Back to: Jonah: A Deep Dive
The Primary Theme
The Lord is a God of boundless compassion not just for “us” (Jonah and the Israelites) but also for “them” (the pagan sailors and Ninevites).
The primary theme in Jonah is that God’s compassion is boundless, not limited just to “us” but also available for “them.” This is clear from the flow of the story and its conclusion:
- Jonah is the object of God’s compassion throughout the book, and the pagan sailors and pagan Ninevites are also the benefactors of this compassion.
- The story ends with the question, “Should I not pity Nineveh . . . ?” (Jonah 4:11).
- Tied to this theological teaching is the anthropological question, Do readers of the story have hearts that are like the heart of God?
- While Jonah was concerned about a plant that “perished” (Jonah 4:10), he showed no such concern for the Ninevites.
- Conversely, the pagan sailors (Jonah 1:14), their captain (Jonah 1:6), and the king of Nineveh (Jonah 3:9) all showed concern that human beings, including Jonah, not “perish.”
Other themes
Several other major themes in the book include:
- God’s sovereign control over events on the earth
- God’s determination to get his message to the nations
- The need for repentance from sin in general
- The need for repentance from self-centeredness and hypocrisy in particular
- The full assurance that God will relent when people repent
The Main Hyperlink
Jonah finally reveals why he ran from YHWH, and the reason for his disposition. At the end of the story, he all but accuses YHWH of acting according to His established character and nature
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah 4:1–3 ESV
Here, he is quoting from Exodus 34. Let’s dive into the source material.
Exodus 34:5–8 (ESV)
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed,
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
YHWH, YHWH: The Character of God
All taken from the Bible Project site
Jonah & the Mystery of Mercy
Tim Keller
“The real question is why was the Book of Jonah written? What’s the theme? What’s it really about? It’s a great story, it’s a narrative, but what is it about? And I guess I would say there are three competing candidates.
When I read the commentators, some commentators, usually the more liberal ones, say, “It’s about race. It’s about Jonah’s nationalism and his racism.”
Other people say, “It’s about mission. It’s about how we must go into all the world and preach the gospel, not be afraid to do that, not be unwilling to do it.”
And some people say it’s about grace, not so many do say that but I’m going to tell you I think if you have to choose between race, grace, and mission, it’s mainly about grace.”
– Tim Keller
Other Themes
Think about themes as topics that you could build a sermon, study, or presentation around. With that in mind, what are some other themes in the story of Jonah?
Broken down by section, some themes might appear more obvious.
The call & the response
Jonah gets the call and flees
The storm
Onboard, then overboard
in the fish
Prayer at the bottom
in nineveh: the sermon
Another chance
Outside Nineveh: the dialogue
Rhetorical drama
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