Jonah 1: 1-2 - The Stage for Rebellion

1-2 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me."


This was written during the period when Nineveh was on the rise towards its greatest ascendancy, which came about 704-630 BC, after which the Medes and the Babylonians conquered it. However, prior to that, the Assyrians of Nineveh had been a powerful, cruel and violent force throughout much of the middle-East. The book of Jonah was penned in Israel around 790-760 BC before Samaria was besieged and invaded, and before Israel fell into captivity in 722 BC. Jerboam II was on the throne and Amos and Hosea were somewhat contemporary prophets.

"Jonah" means "dove," and Jonah was born in a town not far from Nazareth called Gath-hepher in the region of Zebulun. His father, Amittai, was also a prophet and his name means "faithful." The symbol of peace (the dove) came as the son of "faith" in an area about 2 miles from Nazareth, where the true Prince of Peace and Author of our faith lived much of His life.

As the son of a prophet, Jonah would know what it meant when the word of the Lord came to someone. He would have seen Amittai, his father, being given God’s word from time to time, and would have witnessed and been taught the imperative to do and speak exactly as God commanded.

When the Word of the Lord comes to a man, it is not simply words as we understand them, but it is the power of God unto salvation for those that believe. The power of God is in God’s words, because they contain the wisdom of God, the Truth of God and the Life of God. These things are apprehended through the Spirit of God Who inspired them in the first place, and Who alone can illuminate them to the fallen heart. The same relationship exists between these prophetic words given by God and the giving of the Living Word by God. The Word spoken and written are in full and utter agreement with the Living Word now communicated to our hearts and understanding by the Holy Spirit, with Whom He is One – for the Lord, the Lord our God is One, though He is known in three persons.

The way in which salvation comes to men, whether Ninevites or Romans, Jews or Gentiles, is through the threefold work of the three Persons of the One Almighty God. The Father Sends the Word, the Word accomplishes what He was sent for and the Spirit applies the Word’s work to men. So even with the great power of the Assyrians at Nineveh – God sends His Word to them by means of the prophet Jonah.

Let us be clear. Jonah is not the Word. Jonah has no power to make the Word effective. Jonah, like all men, must abide by faith in the God of the Word to accomplish all that He purposes. The delivery of the Word is Jonah’s duty of submission to the sovereign will of God. God chose him as the vessel, though he was an unwilling one. As the book unfolds we shall see that God makes him willing, accomplishes His purposes, teaches Jonah a lesson, saves many Ninevites and lays down in history a story that is in numerous ways a type of the life of Christ.

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

You cannot see right up front the mercy of God in God’s command. God Who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and Who would be perfectly just in wiping the sinful Ninevites from the face of the earth and bringing them to His eternal justice – this same God desires that the judgment of God be preached to Nineveh. But the promise of impending judgment preached through Jonah will turn out to actually be the very means by which salvation will come. God purposed it that way from the start. Just as with Cornelius in Acts 10, when God is preparing the hearts of men to receive Christ He is also preparing the messenger by which that salvation will come.

Take a moment to understand this because, if you don’t grasp it you will never get the process of salvation right in your head. Jonah 2:9 states it far better than I can - "Salvation is of the Lord..." It is entirely a work of God, conceived, produced, applied and given to dead and rebellious men. If any receive the gospel then God has prepared them to do so. If any preach the gospel, then God has equipped, trained, sent and led them to do so. God is in charge from start to finish. He is in charge of what, where, when, how, who and if. Are there so-called "seekers?" Then God is calling them – they are not deciding of their own nature to seek Him. There is none that seeks after God, and none that does good, no not one. {Ro 3:11-12}

When Peter says in his encounter with Cornelius...

"Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him ..."

... he is not attributing to Cornelius a motive arising from his natural man, but from the prompting of the grace of God drawing him to salvation. To think otherwise is to credit man with earning his salvation by seeking after God, and this would contradict so many scriptures that it would make nonsense of the Bible. Man must seek, and he will find if he does so. But he will only seek if God moves him to it, which is why the finding of God is inevitable when he does; it is the culmination of the preordained work of God. It is the end of His intention. This is what the Bible teaches when taken as a whole.