On whose account that this calamity struck. A look at Jonah based on chapter one of Jonah's book.

What kind of fish is capable of swallowing a human?

 My morning men’s group recently finished reading Tozer’s Obedience To Christ. The brother who “leads” was on business trips and vacations for a month, so we finished Tozer without him and then put a vote out to the group as to which video we should watch next. It was a short list, and one of the options was The Book of Jonah by ERIC MASON. I am very familiar with the Book of Jonah, and this seemed like it would have been better than the other options; it was not.

What problems did I have with this version of Jonah?

The primary thing is that Eric sermonized every segment of his video teaching. An example from the group questions download reads like this: You have to spend an extra moment trying to ascertain who the “he” represents (clue: it is all about Jonah).

• He hated Assyria, of which Nineveh was a major urban center.

  If you have read your scriptures, then you should know that there was a deep hatred of the Assyrians within the Jewish community. Considering what scripture tells us about the Assyrians, Jonah’s lifetime of harmful interactions with the Assyrians would understandably feed into his racism and hatred. 

  What are you trying to tell me when you say Nineveh was a major urban center? You make it sound like we have communities separated by nothing more than a mere stone’s throw. How about hundreds of miles?

• He feared how the people would treat him.

  Which people group is Pastor Eric talking about, the Jews or the Assyrians?

  If it is the Assyrians, a Jew might expect to be violently killed.

• He saw Israel as more deserving of God’s love than Nineveh.

  We are not told this by the scriptures, so we are left with only assumptions. However, the Jews express thoughts like this with consistency.

• He had the right theology but the wrong disposition.

  How deeply inset was the Torah that they chose to call it theology? Probably none; it was the Law. If I must look at Jonah and wrap him in religious clothing according to his disposition, what would that have been?

  Up to the point God asked him to take a message of destruction to the Assyrians, there was NO disposition that any of us would have seen.

  Take note, disposition is a reflection of your temperament.

• His personal preferences conflicted with God’s character.

  Amazingly, most people miss this obvious point, although, even today, most people do not understand God’s character. If the Ninevehites had not reacted as they did, God would have burned them to the ground, just as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah. Something that falls under the assumption is that we all hold beliefs about God.

• He refused to love the unlovable.

  It seems rather evident that we don’t see Jonah’s end, and therefore, anything we say about him is an assumption with no legitimate basis.

Essentially, everything Pastor Eric Mason said was comparable to handing out a study guide on Jonah, similar to what most churches pass out to their Sunday school classes. These study guides are designed to elicit thinking in a certain way while eliminating any notion of free or spirit-led thought. Well, now that you have a feel for how I feel about this video teaching, let’s look at what the scriptures tell us.

Jonah

Dr. Frank Turek, a Christian Apologist, points out that one of the main things that makes God’s word believable is that God makes sure that you are aware of the hiccups, glitches, and things that appear to be failures.

A couple of those would be:

• Adam’s fall (some would call what Adam did treasonous) in the garden, and, in what seems like moments later, Cain, the firstborn under “sin,” killed his brother Abel. (Read Genesis 3.)

• And how Moses, the man who led Israel out of Egypt, killed an Egyptian, was found out, and ran to the desert for forty years.

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,”
Jonah 1:1 NAS95

Jonah’s background is shown to us in 2 Kings 14.

“In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of king of Israel became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.”
2 Kings 14:23-25 NAS95

From this, we know: Where Jonah hails from – Gath-hepher; Who his father is, Amittai – if that helps you; and what his only reference is – he prophesied that “the border of Israel, from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of Arabah, would be restored,” and it was by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash king of Israel.

What follows is information derived from Dake’s Bible notes.

a    [word of the LORD]The word of Jehovah came to Jonah, the contents of which are stated in Jon_1:2. The same message was repeated with little variation when the prophet was finally ready to obey (Jon_2:2). This or a similar expression is found seven times in the book (Jon_1:1;Jon_2:10;Jon_3:1,Jon_3:3;Jon_4:4,Jon_4:9,Jon_4:10).

b    [Jonah]Jonah was a historical character (Jon_1:1;2Ki_14:25)—the only man so-named in the O.T.—which adds to the fact that he was a type of Christ. The name is spelled “Jonas” in the N.T. (Mat_12:39-41;Mat_16:4;Luk_11:29-32). Peter’s father was named “Jona” or “Jonas” (Joh_1:42;Joh_21:15-17). Both Peter and Jonah (2Ki_14:25) came from Galilee, so the statement of the Pharisees in Joh_7:52 is not true.

Date and place: Written in Palestine about 853-824 B.C.

Author:Jonah (Jon_1:1;Jon_2:1;Jon_4:1;2Ki_14:23-27;Mat_12:39-41;Mat_16:4;Luk_11:29-30).

Theme: The book is a story of a bigoted Jew who, after being chastened by the Lord for disobedience, preached to and converted the whole city of Nineveh.

Purpose: To show why the destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian empire was delayed by God for almost a century; to illustrate the fact that God’s mercy and salvation are for both Jews and Gentiles who will repent and turn to Him; and to typify and illustrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as seen in notes on Matthew_12:40.

Pastor Eric Mason seemed to imply that Jonah’s message was meant to bring about the salvation of the Ninevehites.

I suppose that was God’s intent, even though there was nothing stated to describe how they should demonstrate their salvation. Fortunately, we serve a merciful God who looks at the heart, but even though they put on sackcloth and ashes, their “salvation” only lasted about a hundred years.

The Biblical Illustrator tells us.

“We read, in the Second Book of Kings, about Jeroboam II., the powerful and able and sinful ruler of the Northern tribes under whom Amos and Hosea lived and preached, that “he restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.”

God’s command to Jonah.

“Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and proclaim to it that their wickedness has come to my attention.”
Jonah 1:2 CJB

At this point, there is NO explanation of what will happen to Nineveh. Watch how Jonah responds to this directive.

“But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the face of Jehovah. And he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. And he gave its fare and went down into it in order to go with them to Tarshish, from before the face of Jehovah.”
Jonah 1:3 LITV

Upon receiving his orders, Jonah flees to Tarshish, thinking that God won’t be able to find him there. (What gave you that idea?)

Dr. J Vernon McGee gives us this.

"Instead of going in that direction (to Nineveh), he does a very strange thing. He goes down to Joppa and buys a ticket on the first boat for Tarshish. Tarshish was a city founded by the Phoenicians on the southern coast of Spain. It was the jumping-off place of the west."

” And (Jonah) went down into it in order to go with them to Tarshish.”

He found out where the ship was going, paid the fee, and went down into the hold to take a long nap. If you have ever been fishing on a modern boat, you would know that there are always particular smells, like diesel fuel, fish, and bleach. This, of course, is not primarily a fishing boat, and there was no diesel engine to foul the air or bleach to wash the decks, but there had to be smells associated with an older boat and the familiar rocking of the ship that is working to get you seasick. Sleeping seems to make all that go away.

If you don’t believe that he went below, stay tuned. Scripture will soon support my assertion.

Before I go another step, I want you to remind yourself, who is writing this narrative?

The obvious answer would be Jonah.

Would you dump your failures on your future audience?

Shockingly, God has Jonah do just that. I have heard it said that such honesty is one of the things that make the Biblical narratives so believable.

“The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.”
Jonah 1:4 NAS95

Parts of the story to hold on to:

• A great wind;

• an associated storm on the sea;

• and the fact that the ship was about to break up.

If you recall, the Apostle Paul was being taken to Rome when the ship he was on did break up, but that had more to do with stormy conditions that were throwing the ship into the rocky coastline. In the case of Jonah, there was no rocky coastline, it was merely the severity of the deep water conditions that were about to tear the ship apart. How he managed to sleep through this I will never know.

“Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep.”
Jonah 1:5 NAS95

The things I have heard in studying this book with others. There the assumptions that every one on the ship were devout Jews.

Momentarily we will see that Jonah had gone incognito so that the captain and the men would NOT ask too many questions.

Notice that these guys prayed to their particular god. Since that did not seem to be helping, they began to throw the cargo overboard as though lightening the load would help. All the while, Jonah slept.

“So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish."
Jonah 1:6 NAS95

“So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping?”

Unless you are very tired, it takes a lot to fall asleep through all that rocking and yelling. I am quite sure that they were yelling at each other.

“Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

The captain did not let him sleep. There was no need for Jonah to call upon god, as he knew why the ship men were taking a beating; and, besides that, Jonah did not want god to know where he was or why. How foolish, God knows everything.

As the narrative progresses we will see that Jonah knew that God did care about people, especially those that are innocent.

“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.”
Jonah 1:7 NIV

“Cast lots”? This is the Greek word gôrāl: The Word Study Dictionary tells us it is “a masculine noun indicating a portion or lot. A lot was cast, probably a stone or stones, to decide questions or appoint persons for various reasons; for apportioning land (Numbers 26:55; Numbers 33:54; Joshua 18:6, Joshua 18:11)”

It comes across like they were throwing dice.

“They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.”

Isn't that amazing how that happened.

“Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"
Jonah 1:8 NASB

“Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us?”

What a bizarre way of thinking. I suppose we are to simply ignore their barbaric technique for extracting information and the assignment of responsibility.

At this time, the primary method of identifying that someone was a Jew was the tassels that hung below their clothing. Google's AI overview tells us that “Jewish people wear tassels, or tzitzit, as a reminder of the commandments of the Torah.”

Jonah did not want them to know he was a Jew. I assume because as a Jew he carried great responsibility, and he chose to not have anything – namely the tzitzit that would have exposed his identity.

They demanded, “tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us?”

“Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”
Jonah 1:9 NLT

Look at what Dr. J Vernon McGee tells us about this.

"I am a Hebrew"—that meant a lot. The Hebrews were known to be monotheistic; that is, they worshiped one God, never an idol. They had no other gods before them but worshiped the God, who is the Creator. Jonah says, "I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land." Jonah tells them that he worships the God who made the ocean which they could see right before them being so stirred up by the storm. He made the sea, and He made the dry land also. I think these sailors knew about Israel, but they were pagan and had no knowledge of the living and true God.”

How did they react to what Jonah told them?

“Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.”
Jonah 1:10 NASB

At this assertion by Jonah, “the men became extremely frightened.” “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

They said to Jonah, “how could you do this?”

The passage tells us that Jonah told them exactly why he was on the ship, which explains how they suddenly knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord.

“So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"--for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.”
Jonah 1:11 NASB

Is this like throwing a baby into the mouth of a volcano and hoping that the volcano stops rumbling?

Not very logical. Moving on.

“For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy.”

When the narrative begins, Jonah has gone down into the hold and gone to sleep.

In time, as the boat was at sea, a storm came up and the crew did there best to deal with it, but the storm was severe enough to begin breaking the boat apart. After the captain awakened Jonah, Jonah responded with this bizarre reply.

“He (Jonah) said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you."
Jonah 1:12 NAS95

What promise from God was Jonah leaning on that prompted him to tell the crew to throw him into the sea, from which there would be no coming back?

A passage that Jonah may have known comes from King David.

“When David saw the angel, he said to the LORD, “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? Let your anger fall against me and my family.”
2 Samuel 24:17 NLT

The Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament is bold enough to tell us this.

“He (Jonah) willingly endures the punishment, desiring to perish and not let others perish on his account,” Jonah confesses that he has deserved to die for his rebellion against God, and that the wrath of God which has manifested itself in the storm can only be appeased by his death. He pronounces this sentence not by virtue of any prophetic inspiration, but as a believing Israelite who is well acquainted with the severity of the justice of the holy God, both from the law and from the history of his nation.”

I am not so sure that we can assign such nobility to Jonah, especially if we have read the entirety of the narrative. They heard what Jonah said, and, for the moment ignored it.

“However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them.”
Jonah 1:13 NAS95

You almost get the impression that they thought he had lost his mind. The obvious factor was the severity of the storm and the associated waves. Anyone going in that water is not going to live.

Up to this point, I have avoided the terminology suicide, and why?

Because the religious connotations are that those who do such commit self-murder and, therefore, are lost to hell's flames forever. I know this because it was a rant that I heard frequently in my household.

And so, what do we do?

We avoid and dance around the obvious because it is too uncomfortable to talk about.

And yet, how do we see God handle this case with Jonah?

He brings Jonah back to life and uses Jonah as an example of the course of action that Jesus would have to travel to bring salvation back to humanity. Jesus angrily retorted to the scribes and pharisees.

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
Matthew 12:38-41 NKJV

We had this discussion during the course of Pastor Eric Mason's video teaching, how that this was NOT Pinocchio, nor did Jonah have a card table and a candle that never gave up it's light. The leader of our group, almost as if he was trying to admonish me, said Jonah was made to live for three days in the belly of that fish. If you insist on buying into that claim, then you might as well pull Matthew chapter 12 from your bibles, as you are scoffing in the face of God's power and Jesus's activity from the cross to the throne.

If this challenges you, then you need to rethink death. Killing the body is only a passing thing, and since the body carries the genetics passed on from Adam, then to us. Sorry, but this body must die because we cannot take this sin-broken body into eternity with us. That is why the soul is preserved, and we are given new bodies.

Romans 6:4  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:9  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

And one day soon, death will no longer have mastery over us.

1 Corinthians 15:21  For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Jesus) also came the resurrection of the dead.

If you are still breathing, then this resurrection is primarily symbolic through the acceptance of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:26  The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

To abolish something is to permanently get rid of it; this will only happen at the Bema seat of Christ, which is an aspect of our being caught up to be with Jesus.

What I just gave you was the shortlist, as this theme is an integral part of our life in Christ.

Do you know why Jesus did not approach Lazarus's tomb until the fourth day after death?

Because the Jews wholeheartedly believed that the soul stayed in the body until the third day. The fact that Jonah is spoken of in this manner allies itself with Jesus' own death that was to come and how He, too, was thoroughly dead when He came off that cross.

Read the eleventh chapter of John's gospel, and you can take in the entirety of the story, but pay close attention to these words.

“So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.”
John 11:17 NKJV

Jesus waited so that there would be no questions as to whether He, through the power of God, raised Lazarus from the dead or if it was just a fluke. As Monty Python used to say in several of their comedy skits, he's only half dead.

This discussion would be null and void if Jonah had been anything other than dead.

“Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. 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 1:13-14 NKJV

They understood that Jonah would die in those waves. Isn't it odd that there is no talk about suicide or the aftermath of murder?

Maybe God is not as focused on that as we are with our religious ideals and traditions.

And so, into the ocean, went Jonah.

A thought that keeps running through my mind is the number of people who commit suicide by police officers. While most of us realize that running at a police officer with a knife or a pellet pistol is a sure way to die, few of us call it suicide.

Whatever their nationality, these men knew that there was a responsibility for the insupportable death of a human.

“So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD and took vows.”
Jonah 1:15-16 NKJV

However, they picked up Jonah, and he, like Jesus, went compliantly.

What was the idea behind Jonah being thrown overboard?

I believe that God fully intended to halt Jonah's escape and change his direction. God also used Jonah as a future analogy for Jesus—this is where Jonah's death played a role.

Look, you can try to sell people fairy tales, but the reality is that God made the laws of physics. Apply vicious winds to any large body of water, and you will have waves sufficient to sink boats. I have seen this on two occasions, and I had to steer our little fishing boat out of one of them.

Even if you could stop the wind, it would still take several minutes for the waves to calm down.

Does information like this make the Bible a book of lies?

Hardly, but what it does show us is the influence humanity has upon the telling of the story. In the case of Jonah, did he, as he was splashing wildly in the deadly waves, time the situation in order to relate how long it took for the seas to calm? I scarcely think so as he had other things on his mind, especially since most people who commit suicide really don't want to and will try to fight what they have done. And we are about to meet an extremely large fish that had been specially ordered for the purpose of taking Jonah into its mouth.

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah 1:17 NKJV

How long can you stay alert without oxygen?

About 15 seconds.

How long can your brain live without oxygen?

About 4 minutes.

A Basking shark. It swims about exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea, and though it is NOT meant
to be a man-eater, it can undoubtedly open its mouth wide enough to suck a human inside. Considering that a human is merely an annoyance to a fish that feeds on krill, it becomes evident that God had to motivate this fish to grab Jonah, hang on to him (underwater) for three days, and then spit him out (dead) on a beach, most likely in the region of Aleppo Syria. I would imagine that it was a short conversation.

Here, we end chapter one of Jonah, but I have inserted several provocative terms and assertions, such as suicide, murder, and the death of Jonah.

Why?

I have had these discussions with “fellow believers,” and I am aware that many choose to believe that Jonah remained alive in that fish for three days. This false belief, based on tradition and a lack of knowledge, forces you to ignore logic, reason, and physical laws that govern our ability to live and breathe—which God made and integrated into our daily lives.

When it comes to death, there are several forms and applications.

1. Physical death, which is the cessation of breath, is what most of us associate with death.

   No doubt, there is a loss of friendship and companionship.

   Does your inability to breathe kill your spirit?

   The answer is no, although I suspect many people have, in a sense, killed their spirits.

2. The other death has everything to do with your spirit or soul. The perplexity is that the soul is eternal, made in the image of God, who is a spirit. So, death, as far as God is concerned, is eternal separation from God.

The more important question you need to answer is, what kind of death did Jonah experience?

Obviously, he ceased to breathe, and yes, his body died because of that action. Held in the mouth of that big fish, Jonah began to decompose. Another obvious problem that feeds into our traditional supposition is that Jonah remained alive inside that fish. A part of our being able to understand what the book of Jonah is telling us lies in how he writes. This takes us into Jonah chapter 2, where he speaks as though he is alive. Ask yourself, could God have given him an in-depth review of his life in those moments on the beach where he regained his mental capabilities? Could Jonah have been given a recollection of what happened to him in those first 15 seconds before he blacked out?

Think about the unimaginable possibility of a dead Jonah getting spewed upon a beach and then having any awareness of what had just happened. The most reasonable solution is that God deposited all these thoughts into Jonah’s head and heart, including the events that brought Jonah to the beach in Syria. Many of you see this as nothing short of preposterous, but that is exactly what I think when you try to convince me that Jonah remained alive inside the belly of this massive shark.

Consider Moses. Scripture implies that the history of humanity on earth was passed on to Moses, and he re-conveyed that information to us through the books of Genesis and Exodus. If you were to be honest, you would have to say that there are things in Genesis alone that can make your head swim, such as Cain, who, having killed Abel, says, surely people will find me and kill me. People, where did he get the idea of people? I say this because the false but common understanding is that there are now only three people on the earth.

Surely, Moses struggled to understand the things he was asked to write, and even more incredulous, he was asked to believe them.

This can only be God.

Dispelling some Myths - Jonah. Chapter four.

When we last saw Jonah, he had walked through the town of Nineveh, a three-day journey, as he proclaimed “forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The result of God's proclamation, the entire town, and the Assyrian king cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes and repent of their evil.

Does Jonah rejoice over such a great response? Not at all, and that is where we pick up this story.

Jonah 4:1-2 NASB But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. 2) He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

I pointed out early on that you needed to know the background story to understand why Jonah chose to flee from God and not carry out this assignment. Briefly, the Assyrians had ravaged Israel on multiple occasions and taken many captive. They were a brutal people and dragged many of their captives back to Nineveh with meat hooks. To put it plainly, Jonah despised them.

But there is another side to Jonah's background, and you see it in his comment above. “I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”

Now Ask yourself, how did Jonah come to this understanding of God?

Just do a word search for the phrase, slow to anger. It shows up at least 14 times in the Old Testament. The passages extend from Exodus to Nahum. Another aspect of Jonah's life, which we only see in 2Kings 14:25, was that he was the son of Amittai, the prophet. It was not unusual for many of our biblical characters to be the son of a priest or elder. If that were the case, Jonah would have had a proper education in the local Synagogue school. His education would have required him to memorize the known books of the Law and writings of the prophets. Therefore, Jonah would have had tremendous insight into God's nature and character. How could that be a bad thing? It wouldn't unless, you are actively maintaining un-forgiveness toward a people group, and Jonah was.

Look at what Jonah said,

• “was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?”
  Apparently, Jonah tried to reason with God.
• “Therefore in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish,”
  What is Jonah trying to forestall - God showing mercy, contrary to Jonah's wishes? Secondly, there is the aspect of forestalling. To do that he effectively runs in the opposite direction of where he is supposed to go, and that required a boat ride. We have no maps that indicate a town called Tarshish in Jonah's day. Many, however, have pointed to Southern Spain as the location of Tarshish. That is definitely the opposite direction.
  • “for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, low to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.”
    If you read my posts, then you also know that I have a thorn in my flesh – a study leader. This leader, in opposition to what Jonah understood, and the word of God, on a weekly basis, explains that everyone reaching the Great White Throne will be sent to a fiery hell. An in-depth reading of Matthew 25's account of the sheep and goats, is, though given different names, the same scenario we see in Revelation 20. One demonstrates an angry God, while the other shows us a gentle shepherd. Both indicate a group that chose not to follow Christ and therefore follows their leaders to the same hell. And both have books out of which Jesus makes His decision.
    In Matthew, the shepherd, finding simple acts of kindness in those books, allows those He called sheep to enter into the glorious kingdom, and therefore escape hell. It's all in the details, but details, are tedious for some. And, those details we find in scripture, you know, often point out how wrong we are, as they demonstrate that some teaching or belief we hold, is blatantly wrong and false, and no one wants to hear that. My wife asks me why I put myself under a false teacher. Don't think for a moment that this man is the only one. The pastor, whom my wife reveres, had many of us as a captive audience at a mountain camp where he told us while explaining communion once again, that Jesus, in the garden that night, did not want to go to the cross for us. So, false teaching is not that uncommon. While I am painfully aware of how grave this situation is I have not been called to fight with these men, for in so doing I move into the realm of judgment.
    Let me ask you an obvious question. Have we been called to be God's judges here on earth, or to show mercy and demonstrate His character? The answer is “show mercy.” This theme is detailed throughout the New Testament, and I will let you find that on your time. The ugly and more demanding aspect of the question revolves around judgment, something that has been taken out of our hands.
    David may have been anointed as king, but Saul still sat on the throne. And, Saul wanted David dead. While hunting for David, Saul stops in a cave to relieve himself. David and his unruly band happened to be hiding in that same cave. Given the opportunity to kill Saul, David chose not to, and thus we see his thoughts in 1Samuel.
    1 Samuel 24:12, 15 GW May the LORD decide between you and me. May the LORD take revenge on you for what you did to me. However, I will not lay a hand on you. 15) So the LORD must be the judge. He will decide between you and me. He will watch and take my side in this matter and set me free from you."

John 5:22 NASB "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son (Jesus,)

Jonah's depression has retaken hold of him, and therefore we see this:

Jonah 4:3 NASB "Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."

Two things jump out at me as I read this.

1. Wasn't Jonah dead already?
   I guess to be fair, he didn't ask to be brought back to life, or did he?
   (Right in the midst of writing this I finally took Dad out to the Mexican restaurant I had promised once he had recovered from his surgery. Dad, having not seen much of me lately, asked what's going with me, and I began telling him about what I had been learning as I wrote about Jonah. He listened and then said, I think God prepared “a special fish,” one that could maintain an adequate oxygen supply for Jonah, and therefore Jonah never died. To try to bolster his argument dad added, Jonah was able to think and pray.)
   The problem with this kind of thinking is that it ignores common sense and logic by excluding the idea that God would not merely use what was available. Some examples would be:

• • That NO fish could provide a livable environment.
  • That medical documentation demonstrates how we lose consciousness after 30 to 40 seconds, therefore allowing Jonah the time for thought;
  • It also throws aside what Jesus said about Jonah being a sign, as he was three days and nights in the belly of a fish. This statement by Jesus was made was to Pharisees and scribes for the purpose of establishing a common thread between Jonah and what was to happen to Jesus shortly.
  • One other thing, because of Jewish tradition – that believed the soul finally parted from the body after three full days, Jesus words, meant that He acknowledged that Jonah had died out there in that fish.

2. If being dead was high on Jonah's list, then why did he say all those words we see in chapter two? Specifically:
   Jonah 2:7-9 NASB "While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8) "Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9) But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD."

It sounds like he was calling out to God, knowing that God would and could save him. You should be picking up on the general idea that God would and could save us as well?

God did not respond to this depressed, angry whining, but quietly said,

Jonah 4:4 NASB The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"

Jonah thought he did, and so did I. I can only speak to my experience, as we are not privy to Jonah's. I wasted a significant portion of my life maintaining the chains and bars of the prison I kept in my head; a prison in which I held those people that hurt me. It was part of the payment I thought they owed me.

Jonah 4:5 NASB Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

What did I just miss? We have to back up to chapter three to rehearse what happened.

Jonah 3:10 NASB When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

So, Jonah got the word that he was to deliver, and it went like this, “Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!” (Contemporary English Version)

What happened next is beyond belief? Why, because we lack a tremendous amount of information. In my previous post “Dispelling some Myths - Jonah chapter 3,” I posed a hypothetical situation in which an Assyrian worshiper of Dagon, the fish god, happened to be at the beach when the whale spewed Jonah upon it. If that person took this information and shared it with everyone they met along the way and all through Nineveh, it might explain the overwhelming response to the unfavorable words Jonah delivered to them.

Important points that the word shows about these people and their response. Jonah 3:5-10 NASB

• “the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.”
• The king in following the lead of the people covered himself with sackcloth and ashes.
• The king ordered a proclamation written which included man and beast. It stated that all must demonstrate repentance by covering themselves in sackcloth and ashes.
• And then, all must “call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from violence which is in his hands.

How did God respond to their actions?

4:10) When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

So, where do we find Jonah at this point? Sitting on a hill outside of town, watching and waiting for God to destroy them. Did he miss the memo? Did he not see their actions? Did, what seems like common acts of repentance, mean nothing to Jonah?

All you would have to do is start counting the days. And yet, we have nothing to help us with that. Like so many other things, we are left in the void.

Jonah 4:2 NASB He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

For all we know, Jonah saw their acts of repentance and immediately knew what would happen next.

Jonah 4:6-8 NASB So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7) But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8) When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."

Sitting, waiting for these hated people to die, God appoints a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade. I don't know how to perceive this situation because I know that God can do miracles. However, it is reminiscent of Mickey Mouse portrayed as Mickey and the Beanstalk, where the beanstalk grows overnight at an unbelievable rate. Quickly the situation changes as the next day a God-appointed worm eats that same plant, and now the sun is beating down on Jonah's head.

Once again, Jonah turns suicidal.

Jonah 4:9 NASB Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."

Did Jonah have good reason to be angry, even to death? All Jonah had was his hatred and bigotry. Is that a good excuse? Sorry, but no. Jesus, in the sermon on the mount, said, that having your debts forgiven is predicated upon you forgiving.

Matthew 6:12, 14-15 NASB 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ... "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

I participate in several different groups, from a variety of churches, but they aren't that different for there a consistent lack of understanding, and a limited desire to pursue God's word that permeates all three groups. Asked to join an evening group I am currently doing a book study. We are looking at Max Lucado's book, Facing Your Giants. We were attempting to discuss the fifth and sixth chapter in which the topic of forgiveness was covered. Max Lucado finally spoke in terms I could understand, as he, on page 48, said,

“God occupies the only seat on the supreme court of heaven. He wears the robe and refuses to share the gavel. For this reason, Paul wrote, “Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." Romans 12:19 MSG). Revenge removes God from the equation. Vigilantes displace and replace God. “I'm not sure you can handle this one Lord. You may punish too little or too slowly. I'll take this matter into my hands, thank you.”

The problem is, we barely touched on this. One of the men tried to oppose me the previous week, as he said, forgiving is hard! I responded with, No, it is easy, what is hard, is accepting that you have no power over that person, and all your energies are useless.

Jonah 4:10-11 NASB Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11) "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

While I never saw anything said about the plant dying in verse 9; apparently God saw Jonah's heart. Jonah's anger had nothing to do with the plant. He wanted all of those people dead.

You can see that God destroys Jonah's lack of focus when He says, “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand.” I always took this to indicate a lack of common sense. But I have learned so much by doing this study, and one of those things came as I looked at other translations of Jonah 4:11. The Amplified Bible indicates that the 120,000 were innocents - “persons not [yet old enough to] know their right hand from their left, and that is who God is protecting here more than those repenting.

While I have heard several pastors point out how Jesus had compassion on the doves and other animals that were being sold in the temple courts, for he emptied their cages and then threw them. Perhaps, in mentioning the “many animals,” God was taking a jab at those who had repented by their actions, knowing full well what would become of their great nation.

Think about the devastation that would come should God ignore their pleas. We see an example of destruction when fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah, and everyone died, including innocents.

My study on Jonah is done for now. However, every time I do these studies I learn, things I have never heard; and, I unlearn some garbage. The result is that God always gets bigger and more valuable in my mind. Does any of this imply that I wish to test God's patience and resolve by throwing myself into choppy seas so that a big fish can spit me onto the shore, and entire communities will repent? Not a chance. I am content to let His love grow in me, and occasionally share with those that are willing to listen.

God bless you on this fascinating journey we travel, for we who are followers of Jesus are profoundly blessed, whether you realize it or not. While those outside the family, are loved, longed for, and pursued by a passionate God. Don't waste your time hating. Simply absorb yourself in His passion and watch what he can do.

Dispelling some myths - Jonah. Chapter three.

When I was a child watching cartoons on the television, there was a character named Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties. Every week he would get caught up in some suspense with the bad guys, and end up hanging off a cliff or trying to save his girlfriend Nell, who was always put in some perilous situation. The drama was quite intense, and they always left off with, “will our hero save her in time?”

Well, this story about Jonah is not so different, as Jonah is thrown into a turbulent sea. No one reading this thinks he has a chance. Then, a massive fish swallows him whole. How often does that happen? And, contrary to what we see in Pinocchio, there is no chance of survival in the belly of any fish. Therefore, Jonah, whom we have previously demonstrated from scripture, dies. God, however, in the form of the hero, comes to the rescue and brings him back to life.

God's call comes to Jonah a second time. He gets up, walks an incredible distance to Nineveh, and declares that their destruction will come in forty days. He does not give them an option, and yet the entire town repents and acknowledges God. Having spent enough time around pastors. You would think anyone doing the preaching would be elated to have a whole community change their lives and come to repentance, but not Jonah.

So, let's go back to where we left our (dead or dying) “hero,” Jonah, as he says -

“But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” Jonah 2:9 NASB

I am splitting Jonah 2:9-10 to make a point. When we read, we ignore small details, such as what Jesus said about Jonah.

Matthew 12:39-40 CJB He replied, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign? No! None will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40) For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.

One of these details, as you see above, is the idea that Jonah was a sign, and that sign had everything to do with him being in the belly of a fish for an exact length of time. Because some will only read this and not the previous posts, I repeat the understanding that Jewish tradition taught that the soul did not leave the body until it had been dead for three days. Jesus, contrasting himself to Jonah, spoke volumes to the scribes and Pharisees when he said this. They immediately understood that Jonah was, without a doubt, dead.

So, where does that leave Jonah? Dead, in the belly of a great fish.

Jonah 2:10 Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

Lacking details, we are left to speculate as to when Jonah is brought back to life. Perhaps the answer lies in Jonah 3:1-2. The NASB entitles this next section; Jonah Goes to Nineveh, and thus chapter three really begins.

Did God merely throw Jonah aside? The obvious answer is no. However, there are those that would preach such a message, emphasizing how God now has to get another person to do the job you could not, or would not do. In the judgmental minds of many, God had every reason to reject Jonah? And yet He did not. No, God wanted and needed this man; even more, God needed Jonah's current experience. Hence, we get the notice that the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

Jonah 3:1-2 NASB Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2) "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you."

There is one other aspect of this story that I have recently become aware of, and that is The fish god Dagon.

“Dagon figures into the story of Jonah, as well, although the deity is not mentioned by name in Jonah’s book. The Assyrians in Ninevah, to whom Jonah was sent as a missionary, worshiped Dagon and his female counterpart, the fish goddess Nanshe. Jonah, of course, did not go straight to Ninevah but had to be brought there via miraculous means. The transportation God provided for Jonah—a great fish—would have been full of meaning for the Ninevites.” From the article “Who was Dagon in the Bible?” As posted on www.gotquestions.org.

Just moments before he had been dead in the belly of a fish, and now we find him on the beach lying face first in the hot sand. For all, we know God saw fit to have witnesses to the event. God says arise, and almost simultaneously, Jonah, suddenly aware that life has come surging back into his body, begins to respond. The brain that should have been irreparably damaged now hears the voice of God, as He says, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”

Arise is the Hebrew word qûm: A verb meaning to arise, to stand, to stand up. The basic meaning of this word is the physical action of rising up.

So, although the implications of raising Jonah from the dead are there, it is not clear from these words alone. What am I suppose to believe about this, that a dead man was told to get up and go to Nineveh, or that Jonah never died? Neither of these scenarios is plausible. At some point, life came back into Jonah, and the beach is the only practical place for that to happen.

I mentioned what I had found about Jonah, to a dear friend. Without my prompting, he added, it is possible that the person who witnessed Jonah being spewed onto the beach may have been an Assyrian. It is possible that this person quickly jumped on his camel and rode back to Nineveh and told them about this fish man, and that he is headed this way. Considering that on two maps, the distance from the ocean to Nineveh is at least 300 miles at its shortest distance. Where is Jonah, with no money or food and water, going to get provisions for such a journey? That is unless someone who believed in fish gods told everyone he met what he saw and that the man was coming. Not knowing any of this Jonah may have approached wells and asked for a drink, only to encounter fearful looks as they backed away and left him to help himself. Vendors in the marketplace may have pushed their children behind their backs handing the man anything he wanted.

Why is any of this important? Because Jesus told the Pharisees, they would get no sign but the sign of Jonah. If I were looking for signs: getting spewed dead, onto a beach, by a whale, and then being brought back to life, while potentially having someone witness the event, then relating what they saw to the target audience, that a fish man was coming could be considered a sign.

Did Jesus, who compared Himself to Jonah and some significant sign, have any signs of His own? Without a doubt, as the sky went dark at midday; no bones were broken, just as prophecy said; he was beaten beyond recognition as scripture told us; the stone that covered His grave was rolled away and, he arose from the dead, just as he said he would.

Note one other thing here. God tells him “and proclaim to Nineveh the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” Jonah does not even know what the message is going to be. Surely it will be ominous and quick in coming.

Jonah 3:3 MKJV And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of Jehovah. And Nineveh was a very great city of three days' journey.

Once he arrives at Nineveh, where he is to proclaim a message that only then will he be privy to, we are made aware that the town takes three days to walk through, and God has made it clear that all of Nineveh would hear the message.

Jonah 3:4 MKJV And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

Jonah's word for the people was perfect by his standards - “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” He wanted them dead.

I mentioned how the worship of Dagon is not revealed to us in this story.
Is it something we should ignore? No, for it answers many questions. For example, how would an Israelite walk unscathed through a land of savages that have a record of killing his people? Had I not stumbled upon the information about Dagon, the fish god, I cannot say I would have even thought to pursue such a lead, even though it has always troubled me. Knowing that they worshiped a fish god, and Jonah was spewed from a fish, he would have instant credibility, as apparently Jonah's god had greater power.

The response to what Jonah said was instantaneous.

Jonah 3:5 NASB Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

I always thought that the people responded in kind, as the king covered himself in ashes. It seems that the king followed the lead of his people.

Jonah 3:6 NASB When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.

Why being covered in ashes represents some form of remorse, I don't know, but it seems to be universal.

Jonah 3:7-8 NASB He issued a proclamation, and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8) "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.

What are the mandates this king made?

• Nobody and nothing are to eat or drink.
• Man and beast must be covered in sackcloth.
• And let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.

The alarming aspect is the recognition, on the part of the Assyrians, that this message was a direct result of their wickedness and the violence of their hands. The next thing we see is often used as a truth we apply to our own lives. Regardless of who said it, it does demonstrate the nature of God, something Jonah understood.

Jonah 3:9 NASB "Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish."

The Ninevehites were right, for God has relented on multiple occasions.

Jonah 3:10 NASB When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

We will deal with Jonah's response to all this mercy in the next chapter. It is the reason Jonah ran from God and His potential message in the first place.

Now, what do we do with the disappointment we feel as God shows someone mercy, when we, by our judgment, believe they deserve nothing less than hell's flames?

Don't think this kind of logic is so odd, I wasted most of my life, dwelling on the painful repayment process several men owed me for the damage they did to me as a youth in the church. This entire train of thought falls under the category of un-forgiveness, something we come to realize is a waste of energy, as we grow in the knowledge of the God we serve.

Reread verse ten. The writer used the word relented.

Relented is the Hebrew word nâcham. It means to sigh, that is, breathe strongly; by implication to be sorry, that is, (in a favorable sense) to pity, console or (reflexively) rue; or (unfavorably) to avenge (oneself).

So, while God may have had pity or consolation toward Nineveh, that did not mean that He forgot what He said.

The Prophet Nahum seems to speak in code about the destruction of Nineveh. Although the entire book of Nahum is as the Amplified Bible calls it, "THE BURDEN or oracle (the thing to be lifted up) concerning Nineveh [the capital of Assyria]." We are not given clear details as to why Nineveh was brought to ruin, and, we are not given details as to who conquered them, nor how. And yet, history demonstrates that God's judgment did come to pass against them.

Nineveh shall be overthrown!

Nahum 3:7 NASB "And it will come about that all who see you Will shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

Regardless of when it happened God stayed faithful to His word. Still, the purists will say, Ah, but God said forty days! For a God that lives outside of any known dimensions we have, time means nothing. One of the places in scripture this is evidenced is in Daniel's prophecy about the Messiah's return for His own. It is expressed in terms of 70 weeks of years. We, the church, are stuck between the 69^th and 70^th week, a time period that has now lasted over 2000 years. Does this bother God at all? No, as He is appropriately waiting for the full number, which only He knows, to come into the kingdom.

Again, just because we have no details in scripture about some items, is no reason to ignore historical background information, or the lessons we are meant to learn. A common thread we all fall prey to - whether you are a follower of Christ, or, as the Jewish mind thinks, an idolatrous Gentile - is the foolish belief that just because you did not get caught, then God must not care or see. Oh, He sees everything, for there is nothing that is hidden from His view. And, I think Jonah came to understand this concept clearly.