As we wrap up our study of chapter 1 of Jonah, I would like to address three issues of importance.
First, the question is often asked, “why didn’t Jonah just sacrifice himself to the waves, and thereby save the sailors?” There are certainly a host of answers. He didn’t really want to die, he didn’t care about the sailors, he figured he was a goner no matter what – where the ship went down with the sailors or they threw him overboard – so why do anything. However, there may be an better answer hidden in the clues of the text.
The question of verse 11 is “what shall we do to you?” The sailors are asking what they should do “to” Jonah. It is not “what should you do?” Or even, “what must happen to you?” The sailors assume a responsibility for Jonah, and an action that is required for their salvation. Jonah’s response is an exact answer to their question, “Lift me and hurl me…”
As stated above, the structure of the text indicates that the sailors were to understand this command as the exact will of Yahweh. God did not want Jonah to throw himself into the ocean. God wanted the sailors to do it. In a strange twist of plot, in these brief verses we see the pagan sailors being disobedient to the will of God by not throwing Jonah overboard, and Jonah being obedient by staying put.
When the sailors finally obey, there are two things that are being emphasized in their prayer to the LORD. First, it is a step of faith because nothing on the natural looks right; to them, this action is murder. Second, is their obedience as they obey the command of Jonah verbatim. And it is through these actions that they are saved.
There is the obvious question of why did God want it this way. Its hard to say for certain, and again I might be reading into things a bit, but it is significant that in the Old Testament, God almost always wants a mediary when salvation is to be enacted. Whether it’s a lamb for sacrifice, or Moses standing between God and the judgment on Israel, something stands between sinful man and the justice of God to bring about salvation. By the sailors taking a step of faith, Jonah being thrown to the waves became their Mediary between the wrath of God and the salvation of God. It was something that could not have come about simply by Jonah throwing himself overboard.
The second issue with chapter 1 is simple to emphasize the beauty of how the story is told. Often with a story like Jonah, which most of us have heard from our childhood or has been retold to us through story books and Veggie Tales, we miss the absolute literary gem that is found in these four short chapters. Alexander has done us a great service by recording a variety of structures that commentators have outlined in chapter 1. I’ve copied my favorite to below and they are found in his commentary on pages 107-109. Both are of Jonah 1:4-16.
Fretheim Outline (Alexander p. 107-108):
Emphasizes the parallel elements of verses 4-9 with 10-16:
A. NARRATIVE FRAMEWORK (verses 4-5a):
1. God hurls a wind and the storm starts (v. 4)
2. Sailors fear, cry to their gods and sacrifice to them (v. 5a)
A1. NARRATIVE FRAMEWORK (verses 15-16)
1. Sailors hurl Jonah and the storm starts (v. 15)
2. Sailors fear Yahweh, speak their vows and sacrifice to him (v. 16)
B. NARRATIVE/REQUEST (verses 5b-6)
1. Jonah sleeps deeply in the face of the storm (v. 5b)
2. Captain requests Jonah to pray to his God so that they do no perish (v. 6a)
3. Captain professes sovereign freedom of God (v. 6b)
B1. NARRATIVE/REQUEST (verses 13-14)
1. Sailors striving to bring ship to land (v. 13)
2. Sailors pray to Jonah’s God so that they do not perish (v. 14a)
3. Sailors profess sovereign freedom of God (v. 14b)
C. DIALOG (verses 7-9)
1. Sailors speak to one another to determine who was wrong (v. 7a)
2. Report – Jonah is revealed by log (v. 7b)
3. Sailors request information from Jonah (v. 8 )
4. Jonah responds – I fear (v. 9)
C1. DIALOG (verses 10-12)
1. Sailors speak to Jonah to determine what he has done wrong (v. 10a)
2. Report – Jonah’s wrong revealed (v. 10b)
3. Sailors request information from Jonah (v. 11)
4. Jonah responds – I know (v. 12
Alexander’s Structure (p. 109):
A – Yahweh hurls a wind on the sea; the storm begins (v. 4-5a)
B – Jonah sleeps; cry to your god; we shall not perish; divine sovereignty (v. 5b-6)
C – that we may know on whose account (v. 7)
D – the sailors question Jonah (v. 8 )
E – I fear (v. 9)
E1 – the sailors fear (v. 10)
D1 – the sailors question Jonah (v. 11)
C1 – I know that it is on my account (v. 12)
B1 – sailors strive for land; sailors cry to Yahweh; let us not perish; divine sovereignty (v. 13-14)
A1 – sailors hurl Jonah into the sea; the storm ceases; sailors fear Yahweh and sacrifice (v. 15-16).
The final item I would like to address are the Christological implications found in Jonah 1. It doesn’t take an astute person to see that I have already begun to draw them out above.
First let me set some groundwork. I personally have no problem with the idea of “types and shadows” in the Old Testament. I also do not believe that that the only types and shadows of Christ in the Old Testament are comprehensively found in the New Testament. The New Testament authors identified most of them, but not necessarily all of them. To me the New Testament does three (among many) remarkable services in looking at the Old Testament. First, it identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Son of God and Messiah to fulfill all of the promises and covenants of the Old Testament. Second, it describes and discusses the relationship between God and his people as it has been impacted by the coming of the Messiah (the inclusion of Gentiles, the nature of the church, and the call to international disciple-making). Finally, it teaches us HOW to read the Old Testament. The New Testament writers searched the pages of the Old Testament and, when combined with the identification of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, saw the Christological implication of the entire Scriptures, including types and shadows.
Therefore, in my mind, if one can prove from the text of Scripture (preferably the Hebrew text of Scripture) that the Old Testament is making Christological implications, that is enough to prove a type or shadow of Christ.
While it is hard to call Jonah an exact “type” of Christ, there is a lot of foreshadowing. Let’s take verses 14-16 alone.
First, the pagans call Jonah “innocent,” because he had done them no wrong and therefore his death was purely by the will and delight of God. Jesus was innocent of any human law breaking and his death was by the will and delight of God.
Second, the prayer of the sailors, who would eventually execute Jonah, was to alleviate the guild of innocent blood against them. Pilate, who ordered the execution of Jesus, washed his hands to symbolize his removal of the guild of Jesus’ innocent blood.
Third, both were Jewish prophets.
Fourth, the salvation of the pagan sailors came about because of their faith in the command of the Jewish prophet, and obedience to God’s words. Our salvation comes from faith in Jesus the Jewish prophet, and obedience to His commands.
Fifth, the sailor’s salvation came by the sacrifice and apparent death of Jonah. Ours game by the sacrifice and actual death of Jesus.
Sixth, the sacrifice of Jonah opened the doors for the pagan sailors to have a relationship with Yahweh. These sailors are among the only Gentiles to ever be identified as having a relationship with the divine name. Jesus’ sacrifice open the doors for us (a church of mostly Gentiles) to have a relationship with God the Father and to know Him as He knew His son.
Yes, I am aware that Jonah was rebellious and Jesus righteous, that Jonah was getting what he deserved and Jesus got what he did not deserve, and that there is not an exact parallel between the two. However, I would also point out that there are rarely exact parallels between Christological figures or “types” in the Old Testament and Jesus. Adam started the whole curse of sin, yet Jesus is called the second and greater Adam. Jesus is called the prophet like Moses, and yet Moses never entered the promised land; a land that is analogous to our salvation in the New Testament. Joshua was the leader who entered the promised land, yet failed to complete the conquest; Jesus (which is Greek for Joshua) brought his people into their promised salvation AND will complete the conquest. Jesus sits on the “throne of David,” but is David really the exact representation of Jesus? A murderer and adulterer? Similar things can be said for Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, Elisha, Josiah, etc., all of whom in various ways are alluded to in the New Testament as archetypes for the coming Messiah. Why should Jonah be help to a different standard, especially when he is the “sign” by which Jesus chose to reveal his true identity to the Jews.
Just food for thought. We’ll expand on this in chapters to come.
