What makes jonah a prophet

Jonah then warns the people of Nineveh that God plans to destroy them unless they repent. The king of Nineveh descends his throne and declares a three day fast, decreeing that no human or beast will taste food or drink water.

This seems to be an example for us all. In modern fictional parlance, the possible destruction of Nineveh is nothing more than a MacGuffin, a plot device necessary to the story but which is in fact irrelevant itself. The true lesson of the book revolves around Jonah himself. Jonah is irresponsible and immature, the polar opposite of every other character in the book. The shipmates that Jonah encounters while he attempts to flee all act with compassion and reverence, resisting the impulse to throw Jonah overboard simply to save themselves.

When the sea then becomes calm, they respect the power of God by taking vows and offering sacrifices. Later, the people of Nineveh defy all expectations and respond in a similar fashion.

Except, that is, for Jonah himself. Even after God spares the city of Nineveh, he remains unchanged. We infer that he was actually disappointed that there was no fire and brimstone.

See, he whines to God, I knew that this was a total waste of my time. Listen Now. The book of Jonah, written primarily in the third person, does not explicitly name the prophet as the author of his own account, but we have no reason to doubt either the inspiration or the historical veracity of the book. Identified in verse 1 as the son of Amittai, Jonah came from a town called Gath-hepher, near Nazareth in the area that later came to be known as Galilee 2 Kings This makes Jonah one of the few prophets who hailed from the northern kingdom of Israel.

However, rather than direct Jonah to prophesy to his own people, God commissioned him to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. Jonah was one of only four writing prophets that Jesus mentioned by name during His earthly ministry Isaiah, Daniel, and Zechariah were the others. But Jonah received more than a mere mention. When the call of God came to him, Jonah could not see beyond his own selfish desire for God to punish the Assyrians. Sadly, many artifacts from this vast city were lost in transportation to museums.

Photo source: Flickr by StevenB. The Mishnah book of rabbinic interpretations of the Bible teaches that his mother was of the tribe of Asher and his father of the tribe of Zebulun. There is also a tradition mentioned in rabbinic writings Pirke R. If Jonah is her son, then he may be the one whom Elijah revived from the dead, which would foreshadow a future resurrection from the dead 1 Kings —23; Acts Jonah is traditionally identified as the prophet commissioned by Elisha to anoint Jehu 2 Kings — During the reign of Jeroboam, Moab was subdued, part of Syria was conquered, and Israel experienced prosperity.

This prosperity, however, was coupled with great moral decay, and Adonai sent many prophets to Israel to bring about repentance. The Book of Jonah is unlike the other prophetic books in that it reads like a narrative. Jonah also stands apart from other prophets in that he took premeditated steps to prevent the will of God from happening.

He is the only prophet to actively defy God—although Moses, Jeremiah and others often resisted. When God told him to go to Nineveh , the capital of Assyria, which was miles away, to preach repentance and to warn the great city of its coming destruction, Jonah took off in the opposite direction.

Jonah hired a ship in Joppa now Jaffa to flee from Adonai and the call to preach in Nineveh. When the people repented, the destruction did not come to pass.

Jonah then understood that the same thing would happen in the case of Nineveh. He did not want to see the people repent. If this is true, then it is possible that he was being called a false prophet because Jerusalem avoided destruction.

Because the Ninevites were a brutal people, Jonah may have also reasoned that if he preached to them they would actually repent , turn from their wicked ways and be saved, only to remain a threat to Israel. God whose name is YHVH and controls all things, including the weather, brought a storm against the ship. God arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah.

He remained in its belly for three days and three nights. Yeshua Jesus would recall this event as a foreshadowing of His own approaching resurrection from the dead. Matthew Just as it was unlikely that a man could emerge from a fish alive, so it was unlikely that one would rise from the dead, especially after being dead for three days and three nights.

In this, Jonah foreshadowed the Messiah. We also see the extent that we can trust God with our lives. Even when circumstances suggest that events have gone past the point of no return, God is still able to turn things around. He is an example of a Jew fulfilling his purpose to be a light to the Gentiles. Lawrence Lew. Jonah was well versed in the Psalms. While in the belly of the fish, he composed a prayer on their basis.

He repented of his rebellion, and the fish spat him out on dry land. This time Jonah obeyed. While the language is reminiscent of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jonah, unlike Abraham, made no attempt to negotiate a merciful response to sin.

Incredibly, the Ninevites did not kill the messenger but believed him. It is possible that they were aware of the miraculous rescue of Jonah from the belly of the whale, or they were fearful of him due to his appearance.

At any rate, the Ninevites chose the path of repentance, proclaimed a fast, and everyone in the city humbled themselves and mourned.

Jonah preaching in Nineveh Bible Primer. In his anger, Jonah essentially told God that He was being too nice! That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Once again, God in His mercy decided to give Jonah a lesson—this time about love.

God caused a leafy plant to grow up and shade him from the hot sun while he sat waiting to see what happened to the city. This brought Jonah much joy.

Then God prepared a worm that ate the plant and killed it. 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?