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As he is known—very well known, in fact—Jonah is a guy who gets swallowed by a large fish. But that is not at all the point of the story of Jonah in the Bible. While yes he does spend some time in the belly of the great fish, Jonah is a man who we, as Christians in modern times, can heavily relate to and learn alongside.
The Story of Jonah in the Bible
The book of Jonah in the Bible tells the famous story of a prophet confronted by God for his heart of reluctance fueled by wrongful anger and judgment. Through four short chapters, we see Jonah disobeying direct orders from God, being punished and taught a lesson through a huge fish, succeeding in his preaching mission, being angry at the success, and receiving yet another harsh lesson from God himself. Truly a rollercoaster!
The story of Jonah in the Bible begins with a call from God to bring a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh, as they have fallen into sin.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
Jonah 1:1-2 (ESV)
Boldly, Jonah blatantly disobeys God’s command and flees to Tarshish so as to remove himself from the presence of the Lord. He boarded a ship on its way to Tarshish, but not without trouble.
God caused a great wind to blow upon the sea, harming the structure and function of the ship. Rightfully so, the other men aboard the ship were very scared. The tried to lighten the weight of the ship by throwing some cargo into the waters. Meanwhile, Jonah went down to the bottom of the ship where he could sleep.
As Jonah was indeed a prophet, the captain woke him up in hopes that Jonah could call out to God so that they might be saved from the great storm.
“So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give thought to us, that we may not perish.”
Jonah 1:6 (ESV)
The other men on the ship then decided to cast lots, a method used for chance decision making, entertainment, or (supposedly) determining the will of God, in order to find out who’s fault the violent storm was. The lot fell on Jonah and the men asked him many questions to figure out what exactly was going on with him. Jonah replied:
I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
Jonah 1:9 (ESV)
However, Jonah also told the other men that he was on the ship with the purpose of fleeing from God’s presence. It was by this that they knew he was the reason for the mighty tempest at sea.
Honorably, Jonah suggested that the men throw him overboard and into the sea so that the rest of their journey may be trouble free. They resisted at first, trying to get the boat to dry land instead, but upon failure, they called out to God, pleading that he not shed their innocent blood, and then threw Jonah into the water.
Immediately, the raging sea calmed down. This chain of events led to the men of the ship fearing the Lord and making vows to Him.
And now, the most famous part of the story:
“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah 1:17 (ESV)
The entirety of chapter 2 of the book of Jonah in the Bible records a prayer of Jonah from the whale’s belly. In his prayer, Jonah recognizes the power of the Lord and submits to His authority, repenting of his previous sin of disobedience.
“But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Jonah 2:9 (ESV)
God then causes Jonah to be vomited out from the belly of the great fish, onto dry land.
In the very beginning of chapter 3, God tells Jonah for the second time to go to Nineveh to preach a message of repentance. This time, Jonah actually listened. After a three day long journey, Jonah arrived and told the people that their great city of Nineveh would be destroyed in in forty days. Upon Jonah’s warning, the people of Nineveh believed in God and began and a fast.
When the word spread to the king of Nineveh, he called all of his people in the great city of Nineveh to repent so that the city may be spared from God’s wrath.
“And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Jonah 3:7-9 (ESV)
The people of Nineveh did indeed turn from their evil way, and God did indeed relent of the destruction that He told them, through Jonah, was coming.
You would think that Jonah, as a man of God, would rejoice at the repentance of an entire city, and bask in the glory of God’s grace and mercy with the people of the city, but instead, this is where we see his wrongful anger and judgement.
See, despite Jonah’s obedience in delivering God’s message to them, he did not like the great city of Nineveh, as it was an enemy of Judah and Israel. Because of their previous persecution, Jonah did not want them to experience God’s mercy, but rather, His judgement and wrath.
Because of this sin in Jonah’s heart, God taught him another lesson.
This time, once Jonah had gone to the outer parts of the city so that he could both escape and watch the destruction of Nineveh that he thought should happen, God sprung up a plant from the earth to shade Jonah and make him comfortable. How nice!
Except there would be no lesson in just that! The next day, God appointed a worm to eat the plant as well as a “scorching east wind” (Jonah 4:8) so that Jonah would be fully exposed to the sun and feel immense discomfort. Jonah then wishes to die.
This starts a dialogue back and forth between Jonah and God, where God ultimately reveals the object lesson for Jonah.
“And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Jonah 4:10-11 (ESV)
This concludes Jonah’s story as it is recorded in the Old Testament.
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What’s the Point?
We can learn from the details of Jonah in the Bible the same lessons that Jonah himself learned!
I can almost guarantee that anyone who reads through Jonah can see themselves, at one point or another, in Jonah himself. We have all disobeyed God probably multiple times in multiple ways for multiple reasons that we’ve come up with in our flesh.
I want to focus on Jonah’s reason – thought not a good reason – for his disobedience, as it is something that still creeps into our hearts to this day whether we see it or not. To be completely honest, Jonah was simply salty. He was upset that even the people whom he thought were the worst got to experience God’s grace and mercy in the same way he did. No fair! Right?
Obviously not. We want to look at Jonah acting so immaturely and laugh, but really, how often do we do the same thing? We judge others who do things differently, believe things differently, look differently, you name it, than what WE think should be the correct way.
However, every person is a creation of God, made in his image no less than another, and therefore loved by Him the same. Who are we to stand in the way of that? Especially when we ourselves were once sinful, children of wrath who still struggle with sin despite our salvation?
It brings to mind this teaching of the Son of Man on hypocrisy in the New Testament:
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
Luke 6:41 (ESV)
So often, we like to climb up on our Christian high horse and judge the sin of others, perhaps even looking down on them and thinking, whether it’s conscious or not, that they do not deserve salvation. They’re just too far gone. But that’s the whole point! Nobody deserves salvation!
And that is what Jonah’s story of disobedience and anger turned new perspective on God’s wonderful grace and mercy is all about. We have no right to judge others. Just as the merciful God extends his love to one, he extends his love to all.
You may enjoy this animated version of Jonah in the Bible made for adults:
Or one of these recommended resources:
Rediscovering Jonah: The Secret of God’s Mercy by Timothy Keller
Jonah – Bible Study Book with Video Access by Priscilla Shirer
Jonah: Beyond the Tale of a Whale by Mark M. Yarbrough
ESV – “Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”