13: Minor Prophets - Jonah 1-2:10

[Dunkle] Good morning again, welcome! This is Minor Prophets class, and we're getting to start a new book. So I'm excited. Actually, for those of you watching the recording, it's kind of broken down within our class periods to finish books on a pretty irregular basis, maybe because I'm talking too fast sometimes, but we'll take what we get.

So today we're beginning the book of Jonah. Jonah is a very interesting book that's different from the other Minor Prophets in some certain ways, but let's go through the five W's and that'll come out.

So the first W is who? Who wrote the book? Most scholars believe it was written by Jonah. It's named for him, so there's not much reason to doubt, except I want to plant a seed of doubt that'll come when we get to the end of the book. There's reason to say, well, would Jonah have written a book that makes Jonah look so bad? Jonah doesn't come out so good in this book. Maybe someone else wrote it, but I want to propose, might be able to have an explanation for why it was Jonah who wrote it. If so, I'll start off by saying I think it was a stroke of genius to do it that way and risk his reputation. Take that as a teaser for what's ahead.

The name Jonah from the Hebrew means dove. So it's different than a lot of the others. We normally associate doves with peace, but in that culture doves were also associated with silliness. So silliness, sometimes like ABC students are associated with silliness, but we'll leave that.

So Jonah does appear elsewhere in the Bible. Unlike some others, we know a little bit about him, and the reference where he appears is in 2 Kings, 2 Kings 14:25. So there it tells us that Jonah is the son of Amittai, which we don't know much about Amittai, but he's from a place called Gath-hepher. Gath, or Gath, but not Gath the Philistine city, but Gath-hepher, which scholars believe was in the northern area of Israel. So he's from the northern area of Israel, we believe.

If he lives near the border with Syria, that would give him reason to be familiar with different languages. And perhaps that makes it easy for him to travel to Nineveh and talk to them and them understand him. And his writing does seem to include some influences of Aramaic.

I'm going to be honest and say I don't read or write Aramaic, so what scholars mean by influences I'm not certain of, but I know that if you're translating from one language to another, you can have influences of the way you do things in one language that affects the way you do it in the other. So let's leave it at that.

Let's talk about when. And there's disagreement among scholars. That reference of Jonah in 2 Kings 14:25 mentions that Jonah prophesied something about Israel recovering some territory, and that prophecy was fulfilled during the reign of King Jeroboam II. So there's a reference to a prophecy by Jonah that's fulfilled during the time of Jeroboam II. Does that mean Jonah made that prophecy during Jeroboam II's reign?

It could have been, but then again Jonah could have made the prophecy many years previously, and they just noted that it was fulfilled. That's the reason I'll say some scholars want to assign Jonah to being late, maybe between 790 and 750 BC, during the reign of Jeroboam II.

Other scholars say, no, we think he was earlier, maybe way earlier, maybe in the 800s BC. And a lot of charts I've seen where they try to put the prophets in order will show Jonah as being one of the earliest in the Bible, you know, up there with Obadiah as being real early.

I'll be honest, I don't have a reason to try to prefer one above the other, but it seems it was fairly early. We could say he was around maybe the time of Hosea and Amos, maybe even earlier with Obadiah.

We move into the where, when, and why is a little more interesting. We noted that Jonah was from Gath-hepher, which was in the territorial region of Zebulun. So, Zebulun north of Galilee. You know, so Galilee is the area where Christ did His ministry. It seems Jonah lived and did most of his work north of there. In his writing, he doesn't mention either Samaria or Jerusalem. So, he does make a reference to the temple, so that existed. And boy, you know, he traveled around, it seems.

One of the things I'll comment, asking these questions reminds us that there's a lot we don't know about how to do the job of a prophet. You know, you don't go to the employment agency and say, I want to be a prophet. Let me fill out an application, and then someone hires you for Prophets Incorporated, and they give you job assignments. So, how does a prophet do his job? You know, and is it the same for all of them? Probably not. So, I'm raising these questions to which we don't have firm answers, just to remind us that there's a lot that we don't know.

So, the where, he lives in northern Israel. He seems to travel around. We know he's going to travel to Nineveh during the course of the book. So, let's talk about the why. Why is this book written? And part of the why relates to the what, and I'll just remind you it's different from all of the other minor prophets in an important way.

But the purpose behind this seems largely to be to demonstrate God's mercy. God is merciful, and that mercy is available to all peoples if they'll repent, not just Israel. Okay, there's a, and maybe because of that, you know, Jonah has been called the greatest missionary book in the Old Testament. Missionary meaning going out to try to preach the truth and to convert others. Not sure how much Jonah was trying to convert others, but we know there's a story here that concerns Nineveh, you know, the capital of Assyria.

Okay, and so there's repentance. Well, let me say there's a lesson here that repentance brings mercy. We've said a big factor is to say God demonstrates His mercy, but repentance is necessary.

And let's say a third purpose, and one we might think of right away for Jonah, and that is God's will cannot be denied. You can't run away from God. Why do we know that? Jonah tried it. Jonah tried to run away. He did not want to do what God told him to do, and he ran away, and he couldn't get away. I'd like to think that's going to be true for any and all of us. When God wants something, He's going to make sure it happens.

Now, I want to include this as part of the why, because Jesus Christ will cite something important from the book of Jonah regarding Himself. And it's the one sign He said that showed that He was the Messiah, and that was that He would be in the grave three days and three nights the same way Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights.

So if we're talking about why the book, well, God sets up this parallel that Jesus Christ can refer to. We must think that it seems God had it in mind when it happened. God's plan is said if Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, a plan for how long He would be in the grave makes sense, could have been already planned out. So God might have decided, I'm going to use Jonah as an example.

Now there's a lot of might-haves and perhaps in there, but well, we'll talk about this later when it says he's in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. But I will give you the reference if you want the scriptural reference here. It's in Matthew 12 verses 38 through 41. So Matthew 12:38-41. The parallel account is in Luke, Luke 11:29-32.

Let's talk about the what of Jonah. Okay, what is the book of Jonah? Here is where it's really different because it's a narrative. The book of Jonah is not much prophecy that God inspired with Jonah. It's a story about a prophet.

And we've been through Hosea and Joel and Amos and Obadiah. Those are the writings of those prophets. Lots of prophecy. Jonah has almost no prophecy. It has narrative. So what is Jonah? It's a story about a prophet. Narrative.

The one prophecy that's in it is 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And then that, I'll say, is delayed. Let's not say Nineveh is not overthrown. Nineveh will be overthrown, but not in 40 days.

So the story concerns Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. So we're familiar with Babylon on the Euphrates River. On the Tigris River, way up here, is the city of Nineveh. We'll talk more about it later, but it's way outside of Israel.

Some scholars have seen the story of Jonah as a reproof of Israel. In other words, Israel, I want to rub your nose in this because we could say if a foreign people would repent when they got a warning from a god they didn't even know, you know, foreign people, the Ninevites, repented when they got warned by a god they didn't even know anything about, why then wouldn't Israel repent when they did know God? And He repeatedly called on them to repent. And we don't know.

The story, so we have that. We can also say that the story of Jonah includes a very ironic contradiction. I love that phrasing. An ironic contradiction, because Jonah is the recipient of God's mercy. Jonah doesn't deserve God's mercy, but God saves him, saves him from being in the belly of a fish, gives him another chance.

But is Jonah happy to see other people given another chance? No, he is not. Jonah doesn't want the Ninevites to be allowed to repent and be saved. So there you go.

Which I just brought up, one of the most famous elements of the story of Jonah is he's swallowed by a great fish. I don't want to elaborate, but you should know that similar stories appear in the mythology of other peoples. So it's not unique to the Bible. You know, there's a story that says Hercules spent three days in the belly of a sea monster, and Andromeda was swallowed by a sea monster and then saved by Perseus. And I'm just citing the Greek ones. There's others, I believe.

Some scholars will say, see Jonah copied from them. I think it's the other way around. Especially since we could see the dating, it seems certain that Jonah's time was earlier than much of this Greek culture developed. So maybe a story like what happened to Jonah would get around. Even without Facebook, it would get around. Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, what else would it be? Not Spotify. Unless it's a podcast about Jonah.

Word would get around, and people might incorporate that into their own culture with their own heroes. Maybe. I'm not going to say absolutely it happened, but it makes sense. I will say the story of Jonah is true. It really happened to a real man named Jonah. So stories in other cultures might be copies and ripoffs. This one is the real thing.

So let's get into it. Chapter 1, verse 1.

We read, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai” (Jonah 1:1).

How did the word come to Jonah? A dream, a vision, carrier pigeon—we don't know for sure. But it seems Jonah knows and believes that this is God.

And the message to him is, “Arise, go to Nineveh,” And by the way, it's “that great city.” So it's not, you know, a suburb of Jerusalem called Nineveh. It's the Nineveh. “Cry out against it, for their wickedness.” Well, “cry out against it, for their wickedness has come before me.” (Jonah 1:2)

 So God says their wickedness is before me. You need to go cry out against it. And what does Jonah do? He doesn't say, yes sir, I'm on my way. And it's the famous part of the story. Jonah arose to flee. You know, he's trying to get out of there as fast as possible. He doesn't want to go to Nineveh.

So we read, “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).

I'm trying to hide from God. As I said, he's going to learn you can't hide from God, but he's going to give it the old college try.

By the way, I pointed out Nineveh is on the banks of the Tigris River. Many scholars think at this particular time it's the largest city in the world. Babylon will exceed it when Babylon's time comes. But if this is earlier, which we think it is, Nineveh might be the largest in the world. It's the largest that we know of.

Interestingly, this is the only recorded example in the Old Testament of God sending a prophet away from His people, Israel, to a foreign people. Now, there are some writings addressed to other people. We covered the book of Obadiah, which is about the doom of Edom—so, message to Edom. Later, we'll cover the book of Nahum. Nahum is also against Assyria and Nineveh, but we don't know that those men were told to go to those nations.

It's worth noting, though, that later when the Church is founded, Jesus Christ will send His apostles to all the world, go to all nations. So I'm noting there's a difference in how the Church operates than how Old Testament prophets did, but maybe not entirely a difference.

Jonah is told to go, but as we know, he doesn't want to go. I don't want to go there. He goes the other way.

First, he goes to Joppa. Joppa is a city here. Well, it's actually labeled on this map. It's on the coast. Later, that town is going to be what's known as Joppa. So in more modern times, Joppa—and scholars believe that it is now encompassed within what is the modern city of Tel Aviv—so it's that area, and we can guess pretty much where it is. If you go to Tel Aviv, there are people that say you can find the old city that was Joppa.

And he's going to Tarshish. Where is Tarshish? He pays the fare. Well, there's different interpretations. Some scholars say it's somewhere near Sardinia. But when Herodotus wrote his Greek histories, he would reference a city called Tartessus. Tartessus, if I slur, it'll sound like it's the same city. It was a city in Spain.

I hesitate to bring this up—I don't want to violate any copyrights—but if you've seen the VeggieTales movie, I love the scene where he shows the map where Tartessus is, and the carrot that has a Scottish accent says, it's practically the other end of the world! I can't do Scottish. I wish I could do a Scottish accent. Anybody here do a Scottish accent? No? Well, imagine a carrot that sounds like Scotty from Star Trek. It's practically the other end of the world.

He's trying to go as far the opposite direction. To go to Nineveh, he's got to travel east. He wants to go west as far as he can go. He's definitely not trying to obey God. He's not saying, well, yeah, I'll go to Nineveh, but first I've got to stop and visit my grandma on the way and do this. No, it's not that at all. He's running from God. And God's not going to let him.

I've got to turn the page on my notes. Oh, and by the way, turning the page on my notes reminded me of something. With the analogy of Jonah three days and three nights in the belly of the fish and Christ three days and three nights in the grave, we can see a parallel with Jonah, where Jonah is a type of Christ. Let's be clear—when he's running away, not a type of Christ. Not being at all Christ-like. So part of the analogy fits, but not here.

And it's worth noting, is he the only prophet that tried to get out of doing what God wanted? Not really. We're going to talk about Moses.

God called Moses and said, I'm going to send you to Pharaoh. And Moses made up every excuse he could think of. But at least he didn't run away.

Jeremiah—when God calls Jeremiah in the first chapter, Jeremiah says, I'm just a kid. I can't do that. When I'm saying others tried to get out of doing what God wanted, Jonah is pretty unique. He runs. He tries to get as far away as he can.

And we could ask the question, why? Why is he trying to get away?

Okay, there is an answer in the book, in chapter 4, verse 2. Jonah says, “Was this not what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore”—which could be saying, for this reason—“I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:2).

Jonah seemed to have had some idea—if I warn Nineveh, they might repent and God will spare them. It seems Jonah's attitude is, I want God to smash those Ninevites. I don't want God to show mercy to them.

That's a bad attitude. That's not a way we should emulate. Certainly not a type of Jesus Christ.

But Jonah's running away because he doesn't want God to show mercy. At least, that's what he's going to claim later. There could have been other things in his mind as well.

Now we come to chapter 1, verse 4. “But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up” (Jonah 1:4).

The Hebrew actually could be translated as the Lord hurled a storm. It's like He winds up and throws a storm—and it's a big, tough one.

Verse 5 says, “Then the mariners were afraid” (Jonah 1:5).

These are sailors. They go to sea all the time. They know what a storm is like. And they know this one is really bad. When the sailors are afraid, you better take note.

And every man cried out to his god. These are probably Phoenicians. Remember, Joppa is on the coast. We've got these seafaring peoples. So they're probably not Israelites. And they probably worship various different gods. And they're each one crying out to whatever god they worship.

They're also taking action as much as they can. They're throwing out the cargo to lighten the load so that it'll be more buoyant—I knew there was a good word for that. By the way, that harkens to what will happen later in the book of Acts when Paul is going to be shipwrecked, and it talks about them throwing out the tackle and throwing out the food supplies. So you want your ship to ride as high in the water as possible if it might capsize and sink.

By the way, Jonah is not helping. The last part of verse 5 says, “But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep” (Jonah 1:5).

Jonah has taken a nap. How do you sleep through that? I don't know. He might have been tired because he ran all the way from northern Israel to Joppa. I don't know if he ran the whole way, but he might have. He's also probably got a lot of stress. Psychologists say sometimes when you're very stressed out, sleeping is something you do to escape. So whatever the cause—whatever the reason—he's asleep.

The captain comes and wakes him up. “What do you mean, sleeper?”—I'm going to use that on my son, maybe, when I wake him up in the mornings—“Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 1:6).

So they want everyone to call on as many gods as they can. I like to say it's like the American Idol effect. You know, if you're watching the American Idol TV show and want to get as many calls as you can to save us—I don't think God works that way. God is not necessarily moved by numbers, but that doesn't mean we don't think that way. Everybody, call on whatever god you know. Let's get everyone to pray, and maybe God will hear.

Anyways, they do that, and it's not working. So in verse 7, they say, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us” (Jonah 1:7).

The lot fell on Jonah.

And this is something that would happen. The pagan worldview of that time was that one person's crime could bring punishment on an entire group. And we see that sometimes in the Bible in certain circumstances, especially when a leader does something, or God says, if any of you do this, you'll get a punishment.

I want to note that that's not God's normal way of operating. I want to reference, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). Or the way I like to translate that is, the one that does the sinning is the one that will die.

And that will prove to be the case here—while not dying—but Jonah will get punished, and then the others are spared.

But at any rate, they're thinking somebody must have done something wrong. This storm is unlike anything we've seen. Somebody did something. Or, as it says in the movie, somebody up there is really mad at someone down here. I'm not sure that's the most accurate way of looking at it, but people do see it that way.

So they cast lots. It's Jonah.

Okay. God does sometimes move lots to reveal His will. Casting lots is like drawing straws or, you know, throwing dice or something—some element of chance.

We see that in the Bible at times as late as the New Testament, when the disciples, after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, realized they need to replace Judas Iscariot, and they cast lots, and the lot falls on Matthias.

But it's worth noting that's the last time that they cast lots. And that's not the main point of this here. I'll let Mr. McNeely cover it in his Acts class, but we believe that right after they cast lots, the next thing that happens in the story is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.

We have God's Holy Spirit available today. So in the Church of God today, we don't make our decisions by casting lots because we've got something better—God's Spirit working in our minds.

These sailors didn't have God's Spirit. They cast lots, and God did show them an answer, I think. It fell on Jonah.

And they said in verse 8, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation?” (Jonah 1:8).

They're sort of like saying, Jonah, what did you do?

Let's give them credit. They didn't say, it's on him—kill him. No, they gave him a chance to tell them what's going on. You know—who are you? Where are you from? What's your occupation? And your people.

I'd like to note an interesting parallel to something else that happens in the Old Testament. And I'm not sure how close the parallel is, but in the book of Joshua in chapter 7, there's the story of a fellow named Achan.

When the Israelites conquer Jericho—remember the walls fall down—and God says, don't take any plunder from Jericho. But Achan saw a Babylonish garment and a wedge of silver, and then he takes it and hides it. And so Israel loses the next battle at Ai, and they're wondering what's going on. They cast lots. It goes down from tribe to clan to family, finally to Achan.

So this is a parallel to lots showing who did it. And similarly, Joshua says, give glory to God, tell us what you did—and Achan confesses.

So there's an interesting way we see these things. Like I said, it's an interesting parallel. I'm not sure exactly what more it means, but it's good to not jump to conclusions.

And like Achan, who confessed, Jonah confesses.

You know, what people are you? Verse 9—“I am a Hebrew” (Jonah 1:9).

Why doesn't he say, I'm an Israelite?

Well, we don't know for sure, but we see when Israelites are dealing with peoples in other nations, they often refer to themselves as Hebrews, which Joseph will do when he's in Egypt. So it seems, yeah, Hebrew comes from the name Eber, who we find in Genesis 10, descended from Shem.

So Eber—or Hebrews—seems to be what the Israelites, they're a subset of that. And that's what they're known for more than Israelites or children of Abraham.

But not only am I a Hebrew, “I fear the Lord”—this is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, so we often pronounce it as Yahweh—“the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9).

You know, I worship the Creator who made all this.

And by the way, in the next verse it says he told them that he fled. So it doesn't say that he said it here, but the sailors know he worships God who made everything, and he's running away from Him. Dude, how dumb can you be? Why are you doing this, Jonah?

Now, in verse 10, “Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, ‘Why have you done this?’” (Jonah 1:10). Why would you do this if you know He’s this great, powerful God?

And then they ask him—and I love this—if you know why we're having this problem, maybe you know the solution. So what shall we do to you that the sea may be calm? Because it's getting worse. It's getting more tempestuous.

So, Jonah, you know what you did. Now, what should we do?

You know, I'm not sure if Jonah's answer is the one God inspired, but in verse 12 he says, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you; for I know that this great tempest is because of me” (Jonah 1:12).

So, yeah, I'm the cause. It's my fault. So throw me in. I'm going to pause there and say, there are two ways we can consider what Jonah says to do. So, two different views, because we don't know what's going on inside his head. The first view does show Jonah in a good light. He's sacrificing himself to save others. If that's the case, in that way he is, in some ways, like Jesus Christ.

Caiaphas during Christ's ministry said it's expedient that one may die for the people, not the whole nation perish. You know, it could be—it's better for this one guy, Jonah, to die than all the sailors.

Or, if I can make a pop culture reference, one of my favorite characters by the name of Mr. Spock said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the needs of the one. Okay, that's from Wrath of Khan, and I know it goes back quite a few years. Jonah might be expressing that kind of sentiment. I'm sure he hadn't seen the movie, because it wasn't out on Blu-ray yet at that time. But he's, you know, saying, throw me in and you'll be saved.

There's another view that doesn't make Jonah look so good. Perhaps Jonah has a defeatist attitude. Okay, I know I ran away. God's going to not let me escape. I'd rather die than have to go back to Nineveh. Is that what he's thinking? I don't know. I prefer to believe he's not thinking that, but we can't say for sure.

One thing I do notice is he doesn't throw himself in the water. He could have said, you guys will escape if I get thrown in, so here, I'll jump over the rail. But he tells them they'll throw him in. You guys throw me in. And they're hesitant.

And I want to note this, because we tend to think God's people are pure and good and right. Everyone else never does anything right. But that's not what we see here.

These sailors don't know God. They've been worshipping and calling on whatever gods they know. But when they're told the way to save your life is to throw Jonah in, verse 13 says, “Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land” (Jonah 1:13).

They tried to save Jonah. Before they throw him overboard and let him drown, they're going to make their best efforts. But it says they couldn't. God's not going to let that happen. So the sea continued to grow more tempestuous.

So we see in verse 14, they cry out to the one that we would say Yahweh, or the Eternal One. “Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You’” (Jonah 1:14).

So now they're getting to know Him. And they say, please don't let us perish for this man's life. Don't charge us with innocent blood. We don't want to kill this guy, but this is what seems it has to happen.

And they throw him over.

You know, yeah, verse 15, “So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging” (Jonah 1:15).

Now, I'm going to confess, most of my time growing up, I thought of—okay, the storm dissipates like storms do. You know, you've seen a really heavy storm, and then it gets lighter and lighter, and eventually it's... But if we take this literally, it seems like they throw him in—and sky is clear, sun comes out. Was it that fast?

Because they're pretty amazed. You know, in verse 16, “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly” (Jonah 1:16).

And then it makes us wonder, if it stopped that quickly, is Jonah out there bobbing around in the water, and he sees them, and they see him, and they're thinking, well, should we pull him back in? Well, I don't want another storm. What do we do?

Of course, we know they're not going to get the option, but I'm intrigued. I first thought of this not from the VeggieTales movie, but from a children's book. You know, I was reading a story of Jonah to Connor, and I turned the page, and it shows Jonah just floating in the water, and the guys in the boat, and the sun's out—and I thought, maybe it was like that.

If so, how much—I mean, you guys have seen storms stop. That's not a big deal. But if a storm just stops just like that, it gets your attention.

So, you know, maybe—I wonder.

It does say they feared the Lord exceedingly. I'm not going to say that they became converted and were filled with the Holy Spirit, but now, of whatever gods they know, they're saying, this one—it's special.

And they offered sacrifice to the Lord and took vows. You know, this seems to imply they had some animals on the boat, and they sacrificed one of them right then and there.

I'm not going to say that this is fulfilling the laws in Leviticus of doing a proper sacrifice. You know, they don't know any of that. But, you know, who knows? Did some of them become converted? Did they go back to land and say, I want to visit Israel and find out about this God? Who knows?

It's one of those things the Bible doesn't tell us, and it's curious to know. You know, we'll have to look at it another time.

Okay, so let's get back to Jonah, though, because he's in the water, and verse 17 tells us, “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish” (Jonah 1:17).  Okay, so God prepared this. It's part of a plan, you know, to swallow Jonah. Jonah's in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Come back to that in a moment, but there's a lot of things here.

I've listened to talks by several ministers to determine what species of fish this was—certain ones that have a big enough throat and maybe could have enough air.

I'd say it's a unique creation. God prepared this fish. Maybe it was a particular species that God made—one be born that grew extra large and had extra different traits. Maybe. I don't want to go too far in speculating on this, but let's just say this is unique.

So I don't think there's fish out there in the ocean right now that are looking to swallow people and keep them alive for three days and three nights.

What type is it? The Hebrew word for fish is dag—D-A-G is the way we would transliterate it. It's based on the word for wiggle, so the way fish move. Okay, that's the word that's commonly translated as fish.

But it seems the word we have here is tannin—T-A-N-N-I-Y-N—which doesn't mean just fish. It means monster. Could possibly be translated as whale.

Oh, no—I'm saying this backwards. We're not using this word here. Okay, they could—the word was available—they're using the word for fish. So I have this down to tell you it's not this here in the Old Testament.

I'm bringing it up because Jesus said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).

Jesus doesn't use the Greek word ichthys. He doesn't use that word. He uses the Greek word ketos, which means monster.

So we're left saying, well, which is it?

Well, I'm going to trust Jesus to be right more than I am Jonah, because Jonah's in trouble already. Well, I'm going to say it's probably not a whale. I don't think it's an air-breathing mammal.

Some translations, especially the Latin Vulgate—the most literal translation into English would refer to this not as Jonah and the whale, but Jonah and the sea monster.

So let's think this is some kind of sea monster, or—I prefer what we have in English—a great fish.

Okay, so it swallows Jonah. He's in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Okay, again, Jesus refers to this as the only sign He would give of being the Messiah, and He's referring to the length of time that He's there.

Okay, and I think I've mentioned this before—the Hebrew word for day is sometimes used to mean an era or a period of time, not necessarily 24 hours. But in the Hebrew grammar, as I read by Hebrew scholars, if it mentions day and night, then it does mean 24 hours.

Okay, and this here in Jonah 1:17—three days and three nights. Jesus was in the heart of the earth three days and three nights—72 hours.

This is not at all important for the story of Jonah. We don't have to care how long he was in the fish, but if it's a reference to Jesus Christ, He wasn't in the heart of the earth—He wasn't in the tomb—parts of two days and one whole day. Didn't go in Friday evening and come out Sunday morning. It was 72 hours, and I'll leave it at that because it's not the center point of Jonah, but that's where it's based on. We know that it is that.

Okay.

Some scholars see Jonah as a bit of a prophecy or an allegory of Israel, though, and I'll comment on that before we go into chapter 2.

Some say that Jonah, like Israel, was called by God but refused to obey. We know Jonah was called—told go to Nineveh—he ran the other way. Israel was called, given God's law, repeatedly did not obey.

Jonah was punished and he ended up in another nation—going to Nineveh eventually. Israel would be punished by being taken captive and end up in other nations.

And we could say God preserved Jonah, and there's indication God preserved Israel, even among other nations. So it's worth seeing these parallels.

But let's get back to the book. I'm not trying to go too quickly, but we don't need to drag it out.

Chapter 2—“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly” (Jonah 2:1).

Before we look at the prayer, I want to note there are two general interpretations of what happens to Jonah over the course of these three days and three nights.

Okay, one is—okay, he somehow survives and maybe has limited consciousness. He's in a place where he can be kept alive, and the fish will spit him out.

A different interpretation says that the parallel with Christ is even more profound and says that Jonah died. Most of us, if we got swallowed by a fish and we're in there three days or three nights, we're not living through it. So some people think Jonah might have been swallowed and died and then was brought back to life—resurrected—as we know Jesus Christ was.

Bible doesn't say that. And we certainly don't need Jonah to be resurrected to be the proof of Christ as Messiah, because Jesus referred to the time He was in the fish, not to any resurrection. But it's intriguing.

God certainly can intervene. Whether Jonah died and was resurrected or was preserved, I think it's God's miracle. God intervenes to make Jonah alive at the end of this, right? He wants Jonah to learn a lesson and come out of this.

And it says, Jonah prayed from the fish's belly. He must have been conscious sometime.

Probably he wrote it down later. I don't know if he's got a notebook and a pen and he's writing out, and while I'm praying I'll write down what I'm writing—partly because it's probably pretty dark in there.

It reminds me of—you guys have heard of Groucho Marx? Or have you? American humorist. He says, man's best friend, outside of a dog, is a book. Okay, because dog is man's best friend. Outside of a dog, his best friend is a book. Inside of a dog—well, it's too dark to read.

Thank you for chuckling. I've always thought that was funny. And I think inside of a great fish, it's too dark to read—probably too dark to write.

So I'm going to propose that Jonah remembers some of what he prayed and later writes a summary.

Interestingly, a lot of what we see here in chapter 2 echoes things that are written elsewhere in the Old Testament. And I'll highlight some of it.

Verse 2, he says, “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me” (Jonah 2:2).

Psalm chapter 3 verse 4 says, “I cried to the Lord, and He heard me” (Psalm 3:4).

And by the way, there are some other passages. I'm just going to mention one for each of these, but we see these parallels.

“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2).

So, you know, of course, Sheol is a translation that means grave. So it's like Jonah was buried at sea.

Let's go to verse 3: “For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me” (Jonah 2:3).

If we were to look at Psalm 88 verses 6 and 7—“You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves” (Psalm 88:6–7).

Maybe Jonah knew his Bible pretty well, and these thoughts are coming to mind as he's thinking what to pray to God.

Verse 4: “Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple’” (Jonah 2:4).

Okay, I'm cast out of Your sight. Psalm 5 verse 7 says, “I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy” (Psalm 5:7).

You know, so I'm looking again to Your temple.

And by the way, I'll also comment—when Solomon does the dedication of the temple of God, he prays to God and says, if people will pray toward this temple, hear them. That's in 2 Chronicles 6 and verse 20.

So again, maybe Jonah is thinking of Solomon's prayer. So he says, I'll look again to Your holy temple.

Now there's something at the end of verse 5 that's not mentioned elsewhere—“The weeds were wrapped around my head” (Jonah 2:5).

He's literally in the belly of a fish. Let's forget allegory and metaphor—I got weeds wrapped around my head. Apparently the fish eats not only Israelites that are thrown in the sea, but he's eaten some kelp and other stuff. 

Let's go to verse 6, though. “I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit” (Jonah 2:6).

I can tie that to “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave” (Psalm 49:15). Redeem my soul from the pit, or the grave.

“For You have delivered my soul from death” (Psalm 56:13).

Going on to verse 7, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:7).

I'll refer this again to Solomon's prayer. He says, if Your people will humble themselves and pray, hear from heaven and forgive.

Psalm 107 verse 5 says, “Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them” (Psalm 107:5).

So here he's saying, yeah, my soul fainted within me.

Psalm 142 verse 3 says, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me” (Psalm 142:3).

So he's calling on God to pay attention, but it seems God was paying attention.

And I read through this, but I didn't call your attention to something I think is very special about this prayer, and it might show a turning point for Jonah. It supports the idea that Jonah wrote this down afterwards, but if it was his genuine prayer while he was in the fish, there's something noteworthy we might have missed.

But imagine yourself inside a fish, and you're going to pray to God—what are you going to ask God?

I'm going to pray, please, God, get me out of this fish. Please save me, deliver me.

We don't see that in Jonah's prayer.

What we do see is Jonah praising God—Jonah thanking God because of God's salvation.

Is that a matter of Jonah has such faith and confidence in God, he knows if he prays to God, God is as good as answered him? Because if so, this is the first time Jonah gives us a real positive example that we should follow.

Now, if I'm in the belly of a fish, or I fall down a well and I'm hanging upside down—and they say, what's the way to pray? If you're hanging upside down in a well, that's the posture you pray in—but I'm going to pray, God, please save me.

If I'm trapped in a collapsed mine—God, save me. Get me out of the heart of the earth.

I hope I have the presence of mind to say thank You, because I know You're listening. I praise You, God, because You've promised deliverance and You keep Your promises.

It seems that Jonah—he's there. And that's pretty superior. That's something we don't normally have or do. He's giving great thanks to God for what He's done.

And in verse 9, he says, “I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving” (Jonah 2:9).

I tied that to “Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High” (Psalm 50:14).

Psalm 69:30 says, “I will praise the name of God with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30).

Jonah's there—a place for us to get to.

And “So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out” (Jonah 2:10).

I like the old King James—it said, spewed. It seems a little neater.

What's Jonah like when he comes out? We can comment on that in our next class, because he's been in a fish's belly with digestive juices—he's probably not looking so great.

Yes—flower?

[Flower] Oh, it's not New King James?

[Dunkle] It's Old King James. So maybe there must be some translation, I think, that says spews. But maybe I'm thinking of when you have lukewarm water and Christ spews you out of His mouth if you're Laodicea. Sorry, I could be getting my temperatures confused. Okay, it vomits him up. He's out. He's alive. We'll pick it up from there in the next class. What's going to happen next? Thank you very much.