The story of Jonah, the truant prophet. Told for its practical lessons

Front matter

— THE— -

Story OF Jonah

BOYD kltte^ v^ift«S-f -

Foreword

Are any troubled about the inspiration of the book of Jonah, and the authenticity of the narrative? It is hoped such may find some help from the present chapters, which have been penned in simple form for young friends and for busy people who must necessarily read hurriedly.

Most of the uncredited quotations that the reader ma}^ note, were borrowed either directly, or at second hand, from the work of Dr. Pusey, which abounds in material gathered from the Christian Fathers and many varied sources.

Sincere and grateful acknowledgment is made of the kindly courtesy of the late Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, D. D., LL. D. and his publishers, Messrs. J. D. Wattles & Co., for permission to use the long and valuable extract found in Chapter XIV, and which, it is believed, contains matter entirely, or quite new to most readers.

If what is here written shall in any measure prove helpful to any, in strengthening faith in God; faith in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, especially this part of them; and faith in our precious Saviour who was, in various points, so strikingly typified by Jonah; the writer will gratefull}^ consider that ample reward has come to his humble, yet willing and glad labor.

s ^ COMMENDATORY

UUMMUJW

My Dear Brother Boyd : —

I have completed the reading of your Manuscript, The Story of Jonah, and think the treatment excellent — ^well worth publishing. It will fill an important place in the "side light" literature which helps to a correct understanding of the word.

Hoping that you may be able to send this message out to the ""reading world at an early date and believing that it will be well received, I am Very truly yours,

A. B. MARSHALL, Pastor First Presbyterian Church.

I have read The Story of Jonah with unusual interest. Through personal acquaintance with the author. Rev. J. S. Boyd, I am assured of his eminent fitness for the writing of such a book, by reason of his ripe scholarship and experience, and his former successful authorship. He has opened some new pathways of thought on what we supposed to be beaten ground. His style is clear, yet racy, and his thought, strong. The book will be a welcome addition to any library, and will command the increasing interest of every reader.

W. A. Pringle, Professor of Literature, Red River Valley University. * * * To Whom it May Concern: —

I have examined hastily the work of Rev. J. S. Boyd entitled '' The Story of Jonah."

I would be glad to see this work in the hands of both the ministry and laymen of our beloved Church.

The book of Jonah has been made the target of attack by the antisupernaturalists everywhere, and I helieve the present defense is strong against all such.

It is also, in an attractive way, expository, as the salients points are brought out under the different heads discussed.

Rev. J. S. Boyd is an ardent champion of the Word of God in it's purity and his messages will be refreshing to the Church.

Knowing the author personally I shall feel deeply interested in the publication of the work.

I feel interested also because it is a timely work and well suited to the needs of this age. Very sincerely,

F. E. SPRINGER, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, CaldweU, Idaho.

Contents

Chapter. Page,

Foreword 4

Commendatory 5

I. The Book

Of no portion of the Scriptures have opinions been more varied than about the book of Jonah. No part of the Bible has been more opposed, no part more argued against.

Back in the early centuries of the Christian era the book was made the subject of banter and ridicule by the Pagans, who accused the followers of Christ of great credulity in believing the story of a man being saved from the deep by a fish.

In modern times, too, the same spirit has been shown by the enenfiies of revelation; while pretended friends, by their "sapping arts of anti-supernaturalism, " have pursued methods that would not only put the book totally out of the canon of Scripture, but, if applied in the same way to other inspired writings, would blot from them much that is strictly historical in its import, and leave sincere seekers after God's truth to wander unguided in the fields of mere conjecture and fable.

Several early writers hold to the idea that all that is narrated in the book was transacted in a dream. Others, with great learning, but "with extrava^gant license of imagination, have insisted that the book is an historical allegory. They try to persuade us that, although Jonah was a historiacl personage, yet he was, in this writing, symbolical partly of Manasseh, and partly of Josiah, kings of Judah;that the ship was the Jewish state; that the storm was the political convulsions which threatened its safety; that the master of the ship was Zadok, the High Priest; that the great fish was the city of Lybon on the Orontes, where Manasseh was detained as prisoner; and that other fancied similarities are a part of the true explanation of the book.

Other writers, mostly German mystics, have argued that the book is a parable, a moral fiction, or a myth.

Another class, while admitting an historical basis, hold that it has been clothed in its present dress in order that it might be more effectively used for teaching purposes.

And still others would derive it from popular tradition, tracing it to the fable of the deliverance of Andromeda from a sea monster by Perseus; or to that of Hercules, v/ho, as Greek writers tell us, in order to save Hesion from a great sea-serpent, or fish, to which she was devoted by her father, Laomedon, leaped armed into the great monster's mouth, and was three days in its belly before accomplishing its death.

Now, some of these writers have not a few points in common with each other. Their differences, however, are ver}^ many and most essential; while they all frankly acknowledge the great difficulties which beset the subject. Very evident, therefore, is it that no certain standing ground can be found in an}' one of all these various inharmonious and unsatisfactory proposed explanations.

What, then, are we to think of the narrative of this book? Sureh' not what infidelity teaches. Nor 3'et what the so-called higher critics hold. Wc feel certain we have most ample reason for firmly maintaining an opinion radically different from those above named.

Not for a mom^ent can it be admitted that the book is onl}'^ a dream narrative. For, first, there is not a single circumstance in the account that would suggest such an idea. And, second, a little examination ^vill show that whenever any Avriter in the Holy Scriptures gives any account of a dream lie alwaA's states tlie fact. Moreover, third, the ver}- manner in wliich the book opens and closes absolutely precludes the idea of its being a dream, or vision. So this theory falls.

Nor can we at all accept the idea that the booL: is merely an historical aliegor}'. And why not? For one thing, because a fair study of the v.ritings of those who hold this view soon makes it clear that the only thing suggesting the thought of aliegor}^ to them is the miracles in the book at which they stumble. But it is proposed to show, in its proper place below, that these miracles are no more marvellous than m.any otliers narrated in both the Old and New Testaments, and that therefore they form no reason for assigning an allegorical character here any more than in man}' other places— the account of the raising of Lazarus, for instance.

Another thing, it is not found to be the custom of the sacred writers to niake use of m.ere portents or prodigies in their parabolic teaching. They invariably use facts, not fables or imaginary wonders. Apocryphal writings often abound in legends and marvels; the canonical ■^ATitings never. This is a marked distinction between them. The inspired books never surpass the limits of the possible, or of the perfectly reliable, even in their most figurative teaching. And studying the book of Jonah, the candid mind will surely soon perceive that the whole cast of the narrative is too exact, too detailed, too evidently a narration of facts, to be consistent with the idea of an allegory.

And still another reason for rejecting the allegorical view is this:

The Book. 11

It cannot be explained wh}' the writer of an allegor}^, or a fiction, would choose a known prophet of God as the subject of so great misbehaviour and severe disapproval. Such a writer would be free to choose his characters at will. And surely his purpose would be fully answered by using a fictitious name, or b}^ omitting the nam.e altogether. If writing an allegory he need not use a genuine name at all. Very strange, indeed, if he should do so. Very strange that he would ascribe to a real person things only imaginary and unreal. If Jonah did not act as this book narrates, is it not marvellous, yea, unbelievable, to suppose that a Jewish writer would positivelj^ say he did the things here -uTitten, and that afterwards the writer's fabrication should be adopted into the Jewish canon? We cannot for a moment conceive it.

Surely, then, the theory of an historical allegor}^, insisted on by some, has no claim upon us. It must be considered utterly untenable even from a rational point of view.

And still farther, negatively, consent cannot be given to the affirmation that the book is onl}" a moralizing fiction, or a myth, clothed and fixed up for didactic purposes; for such a position seems to be directly contrary to our Lord's teaching in the New Testament.

And still yet less allowable, if any difference, is the claim that the narrative grew out of popular tradition. Much more likel}' that the fables of Perseus and Hercules x\ere evolved from the inspired account in Jonah.

No, none of these several views at all satisfy the devout inquiry of the spiritually hungry and believing soul. A solid foundation for faith — one that is felt to be solid, and that alwaj^s yields conscious upholding like the everlasting arms underneath — must be sought elsewhere.

This solid foundation we firmly believe we find in the opinion that gives to the book a strictly historical character.

O here, my soul, find stable rest; Uncertainties no more infest The faith, nor sleuth-like doubts distract, If fable is exchanged for fact.

Here is ground on which to stand unshaken. The book is a narration of facts which actually took place in the life and experence of the prophet named. This is the position of Spirit-taught faith — a position which we humbly and sincerely believe gives honor to the wonder-working God, and agrees with everlasting truth.

A while ago it was asked, what are we to think about the book. The answer is to be found in the position just now taken. Our unwavering thought is to be that the narrative of Jonah is a historical verity.

Are reasons for so thinking demanded? To every sincere inquirer they are rightfully due, and to such it is a pleasure to give them. Thoughtful attention is kindly invited to those that follow.

One reason persuading to the view advocated in this humble treatise is this: Ever since the days of Ezra the scribe, who collected the canonical writings of the Old Testament into one volume, the mass of Bible scholars have stoutly held to the opinion that the book of Jonah has a rightful place among the inspired writings.

This fact, of course, does not settle the question. But it has great weight, and helps to strengthen other arguments.

The fact that the great majority of conscientious christian scholars have counted Jonah true history argues strongly for this .view. These learned men heartily wished to be right. Unwarped by prejudice they sought light. Many of them had just as much acmnen and scholarship as any who secularize the book. It is wholly gratuitous to think that the H0I3' Spirit, whose guidance they sought, would leave them so fully, and for so many successive centuries of cumulative study, to error.

It seems most reasonable, then, to earnestly maintain that an enlightened belief in the divine authority of the books composing the canon of the Old Testament scriptures most powerfully persuades to the belief that the narrative in this book is strictly historical in its character.

Then another reason persuading to the same view is this: To the candid mind the book reads like history. As the exhaustive Pusey says: "Every phrase in it is vivid and graphic. There is not a word which does not advance the history. There is no reflection. All hastens on to the completion, and when God has given the key to the whole, the book closes with his words of exceeding tenderness lingering in our ears. "

And surely, too, as the scholarly Henderson writes: "On perusing the very first sentence, every unprejudiced reader must conclude that there had existed such a prophet, and that what follov/s is simply a narrative of facts. " The formula: " Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah — sa3'^ing — "the very same formula that is so

The Book. 13

often and so commonl}- used in the other books of the scriptures in prefacing real prophetical communications — is here so appropriated, " that to put any other construction upon it would be a gross violation of one of the first principles of interpretation." All this argues the book of Jonah to be real history.

But there is higher proof yet. Let us come to Revelation. Its teaching is ever unerring. The authority of the Son of God is paramount. No discount is ever to be placed on his words. Implicit reliance on what he says is always the right thing. Then, with humility, yea, even with eagerness, let us inquire: AVhat is the teaching of our Lord about Jonah?

In Matthew twelfth chapter, thirty ninth and fortieth verses, we find it. Some of the Scribes and Pharisees asked him for a sign, that is, for a miracle the word means. He replies : " An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

Does our Lord here refer to an actual occurrence, or onl}'^ to an imaginarj'^ one?

It is certainly true that in every other case in which he makes use of passages from the Old Testament to illustrate, or enforce his teaching, every point or circumstance in those passages has historic verity. He uniformly quotes and reasons upon them as true and universally admitted. He stamps them as such by his divine authority and passes them on for the confident belief of people in all the future.

And who dare say that this reference to Jonah is an exception? Does it not seem to be the most reasonable thing to affirm that our Lord here, as every where else when he made use of Old Testament incidents, employed that which had actually occurred? and also at the same time, by his own divine authority, stamped the incident as true?

So humble faith believes. The Divine Saviour endorses the narrative in Jonah as authentic. He sanctions the overwhelming christian belief that there was a real prophet Jonah, who really experienced what is told of him. He affirms positively "he was three days and three nights in the whale's belly. " And from this he draws an exact parallel of what would ere long befall himself.

But the words the Saviour uses in the next sentence very plainly emphasize this view, and indubitably enforce it beyond all cavil.

He goes on to say in the f ortA'-fii-st verse : " The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. "

What a wonderful verse this is! It is full of thrilling meaning. Was it the intention that it should be understood? Surely, yes. But is it possible to understand it at all on the mere non-historic theory of the narrative about Jonah?

To know the intent and the teaching of tliis text, vivid thought must be had of the time and the occasion on which it was uttered, and also of the Teacher and those he was teaching. Jesus was that day speaking words of solemn warning. He was to be the future Judge of v.W men. At that Great Day he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations shall be gathered to judgment. He has the whole scene vividly before his own mind. He wishes to put it vividly before the minds of his hearers. How will he do this? Will he do it by referring to a mythical writing — a writing that he, being divine, knows to be only a myth? Surely, he will not make his best impression that way. And surely, too, he will not so trifle with his hearers as to try to impose on them as true that which he himself knew to be only UNREAL and IMAGINARY. No, wc cauuot conceive of our Lord, at such a time, and for the high purpose he then had irk mind, using that which was only a m3'th.

Nor can it reasonably be supposed that he drew his illustration from what he positively knew to be only allegory. If he did, then, in that case, the men of Nineveh are only imaginary people, Jonas is an imaginary personage, his preaching is imaginary, and their repentance imaginary.

And what would this mean? It would mean that the Lord of heaven, the God-Man, Christ Jesus, who was the Truth, who was divine and knew the past as well as the present and the future — it would mean that such an One as he solemnly declared tiiat "the fictitious, unreal and non-existent characters of a parable shall actually be arraigned at the same bar with the living men of that generation. "

Surely the prayerfullv thoughtful will draAv back from a teaching like this. We cannot believe that the Lord Jesus, in any sense or measure, countenanced the idea that the book of Jonah was either myth, parable or allegory. Tlie reasonable thought about it seems clearly to be that it is actual history.

Observe closely; our Lord, at the time, T\-as using vrords to make

The Book. 15

some of the doings of the judgment day intensely real. So he positively informs his audience, not of mythical, but of real persons, who will be there. As if he had said: "There were veritable men of Nineveh. There was :i real prophet Jonas who preached to the people of that great cit}*. His hearers actually repented. Moreover, the}' will all m-ost certainly appear at the future judgment. All the present generation will just as certainly appear there at tiie same time. Yea, the real men of Nineveh will assuredl}' rise in the judgment at the same time with you. And it will then be made indubitable clear that the men of Nineveh genuinely repented at the preaching of a preacher undeniably inferior, to the One who now declares the truth to you, who j'et remain impenitent.

The contrast at that day will be marked and impressive. This generation had a greater preacher than the Ninevites; it had indisputabh' more frequent and more divine preaching, 3'et it profited not. So the very course and conduct of the people of Nineveh, with their meager privileges and advantages, will actually be a condemnation of the course and conduct of the people of this generation, who have had, and novr have, vastly superior privileges and advantages. The people of Nineveh repented a,fter one day's preaching of just one truth by an unv.-illing prophet. The men of this generation did not repent after the repeated preaching of richly varied truths by Him who came willingly from heaven to do the will of heaven; v/ho spake as man never spake; and whose living word is the very law of earth, and of heaven too. "

Having, then, all these considerations before our minds, it seems indisputably clear that the book of Jonah can only be regarded as a narrative of incidents that realh' occurred. We believe our Blessed Lord so endorsed it, and, therefore, we are so to understand it.

As we, then, after first invoking the Holy Spirit's gracious aid, proceed to consider the chief points in the varied career of this strangely behaving Old Testament character, let us do so assured, from what Ave have seen in the discussion thus far, that he, as the v>Titer of this l:)Ook, was indeed a prophet inspired, and that the book called by his name is veritable history.

So we may expect to be profited. So, we believe, God will be honored. Amen.

The Man

According to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.— II Kings 14:25.

For my own part, if my pocket was full of stones, I have no right to throw one at the greatest backslider on earth. I have either done as bad or worse than he, or I certainly should if the Lord had left me a little to myself; for I am made of just the same materials; if there be any difference, it is wholly of grace.— John Newton.

n.

THE MAN.

His character claims a first word. Then some outgoings of his character as they appear in the incidents of the narrative bespeak attention.

Like many another frail mortal Jonah was self-willed. The story shows him playing the child. He sulked, was petulant, wanted to have his own wa}^, was determined to have it, especially when the Lord called him to a duty he disliked. Children are often wayward without reason. Jonah, shirking, was not unlike them. He could only be called strong in the sense of being headstrong. He tried to take things in his own hands; thought he could only be happy in so doing; but found, as all other like behaving people do, that this only brought him into trouble and made him unhappy. He soon discovered that kicking out of the traces is no mere diversion, and that, although playing at it may momentarily gratify an ugly temper and show dissatisfaction with plain duty, yet still greater dissatisfaction will surely soon follow. *

His conduct, both before and after his mission to Nineveh, looks marvellously strange in the light of the high position he occupied. A paradox inexplicable we are forced to call him. '' A prophet of God, and yet a run-a-way from God. A man drowned, and yet alive. A preacher of repentance, and yet repining at repentance." Believing God would have mercy upon Nineveh, yet sitting in his booth on the hill overlooking the city awaiting its destruction. His conduct is a contradiction, an unravelable enigma, only as we know the innate perverseness of the natural heart. Lacking consecration it is lawlessly contrary. Void of the Holy Spirit, it avoids Spirit-bidden duty. Having no light of love in it prompting glad obedience, it seems to take delight in disobedience.

Of such sad perversity Jonah was a striking example. Once loyally exercising prophetic influence; again trying to flee it. Once called of the Lord, and responding; again as fully called, we see him unrespondent and rebellious. Contrariety has stolen into his heart and made him as opposite to his former self as icy indifference is to the warmth of loyal affection. His mistake was he did not abide in his Lord. He did not cultivate piety. He did not seek divine strength for unpleasant duty. He did not turn to the Lord, but from him.

Just when he much needed God's special presence, he tried to flee that presence. Do we pity him? Beware lest we copy him and dishonor our Lord in a like v/ay.

But may not candor find some things calculated to soften our thought of the man? He did wrong, but who now-a-days has a right to be his judge? Let him that is without similar sin cast the first

stone at him.

Think of the manv advantages we have today that he did not have Christ had not then come. As the Great Teacher from heaven he had not then delivered his Sermon on the Mount, nor given his other full and blessedly helpful instructions. The canon of Scripture was then far from being completed. Jonah had only a few of the books of the Old Testament; none at all of the New. He had the Law and the Psalms the book of Ruth and parts of the Historical books, but he did not have the seventeen books of the Prophets, nor the four Gospels, nor the Acts of the Apostles, nor the twenty-one Epistles, nor the book of Revelation, the blessed climax of the whole. We have all these, and are responsible far above him and the people of his day. ''To whom much is given, of him will much be required. "

Moreover, when Jonah lived the distinction between sin and the sinner had not been so clearly defined as it has been since. He had grown up with the idea that to hate sin was to hate the sinner. So most of the education of that day taught. David, in his devotion, had declared to the Lord: " I hate them that hate thee; yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred. " And few of the people of his time and later had learned that detesting sin thus was perfectly consistent with having pity on the persons who sinned, being kind to them, praying for them, and working for their good. The voice from heaven had not then rung out in its plea: ''Dearlv beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather

give place unto wrath, for Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith

the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst give him drink. " The Lord's people, when Jonah lived, were not out of the childhood of the age. The most of them had not yet got so far on as to do good for evil. They felt that the enemies of God and his people deserved neither mercy, pity or sympathy, but were only meet subjects for discipline, punislmient or death.

It is true that David, the inspired author of the Psalms, httedup to a high plane, where justice and mercy kiss each other, had cried out in his lament over the waywardness of sinners: ''Rivera of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy Law. " meamng

The Man. 21

God's holy precepts. But then David, full of the Holy Spirit, was away ahead of his age. Yery few had then attained to his spiritual stature. The times taught hatred to enemies, and human nature in most hearts prompted the same.

Living in such an atmosphere of thought and practise as that, Jonah vv^as not a little imbued with the same sentiment and promptings. Therefore, he had a strong feeling against doing any thing to help the Ninevites, the known enemies of the Lord's people. Hence his naughty conduct.

The lesson for us is: avoid a Jonah-character. We have advantages vastly superior to those enjoyed in the days of the Minor Prophets. These advantages have been given to us for use in the service of him who gave them. Surely we are responsible above Old Testament people in a very high degree.

But we must not fail to note that, in all his sorry behaviour, Jonah was still a servant of the Lord. He had pitiably lost ground; was a backslider of a most reprehensible type; yet there were still the embers of grace within him, that, as soon as he came to himself, began to glow and warm anew toward his Heavenlj'- Friend as before. During all the days of his wretched disobedience the love of God was still in his heart, though, for the time being, covered over, smothered a,nd repressed by the results of his waywardness and rebellion. He had not lost salvation, but the blessed joys of it, and the manifestation of i+ because of his sin, just as David once did because of his. So, when the storm on the sea aroused him to liis senses, he at once saw his guilt, became subdued and penitent, and, still hoping in the mercj^ of God, called earnestly upon him in penitence and real worship. His true and beter self then beautifully appeared. No one could pray as he did, as shown in the second chapter of his book, unless he had been long taught of God, and had the love of God in his heart as a working force.

The whole account warns us to beware of backsliding. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord, yet Vv'ofull}'' fell. Therefore, be ye humble. And be watchful against a like lapse. ''Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. "

We are also taught to have hope of those who do backslide. Be patient with them. Never give them up. Pray for them that they may turn again to the Lord; that, like the prodigal, each may quickly come to himself, and at once, spontaneously, return to his Father's house, to be warmed and melted again into greater love by the Father's overwhelming blessins.