Jonah ministered under Jeroboam II to the northern tribes of Israel (793-753 B.C.). Nineveh, the greatest city of the Assyrian Empire, had already begun to take tribute from Israel as early as 841 B.C.; thus Jonah was called to go to the dominant city of Israel’s enemy nation. Assyria would continue to have supremacy until its destruction by Babylonia in 612 B.C.
The book of Jonah was designed to convict the readers of their selfishness and bigotry concerning the spread of God’s message of salvation to all ethnic groups. It contrasted the great unbiased compassion of God with the miserly and inbred self-interest of Jonah and his provincial religion.
Jonah wanted to flee to Tarshish because it was in the opposite direction from Nineveh. The great geographical distance between Tarshish and Nineveh matched Jonah’s emotional distance from the spiritually needy people in Nineveh. God loved and wanted to save Nineveh, but Jonah did not want God to have mercy on Israel’s great enemy. In the middle of the great fish Jonah received God's mercy and praised God for his salvation. But when Jonah arrived in the middle of Nineveh, his heart was far away from the people and God’s love for them.
The book of Jonah is not a typical prophetic address. It is a very personal story about the prophet’s disgust at thinking that God might forgive a group of non-Israelite pagans. The book was structured around two commands for Jonah to go to Nineveh (1.2; 3.2). Those two commands support two interpretive points. First, God confirmed the calling of Jonah, and the nation of Israel along with him, to be evangelistic lights to the nations. Jonah had to wrestle with his own choice of confessing or denying God’s love for the nations. Second, God confirmed his own unchanging desire for the redemption of the world outside of Israel. At the structural center of the book is Jonah’s psalm of praise (2.1-9). This psalm provides the book with a basic theological viewpoint (“salvation comes from the Lord ,” 2.9). That viewpoint resulted in conflict for Jonah but redemption for the sailors on Jonah’s “get-away” ship and for the people of Nineveh.
The content of the book was organized in a layered manner.
I.A. 1.1-3 Jonah’s Unexplained Disobedience I.B. 1.4-16 God Saves the Sailors I.C. 1.17-2.10 God Saves Jonah II.A. 3.1-10 God Saves Nineveh II.B 4.1-11 Jonah's Disobedience Explained and Challenged
The questions of 4.4 and 4.9 pointed the way to the book’s message and application. If God was so willing to save sailors, Jonah, and Nineveh, why was Jonah so angry? Why did Jonah not delight in telling Nineveh of its possible destruction (1.2)? Jonah’s disobedience was not explained until 4.2, where he quoted Exodus 34.6-7. He knew that if the people of Nineveh repented, God would forgive them, and that galled him. God’s final questions to Jonah were questions for the readers as well (4.9). The message of impending judgment had one major purpose: to get people to repent and avoid judgment. Only a sour person like Jonah would get angry because God had forgiven someone else.
6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in 7 love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ Exodus 34.6-7
As a result of his actions, Jonah missed three wonderful opportunities:
• His opportunity to please the heart of God • His opportunity to magnify God’s compassion • His opportunity to grow in grace and knowledge of his God
Let’s be honest, do we really believe that God desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? We dare not repeat the heart and actions of Jonah.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3.9
3 4 5 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God 6 and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time. 1 Timothy 3 3-6
Between these two verses, there is room for everyone. Where and what is your Nineveh, and are you willing to go there?