God called Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah chose instead to run away. It leads me to the question of why God chose Jonah in the first place. Who was this guy? He was a prophet. So we need a little context here.
Two of the varieties of literature in the Old Testament are the "Historic Books" and the "Prophetic Books". The books of Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are generally considered the "Historic Books". Isaiah through Malachi (I leave you to look up all those great names), are the "Prophetic Books".
To make it interesting, there is a lot of prophecy recorded in the Historic Books and there is history given us in the Prophetic Books. In some cases, there seems to be practically duplication of a historic reference from a Historic Book to a Prophetic Book (Jeremiah). In other cases, there is no Historic reference at all to the Prophetic Book so it is unclear when they lived (Obadiah).
Jonah offers us a bit of both. In the Historic Books, Second Kings 14: 23-25, places Jonah in the historic context of the nation of Israel, “ 23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. 25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.”
In the Prophetic Book under Jonah's name however, there is NO reference to any of this. If we did not have this brief piece in Second Kings, there is little context in Jonah to place him in the history of the Old Testament.
And our confidence is high that this is the same Jonah, because of his father. Where as we mark people by family name, I am Peter Hofstra-"Hofstra" marks my family-in the record keeping of the Bible, individuals are further identified by who their father was, so Jonah son of Amittai is roughly equivalent to Peter Hofstra.
The significance of this is that God did not simply pick on “some guy” to go preach to the Ninevites. God selected a prophet, the prophet from "Gath Hepher", according to 2 Kings. The Nineveh assignment is rather unique. Second Kings makes no reference to it in regards to Jonah. Other prophets (Isaiah in particular) preach God's word to and against other nations, but that is in context to the Jews.
Why Nineveh? According to Biblical records, Nineveh is the capital of the Assyrian Empire. So? Well, the Assyrians are the ones who destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This is just speculation on my part, but this could be a prophecy that shows the Assyrians “getting right” with God before they become the instruments of God’s judgment upon the Northern Kingdom of Israel. A prophet of God (despite his disobedience on the first call to go) was dispatched to them.
While that may be interesting background material, the key to the story is not in who they were or where they were located. The key to this story is the covenant of God to all humanity. Obey and be blessed, perform evil and there will be consequences. Repent and be forgiven. That’s what Jesus taught.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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