Jonah 1:1-16

The story begins with disobedience.  We won’t know why Jonah did this until Chapter 4.  All we know is God wanted Jonah to do what prophets do: cry out against sinners, calling them to repent.  What is unusual is that God wanted Jonah to preach to Nineveh, a heathen city-state (Assyria).  Jonah was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the prosperous days of King Jeroboam II.  That was his usual ministry.  But it was the word of the LORD to go to Nineveh.

From Doctrine.org web page; Jonah's distances.

What Jonah did was to go as far in the opposite direction as he could.  Jonah is asleep during a great storm at sea, we presume trying to escape his conscience.  And by Jonah’s instructions the storm was quieted.

This chapter reveals a powerful illustration of how God uses a sinful prophet to reach unbelieving men.  We should remember that to be a testimony to the world does not require perfection but integrity.  Imagine the thoughts of the sailors when Jonah told them he was running from his God.  Probably they laughed at such belligerence.  They had gods and would likely never do such a thing, at least not openly.  One wonders why Jonah told them this as he boarded.

But the key is what he told the crew when they awakened him.  I am a Hebrew (they were God’s appointed witnesses; the God of Israel was Most High God, over the gods of the sailors); and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.  Jonah had disobeyed God; but he could not deny God.  His fear of God was genuine which is why he knew that throwing him overboard was the only way out for those around him.  

That is what we mean by integrity.  In our testimony to the world around us we will never be perfect, though we should seek the Lord’s help to live righteously as Jesus would and did.  But often the big question is what we do when we sin, and the world knows we have sinned.  Do we handle it with excuses, denial or by blaming others?  Or do we humble ourselves?  Are we contrite?  Do we accept God’s chastening, acknowledging it even to unbelievers?  Jonah did this and an amazing thing happened: the men on that ship repented and turned to the LORD.