Jonah
( 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah 1:1, Matthew 12:39-41, 16:4;
Luke 11:29-3 )
(C3156-3229, 775AC-848)
His name comes from the Hebrew in ¯ yo ¯ h which means "roll" (a bird). And his father, Amitai, means "the truth of the Lord." Jonah was from Gath-Hepher, a town located in the territory of the tribe of Zebulun (Joshua 19:13). These historical details mentioned in the book of Kings is proof that it was a real person and not mythological.
Jonah had given as a servant of the Lord early in the reign of Jeroboam (790-750 BC), or even during the previous generation between 800-780 BC, and prophesied in the early restoration of the land of Israel to its former borders through the efforts of Jeroboam II. He became notable because of the fulfillment of this auspicious prophecy even during his lifetime.
It was probably Jonah himself, and not a scribe of his time, who wrote the book which is incorporated into the Bible with his name, describing a supernatural experience he had in his life.
Early in the book we have information that the word of the Lord came to Jonah ordered to stand up, be the great city of Nineveh and would claim against it because of their wickedness. The phrase "the word of the Lord came to Jonah" is mentioned seven times in the book.
Nineveh was the capital of the nation of Assyria, Nimrod is founded, first appears in the Bible in Genesis 10:11, was the largest city in the world in his time, was so great that it took three days to walk it, as Jonah 3 : 3; modern archeology has proven its immensity.
The Assyrians were violent and cruel warriors, and were fierce enemies of Israel. There was therefore no wonder that Jonah, fearful, seek to evade the order he had received. But Jonah had an even stronger reason to fail to comply with the order and disobeying the Lord, fleeing their homeland.
As explained later, the real reason for his decision was that, knowing that "God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and plenteous in mercy, and repented of the evil", he predicted that by the complaint and notice of what would happen to them, the Ninevites would turn from his evil way, and the Lord did not punish them accordingly. For Jonah, as well as being a people idolatrous and sinful, the Ninevites were his enemies and his people, the Israelites. As a man faithful to the Lord, and Israeli patriot, Jonah hated them and did not want to obtain forgiveness from the Lord, but to be punished to the height of their wickedness. Soon, he decided not to have part in it.
To evade Jonah rose up just as he was commanded, but in the opposite direction down to the port of Joppa, and there boarded a ship that was intended to Tarshish in Spain in the west.
The text says that Jonah wanted to just "get away from the Lord." Undoubtedly Jonah knew that God was everywhere, knowing the King David Psalm 139:7-10, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there. If you take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost sea, Even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. "He fled from the presence of the Lord in order to escape His knowledge and authority. This was just a way of saying that he had left the land of Israel, where the Lord lived and ran the mission which had been entrusted.
The ship was detained by a storm, and being threatened by a shipwreck sailors cried to their gods, alijaram their cargo overboard, and the captain went for Jonas, who was fast asleep in the basement of the ship, so that he would claim to their God. The sailors cast lots to find out who was guilty of the evil that supervened, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Jonas identified himself as Jewish, fearing the Lord, God the Creator, from whom he was fleeing. He persuaded the crew sailors to throw him overboard and it did not until they have done everything to avoid it and ask the Lord for forgiveness for doing so. Then they "feared the Lord with fear, and offered sacrifices to the Lord and made ??vows."
The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah into the sea, but this remained alive inside for three days and three nights. This fish could be the great white whale, "Rhincodon typus," which comes to be 15 meters long and 20 tons in weight.
As Jonah says in his prayer of thanksgiving (Ch. 2:1) inside the fish he cried to the Lord, almost entirely using expressions found in the book of Psalms (3:3, 5:7, 18:4,6, 7, 22:5, 30:5, 31:6, 42:4,7, 69:2, 120:1, 142:3, 143:4), and the Lord gave him life. After three days, the Lord spoke to the fish and the fish vomited Jonah on earth. This extraordinary miracle has given occasion to the critics and skeptics over time to challenge its veracity, contrasting explanations of the most fictitious, with no logic or reason.
Then came the word of the Lord again to Jonah, telling them to go to Nineveh to proclaim the message that he commanded him.
This time Jonah went to Nineveh and proclaimed that after forty days the city would be "overthrown." This word is a translation of a Hebrew verb "hâphak" which has several meanings from "return" and "turn over" exchange, overthrow, ruin, win, subvert, turn, return, pervert, convert, pervert, etc..
The prophecy was actually fulfilled, but in an unexpected way to Jonas: he understood that the city would be overthrown, ruined as a punishment for great sin that was. To his surprise (and disappointment), what happened was that the Ninevites were converted, confessing and repenting of your sin. They had then God's forgiveness and survived.
Jonah was angry when she realized that she had been forgiven, prayed to God and complained that it was feared that this would happen at the beginning had already rushed to flee to Tarshish. Therefore asked God to take the life, because he preferred to die. The Lord asked him if his anger was reasonable, but "Jonah left the city, and sat on the east side, and there made ??him a enramada, and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city." (Ch. 4:5). The Lord Jonah had compassion, and patience gave an illustration to better understand His righteousness and salvation.
The Lord God caused a gourd born and grow over Jonah to protect you from the sun, and rejoiced with him in the extreme for the gourd, God sent forth at dawn the next day an animal that killed the gourd. Also, the rising sun, a warm wind sent east causing Jonah fainted with heat stroke. Again Jonah wanted to die.
Jonah was a lesson to learn that, as considered to be just getting angry and have mercy on a gourd short life he had not planted, or care of her, had not the Lord have much more compassion for more than one hundred twenty thousand people totally ignorant of good and evil, and also much cattle? (It is estimated that the city's population at that time was four times more, so the Lord was referring to the child population).
The Lord Jesus Christ confirmed with His supreme authority that there was a prophet by the name of Jonah and the authenticity of this book, with his words recorded in Matthew 12:40-41: "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And here is one greater than Jonah. "
Jonah's experience was used by Christ at this time as a figure of His death and resurrection yet to come, would have no value if it were not a true fact. There can be no other way. It also breaks the long standing tradition according to which the Lord spent less than two days and two nights in the grave. See also Hosea 6:1-3 and Rule
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