JONAH

JONAH

Name means "dove"

Jonah is the fifth of the minor prophets, was the son of Amittai, and a native of Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:25). He flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam II, about 820 B.C. Having already prophesied to Israel, he was sent to Nineveh. The time was one of political revival in Israel; but before long the Assyrians were to be employed by God as a scourge upon them. The Prophet shrank from a commission which HE, Jonah, felt sure would result in the sparing of a hostile city (Jonah 4:2). He attempted to escape to Tarshish. The providence of God watched over him, first in a storm, and then in his being swallowed by a large fish for a period of three days and nights. After he was delivered out of the great fish, Jonah went ahead with what God had told him to do. That was to go to Nineveh. The king, "believing him to be a minister from the supreme deity of the nation," and having head of his miraculous deliverance, ordered a general fast, and averted the threatened judgement. But the prophet, not from personal but national feelings, grudged the Mercy shown to a heathen nation. He was therefore taught by the significant lesson of the "gourd," whose growth and decay brought the truth at once home to him, that he was sent to testify by deed, as other prophets would afterward testify by word, the capacity of Gentiles for salvation, and the design of God to make them partakers of it. This was "the sign of the prophet Jonas" (Luke 11:29 & 30). Jonah's stay in the belly of the great fish was a way of foretelling the resurrection of Christ (Matthew 12:39, 41 and 16:4)

Jonah tried to run and hide, Jesus didn't. Jonah was human, Jesus a Holy man.
Don't we do try to run and hide today as well as Jonah did? No, of course, we aren't swallowed by a great fish or whale (Matthew 12:40). Just as God was watching over Jonah, He will, if we will let Him, watches over us. Just like with Jonah we are, allowing for the fact that we have accepted Him as our personal Savior, going to do what God wants us to do sooner or later. Why is it sometimes later than sooner? Because like Jonah we are only human. It is His will, not ours, that will be done.

God's blessings to each of you,
LJG

SOURCES: King James Bible; Smith's Bible Dictionary
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