Mission to the Nation

MEMORY VERSE: “And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, 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 4:2

JONAH 3:1-5,10; 4:1-4,11

THE story of Jonah and the “great fish” which swallowed him is known by many. Jesus referred to it, and made a very meaningful application of it. The scribes and Pharisees were pressing Jesus to give them a sign to prove that he was the Messiah. Jesus said that no sign would be given them except ‘the sign of the prophet Jonas,” or Jonah.

Jesus explained further: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:39,40) Here Jesus indicates that Jonah’s “burial” in the stomach of the great fish, and his subsequent escape, represented his own death and resurrection. What greater sign could the people of Jesus’ day have of his messiahship than the fact that although he had been put to death, he was raised from the dead by the power of his Heavenly Father!

Telling of his own experience in the stomach of the fish, Jonah says that he prayed to the Lord “out of the belly of hell.” (Jon. 2:2) The Hebrew word here translated “hell” is sheol. It is the only Hebrew word in the Old Testament that is translated hell. It means the state of death. So far as Jonah was concerned he was as good as dead, had not the Lord delivered him.

When Jonah was first commissioned to go to Nineveh, he fled and embarked on a ship going to Tarshish. It was this attempt to flee from the service of the Lord which led to his being swallowed by the great fish.

Subsequently “the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time,” bidding him to go to Nineveh, and pronounce judgment upon the city. This time Jonah obeyed, and when he delivered his message to the people of that great city they repented, including their king. Then “God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” In Jeremiah’s prophecy (ch. 18: vss. 6-10) the Lord informs us that in situations of this kind he would repent.

In our memory verse Jonah expresses his belief in the fact that the Lord would repent, and he did not want to be in the position of having declared what the Lord would do and then be overruled. He gives this as his reason for having attempted to go to Tarshish instead of Nineveh when the Lord had first asked him to go.

Doubtless Jonah was basically loyal to the Lord, but seemingly he did not possess a generous, understanding heart. He was one who apparently could not bear to be overruled, even by the Lord. Imagine one’s making the effort that Jonah did to avoid obedience to the Lord’s command simply because he knew that the Lord was gracious, and would probably re pent of his intention to destroy Nineveh!

A man with a larger heart would have rejoiced under such circumstances, for he would see in this experience an exemplification of the goodness and love of his God, and would welcome the opportunity of presenting the truth concerning his God to the repentant Ninevites. But not Jonah. He would rather die in his shame at being overruled, even though it was by the graciousness of the God of Israel whom he worshiped.

But the Lord was in turn gracious to Jonah, and permitted a plant to grow up to shield him from the sun. The Lord asked Jonah, “Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern their right hand and their left hand?”

We are glad to know that eventually, during the messianic kingdom, the whole world will learn of God’s goodness. Some who have presented him as a god of torment will temporarily be shamed, but eventually these also will rejoice.

QUESTIONS

What is the “sign” of Jonah referred to by Jesus?

In what sense was Jonah in “the belly of hell”?

What reason did Jonah give for disobeying the Lord when he was first asked to go to Nineveh?

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