Jonah 1:2–5

Jonah had already carried messages from the LORD to Israel (2 Kings 14:25); now God gives him a unique distinction and sends him "far away to the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). It is an unspeakable honour to be a messenger for God at any time. Have we all learned this? Are we all in the spirit of Isaiah's words "Here I am, send me?"

Unlike every other prophet of the Old Testament, he served the pagan people of Nineveh and not the people of Israel. The only message Jonah announced was the one about the coming judgment on Nineveh (Jonah 1:2; 3:2,4). So Jonah is the only prophet of the Old Testament who shows God's grace to the nations outside Israel.

What of Nineveh — "that great city"? We first read of it in Genesis 10:6-13, where Ham's line produces Nimrod, and Nimrod goes to Assyria and builds Nineveh. So the descendants of a man under a curse founded it, and God Himself must say of it, "their evil has come up before me."

It is a solemn truth, reader: sin has a voice. It cries to heaven for God's righteous judgment, and the word of God confirms it. God says to Cain, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." God then pronounces judgment upon Cain. To Abraham the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see…"

God took notice of the wickedness of the men of Nineveh, just as He takes notice of your wickedness. Do not think that His eye is not on you. It is. His hand may not be on you yet, but His eye is on you.

How striking is the difference between Jonah's message and ours! Jonah's message was entirely one of judgment without a word of mercy. Yet both preacher and hearers read in this message, and read correctly, an offer of mercy. Otherwise, why send the warning of judgment? It is well for us to remember that in every message of judgment, there is hidden an offer of mercy, if the guilty ones will only take warning and repent.

The book of Jonah teaches that God is patient and merciful. Where there is repentance, God will hold back His judgment. The book of Nahum teaches something else. The God who sees the end from the beginning will carry out the judgment He pronounced, once He counts the time of His patience finished.

The LORD told him to go east, and he hurries west at once. He runs straight against God's command. To some this seems hard to explain in a prophet… But we have to learn that flesh is no better in a prophet than in ourselves. The real difference between people is not that one man's flesh is better than another's. It is that some have learned to distrust themselves completely, and to live another life — a life by faith, not by flesh.

The Lord did not only tell Jonah to "Arise, go." He told him just where to go. He did not say, "Arise, go anywhere you like." The Lord will tell us where to go too. He may send us to someone in our own family, or to our neighbours. He may send us to people of a different nation, speech and language, at the other end of the earth.

But in Jonah we see the stubbornness of man. Jehovah told him to go east, and he at once hurries west. He flies straight in the face of God's command… We have to learn that flesh is no better in a prophet than in ourselves. The real difference between people is not that the flesh of some is better than the flesh of others. It is that some have learned to distrust themselves completely, and to live another life — a life by faith, not by flesh.

Tarshish in Spain was his goal… This cannot mean that he fled from the presence of God, whom he knew to be everywhere: "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7). He did not flee from the presence of the Lord in the sense of escaping His knowledge and authority. It means that he left the land of Israel where Jehovah dwelt; he fled from the task he had been given.

Three times in our chapter (as three times also in the first) the Holy Spirit mentions the prophet's useless attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord, as if to point out the folly of such an attempt.

Jonah was afraid that God would be too good! If Nineveh repented, he suspected He would show it mercy. He feared, then, that his own standing as a prophet would suffer… Even a prophet's heart is a selfish thing, except so far as he walks by faith!

Jonah's fear, as a Jew, was that if the Gentile nations turned to God, his own nation would lose its unique place. Israel was the chosen nation, and Jehovah had revealed Himself to Israel alone. So he went to Joppa, booked passage on a ship bound for Tarshish, and never reached it.

No doubt our Lord may and does at times show His mind and mark out our path by His providence. But we must stay close enough to Him to read that providence correctly. Otherwise what people call "an opening of providence" may prove to be an opening by which we slip off the holy path of obedience… Jonah might have thought it a remarkable providence to find a ship going to Tarshish. But had he been in communion with God, he would not have needed a ship.

It is always going down when we seek to leave the Lord. This was his first outward step down, but it was by no means his last. An inward or spiritual step down usually comes first. It is easier to go down than to go up, whether for body or soul. Beware, dear fellow-Christian, when the path begins to slope down, when the travel is easy and there is no hill to climb. Then we can be fairly sure we are on the wrong road.

The fare must have been very high for that long journey… If we go in the service of the Lord, we can be sure He will see to "the fare". But if we go to please ourselves, we pay the fare ourselves! … Jonah paid the fare to Tarshish, yet we never hear that he got a refund, even though he never reached his destination.

The Christian is on the upward road to heaven, and he does not pay his own fare. Thank God, another paid it for him — Jesus the Saviour.

God, in His great patience and grace, now repeats the same words of command He had spoken to Jonah the first time. But by then the prophet had learned obedience, the chief requirement for every servant. What a difference from the verse we started with! Now we read: "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD."

Notice those words, "The LORD sent out a great wind." Later we see the various things God "prepared" for Jonah's sake: the "great fish," "a plant," "a worm" and a "scorching east wind." But it does not say that God prepared the "great wind" of verse 4. Psalm 135:7 tells us that God "brings forth the wind from His storehouses." So instead of saying He prepared the wind, it says: "The LORD sent out a great wind into the sea." That word "sent" is not used here by accident. What a sad and solemn contrast to Jonah that "great wind" presents! The same LORD sent both. The stormy wind goes when and where it is sent, "fulfilling His word." (Ps. 148:8) Man, the highest work of His creation, chooses his own will and refuses to go when his Lord and Master sends him!

He went down into that ship to flee from the presence of the LORD, but he did not escape. The ship carried him into the middle of that tempest. There, among the storm and the waves, alone on the vast deep, Jonah was to meet the Lord. He found himself in the very presence of the One he was trying to escape.

This wind had a solemn voice in it for the prophet's ear, if he had been awake to hear it. Jonah was the one who needed to be taught; God sent the messenger out for him. The poor pagan sailors had no doubt often met a storm. To them it was nothing new, nothing special, nothing but what comes to every sailor. Yet it was special and extraordinary for one man on board — and that one was asleep in the sides of the ship. The sailors fought the storm in vain. Nothing would help until the Lord's message reached the ears of the man it was sent to.

The servant under temptation may try to forget God. But God does not forget His servant, and He cannot allow him to disregard His authority. So He pursues him with His storm. He commanded and raised the stormy wind — not to destroy His servant, but to wake him to his position and danger. Yes, the Lord loves His servants too well to let them continue in rebellion. But while He is active in pursuit of Jonah, Jonah is asleep in the middle of the signs of His presence and power. Who will not recall, by way of contrast, the storm on another sea, during which He who had made the sea lay asleep on a pillow!

A Christian, a saint of God — and every true Christian really is "a saint" — should be a blessing to any group of people... but Jonah was very different. Rather than being a blessing to the company of men on that ship, he brought a curse with him. It was he who brought that storm, or at least God sent it for his sake... The Bible says truly, "None of us lives to himself." (Rom. 14:7) We cannot say, "This is my own business and makes no difference to anybody else." Jonah's disobedience made a great difference to those sailors.

Israel, like the prophet, turned their back toward the Lord instead of their face. They refused the warnings of His grace and patience, and so they fell under the chastening and judgments of His hand. Our chapter pictures this: the great wind on the sea, and the ship in danger of breaking up.

That storm required a great sacrifice. No one could ignore its claims. Only one price could turn it to a calm and bring peace: Jonah must go into it. He must sink down into that raging flood. Nothing else could help. So they "picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging."

These sailors did not know Jehovah, the true God, the God who made the sea and the dry land, the God whom Jonah knew. In their trouble they turned to the false gods of the nations... They did not know Jehovah, and could not call on Him. Scripture rightly asks, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? ... And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" These men had not heard, so they could not believe in the true God. Instead of calling on Him, they each called on his own god. Since such gods could neither save nor help them, they turned to their own methods — throwing the cargo overboard. But their prayers, their wisdom and their works were all useless.

Still a third step down for Jonah: down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the lower part of the ship. Sadly for Jonah, he was to go still further down. On a downward path we cannot stop when and where we suppose we can. What a strange sight! The sailors were in terrible danger, calling on their gods to save them. Meanwhile the one and only man on board who knew the true and living God did not trouble to call on Him. He lay fast asleep.

We do not read anything about Jonah calling on his God. Was it a bad conscience that led him to seek sleep in the lower part of the ship? Or did he seek sleep because he was in despair? Or did he act out of the calm of faith, knowing himself safe in the Lord's hands? Perhaps his action shows, more than anything, indifference and an astonishing self-security.

His conscience began to wake up, and he wanted to sleep it off, and he succeeded. How deep is the numbness of a conscience lulled to sleep by Satan, the world and the flesh! It may be the conscience of a saint who has left the path of obedience and is walking in wilful disobedience, or that of a backslider. In the second case the sleep is heavier, deeper and usually longer.

How very solemn it is when God, in dealing with us for our unfaithfulness and sin, has to bring trouble and distress on those around us! The Bible truly says, "For none of us lives to himself." We cannot say, "This is my own business and makes no difference to anybody else." Jonah's disobedience made a great difference to those sailors. They were caught in a terrible storm. They lost their cargo by throwing it overboard to try to save the ship. And all because of the sin of a saint of God. It is a very searching question to ask ourselves, "Am I a blessing or a curse in the circle where I move?"

Jonah escaped to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. In this he is a true picture of Israel fleeing from God instead of carrying His message to the world... But the guilty nation felt nothing. The onlookers — the sailors — were afraid, and each cried to his god in awe at the terrible storm. Israel, though, lay as it were fast asleep, undisturbed by the roar of the storm that threatened to destroy them.

In the middle of the storm, while others were praying, Jonah was sleeping. His self-will was stifling his conscience. How different with the Lord Jesus! When the storm broke on the Sea of Galilee, He slept peacefully in the stern of the boat. As the perfect Man of faith, He could rest His weary head, sure of the Father's care. His sleep astonished the disciples as much as Jonah's sleep astonished the sailors. But what a contrast between the runaway prophet and the Man Christ Jesus!