Jonah: Themes, Types and Facts to Consider

[continued from Part 1 of yesterday]

Jonah, like every book of the Bible is a reflection of some aspect of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. What reflection you see is between you and God. This study is a reflection of what I see. It is imperfect, subject to error and intensely personal. It is presented not to persuade you to see what I do, but to share with you what I have seen so that you can take it to the One Who is the Truth and let Him be your light. When we each follow Jesus then unity cannot be far away.

You could look at the three-way peril in the book; the peril of Jonah, the peril of the sailors and the peril of Nineveh – and compare how God works through each of them. You might want to consider the way that both the sailors and the Ninevites are brought to the place where they reorder their priorities, casting off the things of the world that had gripped their attention and their affections in order to face the reality of God’s existence, and of His just anger upon their sin. Or you could consider the nature of God’s love for Jonah, for the sailors and for Nineveh. Is it a redemption story? Is it a sanctification story? Is it both?

Then there are those who see figures and types of the Lord Jesus here. The Lord Himself even used the illustration of Jonah’s sojourn in the fish’s belly as a picture of His own burial and resurrection. Is that the only picture that is helpful? Is Jonah the scapegoat like Christ, the Lamb of God? Is he a picture of sin-bearing. Is He both sinful man and spotless Son of God prefigured for us? Is the tempest a figure for the wrath of God on all sin. Is the deep where the weeds wrap around Jonah’s head at the foot of the mountains – what he calls “the pit” – a figure of hell itself, or just of the grave? Could it be meant to convey only the suffocating horror of sin-bearing? Interesting questions all. I have taken a view that is not always literal, and includes references to the symbolic – but that recognizes the historicity of the events, and at least makes an attempt to follow the basic rules of Biblical hermeneutics.

You might wonder what the overall message of Jonah actually is. Those of you who are tender hearted will no doubt see mercy and hope, forgiveness and love because they are indeed all in there. But will you also see judgment and wrath, chastisement and the reality of hell for the unrepentant – because they are just as surely there, too. I hope that you see both. I do. And I see them no only here but throughout the whole of the Bible.

Those who think that regeneration depends to some miniscule, though real, degree upon the will of man will perhaps see a picture in which God extends effectual saving mercy to all. That sort of universalism is not in this text, and it certainly is not the Biblical view of salvation. God's salvation in Christ is indeed sufficient for all, which is why it is imperative that we evangelize the world, but it takes the grace of God operating upon a heart for anyone to actually come to Christ. Of course, these distinctions are not foremost in the minds of the terrified sailors, nor the repentant Ninevites, as they are being brought to salvation. But they are distinctions that I believe God expects His children to understand, as they grow in grace and the knowledge of their great God and Saviour.

So, in Jonah we can see that it is true that God loves all men, has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, desires the gospel to be preached to every creature under heaven, and commands all men everywhere to repent. It is also true that God's wrath abides on all those who do not repent and that God is the one Who orchestrates and effects the regeneration of everyone who is saved, according to His will alone. These things may certainly be seen in the story of Jonah, for those willing to scratch the surface.

The overall message of Jonah to me is twofold…

Firstly, we can see that God makes it abundantly clear that He loves the world, and that He wants us to do the same. God does not ask His servants to act towards men in ways that He does not Himself do. Preaching the gospel through gritted teeth, not caring about the outcome, or hoping people don’t listen at all because we don’t like them cannot stop God from accomplishing his plans. All that the Father has given to Christ will come to Him – regardless. In Jonah, and for us, the question is whether we hold forth the gospel without respect of persons, as a real offer in love, with a sincere and heartfelt desire that they receive it. And do we understand the urgency, while realizing our own dependency upon God?

Secondly, it is clear that God’s mercy towards those He is saving is without measure – filled up, pressed down and running over. Grace upon grace. It is God’s prerogative to say, “I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy…” – but then the story shows the exceeding greatness of God’s mercy towards those upon whom His salvation is settled. It is settled in Jonah upon a rebellious prophet, a heathen sailing crew and a cruel and unjust Gentile society. God is indeed the God of all the earth, and He is saving some people of every kindred and tongue and tribe. This is the universalism of the scripture. It is true universalism. It is the only universalism. It is the same universalism that we find in another watery story in the Bible – that of the few animals of every kind saved in the ark, while a whole world perished in willful and unrepented sin.