Jonah and the Great Down Hurl
Jonah’s story begins with three important words, great, down and hurl. Follow Brian Stapley’s explanation of the Jonah story over a few posts.
Jonah’s Story
At school we do word searches. In Jonah’s story I find 3 words repeated again and again: Great, Down and Hurl. They all appear in the first 4 verses of the Jonah story:
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.”
Jonah 1:1-4
The Key Word Great
Great: Five times the word great is used to describe the greatness of God’s actions to turn people’s hearts toward him, Jonah included:
“But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea.”
(Jonah 1:4)
“For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
(Jonah 1:12)
“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah.”
(Jonah 1:17)
“So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.”
(Jonah 3:5)
“Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness”
(Jonah 4:2)
Four times Nineveh is described as the great city, but the point of this story is not to show the greatness of a pagan city, but the greatness of God to reach and save them. Jonah 4 verse 2 says,
“Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.”
Jonah 4:2
In Jonah 4:11, God asks,
“Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city?”
Jonah 4:11
God is saying, “You valued this puny plant and were heart-broken when I killed it, and should I not pity this great city – not full of plants but of people and livestock”
The Key Word Down
Another key word is Down – all of Jonah’s journey is down, down, down. He goes down to Joppa. He goes down to a boat. He goes down into the hold of the boat. He goes down into the water. He goes down into the whale. He goes down into the depths of the sea.
Now, he should have known, just in terms of his direction, “This isn’t going well.” He is balking at the greatness of God by going down into his own littleness.
The Key Word Down
Another repeated key word is the word Hurl. Now, as far as I can tell, God doesn’t tell any jokes in the Bible, but let’s just say that this word “Hurl” invites a smile.
In chapter 1, it says that God is going to hurl a tempest into the sea. The sailors are going to hurl Jonah from the boat. Then later the whale is literally going to hurl Jonah onto dry land. But even in the fun of that, you see God’s serious pursuit of Jonah, literally hurling a storm at him, then hurling him into the Mediterranean Sea and spitting him back up on to dry land. God is going to get His mission done.
If God is determined that a man named Jonah will end up in Nineveh, and that he is going to spit out a message between gritted teeth – it will happen. God will accomplish his purposes, whether you and I obey him or not – but that does not cut us any slack for disobedience.
A Summary of the Three Key Words
So here is the summary with three key words. The Great God who made the universe for Jesus and through Jesus, asked his Son to come all the way Down from heaven’s glory to die on a cross where men would Hurl curses and taunt him to come Down from the cross. Because he refused to come Down from that cross, he can lift you and me all the way up to heaven. How Great is our God.
What is your opinion of the story of Jonah? Contact us at HopeStreamRadio, or comment below.
Brian Stapley
Brian Stapley is the husband of Margaret and “Christian-proud” father of Tabitha, Ben, Jeremy and Joel. He has been director of the Boys JIM Club of America since 1981 and a “JIM Clubber” since 1958, the year he became a Christian. The mission statement of the JIM Club is, “Discipling boys to love Jesus deeply and express him vividly.”
He has been an educator since 1970, primarily as a high school English Teacher. (Don’t dangle your participles.) He has been in fellowship at Scottlea Gospel Chapel, St. Catharines, since 1976 and travels to preach about three dozen times a year, in Ontario and New York State. He is a ventriloquist, in company with Casey, Theodore, Dodo, Grumpa, and a menagerie of others. Also, a bit of a magician.
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