More than a Fish Story (Jonah 1:1)

Jonah gets filed away as a children’s story so easily that we forget how sharp it really is. We dig into the opening of Jonah and notice what the text does not bother to tell us: no origin story, no warm introduction, no details about how the message arrived. The book moves in fast motion, and that pace forces a question most of us would rather avoid. What happens when God’s word interrupts your plans and refuses to slow down for your comfort?

We zoom out to show why Jonah is far more than “Jonah and the whale.” Inside fewer than 50 verses you find a storm, pagan sailors turning to God, a miraculous rescue, worship from the depths, and the repentance of a brutal nation. Jonah also becomes a surprising window into biblical theology: God’s mercy reaching Gentiles, God’s sovereignty over creation, and a prophetic signpost that ultimately connects to the resurrection of Jesus.

Then we take on the criticism head-on, walking through five common objections people raise against Jonah’s authenticity, from miracles to Nineveh’s size to vocabulary debates. We ground Jonah in history through 2 Kings, highlight why the book begins with “And,” and unpack the meaning behind Jonah’s name as a “dove” sent with truth that leads to peace. We close with three practical takeaways for everyday faith: be alert, be encouraged, and be careful, because past obedience does not guarantee future obedience. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who thinks Jonah is just a fish story, and leave a review with your biggest question after listening.

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Transcript

Jonah’s Bare-Bones Opening

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And would you notice though in the text that nothing is really said about Jonah? Nothing is said about his birthplace. Not much of an introduction at all. Nothing about his previous ministry. We're not even told how the word of the Lord came to him. Was it a dream? Was it a vision? Was it an angel? We're not told. Perhaps you've already discovered that everything that happens in this little book seems to happen in fast motion, doesn't it? Everything is quickly. It even starts with and it just starts in fast motion and just continues to move forward. Everything that can be left out is left out. Nothing clutters the hallways of this story. There's a lot more, as you know, to Noah than an ark. There's a lot more to Zacchaeus than climbing a tree. There's a lot more to Daniel than the lions. And there's a lot more to Jonah than a whale. But the truth is, when we think of Jonah, that's the first thing that comes to our mind. It's Jonah and the whale. It's a fish story. That's much more than a fish story. One author put it this way in less than 50 verses of Scripture. You have a storm at sea, the conversion of idolatrous sailors, a miraculous rescue, a song of praise, the repentance of a brutal nation. You have the unique revelation of God's relationship to unbelieving Gentiles, a disobedient Jew, all sorts of non-human creation, the wind, a fish, a vine, a worm, and cattle. In many ways, Jonah is a microcosm of God's relationship and sovereignty over all creation and all kingdoms and all history. We

Beyond The Whale And Into Mercy

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don't think about Jonah and the greatest national revival ever recorded, do we? And it followed the shortest sermon ever preached. We don't think of Jonah and the mercy of God. We don't think of the fact that Jonah would be the first missionary in human history sent by God to a Gentile nation. In fact, we never think about the fact that he is the only prophet on record ever commissioned by God to go to a heathen nation with the message of repentance. Worse yet, we rarely think of Jonah as the signature sign, the illustration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we'll take probably one entire session to study. The book of Jonah is much more than a fish story. Little wonder then that Satan and those belonging to him and his kingdom have attempted throughout history to make the book of Jonah the butt of many jokes and derision, sneers. The average liberal professor and pastor, along with so many so-called Bible scholars, even though they really don't care about the Bible, have attempted for centuries to downplay and discredit, to deride, if not to destroy the authenticity and credibility of the book of Jonah. And since many of us have sat in classrooms, and maybe some of you are sitting in classrooms now with professors that would delight in sneering at this inspired story, let me very quickly, as an overview, lay out their objections and answer them just as quickly. There are five of them. First, they object to the abundance of miracles. Frankly, we would expect them to.

Five Skeptical Objections Answered

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Why would we expect them to believe Jonah 1? And my friends, you will never convince an unbeliever of God's power and his miraculous ability until they have placed their faith in the power of God's Son. But until then, the natural man, the unrelated to Christ's Spirit man, is unable to embrace, receive, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually examined. You must examine them by virtue and with the help of the indwelling Spirit of God. So we would expect that objection. Secondly, they consider Jonah a fairy tale because of the unique mission of Jonah. The liberal scholar will point out the fact that God never commissioned the Jewish prophet to go to a Gentile nation. So this must be a story to make the Jewish people feel good. Well, just because God hadn't sent a prophet doesn't mean he wouldn't or he couldn't. In fact, that's one of the things that makes it so remarkable. The truth is, both Elijah and Elisha made contact with pagan kings under the direction of God. So for Jonah to be a special envoy sent by God to a pagan nation is simply the grace of God and not difficult to imagine. Number three, the liberals object because Jonah refers to Nineveh in the past tense. In chapter three, where Jonah writes, now Nineveh was a very great city. It's obvious he didn't live around then. He lived some time distant if he wrote it at all, and he refers to the city as a city in the past tense. Well, the use of was is perfectly acceptable in narrative writing, which most of the book of Jonah happens to be in narrative. Number four. A fourth objection is that Jonah was never there to begin with. And that's proven by the fact that he writes that it took three days to walk through it when everyone knows that the city was small enough to travel through it in one day. Okay, what about outlying areas? What about the suburbs of this great empire that so overpowered the northern kingdom of Israel? In fact, we know that its population was larger than the city of Kerry today. More than a hundred thousand people. And if you tried to deliver a message to a city of coming doom of more than a hundred thousand people, if, like Kerry, you traveled from one end of Kerry on foot to the other end of Kerry, it would take you at least two or three days, maybe weeks. In fact, we're already beginning to complain that you can't drive from one end of Kerry to the other without it taking an unimaginable ten minutes. The unbelieving world is grasping at straws. The final objection is that Jonah uses some words that seem incompatible with Jonah's vocabulary. Aren't you glad these scholars knew so well Jonah's vocabulary? Well, the truth is the words in question, if you took the time to study, and this is all the time I even want to take on the objections, those words appear in Old Testament books, both before Jonah's time and afterward. Jonah is simply troubling to the unbeliever because of what it reveals of God and what it reveals of the gospel. Jonah is not make believe. He was a real man. He was living in a real time, and he had a real challenge on his hands. In fact, we do know that Jonah has already been around for quite a while. He was the court prophet for Jeroboam II, and he prophesied faithfully in that northern section known as Israel, the northern kingdom after the division. And he prophesied 750 years before the birth of Christ. Jonah had already delivered a rather famous prophecy, which

Jonah In History And Scripture

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had been fulfilled as the northern kingdom of Israel regained some of its lost territory that they thought was lost forever, and Jonah prophesied they'd get it back and they got it back, which added only more credibility to Jonah's ministry. In fact, you might want to write into the margin of Jonah 1.1, and we will get there, I trust me, eventually. Write in this text, 2 Kings 14, and you can go and read it sometime. And let me quickly read for the sake of time what that text says in verse 25, 2 Kings 14, 25. God restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the sea of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai. Now that that one verse collaborates the time and place of Jonah's ministry. In fact, 2 Kings will also mention Jonah's hometown, which would later become known as Galilee. Imagine that. The prophet whose biography will provide an illustration of Christ's resurrection was prophesying in the same neighborhood where Jesus Christ will one day walk and teach and preach. The one who experienced a rather amazing miracle of being swallowed by a fish will be followed up by the great prophet, who will command the fish into the nets of his disciples, and will create fish at a campfire and feed it to Peter and others. Wonderful testimony of the Old Testament corroborating the ministry of this little book called Jonah. We know that Jonah prophesied during the ministries of Hosea and Amos. It's very likely that Jonah had been trained by his predecessor, a man by the name of Elisha. J. Sidlow Baxter wrote, Jonah would have been a leading prophet among the schools of the prophets when Elisha neared the end of his remarkable ministry. It's interesting to consider the fact that Jonah and Elisha probably knew one another well. Jonah was one of the revered prophets of the Jewish people. In fact, centuries after Jonah's life, the father of Peter and Andrew, who had become apostles, disciples of Christ, the father of Peter was named after Jonah. More than likely after the famous prophet as his namesake. You remember that Peter was known originally as Simon Bar Jonah. Bar simply means son of. Simon was the son of a man named perhaps after in honor of this famous prophet of Israel named Jonah. So as far as the average person of this day, Jonah was a prophet who had helped Israel succeed. He had preached the greatest evangelistic campaign in Israel's history. He saw the pagan kingdom of Nineveh come to faith in God, and he came for his crusade on a private cruise ship, didn't he? Specially made by God. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote in the first century these words as he incorporated Jonah into his antiquities. He wrote, and I quote him, but since I have promised to give an exact account of our history, I have thought it necessary to recount what I have found written in the Hebrew books concerning this prophet Jonah. A hundred and fifty years after the death of King Solomon, Jonah is preaching in Israel. This is not fantasy or fiction. So let me invite you to turn to these 48 verses of Scripture and take a closer look with me at the life and times of the prophet Jonah. Now, for some of you, your translation will accurately begin with a little word and or now. It's not in my translation, so for a moment I have to preach on a word before we get to the book of Jonah. Now or and. It's the little Hebrew word, it's the little vav that is often translated and. And it reveals the interesting point that verse one of Jonah followed the previous verse of something else. We're not told what or where, or by whom.

Why The Book Starts With “And”

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Warren Wearsby made the interesting note that if one of his books began with the word and, his editor would probably wonder if something had been lost, including his ability to use the English language. You don't start with and unless it follows something closely, God chose in his wisdom not to let us know what that was. There are several books of the Old Testament, by the way, that begin with the word and. And this one does as well. In fact, Warren Wearsby provoked my thinking as he went on to write that by opening with the word and, the book of Jonah subtly hints to us that God's story of grace and mercy is a story of continuation. Note further in verse 1, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Now, whenever you read, and the word of the Lord came to, this is a formulaic phrase that marks the true prophet of God. The true prophets of God had the word of God coming to them. There were false prophets who claimed to speak the word of God. They claimed to have the word of God, but they only took God's name in vain when they said they had. They hadn't. They spoke their own dreams and their own make-believe stories. To have the word of the Lord come to you

The Mark Of A True Prophet

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would have either been a mark of authentication as a true prophet of God, or it would be someone other than a prophet that would be asked to participate in some special mission of the Lord. So the word of the Lord comes to you because you're going to have a special mission from God, or to authenticate that you are a true prophet of God. And for Jonathan, it was the authentic mark. It was the fingerprint of true prophetic ministry. But notice when the word of the Lord comes to someone, it means something is about to happen, doesn't it? Someone is about to slip into action. Something is going to happen to somebody. And would you notice, though, in the text that nothing is really said about Jonah? Nothing is said about his birthplace. Not much of an introduction at all. Nothing about his previous ministry. We're not even told how the word of the Lord came to him. Was it a dream? Was it a vision? Was it an angel? We're not told. It evidently doesn't matter, but perhaps you've already discovered that everything that happens in this little book seems to happen in fast motion, doesn't it? Everything is quickly. It even starts with and it just starts in fast motion and just continues to move forward. Everything that can be left out is left out. Nothing clutters the hallways of this story. Now notice further, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai. Who's he? Well, we don't know. I told you it probably wasn't important, and so we just skim on by it. But I do want to stop here long enough to point out some rather interesting meanings of both of these men's names, which actually illustrate the coming drama that I don't believe is a coincidence at all. Jonah is the Hebrew word for dove. Often children of believing Hebrew parents were named after animals, hoping their children

Jonah’s Name And His Mission

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would grow up to exhibit everything good about its best characteristics. They probably did act like little animals early on, but hopefully later on it would change. The dove was known for gentleness, harmlessness, flight, and most significantly, peace. Ever since Genesis chapter 8, verse 11, when the dove flew back to Noah with an olive branch or leaf in its mouth, the dove became a symbol of hope and peace. In fact, to this day, around the world, it is the symbol of peace. And we use the phrase even to this day of extending to someone the olive branch as a symbol of extending peace to someone. Whenever you see, by the way, the dove on flags or emblems or political insignia, more than likely the dove will be in flight. It's in flight, signifying its role as a messenger. So here you have a man whose name was the symbol of peace sent as a messenger to extend the olive branch to a nation in deep trouble with God. Jonah the dove is about to be commissioned by the Emperor of Heaven to serve as the ambassador of peace. Now, you notice the verse also told us he was the son of Amittai. Amittai comes from the same Hebrew root word which gives us the word amen. Amen. It's the confirmation of truth. This is much more than coincidence. Here you have the messenger of peace who's going to tell the truth. And would you note the outset? Jonah didn't go to the Ninevites and talk to them about peace. He went and told them the truth. And they believed the truth and discovered peace. How unlike the messengers of God, supposed messengers of God today, who run around talking about peace, but leave out the truth, and people do not find then peace with God. He goes as the messenger of peace to tell them the truth. You've got 40 days, and if you don't repent, you're dead. He will literally live out his name. But he really doesn't want to, does he? And that's what we remember. Let's not be too hard, though, on this dove before we know all the facts. We'll discover in our next session what it meant to go to the Ninevites, a people renowned for their brutality. So it's fairly easy to outline what happens in this brief biography. I'm not sure I'm going to outline my sermons by these titles, but it's fairly obvious and easy. Five points. Point number one is see Jonah run. Point number two, see Jonah swim. Point number three, see Jonah fly. Point number four, see Jonah preach. Point number five, see Jonah pout. Let's talk about some key lessons quickly that are sort of lying out in the open. In fact, are circulating around in your minds, and I want to at least get them down

Run Swim Fly Preach Pout

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in ink. Some lessons learned from this man at the very outset. First, be alert. God has delivered his word to us as well. Have you ever thought about the fact that the word of the Lord has come to you too? It has. You're holding it in your lap. You say, oh no, I'm not Jonah. I'm not a prophet. I'm not either. I'm not the son of a prophet. In

Be Alert Encouraged And Careful

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fact, as one man said, I even work for nonprofit organizations. But the truth is, God has spoken. He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, but he has spoken unto us in these last days through and by his son. We hold in our laps, I hold in my hand the words of the prophets of old and the words of Christ. And the words of Christ in and through his apostles. Be alert, God has spoken. The word of the Lord has come to us as well. And he has given us all that we need. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all that we need to be equipped for every good work. Be alert to what God has spoken to you through his word. It will equip you for life. Secondly, be encouraged. God can use anyone and anything to accomplish his will. We're going to watch God use pagan sailors, a storm at sea, a plant. He'll even use a worm. That's encouraging to me, isn't it? To you? He will use a stubborn prophet, too. This is the grace of God about to be revealed in living color in and through the life of this prophet. So be encouraged. Thirdly, be careful. Be careful. Past obedience does not guarantee future obedience. I agree with, as I have studied, read books, just to prepare for this study in this particular Old Testament book, I agree with those that believe that Jonah was more than likely an old man when this occurred. His greatest test was reserved for his later years. Much like Daniel, who many believe was around 85 to 90 years of age when he was thrown to the lions. So Jonah has served God for many years, faithful as a prophet. He's rubbed shoulders with Elisha. He's more than likely taught a course or two in the schools of the prophets. Nobody would have been surprised to learn Jonah was the one who received the word of God. Jonah was the one who was given this incredibly dangerous assignment, difficult commission from God. Jonah was the man. He had years of faithful ministry. Past obedience doesn't guarantee future obedience. Frankly, I think Jonah would have been somewhat embarrassed to know that 3,000 years later, here we are, embarking on a close scrutiny of his actions and his emotions, his pride, his failure, his fear. Wouldn't you be? I think he'd be embarrassed to though we're about to pour over every word, we're gonna dig under every stump, we're gonna explore every corner and crevice of this man's life. Think about it, he had years of faithful service as a prophet of God, and we have one verse in 2 Kings. But he has a few months of failure, and we've got an entire book on that. But I'm reminded of God's purpose. One of them. In giving us the Old Testament record, Paul said, These accounts were given to you as an example, 1 Corinthians 10, 6. In other words, they're gonna teach you what not to do, and they will also teach you what to do, and most often we learn by those who fail. So God gives us the whole story. Frankly, I've got to tell you this too at the outset. I'm grateful that God didn't give us a book on Jonah's successes and one verse on his failure. I'm glad he turned it around and gave us a detailed description of why and how he failed and what God had to communicate to and through him as a result. So, in other words, here's a book for saints like you and me who get it wrong. But here's also a book to warn and amaze and thrill and challenge us to get it right. His testimony is even more profound to us, isn't it? Years of faithful service in the past do not guarantee faithful service in the future. None of us, none of us have reached the tape yet. So be alert. Be encouraged, and be careful.