Here is a short summary of Jonah

Jonah 1-2

• Jonah went to Tarshish instead of Nineveh
• A whale of an experience turned him back to God's direction!
• Salvation is of the LORD. 2:9

• An errand of mercy to Nineveh
• On the first day, Jonah started into the city.
• He proclaimed: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”...
• The Ninevites believed God....
• When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened....
• Ninevah was a heathen/Gentile city...
• God was showing grace to the 'another' nation.
• Jonah seems to have been a pre-runner to Paul's objectives and mission.

• However, only wanting to preach on their doom,  Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry when God extended His mercy to Nineveh.
• But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

• And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

• Founded by Nimrod
• See Genesis 10:11,12 - founded right after the flood.
• Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which dominated the Ancient Near East for about 300 years (900–605  b.c.).
• Nineveh rivaled Babylon.
• Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was situated on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, opposite the present Mosul, about 280 miles north of Babylon.
• Along with being ancient, it was a great city.
• According to the archy scholars...
• 385 furlongs
• Nineveh was an oblong parallelogram, extending 20 miles long, 12 miles broad and 60 miles in compass - which makes sense with a three day journey through it - about 20 miles a day was the common computation for a pedestrian.
• Nineveh was surrounded by large walls 100 feet high, so broad that three chariots could drive on them - and defended by 500 towers 200 feet high.
• It began its rise to world power about the time of the division of the Hebrew kingdom, at the close of Solomon's reign.
• It gradually absorbed and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel.
• Learn more about Nineveh from Nahum

• Jonah, whose name means “dove,” was called by God to be a messenger.
• His preaching would prolong the life of the enemy nation that was already in the process of exterminating the northern kingdom of Israel, his own nation.
• No wonder he fled in the opposite direction - he dreaded the brutal and relentless military machine that was closing in on God's people.
• (Aren't we glad that Ananias was a better man than Jonah!  Acts 9:10-17)
• Jonah was a native of Gath Hepher.
• He lived in the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 b.c.) and helped recover some of Israel's lost territory (2 Kings 14:25, 28).
• His mission to Nineveh might even have been considered treasonous by some.

• Shalmaneser III (858–824 b.c.). Began to “cut off Israel” (2 Kings 17: 3–4)
• Adad-Nirari III (810–782). Took tribute from Israel. Jonah’s visit
• Tiglath-pileser III (745–727). Deported most of the northern part of the northern kingdom, Israel
• Shalmaneser V (727–722). Besieged Samaria
• Sargon II (721–705). Deported the rest of Israel (See Isaiah)
• Sennacherib (704–681). Invaded Judah (See Isaiah)
• Esar-Haddon (681–669). Very powerful
• Ashurbanipal (668–626). Most powerful and brutal (See Nahum?)
• Two weak kings followed (626–607), and the giant empire fell in 605 b.c.

• From Halley's Handbook:
• Because of the fish story, unbelieving minds rebel at accepting the book as factual. They call it fiction, or an allegory, or a parable, or a prose poem. Jesus unmistakably regarded it as historical fact (Matthew 12:39–41). It takes considerable straining to make anything else out of Jesus' language. He called it a “sign” of His own resurrection. He put the fish, the repentance of the Ninevites, His resurrection, and the Judgment Day in the same category. He surely was talking of reality when He spoke of His resurrection and the Judgment Day. Thus Jesus accepted the Jonah story, and for us that settles it. We believe that it actually occurred just as recorded; that Jonah himself, under the direction of God's Spirit, wrote the book, with no attempt to excuse his own unworthy behavior; and that the book, under the direction of God's Spirit, was placed among the sacred writings in the temple as a part of God's unfolding revelation of Himself.
• They willingly leave out a few important facts, however!
• They wrongly describe the "fish."
• Halley's Handbook - "The word means “great fish” or “sea monster,” rather than “whale.” Many “sea monsters” have been found large enough to swallow a man. However, the point of the story is that it was a miracle, a divine attestation of Jonah's mission to Nineveh. Except for some such astounding miracle, the Ninevites would have paid little attention to Jonah."
• No - Matthew 12:40 states Jonah was three days and nights in the whale's belly...
• They ignore the obvious fact that Christ went to Hell!
• so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth - vs 40
• Also see these references to support the necessary and obvious truth that Christ went to Hell - and then rose from it!
• Lower parts of the earth
• Ephesians 4:8-10 -  Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
• Soul not left in hell
• Psalm 16:10 - For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
• Acts 2:27-32 - Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
• Necessity of Purging
• Isaiah 6:6,7 - Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
• Matthew 3:12 - Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
• Hebrews 1:3 - Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
• So reading Jonah's account of being in the belly of that whale has some truth to what it is like in Hell, or lake of fire - but instead of water as Jonah describes, etc. it would be fire!

• Mainly, it seems to have been intended by God as a hint to His own nation that He was also interested in other gentile nations.
• Seems like an OT forerunner to Paul and his mission to Gentiles.
• Israel was jealous of its favored relationship with God and was unwilling to share the Lord's compassion with the Gentiles.
• It may have postponed the destruction of Israel, for “violence” was one of the things the Ninevites repented of (Jonah 3:8).
• Joppa, where Jonah embarked from towards Tarshish (1:3) to avoid preaching to another nation, was the very place God chose, 800 years later, to tell Peter to receive people from other nations (Acts 10).
• Jesus quoted Jonah's rescue as a prophetic picture of His own resurrection on the “third” day (Matthew 12:40).

• The other prophet who spoke against Nineveh was Nahum.
• Jonah - 785 B.C. - grace offered to Nineveh
• Nahum - 630 B.C. - punishment finally given
• Romans 2 - longsuffering of God towards other nations, yet final punishment eventually comes!
• Nahum 1-3
• The burden of Nineveh.  The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked
• Nahum 3:19
• There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
• Destruction spoken of in Zepheniah 2:13-15.
• And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in!  every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.

Matthew 12:38-41 - a sign

• Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, 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. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

• Jonah running from God's words!
• Tarshish is thought to have been a Phoenician mining colony in southwestern Spain, near Gibraltar.
• If so, Jonah was heading for the farthest end of the then known world.
• From 'god' to 'God' amongst the ship when things got terrible.
• 5, 6 to 14-16

• including 1:17
• Jonah's prayer during his rough situation.
• Supports the doctrine of Jesus going to hell for 3 days and 3 nights.
• vs 2
• Jonah had to admit his lesson learned!
• vs 9 - But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed.  Salvation is of the LORD.

• God's second time to talk to Jonah
• Jonah, in his preaching of what God told him to preach, no doubt told of his experience with the whale, with witnesses accompanying him to verify his story.
• Speaking in the name of the God of the nation the Ninevites had begun to plunder, they took him seriously and became terrified.
• Nineveh got right with God and received His mercy - turning away his fierce anger...
• vs 10 - 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.
• Read Nahum for the 'rest of the story' of Nineveh!
• Jonah not happy with God's mercy towards a Gentile city.
• So unhappy, he wanted to die!
• Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
• God's mini sermon to Jonah concerning Jonah's anger towards His actions towards Nineveh
• 4:10, 11 - Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

• Jonah was angry with God for showing compassion on Nineveh, an enemy of Israel.
• God may have wanted Jonah to understand His compassion for the Gentiles.
• God set up a situation that would help Jonah see God's love for His creation.
• God made a gourd grow up over the place where Jonah sat.
• Jonah appreciated the protection from the sun that the gourd provided.
• The next day, God removed the gourd and Jonah grieved for the loss of the gourd.
• God pointed out to Jonah how he was mourning the loss of a simple plant in which he had invested nothing.
• God used this situation to illustrate to Jonah how much more God grieves for this creation, including the people and animals of Nineveh.