Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet

Jonah and the whale

In our last reading, the prophet Obadiah warned proud Edom that the Lord sees the arrogance of nations and will bring it down.

Now we turn to Jonah, where the story becomes even more surprising. Here the Lord does not simply judge a foreign nation. Instead, He sends a prophet to warn it — and the prophet does not want to go.

The book of Jonah is short, only four chapters, but it reveals something profound about the heart of God.

A Prophet Running the Wrong Way

The word of the Lord came to Jonah with a clear command:

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it.”

Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire — a brutal power feared throughout the ancient world. To Jonah, it was an enemy city, not a mission field.

So Jonah ran.

Instead of going east to Nineveh, he fled west toward Tarshish. He boarded a ship, hoping to escape the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord who made the sea was already there.

A great storm rose. The sailors, terrified, cast lots and discovered that Jonah was the cause. At Jonah’s own request they threw him into the sea, and the storm immediately ceased.

Then the Lord prepared a great fish.

For three days and three nights Jonah remained in the depths, praying to the God he had tried to flee.

A City That Repents

After Jonah was delivered, the word of the Lord came again.

This time the prophet went.

Nineveh was enormous, a city of many thousands. Jonah’s message was simple and severe:

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

Something astonishing happened.

The people believed the warning. From the king to the common citizen, they humbled themselves in fasting and repentance. Even the king stepped down from his throne and called the city to turn from its violence.

And God had mercy.

The Prophet’s Anger

The strangest part of the book comes at the end.k comes at the end.

Jonah was not pleased with Nineveh’s repentance. He was angry. He had feared this outcome all along — that God would forgive them.

Jonah knew the character of the Lord:

“For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.”

That mercy troubled him.

Jonah wanted justice for his enemies. God wanted repentance.

To teach Jonah, the Lord appointed a plant to shade him, then a worm to destroy it. When Jonah mourned the plant, God asked the question that closes the book:

Should God not have compassion on a great city filled with people who do not yet know their right hand from their left?

The story ends there — leaving the question hanging.

Why Jonah Still Speaks

Jonah is not only about a fish. It is about the heart of God.

God pursues the runaway prophet.

God warns a violent city.

God responds to repentance with mercy.

And the story quietly exposes the narrowness of our own hearts.

We may rejoice when God forgives us — yet struggle when He shows mercy to those we consider undeserving.

But the Lord who sent Jonah is the same Lord who later sent His Son.

Jesus Himself pointed to Jonah, saying that just as Jonah was three days in the fish, so the Son of Man would be three days in the heart of the earth. What Jonah experienced as rescue became a sign pointing forward to Christ.

God’s mercy, it turns out, is wider than we imagine.

Closing Prayer

Lord, soften our hearts before You.

Teach us to love what You love

and to rejoice when sinners turn to You.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

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There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy

Like The Wideness Of The Sea;

There’s A Kindness In His Justice

Which Is More Than Liberty.

There Is Plentiful Redemption

In The Blood That Has Been Shed;

There Is Joy For All The Members

In The Sorrows Of The Head.

There Is Grace Enough For Thousands

Of New Worlds As Great As This;

There Is Room For Fresh Creations

In That Upper Home Of Bliss.

For The Love Of God Is Broader

Than The Measures Of Man’s Mind;

And The Heart Of The Eternal

Is Most Wonderfully Kind.

But We Make His Love Too Narrow

By False Limits Of Our Own;

And We Magnify His Strictness

With A Zeal He Will Not Own.

If Our Love Were But More Simple

We Should Take Him At His Word;

And Our Lives Would Be Illumined

By The Presence Of Our Lord.

Author/Writer: Frederick William Faber (1862)