CRITICAL NOTES.] And (now)] a continuation of the Hebrew writings, not an independent part.
Jonah 1:2. That] Heb. the city, the great, the art, a demonstrative force. Nineveh] Cf. Genesis 10:11, Smith’s Bib. Dict. Arise] A term of excitement.
HOMILETICS
THE GREAT COMMISSION.—Jonah 1:1-2
“The word” came suddenly, unexpectedly, and authoritatively to Jonah. He thought of quietly remaining in his own land. For ages God had confined his revelations to Israel. But he is the Ruler of all nations. His kingdom is not local and geographical like the gods of the heathens. Among the Gentiles the gospel must be preached (Romans 3:28); and Jonah is sent to the most renowned city of the Gentile world.
I. The commission of Jonah. “Go to Nineveh, that great city.”
1. It was sovereign. The word came to Jonah, apparently the most unlikely for the work. God elects his own agents, appoints their duty and their place, and gives no account of his matters to us. Some have more work to do and more honour than others. Let all be content in their sphere, instead of longing for greater distinction and condemning the less privileged. Greater service would bring greater responsibility, and greater failure greater condemnation. God gives to every one according to his ability, and in sovereign authority demands implicit obedience. “Arise, go.”
2. It was arduous. There was great danger. Jonah might be ridiculed. It was a new and unheard-of enterprise. Nineveh was great in pride and splendour, wealth and population. For centuries it had been growing in power and population. The monarchs of Assyria had filled it with the spoils of empires. It had no equal, and sat as a queen in splendour. Nahum predicted the destruction of the city from a distance, but Jonah must go into it. It requires self-denial to go as a missionary to heathens now, with higher civilization and greater advantages. Jonah’s mission was more difficult and trying. Social relations and selfish pursuits must give way to every command of God.
3. It was clear. Though brief and without explanation, the call was definite. With military precision the word is uttered—“Go;” the field is revealed—“Nineveh;” and obedience is expected—“Arise.” The word often comes to us with positive demands upon our time and purse. There has been no doubt or uncertainty. Let us feel its convincing and confirming power.
4. It was urgent. Arise. Delay strengthens doubt and increases difficulty. Carnal reasoning and natural reluctance have few better counsellors than procrastination. If we loiter, we may desert the duty, and the enemy be encouraged to tempt again. Go—the city is exposed to judgment, and men may perish. The King’s business requires haste. “Run, speak to that young man.”
II. The reason for Jonah’s commission. “For the wickedness,” &c.
1. Great cities are often filled with wickedness. Power gives license and custom begets authority. Examples are pernicious, and evil communications corrupt good manners. Nineveh was filled with pride and alienated from God. She oppressed the poor and helpless (Jonah 3:8; Nahum 3:1-3). Blood and robbery, idolatry and witchcraft, stained her glory. “She drew not near to God.” Are our great cities and towns free from luxury and pomp, irreligion and injustice?
2. God sees the wickedness of great cities. They are not too great for the omniscient eye of the Great Judge. All sins go up before him, and are registered for judgment in his book of remembrance. Enormous guilt cries like the blood of Abel for interference. God specially takes cognizance of places above human restraint, and manifests holy indignation at their wickedness. Sodom and Gomorrah, Babylon and unburied Nineveh, are warnings to this generation.
3. The wickedness of great cities must be exposed. “Cry against it.” Individuals cannot hide themselves in communities, nor cities throw their responsibility upon nations. Every sin is searched out, found, and reproved. Jonah was not to go and teach philosophy, palliate, or compromise with sin, but to cry against it. Denounce the idolatry and predict the ruin of Nineveh. With intense feeling and earnestness he must give the alarm; proclaim with the voice of the herald the danger. “Many people cannot cry; they have not force of soul; they are not endowed for extreme effort,” says one. We must wink at no sin; expose drunkenness and profligacy; with lip and life, amid insult and indifference, cry aloud and spare not. God may conceal the danger of our duty, and touch our most sensitive feelings to test our faith and discipline our hearts, but never flee away, lest he punish you. “Fear not; certainly I will be with thee.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
The word. This phrase seems to represent the “word of the Lord,” as an atmosphere of kindling holy thought, a sphere of spiritual truth encompassing the Prophet, illuminating and moving his whole soul, and finally taking shape in language of exhortation, or prediction, or teaching, or resolve, as the case might be [Liddon].
Wickedness. God is brought before us in these words as he sits above this waterflood of crime, as he remaineth in the moral world, a King for ever. He is the Great Judge, unseen by man, but witnessing all human acts, and words, and motives; seated now upon his throne of judgment: and each crime of each member of that vast community mounts upwards, and is registered in his heavenly court [Wordsworth].
Let us call on our souls, when plain duty is before us, to arise and go about it: speedily, if we do not wish Satan to stop us from it (1 Samuel 21:8; Psalms 119:60); heartily, if we desire God to accept our service (Ecclesiastes 9:10); and cheerfully, if we would have comfort in doing it (Romans 12:8). Jonah was called to immediate and hearty service. Such should be our obedience to every command of our Divine Master [Sibthorp].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Jonah 1:1. The name Jonah signifies “a dove.” But there is not much of “mourning love,” of which the dove has always been taken as the symbol in the record. The name might express his father’s feeling; as applied to himself it seems a misnomer. The hawk, the raven, or the vulture would seem to be more truly symbolical. But let us not forget that he tells his own tale, after the things recorded are past: that he tells it very expressly to the glory of God’s mercy, with which designedly he sets his own hardness and thoughtless cruelty in contrast [Raleigh]. There is but one reason for the mission stated here; but several others in reserve—some gently hinted, some unrevealed until after ages [Raleigh].
Jonah 1:2. “Jonah and his ‘arise’ giveth a warning to us all, for we have all a Nineveh to go into. Magistrates, arise and go to the gate to execute God’s judgments. Ministers, arise and go to the gospel to do the works of evangelists. People, arise and go to your trades,” &c. [King].