1. Sent to prophesy to a gentile nation.

2. About the prophet; not the words of the prophet

3. Narrative literature.

4. Full of irony.

5. Satire.

Ps 139:23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Charles Spurgeon: “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

- Nineveh was a city of the Assyrian Empire.

- 500 miles east of Israel

- Gentiles - pagans, not worshipers of God, different people group

- Wicked - Polytheism, Witchcraft, Sorcery, Alcohol Abuse, Sexual Promiscuous

- Cruel - Assyrians were most known for was their violence and brutality.

600 of their warriors I put to the sword; 3,000 captives i burned with fire; I did not leave a single one among them alive. Their corpses I formed into pillars; their young men and maidens I burned in the fire. Their governor I flayed and his skin I spread upon the wall of the city. I cut off their fingers, and from others I cut off their noses and their ears; of many I put out their eyes. I made one pillar of the living and another of heads, and I bound their heads to post around the city. 700 men I impaled on stakes against their city gate.

I pierced his chin with my keen hand dagger. Through his Jaw I passed a rope, put a dog chain upon him and made him occupy a kennel by the east gate of the inner wall of Ninevah. I tore out their tongues and flayed them. I laid them upon a skinning table in Ninevah and slaughtered them like lambs. I cut off their members and had them carried about as an object for all lands to see.

- Irony, funny, satire, big reaction, exact opposite, extreme disobedience.

- Nineveh is 500 miles east on land and Tarshish is 2000 miles due West by water.

- In modern day Spain, probably a seaport town just past the strait of Gibraltar.

- The farthest place away that Jonah knew of – the end of the known world.

1. Trying to be God

2. Trying to Escape Guilt

- What is your Nineveh? That place of purpose, that place of God’s will, that place only accessible through obedience.

- What is your Tarshish? That place of escape where you don’t have to think about God.

- What are the ships at Joppa? Those temptations, vehicles that lead you away from the presence of the Lord.

- Would you rather experience cheap freedom without God or costly obedience with God?

- Would you rather live in Tarshish without God or go to Nineveh with God?