Message
The account of Jonah is set in the days of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (ca. 911-612 B.C.). The mention of the prophet Jonah in 2 Kgs. 14:25 identifies him as an Israelite from a town in the territory of Zebulun and links him with Jeroboam II, who ruled the northern kingdom from ca. 785-745. Though during these years Assyrian weakness allowed for Israel's temporary resurgence, the Mesopotamian superpower recovered and conquered the northern kingdom in 722/21. Just over a century later, the Babylonians took over by sacking Nineveh, Assyria's last and greatest capital city (704-612) and the divinely decreed destination of Jonah.
The Bible makes Jonah famous not for his faith but for his failings. Initially, he rejects his prophetic mission to the enemies of Israel. Given a second chance to obey, Jonah does his duty but begrudgingly. He becomes angry when God shows mercy toward the penitent Ninevites. Yet he himself expects mercy from God's display of control over nature - even though he doesn't deserve it. He would rather die than see God's point.
Model of a Phoenician "Tarshish-type" merchant ship, 13th century B.C. (Richard Cleave, Pictorial Archive)
Message
Though the miraculous events portrayed in Jonah have sparked much debate over the historicity of this account, the lessons of the book do not hinge on whether Jonah actually spent time in the "belly of the whale" or whether the "gourd" really grew overnight. The main concern of the book does not lie in proving God's ability to intervene in creation. Rather, through the negative example of Jonah, it illustrates God's preference of grace over judgment; asserts his sovereign right to exercise mercy; and affirms his care for the nonelect - here, the pagan enemies of the chosen people. And by implication the book poses the question, "Do any of us really want what we deserve?"
Composition
The author of Jonah goes unidentified, and textual clues remain insufficient for determining the books date of composition. Thematically, Jonah's psalm of thanksgiving in 2:2-9 parallels prayers throughout the book of Psalms.
1:1-16 Jonah on the Run
The prophet Jonah receives divine instructions to preach in wicked Nineveh, capital of the enemy Assyrian Empire, which conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722/21. But instead of heading northeast to Mesopotamia, Jonah boards a westbound ship sailing from the Mediterranean port of Joppa (near modern Tel Aviv) toward Tarshish (= "open sea," possibly Tartessus in Spain). In ancient Near Eastern thought, deities resided in geographically defined territories, in which their power was concentrated. But if by leaving the promised land Jonah thinks he can escape God's authority, a violent storm at sea forces him to abandon that notion. Roused from slumber by the ship's desperate captain, Jonah joins his shipmates in recognizing the tempest as a sign of divine anger. When a roll of the dice (the casting of "lots," V. 7) points to disobedient Jonah as the root of God's wrath, the prophet offers his own sacrifice in the sea as the means of placating the Lord and saving his shipmates. Though rightfully upset with Jonah for bringing danger upon them, the pagan crew initially resists the temptation to toss him overboard because they fear further enraging his powerful God for murdering a man who may actually be innocent. After valiant but vain efforts to row to safe haven, however, they utter a hopeful prayer and heave Jonah into the swell. The Lord stops the storm, and the crew pay homage to Jonah's God.
1:17-2:10 Jonah's Ordeal at Sea
In the meantime, Jonah enters the stomach of a "large fish" ordained by God to swallow him up. The point of 1:17 lies not in the science of Jonah's ordeal but in its miraculous nature. By stating that the prophet remained at sea (often associated with death), inside the fish, for "three days and three nights" - the time the ancients thought it took for a soul to travel to the afterworld - the account implies that Jonah should have been good and dead (cf. Matt. 12:40). But instead we find him praising the Lord for bringing him back from the brink of death. Having already descended to the "depth of Sheol" (abode of the dead; "the Pit, 2:2, 6), Jonah felt his life fading away when he "remembered the Lord" and prayerfully renewed his commitment to faithfulness - though notably, without repenting of his disobedience. God completes the miraculous "deliverance" of Jonah by expelling him from his watery tomb and returning him to dry land.
The episode emphasizes that God desires obedience, not sacrifice - especially not human sacrifice. Jonah's death would have freed him from going to Nineveh, but it would not have satisfied God, whose mission for Jonah the mercifully unsuccessful fugitive will not thwart.
3 Jonah Gets a Second Chance
The second time Jonah hears God's call to prophesy in Nineveh, he obeys. In portraying the Ninevites' repentance as universal and their presumably populous city (and/or surrounding region) as vast, the account accents the magnitude of Jonah's success. Fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting on piles of dust or ashes constituted mourning rituals that were also signs of penitence (vv. 5-6). God responds favorably to the Ninevites' contrition and withholds the punishment he had planned for them.
4 An Object Lesson for a Begrudging Missionary
Now the reader learns why Jonah had tried to evade his mission to the Ninevites: he begrudged them God's mercy. When Jonah sees that they will not get the punishment they deserve, he complains to God. He had done his duty, but evidently in hopes that God would enact the threatened judgment (3:4). Now that God has taken compassion on the Ninevites, Jonah would rather die than accept God's way.
For a second time God denies Jonah his death wish. Caught without a valid response to God's challenge that his anger is unfounded, the prophet goes off by himself to watch and wait. God takes this opportunity to give Jonah an object lesson, which again demonstrates the Lord's power over creation. First God shows compassion on his sullen servant by providing him shade from a quick-growing plant. But just when Jonah gets comfortable, the Lord causes a worm to attack the plant, so that it withers as fast as it grew. Having stripped Jonah of the shortlived source of shelter, God now afflicts him with a desert-hot wind, which combined with the sun's heat reawakens Jonah's desire to die. When the sun-stroked prophet protests the justice of his anger over the loss of his ill-deserved gift of shade, God points out the far greater justification he legitimately claims for sparing himself the loss of the Ninevites. For though they do not number among God's chosen people - and so lack the the Mosaic law to guide them - the Ninevites are counted among God's creatures, and he cares about them, too (cf. Ezek. 18:21-32; Matt. 5:43-48).