Jonah 1:9-10 Jonah 1:9-Jonah Identifies Himself As A Hebrew Worshipper Of The Lord God Of Heaven, Creator Of Sea And Earth By way of review, the first of seven scenes in the book of Jonah appears in Jonah 1:1-3. Jonah 1:1 introduces to the reader the principle characters of the book of Jonah, namely, the Lord and Jonah who function in the narrative as protagonist and antagonist. All the other human characters in the narrative are unnamed with the exception of course, of Jonah’s father, Amittai. These unnamed characters are foils to emphasize the relationship between Jonah and the Lord. Interestingly, the word of the Lord begins the narrative and ends it. Therefore, the book of Jonah is concerned with the effects and consequences of the word of the Lord. Next, in Jonah 1:2a, we saw the Lord commanding Jonah to go immediately to the great city of Nineveh. This journey from Gath-Hepher, Jonah’s hometown to Nineveh is approximately 500 miles east, which would be a rugged journey. Then, in Jonah 1:2b, the Lord commands Jonah to announce judgment against the Ninevites because of their wickedness. Jonah 1:3 records Jonah disobeying the Lord’s command to go immediately to Nineveh and announce judgment against its inhabitants because of their wickedness. Instead of going to Nineveh, the prophet heads in the opposite direction and boards a merchant ship at Joppa heading to Tarshish. Jonah 1:1, “Now, a message from the Lord was communicated to Jonah, the son of Amittai, 2 ‘You must go immediately to Nineveh, that great city and then announce judgment against it because their wickedness has come to my attention.’ 3 However, instead Jonah arose in order to flee to Tarshish from the commission of the Lord. Specifically, he traveled down to Joppa and then found a ship, which was heading to Tarshish. Next, he paid for her services. Then, he went down into her in order to head to Tarshish with them from the commission of the Lord.” (My translation) Jonah 4:1-2 reveals that Jonan disobeyed the Lord because he knew full well that the Lord wanted him to issue a proclamation of impending destruction of Nineveh and its inhabitants in order to elicit a response from the Ninevites, namely that they would repent so He could not execute this judgment. So Jonah hated the Ninevites so much that he was willing to travel all the way across the Mediterranean Sea to get away from them. He is out of the “geographical” will of God meaning Jonah is not in the geographical location that the Lord has directed him to be in. He is out of this geographical will of God because he does not want the Ninevites to get saved. He has a great prejudice 2010 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries 1