Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: PART 1: Passage to Tarshish

Jonah: Dead or Alive?: PART 1

Passage to Tarshish

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. (Jonah 1:1-5)

The little Book of Jonah is one to which I have given a great deal of attention. When I was in seminary, the higher critics leveled their guns against the Book of Jonah more than against any other book in the Bible. Of course, the explanation that has been offered and is still offered today by some is that Jonah never existed, that he was only a myth. They classify his story in the realm of Aesop’s fables and fairy tales. Although the critic has been hard put to come up with any reasonable explanation of Jonah, there have been some very interesting and humorous attempts. Some critics have said, without a scrap of evidence to support it, that Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath. There’s no reason in the world for saying that other than her son was raised from the dead.

And then the theory is put forth that Jonah actually did live and that he did take a trip by ship but had a dream while he was sleeping, and the events recorded in the Book of Jonah are an account of the dream. There’s no evidence, of course, to support this theory either.

Then there are those who believe that the Book of Jonah corresponds to the Phoenician myth of Hercules and the sea monster. Again, there’s no evidence at all for that claim.

Others suggest that Jonah really lived, that he took a trip by ship, that there was a storm, and that the ship was wrecked. Then, they say, he was picked up by another ship that had as its figurehead a fish on its bow, and so Jonah thought he was picked up by a fish. Someone really had an imagination to come up with that one, and certainly you have to be gullible to accept it!

There are others who make the wild claim that Jonah went through all the experiences described in the Book of Jonah until he was wrecked, and then he took refuge in a dead fish floating around. That is their explanation of how he got to land! The only thing is, they have it in reverse. We believe it was not the fish that was dead; it was Jonah who was dead inside the fish. We’ll see that as we go along.

In the Old Testament I consider each one of the twelve so-called minor prophets as a little nuclear bomb. They are not minor prophets at all; they all batted in the major league. Each one of them has a terrific message. The little Book of Jonah has several messages, as we’re going to see.

While the Book of Jonah is not a prophetic book, the writer Jonah was a prophet, and he gave a prophecy. The very interesting thing is that the prophecy he gave did not come true. Yet I have never heard a critic find fault with him for giving a prophecy that didn’t come true. Jonah said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4). But it was not destroyed in forty days. It was a hundred years later that the city of Nineveh was destroyed. However, may I say that Jonah was speaking by the Spirit of God when he said what he did; therefore, it was fulfilled according to the Word of God. That will become clear near the end of the story, as we shall see.

Grasping the Message

I was about sixteen years old when I was saved, but I had not been brought up in a Christian home and was never taught anything concerning the Word of God. Probably no one ever went to seminary as ignorant of the Bible as I was, but I wanted to get a hold on the Bible and try to understand it. I found out that it met my purposes if I could outline the books of the Bible.

I have to admit that the most difficult portions of the Bible for me to outline were these little minor prophets. Even the last time through, when I tried to re-outline the Book of Hosea, I took it up six different times and put it down without being satisfied at all. It seemed as though the message that was there eluded me each time. Also I had a great deal of difficulty in trying to outline the Book of Jonah.

Then one night many years ago, I was waiting for a train in Nashville, Tennessee, and I did what you probably do. Trying to kill time, I walked around and looked at everything. When I came to the timetable, all of a sudden it occurred to me that the Book of Jonah should be divided according to a timetable such as you find in a union station or in an airport. There are three things that are always essential for a timetable: the destination of the train or the plane, the time it leaves, and the time it arrives. Those are the three things that you always look for.

So, I’ve divided the four chapters of the little Book of Jonah like that. In chapter 1 the destination of Jonah is Nineveh. He leaves his hometown of Gath Hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and he arrives in the fish. And then in chapter 2 his destination is still Nineveh. He leaves the fish and arrives on the dry land. In chapter 3 the destination is still Nineveh. He leaves the dry land and arrives in Nineveh. Chapter 4 gives his destination as outside the city of Nineveh. He leaves Nineveh, and he arrives in the heart of God. May I say, that’s a marvelous place for a backsliding prophet, a backsliding preacher, or a backsliding Christian to arrive—in the heart of God. That is the message, I believe, of the little Book of Jonah.

Now let me give just a word concerning the existence of this man. The text begins, “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai….” He is identified for us here. Actually, we know more about Jonah than we do about most of the minor prophets. For instance, the prophecy of Obadiah that precedes Jonah tells us nothing about his person. Yet as far as I know there is not a critic who questions his existence. Isn’t it strange that they question the existence of Jonah but not Obadiah, when there’s not a historical record of Obadiah at all?

Well, we do know something about this man Jonah. There is an historical record in 2 Kings in connection with Jeroboam the son of Joash who was the king at that time. It says:

He [Jeroboam] restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which He had spoken through his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. (2 Kings 14:25)

This is a clear historical reference to Jonah. First of all, his name is Jonah; second, he’s the son of Amittai; and third, Amittai was a prophet. These three points of identification prove that this is the same man as in the book which bears his name. He’s an historical character.

Many years ago, when I was much younger, I used to play handball with a very liberal preacher in Nashville, Tennessee. One day after we had finished playing and were sitting in the locker room resting, he said to me, “I saw in the paper where you were preaching on Jonah.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t really believe he existed!”

“Yes.”

“What proof do you have?”

So I gave him this reference, 2 Kings 14:25. Frankly, that stumped him because he’d never had that called to his attention before. Well, he came back the next time we played and said, “I think that’s a different Jonah.”

I told him, “Well, it’s possible there could have been two Jonahs. But the interesting thing is Jonah was an unusual name; it’s not Jones but Jonah. The telephone book may be full of Joneses but not Jonahs.”

But this preacher still insisted that it was a different Jonah; so I said, “Well, you’re just like Mark Twain, relative to the argument about Shakespeare.” As you may know, the same argument goes on about Shakespeare. Many fine students of literature do not believe Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. They think Francis Bacon or somebody else wrote it. And Mark Twain’s wry comment was, “Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare. It was written by another man by the same name.” And that’s what we have here. We have “Jonah the son of Amittai,” and if you think this is another Jonah, then it’s another Jonah by the same name. Therefore, I believe that we have an historical character here in the Book of Jonah.

Now if that were not enough, we also have an authority. As far as I’m concerned, when the Lord Jesus Christ says it, it’s final for me, and I have no other place to appeal. He made two very definite references to Jonah, which we’ll be looking at later, but in Luke 11:30 our Lord says, “For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.” This Jonah was a sign. Now there could not have been another man who lived as a sign. Our Lord treated him as an historical character, and I believe He was in a better position to know than any man in any seminary or university today. He is the authority, and this record in the Book of Jonah actually took place.

Purpose of the Book

Let’s look at the record that’s given to us here. We are told,

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (Jonah 1:1, 2)

God wanted to save Nineveh!

At the tower of Babel, God bade the world as a whole goodbye in order to concentrate on one family. In substance He said, “I’ll have to leave you for a time, because I have to prepare a redemption for you.” And that redemption came through the line of Abraham. I wonder if you have ever noticed how the New Testament opens: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). That genealogy is all-important.

God has prepared a redemption for man. The little Book of Jonah, in my judgment, is God saying to the world in the interval from the tower of Babel to the coming of Christ, “I haven’t forgotten you. I’ll save you if you will turn to Me.” The Book of Jonah speaks of the most wicked, brutal people who have ever lived on this earth—the Assyrians. Even secular history says that about them. Yet God saved them! And if God would save them, He would save anyone who would turn to Him. This entire city turned to God, and God saved them!

Problems With Jonah

God says to this man Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” This is where the problem begins. My problem is not with the fish. I think it’s nonsense to make that an issue today. The fish is only one of the props; it’s incidental. We do well to keep separate the essentials and the incidentals. The essentials are Jonah and Jehovah. The fish is only a byproduct.

But I’m having trouble now with Jonah:

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. (Jonah 1:3)

And may I say, this upsets our theology. Will you notice, here is a prophet of God! God calls him to go to Nineveh. Nineveh is in the northeast—east by north. And this man goes in the opposite direction. He goes down to Joppa; he buys a ticket for Tarshish, which was in Spain, the jumping-off place of the world in that day. It was believed that you couldn’t go any farther west than Tarshish, and if you sailed out through the Pillars of Hercules you would sail off the earth and perish. So Jonah bought a ticket for a place as far away as he could go.

Now the thing that disturbs me is this: Here is a prophet of God who has been called to go in one direction, so why does he go in another direction? Why in the world didn’t the man do what God called him to do?

Well, there are several explanations I can offer, and you can accept one of them or all of them. First of all let me say that this man Jonah hated Ninevites. I mean, he hated them with a passion. He did not want them saved, and he had a reason for this. We do know that in the days of Jonah the Northern Kingdom of Israel was subject to attack by Assyria. Certain detachments of the army were making forays down into the Northern Kingdom. They would capture an entire town and kill many of the inhabitants. And while I do not know this, I suspect that Jonah was living in his hometown of Gath Hepher in the Northern Kingdom when the Assyrians came. He may have seen his own mother and father slain before his eyes and maybe brothers and sisters taken away captive. Perhaps as a little fellow he witnessed all of that from some shelter where he was hiding. I do know this, he hated Ninevites. He did not want them saved, and so he went in the opposite direction, away from Nineveh. That’s one reason.

Then the second reason is, God never asked any Old Testament prophet to go as a witness to the world. Have you ever noticed that? The fact of the matter is, one of the great distinctions between Israel in the Old Testament and the church in the New Testament is the direction they are to go. God never said to the prophets of Israel, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Rather, He said, “I want you to talk to My people.” He said, “I want you to speak to My people right here.” Their invitation was “Come, let us go up to the house of the LORD.” And, my friend, the world came. The queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth. We like to say today that Israel failed and the church has succeeded. I think it would be more accurate to turn it around.

In the days of Solomon, the kings of the earth came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and the Scripture says they came to see “the ascent” or the entryway that he had. What was that? It was that entry to the burnt altar where a sacrifice that pointed to Jesus Christ was offered for sin. I say to you, Israel witnessed to the world by having the world come to them.

And Jonah could have said, “Look here, Lord, You never told Elijah to go up to Nineveh, and he was a big, brave man. Why do You ask me to do something you’ve never asked any other prophet to do?” And I think Jonah would have had justification for that.

There’s a third reason, and this one will disturb you. Do you want to know why? Look down in your own heart today. We have a commission to take the glorious news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Why are we going in the opposite direction? Let’s don’t talk about Jonah disobeying God when, as a whole, we have miserably failed in taking the gospel out to the lost world. Examine your own heart right now, and you’ll understand the human side of Jonah. We are not busy carrying out our commission either. I’m not going to criticize Jonah. I just have some problems with him, that’s all.

Here is a man to whom God says, “I want you to go to Nineveh.” That’s to the east. Jonah says, “I’m going to Tarshish; I’m going west.” And that’s where he headed.

And will you notice something else that is here. He found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare and went down into it “to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” Now when he talked to the sailors, one of the things he probably said was that he was sure it was God’s will for him to go to Tarshish now because the door opened. Oh, have I heard that! “I know the Lord is leading me because everything has been so easy!” Is that the way God leads? I don’t think so. I hear that today; then later I hear of the tragedy at the end of the road, and I wonder whether God was really leading or not.

My friend, may I say to you that when God leads He does not always lead through pathways strewn with flowers. He doesn’t always lead down a gentle slope with the stones removed from your path. Read the story of Abraham. He did well in Ur of the Chaldees until God called him, and then he started having trouble. But just because someone is having trouble doesn’t mean he is out of God’s will. And just because everything is going easy in your life doesn’t mean, my friend, you’re in God’s will. So often I hear today: “We know God is leading us because we prayed about this, and the door just opened, and everything else worked out beautifully for us.” It did? Well hallelujah for you, brother. But I didn’t find it easy. And I don’t find it easy today. I’m disturbed when I hear other Christians tell me how easy they’re having it. That’s not a sign God is leading you.

Good old Jonah! Can you imagine him going down to Joppa to the shipping company office and getting in the line of people buying their tickets? Right ahead of him is a man saying, “Do you have a ticket for Tarshish?” The agent shakes his head. “Sorry, all my reservations have been taken.” Well, Jonah is just about ready to turn away when the phone rings and the agent turns to answer it. And Jonah hears him say, “You mean that you can’t go, Mr. Smith? Well that’s too bad.” When he turns round again to the window Jonah says, “Well, I don’t know whether to ask it or not, but do you have a ticket for Tarshish?” And the agent says, “Are you lucky! You are so lucky! A man just cancelled, and I’m going to let you have his reservation. I can give you a first-class cabin.” Jonah pays the fare, and he goes down to the ship singing, “Praise the Lord!” I say to you, I have trouble with Jonah because, my friend, that isn’t the way God seems to do it. This man’s going to be in a lot of trouble before this trip is over!

You may remember the apostle Paul’s final voyage to Rome and his encounter with a storm (Acts 27). He counseled the captain of that ship not to go on. But when “the south wind blew softly,” the captain ignored Paul’s advice. You be careful when the south wind is blowing softly, Christian. May I say to you, that’s right before the storm. My dad used to say in west Texas when we had to go to the storm cellar at night, “It’s time to go!” And as kids we’d say, “But, Dad, it’s quiet now.” He would insist, “This is the time to go. It’s the quiet before the storm hits.”

Jonah found everything so nice and easy. And in this affluent society today I’m hearing so many people say, “The Lord is leading us.” Is He? How do you know? “Well, everything is so easy!” May I say again, the south wind blows softly. But you should have seen the storm that the apostle Paul got in! The ship was wrecked. And if Paul had not been there everyone on board would have lost his life. They did lose the cargo.

However, in Jonah’s case notice who was responsible for the storm.

But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. (Jonah 1:4)

This storm was supernatural; and these sailors sensed that, by the way.

It was also a supernatural storm that the devil used to try to destroy our Lord. You remember that Jesus was asleep in the boat, and the disciples on board were fishermen who knew the Sea of Galilee. They could have handled any boat in any storm they’d ever seen on that body of water, but this one they couldn’t handle. Finally, in desperation they went and waked Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). It was a supernatural storm.

And this is a supernatural storm that Jonah is in, as we shall see.

Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep. (Jonah 1:5)

I find this troubling too. I have been told by the saints, “If you are a child of God, and you get out of the will of God, you won’t be able to sleep at night; your conscience will bother you.” Oh? Jonah, a backsliding prophet, called to go to Nineveh, is on the way to Tarshish, out of the will of God, and he’s fast asleep! And the interesting thing is, he’s the only man on board who is asleep! Everybody else is scared to death. My, how often I have heard it said, “If you get out of the will of God, Christian friend, your conscience will bother you.”

May I say this to you, and I want to say it very carefully, there are Christians who have been out of the will of God for years, and they never miss a night’s sleep. Their conscience doesn’t bother them. They have been out of His will for so long that they can even let obvious sins come in their lives, and it doesn’t disturb them. They go on keeping up a front. We have to keep up a front before the other saints, you know! God have mercy on us today that we can have a conscience so seared that we can tolerate this in our lives. We can be spiritually cold and indifferent, and it doesn’t bother us.

Poor old Jonah, he’s asleep! Everybody else is wide awake and frantic, and he is sleeping!