Jonah is likely the best known “minor prophet”– the prophet who got swallowed by the whale (or “big fish,” depending on your translation). Could a fish swallow a man whole and the man survive? After three days in a whale’s belly? I’ve wondered what the inside of a whale’s belly looks like. Jonah probably couldn’t tell us since there would have been no light. What would it smell like? In fact, I’ve wondered how you could smell at all since I cannot expect there would be any air there (do fish burp?).

When you begin to focus on the story, I can’t imagine anything more horrible than Jonah’s condition, a situation much akin to being buried alive. In fact, that’s how Jonah described it: “From the depths of the grave I called for help . . . The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head . . . my life was ebbing away” (Jonah 2:1,5,7).

But actually, the book of Jonah is not “about” Jonah at all. It is a book about God.

Jonah lived during the days of Jereboam II in the northern kingdom of Israel. Though times were prosperous, political disaster lay just over the horizon. The world power was the Assyrian nation, and the world had seldom seen such power wielded with such cruelty. Their kings bragged about slaughtering their enemies and dying the mountains red like wool with their blood, burning young men and maidens alive, and covering the walls of conquered cities and the columns of local buildings with the skins of beaten people. Not surprisingly, no one liked the Assyrians.

And so, when God told the prophet Jonah to go preach to the Assyrians and tell them to turn from their wicked ways . . . or else, Jonah thought “or else” suited them just fine. Rather than make the 500 mile trek to Nineveh, Jonah caught a ship headed in the opposite direction for Spain.

That’s when “the weather started getting rough.” In an ocean storm, there are no atheists. Every passenger prayed to his god and when Jonah confessed that he was the reason for the storm, the passengers prayed to Jonah’s God – then threw Jonah overboard. The sea grew calm – just as Jonah told them it would. God caused the big fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah went to “time out.” It was there that Jonah realized: when God gives you a job, it’s easier to do it than refuse. Jonah repented, and the fish “vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

Jonah then went to preach to the Assyrians. They listened, turned from their wickedness, and Jonah got angry. He knew it would happen. The Assyrians would survive when, in Jonah’s mind, they deserved to die. In a fit of pique, he camped outside the city of Nineveh and pouted.

This is where you get to the point of the story.

God caused a plant to grow overnight to shade Jonah. Then, just as quickly, God killed it. Jonah, no longer sheltered from the sun, became furious. At that point, God sat Jonah down for a heart to heart. Jonah was angry because a plant he had neither planted nor cultivated had died. God said: “Shouldn’t I be concerned for a city filled with innocent children and cattle?”

Jonah is full of wonderful lessons. God loves all people. HIS people may be the people of blessing and promise, but He still loves everyone. Second, He expects all people (whether His or not) to submit to his will. Third, those who don’t (His or not) will find life exceedingly hard. But most of all, He is a God of grace and forgiveness. The people of Nineveh experienced it. So did Jonah. Fourth, God expects His people to speak to the people of the world to reveal his will.