Thursday Devo

Jonah 1:1-3
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

1:1 Jonah prophesied prosperity for Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:23–28). Jonah means “dove,” a symbol for Israel as silly and senseless (Hos. 7:11); Jonah will be true to his name. Son of Amittai means “son of my faithfulness”; Jonah will remain the object of God’s faithful love.

1:2 Nineveh sat on the east bank of the Tigris River about 220 miles (354 km) north of present-day Baghdad and over 500 miles (805 km) northeast of Israel. Great (Hb. gadol) is used 14 times in Jonah. Nineveh was an important (“great”) city (see 3:3). evil. As the ESV footnote indicates, the same Hebrew term (Hb. ra‘ah; used 9 times in Jonah [see chart]) can mean “evil” or “disaster.” The Ninevites were evil, and they were in line for disaster.

1:3 To Tarshish is repeated three times in this verse to underscore that Jonah is not going to Nineveh. Tarshish, an unknown locale associated with distant coastlands, was somewhere in the western Mediterranean—the opposite direction from Nineveh. From the presence of the LORD is repeated at the end of this verse to underscore Jonah’s purpose in going to Tarshish. Went down (see also v. 5; 2:6; the same verb is used for went on board) is also a euphemism for death (e.g., Gen. 37:35). The suggestion is that each step away from the presence of the Lord is one step closer to “going down” to death (see notes on Jonah 1:4–5; 2:6).


Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1687.

Jonah’s struggle wasn’t with God’s power, it was with God’s character. He knew that God is gracious, merciful, and abounding in steadfast love. Yet he wanted that grace to be reserved for Israel, not extended to its enemies. We can be just like Jonah, celebrating God’s mercy over our own lives while quietly resisting it when it reaches people we think don’t deserve it; the ones who have wronged us, those we disagree with, or those we consider “beyond redemption.”

• Think about someone you would find it extremely difficult to share the gospel with. What is it about them; what they’ve done, what they believe, or their past that would make it difficult to talk about God’s saving grace for them?
• If you saw God pouring out His mercy and transformation on that person today, how would you honestly feel? Would you be able to celebrate it, or would you find yourself resenting it?
• Romans 5:10 reminds us that even while we were enemies of God, we were reconciled by the death of Jesus. When you remember your own past failures and rebellion, how does that change the way you see people you think are undeserving of mercy?

3. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?  Since “all have sinned” and the “wages of sin is death,” Jesus had to die on the cross to pay the fine for my sin so I could be right with God.

(Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 21-22)