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Basics

BOOK: Jonah

Description: A short story of Jonah being sent to Nineveh to take God’s word and the struggles he had with obedience

Author: traditionally ascribed to Jonah but uncertain.

Date written: possibly about 750BC

Chapters: 4

Brief Synopsis

• God sends Jonah to Nineveh with His word.
• Jonah takes off for Tarshish, ends up in a big fish and spat out on beach
• Goes to Nineveh with God’s word. Nineveh repents. Jonah is upset.

Outline

• Ch.1-2 Jonah Flees His Mission
  • 1:1-3 Jonah’s Commission and Flight
  • 1:4-6 The Endangered Sailors’ Cry to Their Gods
  • 1:7-10 Jonah’s Disobedience Exposed
  • 1:11-2:1; 2:10 Jonah’s Punishment and Deliverance
  • 2:2-9 His Prayer of Thanksgiving
• Ch.3-4 Jonah Reluctantly Fulfills His Mission
  • 3:1-4 Jonah’s Renewed Commission and Obedience
  • 3:5-9 The Endangered Ninevites’ Repentant Appeal to the Lord
  • 3:10-4:4 The Ninevites’ Repentance Acknowledged
  • 4:5-11 Jonah’s Deliverance and Rebuke

Introduction to Jonah

The story of Jonah is one of those that used to appear in Sunday Schools often, simply because it is so graphic and simple. Part 1 ends up with Jonah inside a big fish. Part 2 sees Jonah praying some remarkable things while there. Part 3 is Jonah prophesying in Nineveh and, remarkably, the city repenting. Part 4 is an amusing little episode afterwards where Jonah complains that he looks an idiot because God hadn’t judged the city, and God having to explain in a very graphic way why He didn’t.

Nineveh is in what we might call the north-east corner of the ‘Fertile Crescent’ that extended round from Israel to Babylonia. It was the capital of the Assyrian empire. Jonah went there in 770BC and about 150 years later Nahum prophesied against it and it was destroyed in 612BC. Within this short book we will see well over a dozen incidents or activities attributed to God. Once we can accept that God is a God of miracles for whom nothing is impossible, none of these things seem improbable. Take Gd out of this book it is merely a book of coincidences and superstition.

The big lesson at the beginning is all about the sovereignty and holiness of God. The big lessons at the end are all about the God of mercy and grace who is more concerned for salvation of people than their destruction.]