I was recently reading Jonah when I discovered something throughout the book: The thread of the Father’s sovereignty which leads to the Son’s deity.
You can see God’s sovereignty throughout Jonah in the following verses where He displays His majestic control over His creation.
God is sovereign over . . .
1:7 – The lots. (You didn’t really think it was coincidence it revealed Jonah, did you? See Proverbs 16:33.)
1:14, 1:15, 4:8 – The storms and the wind.
1:17, 2:10 – The fish of the sea. (Even the really, really big ones. Who did you think directed the animals onto Noah’s Ark, and who did you think directed the ravens to bring Elijah food in 1 Kings 17:6?)
2:6 – Jonah’s very life.
3:5 – The salvation of an entire city of over 120,000. (This is also known as election.)
3:9, 4:2 – His own anger.
3:10, 4:2 – Calamity. (Yes, even in places like Haiti.)
4:6 – The plants.
4:7 – The insects. (Remember that little plague of insects the Egyptians had to endure prior to the Exodus?)
In the midst of all this, two things stand out to me in these verses that should not be missed.
1). Only God can forgive sins (Psalm 79:9, Isaiah 55:7).
2). Man can’t even control the wind (Ecclesiastes 8:8) but God controls the storms (Psalm 65:7, 89:9, 107:29, 135:7).
When one compares these truths of God the Father with that of His Son we plainly see that the only person to walk this earth that not only controlled storms (Matthew 8:26-27 and Luke 8:24-25) but could forgive sins (Matthew 9:2, Mark 2:5-6, and Luke 5:20-21) was none other than the glorious Mediator between man and God, the perfect spotless Lamb of God, the eternal Son, Emmanuel, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
Amen, Pilgrim. I’ve been struck – who wouldn’t? – by God’s sovereignty when I read Jonah. But your wonderful systematic review of the doctrine of Christ’s deity fulfills the picture of what this book reveals of God’s redemptive story.
It’s a glorious reminder of the truth about the Son of God!
BTW – I think you presume the salvation of the Ninevites. Was this city not consumed a generation or two later? Methinks they were merely saved from the then-present wrath of God, for a season.
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I liove the book of Jonah. As Manfred said, it is “God’s redemptive story.’ I hear so many ministers and lay people accusing Jonah of ‘resisting’ the will of God. Not so! God knew exactly what Jonah would do…and it was okay by Him. He wanted Jonah to experience death, burial, and resurrection BEFORE he went to Ninevah. Wouldn’t you just loved to have been there and heard it. WOW! POWERFUL! The Ninevites repents. Of course, Jonah..understood that he was going to Ninevah to pronounce God’s judgement on them. And that’s exactly what he was doing. But as Manfred said…it was a ways down the road. But God..through Jonah…provided everything possible to demonstrate the realness of God. And Ninevah later chose the pleasures of the world…..and death. We, today…are not different to Ninevah. The choices remain the VERY same.
Jonah must have done something right. Since his experience was used by Christ as a sign which revealed His own death, burial, and resurrection.
Mt 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Mt 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mt 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
GOOD POST, PILGRIM. ENJOYED IT. THANKS.
CAROLYN/internetelias.wordpress.com
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Good point Manfred. I read in this verse (3:5) that they “believed God” and that more than likely each man did in fact “turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.” If they had not, would God have relented his wrath?
It is very likely that if they were all just putting on a show (like a Pharisee or a typical Roman Catholic on Sunday morning) God would have known their heart and His wrath would still have come to them.
It is very possible they genuinely repented and turned to God but (as you say) “a generation or two later” they were consumed because they did not pass this fear of God and belief in God on to their prodigy.
We see time and time again how in just one generation a people, nation, or tribe can turn away from God.
Anyone with a great grasp of OT history is more than welcome to weigh in on this matter. If I am wrong I will certainly correct it.
– The Pilgrim
P.S. Perhaps if the Ninevites only had Baucham’s Family Driven Faith they would have passed on their multi-generational faith. :o)
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Pilgrim,
You make a GREAT point. Regarding Voddie’s book, I’ll try to tell him that we have the same problem with “Family Driven Faith” as I had with “What He must Be if he wants to marry my daughter” – timing is everything! I told him he should have published “What He Must Be” 10 years earlier, as my daughter is fixin’ to be married and the runway is short for me!
“Family Driven Faith” was hundreds of generations too late. Bad Voddie 🙂
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Oh – on a completely different note: only 1 month and 3 days until “Manfred’s international day of giving stuff for no good reason”! Hurry and up and plan to spend lots of money for no good reason!
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I can remember hearing about some guy and a whale growing up, even read the book once I was converted.
However, it was not until a pastor up north [a graduate from the Master’s Seminary] came to our church and preached from Jonah that I was amazed at what is in this little book.
He is soveriegn over all indeed!
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People scoff at the book of Jonah as if it were either a fairy tale, or an allegory. “How can a man live 3 days and nights in the belly of a fish? Where was the oxygen? The digestive acids and enzymes would have dissolved away his epidermis. If he was indigestible, the fish would very likely have barfed him up much sooner than 3 days” etc.
Yet, as was mentioned above, Jesus, Who is the truth, verified the accuracy of the story. God willed that Jonah preach to the Ninevites, and that’s exactly what happened. And He suspended, or altered, natural laws and processes (such as fish digestion, human respiration, etc.) to accomplish His will.
Then, after showing Jonah just how sovereign He is, He further showed him His heart: just how loving and merciful He is. And we need to ask ourselves, if murderers, terrorists, rapists, etc. get saved and repent, will we be like Jonah and still wish punishment upon them for their behavior? Or will we have God’s heart: “And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand: and also much cattle?”
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DavidW,
Don’t lose sight of the highest reason for the gospel and chief aim of God’s creation – to glorify God, not to save man.
God loves the elect because He has chosen to glorify Himself by calling us unto Himself and redeeming us by the blood of His Son. He does not save because He loves us – though He certainly does; He saves to bring glory to Himself. His love for us is a product of His predetermined plan of redemption of a people for Himself.
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Manfred,
Agreed! Was merely attempting (and I’m not very good at it) to draw attention to the fact that in the midst of His sovereign plan, He has compassion for His creatures. And His blood-bought children can learn from the lesson of Jonah, not to be like Jonah was, but to be how our Father is in that compassion.
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DavidW,
You are a good brother in Christ. We are in agreement. Peace in the risen Lord Jesus to ALL of His elect who are redeemed by precious blood of Christ!
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Defending Contending posted a sermon (I think it was you guy’s) from Randall Easter on Jonah.
This sermon is in my top ten favorite sermons. Please listen to it if you have never heard it.
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waynedawg,
Randall is a dear friend and brother. POST IT!
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We have posted some of Randall Easter’s sermons in the past but not the one’s on Jonah yet. They will be coming soon, though.
So many sermons, so little time.
:o)
– The Pilgrim
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“He does not save because He loves us – though He certainly does”
That’s difficult to support Scripturally in light of Ephesians 2:4-5: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
Even though Ephesians 2:7 says: “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,” I would not be too quick to stamp our limited finite human understanding of what “causes” God to do something over the rich mysteries of God’s Own eternal wisdom and counsel.
Scripture says He saved us for His Own glory AND because He loved us. I understand the reasoning behind saying His Own glory was the FIRST and FOREMOST cause, but to say that excludes His love for us as a “cause” is not Biblical.
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