by Christine G.

Created on: March 16, 2010

Jonah, son of Amittai, was a prophet in the 8th century B.C.  This colorful character is a favorite in Sunday school.   Virtually everyone has heard about Jonah and the whale.  Most people consider this a fanciful myth to drive home a moral lesson, but there are those who insist that Jonah's historic submarine ride actually happened. 

The Biblical book of Jonah tells the story of how God sent Jonah to the people of Nineveh with an important message of imminent doom.   Jonah tried to evade the assignment, and booked passage on a ship going to Tarshish, to get away from the presence of the Lord (in those days, God's sphere of influence was considered more regional than omnipresent).  After a great storm threatened the ship and everyone on it, the sailors cast lots to see who was to blame.  Jonah was singled out as the culprit.  Jonah advised them to throw him overboard.  After trying everything else, they consented, and the storm ceased.

Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.  He had three days and three nights to repent before it vomited him out on dry land.  When God told him to go to Nineveh the second time, Jonah went.

Jonah wandered through the city, predicting the fall of Nineveh in forty days because of their outstanding wickedness.  Then he seated himself comfortably on a hill to get a ringside view of God's judgement.   He was more than a little put out when his prophecy did not come true because the people repented and God relented. 

When Jonah realized that Nineveh would be spared, he was so angry that he asked God to kill him.  He sat and sulked in the shade of a vine.  When a worm killed the vine, leaving Jonah exposed to the merciless sun and a nasty east wind, Jonah fainted and once more wished himself dead.  God told him to suck it up.  "You're upset about a dead plant, and you don't have any compassion for 60,000 people?" 

After that, Jonah faded into obscurity, possibly because his prophetic credibility had been compromised and he had to find another line of work.  

His story lived on as an object lesson about the foolishness of trying to evade obeying God.  Some teachers might have pointed out that God's infinite mercy is more important than the convenience of one person.  Jesus compared himself to Jonah, saying that he would spend three days and three

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