Jonah 1

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Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

• Jonah means dove
• Amittatai means the truth of God
• 2 Kings 14:25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.
• Matthew 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah:
  40 For as Jonah 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.
  41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
  42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

• The Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh
• Arise, go =  "rose up to flee"
• Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, on the left bank of the Tigris. Called first Nina, from the patron goddess of the city; of Babylonian origin; founded by a colony from Nina in South Babylonia.
• Cry against it = Not whisper or speak softly, but cry, as making a general proclamation.
• Their wickedness = Nineveh was noted for violence and cruelty of all kinds, recorded in its own bas-reliefs
• Genesis 18:20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
  21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
  22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

• Rose up to flee = Jonah knew that Assyria was to be God's sword of judgment against Israel.
• If Nineveh perished, Israel might be saved.
• God's mercy might arrest this overthrow of Nineveh.
• Was this why Jonah would sacrifice himself to save his nation?
• This would explain his flight here, and his displeasure, as clearly stated in Jonah 4:1-3.
• Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
  2 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.
  3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
  4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
• When he said (Jonah 1:12), "Take me up", &, he had counted the cost.
• Jonah 1:12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
• He confesses to the men (verses: Jonah 1:9,10), but not to God.
• Jonah 1:9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
  10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
• He gave his life to save his People.
• The type of Christ may have begun here.
• Tarshish.
• 1 Kings 10:22 For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
• Ivory = elephants" tusks
• Navy of Tharshish = Tharshish ships, a name for large ocean-going ships (like English "East-Indiamen").
• When mentioned as a place it is identified by Oppert with Tartessis = the Andalusia of to-day, noted for silver (not gold), iron, tin, and lead.
• Jeremiah 10:9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
• Ezekiel 27:12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
• They sailed from Tyre to the West Mediterranean, and from Ezion-geber to Ophir (Arabia, India, and East Africa.
• 1 Kings 9:26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.
  27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
  28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
• 1 Kings 10:11 And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.
• Up to this point Solomon has done things God's ways.
• Ship = Pleb. "aniyah = any large merchant ship. Not the same word as in Jonah 1:5.

4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

• The LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

• Jonah was going against God will, Jonah wanted to save his people

6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

 

7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

 

8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?

 

9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.

 

10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

• Exceedingly = afraid = feared a great fear.
• Why? They knew the fact of his flight, but not the reason, which is not revealed till Jonah 4:1-3.
• Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
  2 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.
  3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
  4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?

11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.

 

12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

 

13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.

 

14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.

• They are praying to the Lord

15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

• Cast him = Why are we to assume that the result was different in this case from that in every other, unless so stated?
• It must have been death.

16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.

• Offered, sacrificed, they vowed that they would offer when they landed

17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

• The Lord done this. He prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah
• Here we have a type of Christ
• For this is the only sign we are going to get
• Prepared = appointed, or assigned = Never means to create.
• Great fish = Large enough to swallow him
• Matthews 12:40 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.
  41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
• Matthews 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them, and departed.
• Swallow up belly = Not therefore kept alive in the fish's mouth, as some imagine.
• When thus swallowed up, Jonah must have died, and thus became a type of Christ.
• The "as" and "so" in Matthew 12:40 require Jonah's death.
• He would have been no type if he had been miraculously kept alive.
• Was = came to be.
• Belly = bowels.
• Three days and three nights. = The Hebrew idiom "three days" can be used for parts of three days (and even of years): but not when the word "nights" is added.
• Matthews 12:40 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.
  41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
• Assyria, Asshur = was a great and powerful country lying on the Tigris, Genesis 2:14, the capital of which was Nineveh. Genesis 10:11.
• It derived its name apparently from Asshur, the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22, who in later times was worshipped by the Assyrians as their chief god.

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25