At the very beginning of our study of Jonah, we encountered two questions about Jonah’s strange behavior in the book. When asked by God to go preach judgment against the evil city of Nineveh, Jonah instead got on a boat and headed to Tarshish.
The first question, then, was, “Why would Jonah go to Tarshish instead of obey God and preach judgment against his enemies, the Ninevites?”
And then Jonah’s behavior got even stranger. It seemed that Jonah had a death wish. Through his words and actions in Jonah 1–2, Jonah made it quite clear that he wanted to die. He had a death wish.
So the second question was “Why does Jonah want to die?”
In this study of Jonah 4:3, we finally discover the answer to both questions. And the answer is shocking. So shocking, in fact, most fail to see it. But I will point it out to you in this study.
The Text of Jonah 4:3
Now Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
In this discussion of Jonah 4:3 we look at:
- Why did Jonah flee to Tarshish?
- Why did Jonah want to die?
- The main views about these two questions
- The actual answer from the text to these questions
- What the answer teaches us about God
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Jeremy Myers you’ve managed to make Bible study exciting for me again.
Thank you, Carol! That is part of my goal (along with helping inform people).
Jonah wanted to see the city of Nineveh punished, even though they had repented and been forgiven. He preferred to die than to look as if he had been mistaken, he reminds me of Sheldon on Big Bang.
Can you believe I have never watched an episode?!
OK, no comparisons to Sheldon, how about Hamlet (without the pre-Freudian issues), a totally self -involved person, whose own ideas are more important to him than simple humanity.
Yes, Jonah is similar to Hamlet. And therefore, Sheldon too, I guess! 😉
This was really insightful and helpful. A question for Jeremy Myers: given these facts, what do we make of Jonah’s statement about “fearing” the LORD in 1:9? His attitude and actions don’t really exemplify this. What can be said of this statement? Thanks in advance!
I look at Jonah in 1:9 as being a confession of who he is for the sailors, but then when he spoke it out loud I think it sunk in that he was not fearing the Lord. my 2 cents.
Sounds a lot like what the devil tries to get God to do with us. The devil hates the fact that we have a chance to be saved and not him. Seems to me that the devil was working through Jonah.