What Can We Learn From A

Prodigal Prophet?

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We remember the Minor Prophet, Jonah, from Sunday School because of the Whale. But the book of Jonah teaches us so much more. Note one way we could outline the four chapters of this book:

 

Jonah 1: The Prodigal Prophet

Jonah 2: The Praying Prophet

Jonah 3: The Preaching Prophet

Jonah 4: The Pouting Prophet

 

Unfortunately, this focuses on Jonah and doesn’t help us understand the message of the book. Yes, Jonah was the prophet, and not a very good example of one. He ran from God, repented, was given a second chance by God, preached judgment against Nineveh, which repented in mass, and then Jonah pouted over the mercy God showed Nineveh—the same mercy God had shown him. An outline that focuses on that mercy would be the following:

 

Jonah 1: Rebellion will eat us alive.

Jonah 2: Renewal begins where I end.

Jonah 3: Repentance means doing God’s

will, not our own.

Jonah 4: Restoration means receiving and sharing God’s mercy.

 

One commentator wrote: "God's question captures the very intention of the book. The issue is that of grace-grace and mercy. Just as Jonah's provision was the shade of the vine he did not deserve, the Ninevites' provision was a deliverance they did not deserve based upon a repentance they did not Fully understand." 

 

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? Jonah4:10-11

 

The book of Jonah ends without Jonah's response. That, however, is not the point of the book. Its point is the answer to the Lord's question in Jonah 4:10-11 that every reader must give. Yes, God should have compassion on the hopeless Ninevites, and we should have compassion on people like

them too. Only two books in the Bible end with questions, and they both have to do with Nineveh.

 

Jonah ends with a question about God's mercy on Nineveh, and Nahum ends with a question about God's punishment of Nineveh. We will next turn our attention to Nahum.         

 

In Christ, Pastor Tom Baker