Perhaps no other Bible personality or prophet has been made fun of more than Jonah! He has been the brunt of many jokes. Some think of Jonah as a fairy tale. Many scholars feel Jonah’s journey in the hot, smelly sea weed infested belly of a great fish is impossible to have happened, they consider its account absurd. When proving all things, evidence points out, Jonah did live and was a most remarkable character whose experiences were facts of history, regardless of the attitudes of those who scoff, saying a human could never survive in such a fish.

In a “Documentary Studies” paper on page 490 we read, “The skeptics who ridicule this account know little and care less about the evidence of the feasibility of life being preserved under the conditions to which Jonah was subjected. It has, however, been scientifically established that life could thus exist. This is borne out in the actual experience of the recorded case of one James Bartley, a seaman belonging to a whaling ship, who was swallowed by a large sperm-whale and removed two days later when his shipmates, cutting up the monster for its oil, found him in its stomach. Bartley testified he became unconscious, not through lack of air (though it was uncomfortably hot) but by fright at the knowledge of his predicament.”

Reading the first chapter in Jonah will refresh the story in our minds. “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. When the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:1-17).

Let’s start by answering this last question first. In the book of Matthew we find the scribes and Pharisees seeking a sign from Christ. “Saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:38-40). Not only does Christ use Jonah as a sign by counting the days between His death and resurrection, but He declared Jonah was a sign to Nineveh. “And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation” (Luke 11:29-30).

Jonah, (meaning dove) lived at a time when the prophets like Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos and Micah were warning Israel to repent of their evil ways. Jonah’s call to go to Nineveh came during this same 8th century B.C. This was about 30 some years after Elijah’s trial with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Jonah knew that unless Israel repented and would turn from their evil ways, Assyria (to whom they were paying tribute) would lead the nation into captivity. He was witnessing the wasting away of Israel as they were being enslaved to the Assyrians. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and the people there derived their religious ideas from Babylon, in which they were in constant contact. The Assyrians had a number of different gods they worshiped. Anam--Melech “Anu is King.” Anu was the Babylonian god of the sky. Bel-Belu, the patron god of Babylon known as the sun god. Sin was their moon god, Istar was the goddess of the crescent moon and stars, and Dagon was their agriculture god, who is described as the father of the Great god Baal. Keep this last god, Dagon the agriculture god, in mind while we continue our thoughts on Jonah.

Jonah was intensely patriotic and loved Israel to the point of being willing to make any personal sacrifice necessary in their behalf, as we found when reading the first chapter of Jonah! “And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging” (Jonah 1:12,15). He was willing to die at the hands of the Assyrians to enable Israel to escape captivity.

Stories have been told describing Jonah as fearful and afraid to go to Nineveh, but this is untrue. God’s word contains no account of any man more brave and fearless than Jonah. Jonah recognized before boarding the boat to Tarshish, that Nineveh would repent and be forgive of their evil ways. “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? ” (Jonah 3:10,4:1-2).

How did Jonah know for certain, before he ever went to Nineveh and before the people in that city had heard his message that they would believe and repent? The answer to this question is clear from a study of God’s law and Jonah knew the law! He knew if God had called a prophet or friend to go along with him to bear witness against Nineveh, he would have gladly gone and given testimony against the disliked Assyrians. But God sent him alone and he knew under the righteousness of the law that: “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established” (Deu 19:15). Going back two chapters we read: “At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death” (Deu 17:6). In the book of Numbers it says about the same thing. “So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die” (Num. 35:29-30).

God not only instructed us on this law, but leaves us examples. Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed after being witnessed to by two angels. Moses and Arron witnessed against Egypt, Joshua sent out two spies to Jericho before it was destroyed. God used heaven and earth to witness the blessings and cursing, life and death (Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28). In Luke 10, the Lord appointed seventy to go out two by two to witness for Him. God tells us even clean meats are identified by two witnesses; four legged animals are to chew the cud and have cloven hoofs. Clean fish are to have fins and scales. God’s set feasts are witnessed in a number of places in the Bible. In the book of Revelation, we read of two end time witnesses.

God chose Jonah not because he was weak, but because he was brave, fearless and had a strong personality! His disobedience and flight with the experience that followed were to be used of God to bring about the very condition Jonah feared, “The repentance of Nineveh.” God knew Jonah’s heart, He knew he was upset with their evil ways and he would like to see them lose their strangle hold on Israel. He would like to have taken the law into his own hands. Jonah must have felt as many do today seeing the guilty get off scott free! We see the President of the United States of America restructuring the Constitution and rewriting the meaning of word definitions, causing news broadcast to be X rated and getting away with it and saying “It’s for the children!” I’m sure most of you are as upset as many are about what is happening in America today! These kind of feelings must have been running through Jonah’s mind.

God had a plan! I asked you to keep Dagon, the agriculture god in mind. Dagon was Nineveh’s fish god. He had a human head and hands with the body or trunk of a fish. The knowledge of Jonah’s experience with this great fish vomiting him out on dry ground had preceded him to the city of Nineveh! A miracle like that must have been the thinking of Christ when He said, “And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation” (Luke 11:29-30). The Lord knowing the people of Nineveh worshiped Dagon their fish god, so when Jonah came to them out of a great fish, they immediately saw a prophet from their god who came to warn them of their evil ways. “And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” (Jonah 3:4-9).

In the Assyrian ruins there is carved in stone a picture of a fish with a man coming out of it’s mouth. This is probably referring to Jonah! “For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites” (Luke 11:30). We also see the Popes wearing their mitre (a hat that pictures a head of a fish). You probably have seen the metal figures of a fish on a car trunk or hanging on the rearview mirror, some have them on key chains. Dagon, the fish god, has become an idol to a lot of people even today! “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jonah 3:10).

Jonah was a type of Christ. There was a similarity! The sign of Jonah was given by Jesus to His generation. The fulfillment of that sign is the death and burial of Christ, who was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jonah was also a sign of the events that followed the resurrection. He was raised from the belly of the great fish and preached forty days to Nineveh, so Jesus Christ rose from the tomb and preached forty days to the disciples. Nineveh recognized in Jonah a prophet from their god Dagon and repented of their evil ways. Those practicing Jewry in Christ’s generation (let me add) and in our generation refused to believe Christ who was far greater than Jonah. Jonah was a man who was not unafraid to die for a cause. Jesus Christ was willing to sacrifice His life and die for all mankind!! But as with Jonah, so with Christ, unless the people repent they cannot be given salvation!