Jonah Study Notes: Chapters 2-3

Intro: The Book of Jonah shows us the God of the Old Testament: Forgiving, helpful, Gracious, and merciful.

1. God Gives Jonah Forgiveness and Help 2:1-10
Jonah 2:1: "Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish..."
  • This is not a prayer asking for help!!!
  • This is not a prayer asking for forgiveness!!! (By this time Jonah had already been forgiven.)
  • This is a prayer of thanking!!! (Jonah is praising the Lord for His deliverance and forgiveness.)

a. It is never too late to pray to God for forgiveness and help.
Jonah 2:2: "and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.

b. Jonah was at his lowest point.
  • His sin had led to the very depths of the sea. It had caused him to hit bottom.
  • If we do not deal with our sin then it will lead us downward until we hit bottom as well.
  • It is often at this point that people turn and look to God.
  • Just think of the Prodigal Son. (He was in the pigpen before coming to his senses.)
  • God often lets us go to the bottom so that we may learn how good He truly is. (i.e. Prodigal son)

Jonah 2:3-5: "For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. So I said, "I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple. Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head."

c. Jonah’s seemed done for. It looked hopeless for him.
  • “Depth of Sheol” “Weeds were wrapped around my head”
  • Jonah looked a goner for sure but he still prayer to God for forgiveness and help.
  • Even when things seem hopeless God will still be there for us if we call on Him.
  • Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego or Hezekiah and the Assyrians.

2 Kings 19:14-19: "Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God."

2 Kings 19:35-36: "Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.

Jonah 2:4 "So I said, "I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.

d. Jonah knew he had brought this all upon himself.
  • Yet he still prayer in hope that the Lord would forgive him and help him.
  • So often we think God only hears the prayers of people and not that of people being bad.
  • God is called our father and as such longs to help us at all times.

e. There is help in God alone
Jonah 2:6-7: "I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple.

  • First of all note how Jonah praises God for bringing his life up from the pit.
  • Then notice how Jonah says those that regard vain idols forsake their own faithfulness.

Jonah 2:8: "Those who regard vain idols forsake their faithfulness,”
People often turn to their modern day idols when trouble hits.

 

  • Money
  • Education
  • Relationships
  • Etc…

None of these things can help with life’s most important issues.

Jonah 2:9: :But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD."
Salvation is from God alone.
  • It was here in the Whale/Great Fish that Jonah learned the most about God’s love, care, and forgiveness.
  • God loved, cared for, and forgave Jonah no matter what!!!
  • As a result Jonah prayed this prayer of recommitment.

Jonah 2:10: "Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land."

2. God Gives Jonah Grace 3:1-4
Jonah 3:1: "Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,"

a. Jonah’s second chance
  • God has always been a God of the second chance.
  • We often feel that once we blow it that God will be done with us.
  • We may deserve to be put on the sideline but that is not the way God is, He is Gracious.
  • God is a loving Father that wants His children to learn and grow from their mistakes.

Moses murdered a man and tried to cover his sin by burying the body in the sand.
David committed adultery and subsequently murdered the woman’s husband.
Peter denied Jesus by the enemy’s fire.

All these men God forgave and gave second chances to. God used them all again. So it is with Jonah as well.

b. Jonah’s mission
Jonah 3:2: "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you."

“Arise”: The only prerequisite to being used again is to get up and get it in gear.
Jonah was to go to Nineveh and proclaim the message God would give him.

 

  • This is not too different from what we are called to do today.
  • Nineveh was evil and so is the world around us today.
  • Jonah was to proclaim God’s message not his own and so are we.

Jonah 3:3: "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk.

I read the following in a book about Nineveh:“With 1,200 200-foot-high towers and surrounded by a 100-foot-high wall whose foundation was made of polished stone and of breadth that three chariots could drive abreast atop it, Nineveh was magnificent to behold. Sixty miles in circumference, Nineveh could grow enough corn inside her walls to feed her population of 600,000.”


No one knows for sure how many people lived there, but we can be sure it was a lot.


c. Jonah’s message
Jonah 3:4: "Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."

Jonah often takes a lot of flack for his message.
  • People condemn him for preaching judgment out of hate.
  • Jonah here is proclaiming the message God gave him. (Verse 2)

Can a message of Judgment ever be a message of love? What would have been the response of the people if Jonah proclaimed that God loved them and had a wonderful plan for their lives? Let's keep in mind the culture and time Jonah was preaching in. His method may not fit today’s world but his message does.


3. God Gives Mercy To Nineveh 3:5-10
How could God give mercy to such evil and wicked people? The same way He gives it to us!!!

a. Based on their belief in His Word
Jonah 3:5: "Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

This is a difference between believing in God and believing God.
A Gallup poll showed that 94% of Americans believe in God. Do they really believe God?
  • Do they listen to His Word?
  • Does God direct their lives?

Believing God and His Word is always the first step to receiving His mercy.

b. Based on their repentance. Verses 5-8

Jonah 3:6-8: "When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.

  • The people mourned over their sin.
  • The King mourned over their sin.
  • They all turned from their sin.

c. Based on their turning to God
  • They not only turned from their sin but they turned to God.
  • God gives His mercy to men everywhere that do these three things.
  • Believe Him and His Word
  • Mourn over their sin
  • Turn to Him

Jonah 3:9-10:"Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish." When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it."

Closing:
Jonah shows us the nature and character of God. He is forgiving, gracious, and merciful.