Jonah and the Great Fish

Context

Jonah son of Amittai was a prophet, a person entrusted to speak a message from God. A prophetic warning confronted evil and called its hearers to respond. Jonah received such a warning for Nineveh, a great city marked by wickedness and violence. The story therefore asks two connected questions: What will Nineveh do with God’s word, and what will Jonah do with the God who sent him?

Story

God’s command was plain: Jonah was to go to Nineveh and speak against its wickedness. Instead, Jonah went down to the port of Joppa, paid for passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, and fled from the Lord.

God sent a powerful wind across the sea, and the ship was in danger of breaking apart. The sailors were terrified. Each called to his own god while they threw cargo overboard to lighten the ship. Jonah, however, had gone below deck and fallen into a deep sleep. The captain woke him and urged him to call upon his God so that they might not perish.

The sailors cast lots to discover who had brought this trouble upon them, and the lot fell to Jonah. When they questioned him, Jonah said that he was a Hebrew and worshiped the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. He also admitted that he was fleeing from the Lord. Their fear deepened. As the sea grew rougher, they asked what they should do. Jonah told them to throw him into the water, and the sea would become calm.

Still, the sailors tried hard to row back to land, but the storm defeated their efforts. Before doing as Jonah had said, they prayed to the Lord. They pleaded not to perish because of Jonah or be held guilty for his death. Then they threw him overboard, and the raging sea became calm. The sailors greatly feared the Lord, offered a sacrifice, and made vows to him.

God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah remained inside it for three days and three nights. From there, he prayed. He described the waters closing around him and his life sinking toward the depths. When his strength failed, he remembered the Lord, and he knew that God had heard his cry. Jonah promised to give thanks and confessed that salvation comes from the Lord. At God’s command, the fish released Jonah onto dry land.

Then God spoke to Jonah a second time and again sent him to Nineveh with his message. This time Jonah obeyed. Nineveh was an immense city, a three-day journey through it. After going a day’s journey into the city, Jonah announced that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown.

The people believed God. From the greatest to the least, they fasted and put on sackcloth as a sign of grief and repentance. When the warning reached Nineveh’s king, he left his throne, removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. By royal decree, neither people nor animals were to eat or drink. Everyone was to call urgently on God and turn from evil and violence. The king did not presume upon mercy. Perhaps God would turn from his fierce anger so that they would not perish.

God saw that the people had turned from their evil ways. He relented from the destruction he had announced and did not bring it upon them.

Jonah was deeply displeased and angry. He told God that this was why he had fled toward Tarshish. He had known that God was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in faithful love, willing to relent from sending disaster. Jonah was so upset by Nineveh’s deliverance that he asked to die. God answered him with a question: Was it right for him to be angry?

Jonah went east of the city, built a shelter, and waited to see what would happen. God provided a plant that grew over Jonah and shaded his head, and Jonah was very glad for it. But at dawn the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. When the sun rose, God sent a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah until he grew faint, and once again he wished to die.

God asked whether Jonah was right to be angry about the plant. Jonah insisted that he was angry enough to die. Then God pointed out the contrast. Jonah cared about a plant he had neither tended nor made grow, a plant that appeared in a night and died in a night. Should God not care about the great city of Nineveh, with more than 120,000 people who could not tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?

What We Learned

• God’s warnings take evil seriously, but Nineveh’s response shows that a warning can also open the way to repentance and mercy.
• God showed mercy to Jonah through the great fish and a second commission, even while confronting his disobedience.
• Knowing that God is gracious is not the same as welcoming his grace for others. Jonah described God rightly while resenting his mercy.
• God’s final question reveals his concern for the many people and animals of Nineveh, while the plant exposes how narrow Jonah’s compassion had become.