So often we see the story of Jonah and The Whale as a cute Sunday school story that as adults, we tend to delegate to the other big and theatrical stories like Noah and the Ark, or David and Goliath. 

The whale steals it. We forget the allegorical point of the story (Babylon engulfing disobedient Israel), we don’t much care about whether or not Nineveh was saved, or what happened to the regurgitated patient; but we remember the whale. 

We can actually get a lot of amazing meat from the story of Jonah, which starts with recognising that Jonah’s story actually has a different protagonist than you think. The story is actually about the incredible mercy of God, not just a guy stuck in a whale for a few days. 

The Lord Himself is the chief character, who speaks first and last, and acts in between. 

THE RELUCTANT PROPHET

Jonah was reluctant to follow through with the call that God set for him. He was a prophet… it was literally his job, but he wanted to choose which words benefited him. Our call is not to pick and choose which of God’s commands we accommodate – it is to simply do it. Unfortunately for him, God does not give up without a fight. 

Jonah is not trapped once the storm finds him out at sea; his fate is sealed the moment Yahweh’s word is addressed to him. 

Jonah’s attempts to circumvent God’s plans, however, went down like a brick… in the ocean. When Jonah boarded a ship to Tarsis – the complete opposite direction of Nineveh – God sent a wild and ravaging storm that endangered the lives of all the pagan sailors around him. His actions were selfishly bringing danger to innocent lives, and he was asleep! 

Yahweh is very patient and long-suffering with Jonah, and has mercy on the sailors and the Ninevites; indeed, it might be argued that Yahweh’s absolute sovereign freedom is the author’s ultimate concern. 

Even in Jonah’s defiant and selfish actions, God was not having any of it. When the storm came, His ultimate purpose of redemption was already being displayed. Whether he liked it or not, Jonah was going to preach to his enemies. 

He had fled to avoid happens before his eyes, and through his own mediation, he sees heathen turn to the fear of the Lord. 

One view suggests that Jonah’s intention in the storm was to have himself be made blameless and the sailors be the ones at blame for his death. 

Another way by which Jonah attempts to abscond from divine authority and communal expectation is his failure to take responsibility for his actions when faced by ‘a great wind upon the sea’ and ‘a mighty wind’ that threatens to break up the ship. 

After all, if he died on the ship he wouldn’t have to go to Nineveh. However, he didn’t count on the sailors wrestling with the decision to throw him overboard before finally agreeing while also praying to Yahweh – a God they didn’t believe in. 

God didn’t allow them to become murderers, or give Jonah a watery grave in the depths. Instead, he sent a fish palace to come and swallow the reluctant prophet until he came to some version of his senses. 

This does not exhaust God’s love and patience and he again takes this rebellious servant in hand. 

Fish-Food For Thought
How have YOU been reluctant to do something God has asked of you that you didn’t want to do?

WHAT THE ENEMY MEANT FOR EVIL

So, with a bad attitude, Jonah heads down to Nineveh. I would say that three day dinners of rotten fish and seaweed would have altered his view on doing what God asked, but the evidence is to the contrary. When Jonah gets vomited onto land, he finally goes to Nineveh and in his sermon uses only five Hebrew words telling the people that in forty days the city would be “overturned”. 

Jonah does not want God to relent and is angry with Yahweh for being true to himself. 

The Hebrew word that Jonah used in his “message” for Nineveh’s end was Hapak. While this word does in fact mean that something would be overturned or destroyed, it also can mean that things are turned over or changed. 

When he announces, ‘In forty days Nineveh turns over’, regardless of whether the city is destroyed or repents and is spared, his oracle is true. 

What Jonah didn’t count on was the heart of the Ninevites and their king. When they heard his pitiful five word sermon they “turned over” a new leaf and repented to save themselves from destruction. What Jonah had intended as a death sentence, had been used to reform an entire city for God’s glory. 

When God saw the sincerity of Nineveh’s repentance, he decided to spare their lives – the reason that Jonah had been sent in the first place. This was not something that went down well with the reluctant prophet, who then went off to sulk. He just couldn’t understand why God cared about his enemies – he certainly didn’t. 

If God is the creator of all things he is the creator of all peoples and nations, and his concern must be for them as well as for Israel. 

Fish-Food For Thought 
How has God turned things around for you when it looked like it was all going down the drain? 

GOD’S COMPASSION 

So after seeing a storm cease, living inside an actual fish for three days, and an entire pagan city being saved by God what does Jonah? He sulks. His enemies being saved was the very thing he KNEW God would do if he went. It’s who He is.

Jonah had not stopped needing to learn lessons, because he had become obedient to his call. Jonah appears not to have understood his own adventure and has already forgotten the grace lavished upon himself and seems unconscious that it should be shared with others. 

While he’s busy fuming in the hot sun outside the city, God is still merciful. He sends him a tree for shade in the midst of his tantrum. Still giving Nineveh the side eye, Jonah is grateful, but things turn when after only one day, God sends a worm to eat the roots of the tree. 

God then uses that moment to do the most ‘Boss’ Mic Drop ever by pointing out that this tree is nothing compared to the 120,000 people in Nineveh who God also created. These people who don’t understand the consequences of their sins.

Yahweh is full of compassion and mercy for all that he has made.. He intended all along to bless the nations through his election of Israel. 

Nobody deserves God’s mercy and compassion, but He gives it to us anyway. We should show that to others regardless of who they are, simply for the fact that He did it for us first. The point of this little exercise was to remind Jonah (and us) that people are not excluded from His love and mercy. It is available for all. 

God is consistently merciful both to the undeserving Israel and to Nineveh, Israel’s undeserving enemy. 

Fish-Food For Thought 
Considering how Jesus treated his enemies, how does that affect you in your own view of how you treat those who haven’t been the nicest to you? 

Life is not about getting this perfect every time, but it is about keeping a soft heart that is willing to hear God’s call and direction. As followers of God, we should be aiming to incorporate His traits of Compassion, Mercy and Love to everyone into our daily lives. I certainly don’t want the alternative – living in a whale is not ideal.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

Sources Quoted:

Bolin, Thomas M. Freedom Beyond Forgiveness. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.

Bruce, F.F. New International Bible Commentary | Logos Bible Software. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1979.

D Fee, Gordon, and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book By Book. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014.

Erickson, Amy. Jonah: Introduction and Commentary. Chicago, UNITED STATES: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2021.

hebrewwordlessons. “Hapak: OVERTURNED!” Hebrew Word Lessons. Last modified March 5, 2023. Accessed April 15, 2023. https://hebrewwordlessons.com/2023/03/05/hapak-overturned/.

Kaplan, Jonathan. “Jonah and Moral Agency.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43, no. 2 (December 1, 2018): 146–162.

Salters, R. B. Jonah and Lamentations. London, UNITED KINGDOM: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1994.

“Jonah Bible Book Overview.” Accessed April 8, 2023. https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/jonah/.