A Journey with Jonah: One Gospel for Many Nations

1
A Journey with Jonah One Gospel for Many
Nations

• Reed Lessing M.Div., S.T.M., Ph.D.
• Director of the Graduate School
• Associate Professor of Exegetical Theology
• Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO

2
Outline of Presentation

• Introduction
• Many Nations
• One Gospel
• The Book of Jonah

3

• Part 1
• Introduction

4
Introduction

• Jonah doesnt seem to have a lot in common with
  any book in the Old Testament. Terrace Fretheim
  writes of Jonah It has no exact counterpart in
  the Old Testament or in known literature from the
  ancient Near East. The book is as elusive as
  it is deceptive. Augustines response to an
  inquiry made by a potential Christian convert
  perhaps gets at this best. What he asks about
  the resurrection of the dead could be settled
  But if he thinks to solve all such questions as
  those about Jonah he little knows the
  limitations of human life or of his own.

5
Introduction

• Father Mapple in Herman Melvilles Moby Dick
  states Even though Jonah is one of the smallest
  strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures,
  the book is one of the most puzzling and
  intriguing of the entire Old Testament. Though
  there are only 689 words in the Hebrew text of
  Jonah, numerous complexities abound. Did the
  sailors really convert? And speaking of
  conversion, did the Ninevites really convert?
  And speaking of the Ninevites did their animals
  really repent? And speaking of animals, whats
  this deal about a fish could such an animal
  really swallow Jonah? And speaking about Jonah
  well, you get the idea! In this puzzling and
  intriguing book we will journey with Jonah and
  meet a huge storm on the Mediterranean Sea, a hot
  east wind over distant lands, take a tour of
  Sheol, discover the insides of a great fish and
  watch a plant come and go in a day. Most
  surprising we will meet a God who has more love
  and grace and patience than we could ever imagine
  in his pursuit of reluctant and stubborn people
  like us. Lets get started or, to begin the
  punning anchors away!

6

• Part 2
• Many Nations

7
Many Nations

• Garry Wills Pulitzer-Prize winning study on
  Abraham Lincolns most famous speech indicates
  the power of 272 words to bring about change it
  is entitled Lincoln at Gettysburg The Words That
  Remade America. Wills thesis is that Lincoln
  reframed how Americans ever since 1863 have
  construed their nations history and that he did
  this through a brilliant and polished speech that
  successfully and irrevocably reframed our
  history. Wills writes Both North and South
  strove to win the battle for interpreting
  Gettysburg as soon as the physical battle had
  ended. Lincoln is after even larger gamehe means
  to win the whole Civil War in ideological terms
  as well as military ones. And he will succeed
  the Civil War is, to most Americans, what Lincoln
  wanted it to mean. Words had to complete the work
  of the guns.

8
Many Nations

• Lincoln begins reframing American history at the
  very start of his speech when he declares, Four
  score and seven years ago. By using this
  seemingly benign, biblical-sounding way of naming
  a date for Americas beginningsinstead of more
  baldly stating, In 1776... Lincoln creates a
  sense that they are looking backward into
  Americas hallowed origins. By inviting those
  present to consider their hallowed past,
  Lincoln makes it possible for them to transcend
  the actual events that have brought them to this
  cemetery, to step outside of the tragic moment
  long enough to consider the conception and birth
  of the United States of America.

9
Many Nations

• So what has been reframed? After all, the United
  States celebrates the Fourth of July as a
  national holiday, annually marking its countrys
  birthday. So, other than being an interesting
  turn-of-phrase, what is the significance of
  Lincolns opening words? The importance of Four
  score and seven is that Lincoln sneaks in a
  different date for the origin of the American
  nation than the one in use by the people of his
  day, which was that of the Ratification of the
  Constitution. It is not so much that the country
  had ever been in the habit of celebrating
  Constitution-Signing Day, but that many if not
  most Americans in the mid-nineteenth century
  regarded the Constitution as the founding
  covenant of the United States, and as a result
  regarded the nation as being bound together by a
  signed compact between sovereign states.

10
Many Nations

• The difference between, on the one hand, seeing
  the origins of the United States as issuing from
  a contractual agreement among separate partiesan
  agreement that presumably can be renegotiated
  and/or dissolvedand, on the other hand,
  regarding the origin as the creation of a new
  nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to
  the proposition that all men are created
  equalthis difference is, so to speak, all the
  difference in the world. In the latter case, the
  United States begins its existence as an organic
  unitya nation that undergoes a birthspringing
  from the transcendent state of liberty and
  christened by the likewise transcendent principle
  of equality. In this framework, the idea of
  individual states trying to secede from this one
  nation becomes akin to the idea of a hand, an
  ear, or an eye seeking to secede from its body.

11
Many Nations

• Wills goes on But that was just the beginning
  of this complex transformation. Lincoln has
  prescinded from messy squabbles over
  constitutionality, sectionalism, property and
  states. Slavery is not mentioned, any more than
  Gettysburg is. The discussion is driven back and
  back, beyond the historical particulars, to great
  ideals that are made to grapple naked in an airy
  battle of the mind. Lincoln derives a new, a
  transcendental, significance from this bloody
  episode.

12
Many Nations

• It is astounding how this short speech, lasting
  perhaps three minutes, could so dramatically, so
  thoroughly reframe how Americans from that point
  forward have come to think about their history.
  Truly, as Wills concludes, Lincoln had
  revolutionized the Revolution, giving people a
  new past to live with that would change their
  future indefinitely.

13
Many Nations

• The parallels between Lincolns speech and the
  book of Jonah are worth exploring. Both are
  short documents, easily covered in a matter of a
  few minutes. Both utilize their peoples
  historical traditions in order to paint a
  picture, not of some new thing being initiated,
  but of something bigger of a history that in
  fact extends further back than they were
  cognizant of, a story of how things have always
  been since the beginning. Most importantly, in
  reframing history, both give people a new past to
  live with that would change their future
  indefinitely.

14
Many Nations

• Prior to reading the book of Jonah, our ancient
  reader was, for all intents and purposes,
  informed by the view of history as put forward by
  the Pentateuch, a history framed by genealogies
  and progressive covenants that led the God who
  created the heavens and the earth ultimately to
  concern himself with Israel and Israel alone.
  This history can be conceived as a series of
  filters, by which the LORD begins with all of
  creation then, from among those who survive the
  Flood, he chooses Abraham and his descendants
  from among these, he becomes the God of and for
  those Hebrews who come up from slavery in Egypt
  to take possession of the land of Canaan. In this
  history, the most important of these covenants
  becomes the last, for it is the most definitive,
  the most restrictive, the most specific. By
  positing the equivalence of the God of Creation
  with the God that chooses Israel, the
  Pentateuchal history affirms that Yahweh the
  LORD is not merely a tribal god among others,
  but is in fact the one and only God, the God who
  is supreme over all creation, all events, all
  places, and all times and has selected Israel
  as His own.

15
Many Nations

• What we will discover through the book of Jonah
  is the same equivalencebut with the current
  running in the opposite direction! Through our
  journey with Jonah, we will find ourselves being
  pushed back, back, back in time all the way
  back to Noah. And Noah means that this journey
  has a destination of MANY NATIONS.

16
Many Nations

• Yes, the Pentateuch tells us that the God of all
  creation, the God of Noah becomes the God of
  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel at
  Mt. Sinai. Yet here, in the book of Jonahfor the
  first time we are offered this assertion in its
  reverse form the God of the Hebrews, the God of
  Israelhas always been the God of Noah, the God
  of all creation!

17
Many Nations

• That is to say, the origin for Israels history
  is found not with the covenant at Sinai, nor even
  in the covenant with Abraham. The first covenant
  is the one made with Noah, with all subsequent
  humanity plus many animals besides and
  animals will play a big part in the book of
  Jonah. Suddenly, the very God who seems to have
  winnowed out entire peoples and nations and
  tribes and families in choosing Israel is
  presented as the God who has always and all along
  been the compassionate, merciful God of Israel,
  yes! but also of the Edomites, Ishmaelites,
  Canaanites, Amalakites in short, the God of
  everything and everyone, including, of course
  the Ninevites!

18
Many Nations

• Entering into the belly of this scant, 48-verse
  story, we will find ourselves spit out with a new
  history, a story of a people and their God that,
  like the Ninevites, has utterly been turned
  upside-down! What Lincoln did at Gettysburg,
  Jonah does for us. In reframing our history he
  will give us a new past to live with that will
  change our future indefinitely!

19
Many Nations

• What are these rapids that take us on a ride
  toward the life and times of Noah? One answer is
  found in the presence throughout the book of
  Jonah of what is termed a "Noahic milieu." There
  are numerous and, it would seem, intentional
  connections between the stories of Noah and the
  book of Jonah.

20
Many Nations

• The oblique reference to Abraham (the first known
  "Hebrew") in 19 and Jonah's recitation of a
  passage from Exodus in Jonah 42 convey that a
  steady stream runs back through the God at Mt.
  Sinai, through the God of the (first) Hebrews,
  and into a confluence with the God of Noah-the
  Primeval God of all creation. With this
  understanding and no other can we build
  enough consistency in our understanding of the
  book to comprehend Jonah's intense misery,
  namely, that it is "just like God!" to care for
  these violent and questionably repentant
  Ninevites, simply because God also made them and
  their animals! The last destination Jonah seeks
  is MANY NATIONS!

21
Many Nations

• A technique that has garnered a great deal of
  recent notoriety in the world of popular music is
  known as "sampling." Sampling involves taking
  snippets of other artists' songs and weaving them
  into a new song. The technique is, in fact,
  nothing new. Consider the lyrics of the
  well-known patriotic song, "You're a Grand Old
  Flag," which "samples" the much-older song, "Auld
  Lang Syne"
• You're a grand old flag.
• You're a high flying flag
• And forever in peace may you wave.
• You're the emblem of the land I love
• The home of the free and the brave.
• Ev'ry heart beats true 'neath the Red, White
  and Blue,
• Where there's never a boast or brag.
• Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
• Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

22
Many Nations

• Such "samples" act as accents to the song itself
  as well as bring in the musical and affective
  associations that the listeners have with those
  songs being sampled. Sampling is a frequent
  practice in rap and hip-hop music its role is
  explained by Daddy-0, of the group Stetsasonic
  We sometimes use the words 'recontextualization'
  or 'revivification,' but it means the same thing,
  which is to take something old and make it new
  again. The strong point of what sampling does for
  us, as a music form, is to establish some soul
  groove and some old funk that's lost with today's
  music.

23
Many Nations

• All such samplings represent a kind of "musical
  intertextuality," and, although a newly created
  song can be enjoyed on its own merits without
  listener knowledge of any other tunes, samples
  provide the aware audience with additional,
  potentially meaningful dimensions to their
  musical experience. In the case of "You're a
  Grand Old Flag," the use of "Should auld
  acquaintance be forgot" brings to a musical
  affirmation of patriotism the feeling of
  community, by evoking a song traditionally sung
  by close friends and family seeing in the New
  Year together.

24
Many Nations

• Just so, the book of Jonah can be said to
  "sample" the account of Noah found in the book of
  Genesis. And, although the book of Jonah can be
  appreciated without any awareness of these
  "samples," recognition of the Noahic connections
  that sprinkle throughout the story will take this
  convention to one destination MANY NATIONS.
  What follows is a list of phrases, characters,
  and images found in the stories of Noah drawn
  from Genesis 528-1032 that find resonance
  within the book of Jonah.

25
Many Nations

• 1. One hundred twenty years (Gen 63) this is
  the length of time allotted to mortal life by
  Yahweh it is also how many thousands of people
  are in Nineveh at the story's end.
• 2. Yahweh was sorry (Gen 66) literally Yahweh
  repented (that he had made humankind)
  relenting/repenting is what the Ninevites bank on
  and what Jonah is upset with Yahweh for doing in
  Jonah 3 and 4.
• 3. ... people together with animals (Gen 67).
  This phrase occurs throughout the Noah stories
  the book of Jonah is remarkable for its very
  deliberate inclusion of animals along with
  people, both in how the Ninevites repent and in
  how God presents his final question to Jonah.

26
Many Nations

• 4. Violence (Gen 611) this is the reason
  given for God's decision to destroy the earth and
  its inhabitants by means of the Flood it is also
  the sin that the Ninevites recognize as their
  own, and repent of.
• 5. Evil (Gen. 65) is used throughout the book
  of Jonah and is one of its framing words.
• 6. The ark (Gen 614) is the means that God
  provides Noah for the
• protection of him, his family, and the animals
  from the impending
• flood there is a connection between the ark and
  the ship that
• Jonah boards, and even more so with the great
  fish-which turns
• out to be the "vessel" that God provides Jonah
  to protect him from
• the overwhelming flood waters.

27
Many Nations

• 7. Forty days (and forty nights) (Gen 74)
  this is the period of time that the rains last,
  destroying all human and animal life that is not
  with Noah in the ark similarly, this is the
  amount of time from the moment of Jonah's
  prophecy until Nineveh is to be "turned
  upside-down." The association of "forty days" as
  a period for destruction is a link to these two
  stories.
• 8. Flood of waters ... the great deep (Gen 76,
  11) ... These are two equivalent phrases for the
  watery torrent that drowns creation in the
  Genesis story in the psalmic prayer that Jonah
  utters (Jonah 2), these same terms are used.
• 9. The word, "great," occurs frequently
  throughout both texts.

28
Many Nations

• 10. The waters ... dry land. (Gen 720-22) ...
  While it is almost a commonplace in the Old
  Testament to pair waters and dry land in the
  story of Noah, the distinction between the two is
  utterly crucial (life and death) likewise, in
  the book of Jonah, the prophet identifies Yahweh
  as the one who made "the sea and dry land" and,
  indeed, the distinction between the waters and
  the dry land onto which the great fish vomits
  Jonah is critical.
• 11. And God made a wind blow (Gen 81). God is
  portrayed as actively controlling individual
  winds for specific purposes (this time, for the
  purpose of causing the flood waters to subside)
  in the book of Jonah, God hurls a wind into the
  sea to create a storm and, later, sends a searing
  wind from the east that adds to Jonah's misery.

29
Many Nations

• 12. Then he sent out the dove ... the dove found
  no place to set its foot ... it returned to him
  ... again he sent out the dove from the ark (Gen
  88- 10). Noah uses a dove in the story to see
  if the waters had subsided from the face of the
  ground" the name Jonah is Hebrew for dove.
  Moreover, the structure of the book of Jonah
  involves God sending Jonah out the prophet does
  not alight on dry ground (specifically ending up
  in the waters) in his first journey and, of
  course, he is then sent out again.
• 13. Offered burnt offerings on the altar (Gen
  820). Noah, once on dry land, offers up burnt
  offerings to God the mariners, once they are
  delivered from the great storm, offer offerings
  to Yahweh as Jonah pledges to do, once he
  recognizes that Yahweh has delivered him from
  the Pit. In all cases, Noah as well as the
  mariners and Jonah, their offerings to Yahweh are
  a thanksgiving for their deliverance from
  death-by-drowning.

30
Many Nations

• 14. I will require a reckoning for human life.
  Whoever sheds the blood of a human, / by a human
  shall that person's blood be shed" (Gen 95-6).
  This is a statute that God puts down for all
  humanity and the sailors demonstrate an awareness
  of it when they plead with Yahweh not to kill
  them as a punishment for throwing Jonah
  overboard, into the sea.

31
Many Nations

• 15. I am establishing my covenant with you and
  your descendants after you, and with every living
  creature ... my covenant that is between me and
  you and every living creature of all flesh" (Gen
  98-17). In this covenant God specifically
  includes not only humankind but also animals,
  domestic and wild this means that the umbrella
  of this covenant is extended to non-Israelite
  humans (the Ninevites) as well as their animals,
  whose donning of sackcloth and bleating perhaps
  serve to remind God of this eternal promise.
• 16. Shem, Ham, and Japheth are the sons of Noah
  and from these the whole earth was peopled. The
  descendants of Ham include Nimrod who he went
  into Assyria, and built Nineveh, the great city
  (Gen 918-19, 106-12). Here it is made explicit
  that any covenant extending to Noah and to his
  descendants extends to Assyria, to Nineveh, and
  to its residents. The book of Jonah takes it as
  a given that this covenant is operative, and that
  the Ninevites (and Assyrians), even given their
  violence, are included in it.

32
Many Nations

• The question is posed by this sampling is exactly
  the one posed by St. Paul, Is he only the God of
  the Jews? Is he not also the God of the
  Gentiles? (Rom. 329). The Greek of the text
  demands an emphatic YES! And that means our
  destination is not just Israel, not just the
  church no. Our destination is MANY NATIONS
  and this means and includes especially Nineveh!

33

• Part 3
• One Gospel

34
One Gospel

• But if our destination is to MANY NATIONS, our
  conviction is that we have only ONE GOSPEL.
  Lets talk about that. By a word-association,
  Jonah would undoubtedly prompt the reaction of
  whale, but a subject that takes up only three
  verses out of a total of forty-eight cannot be
  regarded as the books main concern. Campbell
  Morgan penned these wise words Men have been
  looking so hard at the great fish that they have
  failed to see the great God. In the book of
  Jonah, the name Yahweh is mentioned 22 times,
  Elohim or El 13 times, and the combination Yahweh
  Elohim four times for a total of 39 references to
  the deity in 48 verses. This is clearly a story
  about the God of Israel.

35
One Gospel

• And this God is the God who delivers. The
  sailors are saved from the raging storm Jonah is
  saved from drowning in the sea the Ninevites are
  saved from destruction ironically in the end,
  even though the LORD provides a plant to save
  Jonah (46), the prophet appears to thwart the
  idea. Although justice demands that the
  idolatrous sailors, the prodigal Jonah and the
  evil Ninevites perish mercy prevails and grants
  a new life. This ONE GOSPEL is summed up in 31,
  Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second
  time We treasure, extol, share, celebrate
  and yes, care passionately about this gospel
  because it shows us that the Creator is the God
  of the second chance. Mark 167, Go tell his
  disciples and Peter Peter, Peter after the
  cave-in, the curses, the cowardly actions you
  get a second chance.

36

• Part 4
• The Book of Jonah

37

• CHAPTER ONE VERSE ONE The word of the LORD
  came to Jonah son of Amittai The expression
  And the word of the LORD came to is found in
  the OT only when contexts and circumstances
  regarding the prophet and his mission are already
  established in previous statements. This point
  is as big as the books fish! It means that the
  story of Jonah actually begins in another place
  i.e. 2 Kings 1425. This account anchors Jonah
  in the 8th century B.C. as a court-prophet of the
  Israelite king Jeroboam II (786-746 B.C.). He
  Jeroboam II restored the border of Israel from
  Lebo-hamath i.e. Aram/Syria as far as the Sea
  of the Arabah i.e. the Gulf of Aqabah,
  according to the word of the LORD, the God of
  Israel, which he spoke by the hand of his servant
  Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from
  Gath-hepher.

38

• Jonah is the Hebrew word for dove (Gen. 88-12
  Song of Solomon 115 41, etc.). There is
  nothing exceptional about a name derived from the
  animal world, whether in Hebrew or in other
  ancient Near Eastern languages yet, since
  biblical names often indicate the nature of a
  person, Hosea 711 is instructive. Ephraim
  became like a dove (hn"AyK. ), silly and
  brainless. They called to Egypt, they went to
  Assyria. The phrase translated brainless has
  connotations of discernment, not simply
  intelligence. Rather, the aimless activity of
  the dove here, flying from one place to another,
  suggest that it is a confused and frightened
  bird.

39

• VERSE TWO "Go to the great city of Nineveh and
  preach against it, because its wickedness has
  come up before me." The entire prophecy of
  Nahum, delivered sometime before Ninevehs
  downfall in 612 BC, gives a picture of this city
  of bloodshed. It is full of lies, dead bodies
  without end, a city that could be likened to a
  shapely harlot out to seduce all nations (Nah.
  31-4 cf. Zeph. 213-15). Nineveh was truly the
  chief of sinners.

40

• Nineveh is remembered most for her inhumane
  warfare. Note these words of one of her kings,
  Ashru-nasirpal II
• I stormed the mountain peaks and took them. In
  the midst of the mighty mountains I slaughtered
  them with their blood I dyed the mountain red
  like wool. With the rest of them I darkened the
  gullies and precipices of the mountains. I
  carried off their spoil and their possessions.
  The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I
  formed them into a pillar over against their
  city their young men and their maidens I burned
  in the fire. I built a pillar over against the
  city gates, and I flayed all the chief men who
  had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their
  skins some I walled up within the pillar, some I
  impaled upon the pillar on stakes, and others I
  bound to stakes round about the pillar.

41
Assyrian Art
42

• VERSE THREE But Jonah ran away from the LORD
  and went down to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa,
  where he found a ship bound for that port. After
  paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for
  Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Jonah says
  nothing to the LORD but rises to flee. Normally
  prophets protest their inability to speak Moses
  protests that he is not a man of words (Ex.
  410) Jeremiah fears that he does not know how
  to speak (Jer. 16) Isaiah insists that his
  words are unworthy, his lips unclean (Isa. 65)
  but Jonah in contrast, goes the opposite
  direction without saying a word! So already in
  this verse the reader encounters the textual
  tendency of Jonah to invert biblical tradition.
  Here the author begins his satire of Jonah and
  all who embrace his ideas.

43
(No Transcript)
44

• And all of this leads to a progressive downhill
  slide. He goes down to Joppa (13), goes down to
  the ship (13), goes down into the innermost
  parts of the ship (15), is thrown down into the
  depths of the sea and then descends to the realm
  of death or Sheol (23, 7). Down, down, down,
  down . this is the inevitable path of those who
  seek to avoid the mission of the church. The
  only place we go is down. And going down in
  the OT depicts a movement toward death (cf. Ps.
  884-6 Prov. 55).

45

• The word fare actually refers to the ship. The
  idea here is not that Jonah paid a fare (so all
  of the English versions), but rather that he
  hired the ship and its crew. First, that Jonah
  has access to the ships innermost recesses
  (15) makes sense if he owned the boat. Second,
  the sailors hesitation to throw Jonah overboard
  (113-14) is understandable because he was their
  boss. Finally, according to most scholars it
  wasnt until Roman times that the ancient world
  had a specific word for fare a charge for the
  purchase of space in an expedition, seagoing or
  otherwise. No wonder Jonah didnt want to go to
  Nineveh hes cashing in on his ministry under
  Jeroboam II enough cash that is, to buy a ship
  and her crew to run away from the LORDS
  presence!

46

• VERSE FOUR Then the LORD sent a great wind on
  the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the
  ship threatened to break up.

47

• And as for the ship it had a mind to break
  up. The irony is that the sailors fear
  disaster, the captain of the ship fears disaster,
  indeed, even the ship thinks it is going to break
  up. The only character animate or inanimate
  that has no fear is Jonah. The pun then is this
  as the ship fears wrecking she becomes a nervous
  wreck!

48

• VERSE FIVE All the sailors were afraid and
  each cried out to his own god. And they threw the
  cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah
  had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell
  into a deep sleep. The subsequent events will
  transform the sailors from shear terror, to an
  awe at the awareness of being in the LORDS
  presence, to finally trust, belief and worship of
  this great God. The word deep sleep may be the
  first indication that Jonah seeks to die (43).
  The same word translated deep sleep is used in
  Judges 421. It describes Sisera as in such deep
  slumber that he didnt hear Jael coming near to
  deliver his death blow (Judg. 421). Luther
  calls Jonahs sleep a sleep of death (cf. Ps.
  884-6), saying, There he lies and snores in his
  sins. As a noun the word describes Adam in Gen.
  221.

49

• VERSE SIX The captain went to him and said,
  "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god!
  Perhaps he will take notice of us, and we will
  not perish." Now a new character enters the
  scene. Many of the human reactions throughout
  the book deal with the question of life and
  death. This issue is particularly focused in the
  use of perish.

50

• Perhaps is indicative of one of the major
  themes of the book (cf. 114b 39). The LORD
  will act as it pleases him, which may or may not
  conform to human patterns of actions. No
  demanding here, just humble awareness that there
  are two foundational truths to human
  enlightenment number one, there is a God
  number two, you are not him!

51

• VERSE SEVEN Then the sailors said to each
  other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is
  responsible for this calamity." They cast lots
  and the lot fell on Jonah.

52

• VERSE EIGHT So they asked him, "Tell us, who is
  responsible for making all this trouble for us?
  What do you do? Where do you come from? What is
  your country? From what people are you?"

53

• VERSE NINE He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I
  worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the
  sea and the land." Jonah 14-16 (Scene II) is
  built according to a concentric or chiastic
  pattern
• A The LORD hurls the storm (14)
• B The sailors pray, act (15ab)
• C Jonah acts (lies down, sleeps 15c)
• D The captain and sailors question Jonah
  (16-8)
• E Jonah speaks (19)
• D The sailors question Jonah (110-11)
• C Jonah speaks (112)
• B The sailors act, pray (113-14)
• A The sailors hurl Jonah and the storm ends
  (115)
• Conclusion 116

54

• Jonahs words in 19, a confession of faith, have
  been carefully placed at the midpoint of this
  chiastic structure. There are 94 words in the
  Hebrew text from the scenes beginning in 14 to
  the beginning of the speech in 19 and 94 words
  in 110-15. Verse 16 stands outside the pattern
  as a conclusion. Both the chiastic structure and
  the exact balance of number of words serve to
  place the focus for this section on the
  confession in 19.

55

• At the heart of this section is Jonahs
  confession that is analogous to his sermon in
  34. Both accomplish the salvation of
  unbelievers. Whatever Jonahs intention, this
  confession functions as a means of grace whereby
  the sailors are brought to faith. Such is the
  power of the ONE GOSPEL albeit in a very brief
  expression indeed, it is the power of God for
  the salvation of all who believe, first the Jew
  and then in this case the Gentile sailors
  (cf. Is. 5510-11).

56

• VERSE TEN This terrified them and they asked,
  "What have you done?" (They knew he was running
  away from the LORD, because he had already told
  them so.) The sailors react in a way more
  indicative of an Israelite, than in a manner one
  would expect from unbelievers. The sailors
  cannot imagine anyone treating a deity in such a
  fashion. Here they are revealed as having a
  respect for the divine that Jonah does not have.
  This is an ongoing theme of the book that is,
  the outsiders get it, the insider doesnt.

57
Jonah as The Older Brother
58

• VERSE ELEVEN The sea was getting rougher and
  rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to
  you to make the sea calm down for us?"

59

• VERSE TWELVE "Pick me up and throw me into the
  sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I
  know that it is my fault that this great storm
  has come upon you."

60

• VERSE THIRTEEN Instead, the men did their
  best to row back to land. But they could not, for
  the sea grew even wilder than before. Normally
  it is the prophets role to save the people from
  some divinely-inspired disaster or punishment,
  but here it is the pagan sailors who attempt to
  save a prophet of the LORD who refuses to speak.
  Against navigational experience spanning
  centuries that has taught mariners to remain in
  open sea during a storm, these sailors attempt to
  return to dry ground. Such is their concern
  for life!

61

• VERSE FOURTEEN Then they cried to the LORD, "O
  LORD, please do not let us die for taking this
  man's life. Do not hold us accountable for
  killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have
  done as you pleased." The role of prophet and
  people is reversed the sailors refuse to commit
  a crime after the prophet has asked them to do
  so. Moreover, the sailors are praying the prayer
  Jonah should be praying. The sailors confess that
  the LORD does as he pleases (cf. Ps. 1153
  1356), while Jonah expresses his frustration
  because God does precisely that.

62

• VERSES FIFTEEN AND SIXTEEN Then they took Jonah
  and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew
  calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD,
  and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made
  vows to him. The LORD is found by those who did
  not seek him (Is. 651). The response of the
  sailors is striking in its simplicity and
  overpowering in its implications. The key word is
  fear, here understood as worship. They can now
  make the same confession as Jonah did in v. 9.
  Luther also believes that these sailors are also
  delivered from death, also from unbelief and sin,
  and they are brought to a knowledge of God so
  that they now become pious and true servants of
  God, such humble and timid servants.

63

• VERSE SEVENTEEN But the LORD provided a great
  fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the
  fish three days and three nights. Although Jonah
  apparently believed that he would be able to
  escape the LORDS commission by his own death,
  God makes it clear that there will be no escape.
  Rather than kill him or let him die, he imprisons
  Jonah in the belly of the fish to demonstrate
  further that there is nowhere in the world, even
  death, where Jonah can flee (cf. Amos 92-3).

64
Jonah being swallowed
65

• The word provide or direct, ordain, appoint is
  used the first of four times in the book here,
  then again in 46, 7, 8. Each time a non-human
  agent is appointed and each occurrence is used
  with a different divine name. And each non-human
  agent is different what does all this mean? The
  LORD appoints a fish, a plant (46), a worm
  (47) and a wind (48). These elements of nature
  are appointed for salvation (the fish and plant),
  as well for judgment (the worm and wind).

66

• Two observations regarding the use of this word
  provide in the book are as follows. With each
  use a different divine name is used as the
  subject of the verb
• 117 Yahweh
• 46 Yahweh-Elohim
• 47 Ha-Elohim
• 48 Elohim

67

• When the verb occurs the object of the LORDS
  control belongs to a different realm in nature
• 117 the fish (sea)
• 46 the plant (vegetation)
• 47 the worm (animals)
• 48 the wind (air)

68
Jonah at prayer
69

• From the Book of Psalms
• my distress 186 1201
• Sheol 184-5
• all thy waves and thy billows passed over
  me 427
• from thy presence 1397
• upon thy holy temple 57
• the waters closed in over me 692
• my life from the Pit 303
• my soul fainted within me 1423
• into thy holy temple 186
• deliverance belongs to Yahweh 38

70

• VERSE TEN And the LORD commanded the fish, and
  it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah is not
  placed or gently laid upon the beach. No. He is
  vomited. Its as if three days of undigested
  Jonah is enough! Just where he was sprawled out
  is not known all we have is the word dry
  ground. So it is there that the LORD places the
  prodigal prophet.

71

• VERSES ONE FOUR Then the word of the LORD
  came to Jonah a second time "Go to the great
  city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I
  give you." Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and
  went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important
  city-- a visit required three days. On the first
  day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed
  "Forty more days and Nineveh will be turned
  over. The approximate travel time from Jerusalem
  to Nineveh in antiquity would have been about 45
  days. This is estimated according to caravan
  speed.

72
Jonah answers the 2nd call
73
Jonah preaching to the Ninevites
74

• Forty days is a term that denotes a time of
  testing, with a new beginning at the end. Without
  citing every Scriptural instances in which
  multiples of forty are use, the following are
  noteworthy (1) forty years Israels journey
  from Egypt to Canaan (Ex. 1635) peace in Israel
  upon the LORDS selection of a judge (Judg.
  311) (2) forty days rain leading up to the
  flood (Gen. 712) Moses at Mt. Sinai (Ex.
  2418) spies in Canaan (Num. 1325) Elijahs
  fast (1 Kings 198) Jesus fast (Matt. 42) the
  post-resurrection epiphanies (Acts 13). Forty
  not only takes us to a Noahic sampling it
  also takes us to the slow and merciful LORD who
  could have said to Nineveh, Ill make all new
  things, the old wont do. But instead he said,
  Ill make all things even you new!

75

• VERSE FIVE The Ninevites believed God. They
  declared a fast, and all of them, from the
  greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. The
  verbal root here is !ma (believe, trust
  AMEN) the same root that forms the name of
  Jonahs father (11), now ironically appears, not
  with Jonah, but with the Ninevites.

76

• VERSE SIX When the news reached the king of
  Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his
  royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and
  sat down in the dust. This reaction of the king
  is all the more remarkable in that elsewhere the
  king of Assyria is portrayed as an arrogant,
  boasting monarch who not only defies the LORD and
  threatens Jerusalem, but argues that his power is
  great than the LORDS because he has been able to
  defeat the God of Israel/Judah just as he
  defeated the gods of other nations (Is. 105-34,
  36-27/ 2 Kings 18-19 Nahum 2-3). He rises from
  his throne, removes his robe, puts on sackcloth,
  and sits in the dust or ashes (cf. Job 28 Dan.
  93 Esther 41, 3).

77

• VERSE SEVEN Then he issued a proclamation in
  Nineveh "By the decree of the king and his
  nobles Do not let any man or beast, herd or
  flock, taste anything do not let them eat or
  drink. The book has already indicated that a
  fish had a great responsibility now more
  animals join in. The verse is not some kind of
  hyperbole rather, the idea is that the
  conversion is so complete that it includes
  people and animals and all the company of
  creatures. Remember Noah?? Those who are
  tuned into this sampling understand the idea
  a new past to live with that changes our future
  indefinitely MANY NATIONS!

78

• VERSE EIGHT But let man and beast be covered
  with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on
  God. Let them give up their evil ways and their
  violence. While fear/worship is the word
  governing the conversion of the sailors,
  turn/repent is the word that describes the
  conversion of the Ninevites. It is used in this
  chapter five times, with much the same rhythm as
  that of fear in chapter one. The Ninevites turn
  from their wicked way (38) in the hope that the
  LORD may turn from his anger (39). When he does
  sees that the city has turned/repented he relents
  (310) from his judgment.

79

• VERSES NINE TEN Who knows? God may yet relent
  and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so
  that we will not perish." When God saw what they
  did and how they turned from their evil ways, he
  had compassion and did not bring upon them the
  destruction he had threatened. But does God
  really relent, or, as the KJV translates the
  Hebrew word, repent?

80

• That is to say, this God reveals himself as one
  who is not immutable in some absolute sense.
  Just so, Karl Barth calls it the holy mutability
  of God. This is perhaps at least one reason for
  Israels aniconic perspective that idols do not
  change (cf. Ps 1155-7 Jer 104-5). Understood
  this way, this prohibition of images is a concern
  to protect the LORDS relatedness rather than his
  transcendence, though the two are not mutually
  exclusive. Also, one of the characteristics of
  the gods of the nations is that they cannot be
  moved or affected (cf. 1 Kings 1827-29).

81

• Divine repentance enables the primary attributes
  of the LORD to be kept primary, namely, his
  steadfast love and mercy. He is not unbending or
  unyielding, as a focus on immutability suggests.
  He is not a take it or leave it, like it or
  lump it God. He will change course in midstream
  in view of the interaction with his world.

82

• VERSE ONE But Jonah was greatly displeased and
  became angry. A key word in the book that is
  repeated as a noun and a verb is evil occurring
  ten times (12, 7, 8 38, 10a, 10b 41a, 1b, 2,
  6). There has been evil beginning with the
  Ninevites (12), moving to the sailors (17),
  returning to the Ninevites (310), coming to the
  LORD (310 42), and here with Jonah. Except in
  the reference to Jonah, all the evil is taken
  away. In v. 6 the LORD tries, but to no avail.
  Evil is used in two closely related ways. On
  the one hand it refers to the wickedness of the
  Ninevites (12 38, 10) and Jonah (46). On
  the other hand, it refers to the judgment which
  is sometimes threatened and other times carried
  out by the LORD (17, 8 310 42).

83

• VERSE TWO He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is
  this not what I said when I was still at home?
  That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I
  knew that you are a gracious and compassionate
  God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God
  who relents from sending calamity. We must now
  ask the question in its fullest sense why did
  Jonah flee to Tarshish? The text never mentions
  that he is afraid (cf. 1 Kings 192-3). Nor does
  it indicate that Jonah viewed his task as too
  difficult or beneath his dignity.

84

• The striking answer to why Jonah took flight is
  in 42 Jonahs God is simply too merciful! The
  reason for Jonahs running is delayed so that we
  may pause to consider why we run from God. Most
  of us will not admit to the reason given in 42
  at least initially. Most Christians dont go
  around saying, or even admitting to themselves,
  that they dont like the fact that God is too
  merciful. One author writes The author thus
  holds back on the real reason until his audience
  is fully identified with Jonah and is brought
  along to the point where the truth of the matter
  can have its sharpest impact.

85

• VERSE THREE Now, O LORD, take away my life,
  for it is better for me to die than to live."
  Die is used as a verb and noun four times in
  this chapter 43, 8b, 8c, 9). The captain
  (16), the sailors (114) and the king of Nineveh
  (39) all pray for life in the face of the threat
  of death. However, when the Ninevites are spared
  from death, ironically Jonah wishes to die (43).
  On the other hand, when Jonahs own plant is not
  spared (410), he expresses the wish to die
  (48ff).

86

• VERSES FOUR FIVE But the LORD replied, "Have
  you any right to be angry?" Jonah went out and
  sat down at a place east of the city. There he
  made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and
  waited to see what would happen to the city.

87
Jonah waits for Ninevehs destruction
88

• Why does the author tell us where Jonah sat? As
  the same verb is used here and also in 36 to
  describe the kings actions it could be to
  contrast Jonahs sitting high and the kings
  sitting low. Nineveh was flanked on the west and
  north by the Tigris and the Khoser rivers there
  were a few hills on the towns remaining sides
  where Jonah in all likelihood perched himself to
  witness the citys immanent judgment. The irony
  is exactly this the king who is after-all the
  king is seated low. Jonah who is after-all
  just a prophet is seated high. What the king
  was willing to do that is, humble himself his
  Jonah is unwilling to do. Luke 1411, For
  everyone who is exalting himself will be humbled
  and the one humbling himself will be exalted.

89

• VERSE SIX Then the LORD God provided a vine
  and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for
  his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was
  very happy about the vine. Rather than attempt
  to speak further to Jonah, which is clearly
  useless at this point, the LORD provides the
  second of his four provisions. As the LORD
  provided the fish and Jonah rejoiced via the
  psalm, so the plant brings him great joy.

90

• VERSE SEVEN But at dawn the next day God
  provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it
  withered. By now we are familiar with the way
  the word provide is functioning. Thus, Elohim
  punishes Jonah by appointing a worm to attack the
  vine. Then Elohim appointed a hot east wind to
  attack Jonah (48). It will also be Elohim who
  disciplines the prophet in 49. In 410,
  however, where the emphasis is on divine grace
  and mercy, the more personal description of
  Yahweh the LORD again appears. In his wisdom
  the LORD properly uses Law and Gospel and
  physical means in order to shape Jonah and us
  into more faithful communicators of his Word.

91

• VERSE EIGHT When the sun rose, God provided a
  scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on
  Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to
  die, and said, "It would be better for me to die
  than to live." The progression of the divine
  names connected with provide comes to an end in
  this verse. The subject in each occurrence is
  Yahweh (21), Yahweh God (46), the God (47) and
  God here.

92

• VERSES NINE ELEVEN But God said to Jonah,
  "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
  "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
  But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about
  this vine, though you did not tend it or make it
  grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
  But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty
  thousand people who cannot tell their right hand
  from their left, and many cattle as well. Should
  I not be concerned about that great city?"

93

• Nowhere in the book of Jonah is it stated that
  Yahweh has made a covenant with all of creation.
  This is simply assumed, much the way that Abraham
  Lincoln assumes on behalf of his audience that of
  course the roots of the United States began
  eighty-seven years prior to his speech that day
  in Gettysburg. In the latter example, Lincoln
  frames his speech in terms of preserving a people
  that liberty labored over and helped to grow
  great, inviting those present into a discussion
  about the best way to honor those dead, while
  deftly setting aside any and all competing ideas
  about how or why this nation ever came about.

94

• This very idea of granting an equal status to the
  other nations a hallmark of our Lords
  ministry might well have been met with a
  reception similar to that given Lincolns speech
  by the Chicago Times. In an article entitled The
  President at Gettysburg and printed on November
  23, 1863less than a week after his speechthis
  presumed journalistic ally to Lincoln and to the
  Union bristled It was to uphold this
  constitution, and the Union created by it, that
  our officers and soldiers gave their lives at
  Gettysburg. How dare he, then, standing on their
  graves, misstate the cause for which they died,
  and libel the statesmen who founded the
  government? They were men possessing too much
  self-respect to declare that negroes were their
  equals, or were entitled to equal privileges.

95

• You guessed it the authors strategy of
  withholding Jonahs answer to the LORDS question
  leaves room for you and I to provide a personal
  answer. This is the authors attempt to keep the
  story current for readers of every generation.
  Whatever Jonahs answer may have been, or
  whatever our answers are just now, in the
  fullness of time one greater than Jonah (Matt.
  1241) appeared who spoke the whole answer with
  his whole heart and wrote it with his blood.
  His name? Jesus.