The Minor Prophets: JONAH

Historical Context

            Although Jonah lived in the eighth century BC, the date the book was written is disputed because we can’t be sure who the author was. Jonah is referred to in the third person, and the author isn’t identified elsewhere in the Bible.  Jonah or someone getting information from Jonah would have to have written the book—such as someone from the “sons of the prophets” (2 Kings 2:3). The book of Jonah is unique among the prophetic books rather than being a collection of the oracles of the prophet, it relates an episode in his life.

            The book of Jonah calls Ninevah a "great city" (1:2).  Its growth came after 745 BC and it was finally named the capital of Assyria by Sennecherib (705-681 BC), becoming the most powerful city in the ancient Near East. Israel despised Ninevah and the Assyrians for their infamous cruelty (we also read about this in the book of Nahum) and they themselves suffered from their military strategy of deporting populations (exile) and replacing them with a foreign population, effectively limiting their chances of rebelling. 

Message/Theme/Audience

            Above all else, Jonah is a story showing the boundless mercy of our Creator God, who is the Lord and source of all life. The story is not intended to emphasize the miracle of the big fish or to discuss Jonah' s reluctance, rather, Jonah portrays the nature of God who is the creator of all things: the storm, the fish, the plant, the worm, the scorching east winds, even the animals of Ninevah are mentioned, and then who is also the creator of Jonah and the sailors and the Ninevites. All of these are absolutely dependent on God for their existence, as Jonah and the sailors and then the Ninevites come to realize. 

            We are reminded that our God is not just our God, but Lord of All (and all things).  God is totally free. He can grant mercy in life to whom he will, to disobedient Jonah and even to the wicked Ninevah. God is not coerced by goodness or obedience, by repentance or piety, or even by evil and disobedience.  In great mercy God wants to save.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit God's love for them." Jonah 2:8

"But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:1-11