The Book of Jonah: When God’s Purpose Isn’t in Your PlansSample

Before we jump into the first chapter of Jonah’s story, let’s briefly visit the only other place he is mentioned in the Old Testament: 2 Kings 14:25. This single verse gives us some important context.

Years before the events recorded in the book of Jonah took place, God had given word to him that Israel would retake cities to the north, expanding their border into land controlled by their infamously cruel neighbor, Assyria. Jonah delivered this prophecy to the king of Israel and when it came true, he became something like a national hero.

So this is the prophet and the geopolitical tension at the center of the story that starts abruptly in Jonah 1:1: “Now . . .” The Hebrew word here introduces a story, almost like we might say, “Once upon a time . . .” So immediately we’re thrust into the action. It’s like the author of Jonah is saying, seemingly out of nowhere, “Jonah got a word from God he was not expecting, and it blindsided him.”

The word—God’s command to Jonah—was to get up and go to the foreign city of Nineveh, the heart of Assyria.

The events that follow in Chapter One detail Jonah’s drastic response: he flees, boards a ship, endures a storm, and as the chapter comes to a close, is thrown overboard—at his own request—by his fellow sailors.

What are we to take away from Chapter One’s narrative of denial and disobedience?

• God’s sovereignty is absolute. His wrath is real. And His mercy is relentless. The storm at the center of the story reveals this trio of truths. Wind doesn’t just happen; God hurls it. Waves don’t just happen; God brings them, proving both His sovereignty and His wrath toward sinful people. Yet even this is a demonstration of His mercy, as He uses the storm to draw to Himself not just Jonah but the pagan sailors too.
• We run from God’s Word in our lives and from proclaiming God’s Word in others’ lives. Let’s see ourselves in Jonah and ask: why is it that all creation responds to the bidding of God—the wind, the waves, the rain—but we, like Jonah, have the audacity to look God in the face and say, “No”? He has commissioned every follower of Jesus to be a witness to others about Jesus. Do you ever run from that commission? If so, what’s the difference between you and Jonah?
• Our sin inevitably takes us on a downward path toward death. Look at what happens to Jonah as a result of his sin: he doesn’t even want to live! That’s how disorienting, deceiving, and dangerous sin is. As long as you and I run from God’s Word in our lives and from proclaiming God’s Word in others’ lives, we too will live disoriented, deceived, and ultimately dark lives.