SECOND CHAPTER

Jon 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 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, away from the sight of the LORD.
 4 But the LORD hurled a great wind into the sea, and there was a great storm in the sea, so that the ship was thought to be broken.
 5 Then the seamen were afraid, and each man cried to his god. And they threw out the ship's articles in the ship, into the sea in order to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship; and he lay there, and was fast asleep.
 6 And the chief of the seaman came to him and said to him, What is it to you, O sound sleeper? Arise, call upon your God! It may be that your god will notice us, and we will not perish.
 7 And they said, each one to his fellow, Come and let us cast lots, so that we may know who has caused this evil to occur to us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
 8 Then they said to him, Please tell us, for what reason this evil has come on us. What is your business? And where do you come from? Where is your country? And of what people are you?
 9 And he said to them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.
 10 Then the men were afraid with a great fear. And they said to him, What is this you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from before the face of Jehovah, because he had told them.
 11 Then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us? For the sea was going on and being stormy.
 12 And he said to them, Take me up and throw me out into the sea. And the sea shall be calm to you; for I know that this great storm has come on you for my sake.
 13 But the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not, for the sea was going on and being stormy against them.
 14 And they cried to the LORD and said, We beg You, O LORD, we beg You, let us not perish for this man's life, and do not lay on us innocent blood. For You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.
 15 And they lifted Jonah up and threw him out into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.
 16 Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and vowed vows.

 (MKJV)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx9RcI_EueM

“The dice of God are always loaded.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson

A song about realizing where your life is at and a quote from a naturalist which actually is a variation on an old Greek Proverb.

Several things occur in our Bible verses that all point to the single fact, one Jonah chose to ignore as he tried to take his life to a place he wanted but God didn't wish: God is in control. God handles every detail of stopping Jonah and does it to his own glory.

Jonah's name means dove.  And he took flight.

But there's a bit more for those who read my blog on John http://www.thefailureofmythjohnsgospel.com/   .  Had Jonah lived in New Testament times, he would have been called John.  Please note the association with water and that name.  John the Baptist, John the fisherman who wrote the Gospel we studied.  Some believe Jonah represents the country of Israel, divided in loyalty, to it's traditions and to God.  That it was tossed into a torturous journey after the crucifixion and then lead to the dry land of a reformed nation.  Remember this is one of the "minor" prophets and his story is sandwiched among other with many prophecies of the final times.

But I also see him rather as a foreshadowing of both those other Johns.  An OT prophet had the Holy Spirit in him, could do miracles as the Bible attests and also had  a relationship with God that they also walked with Him and often did his will.  But both the NT Johns also failed.  The Baptist, in his prison of stone, trapped and wondering, found HIS doubt and had to be assured by a message from Jesus.  This apparently emboldened him enough to face his death with faith.  The Apostle stuck by Christ even to the witness of the cross, but he still doubted during the days CHRIST was in His tomb, his seeming prison.  But the glory of the Resurrection carried John into an old age of service and recording prophecies even as Jonah later  records the results of his prophecy.

Please take notice of Jonah's behavior again:

Other prophets have disputed with God. When God told Moses to speak to Pharaoh, Moses told the Lord that he couldn't because of his poor speaking ability (Exodus 4:10). Ezekiel objected to the manner in which God wanted him to cook his food (Ezekiel 4:9-15). When God told Jeremiah to present the Lord's message, Jeremiah told God that he couldn't because of his young age (Jeremiah 1:6). But Jonah didn't argue. He didn't try to talk God out of it. He didn't even attempt a compromise. He just fled.

Robert E. Young

http://www.ldolphin.org/jonah/jonah1.html

Wesley from his commentary on the Old and New Testaments:


  V. 3.  From the presence-From the place where God usually had shewed himself present, by revealing his word and will to his prophets. Perhaps he might think God would not put him upon this work, when he was got into a strange country.


From Bible Hub commentaries,

We don’t doubt that Jonah felt like going to Tarshish. There was in impulse within him driving him there, but it was a dangerous impulse. We may take Jonah as an example of the danger of doing things under impulse

i. “Now, I very commonly meet with persons who say, ‘I felt that I must do so and so. It came upon me that I must do so and so.’ I am afraid of these impulses - very greatly afraid of them. People may do right under their power, but they will spoil what they do by doing it out of mere impulse, and not because the action was right in itself.” (Spurgeon)

·        An impulse may be very brave, yet wrong (Jonah was very brave in embarking on such a long sea-journey)

·        An impulse may appear to be self-denying, yet wrong (it cost Jonah much in money and comfort to go on this long sea-journey)

·        An impulse may lay claim to freedom, yet be wrong (wasn’t Jonah free to go to Tarshish?)

·        An impulse may lead someone to do something that they would condemn in others (what would Jonah say to another prophet disobeying God?)

·        An impulse can make us do to God or others what we would never want to be done to our self

ii. Many people take their inner impulses and say, “The LORD told me this or that.” This is dangerous even when it doesn’t seem so immediately. “What have you to do with the devices and desires of your own hearts? Are these to be a law to you? I pray you, be not among the foolish ones who will be carried about with every wind of fancy and perversity. ‘To the law and to the testimony,’ should be your cry, and you may not appeal to inward movements and impulses.” (Spurgeon)

According to J. R. Church in They Pierced the Veil, the "merchants of Tarshish" have a place in prophecy as well.  He mentions Ezekiel:

 Eze 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Church sees these merchants as coming from the eventual Great Britain, hence the lion reference, and also as a mention of the USA in prophecy as one of the "young lions" the British Empire spawned. I always concern myself not to take guesses about prophecy since such things have founded cults, but I offer this as a consideration as we move on:  How a nation can be changed by one man speaking the word of God that reaches everyone by his God empowered effort.  It seems long passed time for this nation to produce another Billy Graham.  Ask around and spread the word.  I suspect the next one won't be asking for money for his ministry, may even be walking through our towns as a beat up bum spewed from a fish.

The Family Bible Notes:

 Jonah 1:4 

The way of duty is the only way of peace and safety.  They who seek to escape trouble by disobeying God's commands plunge themselves into deeper trouble.


And  Matthew Poole expands:

Ver. 4.  The Lord, the almighty and eternal God, from whose work Jonah fleeth, sent out a great wind. God keepeth the winds as in storehouses, or treasuries, and now brings one forth to fetch back a fugitive, and obstinate refuser of his command: the greatness of it, with the suddenness of its rising, and manner of its working, undeniably showed that it was supernatural, and from God, displeased with all, or with some one or other of them. 

  Into the sea; the winds did not blow aloft over the sea and ship, but, as if they had intermixed with the very waters of the sea, and like an unheard-of hurricane, shook the very keel of the ship. 

  There was a mighty tempest in the sea; that part of the sea where Jonah's ship was: this messenger soon finds out Jonah, and speaks in most dreadful manner to all in the ship, who all saw and owned it to be from Heaven, the finger of God. 

  The ship was like to be broken; the master and mariners thought they, ship, and goods, and all should be lost; the Hebrew expresseth it as if the ship had sense of God's anger, as if the ship could think, and did think of its own weakness, and God's mighty hand.

Everyone on the ship races about in terror while Jonah snoozes below deck.  It reminds us of the scene of Jesus sleeping in the boat while the storm rages. Except it's inverted. The "innocents"  are idolaters and "Jesus" is a guy running away from his mission where Jesus was merely resting after doing his mission.

The refuge of the unsaved, their gods, have no effect on a storm sent by the real God.  Notice the sailors drag out their idols.   They had different gods among them.  No list of how many were for Ba'al or Marduk or Zeus: man made, the idols simply didn't do anything.

Then they begin unloading the boat.  Everything onto the sea.  Lighten it against the weather.  No sense worrying about the cargo, if the ship sinks, it's in the ocean anyway.

Do you recognize the pattern?

In my own life, I would call on God and, when things didn't happen immediately, I would start doing things to improve them. It seldom worked.  I was treating God LIKE an idol.  He was supposed to do what I wanted and, when he didn't, I tried to improve them by my own effort.  They usually didn't improve and often got worse.

During my lay off, I learned there was nothing I could do except send in resumes, do interviews and work out to keep myself in shape while I waited for a job to come.  There was prayer, prayer for me  by family, friends and the church,  And I remembered my initial  faith: to trust God despite the storm.

But the sailors understand something many of us don't.  The storm is special, came up suddenly, unnaturally.  They've been to sea long enough to recognize the unusual and the strange especially in the weather.  Recall the fishermen disciples reacted the same way. These sailors know a supernatural cause comes from a god,  And they want to know the cause so they can do something about it.  They want to know what action they must take. but their gods don't speak to them.  Moreover, their own actions are to make the boat less likely to sink rather than to end the storm which is causing the problem.

And Jonah sleeps.  He's TOO comfortable.  Perhaps he has been running so hard from God, he's exhausted.  Policemen  will tell the story that the guilty man will be the one who is relaxed in the interview room after being arrested.  Some even fall asleep awaiting interview. They've been pretending so long that their arrest is a relief.  In this case, I think Jonah was exhausted from fleeing, from worry that he would have to go the Nineveh, But once he was on the ship, pointed toward what is modern day Spain or Portugal, He is relieved that God has let him get out of the country.

Something else here which several commentaries touch on: again think of the sailors.  They were just doing their jobs, carrying cargo and one or more passengers from one place to another, hardly anything to anger a god.  But now they are in the midst of God's wrath.  They didn't knowingly go there, but they are in it anyway.   They have no idea why or who has caused it; they just want out.

We hear later that he had told them he was running from his God.  So they were a part of his renegade behavior,

Th captain wakes Jonah.  Adam Clarke https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc.html who had a few problems with prejudice himself On the Captain:


Verse 6.  The shipmaster] Either the captain or the pilot. 

  Arise, call upon thy God] He supposed that Jonah had his god, as well as they had theirs; and that, as the danger was imminent, every man should use the influence he had, as they were all equally involved in it.

Meanwhile, once Jonah has joined them, the crew cast lots to find out what's going on:

The casting of lots in the book of Jonah was used by God to reveal to the sailors that Jonah was the reason for their problem. What type of system of casting lots is not mentioned here. It may have been by the throwing of stones (dice), or by placing names in a receptacle, or by some other method. Whatever the system they used, the lot fell upon the guilty person with his resultant confession.

The Old Testament contains many examples of the use of the "lot" to determine the will of the Lord. I want to give you seven references.

(1) - Leviticus 16:7-10. Aaron was to cast lots upon the two goats to determine which one was to be slain and which one was to be sent away into the desert bearing the sins of Israel.

(2) - Joshua 7:14. Achan, the man who stole the spoils of the Battle of Jericho and brought defeat upon the Israelites in their attack upon the city of Ai, was found to be the guilty one by the casting of lots. The NASB is the only translation that brings in the word "lot." The word "lot" is not found in the Hebrew text, but it is implied and properly inserted.

(3) - Joshua 18:10. Joshua divided the land of Canaan among the twelve tribes of Israel by lot.

(4) - I Chronicles 6:54. The sons of Aaron received their cities by the casting of lots.

(5) - I Chronicles 23:5. The duties of the individual Levitical priests were decided by the casting of lots.

(6) - I Chronicles 26:13 and Nehemiah 10:34. The porters (servants) for the house of the Lord (the Tabernacle) were chosen by lot.

(7) - I Chronicles 28:8-31. The singers among Israel to be used in the Tabernacle worship were chosen by lot.

From these and other passages we see that God often made His will known by the casting of lots, and men frequently resorted to this particular method of finding God's will.

The method of casting lots appears to have been by the use of stones or "dice" of different colors. One of these stones or "dice" was taken blindly from a pouch, or was cast in the lap, and the color or the figure on the stone which turned up would give the answer to the problem sought.

The word for "lot" in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word GOWAL (go-rawl), which means "a small stone or a pebble."

The word for "lot" in the New Testament is the Greek word KLEROS meaning "a small pebble made of wood or bone or a stone." Today we have the word "die" which in the plural is "dice." Most of us know that dice are square pieces of ivory or plastic with different numbers of spots on the six sides and used as gambling devices. From all this, we may deduce that "lots," or "dice" was one way of seeking an answer to a problem.

The principles of casting lots or dice is also brought out in Revelation 2:17. In the letter to the Church in Pergamos, the Lord says, "I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no one knows except the one who receives it."

I have read in some books that there are those who claim that the Urim and Thummin stones carried at all times in the pocket of the breastplate of the Levitical high priest were a system of lots God used in conveying His will to Israel. They say that one was white and one was black. It should also be noted that there is no way to be dogmatic about this since the Bible is silent on this issue, and history is very unclear.

It should also be noted that the casting of lots only applied to the nation of Israel. Today we have the perfect will of God revealed to us in written form in the Bible. Also, Paul said in Romans 8:14, "That those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God." Not, "those who follow the results of casting lots or dice."

Therefore, in our study of Jonah, God used the casting of lots (dice) to reveal to the sailors that Jonah was the guilty party.

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/universe/jonah.2.html

  8 Then they said to him, Please tell us, for what reason this evil has come on us. What is your business? And where do you come from? Where is your country? And of what people are you?
 9 And he said to them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.
 10 Then the men were afraid with a great fear. And they said to him, What is this you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from before the face of Jehovah, because he had told them.

Jonah now witnesses to the unsaved.  The man who ran from witnessing to the Gentiles NOW does exactly what he fled doing.  These are good guys as idolators go, his momentary acquaintances  and he realized he'd dragged them into it.  It began to dawn on him that he has put them in danger by his actions and it certainly dawns on them.

1:10 shows that the men were amazed that Jonah would do something to displease his God. They spent their life in fear of their gods, trying to please and pacify them. It is ironic and sad that those who worship the true God - the only God worth fearing - and experience His grace, take advantage of His grace and do not live their life in an effort to please Him.

More, the unbelievers have faith that, IF Jonah's God is real, he WILL act to deliver them and, moreover, He will act to correct transgressions.  If Jehovah is feared, as Jonah says, then they know you act to placate him, You also don't do things to anger Him to start.

 11 Then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us? For the sea was going on and being stormy.
 12 And he said to them, Take me up and throw me out into the sea. And the sea shall be calm to you; for I know that this great storm has come on you for my sake.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary:

     11. What shall we do unto thee?--They ask this, as Jonah himself must best know how his God is to be appeased. "We would gladly save thee, if we can do so, and yet be saved ourselves" 

Jonah knows what to do.  It may have been knowledge from God or his intuition.  It may have been his guilt speaking.  He just knew they had to get rid of him tom be out of God's will,

Now these are tough sailors, seasoned, idol worshipers but still spiritually sensitive.  And fearful of hurting an innocent man.  They don't want innocent blood on their hands.  Now, they're at sea.  They could toss ANYONE overboard and no one would be the wiser.  But they are in the midst of a demonstration of God's power. If he is mad at Jonah who is His worshiper, how much angrier would He be at them for killing Jonah if he's innocent?

13 But the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not, for the sea was going on and being stormy against them.
 14 And they cried to the LORD and said, We beg You, O LORD, we beg You, let us not perish for this man's life, and do not lay on us innocent blood. For You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.
 15 And they lifted Jonah up and threw him out into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.

So again they try by their own efforts to escape God's storm.  They drop the sails and row hard, harder.  Their arms strain and bulge.  Their legs knot.   Backs spasm.  They begin to ache all over and still no progress.  For the sake of their lives, their well being, they yield to Jonah's request.

But first they pray.  They pray to Jehovah.   Men who have maybe only heard of Him before raise their hands, fall on their knees,  They join the Centurion centuries later who met Jesus on the road and asked the Lord to heal his servant, join him in coming to faith in the face of tragedy and in the realization there is nothing they can do.

14 And they cried to the LORD and said, We beg You, O LORD, we beg You, let us not perish for this man's life, and do not lay on us innocent blood. For You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You.

Do you see they are in a similar predicament as Jonah?  God has given them an order by Jonah but they don't want to obey it.  But they refuse not from rebellion but from fear that it isn't the RIGHT order.  If they were sure, they would toss him overboard, no problem.  But they are not certain they can trust Jonah's analysis.  After all, he is the one running from this obviously powerful God.  But everything of their own effort has failed so they yield but hedge their bets,  "Please don't take it out on us if this turns out to be wrong!"  I heard a minister say that following God requires us to act, just act.  It might be wrong, but don't worry, God won't hold it against you if you are sincerely trying to do his will and he will correct the problems it causes if you are wrong.

So, in obedience to Jonah's guidance, they toss him overboard.

Notice something very important here.

Jonah never lost his faith in God.

He's running from his mission.  He doesn't want to go the Nineveh.  He's so desperate he books legal passage on a ship full of people who's presence will make him unclean  by making the pact with them, (Recall how the Pharisees refused to meet in Pilate's house while they tried to persuade him to kill Jesus.)  He knows he has now joined them to his destiny.  And he knows the only way to break such a pact is for them to throw him off the ship he booked.  It will break the contract.  Even in rebellion, the power of God follows his faith.


 15 And they lifted Jonah up and threw him out into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging.
 16 Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and vowed vows.

And, when the power of God is revealed the unbelieving believe offer sacrifices, are the first ones Jonah evangelizes.  They turn their backs in their gods, toward God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dodMQmzGZTw


I've mentioned the Paul connection,  No evidence exists of what I wonder so I merely wonder:  was this the beginning of an acceptance of the Jehovah in Tarshish?  Did this pave the way for the eventual birth of the man who wrote much of our New Testament?  I don't do this to add anything to the Bible.  It is merely me thinking how God may have allowed this "escape attempt" to open doors for a man who would help found His Church.

Matt Henry sums up:

Jonah 1:13 Jon 1:13


13-17 The mariners rowed against wind and tide, the wind of God's displeasure, the tide of his counsel; but it is in vain to think of saving ourselves any other way than by destroying our sins. Even natural conscience cannot but dread blood-guiltiness. And when we are led by Providence God does what he pleases, and we ought to be satisfied, though it may not please us. Throwing Jonah into the sea put an end to the storm. God will not afflict for ever, He will only contend till we submit and turn from our sins. Surely these heathen mariners will rise up in judgment against many called Christians, who neither offer prayers when in distress, nor thanksgiving for signal deliverances. The Lord commands all creatures, and can make any of them serve his designs of mercy to his people. Let us see this salvation of the Lord, and admire his power, that he could thus save a drowning man, and his pity, that he would thus save one who was running from him, and had offended him. It was of the Lord's mercies that Jonah was not consumed. Jonah was alive in the fish three days and nights: to nature this was impossible, but to the God of nature all things are possible. Jonah, by this miraculous preservation, was made a type of Christ; as our blessed Lord himself declared, .Mt 12:40

Which ushers us into our next chapter.

                                                       OPENING CHAPTER

Jon 1:1 Now the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah.

 (ASV)

If there is a book in the Bible no unsaved person believes, it is a toss up between Genesis and Jonah. 

God creating the world?    No, no.  That was a god particle that did it.  

A world wide flood?   No, no.  All that geological mess was created by the ice ages.  What?  Where did the water go when the ice melted?  It slowly seeped away.  Sudden ice age that froze the mammoths with flowers in their mouths.  SLOOOOW melting temp change.

Anyway, we begin one of the shorter books of the Bible.  Hemingway's book, I'll call it.  Short, to the point.  Maybe it's the James Patterson Chapters.  Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, done.

But the import of the story rests in a number of facts the story doesn't spend a lot of time on.  It assumes we know about Nineveh and the Assyrians and something about the history.  So a brisk history lesson touching on what we can in limited space.

From Spuregon's Devotional Commentary I draw an opening quote and the inspiration for my blog title:


Jon 1:1-4:11

As we read about Jonah on his visit to Nineveh we may note the honest way in which he describes himself, and reveals his own infirmities and faults.

It is the story of a man who ran from God's mission.  I'll let John Wesley Notes on The Old and New Testaments outline chapter 1 for us:


                      JONAH.                        CHAP. I. 

  Jonah disobeys the command of God, ver. 1-3.   
Is arrested by a storm, ver. 4-6.   
Discovered to be the cause of the storm, ver. 7-10.   
Cast into the sea and swallowed by a fish, ver. 11-17.

God gives him a direct order.   Do this.  Go to a city of sinners and deliver an evangelical message.

 Commissioned, not merely instructed.   A soldier, one under orders,  As such, he would have been given God's blessing and been empowered and would have known his mission was very likely to  succeed. But then, many other prophets had been given missions with no guarantee of their survival; in fact, it was sometimes a death sentence.

Some of you may not have read this yet so we will leave Jonah's motives for the discussion of the last chapter.  I will say commentators suggest there was fear behind it.  He was going alone into a generally dangerous territory where the word Jew would likely have been greeted roughly as it was in Nazi territory in World War II.  We'll focus on the other mystery: Why save them in the first place?

 Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria, located on the left bank of the Tigris River about forty miles north of the Zab junction. (For a map:  http://www.britannica.com/place/Tigris-Euphrates-river-system)  It was a city state.  They were known for conquest.  When they conquered an area, captives heads were cut off and piled in a pyramid on the road leading into the conquered city.  The Assyrians are said to be the nation from which the Roman's eventually took the idea of crucifixion. 

Later that same Assyria appeared in prophecy made against Israel 

Amos 7:14 Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one who takes care of sycamore-trees:
 15 And the Lord took me from the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, be a prophet to my people Israel.
 16 Now then, give ear to the word of the Lord: You say, Be no prophet to Israel, and say not a word against the people of Isaac.
 17 So this is what the Lord has said: Your wife will be a loose woman in the town, and your sons and your daughters will be put to the sword, and your land will be cut up into parts by a line; and you yourself will come to your end in an unclean land, and Israel will certainly be taken away a prisoner out of his land.
 (BBE)

 Jonah called to save Nineveh from its  great wickedness.  As Amos foresaw, God used them to destroy Israel years later after the break with Judea.  So God was saving them at least for his purpose of correction. 

And we hear of Jonah one more place in the Bible concerning his actions before his own book. 

  

2Ki 14:20 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David.
 21 Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
 22 He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king.
 23 In the fifteenth year of the rule of Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, ruling for forty-one years.
 24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.
 25 He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-hepher.
 26 For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel, and that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he who went free, and that Israel had no helper.
 27 And the Lord had not said that the name of Israel was to be taken away from the earth; but he gave them a saviour in Jeroboam, the son of Joash.
 28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all he did, and his power, and how he went to war with Damascus, causing the wrath of the Lord to be turned away from Israel, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?
 29 And Jeroboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son became king in his place.

 (BBE)

  
About the brief history leading to this moment:

Jonah was a *prophet in the land of Israel about 800-750 BC. During this time, an important event happened to Israel. Israel shared its northern border with Syria. When the army of Syria defeated the army of Israel in war, it took some of Israel’s land. Then the army of the country of Assyria defeated Syria in war, which made Syria weak. Then Jeroboam (king of Israel 793-753 BC) was able to get his land back. Jonah had said that God would cause this to happen (2 Kings 14:25).

http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/jonah-lbw.htm


About the Assyrians, a brief overview up to the time of Jonah. :

Early Period—2000-1800.

The homeland of Assyria was in the northeast corner of the Fertile Crescent where the Tigris River flows southward across the plains, and the mountains of Kurdistan loom up in the background. The city which gave its name to the country and empire, even as it took its own name from the national god, was Ashur. It was located strategically on a low bluff on the right bank of the Tigris at a place now called Qalat Sharqat (cf. Gen. 10, Nimrod).1

Assyria first appeared historically after the time of the Kingdom of Accad to whose sphere of influence it had belonged (2300-2100 B.C., but this early period is vague). The Assyrians had colonies in Asia Minor where they carried on extensive trade (see the Cappadocian Tablets and the unit on the Hittites—see the tablet at ANE #56). These were interrupted by the rise of the Hittite state. There is a governor from the neo-Sumerian period ruling in Assyria (2000-1900 B.C.).

The Old Kingdom--1800-1700.

The Old Kingdom centers on the person of Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1781 B.C.).2 He had inherited a territory near Mari with which he came into conflict. He may have moved against Babylon. At any rate, he captured a town on the Tigris River which opened up Assyria to him. Assyria had just regained her independence from the south. From his Assyrian throne, he moved west and eventually conquered Mari. The whole of upper Mesopotamia was now in his control and the Cappadocian colonies began to show renewed activity. His son, Ishme-Dagon, was able to retain only Assyria. Mari fell back to the original Amorite dynasty through Zimrilim.

Hammurabi conquered Mari and perhaps Assyria and began the Old Babylonian Empire.

The Period of Decline--1700-1300 B.C.

During this period, Assyria was dominated by others. Mitanni seems to have controlled Assyria (see Unit 9 for Mitanni). Mitanni was defeated by the Hittites (1380-1340 B.C.), and thus the Assyrians were free to resume their expansion.

The Middle Kingdom--1300-1100 B.C.

The Middle Assyrian Kingdom arose in the 14th and 13th centuries. It was reconstituted about 1100 B.C. Names appear here which are better known in the New Assyrian Kingdom: Ashur-uballit (I), Adad-nirari (I), Shalmaneser (I), Tiglath-Pileser (I). There was a decline from 1100 to 900 B.C.3

The New Kingdom--900-600 B.C.

Assyria rose to the height of its power at the time of the New Kingdom. The Assyrians subjugated all of Mesopotamia, including Babylonia, and the border regions. They also extended their rule over a part of Asia Minor, all Syria, and, for a while, even over Egypt.

The rise of the New Assyrian Kingdom began in the 9th century under the kings Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 B.C.) and Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.) who energetically advanced as far as middle Syria without being able to establish lasting control there.

Then the succession of the great Assyrian conquerors began with Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.). They conquered Syria and Palestine, as well as other lands, and undertook frequent campaigns there. They include Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.), Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.), and Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.ANE#121) who undertook several campaigns against Egypt and occupied the Delta and the old royal city of Memphis.

The last goal of Assyrian expansion, the overthrow of Egypt, was brought very close. Esarhaddon’s son and successor, Ashurbanipal (669-631 B.C.), could indeed still garrison the upper Egyptian royal city of Thebes, but, under him, the Egyptian adventure soon came to an end, and the decline of the Assyrian might began.

This decline came about swiftly under his successors. In 612 B.C., the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh fell to a combined attack of the Medes and Neo-Babylonians. In Mesopotamia, and in Syro-Palestine, the Neo-Babylonian Empire then succeeded the Assyrian Kingdom.

https://bible.org/seriespage/16-israeljudah-and-assyria

( can find a more extensive examination of the Assyrians and the Israelis there.  Fascinating history with little to do with Jonah except to establish some reasons to hate them.)

The Assyrians had a number of conquests and a standard way to handle things:  

Assyrian imperialism was of a particularly harsh variety. The tribute exacted from vassal kingdoms seems to have been very heavy. It did nothing to promote the economic welfare of the subject peoples, as can be seen in the impoverished remains of many towns and cities of the period; and it provoked repeated revolts, despite the cruel fate awaiting defeated rebels.

By contrast, the remains of cities in the Assyrian homeland reveal a magnificence and luxury unparalleled in the ancient Middle East up to that time. This clearly indicates that the Assyrian imperial system was an engine for hoovering up wealth from the provinces for the benefit of the ruling class.

Mass deportation

From the mid-8th century the Assyrians practiced a policy of mass deportation. Conquered towns and districts were emptied of their inhabitants, who were resettled in distant regions, to be replaced by people brought in by force from other countries. The most famous example was the destruction of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, described in the Bible.

The aim of this policy was to punish rebels, prevent rebellions by undermining local loyalties, to populate new towns, either in conquered countries or in the Assyrian heartland to develop agriculture in under-populated regions, and to provide the Assyrian state with the troops, labourers, craftsmen, and even civil servants it needed. The deportees were not slaves; they had the rights and duties of other subjects of the Assyrian king; and there is evidence that they were to prove amongst the more loyal subjects of the Assyrians.

A new lingua franca

It has been estimated that four and a half million people were forcibly relocated in this manner. The bulk of deportations involved Aramaic speakers, and as a result this policy greatly contributed to the Aramaization of large parts of the Middle East. Aramaic was to remain the most widely used language in this region for centuries; for example, Jesus would have spoken Aramaic in everyday life. It was only with the coming of Islam that Arabic began to replace it as the language for millions of people. 

Aramaic was an easy language to learn, and also had an alphabetic script, closely related to Phoenician and Hebrew. This made learning to read and write much easier than with the old cuneiform scripts of Sumeria and Akkad, which the Assyrians had previously used. Paradoxically, therefore, the policy of deportation must have greatly helped the spread of literacy in the Middle East.

As for the Assyrians, they too also began to speak Aramaic (their original language having been Akkadian). The ruling class may have continued to speak Akkadian to some extent, and they certainly used its cuneiform script (in a smaller, more refined style than previously) in government and administration. However, Aramaic made headway even in these exalted circles, and in 752 BC it was made an official language of administration alongside Akkadian.

So the ideas communicated in the Bible are correct.  More, they actually resulted in spreading the language Jesus would speak and the language of his Early followers.

The Assyrians shared in the religion of the Mesopotamian civilization at large. This involved the worship of many gods, though with the god Ashur, the national god of Assyria, taking the chief place in the pantheon.

Like all Mesopotamians, the Assyrians had a deep and all-embracing belief in signs and omens. The gods, they felt, were always wishing to communicate their wishes to men, and did so through the movements of sun, moon or stars, the flight of birds, the state of chicken livers and so on. No major decision was taken without consulting priests on whether it was in the will of the gods. This included major issues of state, and the king had a staff of expert astrologers to aid him in his policy-making,

In Popular Religion by Anthony Green, we hear how an ancient Babylonian myth portrays a series of "fish cloaked" figures who appear throughout ancient history one in particular draws Green's interest: "Most striking is the instance of the fish-cloaked man  who can be recognized well enough in the description of Babylonian belief given by Berossa, priest of Marduk at Babylon in the third century BC,  In the first book of his Babylonica , he tells how in the first year of the reign of the legendary Alorus a monster named Oannes rose from the sea: "It's entire body was that of a fish, but a human head had grown under the head of the fish and human feet likewise had grown from the fish's tail.  It also has a human voice.  It now seems certain that Oannes is to be identified with Adapa, the first man of Assyro-Babylonian mythology and since Adapa was an apkallu."

https://books.google.com/books?id=WwUVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=ashur/head+of+a+fish&source=bl&ots=HJFxD8UkW5&sig=Fb08Tqh7Y1rhPWGNjJARv7fb58s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjO682J8_rLAhUkuoMKHSrWCqQQ6AEINjAF#v=twopage&q=ashur%2Fhead%20of%20a%20fish&f=false

About the apkallu:

The creatures above are the apkallu and are considered as antediluvian demigods, semi-divine beings attending the Tree of Life. One of their functions was as protective spirits against disease and demons. The fish men were created or sent by Enki to bestow humanity with moral codes and the arts of civilization (through the me). For the Sumerians these creatures were called the Ab.gal "big fish." You might recognize the Babylonian fish man who is called Oannes ... 

(Note: a New Age source so no links.)

Those familiar with Jonah understand the implication of this which we'll discuss in a bit.


I suggest there were several reasons that God wanted them delivered from his immediate wrath.

1) The cross.

Britannica reports that the first historical record of Crucifixion was about 519 BC when "Darius I, king of Persia, crucified 3,000 political opponents in Babylon" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, crucifixion)

Some further detail is given in "The Eerdman's Bible Dictionary", Rev. Ed., 1975: CROSS ... Crucifixion is first attested among the Persians (cf. Herodotus, Hist. i.128.2; iii.132.2, 159.1), perhaps derived from the Assyrian impalement. It was later employed by the Greeks, especially Alexander the Great, and by the Carthaginians, from whom the Romans adapted the practice as a punishment for slaves and non-citizens, and occasionally for citizens guilty of treason. Although in the Old Testament the corpses of blasphemers or idolaters punished by stoning might be hanged "on a tree" as further humiliation (Deut. 21:23), actual crucifixion was not introduced in Palestine until Hellenistic times. The Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes crucified those Jews who would not accept Hellenization (Josephus Ant. xii.240-41; cf 1 Macc. 1:44-50).

http://www.bible.ca/d-history-archeology-crucifixion-cross.htm

They originated the idea for the form of death which would suit God's need.  They had to be there for the idea to propagate over the centuries and reach fruition.

2) The language.

Aramaic was throughout the empires and made it easier to spread the Gospel.  It likely wouldn't have been so without the Assyrians.

3) The deportation.

Without their conquest, no dispersion,  though Babylon would have assured Daniel,  Ezra, and Nehemiah.  More important, God prophesied it.  They had to exist to complete the prophesy.


But  two other points  give us pause.

1) It appears, no matter what God has planned for a life, the person, people, nation in the plan can actually go so far into sin that God will destroy it rather than use it.  Assyria lived in all forms of immorality, but, significantly, God never describes EXACTLY what sins went too far or EXACTLY how often they had to occur or EXACTLY the nature of their destruction. No definition of the limits of the sins we do before He will not tolerate it, because, frankly, many  of us would sin up to the nearest degree then repent.  He doesn't want us playing that game; some of us play it already, dabbling, touching base with our sin then leading off a little to see if God will pick us off with a quick throw from home (Baseball season is upon us.) We know he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah when their sin  couldn't be tolerated,  Whether it was the sin itself or also the diseases coming from it, the sin itself stood out.  What we know of Nineveh was they went too far. Whatever it was, we know now that a nation can: a) sin to its own destruction (Certainly Israel found it out again and again.) ; b) be redeemed.

You know anyone who has gone too far?  They walked down the wide road and became more and more lost.  Well, they haven't gone too far.  The friend who lays on a slab in the morgue is the only one gone too far,  The living can be redeemed.

2) We can flee God's missions but He will pursue us and turn us back in the direction he wishes us to go.  You may say,"But God hasn't given me an audience and told me directly what to do so I'm waiting on Him to tell me."  

I have a contention.   We know God gave us glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament.  The Angel of the Lord, Melchizedek,  as one of the three visitor to Abraham, as the angel who wrestled with Jacob, as the visitor who meets Joshua on the road.  My contention is that God also gives us precursors of Christians, people who act as we Gentiles act when given God's orders centuries later.

So let me be a messenger of God to you:

 Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.


John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.

John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said to him, "If a man loves Me, he will keep My Word. And My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the Word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."

John 14:31 "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go away from here."

John 15:9-10 "As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."

(For more: http://www.yourtruelifenow.com/)

And this one:

Matthew 5:43 You have knowledge that it was said, Have love for your neighbour, and hate for him who is against you:
 44 But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you;
 45 So that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for his sun gives light to the evil and to the good, and he sends rain on the upright man and on the sinner.
 46 For if you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? do not the tax-farmers the same?
 47 And if you say, Good day, to your brothers only, what do you do more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same?
 48 Be then complete in righteousness, even as your Father in heaven is complete.
 (BBE)

Our neighbors are a part of our world.  Our families.  Our friends.  

And that guy down the street that borrowed your tools and never returned them.  That jerk who cut you off on the freeway.  That midget leader of North Korea.  The leaders of Isis.  The folks in the Temple in Salt Lake City.  The guys in the mitres in Vatican City.  The Republican next door with the "Hilary Lied and Four Died" bumper sticker.  Th Democrat with the "Cheney Lied and Thousands Died And Counting" sticker.  The Chicano at work.  The Caucasian pumping his gas next to your car. 

The guy wearing a swastika or the guy wearing a Star of David or yarmulke.  The junkie who killed your best friend.  The con man who stole your daughter's money and led to her suicide.  

Hey, wait a minute!!!

Yes, before we get all up in Jonah's face about not doing God's work, before we say he shouldn't have run from God's order, let's consider if some of us aren't running from God's commission, too, by sitting in the armchair, living in the gym,  Before that, maybe we should consider him an example to us to turn  from running, to turn from whatever has us going the wrong way. 

I'm certain I lost my job of 31 years to turn me back to God from my ennui, my belief that God had others to do my job if I wasn't doing it. It took me a long time to forgive my boss for the lay off.  When I heard he had become very ill with prostate cancer, it was then possible for me to pray for him and mean it.  Though he seems to have been healed from that, the years of smoking have ravaged his lungs and he needs an oxygen tank to breathe.  Continued prayer for our enemies seems to be part of the process.  I'm also certain God has specific things for all of us to do to help spread the Word.  

Because, again, the living can be redeemed.

Later, we'll discuss a process of forgiveness, but for now our concern is the running away part.

I hope I can keep myself focused on running toward God instead of away.  I pray this blog helps us all keep that focus.   

Now take a look at Jonah's flight plan:









Farthest corners of the world come to mind.  Also a certain Apostle:

for one called Saul of Tarsus; or Saul "by name the Tarsian". So it is said (l) of Bigthan and Teresh, Esther 6:2 that they were , "two Tarsians", perhaps citizens of Tarsus, as Saul was. Tarsus was a city in Cilicia, and which Solinus (m) calls the mother of cities, and is the same with the Tarshish of the Old Testament; here Saul was born, and of it he was a citizen; Acts 21:39 and therefore is here called Saul of Tarsus, or Saul the Tarsian: 

http://biblehub.com/acts/9-11.htm

So we are immediately reminded of the Apostle who got stoned to death and rose from it.

And went through a shipwreck of his own.