Two things are for sure: God extends His mercy even to the merciless, and, men can never thwart the plans of God. Oh sure, we’ll make up seemingly rational reasons why God may not extend mercy to the merciless. We will likely devise misguided agendas that supposedly prove we can thwart the plans of God, but, according to God, who is always right, mankind doesn’t have that kind of authority nor power. It is completely imaginary to think we can thwart the plans of God. All power and glory. honor and dominion belong to God alone, and there is not another.
Jonah 1:3, “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”
David Barrett of BibleMapper.com says Tarshish stood more than 2,500 miles from Israel. By Jonah getting on a ship in Joppa intending to sail to Tarshish, it is a good assumption that he wanted nothing to do with Nineveh. He may have feared for his life, but more than likely he despised those of Nineveh so intensely that he refused to participate in God’s plan of redemption for them.
Why would he prefer everyone in Nineveh to be lost in their sin forever? That seems pretty extreme. Historically speaking though, those in Nineveh had a reputation of dipping Jews in oil, tying them to poles, setting them on fire, and using them as lights at their feasts. Also, the leadership in Nineveh thought it was funny to torture Jews, feed them to the lions, and one historian wrote they skinned Jews alive and made them to roll around in salt as entertainment. In light of all that, we can understand a little why Jonah would want them dead. When God moved to send a head strong, contrary guy to preach good news to the worst people in the world, it would appear Jonah wanted nothing to do with it and intended to flee as far away from Nineveh as possible, or so he thought. God said, “Go”, Jonah said, “no”, God said, “Yes”, Jonah said, “I will not”, God said, “Oh yes you will”, Jonah said, “I’m leaving”, God said, “I’ll bring you back”.
As previously stated, it’s already a very long trip from Joppa to Tarshish but see the entire journey. He gets on a ship in Joppa, Jonah 1:3, once under way, a terrible storm of galactic proportions blows up, Jonah 1:4, one like no one had ever seen before. It was so bad they lost their cargo or profit margin, and everyone on board thought they were going to die at sea, Jonah 1:4-10. After much debate, at Jonah’s request, Jonah 1:13, he influenced the sailors to do the unthinkable, which was to throw him into the sea. With no other options, in desperation they agreed and tossed him over the side. Suddenly, the wind and sea went dead calm, another incredible miracle worthy of note and is hard to ignore by anyone. At some point Jonah is floating along and a huge fish appears, swallows him whole and Jonah begins 3 days and nights in the belly of the fish, Jonah 1:17. The giant fish swims all the way back to the nearest beach front, possibly somewhere near the city called Tripolis, meaning three cities, in Phoenicia, N of Byblos, otherwise known today as Tripoli, Lebanon. He sailed away from Israel only to be brought all the way to, possibly, the nearest shoreline. Think. This man r-e-a-l-l-y did not want to go and was determined to try and out distance God to keep from going to Nineveh to preach the word of the Lord. Yet, above all, God insisted Jonah yield in order that Nineveh be given the opportunity to repent and turn to God.
Recap: he went many miles away from Israel by boat and many miles back to the coast by fish, wherewith I’m guessing Jonah died a few times then was brought back to life during the trip. He finally yields praying earnestly in Jonah 2:1-10 and God hears his cry. He arrives at a likely unknown ocean shore line and endures the violent action of being vomited up. If anyone happen to be watching, I’m sure it was quite a terrifying spectacle to behold the surfacing of such a fish and the arrival of Jonah. Imagine, he is at least partly bleached out from digestive juices, he’s got chunks of slimy stuff on him with some seaweed on his head and shoulders. He has nothing — no provision, no friends, no clean clothing, no food, no shelter, and no bus service to Nineveh. He is reduced to his bare minimum, rock bottom and the only thing he’s got going for him is God.
Let’s look at a map. The Mediterranean Sea is approximately 370+ mi from Nineveh, which is modern day Mosul, Syria. Also, notice, there is no river running from the Mediterranean to Nineveh, so, how is Jonah going to get to Nineveh? To me this means he had a very long walk ahead of him.
i feel pretty certain that the Lord had plenty to say to Jonah while on the journey, on foot, of 370+ miles. The Bible says nothing about the conversation (that i can find) between himself and God while on his long walk to Nineveh, which surely happened. That was a very — long — walk and, I would imagine, a very — long — intense conversation on the way to accomplishing God’s purposes in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia.
Here’s an idea about the rest of Jonah’s travels after he was regurgitated on the beach. Let’s approximate that Jonah managed to walk 12 miles a day, some days a little less and some days a little more. Sometimes he might have even gotten a ride on a cart a little way, but i’d say the distance of approximately 12 miles per day for 370 miles, he was on the road at least 30+ days.
But wait! There’s more. After being back to dry land, he was now walking and talking to God. He went through plush places and baron places on the way to his appointment in Nineveh. i cannot begin to imagine the conversation between himself and God. It was likely very intense to say the least, with God being very persistent, purposeful, and very, very pointed. There were probably times of silence from God, dry deserts, bewildering wilderness, enemies, pounding heat, whipping rain, contrary winds, biting cold, and maybe a few little sanctuaries here and there. It’s safe to assume God must have made a provision for Jonah of food, water and shelter along the way. He probably occasionally met friendly people and hostile people, enduring all the things that constitute everyday life while on his way to Nineveh.
A lot of my imagining Jonah’s journey may not be wholly true, but i don’t think i’m too far off the mark. We should take care to note though, we can’t build sound doctrine from a platform of silence, or what scripture does not say … but, we can not totally ignore scriptural silences because they often do persuade the narrative.
After all that, among many lessons and morals concerning the book of Jonah, here are a couple to ponder. The first is that even though God had every right to terminate the relationship, that’s not what happened. He did not abandon Jonah and He will not abandon you. Hebrews 13:5b, “… for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Secondly, God WILL get our attention. He will work to get our attention in our spirit, and if that doesn’t work, He’ll work to get our attention in our mind, and if that doesn’t work, He’ll work to get our attention in our flesh. And if THAT doesn’t work then He’ll get our attention even to the shedding of blood, but one way or another, He WILL get our attention. Friends, yield to God and allow His words to persuade your heart. Life is much easier that way. Don’t be like Jonah.