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A Study of the Book of Jonah
Chapter 1
Jonah is considered among one of the Minor Prophets whom God spoke through, especially to the people of Nineveh city, in the years before Lord Jesus Christ was born. The Book of Jonah is a part of the Old Testament in the Holy Bible.
Jonah was the son of Amittai. And God spoke to Jonah regarding a city called Nineveh. God told him to get up, pack his bags and go to this great city called Nineveh and speak (prophesy) against it because their wickedness had come up before Him.
But, Jonah did not like to do what God wanted him to do. Instead he decides to go to another city called Tarshish. So, he goes to a place called Joppa and from their bought the ticket to go to Tarshish by a ship.
As the ship moved towards its destination in the sea, God sent a mighty storm in the sea so that the ship was in danger of getting wrecked. The mariners of the ship were afraid and every man cried unto his god and tried to lighten the ship by throwing the goods into the sea. But, Jonah was fast asleep.
So, the shipmaster came to him, woke him and told him to pray to his God so that God may think about them and that they don't perish due to the storm.
And they decided to cast lots among themselves to find out who was the cause for this evil that has come upon them. So, they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Here again we see the sovereignty of God and that God has sovereign control over every minutest detail of our life.
Then they approached Jonah and urged him to tell them why the storm had come and enquired his whereabouts. Jonah said that he was a Hebrew and feared the Lord, the God of heaven who had made the sea and the dry land. He honestly confessed that he was running away from doing what his God wanted him to do.
Then, the people in the ship were even more afraid and said, "Why have you done such a thing?" and they asked what should they do unto him so that the sea might become calm again. Jonah suggested them to throw him out of the ship and into the sea and then the sea would be calm, for it was because of him that the great storm was upon them. Jonah did not even care for his life but was concerned and willing to die to save the lives of the people in the ship.
But, the people in the ship did not have the heart to throw Jonah out into the sea and they rowed hard to bring the ship to the land, but they could not for the storm was terrible. Then they cried unto the Lord and said "We request you Lord and plead that let us not perish because of Jonah and lay not upon us the sin of taking innocent blood when we throw Jonah into the sea because this is all Your doing". After this, they took Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea became calm again. Then the people in the ship feared the God of Jonah exceedingly for they came to know of His mighty power.
Now, God had prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah and he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. This is similar to what Lord Jesus Christ spoke in Matthew 12:39,40 when the Religious Scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign whether He was truly the Messiah. Then, Lord Jesus Christ replied that just like Prophet Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall He be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Chapter 2
Then Jonah prayed unto God from the fish's belly. So, when we are in deep trouble we ought to boldly pray to God, reason it out with Him and cry for His help.
Jonah is thankful to God for having saved his life when he was thrown into the sea. He testifies that when he cried unto God due to his affliction, God heard him. Out of the belly of hell he cried and God heard his voice.
God had cast him into the deep, in the sea and the waters had compassed him completely. The depths closed him round about and the sea weeds wrapped around his head. Yet God brought him back to life and placed him in the fish's belly.
He further testifies that when his soul fainted within him he remembered God and his prayer came before God and God saved him. Jonah offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and decides that he will do what God told him to do for salvation is of the Lord.
And then God speaks to the fish and it vomits out Jonah upon the dry land.
So, God keeps us alive until He accomplishes the work He wanted to do through us. And He trains us this way if we don't make our wills to do His will.
Chapter 3
And again God speaks to Jonah a second time to get up and go to Nineveh that great city and preach unto it what He told him to preach. This is the job of every true prophet, to preach exactly what God wants us to preach even though it might hurt our hearers.
Then Jonah gets up, goes to Nineveh which was three days journey from where he was. And even as Jonah began to enter into the city, he cried and said to the people in the city, "In another forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed".
Surprisingly, the people of Nineveh believed God and Jonah and started fasting and wore sackcloth (poor clothes) from the greatest of them even to the least of them. When the King of Nineveh heard the word, he got up from his throne, removed his royal clothes, covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he made a decree and published all over Nineveh that "Let no one eat his food nor drink water. Let everyone wear sackcloth and cry heavily unto God. Let everyone turn from his evil and violent ways, for who can tell if God will turn away from His fierce anger so that we perish not?".
And God saw all this from above and that they had turned from their evil ways. And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them and He did not destroy Nineveh.
Chapter 4
But, this turn of events displeased Jonah and he was angry as it hurt his ego. And he prayed unto the Lord and said that he knew such a thing would happen before itself because he knew that God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness and decides not to do evil and therefore had fled to Tarshish.
Jonah feels so vexed that he urges God to take away his life for he thought that it was better for him to die than to live. Then, God questions Jonah whether it was right of him to get angry because of what happened.
So, Jonah goes out of the city and sat there to see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd plant and made it to come up over Jonah so that it might be a shadow over his head and to deliver him from his grief. And Jonah was happy about the gourd plant.
But God prepared a worm the next morning and it smote the gourd plant and it withered. Then when the sun arose, God prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
And God said to Jonah, "Is it right of you to be angry on behalf of the gourd plant?" and Jonah said, "It is right of me to be angry even unto death".
Then God said, "You had pity on the gourd plant for which you have not laboured nor made it grow which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, where thousands of people are living and who cannot discern what is right and what is wrong and also much cattle?"
From the whole story we come to know of God's heart clearly that He willingly does not grieve His children. And the moment we truly repent of our sins and turn from our sinful ways, He would not destroy us. Through the gourd plant incident God taught Jonah a lesson and made him understand that he need not be angry if his God-given prophesy was not fulfilled by God. He should be happy that lives were saved instead. We also see that Jonah's prophesy was a success as the people of Nineveh believed him, repented and turned to God and were saved. God was happy with Jonah for doing a good job but had to teach him to cool his hurting self.
But now the whole world has become like that great city Nineveh and our wickedness has gone upto heaven and unless we truly repent of our sins and turn from our sinful ways we cannot stop our righteous and holy God from releasing His wrath and judgements upon us. If we are wise enough we can already discern the warning signals which God has been giving to the people of the earth.
May the Lord grant us repentant hearts like the people of Nineveh had. Amen.
- Unknown Christian
Chapter 1
Jonah is considered among one of the Minor Prophets whom God spoke through, especially to the people of Nineveh city, in the years before Lord Jesus Christ was born. The Book of Jonah is a part of the Old Testament in the Holy Bible.
Jonah was the son of Amittai. And God spoke to Jonah regarding a city called Nineveh. God told him to get up, pack his bags and go to this great city called Nineveh and speak (prophesy) against it because their wickedness had come up before Him.
But, Jonah did not like to do what God wanted him to do. Instead he decides to go to another city called Tarshish. So, he goes to a place called Joppa and from their bought the ticket to go to Tarshish by a ship.
As the ship moved towards its destination in the sea, God sent a mighty storm in the sea so that the ship was in danger of getting wrecked. The mariners of the ship were afraid and every man cried unto his god and tried to lighten the ship by throwing the goods into the sea. But, Jonah was fast asleep.
So, the shipmaster came to him, woke him and told him to pray to his God so that God may think about them and that they don't perish due to the storm.
And they decided to cast lots among themselves to find out who was the cause for this evil that has come upon them. So, they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. Here again we see the sovereignty of God and that God has sovereign control over every minutest detail of our life.
Then they approached Jonah and urged him to tell them why the storm had come and enquired his whereabouts. Jonah said that he was a Hebrew and feared the Lord, the God of heaven who had made the sea and the dry land. He honestly confessed that he was running away from doing what his God wanted him to do.
Then, the people in the ship were even more afraid and said, "Why have you done such a thing?" and they asked what should they do unto him so that the sea might become calm again. Jonah suggested them to throw him out of the ship and into the sea and then the sea would be calm, for it was because of him that the great storm was upon them. Jonah did not even care for his life but was concerned and willing to die to save the lives of the people in the ship.
But, the people in the ship did not have the heart to throw Jonah out into the sea and they rowed hard to bring the ship to the land, but they could not for the storm was terrible. Then they cried unto the Lord and said "We request you Lord and plead that let us not perish because of Jonah and lay not upon us the sin of taking innocent blood when we throw Jonah into the sea because this is all Your doing". After this, they took Jonah and threw him into the sea and the sea became calm again. Then the people in the ship feared the God of Jonah exceedingly for they came to know of His mighty power.
Now, God had prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah and he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. This is similar to what Lord Jesus Christ spoke in Matthew 12:39,40 when the Religious Scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign whether He was truly the Messiah. Then, Lord Jesus Christ replied that just like Prophet Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall He be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Chapter 2
Then Jonah prayed unto God from the fish's belly. So, when we are in deep trouble we ought to boldly pray to God, reason it out with Him and cry for His help.
Jonah is thankful to God for having saved his life when he was thrown into the sea. He testifies that when he cried unto God due to his affliction, God heard him. Out of the belly of hell he cried and God heard his voice.
God had cast him into the deep, in the sea and the waters had compassed him completely. The depths closed him round about and the sea weeds wrapped around his head. Yet God brought him back to life and placed him in the fish's belly.
He further testifies that when his soul fainted within him he remembered God and his prayer came before God and God saved him. Jonah offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and decides that he will do what God told him to do for salvation is of the Lord.
And then God speaks to the fish and it vomits out Jonah upon the dry land.
So, God keeps us alive until He accomplishes the work He wanted to do through us. And He trains us this way if we don't make our wills to do His will.
Chapter 3
And again God speaks to Jonah a second time to get up and go to Nineveh that great city and preach unto it what He told him to preach. This is the job of every true prophet, to preach exactly what God wants us to preach even though it might hurt our hearers.
Then Jonah gets up, goes to Nineveh which was three days journey from where he was. And even as Jonah began to enter into the city, he cried and said to the people in the city, "In another forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed".
Surprisingly, the people of Nineveh believed God and Jonah and started fasting and wore sackcloth (poor clothes) from the greatest of them even to the least of them. When the King of Nineveh heard the word, he got up from his throne, removed his royal clothes, covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he made a decree and published all over Nineveh that "Let no one eat his food nor drink water. Let everyone wear sackcloth and cry heavily unto God. Let everyone turn from his evil and violent ways, for who can tell if God will turn away from His fierce anger so that we perish not?".
And God saw all this from above and that they had turned from their evil ways. And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them and He did not destroy Nineveh.
Chapter 4
But, this turn of events displeased Jonah and he was angry as it hurt his ego. And he prayed unto the Lord and said that he knew such a thing would happen before itself because he knew that God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness and decides not to do evil and therefore had fled to Tarshish.
Jonah feels so vexed that he urges God to take away his life for he thought that it was better for him to die than to live. Then, God questions Jonah whether it was right of him to get angry because of what happened.
So, Jonah goes out of the city and sat there to see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd plant and made it to come up over Jonah so that it might be a shadow over his head and to deliver him from his grief. And Jonah was happy about the gourd plant.
But God prepared a worm the next morning and it smote the gourd plant and it withered. Then when the sun arose, God prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
And God said to Jonah, "Is it right of you to be angry on behalf of the gourd plant?" and Jonah said, "It is right of me to be angry even unto death".
Then God said, "You had pity on the gourd plant for which you have not laboured nor made it grow which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, where thousands of people are living and who cannot discern what is right and what is wrong and also much cattle?"
From the whole story we come to know of God's heart clearly that He willingly does not grieve His children. And the moment we truly repent of our sins and turn from our sinful ways, He would not destroy us. Through the gourd plant incident God taught Jonah a lesson and made him understand that he need not be angry if his God-given prophesy was not fulfilled by God. He should be happy that lives were saved instead. We also see that Jonah's prophesy was a success as the people of Nineveh believed him, repented and turned to God and were saved. God was happy with Jonah for doing a good job but had to teach him to cool his hurting self.
But now the whole world has become like that great city Nineveh and our wickedness has gone upto heaven and unless we truly repent of our sins and turn from our sinful ways we cannot stop our righteous and holy God from releasing His wrath and judgements upon us. If we are wise enough we can already discern the warning signals which God has been giving to the people of the earth.
May the Lord grant us repentant hearts like the people of Nineveh had. Amen.
- Unknown Christian