Royalty and Ruin

Jonah Cast Overboard

But the prayers of Jonah, who had turned aside from duty, brought no help. As a last resort, the mariners proposed casting lots, “that we may know,” they said, “‘for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.’ So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, ‘Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?’ RR 101.1

“So he said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’ RR 101.2

“Then ... the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. RR 101.3

“Then they said to him, ‘What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm for us?’—for the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, ‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.’” RR 101.4

“So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. ... RR 101.5

“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. RR 101.6

“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: RR 101.7

‘I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. ...
For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Then I said, “I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.” ...
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. ...
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord.’” Jonah 2:2-4, 7, 9. RR 101.8

At last Jonah had learned that “salvation belongs to the Lord.” Psalm 3:8. With repentance and a recognition of God’s saving grace, deliverance came. Jonah was released from the perils of the mighty deep; the fish cast him up on the dry land. RR 101.9

Once more God commissioned His servant to warn Nineveh: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” This time he did not question or doubt, but “arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.” RR 101.10

As Jonah entered the city, he began at once to “cry out against” it with the message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” From street to street he went, sounding the warning. The cry rang through the streets of the godless city until all the inhabitants heard the startling announcement. The Spirit of God pressed the message home to every heart, and multitudes repented in deep humiliation. RR 101.11

“Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, ‘Let ... every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?’” RR 102.1

As king and nobles, the high and the low, “repented at the preaching of Jona” (Matthew 12:41), they received mercy. “God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” Their doom was averted, and throughout the heathen world the God of Israel was honored and His law respected. Not until many years later, by forgetting God and cherishing boastful pride, did Nineveh fall a prey to the surrounding nations. RR 102.2

When Jonah learned of God’s intention to spare the city, he should have been the first to rejoice. But he allowed his mind to dwell on the possibility of his being considered a false prophet. The compassion God had shown toward the repentant Ninevites “displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” “Was not this what I said,” he inquired of the Lord, “when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” RR 102.3

Once more he was overwhelmed with discouragement. Losing sight of the interests of others, he exclaimed, “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” RR 102.4

“Then the Lord said, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’ So Jonah went out of the city. ... There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.” RR 102.5

Then the Lord gave Jonah an object lesson. He “prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’” RR 102.6

Again God spoke to His prophet: “‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’ And he said, ‘It is right for me to be angry, even to death!’ RR 102.7

“But the Lord said, ‘You have had pity on the plant. ... And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left?’” RR 102.8

Jonah had fulfilled his commission to warn that great city; and though the event predicted did not come to pass, yet the message of warning was nonetheless from God, and it accomplished the purpose God designed. His grace was revealed among the heathen. The Lord “saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death.” “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107:13, 14, 20. RR 103.1

Christ referred to the preaching of Jonah and compared the inhabitants of Nineveh with the professed people of God in His day: “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” Matthew 12:41. Into the busy world where people were trying to get all they could for themselves, Christ had come; and above the confusion came His voice, asking, “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:37. RR 103.2