Bird's-eye view
The book of Jonah is far more than a charming flannelgraph story for Sunday School. It is a masterful theological narrative about the astonishing breadth of God's sovereign mercy and the narrow, rebellious heart of man, even the heart of God's own chosen prophet. The story opens with a direct and unambiguous command from God, followed by an equally direct and unambiguous act of disobedience. This sets the stage for the entire book, which is essentially the story of God hunting down His runaway servant, not to destroy him, but to accomplish His purposes through him, despite him. Jonah is a book about a missionary who hates missions, a prophet who despises repentance in his enemies, and a God whose grace is wider and more relentless than our most stubborn sin.
These first three verses establish the central conflict. It is not Jonah versus the Ninevites, or Jonah versus the fish. The central conflict is Jonah versus the explicit command of Yahweh. His flight is not a simple failure of nerve; it is a profound theological rebellion. He is attempting to flee, not from danger, but from the very presence of the God who commissioned him. The rest of the book is God's answer to this pathetic attempt at escape.
Outline
- 1. The Divine Commission (Jonah 1:1-2)
- a. The Source of the Call (v. 1)
- b. The Substance of the Call (v. 2)
- 2. The Prophet's Disobedience (Jonah 1:3)
- a. The Reaction of Rebellion (v. 3a)
- b. The Logistics of Flight (v. 3b)
- c. The Stated Motivation (v. 3c)
Context In Jonah
The book of Jonah is unique among the prophetic books. It is not a collection of oracles but rather a narrative about a prophet. Jonah son of Amittai is a historical figure, mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 as a prophet from Gath-hepher who prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel. His earlier prophecy was one of national expansion and blessing for Israel. This context makes his rebellion here all the more striking. He was perfectly willing to be a prophet of blessing for his own people, but when commanded to be a prophet of warning, and potential mercy, for Israel's most hated enemy, the Assyrians, he refuses. The book is therefore a powerful critique of narrow nationalism and a profound statement about the universal sovereignty and saving purposes of God.
Key Issues
- The Nature of the Prophetic Call
- The Presence of Yahweh
- The Sovereignty of God in Human Disobedience
- The Deliberate Nature of Sin
Commentary
Jonah 1:1
Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
The story begins where all true spiritual action begins, with the initiative of God. The word of Yahweh came to Jonah. It was not a word Jonah sought, nor a career path he had chosen. The word of God is an active, effectual force that arrives, that lands, that imposes itself upon the life of a man. This is not a negotiation or a job offer. It is a divine summons. The authority is established from the first clause: this is Yahweh's project, not Jonah's. He is identified as the son of Amittai, grounding him in history. This is not a parable in the clouds; this is about a real prophet, in a real time, receiving a real command from the living God.
Jonah 1:2
"Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me."
The command is twofold and direct: Arise, go. This is a call to immediate action. The destination is Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. To an Israelite, this was the heart of the empire of bloody, cruel, and pagan darkness. Sending Jonah to Nineveh would be like sending a patriot to preach in the capital city of his nation's most feared enemy. It was a hard and dangerous calling. The content of the message is equally stark: call out against it. This is a message of judgment. Jonah is to be a prosecuting attorney, announcing the charges from the high court of heaven. The reason is given: for their evil has come up before Me. God is the judge of all the earth, not just Israel. The wickedness of the nations is not outside His jurisdiction. Their sin is not simply a horizontal matter between men; it is a vertical offense that has "come up before" the throne of God. God sees, He knows, and He is preparing to act.
Jonah 1:3
Yet Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, and paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
Here is the pivot upon which the initial action turns. God said, "Arise, go." And Jonah arose, but he went in precisely the opposite direction. God commanded him to go east to Mesopotamia, and Jonah set his face west, toward Tarshish, likely in modern Spain, the farthest edge of the known world. His disobedience is not passive; it is active, deliberate, and planned. The motivation is stated twice for heavy emphasis: he fled from the presence of Yahweh. Now, as a prophet, Jonah knew Psalm 139. He knew that one cannot flee the omnipresence of God. So what is he doing? He is attempting to flee from the covenantal, commissioned presence of God. He is trying to resign. He is running from his office, from his vocation as a prophet in the land of promise. He wants to get off the grid, to a place where he imagines the demands of Yahweh will not reach him.
The logistics of his sin are laid out in damning detail. He went down to Joppa, the port city. This is the beginning of his descent, both geographically and spiritually. He found a ship, a clear instance of what we might call a lying providence. The door was open, the ship was ready, and so a disobedient man could easily tell himself that this was "meant to be." This is utter foolishness. An open door can just as easily be the way to your own destruction. He paid its fare. Sin always has a cost, and Jonah pays it out of pocket. Rebellion is never free. And then he went down into it. A second "down." He is on a downward trajectory, heading into the dark hold of a ship, a precursor to the dark belly of the fish, all in a futile attempt to hide from the God who made the very sea he intended to use for his escape.
Application
Jonah's rebellion is our rebellion, writ large. God gives us clear commands in His Word. He calls us to love our enemies, to preach the gospel to our neighbors, to be holy as He is holy. And like Jonah, we often arise and go in precisely the opposite direction. We rationalize our disobedience. We find a "ship to Tarshish" in our convenient excuses and worldly distractions. We pay the fare for our sin with our time, our integrity, and our peace.
We try to flee "from the presence of the Lord." We do this not by trying to escape His omnipresence, but by trying to escape His authority. We avoid His Word, we neglect prayer, we compartmentalize our lives so that our faith does not touch our work, our finances, or our entertainment. We want God as a fire insurance policy, but not as the Lord of every square inch of our lives.
The good news of this story, and of the whole Bible, is that God is a tenacious pursuer of His runaway people. Jonah's flight was futile because God had a storm with his name on it. Our flight is just as futile. God's sovereign purposes will not be thwarted by our stiff-necked rebellion. He is a God of glorious and relentless grace, a grace that will pursue us into the depths to bring us back to Himself, for His glory and for our good.