Israel did not repent: Nineveh (in spite of Jonah) did: but Nineveh's repentance was

only transitory. Was the repentance of Nineveh intended by God to be a demonstration to

Israel: to Israel who knew God was gracious and merciful? If God spared Nineveh that

great and wicked city, how much more would He be ready to spare the nation He had

chosen to be His People!

But Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of Jehovah. He was prepared to sacrifice

anything and everything for the sake of his people: even his God!

"Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this?

For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them"

(1: 10).

We know that no loyalty should take precedence over our loyalty to God. We know

it, but do we always put it into practice? In Jonah's case, at least, it meant a lot of

unnecessary suffering for him.

So Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish, and took passage in a ship going to that

"But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the

sea, so that the ship was like to be broken" (1: 4).

It was a storm of such intensity that even the seasoned mariners were afraid: the

expression translated "mariners" has something of the significance of our "old salt".

Even the "old salts" were afraid of this storm. But Jonah "Was gone down into the sides

of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep". Asleep in such a storm? It must have been

the sleep and peace of resignation. For a little later he had no hesitation in condemning

himself to death:

"Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I

know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you" (1: 12).

He was prepared to sacrifice life itself to save his people, and perhaps it is in this point

that Jonah begins to assume the role of a type of Christ. All honour to the seamen that

they did their best to save him, and rowed hard to bring the ship to land, and only when

they were unsuccessful did they cast Jonah into the sea. They were unsuccessful because

the "sea wrought, an was tempestuous against them", and into such a sea was Jonah cast.

What happens to a man in such a raging sea? He drowns, and that, surely, must have

been what happened to Jonah. Then the Lord prepared the great fish, and for three days

and three nights Jonah was there in the belly of the fish. Then he was given life again,

and "Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly" (2: 1). Resurrected in

the bowels of the sea creature! It is worth noting the tense of the verbs he used in his

prayer: they are all in the past. "Thou didst cast me into the deep", "the waters

compassed me about", and so on. It was not a prayer he uttered whilst he was in the

water, in response to which the Lord prepared the great fish: the words are those of a