Jonah - Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Jonah came from northern Israel near the Sea of Galilee; he lived during the reign of Jeroboam II in the first half of the eighth century B.C. (800–750 B.C.), a period of great prosperity in Israel (see 2 Kings 14:23–25). Jonah’s fellow PROPHETS, Amos and Hosea, also prophesied at this time.

The book of Jonah, however, is not like the other prophetic books; it contains only one line of “prophecy”: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned (Jonah 3:4)—and even that didn’t come true exactly as stated!¹ Rather, the book is a narrative account of an episode in Jonah’s life. In the book, Jonah describes how the Lord sent him on a special prophetic mission to Nineveh, the leading city of Assyria. The purpose of the mission was to warn the people of Nineveh that God’s JUDGMENT was about to fall on them and that they should repent before it was too late (Jonah 3:3–4). Jonah was upset that God should be helping one of Israel’s worst enemies, and at first he refused to go.

The main message of the book of Jonah is that God is concerned with all the peoples of the world, not just His chosen people ISRAEL. God’s ordinary or common GRACE extends to everyone; we should therefore be like God and behave graciously to all people—even to our enemies (see Matthew 5:43–45).

Throughout his experiences, Jonah learned that God’s purpose for Israel was that it reach out to the Gentile nations and become a source of blessing to them (Genesis 12:3). Like most ISRAELITES, Jonah took pride in his special relationship with God and preferred not to share it with non–Israelites. Jonah learned that not to share God’s blessings was a sure way to lose them! This was a lesson that all Israel needed to learn, and it is a lesson Christians need to keep learning today.

Though this book of Jonah records some amazing incidents, we should recall that Jesus Himself accepted Jonah’s account as historical, and even compared Jonah’s three days in the belly of a big fish with His own death and resurrection (see Matthew 12:38–41). If Jesus believed Jonah’s account, so can we.