“He (Jonah) thought God was only the God of the Jews, and he would rather be dead than proclaim the grace of God to the heathen.” – Martin Luther
Chapter 1 of Jonah concluded with this detail about Jonah being swallowed up by the great fish and spending three days and three nights in its belly. This is an interesting detail, in that Ancient Near Eastern mythology viewed three days/three nights as the required time to journey to the Underworld. This would have been known to ancient readers of Jonah and again would have reinforced the theological theme running throughout the book: Israel’s God is sovereign over all things in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth.
Jonah’s declaration in verse 3 that God threw him into the sea is his way of acknowledging that although the sailors were the instrumental cause of his being in the sea, ultimately it was God who caused this to happen. Again, God’s sovereignty over all things is emphasized.
Jonah’s language throughout this chapter speaks to his belief that he was heading for Sheol, the Underworld, and that he would be imprisoned there forever. But then in verse 6, Jonah praises God for rescuing him from that fate and bringing him back to the world of the living. This echoes a consistent biblical theme, namely, that God alone has all authority over life and death. Believers are admonished throughout the Scriptures to fear God alone as He alone has all authority.
“All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me.” – Jesus, in Matthew 28:18
Jonah prays this beautiful prayer acknowledging God’s sovereignty and salvation, praising God for His ability and willingness to have mercy and save. Ironically, it will be this very fact which so angers Jonah in chapter 4, when God shows His mercy to Jonah’s brutal enemies.
What does this chapter have to do with the Missio Dei? Again, the primary theological theme of God’s sovereignty over all things brings the Great Commission to the fore of our thinking. Jesus said all authority in Heaven and on Earth is His, and His authority is the basis for our boldly going out and “making disciples of all nations.”
Another major theme in this book is that our enemies are not God’s enemies. God is not concerned with geo-political borders on a map. His call to His Church is that we love and make disciples of all peoples. That command supersedes all other concerns. We’ll dig into this theme more as we get into chapters 3 and 4.
Click here to watch the lecture video I did in conjunction with this blog post.
“And on that final day I die, I want to hold my head up high. I want to tell You that I tried to live it like a song.” – Switchfoot, “Where I Belong”