘Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on
whose account this calamity has struck us.’ So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then
they said to him, ‘Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is
your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people
are you?’ The casting of lots to determine a decision, in this case to find a culprit, was common
in Israel and other countries in the ancient Near East (cf. Lev. 16:8; Josh. 18:6; 1 Sam. 14:42;
Neh. 10:34; Es. 3:7; Prov. 16:33; Acts 1:26). The Lord expresses His sovereignty here with the
casting of the lots by causing the lot to fall to Jonah.
Jonah 1:9-12, “He said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven
who made the sea and the dry land.’ Then the men became extremely frightened and they
said to him, ‘How could you do this?’ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the
presence of the LORD, because he had told them. So they said to him, ‘What should we do
to you that the sea may become calm for us?’ -- for the sea was becoming increasingly
stormy. He said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become
calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you.’”
The sailors know now that the Jonah was the cause of all their problems since he had
confessed that he was shirking on his responsibility as a prophet and refusing to go to Nineveh.
Jonah is not confessing his guilt here but rather simply stating that he is AWOL from the plan of
God. What we are seeing here is Jonah attempting to thwart the Lord’s plan for him to present
the Gospel to the Ninevites by having the sailors throw him into the raging sea which would
mean certain death. Jonah 4:3, “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for
death is better to me than life.” Jonah 4:9, “Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good
reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to
death.” Jonah would rather die than admit his guilt.
Jonah 1:13-15, “However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could
not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the LORD
and said, ‘We earnestly pray, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man's life
and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased.’
So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.”
This is reminiscent of Matt 8:24-26, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea,
so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they
came to Him and woke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!" He said to them,
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
6
"Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and
the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”
Jonah 1:16, “Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the
LORD and made vows.”
Notice the many points of contrast between Jonah and the sailors in the first chapter of Jonah:
Sailors
Prayed
Active to save ship, selves
Compassion on Jonah
Tried to save Jonah
Wanted to live
Wanted to find “sin”
Obedient to what they knew
Worshipped God
Shuddered at Jonah’s sin
Growing respect of God
Jonah
Did not appear to pray
Deep in sleep
Indifferent to sailors, their plight
No great concern to save sailors
Wanted to die
Wanted to persist in sin
Disobedient though he knew much
No worship
Seemingly untouched by his sin
No evidence of respect
Jonah 1:17, “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in
the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” “Great” is the Hebrew adjective gadhol
and “fish” is the Hebrew noun dagh, which is frequently found in Scripture in catalogs of
creatures such as in Psalm 8:7ff. and Genesis 9:2, Hosea 4:3. The word refers to creatures in
general that live under water in oceans, rivers and lakes. It does not make the distinction between
creatures that we classify as mammals and fish. The “great fish” here in Jonah 1:17 is a blue
whale (Balaenoptera Musculus).
Whales are enormous in size compared to other mammals. The blue whale is probably the
largest animal that has ever lived, reaching a length of nearly 30 m (100 ft) and a weight of 180
metric tons. Its heart is as big as a Volkswagen Beetle and its body is larger and heavier than
that estimated for any known dinosaur. The blue whale makes the loudest sound (over 150
decibels) of any animal, and can be heard over thousands of kilometers across entire oceans.
Blue whales may reach 30 m (100 ft) in length; mature females are usually slightly longer than
mature males. Blue whales feed by lunging openmouthed into dense groups of small sea
creatures such as krill or fish. As water and food rush into the whale's mouth, more than 60
throat pleats expand so that the whale's throat, or gular pouch, forms a huge bag that extends
from the front of the whale's snout to its navel. The whale then partially closes its mouth,
leaving a small gap, and forces water past 270 to 390 pairs of wide, black, fringed baleen plates
that hang from the roof of the mouth. The plates act as a sieve, catching food inside the fringes.
Blue whales often lunge through their prey side by side, apparently using each other to block the
escape of their prey. Blue whales were heavily hunted for oil, baleen, meat, and other products
from the 1930s to the 1960s. This hunting nearly caused the extinction of the species. They are
now protected and may gradually be returning in several areas of their range; since 1985, blue
whales feeding in Monterey Bay, California, have become a familiar sight in late summer. The
blue whale is classified as an endangered species.
“Appointed” is the 3rd persons masculine singular piel imperfect form of the verb manah),
“to appoint something that is designated for a specific purpose.” This great blue whale has been
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
7
designated by the Lord to specifically swallow up Jonah and spit him up on the beach after 3
days and 3 nights.
There are so-called higher critics who object to this account of Jonah being alive for 3 days
and 3 nights in a whale. Their objections are unfounded and there are many instances of a man
being swallowed alive and living for a period of time in the belly of a whale. The Blue Whale
could have easily swallowed a man like Jonah. The Blue Whale does not have any teeth. It feeds
in an interesting way by opening their enormous mouths, submerging their lower jaw, and
rushing through the water at terrific speed. After straining out the water, they swallow whatever
is left. Like the sulphur bottom whale, the blue whale has 4 to 6 compartments in his stomach
and in any one of which a colony of men could find free lodging. They might even have a choice
of rooms, for in the head of this whale is a wonderful air storage chamber, an enlargement of the
nasul sinus, often measuring 7 feet high, 7 feet wide, by 14 feet long. If he has an unwelcome
guest on board who gives him a sinus headache, the whale swims to the nearest land and gets rid
of the offender as he did Jonah.
There are several accounts of both men and animals being swallowed by a whale and living.
The famous French scientist, M. de Parville, writes of James Bartley, who in the region of the
Falkland Islands near South America, was supposed to have drowned at sea. Two days after his
disappearance, the sailors made a catch of a whale. When it was cut up, much to their surprise,
they found their missing friend alive but unconscious inside the whale. He revived and has been
enjoying the best of health ever since his adventure. Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of the
Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, writes of another case. In the Literary Digest we
noticed an account of an English sailor who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhinodon in the
English Channel. Briefly, the account stated that in the attempt to harpoon one of these
monstrous sharks, this sailor fell overboard, and before he could be picked up again, the shark
turned an engulfed him. Forty-eight hours later after the accident occurred, the fish was sighted
again and slain. When the shark was opened by the sailors, they were amazed to find the man
unconscious but alive! He was rushed to the hospital where he was found to be suffering from
shock alone, and a few hours later was discharged as being physically fit. The account concluded
by saying that the man was on exhibit in a London Museum at a shilling admittance fee; being
advertised as “The Jonah of the 20th Century.” These accounts demonstrate that a man could live
in a whale.
Jonah 2:1-3:5, “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish,
and he said, ‘I called out of my distress to the LORD, and He answered me. I cried for help
from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. For You had cast me into the deep, into the
heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over
me. So I said, "I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward
Your holy temple.' Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed
me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The
earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD my God. While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer
came to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard vain idols forsake their
faithfulness, but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have
vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.’ Then the LORD commanded the fish, and
it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the
second time, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation
which I am going to tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
8
the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk. Then Jonah
began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and
Nineveh will be overthrown.’ Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a
fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
“Believed” is the 3rd person masculine singular hiphil imperfect form of the verb `aman. This
hiphil stem is a causative stem meaning that Jonah’s message caused the citizens of Nineveh to
put their trust in Him as their Savior. This word is used of Abraham trusting in the Lord at
salvation. Gen 15:4-6, “Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This
man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be
your heir." And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count
the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants
be." Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
Jonah 3:6-4:11, “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne,
laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued
a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let
man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man
and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may
turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God
may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.’ When
God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented
concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did
not do it. But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD
and said, ‘Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious
and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who
relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for
death is better to me than life.’ The LORD said, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry?’
Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself
and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the
LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to
deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God
appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.
When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on
Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, ‘Death is
better to me than life.’ Then God said to Jonah, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry
about the plant?’ And he said, ‘I have good reason to be angry, even to death.’ Then the
LORD said, ‘You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you
did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have
compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who
do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?’”
So here we have Jonah’s message being in the instrument that saves the Ninevites. Rom
1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The fact that the Ninevites got
saved through Jonah’s message from the Lord sets forth the principle that it’s the message and
not the man. Jonah has more compassion toward a plant than he does human beings. He is filled
with self-pity and bitterness and yet he is a born-again believer. Even though he is saved, Jonah
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
9
needs to learn the Lord’s policy towards all men, which is grace. Grace is for the undeserving
and the helpless and hopeless. Jonah is self-righteous and thinks he is better than the Ninevites
but this is merely relative righteousness. Jonah is just as much a sinner as the every one of the
Ninevites.
Jonah’s attitude is indicative of the nation of Israel at that time. The nation of Israel failed in
evangelizing the world. They were to be the instruments that God employed to present the
Gospel to the unbelieving Gentiles. They failed. There is an application for the church today that
this story of Jonah teaches us. The Lord sets forth the Church’s manifesto in Matt 28:16-20,
“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.
When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up
and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and
lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
The Lord Jesus Christ had to deal with this negative and antagonistic attitude toward the
unbelieving Gentiles during His 1st Advent. The Pharisees who were the leaders of the Jewish
people in our Lord’s day thought that they were superior to the tax-collectors and the prostitutes
who were coming to the Lord in great numbers to hear His teaching of the kingdom. They were
self-righteous and arrogant just like Jonah. Our Lord delivered several parables that directly
rebuked the Pharisees for their self-righteous attitude.
Luke 15, “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to
Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives
sinners and eats with them.’ So He told them this parable, saying, ‘What man among you,
if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the
open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he
lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends
and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was
lost!' I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who
repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman,
if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and
search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and
neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ In the
same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who
repents. And He said, ‘A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father,
‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.' So he divided his wealth between
them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on
a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now
when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to be
impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and
he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with
the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he
came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired men have more than enough
bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to
him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be
called your son; make me as one of your hired men. So he got up and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
10
ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the
father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring
on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and
celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has
been found.' And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field, and when he
came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of
the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, ‘Your
brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him
back safe and sound.' But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father
came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For
so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours;
and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;
but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed
the fattened calf for him.' And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all
that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was
dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”
In story of the Prodigal Son we have the Lord rebuking the Pharisees for their attitude
towards the tax collectors and prostitutes. The Pharisees were portrayed by our Lord in the story
of the Prodigal Son by the older brother. Jonah had this same poor attitude.
Jonah failed to see because of self-righteous arrogance that the Ninevites were just as much
qualified to be recipients of salvation as Jonah and the rest of the nation of Israel. Like the
Pharisees in our Lord’s Day, Jonah lacked the Lord’s view of the world. The Lord saw Nineveh
as a field ready to be harvest. Our Lord taught this principle to His own Jewish disciples who
were greatly influenced by the Pharisaic attitude. John 4:35-38, “Do you not say, There are yet
four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look
on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and
is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice
together. For in this case the saying is true, "One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to
reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into
their labor.”
The attitude of the church today in the 21st century should be one of outreach, presenting the
Gospel to all men. Many in the church today will not so much as be in the presence of a
homosexual and yet failing to see the potential this person has to be saved. Are we reaching out
to the AIDS patient or the elderly, the prostitute, those who are enslaved to pornography and all
sorts of immoral behavior? The church is failing to view the unbeliever as God sees it…ready to
be harvested. Jonah failed to go to Nineveh and do his job as a prophet because he did not
possess divine viewpoint even though he was saved. He lacked compassion and mercy and failed
to see the great opportunity that the Lord had given him to preach to the Gentiles unbelievers in
Nineveh. Jonah failed to appreciate the fact that the Lord had used him to present the Gospel,
which after it was presented to the Ninevites produced the greatest harvest of souls in the Old
Testament, 120,000 people were saved, yet Jonah failed to appreciate this wonderful work of
God which was performed through him.
The story of Jonah is said because the Scripture does not say he ever repented or in other
words changed his attitude. The story of Jonah leaves off with the Lord’s rebuke. The story of
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
11
Jonah was a warning to the nation of Israel during Jonah’s day and it should serve to instruct and
warn the Church here in the 21st century!
2002 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
12