Jonah Was a Prophet
In the Old Testament, God often spoke to His people through the prophets. These were people specifically chosen by God to speak His messages to His people. They were not to misrepresent God in any fashion. If they spoke falsely, or gave a prophecy that was not 100% accurate, they were to be stoned to death. To be a prophet was serious business, it was never to be treated lightly. Prophets spoke not only the foretelling of future events, but also the commands of God to His people. Often those messages included the command to repent of the sins against God which had brought judgment on them. If the nation of Israel would repent of its collective sin, God would deliver them from the judgment He had poured out.
Jonah was such a prophet chosen by God. Jonah had a unique mission in that he was commissioned by God to preach coming judgment, not to Israel, but to the Gentiles in Nineveh. The Ninevites were a pagan people who had oppressed the Jews. Such a nation was not viewed favorably by Jonah or any other Jew. When God directed Jonah to preach to Nineveh that His judgment was forthcoming, Jonah did not leap at the chance to preach to them. Rather, he booked the first ship to Tarshish he could find (Tarshish is NOT in Nineveh, just in case you were not aware). God sent a storm and a giant fish to forcefully bring Jonah back to the Ninevites.
Three days later, Jonah was spit up on shore and he was once again sent to Nineveh by God. Jonah arrived and preached the message he had been given, forty days and God would judge them. Then he sat back and waited for the judgment to come. But Nineveh understood what this meant. They had sinned greatly against the one, true God of the universe. They understood that his judgement would be righteous and true. They did not fall back on false worship of false gods to deter this judgment. They bowed the knee in utter repentance, seeking the gracious mercy of God. And God, because He has already promised that those in repentance toward Him will be saved, abstained from pouring out His wrath upon them. God mercifully spared them, a picture of the glorious gospel which was later fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Recent Comments