The book of Jonah is the fifth of the minor prophets in the Old Testament; It was written between 793- 753 BC. Jonah, Yonah yo-naw' which is the same as the Hebrew word (yownah yo-naw) meaning: a Dove or Pigeon, was the only Old testament Prophet from Galilee, he was born in Israel and grew up in a city called Gath hepher, about three miles from Nazareth. He lived in the reign of Jeroboam II and helped to recover some of Israel’s lost territory according to II kings 14:25. Therefore, Jonah was a famous states man and a Prophet. Jonah was sent by God to Nineveh, the Capital of the Assyrian empire that had sunk its claws into Israel from as far back as 860 BC. Jonah was commissioned to go to Nineveh, but preaching to his enemies would mean the possibility of him helping to prolong the life of the nation that was already in the process of destroying his own people, therefore, though commissioned, Jonah made a choice to disobey and to go in another direction which came with the consequence of him being caught in the middle of a raging storm with the other men who were on the ship.
1.The Commission (Jonah 1:1, 2)
The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
(N.L.T)
Commission: According to vocabulary. Com, The word commission has several different meanings, but in its most basic meaning, commission is the act of passing a responsibility to someone else.
Jonah was directly commissioned to God. (V1)
Unlike the disobedient prophet who was lied to by an older prophet and ended up losing his life by the hands of a lion, Jonah had only one direct command to go. He had no other voice to confuse him, no one to lie to him by saying that God had said something else, it was a clear as day what he was to do: he was to evangelize the heathen.
The reason for the Commission. (V2)
Nineveh seemed to have reached a height in wickedness where their deeds had reached up before God as in Genesis 18 and 19 where the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah had done the same thing.
Nineveh was known for its Ruthless behavior:
According H. Halley, author of Halley’s bible handbook, to It was the capital of the Assyrian empire which was built by Nimrod after the great flood according to Genesis 10:11,12. It had been a rival to Babylon from the beginning with Babylon at the south and Nineveh at the north of the Euphrates valley. It had rose to world power in about 900bc and soon thereafter began to diminish Israel. King Sargon had destroyed Israel in (721 BC). There is historical and archaeological proof to the ruthlessness of The Kings of Assyria. The Account of Sennacherib, who invaded Judah in the time of the prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah, was made into a clay prism. Quoting from it reads:
“As for Hezekiah, King of Judah, who had not submitted to my yolk, 46 of his fortified cities and smaller cities without number, with my battering rams, engines, mines, breaches and axes, I besieged and captured.200,150 people small and great, male and female and horses mules, camels, asses oxen, sheep, without number I have taken as booty, Hezekiah himself i have shut in like a caged bird in Jerusalem his royal city”
It can be clearly seen that this place was on God’s List for a fine visit, No doubt might had been on many days of fasting and prayer for God to demolish them, this command to him was probably the shock of his Life.
The Purpose of the Commission
The option for repentance before destruction
There is an old proverb that says that God does not destroy a city without warning, I believe that it is true, in this situation, Jonah was the one who was to cry out against the city. This is what the Hebrew really says in verse 2 according to Interlinear Scripture Analyzer: (Rise- you! You go! to Nineveh the-city the- great and call-you! On her that she-ascends evil-of them to faces of me).
The Hebrew word “Kee” used as a conjunction in the sentence as “that” “that she ascends evil of them” is better interpreted as “because” in more modern translations. That shows that Jonah was sent to the city to cry out against it, because it ascends its evil even to God’s face, Notice that Jonah when he eventually went, his message was “yet three more days and Nineveh shall be destroyed!!. Everyone knows that a city in its self cannot do evil, but it’s the inhabitants of that city. Matthew Henry argues that their wickedness had gone up, that is, a high degree, to the highest pitch; the measure of it was full to the brim. God was sending a stern warning to the people of the city. This was a stern warning that Jonah the Dove was to deliver to the people, it was crucial and their decision would decide their fate.
God also sends us out like Jonah on a mission of mercy, to cities, towns and even personally to people, even people that some of us would rather see going down six feet under, that is if we esteem them a proper burial. The question is what will be our response to God?. The choice is ours.
1.The Commission (Jonah 1:1, 2)
The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
(N.L.T)
Commission: According to vocabulary. Com, The word commission has several different meanings, but in its most basic meaning, commission is the act of passing a responsibility to someone else.
Jonah was directly commissioned to God. (V1)
Unlike the disobedient prophet who was lied to by an older prophet and ended up losing his life by the hands of a lion, Jonah had only one direct command to go. He had no other voice to confuse him, no one to lie to him by saying that God had said something else, it was a clear as day what he was to do: he was to evangelize the heathen.
The reason for the Commission. (V2)
Nineveh seemed to have reached a height in wickedness where their deeds had reached up before God as in Genesis 18 and 19 where the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah had done the same thing.
Nineveh was known for its Ruthless behavior:
According H. Halley, author of Halley’s bible handbook, to It was the capital of the Assyrian empire which was built by Nimrod after the great flood according to Genesis 10:11,12. It had been a rival to Babylon from the beginning with Babylon at the south and Nineveh at the north of the Euphrates valley. It had rose to world power in about 900bc and soon thereafter began to diminish Israel. King Sargon had destroyed Israel in (721 BC). There is historical and archaeological proof to the ruthlessness of The Kings of Assyria. The Account of Sennacherib, who invaded Judah in the time of the prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah, was made into a clay prism. Quoting from it reads:
“As for Hezekiah, King of Judah, who had not submitted to my yolk, 46 of his fortified cities and smaller cities without number, with my battering rams, engines, mines, breaches and axes, I besieged and captured.200,150 people small and great, male and female and horses mules, camels, asses oxen, sheep, without number I have taken as booty, Hezekiah himself i have shut in like a caged bird in Jerusalem his royal city”
It can be clearly seen that this place was on God’s List for a fine visit, No doubt might had been on many days of fasting and prayer for God to demolish them, this command to him was probably the shock of his Life.
The Purpose of the Commission
The option for repentance before destruction
There is an old proverb that says that God does not destroy a city without warning, I believe that it is true, in this situation, Jonah was the one who was to cry out against the city. This is what the Hebrew really says in verse 2 according to Interlinear Scripture Analyzer: (Rise- you! You go! to Nineveh the-city the- great and call-you! On her that she-ascends evil-of them to faces of me).
The Hebrew word “Kee” used as a conjunction in the sentence as “that” “that she ascends evil of them” is better interpreted as “because” in more modern translations. That shows that Jonah was sent to the city to cry out against it, because it ascends its evil even to God’s face, Notice that Jonah when he eventually went, his message was “yet three more days and Nineveh shall be destroyed!!. Everyone knows that a city in its self cannot do evil, but it’s the inhabitants of that city. Matthew Henry argues that their wickedness had gone up, that is, a high degree, to the highest pitch; the measure of it was full to the brim. God was sending a stern warning to the people of the city. This was a stern warning that Jonah the Dove was to deliver to the people, it was crucial and their decision would decide their fate.
God also sends us out like Jonah on a mission of mercy, to cities, towns and even personally to people, even people that some of us would rather see going down six feet under, that is if we esteem them a proper burial. The question is what will be our response to God?. The choice is ours.