Jonah is one of the most maligned and misunderstood prophets of the Bible. To many he is just a joke, one who brought bad luck to others. The facts presented by him in his biography, are scoffed at by many, even by Bible "teachers", and intellectuals, who are bold enough to question whether what is narrated in this most interesting book, ever took place at all.

However, ("Let God be true, and every man a liar"), it is included in the cannon of Holy scripture, and is another of those writings which are inspired of God, and are "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," 2 Tim. 3 ; 16.

The Lord Jesus Himself placed the seal of authority and authenticity on this little book, and the miracles it describes by twice referring to Jonah and his experience, and to Nineveh and its repentance. He who is the way, the truth, and the Life, believed it, and from the heights of Glory witnessed the events that took place, that are described in this book, and by His Holy Spirit , brought about the change in Jonah's attitude.

If the Lord Jesus believed the facts of this book, that puts it beyond all dispute, for every one who knows Him, knows that His word is more reliable than heaven or earth, because even if both passed away, ( and they will), yet His word will not pass away.

Jonah was the son of Amattai, and this name means "My truth", or faithfulness, this shows us that he came from good stock, and this would be a challenge to all Christian fathers, also to be men of truth and faithfulness. If we wish our sons or daughters to be used of God, we must set a worthy example before them.

He lived in the village of Gath Hepher, which means "Wine press of digging". A winepress is a place of pressure, it is there that the vintage is placed, and the grapes are trodden by the feet of men. This makes the grapes to break and to bleed, their very life is trodden out, but the result is the new wine, "That makes glad the heart of God and man", (Judges 9;13,). Thus out of pressure and suffering, when rightly accepted, comes sweetness and joy. Jonah came from such a place.

His village was situated in Galilee, on the border of the territory of Zebulon, north of Nazareth. Galilee was a place of reproach. The reason for our saying this is because after Solomon had finished building the Temple, and his own houses, he gave twenty villages in Galilee to Hyram King of Tyre, however when the king of Tyre went to inspect his gift, he was not pleased, and called them Cabul, which means "limitation, or restriction". Hyram did not accept the gift, but gave it back to Solomon, and later Solomon rebuilt those villages, ( 1 Kings 9 ;10-14, 2 Chron. 8;2.) Thus Galilee became known as a place of reproach, and Nazareth was perhaps one of the most reproached of those villages, which led Nathaniel to say, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?", (John, 1;46.) The Pharisees also claimed that no prophet ever arose in Galilee, ( John, 7;52,) they obviously had not thoroughly read the Old Testament scriptures.

All this then leads us to conclude that Jonah was of good stock, and was not afraid of reproach, such is the kind of man that God can use.

The name Jonah means "Dove", which indicates that he was a man of gentle disposition, because often the meaning of a person's name in the Old Testament, gives us a clue as to his character, but more of this later.

Jonah was a man of stout and defiant spirit, despite his dove like character, yet when he wrote his biography, he was a humble, self effacing man. Because of this, the great prophet of God has captured my heart, and won my admiration.

Who among men, if called to write their biography, would do as Jonah did. That is describe with such detail his defiance of the will of the Almighty God? Who would tell mostly of his rebellion, selfishness and failure, but do it in such a way as to justify God, and give glory to His great and holy name?

Who would describe his success in the greatest miracle of evangelism of all time, in just a few sentences, yet use chapters to detail his failures? Who would conceal the success of his earlier ministry, and tell us nothing of the way God spoke through him to a rebellious backslidden people, and bring to pass what his servant had foretold, even though it seemed almost impossible of fulfillment? He tells us nothing of what is recorded in 2.Kings 14;25-27, such was his self effacing humility. But God saw to it that what he said and did was recorded for us to read, as if to exalt his humble servant. Like what we will witness when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, where the service of God's servants will be examined, and the worth or worthlessness of that service will be established. There "Every man shall have praise of God", there the true worth of each servant, and the value of their service will receive the Divine estimation. (1 Cor. 4;5.)

There will be many surprises there, many "first shall be last, and the last shall be first",( Mat. 13;30.) those who have reveled in the publicity and praise of man, will have to accept with shame a relegation to the lowest place, while those who have laboured unseen by men, who thought themselves to be nothing, will be surprised to hear the Master whom they have loved and served faithfully but unseen, say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, ---Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord", ( Mat. 25;23.)

Human wisdom would question the choice of Jonah for the task of preaching judgment to the wicked city of Nineveh. As we have seen, the meaning of Jonah's name, (dove,) indicates that he was a gentle, harmless person, who was not aggressive or arrogant, we would think that he was not the right person to send to preach hell-fire to the world's most powerful and most wicked city, but God makes no mistakes. He does not choose a person because of any ability that the person may have, but chooses them rather because of what He knows that He can make of them, and do through them.

Just think of the great range of personalities that were available to the Lord Jesus to choose His apostles from, yet though He possessed an intimate knowledge of men, and knew what was in them, before choosing the twelve, He spent the whole night in prayer to God His Heavenly Father, and then chose the most unlikely of men, bypassing the cultured, the intellectual, the educated. But He made no mistake, each of them, (Judas excluded), were to come under His gracious shaping hand, He would make them fishers of men

All this should be an encouragement to us, and we should never elect ourselves outside the possibility of God choosing and using us. There are some very encouraging verses in 1 Cor. 1;26-29, where we are told that God chooses "the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are". That means that God can use a nobody, and if He can use a nobody, then He can use me. But if He does choose to use me, then He must do all that is done, and if He does all that is done, then all the glory is His, and that is as it should be. But though the glory must be His,(and we gladly give it to Him,) yet He does not deny us the joy that comes as we see Him use such as we in the accomplishment of His great work.

God knew His man, and because of His great fore-knowledge, knew all that would follow, and what the final result would be. What a Great and Glorious God is ours! Well might we surrender our wills, and yield ourselves wholly to Him, that He may do in us, and through us, what His holy will has determined.

We read, "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah...saying, Go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it", in these words we have both Jonah's call and his commission. Perhaps this should be a guide to young people today, when seeking to know the will of God as to where they are to serve. It is a common thing for such to get the idea that they must go somewhere, to some distant place, where they are not known, and there serve the Lord.

Jonah began his service where he lived and was known, the passage already quoted in 1 Kings and 2 Chron. prove this. He did not get the call at a "missionary meeting", nor was he moved by some emotional appeal from a missionary recruiting officer. While serving the Lord in his own place, the call came through the word of God. The same is true today, so I would advise those who have the desire to serve the Lord, to get on and serve the Lord where you are, just as the Lord Jesus did, when He entered into the synagogue at Nazareth, "Where He was brought up", Luke chapter 4. Do not think that a change of place will enable you to serve the Lord more effectively, if you cannot serve Him where you are, amongst those who know you best, then you will also be a failure elsewhere. Do not sit around either, waiting for some voice from heaven, when God speaks to you, it will not be through some self appointed "prophet", but through His word. Learn to listen to His voice through the scriptures, as you read them. Learn to obey what He tells you through the word in every day matters, even when it does not suit you. Timothy was called of the Lord, but only after he had established himself in the confidence of the elders of his local assembly, and nearby places, Acts 16;1-3.

Jonah's commission was Divine, it was from God Himself, but it was not the kind of commission that many would rejoice in, nor would there be many who would volunteer for such a "mission". He was to go to Nineveh, "That great city". Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, it was fabulously rich, because all the wealth of the nations that were being conquered by their seemingly unbeatable armies, found its way to that city.

It was very idolatrous, and they attributed their military successes, to the idols whom they served. The demons that those idols represent are themselves, both cruel, greedy and immoral, and these characteristics were developed in their devotees. Thus the city was full of violence, lust and sin of every kind. This vile state of things, rose as a terrible stench in the nostrils of God, and Jonah was to go and preach judgment against the city, the inhabitants and their sin.

This was not a tempting proposition at all, it would be akin to being called to be a preacher of hellfire to the Kremlin, when Joseph Stalin was at the height of his power.- Any volunteers?-

It was, (from the human point of view), like being called to a suicide mission. These people had shown no mercy to the nations that they had conquered, how much less to some crank who dared to call their luxurious , sinful lifestyle into question?

But it was not the fear of what might happen to him personally that made Jonah to rebel against the call of God, and to reject the Divine commission, but several other considerations as follows.

(1) Jonah was a man of discernment, and it was only about fifty to seventy years or so after the events recorded in this book, that the king of Assyria invaded the north of Israel, and deported the people of Jonah's own home town and others in the area, to some foreign country.

His love for his own people Israel, and his feelings of anger towards this cruel nation (Assyria,) made him desire that the worst should happen to them, the same as they had made happen to others, this made him unwilling to go.

He knew that though God is great and mighty, yet He was a God of love. Though He hated sin, and would visit sinful men with His terrible judgment, yet He delighted to extend mercy to the repentant. Jonah was afraid that if he went in obedience to the call of God, and proclaimed the judgment of God against the wicked city of Nineveh, that if they repented God would forgive them, and this would seem to make a fool of him.

A combination of these things, incited the prophet to rebel, and to run away as far as he knew it was possible get, from the place of his call. How many there are like him, even today.

The events that follow clearly show that Jonah knew what he had of the Bible, which would be the five books of Moses, and the historical books up to 2 Samuel, but especially the Psalms. When we listen to Jonah's prayer in chapter two, we find that it is almost wholly made up of quotations from the books of Psalms. Amongst the psalms that he knew would have been Psalm 139, where David brings out in beautiful poetic language, the OMNISCIENCE, OMNIPOTENCE and OMNIPRESENCE of God, yet in spite of what he knew, he still tried to run away from the presence of God.

Do we not sometimes do the same? The word of God tells us that a certain course of action is wrong, that a certain friendship is wrong, yet we go ahead and do what we want to do, regardless of what God says. Sometimes through prayer, we try to twist God's arm, as it were, we try to persuade Him to accept our plans, or to see things from our point of view, but still we do the thing that the word of God tells us is wrong.

Jonah decided to go to Tarshish a trading city in Spain, and thereby to run away from God, to escape from the task of warning wicked Nineveh of the impending judgment of God. Tarshish lay on the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, as far away as Jonah knew, from Nineveh. That city lay to the Northeast, but Tarshish to the Northwest. The name Tarshish means Yellow Jasper, which was a precious stone, and was probably mined there. It was also one of the trading capitals of the ancient world, a centre of much business. This would suggest to us that he was retiring from the work of the Lord to occupy himself in business. There are some, perhaps many today, who have been called of God to labour for Him in a certain place, for example in India, but have found the going too hard. They have been attracted by the so-called good life in the U.S.A. and have found it convenient to go there to "study", but have become involved in business, some doing two jobs, sending their wives out to work also. Such are often a problem to themselves and to others, just as Jonah was.

So we read that Jonah went down to Joppa, which was a seaport on the south coast of the land of Israel. Any step that we may take in disobeying the will of God, in the doing of our own will, is a downward step. But the downward way is the easy way, it is so much easier to go down than it is to go up, because to go up calls for energy and courage, it may cause weariness and pain, and we progress so slowly. But to go down, we can get a long way in a short time, with little effort, and may be proud of our "progress". We read of the man in the story of the "Good Samaritan", who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell amongst thieves, also that the broad road, leads down to destruction, what a warning this should be to us!

Jonah's downward path did not end at the wharf, because we read that he went down into the sides of the ship, and that there in the comfort of his cabin he went to sleep. This shows us that if we succeed in taking the downward path, it will lead to our falling asleep spiritually, we will be unconscious of those around us, especially of their spiritual need and danger. Later he went down to the depths, the bottom of the mountains.

We should note the fact that Jonah tells us that he paid the fare, in doing so he is telling us that in going against the will of God, there is a price to pay, and to do so is a very costly thing. One of the great costs of such a course, is the surrender of a good conscience. The conscience is that mysterious part of the spiritual makeup of man that warns them before they do wrong, clearly telling "this is wrong, you should not do this". It also tells that a thing is right, and that we should do that thing. But when we disobey the voice of conscience and do what is wrong, then the conscience condemns us, and we have what is commonly called a guilty conscience, this destroys our peace of mind, interrupts our communion with God, and robs us of the joy of our salvation. On the other hand, if we obey the voice of conscience, it approves what we do, and our joy increases, and we have what the Bible calls a good conscience.

In 1 Timothy 1;18-20, Paul warns Timothy that in the spiritual warfare he is to hold "faith and a good conscience", and uses two brothers as an example of what happens when we neglect to maintain a good conscience, and he says of these that they made shipwreck as to faith.

A good conscience is a priceless possession, and to lose it is a very great cost, Jonah could not board that ship without paying a price. Often we sell our conscience for a very low price, even the telling of one lie makes us forfeit our good conscience. To commit some dishonest act, to steal something, however small, makes us forfeit our good conscience. I remember taking sixpence from the till of my first employer, it would only be five cents in today's currency, but I was never happy until I put it back. Yet so often we are guilty of going against the will of God in much greater things, just as Jonah was. Let us heed the warning of God, let us listen to, and obey the voice of our conscience, lest it become seared as with a hot iron, ( 1 Tim.4;2.) This is a most interesting expression, because when the skin which is normally very sensitive, is seared with a hot iron, it causes great pain at the time, but later after healing takes place, scar tissue develops at the site of the burn, and that scar tissue is quite insensitive, you can cut it, or prick it, but will feel no pain, but the conscience is so much more sensitive than the skin, however to continually sin against the conscience will render it insensitive, and may lead us to destroy ourselves and our testimony.

Jonah thinking that he had succeeded in getting his own way, retired to the comfort of his cabin and went to sleep, not just a light sleep, but a deep sleep, a state in which he was completely unconscious of his surroundings, and of the peril that he was facing, as well as the disaster to which he had exposed others, because of his rebellion against the will of God.

Spiritual sleep is a very dangerous thing for the believer, and Paul warns the Romans, the Ephesians and the Thessalonians against it The parable of the ten virgins shows how it robs the saints of their effectiveness in witness. If you had come and saw those virgins laying down asleep, you could not have told the wise from the foolish. When we go to sleep our testimony ceases, we appear just the same as the nominal Christians around us. We cannot awaken others to the realization of their danger and peril if we are also sleeping.

In His great goodness and faithfulness, God was not going to allow Jonah to have his own way. It was in mercy and in love that God intervened in disciplinary chastisement in Jonah's life, not in anger or in vengeance. It seems so often today that God lets people have their own way, and that is a much greater disaster than His discipline, which has in view our being brought into accord with the will of God, our being made partakers of His holiness, and thus into a richer enjoyment of communion with Him. It was a much greater judgment on Ephraim when God said, "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone", Hoseah 4;17, thus to be allowed to succeed in our self-will is a disaster for us.

God, who had in His heart and mind the blessing of Jonah, and of the men on that ship, sent a terrible storm that threatened to break the ship to pieces, and it would seem, to send the sailors and the disobedient Prophet to a watery grave, but through all this disaster God had nothing but eventual blessing in his heart for Jonah, for the sailors, and for Nineveh. This was no ordinary storm, God was in it, "The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet", Nahum 1;4, perhaps Nahum was thinking of this event when he wrote those words.

The storms of life are always for a purpose, and are among the "All things" that work together for good to those who love God. Psalm 107 ; 25-28, shows us how God uses such things to bring men to their wits end, so that they might cry unto him, and prove his salvation.

This storm was the direct result of Jonah's disobedience, and though God turned it about to the eternal blessing of all, yet it did not excuse , or minimize Jonah's guilt. God's ways of sovereign grace are wonderful. He can make the wrath of man to praise him, he can turn our failures about and use them to our blessing, the blessing of others, and to his own glory. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, but it does not excuse our sin, yet it does magnify God's glory.

We see the ship of our society, or community, around us, in deep trouble. There are problems that confront the rulers of nations for which they have no answer. Evil has increased in every area to a terrible extent, is it possible that we are to blame? Have we, as the "salt of the earth" lost our savour so that we are no longer a preserving influence, or a rebuke to the sin that threatens to send the world down into judgment and eternal ruin?

But while the sailors were terrified, and were crying to gods that could not hear, also offering sacrifice, yet Jonah was sleeping!

We see a revival of religious fundamentalism in every land, greater numbers that ever are attending places of pilgrimage. Even as I write there are more than two million people at Mecca, searching for a righteousness and a peace that only Christ can give.

Sabrimala, a mountain shrine in Kerala India was visited this year by more than three million people. The "holy" places on the Ganges are visited by innumerable crowds. I am told that there are at some festivals more than seven million people at one time gathered at such places, all seeking for peace and salvation.

In Eastern lands, five times a day the call rings out from the minarets of the many Mosques, calling the faithful to prayer. They respond, hoping to obtain merit and finally salvation, yet only add to their guilt and the sin that, (unless they are saved by the Lord Jesus through the grace of God,) will sink them to the lowest hell.

Yet while all this happens around us, most of us who claim to be servants of Jesus Christ, are asleep. We have access into the immediate presence of God, and are commanded to come boldly to the throne of grace, yet so often we cannot even be bothered to pray. Those believers who seek to follow the pattern of gathering given to us by the Apostles in the New Testament, normally have a meeting for prayer, at least weekly, yet that vital meeting is the most poorly attended of all the meetings, So often even those who do come, and even those who pray, seldom really cry out to God for the lost and perishing souls of men.

In their dilemma, in a desperate attempt to keep the ship afloat, the sailors cast away the ship's cargo, things of weight and value. This very thing is happening in different countries of the world, governments are discarding things of real value, one by one, time honoured things that have given stability to society, and have been honoured of God, are being discarded.

Proper discipline, at every level is being actively discouraged. In the home parents are sometimes accused of infringing the "rights of the child" by simply doing what God tells us to do. In the school room, discipline is no longer tolerated, creating great problems for the teachers, and resulting in so many children failing in their education, becoming undisciplined rebels who are a problem to society.

Proper standards of morality are considered to be old fashioned and puritanical, resulting in great social problems, the most common of these being illegitimate pregnancies, which is so often "solved" by murdering the unborn child through abortion, which in many countries results in the wholesale slaughter of thousands of unborn children, and all is paid for by the ordinary citizen through taxation.

Homosexuality has become acceptable, and "Gay" people are becoming a privileged class. This vile and unnatural practice has brought the judgment of God in the form of the incurable disease of H.I.V. A.I.D.S. This in turn is causing enormous expenditure of taxpayers funds, and helping to bankrupt even rich countries.

The sanctity of marriage is being thrown overboard, divorce is encouraged, made easy to obtain. Commitment to a life partner is actively discouraged, all having disastrous results.

However the throwing of the cargo overboard did not make the ship any safer, or less likely to founder. The shipmaster was distraught with fear, but while thus distressed found the guilty Prophet sleeping in his cabin, totally unconscious of what was going on around him, or of the danger he had exposed others to through his rebellion, the distress he had caused to then through his disobedience.

Jonah was awakened by a shout from the captain, who was amazed that one could sleep while others and himself were threatened with destruction. The shout pierced through him, shook him into consciousness, "What meanest thou O sleeper? arise call upon thy God", Jonah sat up rubbed his eyes and only then became aware that something was wrong. What awoke him was the cry of the perishing, how I wish to God that we too could hear that cry. In Luke chapter 16 we hear a cry from the flames of hell, pleading that others might be warned not to come to that place, will we continue to sleep in our apathy, comfort and ease, while others perish?

These poor heathen sailors had no way of determining who or what was the cause of their peril and distress, except than by gambling, casting lots. It will be argued that this is a legitimate way of discovering guilt, or the will of God, and Proverbs 16;33 may be quoted to support this view. But that verse does not endorse the use of the lot, but merely shows that even when used in human affairs God may use it to show his will, but his will is sure of accomplishment, and will surely be done.

However in this case God used their superstitious gambling to clearly show the guilt of his disobedient servant. The finger of divine accusation pointed firmly, undeniably at Jonah. He then was questioned by the sailors, and is compelled to reveal his profession, his country, his calling, and his rebellion, how humbling it all was. One by one his answers came.

"I am an Hebrew", ( the word means "one from beyond"), and Abraham, who had come from Ur in Mesopotamia was the first to be called a Hebrew. This means that Jonah was revealing that he was personally related to that great man, but he was not following the ways or example of Abraham. Abraham believed and obeyed, Jonah believed but disobeyed. It is so sad when we claim to have faith, as the children of Abraham, but do not have the works of obedience.

"I fear the Lord, (Jehovah,), the God of Heaven", was Jonah's next answer, but he was not true to what these words professed. His "fear" of Jehovah was only a matter of lip service, he was bold enough to go completely against the revealed will and word of God. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding", says the words of the wise man. But Jonah's actions were sheer folly, they were lying vanities, as he describes them in chapter 2.

The heathen mariners feared the idols whom they served, much more than Jonah feared God, even though he was the great Eternal God. Their idols represented demons, and such was the fear they had of those demons that they would never be so bold as to cross them, or to go against what those demons commanded, for fear of the terrible consequences, or the disaster that it would bring upon them.

It is a sad fact today, that often the piety of the idolater, can put to shame the lack of devotion and disobedience of those who claim to be believers. In spite of the profession of our fear of God, yet we are so often not afraid to do things that the word of God clearly condemns.

What a question to come from the lips of those who had no knowledge of God, to one who was his servant? How those words must have searched into Jonah's heart, it made him begin to feel the monstrous nature of his sin and rebellion. That he should dare to be so bold and arrogant as to go directly against the will of the Almighty God.

Should it not make us also to examine why we are where we are, make us to really, earnestly seek the will of God for our lives? Should it not make us want to confess our failure and self-will to God , and to seek his forgiveness and cleansing, if we are out of his will, or going contrary to that will. There is no better time than right now for us to get right with God, to surrender our wills completely to Him, to say in the words of our suffering Savior, "Nevertheless not my will but thine be done".

This question struck home to the heart of the guilty Prophet, he began to see what his sin had brought on others, he accepted the fact that he deserved to die, he began to reach an end of himself. He-the guilty one must go, he must die so that others might be spared from the wrath of God. At the same time he saw death as a means of escaping the call of God, if he died he would not have to go to Nineveh, and that wicked city would receive the judgment it deserved, but God had other plans for his rebellious servant, as well as for the sailors, and finally the whole city of Nineveh.

So Jonah said to the sailors, "cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you:" In effect he is saying, "Get rid of me, I am the cause of your trouble", this is not the language of selfishness, but of one who is prepared to die, so that others might live. This restored him to respect in the eyes of the sailors, such a spirit was foreign to them and their religion. They had a certain fear of Jonah before, when they knew that he was a servant of the Almighty Jehovah, but now because of his willingness to die so that they might live, they learn to respect him also.

So often our rebellion against the will of God, the selfishness that leads us to scheme and to follow our own way, make us to lose respect in the eyes of people in the world, those with whom we have to do in business, or in the ordinary affairs of life. That respect will never be regained until we learn to hate ourselves, to judge ourselves, to die to self. That proud rebellious self that is the cause of our own greatest problems, and those of others also. That self that gets in the way, that hinders the work of God, that spoils our testimony, it must go in death.

Because of this new found respect, the sailors had no desire to sacrifice the life of Jonah, so that their lives might be spared. They tried to save themselves by their own efforts, they manned the oars, and strained every muscle to try to bring the ship back to land, but all was in vain, the will of God must be done.

All of these circumstances combined to convince these men of the Greatness of the Eternal Jehovah, and in their distress they turned to him, they cried to him. Perhaps this was the first time they had ever taken that wonderful name on their lips, they are now turning from their dead idols that had ears but could not hear, they are crying out to the Living God. They submit themselves under his mighty hand, they recognize his sovereign and holy will, "Thou O Lord, (Jehovah) hast done as it pleased thee". Having thus prayed for forgiveness for what they were about to do, they then took up Jonah and hurled him into the sea. Then an amazing thing happened, the moment Jonah hit the water with a great splash, the wind suddenly dropped, "the sea ceased from its raging". The wonderful truth then dawned upon them, they were saved, not by Jonah, but by Jonah's God, this then led to their conversion, "they feared Jehovah".

Jonah has disappeared from sight, they are thinking about him no longer, but they have come to know Jonah's God. They had none to teach them , but somehow they understood that they could only approach to God through sacrifice, thus they offered a sacrifice, which would speak to us of that one sacrifice which the Lord Jesus offered on the cross of Calvary. They came to put their faith in another, but more than this, they made vows, that is they made a solemn promise, a definite commitment of their lives to the Great Eternal Jehovah.

All of this happened as soon as Jonah disappeared, once he was out of the way, God then got on with his own work. It is a sad fact that many who claim to be believers, or even claim to be the servants of God, are so often a hindrance to God's work. Just like the crowds who followed the Lord Jesus, they only kept others away, hindered those in need, who wished to see or to come to the Lord Jesus, from coming to him.

If we wish to see God at work, then we need to accept death to self, we need to deny ourselves, to accept the cross of Christ as our own. We need to come to an end of ourselves, to believe that Christ not only died for our sins that they might be forgiven, but also that he died for what we are, ourselves, and that when he died, we died. We need to take sides with God against our old selves. To agree that in me that is to say in my flesh, dwells no good thing.(Rom. 7;18.) So that we may be able to truly say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.(Gal. 2;20.)

This wretched, rebellious, proud, arrogant old self, is the greatest hindrance to the work of God, and once it is judged and forsaken, then God will get on with his work, for the glory of his own great name.

The last view that Jonah gives us of the crew of that ship that came so close to sinking, is as a group of repentant, trusting, committed men, whose lives are committed by vow to the honour and service of God.

We are told, "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah", and a close examination of this verse reveals the greatness of the foreknowledge of God. The word had, (past tense,) is important, because it indicated that God had done this previously, and probably many years previously. The fish did not grow to such a great size overnight nor in a few weeks or even months, but over many years. The fish began life as all others of its species, first as an egg, from which hatched a tiny fish that then over the process of many years grew to be the enormous fish that it was.

This shows us that God was not taken by surprise by Jonah's rebellion, nor did he have to make hasty plans to remedy the situation that was brought about by that rebellion. God knew exactly what Jonah would do, just as he knows what we will do, even before we are born, yet he does not compel us to tread a pre-ordained path. He is gloriously sovereign, yet we are responsible, our responsibility does not cancel his sovereignty, but rather commends and confirms it. This is a great comfort to the believer who fails, just to realize that God knew that I would do this thing, yet he loved and saved me in spite of what he knew I would do. It does not excuse my failure, but it does magnify his matchless mercy.

It also shows us that every situation is under his control, and that his timing is perfect. God saw to it that the great fish was at that exact place at exactly the right time. If the fish had been hours or even minutes late reaching that particular place in the vast Mediterranean Sea, we would not have this book to study, or for it to speak to us. What a wonderful God it is whom we serve. It is completely safe to trust him absolutely with every detail of our lives, he never fails, Blessed be his holy name!

Thus it was that once Jonah entered the water, a great mouth was opened ready to receive him. It must have been like a cave, and he slithered down that great throat into darkness and corruption. Can you imagine what it must have been like? In a moment he must have been engulfed in a slimy stinking mess, thus Jonah was made to experience what was within himself, so stinking, so vile, so utterly abhorrent. It is a very humiliating thing to have to learn what we are, in the flesh, what the nature of Adam is within us. We tend to think that we are OK, that like the Pharisee, we are not as other men are, but it is humbling in the extreme to discover how vile we really are.

Job was the most righteous man on the earth in his day, he had a very good opinion of himself also, and thought that God was most unfair to treat him the way that God did, in what he allowed to happen to him. He was able to silence his critics, though they spared no effort to pick him to pieces. When he compared himself with others, they were in no way equal to him, and he remained "firm in his integrity". But when God visibly drew near and spoke to him , then Job could say, 'now mine eye seeth thee", then he had to confess, "Behold I am vile; what shall I answer thee?, and "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes", (Job. 40;4 & 42;6.)

However this is a lesson that we all have to learn, something we all have to accept, if ever we would be used in the service of the Lord, for he has decreed that no flesh shall glory in his presence. Even the Apostle Paul had to learn this lesson, and he has recorded his experience for us in the latter half of Romans chapter seven. There he compares himself to a man who is chained to a decomposing corpse, a vile thing from which he is unable to break free. We hear him exclaim in his abject misery, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This is just like Jonah in the fish's belly

As well as corruption, there was total darkness in that living tomb, no ray of light entered there for three days and nights. This is to teach us where doubt and disobedience leads, into the greatest darkness. The light of the revealed will of God, if we do not obey, becomes great darkness, just as the Lord Jesus said, ( Mat. 6;23.)

As the great fish went lower and lower into the depths of the sea, so the pressure, and the heat that it generates increased. The oceans are very deep, the mountains do not end at the sea, and often the mountain is deeper below the sea than it is higher above the sea. The fish's belly was not like the exceptionally strong steel submarine vessels that scientists have built to enable them to study the depths of the ocean, it was pliable, and as the pressure increased outside, Jonah felt it inside, until he must have felt that the very life was being crushed out of him.

In the disciplinary ways of God, he often uses pressure to accomplish his end, and for our blessing. Naturally pressure has the tendency to reduce us, to squeeze us , to shrink us, but God uses it to enlarge us, (Psalm 4;1,) which in J.N.Darby's translation says, "Through pressure, thou hast enlarged me". So often we blame Satan for the pressures of life, but perhaps we have brought these things upon ourselves by our disobedience, then let us ask ourselves what is it that God is seeking to teach us, what is he seeking to do in our lives?

Once in this hopeless situation Jonah prayed, this is the first step towards recovery. He never prayed when the call of God came, and we are not told that he prayed even on the ship during the storm, but now there is only one to whom he can turn. A course of self-will leads to prayerlessness, but trouble often makes us turn to God. Jonah did not just say a prayer either, he says "I cried by reason of my distress unto the Lord." A cry is something more than a prayer, is comes from the heart, it is the result of distress, and it is no mere religious formality.

Again and again in Psalm 107, those who came into situations of distress cried unto the Lord, and as often as they cried it is said "He delivered them", or "He saved them". We find also throughout the book of Judges, that though succeeding generations of the people of Israel got away from God and as a result got into bondage and slavery, yet as often as they cried unto the Lord, he raised them up a savior. God promised through Jeremiah that those who search for him with all their heart, will find him, (ch. 29;13.)

God sends the distress so that we might be awakened, that we may turn to him, that we might seek him with all our heart, then he will hear and answer. Jonah had the sense that God heard him. The fish's belly then was transformed from a tomb into a temple

As Jonah began to pray, the words of the Psalmist that he knew so well, those words whose beauty he had often admired, suddenly took on a new meaning, they became alive to him. Those words poured from his heart now, he was not merely repeating the words of another, he made those words his own.

How often we too quote the words of holy scripture in prayer and worship, but as we pass through deep trouble those words assume a new significance, a new relevance, they become the living word of God.

Jonah's prayer shows us that he had a wonderful knowledge of the scriptures, especially the Psalms. This should encourage us also to acquire such a knowledge, for to know the scriptures is such a comfort in times of distress, God is able to speak to us from them.

Jonah came to accept death and burial, he came to realize that this was what he deserved, that old arrogant, rebellious self must die, and when he said "The earth with its bars, was about me forever," he accepted burial also. So then, what was the old Jonah died and was buried in the fish's belly.

We have to come to this also, before God can use us in the accomplishment of his purpose. We cannot practically prove the mighty power of the resurrection life of Christ, without first accepting both death and burial. The cross and the grave came before the resurrection.

We testified to this when we were immersed at the time of our baptism, because going into the water we were saying in symbol, "I have died with Christ, I identify myself with him in the likeness of his death", when immersed we were saying symbolically, "I am buried with him by baptism unto death", but when we came up out of the water we were saying, "I am risen with Christ, henceforth I am to walk in the power of his resurrection life."

The acceptance of the cross, brings to an end all my struggles and efforts, it exposes the shame and wretchedness of all that I am, as in Adam, it liberates me from myself, and from the power of indwelling sin, from the "law of sin and death".

In the acceptance of the cross of Christ, I take sides with God against myself, I acknowledge that what he did in condemning sin in the flesh, was perfectly just and right. He saw that the flesh, the fallen nature of Adam within me, could never be improved, so he condemned it, poured out his righteous judgment upon it.

Then he buried what I am in the tomb of Christ, thus removing my old self from before his sight forever. But in the resurrection of Christ, he made me in him a new man, so that as I walk in the power of Christ's resurrection life, Christ is then seen in me, He lives his life in me. All of this is summed up in that wonderful key verse, Galatians Chapter two verse twenty, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me".

The Lord Jesus spoke of the "sign of Jonah," saying that as Jonah was three days and nights in the fish's belly, so he would be for the same period, "in the heart of the earth." Jonah was led by the Spirit of God to give expression to words that expressed the very feelings of the person of Christ, when he died and was buried. The great difference was that Jonah's experience was disciplinary, and correctional, whereas the experience of the Lord Jesus was vicarious, that is on behalf of others, (you and me.)

God reached his end with Jonah, when Jonah finally came to an end of himself. When his soul fainted within him, all his striving ceased, he at last gave up the struggle, he remembered the Lord, he surrendered himself completely to the will of God, and saw the folly of the lying vanity, of his daring to think that his will could be better than that of the Almighty.

He offered the sacrifice of thanksgiving, that is he thanked God for his ways of grace and disciplinary judgment. He yielded himself anew to God, and to the doing of God's will. He had evidently vowed earlier in his life to serve God wholly, to go where he was sent, to say what he was told to say. In trying to run away, he broke that vow, but now he pays it, by the wholehearted surrender of himself. He laid himself on the altar, as it were.

This is what we are entreated to do in Romans 12 ; 1-2, and this sacrifice of ourselves is the end result, the working of the truth of sanctification. May the Lord enable each one of us to reach his end, to surrender ourselves completely to Him, to present our bodies a living sacrifice!

Jonah thus comes to the final conclusion that, salvation is of the LORD, it is his work, it is his divine prerogative, it brings pleasure to his great heart of love, then Jonah yields himself so that he might be the instrument by which that salvation is brought to others, whoever and wherever they might be. So God's end is reached, the discipline of God had done its work, the fish is no longer needed, so God commands it to vomit Jonah on to the dry land.

In order to do this, it must have entered a river, but even if it did, the spot must have been some hundreds of miles from Nineveh, and in order to reach Nineveh Jonah must have had to walk at least five hundred miles.

As Jonah began to recover from his nightmare experience, the first thing that he would have to do, was to clean himself up. It would have taken some time and effort to remove the slime and smell of the corruption in which he had wallowed for three days and nights. Even when he did that he must have been a strange sight. The powerful digestive acids of the fish's stomach would have bleached his hair, so that it appeared to be snow white. Those acids would also have begun to eat away his skin, so that he would have looked like someone who had come back from the dead.

We read that "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." How this demonstrates the grace and patience of God! We might have expected God to discard Jonah, and to have chosen someone more willing, but God did not cast away his rebellious servant, but through all the events that we have studied, made him the most effective evangelist of all time.

Should we not take courage from this, that even if we have failed, yet God will not discard us, He will not leave us until he has reached his end in our lives. He can even use our failures to fit us to serve him better. O the wonder of his wisdom, patience and his marvelous grace!

We have a New Testament example of this same patience and grace in the life of Simon Peter. How he boasted at the last supper, that even though all of the other disciples should forsake the Lord Jesus, yet he would not. He vowed that he would go to prison and to death, rather than to deny his Lord, ( and he did this later in his life.) However Jesus knew Peter better than he knew himself, and told him that before the cock would crow the following morning, he would deny three times that he ever knew him.

It happened just as the Lord Jesus said, not only did Peter deny the Lord, but did so with oaths and curses. After Peter's third denial, when the cock crowed, Jesus turned around and looked at Peter, looked right into his heart, he remembered the words of the Lord, and doubtless his own boasting also, his heart was broken, he then went out and wept bitterly.

The days that followed must have been terrible days for Peter, taunted and condemned by Satan, and by his own conscience, crushed by a sense of his own failure, by the fact that he had done what he vowed he would never do. What made it worse for him was the fact that the Lord whom he failed so miserably was now dead, and he would never be able to say that he was sorry, to put right the wrong that he had done. The Lord Jesus knew that Peter's intentions were good and right, he also knew the misery through which Peter was passing, so he instructed the angel to give the message, to tell his disciples, "and Peter," about his resurrection, so that Peter might know that he was not discarded.

It was by the sea of Galilee that Jesus probed into Peter's heart, three times, (the same number of times that Peter had denied him,) asking "lovest thou me," and each time Peter replied in the affirmative, the Lord Jesus entrusted him with increasing responsibilities, "Feed my lambs," " Shepherd my sheep," "Feed my sheep." By this he was saying to Peter I have not finished with you, I have work for you to do for me. Peter thus restored, was able to strengthen his brethren, his failure made him even more useful, because it made him more humble.

Perhaps someone may be reading this, and you like Peter have failed the Lord miserably. Perhaps like him you have also been crushed by the sense of your failure, and tortured by Satan, who has constantly assured you that God will never trust you again with any service for him. He may have even used the verse in 1 Cor. 9;27, to convince you that you are a castaway, lost forever.

Take heart my troubled brother or sister. The Lord Jesus knew what you would do before he ever saved you, and having bought you with his precious blood, he will never give you up. If you are wise enough to be truly humbled by your failure, and humble enough to confess it to the Lord in true repentance, He will surely forgive you. Remember "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanses from all sin," not just from some sins. If you have humility and courage enough to go to any person you may have sinned against, to own your wrong , to seek their forgiveness, then he will restore you to his service, and you too can be an even more effective servant for Him, because of your fall.

Jonah was to go to Nineveh, the call was not altered in any way, his prejudices are now gone, and when he went in obedience to the call of God, he went in the power of resurrection, he had virtually come back from the dead.

Jonah was not to bring his own message, he was not to plan or prepare what he would say, he was to preach only what God gave him to say. Therein lies another clue as to why Jonah's preaching was so effective, and herein lies a warning to all who would aspire to be preachers. So often we spend hours preparing notes, reading this author and that author. We structure our sermons so that they may have the greatest appeal, and sometimes practice them before a mirror, or on our long suffering wives, but when the sermon is given it is both lifeless and powerless, because it is our message, not God's.

It is of all importance that what we say in preaching, is only what God gives us to say. Peter tells us that if any man speaks, he is to speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever, Amen! (! Pet. 4;11.)

God knows best what is needed by those to whom we preach or minister, we need to learn to receive from him what we minister to others. This is what Moses did, he went into the tent of meeting, and there he communed with God, there he received in commandment, what he then gave to the people, (Ex. 34;34.)

Jonah made the long journey to earth's most wicked city, how long it took him we are not told, but he went "according to the word of the Lord." He must have felt quite unequal to the task, but the God who had prepared and sent him, was about to use him in a mighty way.

Nineveh was an exceedingly great city of three days journey, so we are told, and if the city was square that would have made it about a hundred miles, at least, around its boundaries, and modern archeology has confirmed the accuracy of what Jonah has written.

It would seem that Jonah had no equipment of any kind, not even a donkey. He probably had no money, he had to leave any luggage he possessed on the ship, but that was no problem to his God. So often today evangelists think that they need all kinds of equipment, as "tools of evangelism", but finally all that is really needed is the word of God, the Spirit of God, the call of God, and an obedient, yielded heart.

I am not suggesting that we should not make use of the many useful helps and gadgets that are available today, nor am I criticizing those who do make efficient use of such. I am just pointing out what the final and basic needs are. We may have all the equipment imaginable, yet without the four things mentioned, all will be in vain.

Thus it was that Jonah began his allotted task, he began to enter into the city a days journey, crying as he went, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." On the face of it, this seemed to be a foolish message, that none would ever believe. The critics might have told him, "You are wasting your time, nobody will take any notice of you", but it is never foolish to proclaim the message of God. Yet Nineveh never seemed more secure, riding on the crest of a wave of military success, it seemed that such a message could not possibly be fulfilled, surely Jonah must have appeared to be cranky.

I sometimes compare Jonah, his message and his situation with Lot and his situation. Lot was given a message of immediate judgment, but Lot was a citizen of Sodom, the city that was about to be destroyed, he was a member of its parliament also. When he went to his betrothed sons in law, and warned them of the judgment about to fall, urging them to escape, we are told that he seemed to them as one who jested. In effect they told him, "You would have to be joking", his message was without power, because he had compromised his principles. What a contrast! What a warning to us also!

When Jonah preached, the people knew that he was not joking, they could see that he believed his message. He preached about judgment, about a hell that was soon to be unleashed on earth, on Nineveh. Hell was no mere doctrine to Jonah, it was a terrible reality, he had tasted hell, because in his prayer he said, "out of the belly of Hell cried I".

Added to this his very appearance supported his message, he must have looked like one who had returned from the grave. His message struck terror into the hearts of his hearers, and it spread like a wild fire through the city. One person told another, and that person told someone else, describing both the preacher and his message, until the message reached the ears of the King.

Jonah's message reached both high and low, both rich and poor, from the King on his throne, to the beggar in the street. Never was there such a saturation of any city so complete, as when Jonah proclaimed against Nineveh. What an example this is for us!

Even our most zealous efforts to spread the Gospel, are usually concentrated amongst the middle class. I have seen the poor people sleeping at night on the pavements of Bombay's streets, I have seen the masses of people in their wretched slum huts. Who cares about them? I think of the verse in Psalm 142 ; 4, where the Psalmist says, "I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." Do we care about he poor of this world? The Lord Jesus said that he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach "Glad tidings to the poor", and to the disciples of John the Baptist he gave as one of the proofs of his Messiahship, the fact that " the poor are evangelized."

But with the message of judgment there was also a space given for repentance, God gave them forty days to consider their wicked ways, and the whole city grasped the opportunity with both hands. It is said that "the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast". So faith was the basis of their repentance, their faith was shown by their repentance.

The message reached the ears of the King, it brought terror to his heart, he arose from his throne, put off his royal robes, put on the garments of mourning, and began to cry to God for mercy. Not only this, but he also passed legislation, proclaiming a fast for both man and beast. They were neither to eat or drink, but to cease from their wickedness, and from the violence that was in their hands, and to cry mightily to God, in the hope that he might show mercy.

It is interesting to note that even the cattle were included. When cattle are denied food and water, they very soon complain, they bellow or bleat loudly, thus their voices were added to those of wicked, but repentant men, in a mighty effort to move the heart of God to mercy. The last verse of the book shows us that God had compassion on the innocent beasts.

What a truly amazing thing was all this, surely there has never been anything like it before, or since, the mightiest revival of all time. The repentance also was genuine, it was not only Jonah who had to be convinced of their sincerity, it was the Eternal God who heard their cry, who was able to look into their hearts, it was he who turned from the fierceness of his wrath, and granted pardon to the repentant people.

It is said in the last verse of chapter three, that God "saw their works", that he showed compassion, he had mercy on the repentant people, that he turned from the evil that he said that he would do to them, " and he did it not". This means that the generation of Ninevites to whom Jonah preached, were saved from judgment. However God's judgment was only deferred, it fell 188 years later.

After the passing of Jonah the succeeding generations turned to even greater wickedness, and in 612 B.C. the city was so totally destroyed that even its location was forgotten. The prophecy of Nahum warned of that terrible judgment.

While Nineveh cried to God for repentance, Jonah retired from his work, and with anger and bitterness in his spirit towards God, went out of the city, built himself a booth, a shelter on the East side of the city, and sat down to callously wait and see what God would do.

What a tragedy! The old Jonah had revived once more, he prayed to God, quarreled with God's mercy, and accused God of not keeping his word. His words prove that it was the revival of the old Jonah. "Was not this my saying , when I was yet in my own country? Therefore I fled to Tarshish". Then in a sullen , petulant spirit, requested that he might die, feeling that God had made a fool of him in sending him to proclaim a judgment that he was not now going to execute. His words, " It is better for me to die than to live", were the expression of truth, the old Jonah had to die again.

This reveals to us the need of daily sanctification. Though salvation is a once for all experience, and can never, and needs never to be repeated, yet sanctification is renewed day by day. We can never reach a state while we are here, when we can truthfully say that we are wholly sanctified, a state of sinless perfection. We will only reach that state when we reach the glory, and the old nature, the flesh, is forever left behind. While ever we are here in our present bodies of humiliation, the flesh will remain in us.

Though through the acceptance by faith of the cross of Christ as our own, by reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. Though by the yielding of ourselves completely to the Lordship of Christ, and the sovereign control and empowering, the leading of the Holy Spirit, we experience liberation from self, and the power of indwelling sin. Yet the principle of sin still remains within us, the old nature, the flesh is still there. If we give it the least opportunity it will again exert its power and control over us, and manifest its ugly characteristics in our lives.

That is why we have to " die daily", ( 1 Cor. 15 ; 31,) to be "always bearing bout in the body, the dying of Jesus,) 2 Cor. 4 ; 10,). That is why we " are killed all the day long," ( Rom. 8 ; 36,) and why the Lord Jesus tells each of us to " deny himself, and take up his, (our,) cross daily," ( Luke 9 ; 23.) Truly it better for me, (the old me,) to die than to live, so that the lovely characteristics of Christ, his beauty and compassion may be seen in me.

As he retired from the service of evangelism, Jonah became concerned about his own personal comfort, he built a shelter for himself, and sat in his little house. Are there not many like him today, "evangelists" who do not spread the evangel, "workers" who do no work. "Servants of the Lord", who spend most of their time worrying about their support, writing begging letters, making appeals?

Please don't misunderstand me, I do not mean to infer that the servant of God should not have a house to live in, or that he and his family should not be adequately supported, but when such things become the preoccupation of those who are called to serve the Lord, and to preach the gospel to a perishing world, then something is terribly wrong. It is the evidence of the old self again, callous selfishness that considers its own comfort and luxury, to be more important than the salvation of perishing souls.

God first asked Jonah whether his anger was justified, what a patient and loving God he is! But Jonah gave no reply, so in order to teach his angry, rebellious servant, God did a miracle, that made Jonah's "retirement" much more comfortable and enjoyable. He prepared a gourd, made it to grow overnight, so that when Jonah awoke next morning, the broad leaves of this pumpkin-like vine covered his shelter, and became like an air-conditioning unit for him.. It delivered him from his grief, and turned his anger into joy, because he was "exceedingly glad (because) of the gourd."

However his comfort and pleasure were short lived, because "God prepared a worm", or a grub, which ate off the gourd at, or just below the ground, and when the sun came up, Jonah's lovely gourd shriveled up and disappeared, then his anger returned once more.

Let us ask, what is the significance of these two things, the gourd, and the worm. Firstly, a gourd is a worthless thing, though it grows quickly, yet its fruit is bitter and useless, some kinds are even poisonous. In African countries, the village people remove the pith from the inside of the gourd's shell, then dry the shell in the sun, and use it for a bottle. The gourd came quickly, gave pleasure and comfort while it remained, but went as quickly as it came.

I believe that the gourd represents material prosperity, money or what money can buy. There is nothing so unreliable as riches, they may come quickly, but they go just as quickly. We have had several glaring examples of this in Australia in the past decade, 1985-1995. There were business magnates, tycoons, who became fabulously rich in a short time. They were able to buy, or to take over some of Australia's largest companies, as well as large companies in other countries. They were famous, and even became personal friends of the Prime Minister, and other prominent people. But the bubble burst, and today they are bankrupt, some have fled the country, while others have had to spend some time in prison. Their wealth was like Jonah's gourd. Solomon warns us that "Riches shall certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle to heaven" (Prov.23 ; 5.)

Paul exhorted Timothy to in instruct those believers who were rich, not to trust in uncertain riches" ( 1 Tim. 6 ; 17.) The Lord Jesus warned that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses, (Luke, 12 ; 15.). Sometimes God may allow his disobedient servant to accumulate wealth, but it never results in lasting happiness, and always leads to spiritual poverty

The worm , or grub was also prepared by God, and was of a special kind, its scientific name being, "Coccus Ilicis", and this grub has unusual habits. The female, before it lays its eggs, will attach her body very firmly to a tree, it will never leave that tree again. It then lays its eggs under its body, and they are sheltered by the mother's dead body until hatched. As it dies, the mother releases a crimson fluid, which stains her body and the surrounding wood. It was from the dead bodies of these female scarlet worms, that the scarlet dyes of ancient times were made.

This is a beautiful picture of Christ dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood for us, that we might be cleansed of the guilt of our sins, redeemed from all iniquity, and purified to himself as a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus, 2 ; 14.)

Riches, possessions etc., are earthly things, and when we "mind", or occupy our minds wholly, or even principally, with "earthly things", we become "enemies of the cross of Christ", opposed to the very principle of the cross, because when we take up the cross daily, we are saying good-bye to earthly, as well as worldly things. (Philippians, 3 ; 18 & 19.) In the cross of Christ "the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world," ( Gal. 6 ; 14.)

God had a lesson to teach Jonah in all these things, and Jonah has written it for us so that we may profit from his failure, that we might learn the lesson also.

When the gourd was gone, so was Jonah's momentary happiness and pleasure, God quickly brought him back to face the realities of the situation, to teach him a little more of the rottenness of the old nature. Jonah's anger erupted again, and when God asked him whether he was doing the right thing to be angry because of the gourd, he replied in petulant anger, " I do well to be angry, even unto death". His old arrogance had returned, it was even worse than before: His "fear" of Jehovah had departed once again, or else he never would have been bold enough to speak to the Almighty in such a way. The only thing that we can admire about him in this situation, is his frankness, he did not meekly say no, in answer to the question, when he felt otherwise.

God used this to show Jonah the unreasonable character of his pride and selfishness. He wanted God to destroy a great city, in which there were 120,000 innocent little children, who could not tell their right hand from their left, just so that he might have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so", of knowing that he had been exonerated, that his prestige as a Prophet might be maintained.

In patience God reasoned with him, You had pity on the gourd, but you never made it grow, it was just a worthless, passing thing, it came up in a night, and it perished in a night. Yet you are angry with me because I am not willing to destroy this great city of Nineveh, even though they have repented, ( something Jonah's own people never did.) A city in which there is more than 120,000 innocent little children, as well as much cattle, poor innocent creatures, which would also be destroyed. (My paraphrase.) Jonah thought more of his pride, his prestige, his personal comfort, than he did of the perishing souls of men, at that moment.

How cruel, and callous is the proud, arrogant selfish character of the flesh, the nature of Adam. The flesh in me and in you, is no different than the flesh that was in Jonah. It stands out here in sharp relief because of the extreme magnitude of Jonah's situation, but when we put our own comfort and luxury, before the spiritual needs of the multitudes that are perishing around us, we are just as guilty as he was. When we are content to know that we and our children are saved, and refuse to share the gospel with others, we stand condemned, just as he did.

O that God may open our eyes, that he may strip away any religious veneer, that he may show us what we really are, or rather what the flesh in us is.

Once the luxury, and the comfort that the gourd provided was gone, God prepared a sultry or vehement East wind and made it to blow on Jonah, just as he sent the storm on the ship when on the way to Tarshish. As well the sun beat upon his head, as God made him to taste in just a tiny measure, what he wanted to happen to Nineveh. But it was all too much for Jonah, and he fainted again, just as he did in the belly of the great fish, and he wished in himself that he might die. Once again Jonah is brought to the end of himself, he sees what he is, and he accepts death once more, "It is better for me to die than to live", he cries.

Let us learn from him, let us also judge ourselves, let us come to hate ourselves, to hate the flesh within us.

When one faints, it brings to an end all our resentment, puts an end to all our struggles, all our self-will. Then whatever is done for us must be done by others. That is what the acceptance of the cross of Christ does to us, brings us to an end of ourselves, so that helpless and without strength, we surrender ourselves into the hands of our victorious risen Lord, a new law then takes control, the Holy Spirit's power is released, the will of God becomes the pursuit and pleasure of our lives.

Here Jonah ends his narrative, but I wonder what happened to him afterwards? He obviously did not die physically at that time, otherwise he could never have written this story for us to read. Did he return to Gath Hepher? perhaps so, at least the manuscript of this story found its way into the hands of some Godly Jew, they must have seen its importance and value, and had the scribes make many copies. God saw that it was preserved and included in the cannon of the Holy Scriptures, so that you and I could be blessed by it. It became one of those books of Holy scripture which Paul affirmed were given by inspiration of God, and are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and for instruction in righteousness, ( 2 Tim. 3 ; 16 & 17.)

If he did return to Galilee, then it would seem that he afterwards came back to Nineveh, to follow up the work of grace that God had begun. I say this because on a hill near to the ruins of Nineveh is a place that is claimed by the Arabs to be Jonah's tomb, and is revered by them as a holy place.

If it is Jonah's tomb. then it means that he spent the rest of his life with these people, and literally gave his life for them, ending his days far away from his home and his people. There are some things that we may never know until we reach the Glory, but then we will know, How I look forward to meeting this mighty Prophet, whose life and example has been such a blessing to me!

Let us thank God for Jonah, for his courage, for his honesty, for his self effacing humility. Let us learn from his mistakes, let us follow every right example that he has set for those of every succeeding age, and especially for us!

As I bring this little paper to a close, my prayer for you, for all those who may read these few words is, May God make you a Jonah, May He make me a Jonah!

Written in the Arabian Gulf, and finished

at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 15th May, 1995.

Charles E. Wigg, Yolla, Tasmania, Australia. 7325.