Jonah was the son of Amittai from Gath-hepher. He once brought good news, telling Jeroboam II that Israel's borders would be restored (2 Kings 14:25). Then God sent him to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel's brutal enemy. He went the other way.
His book is honest about him. He sleeps through a storm, gets thrown into the sea, prays from inside a fish, and finally preaches. The city repents and God spares it. Jonah is furious. He tells God he knew God was gracious, and that was the problem (Jonah 4:2). The book ends with God's question still hanging.
“
Salvation belongs to the LORD!
Name means
Dove
Home
Gath-hepher, in Galilee
Role
Prophet in Israel during Jeroboam II, sent to Nineveh
Read in
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Jonah's story
Angry under the withered plant
Beginning
Good news for Israel
He prophesies that Israel's borders will be restored, and it happens.
Low point
Runs to Tarshish
God sends him east to Nineveh. He boards a ship heading west.
Low point
Thrown into the sea
In the storm he admits he is running and tells the sailors to throw him overboard. A great fish swallows him.
Turning point
Prayer from the fish
From the deep he cries to God and confesses that salvation belongs to the LORD.
High point
Nineveh repents
He preaches that in forty days the city will be overthrown. The whole city repents, and God relents.
Ending
Angry at mercy
He asks to die. God gives him a plant, takes it away, and asks if he should not pity Nineveh.
Starts as a prophet who knew God's grace in theory. Ends as a prophet left with God's question about grace for enemies.
Where Jonah lived and went
Only places Scripture records. Softer, dotted pins are traditional or uncertain sites. Tap a pin for the passage.
HomeMinistryKey momentTraditional or uncertainPinch or use + to zoom. Tap a cluster to spread it out.
How Jonah is wired
The Reformer
Enneagram 1, Peacemaker wing
To see things set right and wrongdoers get what they deserve.
This one is debated. Here's why we land here.
At their best, toward 7 Under stress, toward 4
Why we think so
1
Rigid about justice. He is angry that God spares a wicked city. ()
2
Knows the rules. He recites God's character correctly and objects to it. ()
3
Anger that feels righteous. He insists he does well to be angry, even to death. ()
He avoids conflict by fleeing and by sleeping through the storm instead of facing God. ()
The Enthusiast. Little recorded.
The Individualist. He sinks into self-pity and asks to die over a plant and a spared city. ()
The case for 9
His running away and falling asleep in crisis fit a Peacemaker's habit of numbing out instead of engaging.
Other lenses
Big Five. Read from what is recorded in Kings and the prophets.
ReservedOutgoing
SteadyReactive
ChallengingAccommodating
SpontaneousDisciplined
TraditionalCurious
DISC style: principled, resentful, avoidant
Strengths & struggles
What's good in Jonah
Knows his theology well, honest with God, willing to take the blame in the storm ().
Where Jonah struggles
Wants mercy for himself but not for his enemies, cares more about his comfort than people, runs instead of talking with God ().
Jonah went into the deep against his will, and Jesus went into death willingly to save his enemies.
Jesus said, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (). Jonah was thrown overboard to calm a storm, and the sailors were saved. Jesus is the greater Jonah who loved the people Jonah wanted judged.
Questions to sit with
1
Who would you rather God not show mercy to?
2
Where are you running from what God has plainly asked?
Study Jonah with your group
Ready-to-lead group studies with discussion questions and a leader's note are on the way.
