The Message of Jonah

The book of Jonah is likely the best known of the minor prophets. It is often remembered for its oddity: a runaway prophet swallowed by a whale! But there must be more to the book than that.

In Jonah we find charted the course not just of a discontented prophet but of Israel's attitude toward its most despised neighbor in the Mediterranean world. Jonah refuses God's call because he knows God will respond in mercy and grace should the Assyrians repent. Jonah will have nopart of it—until he is...