Dawn Dyson
oDec 10, 2018
o
o35 min read
OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETIVE
COMMENTARY OF JONAH
Introduction
The book of Jonah is not easily categorized or studied. Its perceptual
constructs blur the line between novel and concrete events to
recreate the mental and spiritual puzzle the author endured when
God supernaturally breached the borders of his freewill to
orchestrate an authentic ministry. Jonah’s written contribution is
enormously valuable, as it seems to present the negative side of the
generalized pattern of a preacher’s test: calling;
prayer/communication; ministerial evidence; and, obedience and
compassion. For the most part, it is an account of what not to do. It
comforts those called into ministry by illustrating how colossal God’s
movements and disciplines can be—done only to an extent that
confronts and corrects disobedience and evil, both within and
without His preacher. The purpose of this paper is to provide an
exegetical and interpretive commentary of the book of Jonah, based
upon its narrative theme of a preacher’s test, for contemporary use
as a practical guide for those coming into ministry.
Historical Setting
In Hebrew, the name “Jonah” means “dove,”[1] which implies
“peace; anointing; or being sent by God,” replicated in the New
Testament by the “Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting”
on Jesus after His baptism (Matt 3:16).[2] The book is prophetic,
“characterized as being the word of the Lord” (Jonah 1:1) and dated
between 825-782 B.C. in that II Kings 14:25 sets Jonah’s prophesy
“during the reign of Jeroboam II” (824-783 B.C.).[3] The book is the
Old Testament version of Acts, with the mercy and sovereignty of
the Lord, in both the orchestration and result of ministry, as the
main theme.[4] Through a series of fantastical/actual,
unfortunate/fortunate events—the viewpoint of which shifts based
upon spiritual perspective (i.e., man’s/God’s, natural/divine), and
Jonah’s humorous eight-word sermon, God supernaturally led
120,000 souls to repentance and halted “the Assyrian captivity of
Israel…some 130 years” (Jonah 3:4, 4:11).[5] The Lord
commissioned Jonah to go to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh—a
great city of wickedness, “second in size only to Babylon,” in what is
now “modern-day [Mosul] Iraq.”[6] Nineveh was a threat to the
northern kingdom of Israel in Jonah’s time and was characterized by
idolatry and violence, “known in the ancient Near East for the brutal
atrocities it inflicted on its war captives.”[7]
The book of Jonah is “unique in that the entire prophecy is written in
the third person,” yet this does not discredit Jonah’s authorship, so
much as reflect the literary or stylistic device of biblically appointed
